Dragon Tale - Chapter 3.2 (Patreon)

"First I'm hearing of it," Brody replied, brows furrowing, "I know the castle you're talking about, but I've not heard about anything about bandits or a dark mage."

He'd been spending a lot of time pouring over the maps at the local library amongst reading books, searching for the Sun Village.

And he found it.

It was located near the sea, at the very other side of the Mt. Hakobe mountain range and then some.

The official train tracks that went all over Fiore? Didn't even reach that far, and ended a stop after after the town Blue Pegasus resided in.

Which only reached half way there from where he was now.

It was an absolutely massive trek that would take days on foot to cover. And from what he learned, the plains along the way were filled with monsters and magical beasts of varying power and size.

Absolutely not a journey he could make right now as he was.

And all for a dragon that might not even be alive anymore and may be little more than a soul.

"Mmm, that's unfortunate," Elfman frowned, before shrugging his shoulders, "No matter, I can try somewhere else, and if even if I don't get information, I don't expect I'll have much trouble with that un-manly wimp anyway."

He probably wouldn't. Considering Brody hadn't even heard a whisper around the town about this apparent dark mage and his bandit groupies, and not from Garrick either who was privy to all sorts of gossip-

Then the guy was probably small time.

And even though Elfman couldn't use a full body take over right now, he wasn't exactly a weakling.

"You need a hand?" Brody offered. It would be a good learning experience after all, he hadn't fought any other magic user yet after all. The only thing he'd fought since he got here, had been forest vulcans.

There were quite a few large animals and such in the East Forest at the edge of Onibus Town, but none had attacked him or anything like that even when he just a few feet away, so he hadn't bothered with them.

"Nah, Axel Derry isn't manly enough for me to need help beating," Elfman waved him off, "He's just a small time fire magic user, he hardly compares to the manly fire user I'm used to."

"Sides', it's a Fairy Tail job, can't let others jump in even if they do have a manly attitude," Elfman added, "But enough about that, so you're a mage as well huh?"

"Pretty much," Brody nodded, filing that name away just in case, "Take Over actually, just like you. Though I'm pretty new to it."

"Oh!" Elfman's eyes lit up with interest, "Another manly take over user, eh? What kind?"

"Same as you again from what I've heard, Beast Soul," Brody revealed, "I've been hunting the vulcans inside the forest and taking them over."

The white haired man grinned widely, "Focusing on strengthening the one form, eh? Not a bad plan, though Vulcan's ain't that big a help in the grand scheme," Elfman replied, "Better watch out though, the more of the same creature you take over, the stronger your form with that creature becomes, which while good, comes with a massive downside, the magic needed to maintain it gets bigger the more powerful the form becomes."

Oh.

So that was why he felt the strength in that form had increased with each new forest vulcan and not just in his base form.

And why he felt the drain on his magic power increase as well.

"That explains a lot, thanks, I'll keep it in mind," Brody nodded, "Anything else I should know about it senpai? Like any creatures you recommend I go after?"

Elfman shrugged, "It's different for everybody," the man replied, "You'll have forms your more comfortable in and better suited to. Like personally, while I have a vulcan form, I don't like it. I don't mesh well with it. Best advice I can give you, is look some creatures up and go with your gut. Though, definitely don't go trying to take over something much stronger than you unless it's already dead, I can tell you from experience, that is totally not manly and won't end well for you."

Ah…right.

The Beast.

Two years ago, if he remembered his timeline right, the Take Over siblings had a mission to deal with it, and while Mirajane a legitimate powerful S-class mage was struggling with it, Elfman tried to use take over on it.

And absolutely failed and ended up getting the same treatment he gave Rog. Only, Elfman was luckily able to get brought back thanks to his older sister presumably beating The Beast down…after he'd already 'killed' his younger sister Lisanna.

And in the process had completely lost his ability to form a complete full body Take Over and could only use it on his right arm now.

Yeah, that was definitely not something he planned on doing.

Totally.

'…I mean, if Atlas Flame is just a soul now…' his thoughts trailed off. Would he be too much for Brody when, if he was just a soul, already dead?

It would honestly depend on if he was actually conscious or not. If Atlas Flame was just a floating soul with little consciousness or will left, Brody wasn't sure he wouldn't attempt it.

"That seems pretty specific." Brody pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Bad unmanly times of mine, very unmanly." Elfman said simply in return.

"Fair enough," Brody nodded, "I'll keep your words in mind." it wasn't like he planned on going anywhere right now anyway.

He wasn't anywhere near prepared enough to set out for the Sun Village and wouldn't be for a decent while.

"Good man," Elfman reached over to pat him on the shoulder, "If you need more advice later on, just a pay a visit to Fairy Tail over in Magnolia, I'll help you out like a man!"

"Or I could use a communication lacrima," Brody commented, even though he didn't have one yet, man he should have picked one up earlier at the magic shop, "But yeah, thanks, I'll hold you to that."

"As you should," Elfman laughed and stood up from the stool, "But, anyway, I've got a job to do, so I'll catch you later….."

Elfman blinked, "Oh, I just realised I didn't catch your name," he rubbed the back of his head and gave a sheepish laugh, "How unmanly of me."

Brody snorted in amusement, "It's Brody, Brody Ferguson." he introduced himself.

"Brody then." Elfman grinned broadly with a nod, bidding him goodbye with a wave.

Brody gave him a wave back and watched him go, "…Well, wasn't that interesting." he mused, a small smile splaying across his face as the huge man left.

Not the Strauss sibling he'd prefer to meet all said and told, but not one he didn't like at all. He was a simple, easy to like guy.

And his advice would certainly be useful.

Still, that certainly wasn't as bombastic as he expected his first meeting with a Fairy Tail mage to be.

__________

His meeting with Elfman, lit a bit of a fire under Brody's ass. So much so, that when his shift ended and he locked up the bar for the night, instead of heading up to his room like he'd been doing every other night.

He headed out towards the East Forest.

It was dark out, but he'd been coming to the place more or less every day for over two weeks now since he woke up there, and his feet carried him along a familiar route, out into a clearing in the middle of the forest.

Boulders of varying sizes greeted him.

…His training equipment, as it were.

Walking and running around while carrying boulders, squatting while lifting boulders, bench pressing with boulders.

It was all very awkward to be honest, but he hadn't really come across anything else he could, and he probably couldn't afford any proper strength training equipment that would work for him.

'Gravity magic would be hella helpful.' he mused with a chuckle as he entered the forest clearing and took a seat on one of the smaller boulders.

He could be continuing his understanding of Requip magic and practicing it back in his room.

But, he was here for a different reason.

Elfman's presence had sparked a reminder in him. Of when Mirajane taught Natsu, Happy and Lucy how to use transformation magic.

From what he remembered her saying, there were three stages to it. The basic level, which was an appearance change alone, the intermediate level, which allowed the transformation to even effect and change the clothing and such of the user, and even alter the voice.

And then the advanced level, which was a full on transformation which allowed the user to not only change size, but also use the limbs and such of transformed bodies, like if he transformed into a wolf, he could run on wolf legs and claw at people with the claws.

A full on physical transformation more or less.

He didn't specifically have any real interest in the Transformation magic itself all that much, but learning how to use it to some degree for sure would help his understanding of magic, right?

And not only that-

It was the magic Carla and Panther Lily used to assume their battle forms. So, taking it along that level.

Couldn't his little buddy Blue learn and use it?

Assuming Celestial Spirits were capable of learning other magics. But, considering Loke used different magic originally before he re-assumed his spirit form, then it should be slightly probable at least.

Well, Loke used it through rings, but he could use them at least.

had to imagine his own face and body as that other person or being and concentrate on it.

…Then build his magic and shape it into the image of that person, and just go ham?

'But how do I build my magic into the shape of them?' he wondered. Was it like maybe, drawing it out and covering his outer body in it? Like a shell?

Maybe?

"Well, I've got no other idea how to do it." Brody shrugged and decided to just go for it and see what he could do.

It shouldn't really be that hard, Natsu managed it on his first try more or less, less than a minute after having it explained to him by Mirajane.

And Natsu was an idiot of epic proportions.

Closing his eyes, Brody focused, pulling on his magic power and drawing it up through his body, then out. A dark green aura flickered into existence around his body, billowing lightly like a hazy flame starting at his feet.

It was surprising to be honest, how instinctually easy it was to draw on and move his magic.

And even now, after being capable of it for two weeks, he still marvelled at it.

He shaped the magic around his body, brows furrowing in concentration and pictured in his head a spiky salmon haired dragon slayer, the face of Fairy Tail as a series more or less.

Brody's eyes snapped open instantly, his magic surging like a powerful wave, "Transform!" he declared grandly.

…And nothing happened.

_____________

An hour later, Brody stood in the middle of the clearing, shirtless, sweat trailing down his form, panting deeply.

His magic power was dwindling near empty, and so far, all he'd managed to do, was create a puff of smoke around his body when he tried to transform.

It was official, he was nowhere as talented as an idiot of Natsu Dragneel's proportions.

How depressing.

"Well…I'm close I think, should get it done within a few days…maybe." Brody grimaced as he tried to cheer himself up.

And utterly failed. Because it would only be the basic level. Perhaps, he just wasn't suited towards Transformation Magic? Well, you win some, you lose some.

'Not really a big deal anyway, I'm not really interested in it for myself.' he mused.

Reaching into his back pocket, he retrieved a familiar shiny silver key. He had just enough magic power left to summon Blue safely.

"Open: Gate Of The Canis Minor!" he declared, turning the key and funnelling his magic into it.

It slurped up the magic and the gate opened.

A moment later, in a flash of light, Blue appeared at his feet, and happily jumped over to nuzzle against his leg.

"Hey buddy," he greeted the canine spirit, bending down to pat him on the head, "I was wondering, can you learn how to use magic?"

"Baloo?" Blue considered his words, pulling back form his leg to look up into his eyes, before promptly shrugging.

He didn't know.

"Well, alright, that's fine," Brody nodded, "How about I try to teach you?"

"Baloo…?" Blue cocked his head to the side, before smiling happily and nodding up at him.

"Alright, so it goes like this…" Brody began explaining the concept behind transformation magic to the small blue dog spirit, making sure to keep his language basic and easily understandable, "So, you get that?"

"Baloo, baloo!" Blue nodded and took a few steps back from him and raised one little paw into the air, "Baloo!" he chirped.

And smoke puffed around his form, clearing away a moment later to reveal Blue.

He looked exactly the same.

Except for the fact that his light blue fur, was now white.

…Even the baby dog spirit was more talented than him. Far more talented than him.