Gajeel was momentarily stunned, then completely fell into a frenzy.
How could he, a powerful Dragon Slayer, be toyed with like this?
"Bastard!"
"Let me go!"
Gajeel let out roars, and the muscles in his arm, which had not yet been frozen, instantly swelled, with veins bulging.
Iron Dragon's Sword!
With a metallic screech, his arm transformed into a monstrous black greatsword with rotating, sharp teeth. The blade spun at high speed, emitting an ear-piercing whistle, sweeping horizontally towards Ryoma's neck, which was just inches away.
He wanted to cut this hateful guy in half!
Just as the spinning blade was about to tear through the air and touch his skin, Ryoma's figure, like a phantom scattered by the wind, abruptly vanished from his original spot.
Gajeel's Iron Dragon's Sword fiercely swung through empty air, and the immense force made him stumble.
"What!?!"
His pupils suddenly contracted.
Where did he go?
A chill, without warning, came from behind him and to his side.
Gajeel stiffly turned his head, only to see Ryoma had appeared beside him at some unknown point, with an ice flower slowly spinning at his feet.
"Too slow."
Ryoma slowly raised a hand, and in that instant, the magic power in the surrounding air began to surge madly towards his palm.
A wave of magic power, a hundred times more terrifying than when he froze Gajeel's arm, erupted, and the sky seemed to dim for a moment.
A colossal dragon claw, composed of pure blue ice and blotting out the sky, materialized out of thin air. Every detail of the dragon claw was clearly visible: the ice scales, the sharp claw tips, exuding a chill capable of freezing everything.
Gajeel was stunned, looking up at the giant ice dragon claw. From it, he felt a deep fear.
That was... a dragon claw!
"No... impossible!"
Before he could utter another sound, Ryoma's hand gently pressed downwards.
Boom!
The enormous ice dragon claw, with world-destroying power, brutally slammed down.
Gajeel's body was like a nail hit by a hammer, instantly driven into the hard stone slab street.
Bang!
Centered on him, the entire street's ground cracked inch by inch, and spiderweb-like fissures spread for over ten meters.
Dust flew everywhere.
Levy, Jet and Droy subconsciously shielded themselves with their arms, but they were still forced back by the powerful shockwave.
When the dust settled, a huge claw-shaped crater appeared in the middle of the street.
Gajeel was embedded at the bottom of the pit, his steel body bearing five deep, bone-visible claw marks. The edges of the claw marks were covered with an unmelting layer of frost that continuously eroded his body.
He struggled to get up but could only make a few futile movements.
Ryoma slowly walked to the edge of the pit, looking down at the Iron Dragon Slayer who had completely lost his fighting ability.
"Thank you for personally handing me the knife."
These words exploded like a clap of thunder in Gajeel's mind.
He instantly understood.
From the moment he targeted Levy's group, everything had been within this man's calculations.
He wasn't the hunter!
He was the bait!
"You... you..."
Endless humiliation and anger surged in his heart, but could only turn into powerless trembling.
Ryoma didn't give him any more chances. He raised his hand and gently clenched it towards Gajeel in the deep pit.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Piercing blue ice erupted madly from all directions, instantly enveloping Gajeel's entire body, forever freezing all his unwillingness and anger within the ice prison.
Only after completing all this did Ryoma turn to look at Levy and the others, who were dumbfounded behind him.
The suffocatingly cold aura around him instantly receded, and he returned to his usual demeanor.
"I'll have to trouble you all again." Ryoma's voice broke the dead silence.
"Take him back to the guild."
He pointed to the giant ice sculpture, then a faintly glowing record Lacrima appeared in his hand.
He casually tossed it to a still somewhat dazed Levy and said, "And give this to Master as well. The evidence is sufficient."
Levy subconsciously caught the Lacrima, which still had a trace of coldness. She looked at Ryoma, opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
Shock, gratitude... various emotions intertwined, making her eyes well up.
Ryoma gave them a gentle smile, saying nothing more.
The ice flower at his feet glowed brightly.
"The prelude is over. Next, it's our turn to strike back."
Before he finished speaking, his figure transformed into countless ice particles and dissipated into the night wind.
—
At the same time, in another town dozens of kilometers from Magnolia.
A Gothic-style building, adorned with a large Phantom Lord emblem. This was Phantom Lord's branch located here.
The branch was brightly lit, and a group of Phantom Lord Mages were drinking and celebrating wildly, reveling in their victory over Fairy Tail earlier that day.
Just then, the temperature inside the entire guild suddenly dropped. A bone-chilling coldness appeared out of thin air, and everyone celebrating in the branch shivered simultaneously.
"What's going on? Why is it suddenly so cold?"
"Is someone using Ice Magic?"
Just then, a figure silently appeared above the branch building. It was Ryoma, who had teleported there.
He looked down indifferently at the building, which symbolized evil, with not a trace of pity in his eyes.
The next second, centered on the Phantom Lord branch, the ground began to tremble violently.
Buzz!
A visible layer of white frost spread across the ground at a terrifying speed.
Immediately after—
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Countless thick and sharp giant ice thorns, like bamboo shoots after rain, burst out from underground without warning.
These ice thorns, with an air of crushing everything, fiercely pierced through every inch of land, every wall, and every beam of the Phantom Lord branch.
"Ahhhhh!"
Screams of agony instantly erupted but then abruptly ceased.
The sturdy building, under the frantic piercing and crushing of countless ice thorns, was instantly torn, pulverized, and completely disintegrated.
The Phantom Lord Mages who were still celebrating didn't even have time to react before they were impaled by ice thorns and frozen into ice sculptures. In just a few short seconds, a once arrogant Phantom Lord branch was completely erased from the map.
Only a monstrous ice thorn jungle remained, dotted with ice sculptures preserving expressions of terror.
Ryoma looked at his masterpiece and calmly shook his head. "Indeed, just a bunch of weak small fry."
For him, this was merely collecting some interest.
He was about to turn and leave for his next target when his brow slightly furrowed.
"Hmm?"
In his perception, a vast magic power, completely different from the surrounding small fry and filled with evil and death, was slowly rising from the very center of the ice thorn ruins.
Boom!
Countless ice thorns in the center of the ruins were shattered by an invisible force, and black mist surged, repelling all the ice and rubble.
A black figure slowly walked out of the ruins, completely unharmed. Not even a speck of dust clung to his attire.
The newcomer wore a sinister smile, surrounded by ominous dark magic power.
Ryoma hovered in mid-air, a hint of surprise on his face as he watched the person emerge from the ruins.
The Guild Master of Phantom Lord, one of the Ten Wizard Saints.
Jose Porla!
Why was he here? In such a small branch?
Jose looked up, his sinister eyes locking onto Ryoma in mid-air, a strange arc forming on his lips.
"Hehehe... A Fairy Tail brat?"
His voice was hoarse and grating. "What? Are you the only one who came to die?"
Ryoma put away the surprise on his face and regained his composure. He slowly descended, facing Jose from a distance.
"I didn't expect to meet the main culprit here."
His gaze swept over the constantly surging dark energy around Jose, his tone carrying undisguised disgust.
"However, to deal with you, I alone am enough."
"And this power on you truly has a nauseating aura."
Jose's smile instantly froze, and a terrifying surge of anger erupted from him.
"Such an arrogant brat, not knowing his place."
He coldly said, "Even that old geezer Makarov wouldn't dare say such things in front of me."
"It seems I need to teach you a profound lesson, to make you understand that the dignity of a Wizard Saint is not to be challenged."
As his words fell—
Boom!
A terrifying magical pressure, like a tsunami, erupted from Jose's body and fiercely pressed down on Ryoma.
The air itself groaned under this Wizard Saint-level magical pressure, and the surrounding space seemed to become viscous.