The wizard Vane attacked using his puppets; both were fast, executing erratic movements as they struck at Alex.
They moved in a zigzag pattern, their poison-coated weapons aiming at all parts of his body.
"I guess a single cut means game over," Alex said.
His intuition was spot on. Still, he wasn't about to let himself get cut so easily.
With his All Fiction ability, he could move so fast that the puppets couldn't even touch him. What he was really waiting for was the wizard hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike from behind.
'Once that guy shows up, he won't get another chance to hide,' Alex thought.
Yet Viper proved incredibly patient, refusing to reveal himself even as Erza was winning her fight.
Bargas couldn't hold out much longer; his entire body was covered in slashes. With Erza attacking from a distance and using her wings to dodge whenever he tried to close the gap, he was completely outmatched. In desperation, Bargas ripped a tree from the ground and hurled it toward Erza.
Catching her off guard, Erza sliced the oncoming tree into pieces. However, Bargas capitalized on that split second to launch himself forward with all his might.
This time, Erza wouldn't be able to dodge in time and had to face him head-on.
Seeing the imminent clash, Alex knew Viper would make his move on Erza now. Intending to cover her back, he turned around to rush to her aid.
Vane saw Alex's intent and wasn't about to let him help his partner. Making a quick decision, he detonated both of his puppets.
BOOM!
Two explosions erupted from the puppets, releasing a cloud of poison over the area alongside a volley of venomous needles shot in every direction.
Seeing Alex caught in the poisonous blast of his puppets, Vane was confident the battle was won. That was one of his strongest moves; anyone caught in that attack couldn't survive for more than a few minutes.
Erza heard the explosion, but she had no doubt Alex would be fine. Right now, she needed to focus all her concentration on her collision with Bargas.
At that exact moment, Viper burst forward at incredible speed. He aimed to stab Erza in the back right after her exchange with Bargas.
Bargas swung his right fist toward Erza's head, putting every ounce of his remaining strength into the blow, intending to crush her with sheer brute force.
Erza, now wielding a single sword, watched his simple attack and chose to dodge at the very last second.
She tilted her head to the left. Bargas's fist and body whizzed past her right side, missing his target entirely.
As she dodged, Erza slashed horizontally across Bargas's chest.
The exchange was over in a flash. The two swapped positions, and as they came to a halt, a deep slash appeared across Bargas's chest. Unable to withstand the damage this time, he collapsed face-first.
At that same moment, a katana sliced through the air toward Erza. But before it could reach her, Viper was stabbed in the back. A giant screw impaled him straight through, slamming his body into the ground.
Viper turned his head to see who had attacked him from behind, meeting Alex's cold, shadowy gaze.
"How does it feel to get stabbed in the back?"
Viper coughed up a mouthful of blood at Alex's words. He had always been on the other side, stabbing others.
"Impossible!" Vane screamed. He stared at the area where he had detonated his puppets, only to find it completely devoid of a body.
There was only the blast mark and random needles embedded around the terrain.
Alex, standing over Viper's body with a screw driving into the assassin's back, was completely uninjured by anything the dark guild leader had thrown at him.
At this point, Vane questioned reality: 'What kind of magic does this damn Fairy Tail wizard have? Is it some sort of illusion?'
Just minutes ago, he was full of confidence that victory was theirs, with only Erza left to face him and his three henchmen.
Now, everything had flipped. It was just him against two Fairy Tail wizards. On top of that, he had just blown up two of his puppets. Although he had more puppets, they were of lower quality and lacked the same acidic poison.
He had originally planned to sacrifice them against Erza anyway, but who could have guessed Alex's magic could negate any damage he took?
Left with no other choice, the dark guild leader Vane decided to make a strategic retreat. His intuition warned him that he couldn't win against these two especially against Alex.
He summoned a pair of puppets and sent them flying toward Erza and Alex, using the exact same detonation move as before.
BOOM!
Without even looking back, Vane fled under the cover of the explosion. Unfortunately for him, Erza was no ordinary wizard, and Alex certainly wasn't about to stand around taking the hit.
Before Vane could vanish from sight, Alex intercepted him. Holding two giant screws in his hands, he hurled them straight at Vane.
The dark guild leader summoned another puppet to use as a shield. The screws impaled the puppet, and instantly, Vane felt his magical connection to it snap.
The urgency to escape grew visibly on Vane's face as cold sweat poured down his back.
Erza arrived to assist Alex, swinging her sword to unleash a wave of magical slashes toward Vane.
Once again, he defended himself by using another puppet as a shield.
Alex couldn't help but wonder, "Where does he keep pulling those puppets from, and how many does he have left?"
Erza answered, "It's likely similar to my Spatial Magic that allows me to store armor, except his holds puppets."
"Surrender! You have no chance of escaping! You will pay for the crimes you committed as a dark guild leader!" Erza declared.
Vane sneered at her. "Surrender? Just to be locked up by the Magic Council and spend the rest of my life in prison?"
Vane clasped both hands together, gathering every last drop of his magic to cast one final spell on himself.
"I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life behind bars!" Vane shouted, his face filled with unhinged determination.
Erza and Alex sensed immediate danger as Vane surged his body's magic. Dark magical runes began spreading across his skin.
Vane's skin turned a sickly purple, covered in black rune patterns. He was converting himself into a living poison bomb.
"If I'm going down, I'm taking at least one of you with me!" he roared, intending to detonate on the spot.
Realizing what was happening, Erza and Alex didn't hesitate for a second and sprinted away as fast as they could.
BOOM!
A massive explosion shook the mountain where the Dark Poison guild had been hiding. Purple flames and dense smoke rose high into the sky, visible even from the town below.
The townspeople looked up in shock, wondering what was happening on the mountain.
"Mayor!" A secretary rushed frantically into the mayor's office, quickly explaining the situation about the explosion.
The mayor immediately barked orders to gather a squad of guards and accompany him straight to the blast site.