Karna watched as Brain's eyes began widening while the seals of the Oración Seis started disappearing from his face.
"No… my dream, I don't want to go yet," Brain muttered as his eyes closed, possibly for the last time.
Karna watched as Brain's skin tone changed from tanned to Caucasian, and his hair changed from the neatly arranged form it was in before to a wild, unkempt style.
Karna was surprised at the differences in the physical body caused by the switching of personalities.
While he was looking at the changes, he was also keeping an eye on everyone in the surrounding forests, who were currently battling the grunts of dozens of dark guilds and taking them down pretty easily.
He could see them following the plan he had put forward. After taking care of the members of the Oración Seis main guild, they were to regroup with all the captured members, and Jura would make sure to keep them contained using his ground manipulation. Then, if they had enough stamina left, they were to engage in battles with the other grunts and make sure that not even a single one of them escaped—because the fewer the number of grunts who escape, the less of a headache they would have later.
Karna also saw Wendy, who was fighting with Carla, making sure that she was not attacked from behind. Unlike in the canon, Wendy wouldn't have the chance to use her roar on the Lacrima inside Nirvana, but she still had to use her powers in the form of an attack at least once to gain enough confidence to fight future battles.
If someone asked who had the greatest potential among the original roster of Fairy Tail, he could say hands down it was Wendy Marvell of Earthland. Don't be misguided by her kind smile and clumsy personality. At the age when Natsu and the others were having difficulty dealing with B-class opponents, she was having life-or-death battles with S-class demons and wizards.
By the end of the Zeref vs. Fairy Tail war, Wendy was a bona fide powerhouse, with battle skills surpassing most S-class wizards, along with enchanting skills that put her on par with Irene Belserion, an enchanter who had created as well as practiced the art for centuries.
Karna knew Wendy was a truly valuable comrade, as well as a valuable asset in future battles, so he planned to help her reach her potential in a much faster timeframe than in canon.
As he was checking, he saw the staff held by Brain slowly roll away.
CRACK!
Karna didn't hesitate—he destroyed the staff, knowing that it was the seventh secret member of the Oración Seis. And even if it had been destroyed in the canon with no time to show its capability, Karna could not take any chances, so he destroyed it immediately.
"Thank you for doing that, I suppose," Zero said as he got up and made an entirely different set of clothes appear on his body.
"Well, this is—" Just as he was about to continue speaking, he dodged as an arrow flew through the space where he had been standing moments before.
"Oh, straight to destruction. I like it," Zero muttered as the battle started.
Karna could only say one thing about what the battle had shown him: reality. He had thought that he had gotten stronger and more skilled—and yes, he had. But currently, he could see how outclassed he was when it came to pure battle skill and instinct. Until this day, he had trained to finish his fights in a single strike or with a combination of strikes, giving no chance for his enemy to counterattack. But right now, he could see that it had made him weak, in a manner of speaking.
He could easily beat Zero if he used his armor or his Death Demon Slayer form, but right now, he was dodging while analyzing the abilities used by Zero, as well as the tactics and adaptive fighting he was facing.
Within a few moments since the fight started, Zero had realized that magic-type attacks had no effect on Karna, so he immediately started using tactics involving rubble as well as shockwaves indirectly created by magic attacks, targeting Karna with attacks he could not absorb. Karna could clearly see it, as he could only shoot a few arrows at a time, and the rest of the time, he was busy dodging all the attacks now being created by Zero while analyzing the movement pattern he used.
'Well, System, can I use hand-to-hand combat if I'm not using the armor?'
[Go for it]
Karna decided to use this opportunity to test his physical combat as well. And hell, he was pathetic.
Zero was all in when Karna made his bow disappear and started fighting with his hands. Zero too took the same approach and started fighting barehanded. Karna could describe Zero's skills as being focused on one thing alone:
Pure destruction.
Karna fought while targeting the head or chest, whereas each one of Zero's strikes was calculated and precise. More importantly, they were delivered in an instant, as if he had thought it out minutes ago. Each blocked strike was a prelude to another, while each strike that landed also had intent behind it.
One created a sensation of stinging that faltered Karna for a second, and Zero used that opportunity to strike a tendon, causing Karna's steps to falter for a few moves.
"You're using me as a way to gauge your skill, aren't you? Haha, I can see that you've built your strength like building with bricks—tough and strong, even more than mine. But it lacks substance. It doesn't have shape. Other than wild swings, you've got nothing," Zero taunted, trying to make sure that Karna continued down this path, as he felt like he would be able to kill him if he did so.
Karna knew—but still let him do so, as he knew that he would be using him more than Zero thought.
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone gets extra chapter of Jason.