"Phew, that was a close call." Lucy carefully cracked an eye open as she heard the all too familiar voice of her trusted Celestial Spirit Leo the Lion, called Loke, as he grinned down at his blonde master.
"Are you alright, hime?" Lucy nodded, surprised that the lion spirit was there; she didn't summon him. She didn't even have her keys with her at the moment –Minerva, her opponent in the Navel Battle, somehow managed to take them away from her.
"Don't look so surprised, hime, though I admit it makes you look cuter, you know I always come to your aid when you need me." The Celestial Spirit mage smiled gratefully at her friend.
"Thank you, Loke." Loke grinned before he turned serious and placed Lucy down -who he held until now in bride style-, after making sure that she could float alone again in the water bubble. He could admit that he was quite worried as he felt that Lucy was in danger and didn't have her keys with her. She was lucky he could force open his own gate.
The stadium on the other hand was – while Lucy and Loke talked - in a state of surprise. Just as Sabertooth's Queen wanted to strike the Fairy Tail mage, a golden light appeared and the Fairy Tail mage was being held by an orange-haired man in a suit, Minerva's strike going into empty space. Minerva herself was surprised too, though she was able to hide it and something else rivalled the surprise: rage.
She was pissed that someone dared to interrupt her, to take her prey out of her clutches. The Fairy Tail Guild, on the other hand, cheered for the Zodiac leader spirit who just saved their celestial spirit mage.
"A spirit, able to force his own gate open in order to come to his master's aid, how impressive," the bald-but-hiding-it commentator mumbled but, thanks to his microphone in front of him, everyone heard him.
"So cool!" the reporter of 'Sorcerer Magazine' and fan of the destructive Fairy Tail, as well as guest-commentator shouted into his microphone.
"Loke's ability to come to Lucy's aid while his key is with Minerva, is really impressive to say the least, but not too surprising considering his loyalty to Miss Lucy," the oldest of the three, former council member and friend of Fairy Tail's Guild Master, mused with a small smile.
"Care to share why you didn't summon Aquarius the second you learned this would be in water, hime?" Lucy frowned with a huff, and puffed her cheeks out, pouting.
"I did, but she decided a date with Scorpio was what she preferred." Loke raised an eyebrow, before deciding that he should have seen that one coming.
"I'll talk with her when I get back. Drenching you in water, being rude, things like leaving with Scorpio in the battle with Angel, also cutting the enemies lines so, okay, not the best behaviour but okay we can work with that. Leaving you in a water battle with a caster magic user to go on a date is not okay."
"Loke, you don't have to." Images of Aquarius threating her after getting scolded by her leader ran through Lucy's head, making her shake her head to drive them away.
"It's alright, hime, don't worry about that now, let's concentrate on the matter at hand." Loke turned around for the first time since facing Minerva.
"Damn…not good." Lucy blinked, surprised, looking up at the taller spirit: it wasn't often that Loke cursed especially when facing a woman – his flirtatious character forbade it - but the second he faced Minerva Lucy could hear Loke growl through his clenched teeth. The timer of the clock jumped on four minutes. Loke's eyes flitted over to the big, bright numbers before fixing on Minerva again.
"That timer, hime?"
"It's the countdown. If Minerva or I fall out of this sphere, we'll get last place. We can't lose this round too, or Fairy Tail…" Loke gave a curt nod in understanding.
"When the timer is up one of you gets first, the other gets second place…I see…So we have to keep you in here until it hits zero, ideally unhurt."
"Or we manage to get Minerva out first -which would be the best-, and if we work together we could-" Lucy stopped as Loke shook his head slightly.
"We're in water, hime," Loke reminded the blonde mage.
"I'm a lion spirit, a 'grown-up cat' if we go with Happy's definition, and while I don't tend to act like a little kitten does when it gets wet and falls into water, and while small or normal amounts don't really affect me, this amount is. Or, in other words, I'm weaker in here."
"Nani?!"
"You sound so surprised…you didn't know? You always summon Aquarius close to water, I thought you knew." Lucy blinked again, she didn't know that the area she summoned a spirit could affect them, she only summoned Aquarius in water because the blue-haired spirit threatened to drown her if she didn't.
"I see…well don't worry, hime, I'll keep you in the game until the time's up." The blond girl smiled and nodded; she had complete trust in the golden key spirit.
"You two finally finished? Decided to give up?" Minerva grinned, sadistically.
"You can forget it, Minerva! I –we- won't give up! We'll show you that Fairy Tail is the strongest Guild in Fiore!" Minerva laughed at the -in her eyes- small fry's big announcement. Loke's lion ears on top of his head -one could argue if they really were his ears or just part of his hair- twitched slightly and Lucy, too, could hear the laughter behind and around them.
"You, the weakest of the weakest Guild, want to beat me: the strongest member of the strongest Guild in all of Fiore?" Minerva's laugh echoed through the stadium as she raised her hand, a soft glow coming from it.
"We'll see." At the last moment before they were hit, Loke pulled Lucy aside and glared at the beam of heat as it ripped through the water wall, splashing water onto the ground below.
"A water mage? No, she'd attack differently if she were…nor is she a fire mage; she wouldn't be able to control the direction that well…" Loke swirled around and blocked Minerva's hit aimed at Lucy with his arm, while mumbling about what kind of magic the black-haired woman could use. With a sadistic grin, the black-haired woman aimed a kick at the spirit's head, only to have the spirit let himself fall backwards. In his fall, the Lion twisted slightly and used his knee, aiming for Minerva's side. With one hand, the Sabertooth mage caught the knee, while with the other she reached forward to the lion's head, another glow emitting from her hand.
An explosion moved the whole water sphere, a pressure wave sent Lucy sailing to the edge.
"Oh my, oh my! It seems as if Miss Minerva and Miss Lucy's spirit are on par right now!" The bald -though wearing a wig- commentator's voice boomed through the stadium, making Sabertooth and their supporters angry and provoking glares, while the other Guilds –especially the ones friends with Fairy Tail- were quite happy; they didn't want Sabertooth to win the games again.
Minerva, meanwhile, glared at the Lion, her face twisted in rage. Loke on the other hand, while also having something of a frown on his face, couldn't help but let his lips curl up in a grin, while keeping his eyes on the black-haired woman who was back in the middle of their battle field. A moment of silence and analysing the other passed, before Minerva raised her hand again. A greenish-blackish beam passed Loke as he dodged and, raising his own hand, shot his golden coloured light magic at Minerva, who didn't try to dodge.
"How can she be unharmed after that?!" Natsu's angry voice echoed through the silence as Minerva appeared before Loke, aiming at his face with her fist. The orange-haired lion's head snapped back as the fist connected with his cheekbone; he wasn't fast enough to dodge it completely but at least he didn't get his nose broken by a direct hit in the face.
"Territory."
"What?" Minerva stared at the man before her. They were still in the position they were when she had hit him; her hovering before him, arm still outstretched and Loke half-way bent backwards through force of her hit. Loke grinned again.
"Territory. A space manipulating magic that's considered a war-god magic. Quite powerful, I dare to say…but it seems as if you haven't been able to trigger its full power until now."
"Not it's full power?"
"Oh yes. You never wondered why there is a lost time magic but not lost space magic? It's because Territory is actual the opposite to the 'Arc of Time' magic. With the Yakuma clan taking it and making it 'their' magic, specializing themselves in the spells known today, the others were forgotten, thus the other spells are lost and have disappeared out of human minds. People have forgotten the full power of it." Minerva stared at the male as he pulled himself up in a vertical position, a nice bruise decorating the right side of his face where she had hit him.
"I admit, you really know how to punch, that one hurt."
"What? Afraid already?" Loke stopped rubbing his bruised cheek and grinned. Lucy frowned as she saw that grin; it was different from the one he had before, and she feared she knew what it meant. He always had that grin when…Lucy's trail of thoughts was interrupted as Loke opened his mouth.
"Afraid? No. I think I'm in love, my beautiful war-goddess." Lucy and the rest of Fairy Tail face-palmed. Only Loke would go and proclaim his love for the enemy in the middle of the battle –though he usually didn't do that when the battle was serious.
While Fairy Tail was busy face-palming and shaking their heads, Minerva's eyebrow started to twitch dangerously at the spirits proclamation and on Sabertooth's balcony Rogue had to hold Sting back from jumping into the battlefield and killing the spirit.
"I hate playboys."
"So, if I wasn't one, you'd love me back?" Instead of answering, Minerva kicked Loke's stomach. Dodging the lousily thrown kick by darting to the side, the lion threw a punch at Minerva, only to have her dodging it too.
While the two parties threw punch after punch and kick after kick at each other, dodging the other's attacks and only rarely getting hit, Lucy had to wonder if the water even weakened Loke, as she watched from the side-lines. According to him, it did, but watching him keep up with Minerva made her wonder if it was really true and if it was how strong Loke would be if she could summon him at his full power. Lucy wasn't stupid or arrogant enough to believe that she could summon her spirits on full power –her own magical energy still wasn't strong enough for that, at the moment. She had to admit that she probably couldn't summon a single one of the Zodiacs on their full power.
The beeping sound of the countdown echoed through the stadium; the last ten seconds had begun. Loke drifted in front of Lucy, panting heavily, his back turned to her and not noticing that he was in front of her. Minerva too was panting heavily as she wiped a small blood stain from her mouth with the back of her hand; Loke had got her good there with a right hook, making her lip bleed.
Nine.
Green eyes noticed the blonde behind the man.
Eight.
Minerva's lips curled into a sadistic smirk.
Seven.
Raising her arm, a greenish-blackish tomoe swirled around her hand.
Six.
Loke's eyes widened as he noticed that she wasn't looking at him.
Five.
The orange mane whipped as the Lion's head jerked around to see Lucy behind him, close to the edge.
Four.
He could hear Erza shouting at Lucy to get away from there as he faced Minerva again.
Three.
"Ih Ragdo!"
"Regulus Impact!"
Two.
The two magic beams met half way, greenish-black colliding with the golden light.
One.
Hazel eyes widened in shock as the golden light was ripped apart by the other beam, which moved towards the zodiac leader and his master.
Zero.
The signal, that declared the end of the match, didn't ring a second too soon. The very second everyone registered the end of the battle, Minerva's beam ripped through the water sphere's shell, leaving two bodies crashing into a wall as it disappeared.
Loke, who used his own body to shield Lucy as well as he could from the attack and the impact of the wall, and Lucy, who hung limp in Loke's arms, having been knocked out by the shockwaves of Minerva's magic and the crash into the wall.
The whole audience was in a silent state of shock and surprise. No, not the whole audience. Gray and Natsu had both jumped down onto the field and were running towards Lucy and her lion spirit, who fell down head-first, as a huge part of the wall crashed down from the impact. In the last moment, the ice and the fire mage managed to catch the two, so they didn't crash onto the ground unshielded.
"Luce! Loke!" The lion cracked an eye open as he heard Natsu shouting his name and looked at the two men that saved him and Lucy from their fall.
"Thanks."
"Go back into the Celestial Spirit world and rest, we'll take care of Lucy from here." Loke nodded and followed Gray's order, disappearing into his realm and leaving Lucy with Gray and Natsu.
"So…who won?" The wig wearing commentator looked helplessly at the pumpkin-headed referee for help as he asked the question most were asking themselves. The referee himself looked between Minerva, who was still in the water bubble glaring daggers at the blonde Fairy Tail mage, and Lucy, who was carried towards the rest of Fairy Tail by Natsu.
"It's...it's a tie?" Mato himself was surprised at the outcome of the battle, as was the rest of the audience. Sabertooth had been the strongest guild for years now, and their strongest member didn't win! It ended in a tie against Fairy Tail, who has been considered the weakest guild for years.
"A tie! A tie! Fairy Tail got a tie against Sabertooth' strongest mage!" A whole bunch of shouts, out of rage and surprise rang through the whole place, mixed with cries of joy. Not that it mattered for Fairy Tail at that moment as they joined Gray and Natsu in bringing Lucy away from the field.
Minerva on the other hand teleported –with the help of Territory- from the battle field and marched out of the stadium, angry about not having been able to beat the little cry-baby and her kitty into a bloody mess, and slightly confused about what the kitten had said about her magic.
So, that was the first chapter, thanks for beta-ing it go to FunahoMisaki.
For those who wonder, Loke showed up in the moment as Minerva teleported Lucy in front of her and wanted to kick her.