Chapter 1

Well That Escalated Quickly

"I can't believe we are actually here." An excited giggle echoed through the dark passageway. All the guilds have gone through the sky labyrinth and the top eight were being announced. Blue Pegasus was one of them, though they did not come in first place but fourth place. It was ok considering the past happenings of the guild but this year, everything will change. This year, Blue Pegasus had allowed two very interesting mages into their ranks. These mages were their trump cards. No one had ever heard their names before or even knew about them or their magic.

"Well, you better believe it." Eve said through the darkness of the hallway. The team had already reached the door and was waiting for their guild to be called. Then they would make an extravagant entrance just like they always do. "Oh, and you guys might want to put these on." The snow mage handed two people each, a plain black hoodie.

The figures sighed and nodded in the darkness before putting the garments on. They flipped the hood up to conceal their identity. "At least this is warm." The shorter one mumbled before rotating her ears a degree or so to try and listen to the outside voices. That stupid pumpkin still hadn't finished the opening speech!

"Now, now Aster and Sofia." Hibiki lightly scolded with a smile on his face. It was evident that even he was excited about this year's games. "Remember to smile and act excited for the marvellous entrance we will make."

Both the girls looked at each other with doubt. "And if we don't?" They questioned in unison. An evil glint sparked in Hibiki's eyes. He leaned in close to the two and whispered, "Then you will have to deal with our sensei: Ichiya- Dono." The blonde pointed at the so called "Ace" of Blue Pegasus who was doing poses under a beam of light with sparkles surrounding him.

The girls shuddered as they recalled their last meeting with him. Ichiya gave everyone the chills not just because he used many disgusting perfume magic like the armpit perfume and garbage perfume but, he flirts with every girl he sees despite their age difference.

"Fine." They sighed just as the pumpkin announced their guild. The double doors opened to reveal almost the entire female population cheering for them. The newest members of Blue Pegasus followed the older members into the light.

"It looks like we have two new additions to the Grand Magic games this year! Kabo!" The pumpkin cried gleefully as he pointed a long, wooden staff at the people in the black hoodies.

"Give a warm welcome to Sofia Phire and Aster Sang!" The crowd cheered mildly as the two members of Blue Pegasus waved to the crowd. "Rumour has it that the duo has never been beaten before! Let's see if that rumour is true Kabo!" The pumpkin allowed them guild to listen to their adoring fans for a bit longer before moving onto the next guild.

"In third place is…" Another wave of cheers entered Aster's sensitive ears but one voice called out to her. She turned her head to look at the other competing guilds until she saw where the voice originated from.

A head of pink spiky hair kept on yelling about challenging the newcomers while a redhead punched him unconscious. It was comical to watch but something about the pinkie was off. Aster shook the thoughts out of her head and paid attention to the announcer.

"And in first place- without a surprise- is Sabertooth!" The crowed was cheering like crazy as five mages made their way into the arena. The only ones showing any emotion were the blonde and the green haired man. Both were eating up the crowd's applause and turning it into confidence and cockiness.

A shiver ran down Aster's spine as she saw the spiky haired blonde, the red eyed brunette, the pinkie and the iron face man glare at one another. She turned to look at Sofia to see her staring at the green haired man of Sabertooth and the pink haired girl from Lamia Scale.

The two newcomers looked at one another before they nodded. It was clear as day, Dragon and God slayers were participating in the Grand Magic Games. 'This is going to be a fun tournament.' The taller mage -Aster- thought.

"On each day of the GMG's, there will be four battles and one hidden event. No one knows what the hidden event is or when it will take place. Every guild will choose one person each day to compete in the hidden event. Points shall be awarded with the 1st place team getting ten points and the last team getting no points. Is that clear? Kabo?"

The pumpkin man looked at each of the guilds with his unblinking eyes. "Furthermore, the battles will be single and double battles with the winning teams receiving ten points and the loser getting none."

"And now that the events are explained, send in a member of your team and the games shall begin Kabo!" The pumpkin jumped in the air and danced towards the judges. "And we do not take responsibility for any deaths that occur!"

"What a weird pumpkin." Sofia shrugged, her face covered by the hoodie. "So, who's going first?" She turned to the rest of the Blue Pegasus team which consisted of her, Aster, Eve, Hibiki and Ichiya. Originally, Ren and the rabbit man were supposed to participate but both fell extremely ill before the games.

"I'll go." Hibiki volunteered with a wink to the females in the stands. Loud squeals echoed through Domus Flau and assaulted Aster's ears. "Would you keep it down?!" She hissed in annoyance as she massaged her ringing ears.

"Heh, sorry." The blonde scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously before walking to the center where all the other contestants were gathered. While the pumpkin explained the event, the rest of the Blue Pegasus participants walked to their guild balconies to watch the event.

"What do you think the hidden event is going to be about?" Sofia murmured as she tried to see over the ridiculously high brick wall that prevented mages from falling into the arena. She was short for a twelve year old with her forehead only reaching a centimetre above the four foot wall.

"Well… judging by what is happening right now, I'd say everyone is sent to a magic created town with clones of the competitors." Aster picked up the short mage and set her on the top of the brick wall so she could see. "And if the player attacks a clone, they loose one point but if they attack another mage, they gain a point." The team watched the battle intently and observed the abilities of the participants.

"Hidden… what an interesting game." The archive mage smiled as he saw the many clones of everyone participating. 'This should be a piece of cake for my archive magic.' He thought lightly before closing his eyes and letting golden holographic screens appear around him. Hibiki swiftly looked for the spell he needed since the golden glow of his magic might attract unwanted attention.

The man's eyes darted rapidly across the screen until they found what they were searching for. "Bingo." He tapped a button before seven bursts of light erupted from the screen, heading off to locate his opponents. Now it was only a matter of time before Blue Pegasus wins the event.

The crowd "Ooed" and "Ahhed" at the seven beams of light that supposedly shot out of nowhere. The mages however, knew otherwise.

"That magic… it's Hibiki, isn't it?" Sofia said with a blank face as she stared at the light. It almost looked like comets falling onto Fiore. The streaks of light darted out to random areas of the fake town and there were cries of surprise as the light hit the targets.

From lacrima vision, the audience could see each competitor being surrounded by a golden glow of light. Their clones however, remained unaffected and continued to trudge along slowly.

"Focus Blast!" Three holographic hexagon shapes appeared in front of a girl that looked like she lived on a farm most of her life: Beth Vanderwood, Mermaid Heel's representative. The force of the blast caused her to fly into the air and crash into a building, knocking her out.

"Sorry about that dear but, I intend to win for my guild!" Hibiki still had his womanizing charms but had a higher goal in mind. He swiftly blended in with the rest of the clones and looked around for the other competitors. A flash of gold caught his eyes as he ran towards it. He ducked behind a building and poked his head out to see who or what was glowing.

"ARG! This stupid glow! Get it off!" He saw Jager from Quatro Cerberus trying to get rid of the locator spell around him. Unfortunately for Jager, that spell will only wear off once it has done what it was supposed to do.

Hibiki's hand started to glow before three hexagons- identical to the ones that had taken out Beth- appeared in front of the mage. "Hu-!" The hexagons exploded in Jager's face, sending him into the sky.

"Two down, five to go." The archive mage smirked before taking off. He was going to win this. A short while later, Hibiki came across four mages fighting; each trying to take down another without getting hit.

He quickly covered himself in the shadow of a building before letting out another focus blast but this one was different. It was stronger, faster and more powerful than the other two.

Three mages cried out in surprise as the blast seemingly came out of nowhere and blew them off their feet. 'Wait… three mages?' Hibiki's eyes widened as he felt a blow from behind that made him stagger forwards. He felt an explosion of pain on his lower back and whipped his head around to see the purple skinned man: Nullpudding.

'That bastard!' Hibiki felt his body disappear and then reappear in another location with the stinging pain still there. He groaned as he pushed himself upright and felt around the wound. A warm wet feel told the mage that if he didn't get the wound patched up, there was a chance he could die of blood loss.

His fingers then touched something protruding from his back and his eyes widened in realisation. 'Nullpudding's spikes!' A flashback of first aid training came to his mind. Never pull out a protruding object from the body, let a professional handle it. "Well… at least I won't have to go to the infirmary; Sofia and Aster can handle this." He smiled lightly and looked at the sky.

That was one of the best timing situations he had ever been in. A flash of light was headed his way at lightning speed. He barely had enough time to surround himself in a force shield before the beam of light hit home. The shining light kept ramming into the shield, making Hibiki incredibly tired. He had already lost a fair amount of blood and he was using his magic to power the shield.

The golden dome flickered and dimmed before it fizzed out completely, leaving a vulnerable mage and a deadly attack. Hibiki closed his eyes and waited for the pain to hit him but… it never did. Upon opening his eyes, he saw the fake town disappear and Domus Flau reappear with six other competitors down for the count. The only conscious ones were him and Rufus of Sabertooth.

"And the winner of Hidden is… Rufus! Ten points to Sabertooth Kabo!" The crowd erupted in cheers as the masked man ate up the applause. "Second place to Raven Tail with eight points! And third place to Blue Pegasus with six points!" Hibiki stopped paying attention to the pumpkin after that and collapsed on his knees. He was loosing too much blood.

"Hibiki! Hang in there!" The four participants of Blue Pegasus appeared in front of the blonde. Aster and Eve helped the injured member on his feet since Sofia was too short to help and Ichiya… was flirting with a redhead.

"Geez Hibiki, how much do you weight?" Aster joked as she swung his arm around her neck for support. Eve was on the blonde's other side, supporting his team mate as well.

"You're so mean Aster!" Hibiki joked back as he and the team trudged towards the Blue Pegasus balcony. The archive mage needed to get that needle out of his body, and fast. Aster looked back at Ichiya flirting. "Sofia, could you get Ichiya?" She said in a sickly sweet voice and smiled. She knew Ichiya was going to… have a very interesting experience.

Sofia nodded and walked up to the "Ace" of Blue Pegasus. She tilted her head upwards, revealing her red, insomniac eyes before jumping up. A small hand clutched around the ginger's ear and pulled downwards, causing immense pain to the womanizer. "Come on Ichiya- sama." The little girl dragged the perfume mage by the ear across the field.

"Noooo! Let me go! Let me be with Er-chan! It hurts! OW!" Ichiya cried and flailed around like a fish out of water. The ear pulling mage turned to look at the redhead. "Sorry about Ichiya; please accept Blue Pegasus's apology." She bowed lightly before continuing her assault on the ginger's ear.

The majority of the competitors stared at the duo. Some were shocked while others were slightly disturbed; a little girl dragging a fully grown man by the ear. There were murmurs from the crowd and the mages. Most of them were questioning who the new members of Blue Pegasus were and what kind of magic they possess.

"… I sense an immense amount of magic energy coming from the newcomers." Rufus murmured to no one in particular. A smile made its way onto his face. "This will be memorized."

When the Blue Pegasus members reached the stands, Aster and Eve set the archive mage on the ground- face down. Aster did a swift examination of the wound and the protruding object. "Tsk, tsk. Why do you always get yourself into messes like this?" She told Sofia to sit on the other side of Hibiki and help her heal their teammate.

"Ready?" Her response was a nod from the shorter girl. Both of them closed their eyes and allowed their magic to flow around the wound. The blood from Hibiki's bloody shirt started rise from the shirt and into the palm of Aster's hand. She then passed on the blood orb to Sofia who placed the blood back in its host.

"Looks like he needs a transfusion." Aster sighed before she bit her finger hard enough to draw blood. The red liquid turned into a flexible line with a point at the tip as she moved to the mage's arm. She quickly stabbed the blood line into one of his veins and closed her eyes.

The veins in her arm started glowing red as her blood was being pumped into Hibiki's body. Luckily, Aster's blood was O negative and compatible with every blood type. It was very useful in situations like this. While Aster was doing a transfusion, Sofia was healing the actual wound. Soon, there was no indication that anything punctured the skin… except for the hole in his shirt.

Right after Sofia was finished with the wound, Aster withdrew the blood needle from Hibiki's wrist. "Phew! Never thought we'd be healing someone of the first day of the games." The taller girl chuckled lightly before helping the archive mage onto his feet. It took a few steps for him to regain his balance but he got it eventually.

"How do you feel?" Sofia inquired softly.

Hibiki stretched and walked around, moving all of his limbs before answering. "I feel great. Thank you." He addressed the last part to both girls.

The sound of the stupid pumpkin's voice reached the ears of Aster. They were announcing the next round! "Come on guys!" She dragged the four of them to the balcony to see who was going next. They arrived just in time to hear the pumpkin head announce the results.

"The first battle will be Fairy Tail V.S Raven Tail! Followed by a tag battle team between Mermaid Heel and Blue Pegasus! Teams choose who goes Kabo!" The pumpkin yelled excitedly and skipped to the referee seat.

The crowd muttered amongst themselves excitedly. Some were placing bets on who would go while others were saying how hot the members of Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel were.

Soon enough, two players stepped onto the field. Both were female and voluptuous but that was where the similarities ended. One was blonde, had brown eyes and wore the Fairy Tail insignia while the other was a redhead with two pigtail braids connected at the back, red insomniac eyes and wore a very revealing red dress.

"Sofia… any chance you have a relative that looks like an older version of you?" Eve questioned as he looked at the younger redhead. Both Flare and Sofia had the same red, insomniac eyes and the same shade of red, braided hair. The only difference was the style of their hair, their age, clothing and their figures.

The shorter girl sat on the brick wall of the balcony, watching her "Doppelganger" with ringed, red eyes. There were a lot of similarities; so much that if someone put them side by side, they'd almost look like twins. "Last time I checked… I didn't have any family members besides my grandmother." Sofia's brow furrowed in concentration. This could possibly be a lead to her family!

"Remind me to attend whatever event she is attending." The "Mini Flare" said to no one in particular. She was incredibly fascinated by her look alike.

The battle between Lucy and Flare raged on with the blonde gaining the upper hand until the end. Her final attack never hit and Flare took her out with her fire-hair. Everyone was shocked. No cheers come from the audience, only utter silence from shock.

"U-urm, Lucy Heartfilia is down so the winner is Flare Corona! Ten points awarded to Raven Tail !" Pumpkin man shouted uneasily. Even the referee was shocked at the turn of events and he'd been doing this for seven years!

The pumpkin quickly composed himself before announcing the next battle. "Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel, please send your competitors to the arena for the double battle!" He watched as Natsu from Fairy Tail jumped from the stands to get the blonde. Even from the arena, the pumpkin could sense tension between the two guilds.

"Well, if it's a double battle, then it's either Aster with Eve, or Sofia." Ichiya nodded at his own sentence before striking a pose.

"I'm not going. I have too much to think about concerning a possible family member." Sofia bluntly stated before turning to the leftover duo. "Looks like you two are doing the double battle."

"Just like the good ol' days, right Eve?" Aster nudged the snow mage playfully before jumping into the arena. She couldn't wait to finally fight and stretch her limbs. Eve quickly followed her trail before nudging her back. "Right Aster." He smiled before turning his attention to the two mages across from them.

"The double battle between Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel shall commence! It's Eve Tearm, Aster Sang V.S Arana Web and Risley Law! BEGIN!" The pumpkin rang the gong which signalled the start of a battle.

The opponents were looking at one another as if sizing each other up. Unfortunately for Mermaid Heel, they could only size up Eve since the other member was still wearing the black hoodie that hid her face. A few silent seconds passed before the mages from the all girls guild, attacked.

'The one, who attacks first, loses.' A smirk crawled onto Aster's face as she swiftly dodged the spider lady's web attack. Her black combat boots made skid marks in the dirt as she dodged another attack. The hooded girl glanced at her partner who was… flirting with the enemy. The Trimens and Ichiya always did this, even in the midst of a battle.

"Eve! Focus!" Aster hissed as a weird sticky thing attached itself to her wrist. She quickly looked at her arm before it was tugged forward, dragging her along with it. "Shit!" The young mage cursed as Arana shot out more webs to entangle her in. Aster's mind was racing as she looked at the web around her wrist and the webs coming at her.

She quickly spit on the web rope before snapping her teeth down. The web broke just in time for the hooded girl to dodge the other webs. She spat on her other hand and grabbed the leftover thread off her wrist.

"What?! But how?! Spider webbing is one of the toughest materials in the world!" Arana shouted in disbelief and shock.

"Water is a universal solvent. Human saliva is made up of ninety percent water. Put two and two together and you get a very gross end product." Aster's giggle could be heard through her hoodie. She was very lucky she paid attention in a chemistry lesson about solvents and soluble matter.

From the Fairy Tail stands stood a very confused Natsu. "…What did she just say?" The pink haired man with less of an IQ stat than all the other members, asked.

The raven haired man standing next to him sighed. "Don't you know anything Natsu? Water can dissolve the web and make the web not so sticky." The man- Gray- shook his head at the pinkie's moronic tendencies.

"Oh…" The pink haired man nodded his head and went back to watching the fight. This was one of the rare times when neither he nor Gray, burst out yelling at one another after every comment.

"I want to fight her."

"ACHOO!" Aster sneezed. "Hesh, I hope I'm not coming down with something." She quickly shook the thought out of her head as Arana came at her with more webs but this time, there were over a thousand black widow spiders on the strands of web.

"Ah Shi-" A direct hit of spiders and webbing fell upon her. Aster's entire upper body was encased in a cocoon of spider thread while her lower body was being bitten raw by those poisonous spiders. Her hoodie was ruined and so were her jeans. 'Oh well, better get outta this cocoon first.' Luckily, she was encased mummy style with her arms crossing her chest in an 'X' shape. Aster bit into a finger, hard enough to draw blood and started cutting through the silk.

"Whoa! She's a mummy!" A blonde and very cocky dragon slayer yelled from Sabertooth's stands before laughing at the girl's misfortune.

"..." The other dragon slayer was silent as he watched the hooded girl in the cocoon. The referee came up to the ball of webbing and poked it a few times to see if Aster was still alive. "…I bet Aster will win with ease." Rogue confidently claimed. He crossed his arms and continued to watch the battle.

"No way!" The blonde proclaimed and turned to his black haired friend. "Twenty jewels say, spider lady wins." Sting arrogantly stated with his exceed partner backing him up. "That's right! Sting- kun never looses!"

"… How about changing the money into something else? Loser has to pay for an all you can eat buffet dinner." Rogue stared at Sting to coax him into taking that bet. He raised a hand out to the Holy dragon slayer.

"Deal." The pair shook hands before going back to the games. While Sting was cheering on Arana and saying he'll loose over four hundred jewels if she doesn't win, Rogue was calmly thinking about what buffet he would go to.

Just as the pumpkin was about to call the paramedics, a small red string emerged from the webs. It wiggled around a bit before it fixed on Arana's form. The red thread moved at lightning speed and latched onto the spider lady's wrist. The tip of the red strand burrowed its way into her skin and clawed into a major vein.

A glow emanated from the odd strand as it started drawing blood for Arana. "What's going on!?" The green haired lady desperately tried to yank out the parasitic strand but to no avail. Whenever she touched it, it would just keep drawing more blood than before. She slowly felt herself getting weaker and weaker as the red thing sapped away her blood and magic.

While Arana was getting weaker by the minute, Aster was getting stronger inside the cocoon. The red strand was pumping her opponent's blood into the cocoon, making it swell up like a giant water balloon. The pressure inside the webbing couldn't hold. With a few more drops of blood, a deep rumbling sound echoed through the stadium before the cocoon burst open with a shower of blood.

The audience cringed and gasped at the immense amount of blood covering the floor. One poor sap even vomited on another.

Some members of Mermaid Heel watched in horror as their teammate's blood coated the floor. "W-what is she?" Beth covered her hands over her mouth as she watched the bloodbath. Arana couldn't be defeated so… brutally. Wasn't there a rule about this somewhere?!

"Aw… I got webbing and blood stained into my hoodie." Aster sighed sadly. She wanted so badly to remove that annoying hoodie but remembered the consequences; dealing with Ichiya. She involuntarily shivered before looking at the crumpled green haired woman on the ground. 'I'll just make this quick.' Aster thought before rushing at Arana with her fist in the air. She didn't want to use her magic just yet.

As she rushed past the spider lady, a trail of dust kicked up, blocking the audience's view. When the dust storm finally cleared up, a collective gasp came from the spectators.

"How can I let you defeat me if I don't know who you are?" Arana smirked as she and the audience saw the person that kept her face hidden… until now.

Aster's eyes widened in horror as she realized her face was visible to everyone. She wasn't supposed to reveal her identity until the last day of the GMG's. White, wavy hair reached her mid- breast as crimson reptilian eyes surveyed the crowd. They were all staring motionlessly at her almost as if waiting for her to make a move.

Everything was silent for a few seconds longer before a long sigh was heard. "Well, I wasn't supposed to reveal my identity until the fifth day but, what the heck." The white haired girl quickly bit into one of her fingers and drew a small amount of blood. She quickly bit into her other fingers, each forming a small thread of blood. The strands of red danced in the breeze as Aster moved them like a marionette. "My name is Aster Sang and I am a fourth generation slayer."

The wires quickly came together to create an image of a mighty, Chinese dragon dancing in the blue sky. As soon as she stopped the movement of her blood, the dragon dissipated into a shower of red, Aster dug a finger in-between each of her shoulder blade to break the skin. As crimson liquid poured out of the flesh wound, it distorted many times before shifting into a pair of bloody reptilian wings.

A few drops of blood landed on the earth before a thin stream of blood erupted from the ground. The albino launched herself into the air with her blood wings as guidance. The crowd gasped in awe as the mage stood on the very tip of the blood line with her mighty blood wings stretched out.

The crowd cheered as they watched this amazing fleet. If the battle wasn't over yet, they would have thrown flowers at the white haired girl.

Aster smiled before she lowered herself into a bowing position. "And it's nice to meet you too."

The first chapter is the introduction and what draws the reader into reading more. Though the beginning (before the fight) was a bit boring, I think the battle made up for it. What do you think?

-Storm Caleum