I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy the chapter, everyone.


Erza raised her arms above her head, stretching out her muscles. Her signature Heart Kreuz armor was hung off her shoulders and covered her chest and stomach. Her long scarlet hair was tied up and flowed down behind her, not in her way. She looked and acted as the Queen of Fairies should. Elegant with menace dripping sweet as honey.

She did a quick check over on each of her fellow teammates. Natsu was energetic as ever. Laxus was impassive, contrast to Lucy and Wendy who looked as if they were about to be sick. Juvia was shuffling nervously, and Gajeel was smirking with a smile that said he'll gladly rip your limbs off. She really had to admire Master's choice. It wasn't a perfect team, for it to be they would have to have…well they would have had someone who wasn't here.

"Alright, listen up." Seven sets of eyes were turned and set on an approaching figure. Master Makarov was walking up to them; Mirajane was beside him with a clipboard in hand. "Tryouts for guild teams start any moment now, remember the strategy we came up with."

Mirajane gave them an encouraging smile. "Only ten guilds may reach the finals at the end of the day. According to the statistics Mavis rolled out for us, our team as a twenty-three percent chance of making it to round five of ten. She'll be watching the other teams and reevaluate our strategy during the break today." The white hair beauty fumbled with the top of her clipboard and pulled a piece of paper from the fasten on top. She passed it over the Erza to take. "You'll be needing this to show the judges."

Erza raised an eyebrow at the parchment. The number two three seven was printed in bold letters across the page. "What is this exactly?"

"That's our guild number. The game administrators decided to go by numbers until to official games. This way none of the guild names will get confused."

"Two hundred thirty-seven?" Lucy read over the scarlet's shoulder. "Mira, how many guilds are competing?"

"Hmm," The barmaid tapped her chin in thought. "I believe…around seven hundred. Or is it eight hundred? Then there's the single mages that want to participate. But you don't have to worry about them."

Lucy swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "Lucky for us…"

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu exclaimed. "Just watch, we'll show them who's boss!"

Makarov nodded his approval. "Very good. Now go win that prize money- I mean show them what Fairy Tail's made of!"

"Ganbatte, minna!" Mirajane smiled.


"Here's your number," An elderly man slid a card across the table. "The first challenge starts any moment now. The top ten single mage competitors will be part of the official games. If you survive the day you'll be one of them."

Ur took the card from the old man. She nodded her understanding and left. The man watched as she walked away. All day he's been seeing mages far older and clearly more experienced. Now a little girl was competing? Was this some sort of joke?

Excited and nervous murmurs and cheers were deafening around her. Ur pulled the cloak she had "found" earlier closer around her shoulders. The hood covered her face but she could still clearly see everyone around her. She silently surveyed the mages treading about. Most of them were exclaiming about how they would win. Cocky bastards.

She spent the night developing her game plan. It had its faults, but it had all the core elements of a perfect strategy. Surprise was her main one. She knew several different types of magic other than ice make. She planned on reserving her ice make abilities until the main games. That way any other contestants that were watching as carefully as her wouldn't predict it.

"Being drunk is not man!"

Ur sighed, some of these competitors were beyond strange. The one who yelled caught her attention though. She wondered if he was as strong as he looked. Thick muscles described his whole body. Spiky white hair stood from his head and a scolding look was on his tan face.

"Lighten *hic up Elfman *hic."

"You have got to be kidding." Ur muttered under her breath. A woman with long brown hair was staggering back on forth, wearing nothing more than pants and a bikini top. Intoxicated didn't begin to describe her.

Ur sucked in a deep breath when the woman moved closer into her line of sight. A black mark was clearly visible on her abdomen. The man next to her turned and the same mark was visible on his neck. "Master was counting on us to compe-"

"Oh, forget it." The girl leaned on her for support. "Let Freed or Lisanna do it for me. *hic I'm going to hit the bars."

Ur shook her head in disbelief. She had only ever heard stories, but that was it. "Dad's old guild, huh?" Ur watched as the white haired man dragged the drunkard away. So that's where this world was. "The famous Fairy Tail…not how he described it."

She smirked and walked in the opposite direction the two mages had gone off in. Wasn't what she would have expected, nor was she interested. But her father did say the guild was full of wizards worth looking up to. A challenge wouldn't be a bad idea…

Alright…she'll take down everyone one of those mages.


Tara fumbled with the string tied around her neck. The metal restraints were making it uncomfortable to reach behind her, her wrist felt as if it would snap in two. She tugged on the cord and felt an inch come undone. She yanked a little harder and the thread came undone completely.

She grinned, finally, success.

She pulled the necklace from around her neck and tossed it onto the ground in front of her. A dragon pendant clinked against the stone floor and rested there. Smoke began to rise from it less than a moment later and before she knew it a scaly tail was hitting her on the back of her head.

Tara bit her lip to keep from crying out and alerting the guards that were posted down the hallway leading from her cell. Malachi watched her calmly, unconcerned for her.

"Human…couldn't you have managed to not get yourself kidnapped. I thought even you could handle that simple task."

Tara hung her small head in defeat. "I'm sorry…" The reptile lay down on the cold floor next to her. "Malachi…can you help me?"

"No."

Tara looked over at the dragon in surprise. "But I need your hel-"

"I'm well aware of your situation." He cut her off. "But as it stands, I cannot. Originally I was positioned to work in Arian. As a result I set most of my magic concentration in that dimension. I can do nothing more than be summoned while here for the time being."

"But…" Tara blinked back the tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want to be here. It was dark, and terrifying, and…she didn't need a third reason.

"Later," Malachi muttered. "I can help later on when my magic builds up here…but right now nothing more than this is possible." Tara nodded her understanding. Guess it had been too much to ask…


Gray ran a hand over the rough surface of the mountainside. What used to be smooth rock was now jagged and in the shape of a crater, victim of warfare. He rested his palm against the rocky surface. He sent a wave of magic energy into the rock and closed his eyes in concentration. He felt his magic pulse and bounce back to him, knocking of the compact earth, letting him know it was stable.

He snapped his eyes back open and turned to the group of men waiting behind him. "It's safe."

One of the captains nodded and motioned to the battalion standing behind them. "Move out!"

The ice mage watched as the first few men took their steps forward before doing do himself. Despite his announcement he made sure to have defensive and earth mages on the outside of the squadron. That way if there was a landslide they wouldn't be devastated.

Gray took his place in front of his men. He wasn't happy on this decision, not by a longshot. But the choice was go around the mountain and take a month to get to the battlefield (which was time they didn't have) or cut straight through the valley pass and take a day and a half.

It wasn't the safest route, but if it got them there on time then it was good enough.


Wendy dropped to her knees as she exited the battlegrounds. Her chest burned from lack of air and bruises covered her thin body. A sharp pain was embedded into her leg and her arm was badly scrapped up.

A hand reached out and grabbed her own hand, pulling her to her feet. She steadied herself against the other person carefully. "Thanks, Romeo."

He grinned at her. "Don't mention it. So how'd it go?"

Wendy took in a few deep breaths before replying. Romeo helped her limp to where most of the guild members were gathered for the break. Natsu and the others were exiting the battleground behind them, following in their path. "Pretty well…Natsu and the others did most of the work though…"

Romeo gave her an encouraging smile. "Don't worry about that. I'm sure you did great too."

"Natsu!"

"Happy!"

The blue feline leapt into the arms of his friend. Natsu ruffled the soft fur. Happy glanced up at him with hopeful eyes. "Did we do it?!"

Natsu beamed at him. "You bet we did! We're moving on to the final elimination round!"

The small cat gave a cheer and Natsu laughed at his enthusiasm. He strode over to where all the other guild members were settled. Most of them were eating a quick dinner; others were exchanging stories about what rounds they made it to and whether or not they would be moving on.

The dragon slayer grabbed a plate of steaming food Mira handed to him before seating next to the already seated Lucy and Erza. "I thought that went swimmingly." Titania commented. Lucy shook her head in disbelief. The scarlet was a barbarian in battle.

"How'd everyone else do?" Natsu asked between bites.

"In the single trials?" Lucy asked. Natsu nodded. "I believe Elfman said he made it past the first few trials before he was eliminated. Cana didn't make it as far… I think Lisanna made it the farthest."

Erza raised an eyebrow. "I thought Bickslow, Evergreen, and Freed were in this as well?"

"They were." Lucy sighed. According to what Lisanna told her a moment ago this was harder than the S-Class trials. "Oh, and Natsu, Porlyusica is healing everyone before we continue. Make sure you see here." The pinkette shivered at the thought of the elderly misanthrope. Now surviving her should be a trail by itself.

Master Makarov watched his children chat about gleefully. Things have been going well enough, he supposed. A scribbling sound caught is attention. He glanced over and watched Mavis scrawl across countless pages. Mathematics he didn't understand being written and scratched out.

"How's it going, First?"

Mavis crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it aside. "I think we should rearrange our strategy. Make it stable instead of keeping it scrambled."

"Stable?"

Mavis nodded. "We form a block. Lucy and Wendy will take defense. Everyone else will be on offense. Minus the exception of Juvia. She'll do best being our movable player."

Makarov leaned over and glanced at what the first master was currently working on. She was jotting down every statistic on the remaining opposing players. He let out a low whistle. There couldn't be another soul on this planet capable of what she was doing.


Ur watched silently as wizards milled about. The trials had gone by too fast. Most of the mages were easy in taking them down. Less than a third of those who started out were still capable of moving. Now only the mages worth being serious against were left. From those she was able to single out the wizards with a fighting chance. She mentally went about predicting the future movements of the mages. Tactician didn't being to portray her.

She was going to win this.


Erza stood up and brushed some of the dirt off the back of her skirt. "I believe it's time we be going."

Natsu stuffed the last bit or food into his mouth and got up after her. Bandages were freshly placed on his wounds and he felt good as new thanks to the medic. Mavis had explained the new game plan and he could already feel his blood boiling.

Lucy sighed and got up along with them. She could already spot other guilds making their way back to battleground. A groan escaped her at seeing they all looked tougher than the last group. In the past few hours people have tried to fry, drown, slice, and snap her in two. She wasn't thrilled about doing for a few more.

She watched in dismay as the two male dragon slayers strode over to the battlefield smiling like they both have been invited to have tea.

"They're insane…every last one of them."

"I'm sure they're just motivated." Erza remarked.

"For causing a bloodbath."

"Aw, come on Luce," Natsu turned back to grin at her. "I'm sure you'll love it if you just give it a chan-"

The two females watched as Natsu left his mouth hanging up. It wasn't like him to stop in the middle of a sentence. The fire mage slowly tensed and sniffed the air. A serious look was on his tanned face, one they didn't see very often. Lucy and Erza glanced at each other, trying to make sense of their friend's sudden change in mood.

"Natsu…" Lucy started. "Is everything okay?"

The dragon slayer didn't reply. He breathed in the deep air. A frown crossed his face at not finding what he was sniffing for. "It's nothing. I just thought I smelled…never mind." Natsu turned back and strode over to the field, his happy demeanor disappearing with each step.

Lucy sent Erza a questioning look. The scarlet just shrugged. "Leave him be, it's probably just pre battle jitters."

"Natsu doesn't get nervous…"