This chapter's song is Rock N' Roll by Skrillex.

Five minutes later, Midnight is out with his pale skin glistening in the sunlight, wearing a pair of swim trunks, while Vidaldus is right next to him in a speedo, rocking out to imaginary music. Morrigan steps out of the changing rooms next to her teammates, in a blue one piece suit with sunglasses on her head. Still, until the actual competition started, she'd wear her coat and boots. Both were black, the coat with a red trim, and were more covering than a swimsuit.

On the other team, Levy is wearing a two piece with lots of fabric on it, in a lovely green that reminded me of Bickslow's eyes. (93)

Erza Scarlet already requipped into a bright red bathing suit that's barely covering her chest, but she seems confident in her abilities (94). Beside her, Rogue is wearing black trunks, and looking as awkward as ever, but a bandana is holding back his hair.

Jason pulls a lever, and water starts flooding into the arena, as well as six windsurfing boards. They drop from above by way of the competition being set up. Not sure how.

"Let the challenge commence!" Jason yells out, and the contestants swim to the nearest one they can find in the water.

Unsurprisingly, the first one to get going on it is Morrigan, her wind magic giving her a boost in speed and control through the manipulation of the air around her, and the arena.

"This is fun!" she laughs as she nearly crashes into Levy, who shrieks and falls into the water, off her board.

Vidaldus is also having a great time, although that might be due to his outfit (95). Every time he can, he uses his Hair Magic to spin around his opponents so they get as confused as possible.

Midnight's just floating there, gently, on the waves. Reflection magic. It's so (96) useful.

Morrigan, surfing along, bumps into Rogue, who looks at her annoyed, and she just waves at him, going about her merry way, while leaving behind another little surprise and bowling him over with a gust of wind.

"Erza is the only one left in the arena against Morrigan, Vidaldus, and Midnight!" Jason states, and I'm starting to think that having a fanboy as an announcer is not my best decision.

Oh well. I watch in amusement as Vidaldus tips himself over and laughs as his hair gets a nice wash.

Midnight's still gently floating along, and Morrigan shrugs, turning and heading towards Erza. The two of them start circling like sharks, as Midnight floats in the middle of them.

All at once, Morrigan unleashes two winds, going around Midnight and swooping down on Erza, throwing her off her board and into the water, causing the Fairy Queen to mumble about revenge, or something. No one is paying attention.

"Congratulations! Midnight and Morrigan are going to decide the matches of the day!" Jason says, and I narrow my eyes at him in surprise. He shrugs at me, but looks nervous, probably because I could kill him with but a thought.

Morrigan floats around gently until she comes to a halt near Midnight, and the two of them start talking about it, civilly, as they both sit down and dangle their legs in the water. It's already quite warm.

"It's decided, folks!" Jason says, with Morrigan and Midnight dripping in the room with him. They both dunked each other by the end, just to do so. They whisper to him what they decided about the matches.

"The order of matches is like this: Morrigan vs. Erza, Noctus vs. Jenny, Cobra vs. Wendy, Gajeel vs. Midnight, Rogue vs. Nightshade, and Vidaldus vs. Levy!"

Morrigan smiles at Midnight, and I'm pretty sure they have a bet going on. My Sister then leaves the box to get ready for the fight against Titania Erza.

It'll be a tough fight.

The arena has been drained of water, and the two contestants are waiting for the contest to start. Before it can, though, I walk down to Morrigan, handing her a cloth covered object, longer than my arm. She already dressed in her usual black, more comfortable than in the swimsuit.

She looks at me questioningly, and then flips off the cloth, gasping when she sees it. Immediately she picks up her longsword, twirling it delicately and with a precision that's hard to mimic, or even match.

I smile, Hugo offering to take the cloth, and I let him take it. I walk away with a whispered, "Good luck."

She might need it.

The famous Erza Scarlet, Titania Erza, Queen of the Fairies, is about to go up against the Morrigan, a Speaker of the Black Hand. As soon as the match starts, Morrigan calls up a Storm Shred spell, while Erza requips, going immediately to Nakagami Armor. (97)

Morrigan releases the spell, and as soon as she releases it, she forms two wind guardians, and a vicious wind is already swirling through the stadium.

Erza cuts through the spell, sending it into the wall behind her by splitting it in two.

Ah, this is going to be a physical fight, is it? Interesting.

The guardians attack Erza, as Morrigan charges her, the summoned guardians distracting the famous Titania Erza. She notices, though, and sends a sword toward her opponent, which Morrigan deflects into her own hand, with her longsword in her right and the new one in her left.

Erza dispels the wind guardians, and raises the halberd to defend herself from the clash of the swords of Morrigan.

"You know what? I'm glad I got the chance to beat the famous Erza Scarlet." Morrigan states, grinning evilly and gazing into her opponent's eyes.

This angers her, and she shoves her off.

"I mean, who wouldn't want the bragging rights to defeating the great Titania Erza. Although, I suppose Gajeel could be an even greater challenge." Morrigan continues, and Erza charges her in a rage.

Morrigan moves off with the wind supporting her, flying. "Nope, too slow."

"How dare you think you can hurt my friends, and then not be defeated?" Erza says, launching the halberd at Morrigan. She catches it in the wind, and spins it around, aiming it at Erza.

"You might want to duck." Morrigan laughs, launching the halberd and watching Erza jump back to avoid it, even trying to go pick it up before Morrigan sends the extra sword, in her left hand, into the handle, splintering it and making it useless.

"Aww, I'm sorry. Oh, wait, I'm not." Morrigan says, floating aimlessly out of reach of her opponent.

Erza, furious, requips into Flight Armor, the cheetah pattern flashing around as she picked up speed, jumping high enough to hit Morrigan, sending her down a few feet.

"SONIC CLAW!" she calls out, a magic circle appearing as she attempts to hit Morrigan.

"Emera Baram!" Morrigan responds, crossing her first two fingers of both hands in an 'x' formation, hitting Erza square on with her spell.

The effects generated push Erza into the wall, making an imprint of her on the wall.

She gets up, shakily, then requips again, into Armadura Fairy armor, and charges up the sword in her hands with energy.

"Fight me like you should, Morrigan." she states, and Morrigan, smiling slightly, sets herself down on the ground, albeit hovering slightly off the ground. It's more fun for her that way; she never leaves any tracks.

"Come at me, Titania. Or, am I wrong when I say that the actual queen of the fairies is dead? Evergreen, was that her name?"

Erza narrows her eyes, and charges at Morrigan, roaring incomprehensibly. "NO ONE INSULTS MY GUILD MATES!"

Morrigan picks up the dismembered blade of the broken halberd from the Nakagami Armor with wind magic, and, as she clashes blades with the great Titania Erza, she unexpectedly moves to the side, letting the broken blade tip stab her enemy in the stomach, right below the ribs and to Erza's right.

Withdrawing it with Wind magic, she treats it like a needle, threading it through Erza's body all over, until she's bleeding from every limb and nothing would work if she even tried to get up in this state.

One more requip, however, happens. Adamantine Armor.

Morrigan backs up, summoning another Emera Baram, as Erza locks together the barrier on the wings.

"The Phantom Lord Cannon Jupiter could only just barely break through this! You think you can?" Erza shouts above the sound of the magic.

"I am much more powerful than any give me credit for. I am the Morrigan." my Sister states, and the Emera Baram spell powers through the air, hitting the barrier and not having much of an effect.

"The Morrigan is represented by a raven or a crow. I am the raven, and I am the Morrigan." she states, picking up her sword and using her magic to burrow deep into the earth, until dirt is swirling in a tornado, and a nice hole is dug. Another tornado forms, pulling out magma and using heated air to keep it from hardening. One more tornado goes up into the atmosphere, and comes back laden with water.

I lean forward. Clever. (98)

Within a few moments, the spell begins, as the wind writes it itself. The instances I've seen before have taken quite some time as it's a complicated spell, it takes quite a bit of magic, and takes enough time that it's easy to stop.

Each segment, a tornado comes forward and writes itself in, using itself up. Already the earth and the water is there, the air is next and then the fire, or magma in this case.

A few moments later, the air is finished and Erza is getting suspicious, looking around in a nervous way. In another two or three seconds, it won't matter.

As soon as it's done, though, Morrigan waits, holding onto the spell while hovering, looking expectantly at Erza. Finally, she's trembling with the effort, and releases it, just at the moment that Erza decides to look out and see what's up. Hurriedly, she tries to fix her mistake, but cannot, not fully, in time.

She's hit with the Abyss Break, and flies back into the walls of the stadium, the Adamantine Armor completely shattered (99) and Erza looking as if she can't even move.

Morrigan floats over to her opponent, kicking her a couple of times. "Get up. I'm not done with you yet."

Erza groans in pain, but makes no effort to get up. Morrigan yanks Erza up by her hair, saying, "Sorry, but my place as the most frightening person in Listener's army is threatened. Please say hello to your friends for me, yes?"

After a few moments, she moves away. "Huh. You aren't nearly as good as everyone says you are. Guess it won't be much of a bragging right now."

With that, Morrigan walks out of the arena, and I smile in amusement. She's such a good Lieutenant.

Gajeel stands opposite Midnight, seething with anger (100). Midnight, however, is almost in a half-asleep trance, his head tilting to his left. He seems as calm as can be, just as well. He still loves his sleep- but not as much as spending his waking hours with Cobra.

Once it starts, though, his eyes open, blearily, and when Gajeel sends an iron arm towards him he deflects it, letting it hit his opponent in the face and giving himself a bruise.

The fight continues like this until Gajeel goes into Iron Shadow Dragon Mode, which just makes Midnight sigh. Moving just slightly, he uses Invisible Scythe and Spiral Pain in conjunction with each other, knowing that any Darkness magic he cast wouldn't affect the Dragon Slayer in this form.

A Distort Shield shimmers around him, and he reflects the earth around him, sending it showering around Gajeel, who is stalled for a moment, then busts through. At that time, though, the two spells hit him, causing him to cry out in pain, and collapse to his knees. Shaking, Gajeel stands, and looks up just in time to see a punch aimed directly for his face. Hitting it's target, Midnight smiles slightly, and Dragon Slayer stays in place for a moment, then goes flying back, courtesy of the Distort Shield. Instead of anything else, Midnight conjures up another Spiral Pain, then another, and another, hitting Gajeel over and over, until his opponent's body contorts with pain and agony is written all over his face.

Midnight, his head tilted to his right, walks over to his opponent, crouching down and whispering in his ear, "You are as weak and pathetic as a person can be."

With that, he levitates a rock over, and slams it into Gajeel's body, not stopping until he's heard several satisfying cracks of bone.

Finally, as the team from the other side is shocked into silence, Midnight ceases his attacks, and moves off, even putting the rocks back where they came from, leaving the arena floor as perfect as it was before.

"Let that be a lesson to you. Do not test the strength of the Black Hand, or it's people." Midnight says to Gajeel, who can't even moan in response.

I smile, leaning back in my chair.

Midnight has proven himself such a wonderful Brother.

"Cobra loses to Wendy Marvell!" Jason announces over the next battle. Hard to believe as it might be, I'm not disappointed, but rather, elated. By some contestants losing, it shows we aren't all powerful in certain aspects, but, let's not kid anyone. We're still good at everything, more than enough to dominate.

Next is Noctus vs. Jenny.

Noctus, in a purple dress with light blue accents, red stockings, black shoes, black necklace, and a red bow sitting atop her pigtails, walks out into the arena, smiling underneath her umbrella. On the other side appears Jenny, her blonde hair carefully tousled and her appearance as sleek as can be. Her face, however, speaks otherwise.

The match begins, and Noctus puts up the darkness spell, discarding her umbrella and aiming her hands at Jenny, who is transforming into Machina Soul currently (101). The spell she's powering up is a more advanced type of Soul Extinction, and, just as Jenny finishes transforming, Noctus' spell is all powered up, allowing her to release it, with a maniacal smile on her face.

Hit full force with the blast, Jenny screams in pain and hits the wall once it's done, but before that, we see her form in the spell, and even now, the pain is still written on her face, and she's twitching. Grudgingly, and groaning, she gets up, looking at Noctus, who's not even panting, just smiling sweetly. Screaming a battle cry, Jenny charges Noctus, tackling her into the ground and releasing her with a little machine on her torso, which slashes through her clothing and begins cutting her flesh, making her bleed.

Noctus, screaming in pain, struggles to pull it off her body, terrified at the sight (102). With a great tug, aided by shadows, she pulls it off, and her mangled outfit would already be enough to earn the model mage she's facing be beaten to a bloody pulp, but the blood is going to make this gruesome.

Shadows seize her opponent, slamming her into the ground and walls of the arena repeatedly, until the Machina Soul armor has broken and faded, and even after that. The people from Blue Pegasus, as well as the other teams, are crying out to try and stop her, saying she's had enough, but I don't think this is the time to intervene.

Bickslow spares me a sideways glance, and then looks again at the spectacle before us. Noctus, stepping carefully over to her prey, traces a pattern on the almost bare body of Jenny, who whimpers and pulls away from the touch. My Sister laughs, and summons out of the shadows a quill, the tip not darkened with ink like it should be.

I tilt my head, curious to see what she is doing. Smirking, Noctus puts the tip to Jenny's stomach, drawing out symbols in her skin, the blood running down and wetting the ground beneath their feet. It's not a lot, but it flows smoothly, coating Jenny's skin and Noctus' hands.

After she's decorated her whole stomach, Bickslow can't stand it anymore, and yells out, "STOP!"

The sound reverberates through the stadium, and everyone turns to look at us, as Bickslow's standing up, although no one can really tell who he is, except, perhaps the Fairy Tail members.

Noctus' eyes flicker from him to me, and I nod, agreeing with his statement.

She pouts, then shrugs and happily smiles, patting the cheek of Jenny and letting her magic go, the shadows receding and sending Jenny crashing to the floor.

Noctus picks up her umbrella and calls up a shadow to take away the quill (103), exiting the arena. Jenny's team comes rushing to her aid, and takes her immediately to the infirmary. I smile as Bickslow turns around to face me. He looks confused at that, but just sits back down. The next match, between Rogue and Nightshade, won't be for a while. They have to clean up the blood. Unsanitary.

Luckily, instead of me having to make conversation, Decimus enters the room, and motions for me to follow him. He's smiling; a good sign.

Wordlessly, I follow him, closing the door behind us, but don't bother to place a rune on it.

Decimus leads me to the infirmary, and I enter behind him, with Porlyusica just glancing up and then going back to her work. I must get her something to sway her further to our side. Something to do with not interacting with people.

In the bed closest to the door that we entered in, lies Kurohebi, hidden behind curtains, moving much more than he was last time.

"Listener." he begins, almost hissing in how quiet his voice is. (104)

"Kurohebi, how are you feeling?" I ask, moving closer and standing at his bedside, looking at him concernedly.

"Not bad, but I've seen better days. I want to accept your offer, if it's still available." the lanky man speaks, bandages still wrapped around his arms almost all the way up. I don't even want to think of what else was damaged by Killian.

I smile, and look at him. "Welcome to the Brotherhood, then, Kurohebi. You'll do very well in our Family. I'll assign you someone to teach you about our beliefs and what will be expected of you, as well as set up your contracts for you. Do we have any armor for him, Decimus?" I ask my Brother, who hands me a bundle of clothing wrapped in a black cloak.

"If you have any modifications, just ask, but you are also welcome to wear whatever you like. Do, however, keep yourself clothed as much as possible."

Kurohebi looks at me with a surprised expression.

I sigh. "There have been a few instances where several people have forgotten to leave at an appropriate time from a... heated night, so to speak, and have been chased out in their birthday suits. We may or may not have several small children in our Sanctuaries at any given time. It's also considered courteous."

"Really?" Kurohebi asks, looking amused and alarmed at the same time.

Decimus nods. "It's quite a problem, actually."

Kurohebi chuckles, and accepts the bundle of clothes. I pull out a lacrima from my bag, handing it to him as well. "Contact me through this when you're on your feet again, and I'll tell you where to go and the passcode. The Black Door will ask you a question, so don't be alarmed if you hear a voice when you're near it. Any questions?"

Kurohebi takes the offered object, and shakes his head.

I smile, and nod. "I look forward to working with you in the Family, Kurohebi. Sithis guide you."

I step back from the bed, and Decimus closes the curtain around it. Turning to leave, I pause, hearing several things, like labored breathing and whimpering.

Sighing, I turn back again, and walk towards Porlyusica. "Who else is in here, Porlyusica?"

The pink haired woman looks at me in irritation, and then nods toward the beds, shielded by curtains like Kurohebi's. Privacy is important here. Porlyusica can't even stand the sight of her patients.

I peek my head in, and see Jenny, trying to breath normally, sleeping. Looks like night terrors. The next one on the same side houses Minerva, whose whimpering, her eyes scrunched closed. Another, next to the one with no sound has the labored breathing sounds, and it's Mirajane, covered in bandages and sleeping, albeit with rattling noises , probably created from her broken ribs.

The last concealed one has no sound coming from it, and the body is covered by a sheet. Curious, I glance at Porlyusica, who hasn't looked up, and I enter the little realm. I pull back the white sheet, and peer down at the still face of Erza Scarlet. She's dead.

A little swish of cloth makes me turn my head, and I see Porlyusica stepping in. "She was too far gone, thanks to your Sister, for me to save. I'm surprised that she was finally beaten. As far as I've heard, this is totally impossible, and yet, she was. How powerful are you?"

She whispers the last part, and I pull the sheet back over Erza's face. "This isn't even the worst of what we can do. By spell, arrow, bullet, sword, or anything, we can kill any who approach us and any who oppose us. Erza, however, was an unfortunate accident. I thought her a worthy opponent. She will get an honorable burial, if nothing else."

Porlyusica sighs, then nods. "She tried to protect her friends."

"A noble, if futile, effort."

With that and a sigh, I leave, going back to my box a bit more somber than I should have. (105)

But Erza Scarlet's death will not make any of the Fairy Tail mages docile, in any sense of the word.

This could be a problem.

93- Just slightly.

94- As she should be. She's formidable, and has Sea Empress Armor, so any advantage we might have might be negated.

95- He gets a kick out of stuff like that.

96- And I mean, SO.

97- This is making me nervous.

98- Very, very clever. She's performing a miniaturized version of Abyss Break. In this case, if Erza dies, no one can blame us.

99- Undoubtedly, it could have held up to the miniaturized Abyss Break as it held up against the Jupiter Cannon, but it was not locked together in a shield.

100- Probably at the fact that Erza had just been humiliated and along those lines.

101- No matter how powerful the magic might be, if it takes too long to power up or use, then you're a goner.

102- Noctus has this fear of blood; not any blood, just hers. She freaks out. Terribly. One time she went on a rampage. It was messy, but, somehow they all had contracts on their heads.

103- Now I know what it is. It's the Darkened Star Fang. It takes the shape of whatever the user wants. Originally, it was just a Star Tooth, but instead it was darkened using Shadow Magic, an offshoot of Darkness magic. After that, it splintered under the pressure, because Star Teeth are legendary for their ability to repel the dark and the shadows, even being used by the Ayleids to repel shades, a variety of undead. But the shards were kept and scattered all over Tamriel. Mostly heavily guarded.

104- For a few seconds, I wonder why he's whispering, then I remember the outcome of several matches just today. I appreciate having no injuries.

105- After all, I did gain a new Brother.