The Three Demons
Chapter 10
The Terrifying Third
It was that night when Hiei sensed something else, Yukino was now in the inn and was with the rest of team A except for Erza, he didn't say anything else to the rest of the team, he just stayed propped on the window sill and stayed silent as he fell asleep, this is where he slept each day. It wasn't long after he fell asleep that he felt something and woke up, he felt a swell of demonic energy, Natsu's demonic energy was spiking enough for Hiei to notice, but not enough for everyone else, he thought of a few instances where he would do such a thing. Ultimately though, he decided not to do anything, he's strong enough to take on his own girlfriend, so Hiei wasn't really worried, he laid his head back against the window's from and drifted off to sleep, nothing spectacular happened like in the past, it was just a dreamless sleep.
It was the next day when something interesting happened, "Welcome to day three of the Grand Magic Games, that puts us at the halfway point," Chapatti announced to everyone, Hiei just noticed that the guy keeps on changing his hair, what a weird person.
"How are we ever going to top the dramatic fights and surprising upsets of the last two days," Yajima questioned, Hiei thought he was enjoying this a little to much, watching the fights instead being a part of them must be more boring then what he's letting on.
"I will be on my best behavior around today's guest, magic council enforcer, Lahar," the main announcer introduced, Hiei recognized the name somewhere, but couldn't really remember who it belonged to, eh, must not have been important enough to remember in the first place.
"Thank you for having me here," Lahar thanked, now that voice sounded familiar, he was the guy that tried to arrest him on suspicion of being one of the Oracion Seis, then Hiei fooled him and helped Jellal get away from him and joined Fairy Tail.
"As chief marshal of the custody enforcement unit, you job is catching the bad guys, isn't that right," Chapatti asked, mainly to clarify what his job is, Hiei thought it was just a grunt officer or something, but chief of the entire unit, how pathetic is the magic council.
"Yes, and let me remind any would be cheaters that I'm watching you," Lahar stated and earned him a laugh from the crowd, at least the man knew how to pander to a crowd, probably how he got put in the position with such weak energy levels.
"Let's kick off this hump day with a game that's sure to be exciting, one that we call Pandemonium, as usual, we will have one member of each team competing, so choose wisely," Chapatti announced.
"I shall go this time, we don't want a repeat of what happened yesterday," Hiei said as he walked down to the game field and gave a little glare to Gajeel, he knew it wasn't actually his fault, he didn't know that he became motion sick, but that didn't help that he only got one point.
Fairy Tail team B sends out Hiei Jaganshi,
Raven Tail sends out Obra,
Fairy Tail team A sends out Erza Scarlet,
Mermaid Heel sends out Milliana,
Blue Pegasus sends out Hibiki,
Sabretooth sends out Olga Nanagia,
Lamia Scale sends out Jura Neekis,
Quattro Puppy sends out Novali
"Now that all the participants have gathered, we shall now start the game," Chapatti announced as a dark magic circle appeared in the sky and down came an upside-down castle, it was easily one of the largest that Hiei had ever seen, and he had seen many large castles in his time.
"Before you stand a castle with vicious monsters in it, that is Pandemonium," Mato said with enthusiasm, meaning they had to do battle with said monsters, Hiei wasn't complaining, he'd already taken on odds that were stacked way higher than this.
"So, we do battle with the monsters then," Jura asked, just to clarify for those that didn't understand the simplicity of such a thing, which seemed to be most of those competing, Erza may have already figured it out, but you can never be too sure with her.
"Yes, you are correct, 100 terrifying beasts are lurking within the castle walls, they are classified on their degree of difficulty, you have D, C, B, A, and S-Class monsters, the higher the difficulty, the fewer the monsters you must face, and if you come across the S-Class monster. You have only one to fight, you will all take turns in choosing the number of monsters you wish to fight each round, but the class is chosen at random, so you may face the strongest ones, this will repeat until all the monsters have been defeated, or everyone is out of magical power." Mato explained before he pulled out a box with sticks sticking out of it, "now, to decide the number you're going in, I'd like for you each to draw straws," they each picked a straw, and wouldn't you know it, Erza got number one, and Hiei got eight.
"I'm going first, this is interesting, I had assumed I had assumed victory in this even relied solely on the luck of the draw," Erza commented, Hiei had a suspicion as to what she was thinking, and he was thinking of doing the same thing, now he won't be able to.
"It's more complicated than that, you have to consider your pacing, your opponent's strength, the likelihood of getting a really nasty monster, the list goes on and on, it really is a complex game if you think about it," Mato commented, maybe this fight would be entertaining.
"No, in fact, this is no longer even a game," Erza said as she stepped forward to the front of the castle, "inside this castle wait one hundred monsters, I choose to challenge all of them," she stated with determination in her eyes, this would be a feat for her, for a human at least.
Everyone else thought she was crazy for trying to challenge one hundred monster, but she was quickly proving that to be the opposite, it took some time and many different armors, but in the end, she was standing victorious with a single katana being held high in the air in a show of victory. The castle retracted back to the magic circle before said circle descended down and brought out Erza Scarlet, standing in the same victory pose as before, the rest of team A came down to congratulate her before they heard one condescending word from Hiei, "cute," and looked at him.
"How is taking on one hundred monsters cute, it's badass, anything less then that is an insult," Gray all but yelled at him, even Erza had to agree that what she did was impressive, of course she would never boast about something like that, but doesn't mean she doesn't agree.
"I took on five hundred A-class demons in a single bout, and directly after that I defeated my very own sword instructor, an S-class demon of the highest order, care to test your skills against mine Scarlet," Hiei informed, when Erza looked horrified, he grunted out, "I didn't think so."
"Okay, after some deliberation, we've decided that the seven remaining teams still need to be ranked, so we're having another contest, this game might be on the more boring side compared to Pandemonium, but I think it'll suffice," Mato said as a hovering machine came in with a glowing orb on it. "This is the Magic Power Finder, or MPF for short, this measures someone's magic power, cast a spell on this device and it'll display your power in numerical form, we'll use this number to determine the rankings for the remaining teams, quick and easy."
"So, this is strictly a contest of strength, I wonder if there's some way I can work around it," Hibiki said in earshot of Hiei, the boy wouldn't be scoring high this round, Hiei will make sure of it, just had to decide the amount of power to use to ensure second place.
"Let's begin, shall we, since you all drew straws earlier, we'll continue in that order," Mato informed, meaning it was Millianna's turn, she shed her cloak and showed off a bikini type of attire, what is it with women in this world and having on so little.
Millianna used her kitten blast and scored a 365, most were confused if this was a high number though, luckily, Lahar came in with some advice, "maybe I can help, we rune knights use MPF's in training fairly often, she actually made a score qualifying her for squad captain."
The sound of the machine going off again signaled the next score, "clocking in at one hundred twenty-four is Novali from Quatro Puppy, a bit on the low side," Chapatti announced before the next competitor, "Hibiki from Blue Pegasus scores a measly ninety-five points. Next up is Obra of Fairy Tail," the blue man being controlled by the creature came forth before said creature came flying out of it and hit the machine, "Obra clocks in at four points," much to the shock and suspicion of everyone other than Hiei and Natsu.
Olga stepped forward to take his turn, he focused his magic and held out his hands, "one hundred twenty millimeter black lightning cannon," he shouted before shooting black lightning at the orb and got a score of three thousand eight hundred twenty-five, for his score.
"Things are really heating up down there, can the wizard saint Jura pass that incredible score," Chapatti asked before said man stepped forward and focused his magic power, "here he goes folks, what does Jura have in store for us," the announcer asked again.
Jura opened his eyes and called out, "rumbling Fuji," and engulfed the machine in a gigantic stream of magic power that shot high into the air, when it cleared, the score was eight thousand five hundred forty-four points, everyone else was in quite the shock at the sight.
"Outstanding, this is a new MPF record, Jura has proven that the title of wizard saint isn't to be taken lightly, but now is time for the man who beat him on the first day, Fairy Tail team B's Hiei Jaganshi," Chapatti announced as said demon stepped forward for his turn.
Hiei stripped his black cloak off in one fluid motion and let the wind carry it to a random spot, being sure to keep track as to where it landed, this showed off him in his sleeveless black shirt and form fitting black pants tucked into white shin tape with black karate footwear. He began to unwrap the cloth on his arm and let show his dragon of the darkness flame mark in full view of everyone, he left a little of the cloth on his arm as he held his arm at a ninety-degree angle across the front of his torso, he made sure to take note of everyone's faces, confusion mostly. He let the power radiate off him and bleed out into the sky as it turned black as night, black lightning began to crack through the sky and hit at random buildings within Crocus, it wasn't at all contained to the stadium, the crowd could hear the buildings collapse from the stadium. Huge black pillars of energy came froth from the sky and created a cage around the border of Crocus, the entire city saw that they were trapped in the city as the darkness that suddenly sprang up got darker and darker until everyone was only seeing through a haze of black. Hiei's right arm was now engulfed in black flames that radiated with more power then he ever unleashed back on Tenrou, or anywhere that the rest of the guilds had ever seen, it was almost time to unleash the dragon, just a little more to get everyone a little more afraid. He was able to direct some lightning to attack a few good spots on the stadium directly so it would create a small earthquake and let them feel more fear, when he thought that they suffered from fear enough, it was time to unleash the greatest attack this world would ever see. "Dragon," he said as his entire shirt was ripped off form the power behind the attack, "of the darkness flame," a huge and powerful dragon made of black flames that almost took up the whole stadium was brought forth shot into the sky, it was able to be seen from miles away, in full clarity. When it was high enough, Hiei made it come back and aimed it right for himself, and in a huge shock to the crowd, the dragon seemingly engulfed Hiei in its own jaws and disappeared from its power source being destroyed, only for everyone to be surprised again when Hiei was left unharmed. The only difference was the lack of dragon mark on his right arm, his eyes are what drew the rest of Fairy Tail though, they radiated power, he walked calmly to the machine and with a small ball of his power from the dragon, like the size of a gumball, the machine exploded into a huge explosion. When it was done, the number that showed was that of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, and it looked like it was phasing in and out as if it was trying to go higher than what it could, and like that, in one intense and scary move, Hiei got second place in the game.
"What an amazing show by the strongest being in Fairy Tail, Hiei Jaganshi, that just put his Fairy Tail team B tied with Fairy Tail team A for first place, Raven Tail comes in second with Sabretooth taking third, Mermaid Heel is in fourth, Lamia Scale and Quatro Puppy are tied for fifth, with Blue Pegasus coming in last place," Chapatti announced.
1st. Fairy Tail B-32pts
1st. Fairy Tail A-32pts
2nd. Raven Tail-24pts
3rd. Sabretooth-23pts
4th. Mermaid Heel-21pts
5th. Blue Pegasus-17pts
6th. Quatro Puppy-16pts
6th. Lamia Scale-16pts
"Let's move on to the battle rounds, first we have the kitten with major claws, Millianna, versus Quatro Puppy's towering giant, Semmes," Chapatti announced, the two quickly got to the arena floor and got ready, when the gong sounded, they began their bout, Semmes with a spinning attack. Millianna tried a magic restraint tube, the other guy was able to bounce the tube off of him by spinning really fast and knocking Millianna away from him, after another tube, a kitten blast, and another tube that finally latched onto him, Millianna tangled Semmes up for a win. "Millianna's treating the arena like her own personal cat box and she's got something big to burry," the kitten started getting off the field after her match in time for the next match to be called, "the next match in the battle segment is between Rufus from Sabretooth and Eve from Blue Pegasus." The two went down and as soon as they reached the middle and sounded that they were ready, the bell rang for the start, Eve attacked with some snow magic, but Rufus avoided that by showing a memory of Eve's that had Hiei stepping away for a moment to puke, then Rufus hit a fake Eve with Night of Falling Stars. Eve countered with white blizzard to find the real Rufus, who countered that with a different spell that made human sized pillars of molten rock that hit Eve and knocked him out of the match, "and that's the match folks, it looks like this holy night is over with Rufus winning." Eve was picked up to receive medical attention while Rufus returned to Sabretooth, "now it's time for the third match, bringing the lightning is Fairy Tail B's Laxus Dryer going against the mysterious man in the mask, Alexi," and what a farce of a match this was going to be.
Hiei could tell the differences in energies from here, Laxus's trumped that of Alexi, the Raven wasn't showing any signs of suppressing his energy either, not that he could, these people don't know how to suppress their, what was the term, magic, so Hiei doubted this match provided entertainment. That was, until the bell sounded and Alexi began to overpower Laxus, which should not be happening, the others were saying so because of their faith in Laxus and was denying what they were seeing, Hiei knew it was wrong because of their energy level differences. That wasn't the only thing though, the fighters were moving around, but their energies weren't, and the two weren't the only ones, they were standing still in the same spot as when the match started, which should not be happening, "this isn't right, their energies are still in the middle ring, not moving around."
"What, we should stop this match and report it then, Laxus could be in danger beyond just Alexi then," Mira suggested, which wouldn't be such a bad plan if Hiei didn't have a better one, and he'd get information for Tartaros as well, two birds, one stone.
"Don't, instead, I'll check in with my Jagan eye, if it starts to go south for even a moment, then I'll step in, until then, don't say anything," Hiei instructed and watched as they nodded in understanding, he moved his bandages a little before activating his third eye, what he found was interesting. It seems that all the members of Raven Tail were on the field as well, and it seemed that the energy of Alexi was that of Ivan, Makarov's son and Raven Tail's master, it was at this point that Ivan made his move and attacked Laxus with paper dolls, yelling about a Lumen Histoire. Hiei delved deeper into Ivan's mind and found that this Lumen Histoire was a source of unlimited magic, and Fairy Tail's darkest secret, he didn't know what it looked like, but he did know that it radiated power, when Ivan's mind became distressed though, Hiei left it and saw what happened. It seems that Laxus was able to beat all of the members of Raven Tail by himself, so Hiei wasn't needed after all, and when Ivan came flying out of the illusion thanks to a punch from Laxus, the veil on the trick had been lifted and the thought projections of the others disappeared. Raven Tail was kicked out of the games for sending in all members against one opponent, and for their guild master participating in the games for the next three years, Laxus was declared the winner and all that was left to do was for Fairy Tail A and Lamia Scale to go against each other.
"Let's move on to the next match after that let down of a match, Fairy Tail A's Wendy Marvel against Lamia Scale's Chelia Blendy," Chapatti announced and the two of them ran for the ring, Chelia tripped on a stone on the way and fell down in front of everyone, Wendy went to help her, but tripped herself. As the bell rung for the start of the match, Wendy instantly took off with an enchanted wing attack, however Chelia dodged and countered with funnel made of black wind and revealed herself to be a sky god slayer, Wendy used her own wind to dispel the attack though. Wendy was then attacked by her opponent when she done a sky god's dance attack and sent her upwards, however when Chelia jumped up to do a follow up attack, Wendy countered with a sky dragon's talon that sent Chelia back to the ground as Wendy landed in a crouch with Chelia landing with a stager. Both slayers released a devastating roar towards each other and when they collided, it made a huge torrent of winds that blew everything away quite nicely, and when the dust cleared, it revealed Wendy a little worse for wear and Chelia with hardly any scratches on her. Then came a furious exchange of winds towards one another, during their fight they decided it was a time for a snack and began to eat some of the air, Wendy whipped out a secret art of dragon slaying and blasted Chelia with an attack made of compressed air pressure in the shape of a drill. Chelia not only survived the attack, but she also got up and healed her own wounds as well, Chelia then began to attack with a secret art as well, and in when it hit, it only scraped Wendy's arms as it passed overhead, Wendy transferred power to Chelia so she wasn't able to attack properly, clever. Then came a purely hand to hand combat bout between the two, each one was taking on the other one with quite the showing, and Hiei could tell that they were hardly thinking about being in different guilds now, they may have actually became friends, he still didn't understand how that happens.
When the ending was finally called, it came down to a draw, and as he has normally done, Hiei didn't stick around to catch the ending announcement, but he did leave with a small smile on his face at the last bout, both competitors had small fists, but, as cliché as it sounds, spirits as big as the sky.
1st. Fairy Tail B-42pts
2nd. Fairy Tail A-37pts
3rd. Sabretooth-33pts
4th. Mermaid Heel-31pts
5th. Lamia Scale-21pts
6th. Blue Pegasus-17pts
7th. Quatro Puppy-16pts
8th. Raven Tail-Disqualified