"I'm so glad that's over," Lucy mumbled, exhausted. She and Takumi had just completed a mission, one which had asked them to take down a small dark guild. Much to Lucy's annoyance, small now apparently meant 50 members, all trying to attack her. That was only half of them. And then there was the master, who was a total chicken, but had still managed to tire her out.

"Me too," Takumi agreed. "Now we can go on another one!"

She sighed, "I need a break."

"There's only two left." He added, "For today."

"We've already done 8 requests!" she cried. "Isn't there a law against doing 10 consecutive jobs?"

Takumi shrugged, "The Magic Cou"-

-"cil doesn't care, you're a suck-up blah, blah," she groaned. "Can we have a break?"

"No, you have to work on your stamina," he instructed. "I resent that suck-up remark, by the way."

"Gray! Fight me!" Natsu proposed.

"Natsu," Erza said dangerously. "Did you just say 'fight'?"

"Uh," he shivered. "It'll help us train."

Erza nodded, "Good idea."

When she left, Natsu exhaled, "At least she didn't find out." He straightened,"GRAY!"

"I could collapse right now," Lucy informed Takumi.

"Here," Takumi held out his hand. Translucent blue -Spirit- danced on his palm.

Lucy sighed, expecting more work, "What do you want me to do with it?"

"Eat it."

Lucy stared at him as if he was stupid, "I thought you said Spirit Slayers don't eat anything?"

"Except for other people's spirit," he grew impatient. "Just take it already."

"Do I have to chew it or...?" she trailed off.

"Just swallow it," he rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry if I'm articulate," she muttered. She cupped the Spirit in her hands and took a sip.

"Oh my gosh, this is really good!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because I knew you'd react like this," he smirked. "Now give me some of yours."

She gave him what he wanted and he gulped it down.

"It's like an edible heaven," Lucy moaned in content, drinking some more.

Takumi chuckled.

Lucy was very annoyed when she heard Takumi's 'lesson of stamina' would last a whole month. Furious, even.

"10 jobs each day, nonstop except for lunch," he said.

She was speechless but Takumi saw the anger in her eyes.

"I'll buy you a key if you don't say anything rude."

"2."

"Deal."

Training continued for 3 months, and during that time Takumi bought more than just 2 keys for Lucy.

"It's like blackmail," he complained.

Lucy skipped happily, "Nope, you agreed to. My spirits are so nice!"

They were walking (Lucy was skipping) back to Fairy Tail. It was the end of training, to Lucy's happiness, and she couldn't wait to see Levy again, to talk about all the books she convinced Takumi to buy for her. "Thanks Kumi!"

"Don't call me that."

The reunion was like all Fairy Tail events, loud. Lucy and Levy got together to discuss books, Jet and Droy looking protective. Takumi and Gray had a talk, before Natsu started a fight with Gray. Pantherlily and Erza were fighting; Macao, Wakaba and Cana had a drinking contest and Gildarts and Makarov were talking.

All of a sudden, Makarov jumped onto the second floor railing and coughed to get attention. "Attention!" They all stopped to look at him. "The participants are..."

"Gildarts Clive!"

"Natsu Dragneel!"

"Gray Fullbuster!"

"Erza Scarlet!"

"Elfman Strauss!"

The mages clapped, but most were disappointed. Takumi ruffled Lucy's hair, "Don't worry Lucy, you can see Master has something planned." Takumi had observed that Makarov was grinning too widely.

"He's definitely got something up his sleeve," Lucy agreed.

In Crocus

"So tired," Takumi groaned, dragging himself off the train.

Lucy giggled behind a hand, "You get motion sickness too?"

"All Dragon Slayers do," he managed. "Gajeel's lucky that Pantherlily flew him here."

"Oh yeah, why don't you have an exceed?" Lucy asked curiously.

"I've never needed one," he shrugged. "Would be cool to have one though."

Lucy raised a brow before smiling suspiciously.

Skip to preliminaries (Sorry!)

Team Fairy Tail ran up the bridges, Gildarts leading the way.

"This way!" He led them through a series of twists and turns until they reached a stop.

"Uh, Gildarts, where are we?" Natsu asked.

Gildarts blinked, "I have no flipping idea."

They facepalmed, "Great."

A darting figure ran across them, stealing their map.

"Hey!" Natsu shouted, chasing after it and knocking him down, taking back their map. "Wait a minute... There's two!"

Their eyes glinted dangerously.

"Yeah!" Natsu yelled. "Are we first?"

Mato said curtly, "No. You're last."

"What!?"

"It's time for the introductions," Chapati announced. "In 8th place..."

"FAIRY TAIL! 'The Crash' Gildarts Clive, 'Titania' Erza Scarlet, 'Salamander' Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster and 'Beast Arm' Elfman Stauss!"

Boos echoed around the stadium.

"In 7th place... QUATRO CERBERUS! War Cry, Nobarly, Yaeger, Semmes and Rocker!

The audience yelled out the guild's catchphrase.

"In 6th place... MERMAID HEEL! Kagura Mikzuchi, Arania Web, Beth Vanderwood, Risely Law and a Cloaked person! "

Wolf whistles were created by men.

"In 5th place...BLUE PEGASUS! Ren Akatuki, Eve Tearm, Hibiki Laytis, Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki and Rabbit!"

Screams pierced everyone's ears as some girls fainted.

"In 4th place...LAMIA SCALE! Lyon Vastia, 'Iron Rock' Jura Neekis, Chelia Blendy, Toby Horhorta and Yuka Suzuki!"

Regular cheering resounded the arena.

"In 3rd place... RAVEN TAIL!"

Everyone was silent.

Makarov screamed, "Aren't they a dark guild?"

Yajima was calm, "No, they are not. Raven Tail is a legal guild now."

"In 2nd place...FAIRY TAIL B?!"

Shouts of accusation were thrown their way.

"That's illegal!"

"Cheaters!"

Like before, Yajima had the answer, "It is okay, they have registered it correctly."

Chapati continued announcing, "Laxus Dreyar! Mirajane Srauss! Lucy Heartfilia! Takumi! Gajeel Redfox!"

"And finally... In first place... SABERTOOTH! Sting Eucliffe, Rogue Cheney, Yukino Arugia, Rufus Lohr, Orga Nanagear!"

"Wait," Lucy elbowed Takumi, "Aren't they the two people I bumped into ages ago?"

"Yeah," Takumi answered. Unknown to them, Sting and Rogue were having a similar conversation about them cross the arena.

"It's time for the first event, Hidden!"

Mato told the teams the rules. "Teams, choose one person to participate!"

One by one, a person from each team stepped out. When every team had selected a person, Mato announced,

"From Sabertooth, Rufus Lohr! Eve Tearm from Blue Pegasus! Lyon Vastia representing Lamia Scale! Mermaid Heel's competitor is Beth Vanderwood! Nullpuding for Raven Tail! Yaeger from Quatro Cerberus! From Fairy Tail A, Gray Fullbuster! Fairy Tail B, Mirajane Strauss!"

The town appeared in the arena.

"Begin!"

I didn't like this chapter, and don't worry, I won't write the rest of the events like the preliminaries, I just wanted to write battle scenes quick.