"Damn those two!" said Natsu stomping his way back to the guild.
"Aye!" Happy agreed. When he arrived back at the inn he took one quick look in the bar checking for Wendy. He didn't see her and so he went up to their room.
"Hey Wendy all the other guilds have arrived!" he said before realizing that she wasn't there.
"We already know that dimwit! I met Lyon earlier." Gray said clearly unhappy about the event.
"Where is Wendy though?" Natsu asked not really caring about anything else at the moment.
"Dunno and it's nearly midnight so your girlfriend better show up soon." Natsu turned on Gray, but their argument was cut short by a knock on the door.
"We came to wish you all good luck!" it was Lisanna accompanied by Elfman.
"Have you seen Wendy?" Natsu asked Lisanna starting to worry.
"No. Shouldn't she be here by now?" Natsu nodded. Only seconds later a loud announcer's voice rung throughout the city.
"To reduce the number of guilds from 113 to the required 8 we will hold a preliminary event."
"Preliminary event?" Natsu wondered.
"Without any further ado let's start the challenge!" the inns of the town that were hosting magicians rose up to the sky and Natsu was already feeling nauseas.
A staircase formed leading up to a giant sphere.
"The first 8 guilds to make it here will be the ones competing in the contest, let sky labyrinth begin!" loud cheering sounded throughout the city.
"But Wendy isn't even here!" Natsu complained.
"That's no problem! If Wendy can't compete then you've got a man instead!" said Elfman picking up all four of them and charging up the staircase.
"Lisanna! Go find Wendy please!" pleaded Natsu and Lisanna nodded.
"Now let's go, to the grand magic games!" he roared and the others all cheered in agreement.
The inside of the labyrinth was the most confusing thing that Natsu had ever seen and he got dizzy just by looking at it. They walked around a bit before they had their first encounter with another guild.
"Lookie here, there really are fairies here this year too!" it was twilight ogre, the guild that they had taken up a loan from earlier.
"Hey Natsu the pumpkin announcer did say that anything goes in the labyrinth right?" said Gray grinning madly.
"I just figured this thing out, we've been drawing a map right? Well so have they so what if we just beat them and take their map!" Natsu's grin rivaled Gray's as well and in mere seconds the group from Twilight flew out of the labyrinth one map shorter.
"Heh this works really well actually!" said Lucy who had two maps to compare with now.
"You four just beat up the other teams and I'll worry about where we're going, sound okay to you?" the other four nodded with an evil glint in their eyes.
There seemed to be no end to the other guilds' teams and so Lucy's map grew more and more detailed until they finally made it to the exit. Gray and Natsu mimicked Gajeel's laugh and they all went through the door.
"Congratulations to you all." said the pumpkin host that they met on the other side of the door.
"First place right?" said Gray grinning madly.
"Not quite, you finished number 8 and so you just made the cut."
"Whaaaaat!? Number 8 after all of that? This might really be interesting." Natsu wondered what the others were like.
"What's the deal with these outfits?" Natsu complained when he found the outfits their master had picked out for them.
"It seems the master would like us to wear matching clothes. Don't fret Natsu it's a cute idea." said Erza changing into her own outfit.
"Yeah I like the clothes as well!" agreed Gray.
"Try saying that after actually wearing them!" yelled Lucy when she saw that he'd already stripped out of them.
"I can't wear this thing." said Elfman holding up the outfit that was obviously meant for Wendy. Natsu cracked up before remembering Wendy. And he was filled with worry yet again.
"Wendy!" Natsu yelled as he charged through the doors of the infirmary where he found both her and Charle lying in the bed.
"Natsu?" she wondered opening her eyes and seeing his warm gaze.
"What happened to you?" he demanded, but she shook her head.
"I don't know, all that I can remember is some weird black creature that jumped me." she yelled in pain as she felt a massive headache approaching.
"It's the consequences of magic power deficiency, she lost so much magic power all at once and something like that puts an enormous strain on the body." Porlyusica said seemingly materializing right next to Lucy making her jump.
"You heard that, right Wendy? She said that you lost much magic power. I told you that you were powerful." Natsu encouraged her.
"That doesn't matter at all right now because I won't be competing in this tournament thanks to this." she cried heavily, but Natsu simply bent down and kissed her forehead.
"Don't you worry Elfman will take your place temporarily and then you just focus on getting better." she nodded as the team walked out from the infirmary.
"If the one that attacked Wendy is in the tournament then I will rip him to pieces!" Natsu roared walking down the entrance to the arena.
"We'll be right behind you Natsu." Gray promised as the group of five entered the arena and met the cheering crowd.