This week is actually a break from school for me, hence why I haven't been writing so much. I find myself having trouble writing during vacations and the like, for time seems to be of more value. But, it's still here, so do not be concerned with that!
"So... That's what the old man meant when he said it'd adapt to our magic." Natsu concludes. All of us are staring at the balls, confused, yet also excited.
"Then, what effect would our magic have on it?" Erza wonders as she moves her hand. I let go. As my touch leaves the ball's surface, so do the copy balls fade away from existance. Erza lays her hand on the soft, round object. Seconds later, after the runes assumed the color of Erza's hair, iron chains and thorns spread around it. Now, the ball is pretty much encased in a metal exoskeleton, covered in thorns and blades.
"Let me try something." Erza whispers as she closes her eyes. As she forces her magic into the ball, we see the blades separate themselves from it's newfound 'armor'. They group up in a circular formation around the ball and start spinning at a high speed.
"So, it does work." She huffs.
"That reminds me off your Blümenblatt!" Gray expresses his realization.
"That's because that's exactly what I tried to imitate. The ball adapts our spells to it's own format. As long as it only affects the ball and no one else directly, any spell is allowed."
"Then how does molding magic work?" Gray's right, how will it? After all, it's magic that is only limited by the user's creativity.
"Give it a shot!" Natsu encourages him. I'm kind of interested to see what Gray could pull myself. The metal carcase vaporizes as soon as Erza's magic leaves it. The runes glow a bright aqua blue with Gray's touch. The ball earns a shiny and slippery surface that spreads in a rough manner.
"Try the move you pulled during our battle." Gray nods to my suggestion as he focuses his magic. The ice start moving in a circular motion. The ball is tossed skywards and releases a burst of miniature icicles. Quite a lot of them, at that.
"Awesome!" Natsu grins. Hmm, you know, how are they supposed to catch that?
"We can't use any defensive spells, right?" I ask my partners.
"Indeed we cannot." Erza answers in the usual manner.
"Then, how are we supposed to catch these things? I mean, we must assume our opponents to have spells of at least equal strength, right? What're we gonna have to go up against, and how will we deal with it?" This seems to leave most of them pondering for an answer. However, the sound of a flare wakes us from our thoughts.
"Crap, it's time. Looks like we'll just have to figure that out as we go." That's not really how I like to do things, but I suppose there's no other option. We get up and move towards the guild master again.
"The 4v4 tournament is about to begin! There are four teams total. Facing off against one another will make you go higher up the ladder until one of the other teams knocks you out of the game." Four teams? I'm pretty sure I saw another one back before we boarded the ship.
"On a quick sidenote, I'm fairly certain all of you have a similar question in mind. I'll give you this piece of advice, just do what comes natural." Huh? Is he talking about what we realized only a bit earlier? And what the hell is that supposed to mean, anyways? I give my team a pleading look, but they only raise their shoulders as a result.
"So, only four teams in a tournament like this. That means there'll only be two rounds." I mutter while thinking about the tournament's setup.
"That means we made it to the semi-finals!" Natsu fist bumps Gray. *Sigh* Boys be boys.
"Looks like we'll be going up against the Strauss siblings... And Cana." We heard the gritting of teeth, and see Erza clenching her fists.
"Mira..." She hisses. Hah, that's right, those two have a past. Should get Erza pretty excited. I thought that was over, though. I suppose you'll never lose the desire to best your rival, or past rival, in a competition.
"Make your way towards the field, if you please." Two fields are set up, so that both matches could be played simultaniously. I suppose we won't get to see the match between Laxus' team and Shadow Gear. Makes sense, we don't want to put our cards in play for them to see so that they can be prepared. Well, it doesn't hurt to check, right? I gaze at the playing field, activating the spectral sight. What she sees now are two barriers. One surrounding the field and one on the net. I lean over to Natsu and whisper.
"Natsu, go stand there and release a bit of magic real quick." Natsu does as I asked. I can see the magic strings leave his body. As they touch the outer barriers, the strings are cut off and instantly stop. So, these are supposed to cancel any magic leaving the game. But, the middle one is the most interesting one. It doesn't cancel our magic, nor does it let it pass unnoticed. The barrier that is set over the middle of the field seems to thin out the magic passing it at a rapid rate. Meaning, the longer after passing that barrier, the weaker the magic. This is knowledge that our enemy does not have, and that we must use to our advantage.
"Wasn't that forbidden?" Erza asks as she takes note of my actions.
"We aren't allowed to use these types of magic DURING the game, he said nothing about now." This seems to have made the armor mage grin.
I whisper my deducted information over to my team members. It is vital that we know.
"So, it would be wise to pull out the more powerful spells later on, when we have a clear understanding of this barrier's magic reduction rate." Erza reasons. She's right, but besides that, it's also because it's reduced by a steady amount. This means that light and weak spells will do very little while bigger spells will hardly be affected. However, it's true that we don't know how much the reduction will affect our spells.
"The ball starts with Mira's team! First to five points wins!" Makarov announces as he looks up from the coin he just tossed on his wrist. Mira seems to have taken the position of team captain. I didn't know we had to do that, but I'm sure Erza would find herself suitable for the position. Honestly, I'd prefer not to bear that responsibility.
The ball is glowing a magnificent silver. A tail, together with demon legs and arms grow out of the round body. Honestly, it kinda disgusts me. Mira throws it over the net. The thing seems to fly more than anything when it soars through the middle barrier. Now, it's strenth should weaken over time. However, it still evades our grasps with ease and even scratches me with it's claws when I attempt to catch it, easily scoring them a point.
"Well, that didn't go very smooth. I didn't see any reduction in it's strength at all!" Natsu exclaimed.
"Let's just see what they do, first. Maybe they know more than we do. It's not likely, judging from their magic abilities, but Cana might've gotten something." I reason. Before we break our heads over this, we should take the easier way out. If they don't what to do, we get a point and even the score. If they do know, then we learn.
"Alright. Gray, you go for the first one. Your spell's got more reach than mine and they can still catch Violet and Natsu's with luck." Erza orders. It's true that, as long as we've no clue what to do, our magic seems to be the weakest out of our entire arsenal. And, the worst part is, that makes half our team.
As mentioned, Gray starts for our team. His Frozen Howl should be quite untouchable for them. He slams it over the net as the ice crawls over the ball. The barrage of icicles commences, and they can't even get close. Free point for us. Elfman obviously had to be a 'man' and try to catch it. Didn't end well for him. I'm kind of disappointed, I was hoping they woulda figured it out, but I suppose that was wishful thinking.
"Alright, we clearly can't rely on this barrier to do the work for us... Wait, yes. It can't do the work for us, so we need to neutralize the magic in the ball ourselves!" Gray, by his own words, figures something out. And, honestly, that's the best we got right now.
"Alright, do you also have any damn clue on how to do that?" Natsu mocks him.
"Well, no, but at least I thought of something!" Gray retorts. Heh, these kinda arguments never get old, though. Even the best of friends have them.
"Gray's idea is the best we got, so let's give it a shot. Neutralizing magic shouldn't be too hard. Think about it, what is neutral? An equal force from opposite sides. If we can manage to pressure the ball with opposite channeling magic, we should be able to purge their magic from it."
"Woah, Violet, that sounds... Really damn solid. So, who should do that?"
"Me and Natsu are obviously the most on sync with our magic, you two just focus on catching the ball." The two nod as they stand up and take a position in the forward left corner for Gray, while Erza takes the corner in the back right. Not spread out, just surrounding me and Natsu, standing in the middle. Alright, we're gonna need all the luck we can get on this one. Never have I done anything like this before.
Cana fetches the ball before messing around with it. I don't know what she did, but it sure isn't gonna help us win, I know that much. As soon as the ball crosses the net, Natsu and I start channeling. Sending our magic around in an arc, we feel it collide into the mass that is the ball. I don't know how we managed to do the whole positive versus negative thing, we just sorta did it on instinct and mindset. Just thinking about it as much as we could seemed to work. Really, I just recalled the previous Fire Dragon Slayers to get negative magic going. I'm sure Natsu is imagining... Me.
Gray catches the ball before us. But, that's not the end of it. The ball floats above his hands and a bundle of cards appear in front of it. They shatter and recollect themselves in three piles. The top cards of these piles are revealed, showing us two thunder cards and one beam card.
"Are?" (Japanese pronounciation, people.) I let out my confusion before a pillar of lightning crashes down on the ball, engulfing not only itself, but also Gray, Natsu, and myself.
"Damn it, it didn't work!" Crap, that might've been my fault. After all, I did have a positive thought for a second there.
"That was possibly my bad, and I know where I messed up. We'll just have to keep going, we can't give up yet." I try to encourage my team by admitting my mistake. We're currently 2-1 for them, and it's our ball.
"Allow me." Erza demands her shot. It seems she combined the Blümenblatt with her Flame Empress. The ball now has all of Blümenblatt's daggers on fire. It starts spinning in multiple directions as Erza launches the ball across the net. Cana almost instinctively threw a card down onto the ground, but refrained from doing so during the last second. Elfman learned from his last mistake and did not attempt to go for this. A point for us, it is.
"How are you even supposed to play this stupid game if that's the only thing that happens?! We can't stop the balls!" Cana cries out. Makarov simply grins quietly. The spectators seem rather confused, but do not question him.
Lisanna takes a shot. This time, I am completely focused on my job, and will let nothing interfere. We start channeling with perfect time, like the last time. A steady flow of magic is crushing what's already inside the ball. The cat paws and tails are shrinking into the ball as Gray and Erza are leaping towards it. Now, in their hands, is a harmless round object.
"YES!" I shout.
"WE DID IT!" Natsu shares my excitement. We get a lot of questioning stares from our opponents and the spectators. Makarov, however, seems to understand what happened.
"What the hell? Are they cheating?" Cana immediately asks. Seems like something she'd say.
"Not so much a game of free points anymore, is it now?" Makarov grins at the alcoholic. Haha, I have to admit, this is gonna get fun.
The following setup goes to me. I throw the ball, fused with my magic, but I refrain from using any spell. They look confused, which is all the better. As soon as the ball passes the barrier, I split the ball in 5 seperate ones. You can see the panic on their faces. Elfman and Lisanna manage to grab one each, but the rest lands on the ground. We got ourselves a point. 3-2 now.
The following toss, by Elfman, went just like his sister's. We managed to make the ball harmless, now without much trouble. We're getting better at this. They don't look very pleased, however.
Gray goes again. This time, he decides to go for something a little more creative. Around the ball, he creates a large spear-like handle. It's as if he made a javelin around the ball. The top, however, ends in a spiral as if he wants it to drill into the sand. To make sure they would go for it, he adds blades the are tilted slightly that, not only give the spear defensive capabilities, but also make the spear spin, which in turn makes the blades more effective as defensive tools. A pretty solid creation, I'd say. And, well, it does result in a point for us.
"Match Point. Violet's team is one point away from victory. Any point Mira's team scores at this point counts as two."
"Pff, yeah, like that'll happen." Cana puffs. You know, it's not gonna happen with that attitude.
Mira's giving it a shot again, without much luck. The Strauss' siblings' magic is completely nullified whenever they give it a shot. The three mages can't do anything.
"Erza, you can go again."
"I'm all out for Blümenblatt. But, I don't that'll be necessary." She says as he ball starts radiating lightning. The Lightning Empress seems to be her choice right here. When it's not mixed with Blümenblatt, her spells seem more like she's actually armoring the ball. Which is her magic, after all. It's just kinda funny to think about.
"Here we GO!" She yells as she throws the ball. At this point, Cana seems to have just given up. She's crouched down, cross-legged, drinking some booze. What's Elfman doing? Has he not learned his lesson? He's standing right in the lightning ball's way. Wait...
"WHAT?!" The croud yells. Elfman just caught the ball and is holding it, without being harmed by the lightning.
"Uhm, Elfman? Care to explain?" Makarov asks. As Erza's magic leave the ball, Elfman raises his voice.
"Well, I just guessed that, if it was anything like Erza's armor sets, there has to be an open spot. With Erza, that's like always her chest. So, I just had to go for that spot." He grins. Erza is now blushing madly, probably really self-conscious right now.
"Cana, it's your turn to try." Mira walks up to her and pushes the ball in her hands.
"Like it'll even do something." She hisses.
"If we don't win, you're not getting any more booze." This makes Cana raise up on her feet. With a grunt, that is. She starts her magic tricks with the ball against, and tosses it effortlessly. Natsu and I do our usual thing. The ball stops before us, and Cana's game plays again.
"Well, shit." Fire, fire, wind. A fire tornado catches us all off-guard as we are blown aside. W-Why didn't we cancel it? They seem rather happy to have seen the spell land. It's 4-4 now, we're tied for the finish!
"Oh my god, we might actually have a shot at this." Cana seems dumbfounded. Alright, we can't mess this up.
"Erza's already gone twice, Gray's gone twice. Natsu, can you try to win us this game?"
"Leave it to me!" He seems rather excited about this whole turn of events. As with me, he's gonna do the copy spell. We can't do much else, as of right now. We should really get some practice with the ball after this match. That is, if we're still in the tournament.
Natsu sets up his magic and throws the ball. Just like me, he's delaying his cast for the surprise effect. However, he does it even later than I did. Because of that, the magic is already a bit drained and he only manages to get 4 balls out. They also seem much more prepared, since they caught all 4 of them!
"DAMN IT! I thought I had it, but I messed up." I pat Natsu's shoulder.
"What you tried to do was cute, it just didn't work out." He looks up to me.
"First time we see that draining barrier actually do something and it had to be when we were about to win!"
"Well, our magic is naturally the most draining one there is around here. Or, at least, one of the most. So, that's probably why." He nods in understanding and gets up.
"You might be right."
"Of course I am!" I grin at him, happy that I managed to pep-talk him.
"Crap, they're giving it to cana." Gray curses.
"We couldn't nullify her magic, last time." Natsu mentions this to Erza and Gray. It was really weird, I don't know why we had no effect on it.
"I think I know why. She's not casting a spell through the ball. She's just using the ball as a medium rather than a cast point. She's basically putting a trap on an object, and then moving that object. That's why you can't do it, it's not the same as the usual spell Mira and the others used." Erza perceptively reasons. That makes sense, but how will we deal with it?
"Wait! Guys, I think I know what to do. But it's gonne require a bit of coördination..."
Cana throws the ball. This time, we're not gonna be surprise no more. Instead of our usual setup, we are ALL ready to catch the ball. As soon as the ball stops, Natsu jumps in. He touches it. Now, the runes are glowing violet with our magic and Cana's cards are popping out. We're got little time. Natsu creates 5 other balls, floating in a circle around the original. Now, Gray jumps in. He touches all of the copies, which now all glow a bright aqua blue. Ice covers their surface and crawls all around the original ball, shielding it from us. The cards release an arrow barrage, which is stopped by the ice wall. As soon as the spell ends, Gray quickly dispels his magic and Erza dives underneath the ball to catch it.
"NICE, we got it!" I shout.
"Great plan, Vi!" Natsu praises me. With a thumbs up, no less. And, of course, his grin. The crowd seems rather amazed by our teamplay. I figured that, since it's not actually a spell, we'd be able to cast spell from the ball while it was there. So, that's exactly what we abused. Woohoo!
"Alright, no time to mess around, let's finish this!" I spawn 2 separate balls, Gray enhances one with ice and Erza casts a Water Empress through the other. These two collide into a water and ice cyclone that is sent straight over the net, crushing the entire enemy team at once. I think we've got some good teamplay going for us.
"VIOLET'S TEAM WINS!" I grin triumphically. After high fiving the team, I look away to see how the other match is going. With a flash of lightning, we hear the Thunder God's Tribe's victory being announced. This is gonna be tough...
So, what'd y'all think of that? I think I managed to make this a lot more exciting than originally envisioned by a lot of you. At least, I hope so. It was fun, too! Something different, for once. Writing something similar to fighting, that isn't a fight is kinda refreshing. Tell me what you think about the chapter, I'd love to hear it! I definitely put a lot of time into it!