S-Class Exams are here (º0º)
The eight candidates and the Fairy Tail Master were on a boat, sailing to the great holy land of the guild, Tenrou Island. Fortunately for the Dragon Slayers, technology has developed enough to allow them to ride the boat with no motion-sickness, making them completely focused on their goal.
Like always, the mages had had a week to train themselves for this exam. They all readied themselves for the up-coming challenge, and it had already started. The unspoken challenge of surviving the heat of the ride on the boat had started. Gray dealt with this by stripping naked, the rest were in their bathing suits.
Soon enough, the island was on sight, and they all expected the Master to come from his little spot to explain the rules, "Hello, my children," he said, revealing himself, "As you all know, even the race to the island is part of this challenge. But before that, I want to tell you all what will happen once you arrive. In the island, there are a lot of beasts and animals that you'll have to defeat, as well as the S-Class scattered around the island. What you'll have to do is simple, you have to find and defeat one of the S-Class mages, defeating every beast you encounter in the process.
"This will also be on a point system. Each monster defeated gains you 2 points; defeat the S-Class and you get 20; defeat Gildarts and you get 10 extra points! Now, to defeat them, you may or may not form teams, if you do fight with someone, be aware for when two people attack the same target, the score of defeating him will be divided. Finally, I'll be the one to keep track of your scores. Now, all rules have been explained, you can now form the team-"
"DIBS ON SHRIMP!" Gajeel quickly screamed, standing right next to his new partner. Levy didn't seem too surprise by that, and actually quite happy.
"DIBS ON LUCY!" Cana said in return, going to be right next to her before Natsu could come. As the Fire Dragon Slayer looked at the new pair, he just stood in defeat.
"Dibs on being solo," Natsu said.
"Do you guys want to be together, all three of us?" Gray asked to Elfman and Freed.
"I don't mind it, divided by the three won't make that much difference from divided by two, so it's fine for me."
"All right, a manly team filled with MEN!" Elfman screamed.
"So, all teams have been made? That's great! Now, the race to the can now... begi-"
"IRON SHADOW DRAGON MODE!" Gajeel screamed, as shadows began swirling around him. He then jumped to the highest point of the boat that wasn't connected to the mast.
"WORK - 15000 JOULES!" Levy chanted, as the word 'Work' appeared at Gajeel's feet, transferring to him 15000 joules as mechanical energy, propelling him until he stops at a height of around 15 meters.
"Gihi," he laughed, as he used one of his shadows to make a kind of rope to get Levy from the boat. He also used another one to connect him to the island. With this, he was able to push himself to that certain point, with Levy by his back.
The pair's performance left all the other mages quite stunned, but soon enough the next mage started his move. Lucy pushed Cana over the edge of the boat and dived. Once she was immersed by the water, she summoned one of her strongest Celestial Spirits, Capricorn.
"Hmm, Lucy, my master, for you to have summoned me on a sea can only mean one thing," he somehow managed to talk while being underwater. "You need me to escort you to the island up ahead at full speed, right? Very well, let's go then," he took the Cana's and Lucy's hands and started to move his legs. The speed he ended up reaching exceeded any other Lucy had expected and like that they were quickly on the shore of the island.
"All right, let's go Cana!" Lucy raised her hand.
"Yes, this time we'll win for sure!" Cana said, as she high-five'd her partner.
Still on the boat, Freed, Gray and Elfman jumped on the water, just in time for Gray to freeze the sea and let them slide until they got to the island. This made Natsu the only one on the boat, but he didn't seem worried at all.
Finally, he jumped out of the boat and started to swim, taking still a while until he reached the island, but he didn't mind. For what he could smell, nobody made a move on him yet.
Natsu then started running to him, trying to reach him the fastest he could, not caring about defeating any other beast that appeared. He knew that if he wanted to have any chance against him he couldn't spend his magic on fighting these animals or on the transportation to the island, he had to be at top strength to fight the one he had been training all month for.
Yes, month. Unbeknownst to everybody, Natsu had spent all of his time training himself for this chance to fight him. To fight the one who took his love away from him. He was going to fight a one-on-one battle against Laxus. And he was going to win!
Laxus' scent became stronger and stronger, showing the fact that he was getting closer by the step. He was close, Natsu could feel it in his bone that the 'big Lightning Dragon Slayer' was near and the Fire Dragon Slayer was going to defeat him right then and there.
Finally, he encountered him. Laxus was sitting down in a tree trunk and Natsu just looked at him, glaring him right in his eyes.
"You have a good sense of smell on you, Natsu. Are you sure you want to fight me? It's not like we haven't done this before, this pointless fight, and I always came out on top. Why would this be any different?"
"I did defeat you once, just as I am going to defeat you now!"
"Yeah, with Gajeel by your side. You came alone this time," Laxus inspected Natsu, and noticed he didn't have a scratch on him, "Tell me, you arrived here quite fast, did you even fight any of the beasts around?"
"No, I needed all my power to defeat you!"
"I see, I can assume you don't particularly care about the exam in itself if you ignored one of the aspects of this test. So tell me, if you're not trying to become an S-Class, what is your goal here?"
"We're going to fight, the one who wins gets Lucy," Natsu said, completely serious. However, Laxus reaction was a little different.
He started to laugh out loud, right to Natsu's face, and then he looked one more time at Natsu and said, "Oh, wait you're serious, well let me laugh even harder," and so he did. He laughed even harder. Eventually, after one or so minutes, he breathed out and said, "I think you're taking the phrase 'fighting for Lucy's heart' a bit too literally."
"Laugh all you want, but when I defeat you, Lucy will come back to me and we'll be the ones laughing!"
"Natsu, if I had the whole day, I wouldn't be able to list all the reasons why that wouldn't work. Where is the logic in that?"
"Lucy will see that since I can defeat you, I can protect her better, and then she will see all the things I do better than you!"
"But she already saw what you could do and decided she wasn't happy with that. You win-"
"Do you love her?"
"What?"
"Tell me! Do you love her?"
"No," he said simply, "Not yet anyway," he continued, deciding it would be best to hide how he did care for her and how he thought she was hot. That to him wasn't love, at best he was in love with her, but he didn't yet love her.
"So what right do you have to be with her?! I love her and I could give her everything she wants-"
"It's not about that. Every man out there would most likely be able to give her what she wants once she explains it well enough, but that's not what she wants. She wants somebody that can understand her and bring her what she needs and be who she wants him to be. If that man happens to be me, then I wouldn't oppose, but she's sure he isn't you."
"Shut up! We should let our fists do the talking now!" Natsu said and finally went to his opponent and attacked him, igniting his own fist on fire. Seeing this, Laxus responded with shots of his lightning.
Natsu was able to avoid them, as he jumped from tree to tree, but in the process he was placed in mid-air with no way of safely going back, so Laxus shot four lightning discharges to limit his possible escapes to a minimum. They all hit him, but something weird was happening.
They were being sucked into Natsu, "Lightning Flame Dragon Mode!" he screamed, and that made Laxus understand what was happening. The guy was eating his lightning. That's when he thought of something, a little plan.
Natsu came at him again, and in response Laxus kept discharging lightning to him. In vain, of course, as Natsu just ate them all until he got close enough to Laxus, at which point he went to punch the blonde man's face. But Laxus predicted that course of attack, and prepared himself accordingly.
He bent his back, just so that Natsu's punch would miss him. Then he kicked his enemy's chin, with Lightning covering his boot to boost the attack. After that he regained his composure and started punching Natsu again and again in his torso, making him lose his balance. At that point, Laxus used his 'Lightning Dragon's Heavenwards Halberd' and attacked him with the new weapon, making it explode in lightning upon contact.
That attack was followed by his 'Lightning Dragon's Roar' and then Laxus chanted, "Jupiter's Storm: Lightning Lance!" Magic focused around him, making him start to glow a golden aura. A magic seal appeared high in the sky, and a lightning started to take shape and leave the seal, but only until it was halfway out. Laxus soon saw all the currents of lightning being sucked in by Natsu.
"Thanks a lot for the meal," Natsu said, grinning. He couldn't help it, being able to eat Laxus' lightning was the same as stopping him from using any other of his magic. Natsu thought that he might as well claim it a win, "Aren't you going to throw that as well?"
Laxus was completely serious, and then raised his hand and flicked his fingers. The next moment, Natsu fell, being completely paralysed. "Lightning Dragon's Nerves. They are fine strings that I released between all those consecutive attacks. As I knew they would be pulled by your eating, I just let it happen, and then they stuck to you. When activated, they render my opponent's body completely useless."
Natsu couldn't move at all, except his eyes which showed a great amount of desperation in trying to release himself. as he tried harder and harder, he realised he really couldn't move, not even talk, than he heard Laxus speak again. "That said, simple fire could easily burn them off."
Natsu inwardly grinned at that, believing Laxus had done his last mistake in the fight. Even though he was paralysed, his magic still seemed to work, so he released a bunch of flames around him, attempting to burn the said strings, but it wasn't working as he was still paralysed.
"Didn't you understand what I told you? Hmm, of course not, I should have guessed you wouldn't get it. Natsu, simple flames would easily burn them off, but your flames aren't simple at all. They have lightning incorporated in them, which just ends up making the strings stronger. So basically, while in that mode, you won't be able to move. However, the moment you leave that lightning protection will be the moment I will shoot that lightning bolt from up there," he pointed to the magic seal above them, "My reaction time is about 0,5 seconds and you can count on the lightning hitting you in no-time, so all you have is half a second, can you move out of the way in that time? Try it out," he grinned.
"Oh, but just a reminder," he continued, "that's an attack that I've never actually used before. Have got no idea how much damage it will make. It might be enough to kill you, but it might not even be stronger than the rest of my attacks. Now, your move."
Asking him for his move was almost laughable. He had no moves except the one Laxus described, he had no choice but that one. However, he knew that the fight would be hard from the beginning and if he was able to survive this, then he had a chance. Laxus would run out of strategies and he would win. All he had to do was survive the blast. He could do it.
He released the lightning and half a second later the magical attack fell on him. The hit caused an enormous lightning blast that could almost be compared to the explosion of a volcano. However, it started to die down, and get sucked in. Natsu could eat it! It was a surprise to Laxus, but he kept his calm.
Natsu left the explosion, burns on various regions of his body, but he was still standing, and with the magic he had just consumed, he might just be as strong as he was in the beginning. The Fire Dragon Slayer had changed back from his original form to the Lightning Flame mode while still taking the hit, right after he had burned those damn strings. As such, he just managed to survive.
"Any other strategy on your mind?!" Natsu almost screamed.
"No, none at all. Using this again would just get me the same result, ending up draining my magic." Natsu grinned at that sentence. This battle was as good as won now. "However! Don't think for a second that you won."
Natsu looked at him again, and saw him grinning. Why was he grinning? He doesn't have any other plans, what could possibly cause that confident smile?
"Natsu, in this past mission, I met someone really interesting. A woman able to defeat me every time I would try to fight her. No matter how many schemes I would come up with, how many thunders I threw at her, how many punches I tried to do, she would always win. Most of the times, she didn't even get harmed. That wasn't the most interesting part though. She could win against me without even using magic! Simple punches and kicks she did were enough to defeat me. And she trained me! She passed on those techniques to me! Let's see, Natsu, can you defeat me, without me using my magic?!"
Suddenly, even though he couldn't use magic, to Natsu, Laxus had become much scarier.
In another part of the forest, Gajeel and Levy were facing off against the Titania, Erza Scarlet.
Right now, Gajeel, back to his normal form, had his arms transformed in thin blades with a chain around it, a technique called 'Iron Dragon's Twin Swords'. As the name indicated, they had the same ability of the regular Iron Dragon's Sword, but were smaller and came in pairs. He didn't seem to be harmed in any way, but showed some signs of fatigue.
His partner, Levy was also somewhat tired, but didn't show any damage on her body either. She was using a technique called 'Alchemy Script: Iron' which would give her the option of transforming her 'Iron' spell into something of her liking, so she was using two rifle muskets, holding them in her hands, though the problem was that the rifles could only fire once, since Levy couldn't yet make her guns too complex.
On the other side of the battlefield, there was Erza, with some minor wounds, the Black Wing Armour and her Warrior's Sword that was still in its unreleased shape, a simple, thin sword. She had already been able to release her weapons true strength and let it transform in another one, that meant she could afford to change her armours now.
"Gihi, that sword... why aren't you using its true power? Haven't we shown you enough trouble?"
"Strong a pair as you might be, it is still not worthy of me to release my full power, you have to do better than that."
"Damn it, fine then, let's go Shrimp!"
Gajeel went forward, preparing himself to attack, as Levy stood behind him and watched. Erza just smiled, as she waited for Gajeel to come. Gajeel swung his right arm at her and Erza defended it with her own sword. The Iron Dragon Slayer followed by attacking in a downwards direction, at which point, Erza just stepped away from him.
Suddenly, she heard a gunshot, and realised that Levy had made her move. Erza didn't have time to dodge the bullet, so instead she used the Warrior's Shield, a small barrier she had managed to learn when learning how to reach her weapon's true potential. It was just enough to block the bullet, but with the contact, the bullet released a gust of air that raised a cloud of dust and made Erza unable to see anything in front of her.
Soon enough, the dust started to clear, and she saw that right ahead of her Gajeel was charging in again. He attacked, but just before he made contact with her, he chanted "Iron Dragon Slayer's Twin Sword: Gear 1!" and the chain in his sword started to move, and the two swords suddenly turned into chainsaws. Erza was pushed back over the sudden increase in the strength of the swords, just so that Levy got a new angle to strike her with her other rifle.
Erza soon dodged to her left, but as the bullet hit the tree trunk right beside Erza, it exploded in flames, ending up burning a part of Erza's leg. She looked at the pairing that was just staring at her, observing her movements. She realised what they wanted her to do, and she obliged. They deserved her full power.
"Let us fly together, WINGED BLADE!" Air started to rotate around her, as Erza slashed it all down, showing her newly formed blade. A thin axe sword with a wing near its handle was in Erza's possession now. "I hope this is everything you were hoping for, because now you won't win so easily!"
"You... You're kidding, right?" Natsu asked.
"About not using magic-"
"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! You can't win a fight against me without using any magic at all, it's impossible."
"Then what do you have to lose? C'mon, Natsu, come at me and show me you can defeat me. You have stopped me from using my magic, shouldn't it be easy now?"
Natsu gulped. It was true that he should be able to defeat Laxus easily without him using magic, but Laxus should know that as well. What was he hiding from him? What was his plan? Why was he so confident?
Nothing from the current situation seemed to make any sense in his mind, but he knew that he must win this fight at all costs. Natsu jumped forward, igniting his fist with the lightning flames, and attacked from Laxus' left side.
In response, all Laxus did was step back a bit, only so that the punch wouldn't touch him, and used this chance to struck Natsu with his palm right below his chin. Afterwards, now that Natsu was slightly taken aback, Laxus kept hitting him, using a combination of various strikes and punches, until he finally kicked him, pushing him back to his original location.
"Hm, as I thought. Natsu is too used to fight me using magic, now to fight me without using it proved to be a big surprise to him. This is going exactly as planned," Laxus thought, as he defended and countered every attack Natsu tried to do when he was attacking him. When he sent him a Lightning Flame Dragon's Breath, Laxus could still dodge it, whilst protecting himself from the any other flames with his lightning.
It was a lie that he wasn't using Magic, he was just hiding it. In the beginning of their fight, Natsu proved to be unable of blocking his lightning covered punches, showing him that he could only eat what wasn't connected to Laxus' body. That said, in every physical hit, just before contact, the blonde man would coat his hand with lightning to increase the damage and prevent anything to happen to his hand.
"In normal conditions, Natsu would be more than prepared for these kinds of hits, from all the brawls on the Guild. But this is a serious fight, and I am expected to use magic until the end. So the fact that I'm not is confusing him, and that confusion leads to being afraid, which in turn brings despair. The more we keep going, the more Natsu is afraid, and he tries to compensate using bigger attacks, but gets more openings. And since I'm faster than him, I can hit him before he hits me. I can ruin his tempo and send him flying after every try."
Those were Laxus' thoughts as he parried Natsu's attacks. The latter's attacks were getting more powerful, but they left more openings. "His mind is getting corrupted. This also happened to me in my fights against Medusa. The mage will get so overpowered by thinking he can be defeated by simple hits, his mind will start to get foggy, until it reaches a certain point where he can't think at all. The moment of true hopelessness that will consume all of Natsu's magic and disturbs him to the point where he can no longer function. It is only for a few seconds, but that is all I need to win."
Natsu was trying to keep up with Laxus responses, but he was just getting hit back at every turn. "How is this possible? How am I losing? He isn't using magic, I am, so how can I be losing? Can I... Can I... Can I even win? Is it even possible to win against Laxus?"
In the next hit he got, Laxus pushed Natsu away again, and suddenly he couldn't think of what to do next, inadvertently losing his Lightning Flame Mode. That was the moment Laxus was waiting for. "Jupiter's Storm: Roaring Thunder!" Incredible amounts of lightning left Laxus fist and heavily damaged Natsu, making him lose the consciousness and fall to the ground.
Laxus looked down at the guy, almost taking pity, but then he realised something, and grinned, "Well, at least you won't be intervening between me and Lucy any more, so I'm happy."
Freed and his team, Gray and Elfman, were facing off against Mirajane now. She was in her standard Satan Soul, one that everyone is that team has seen plenty of times, and Freed and Elfman had even fought her in that form before. And yet, they were still the ones that didn't seem capable of landing a hit on her.
Elfman tried to go again, having transformed to his standard Beast Soul, quickly tried to attack the small target that was his sister. She avoided it skilfully, but Freed was already behind her in his Absolute Shadow form. Mirajane saw him before he could attack, so she turned around and used one of her Dark Magic attacks, making a clear hit to the green haired mage. Gray tried to hit her behind with his 'Ice Make: Lances', but she was expecting the hit, and used her wings to avoid any attack he threw at her. In the end, all the trio could achieve in that attack was the same as any other time they would try. One would get hurt, and the two others would just expend their magic in vain, as the demon would leave the confrontation unharmed.
"C'mon, can't you do anything more? That's no good," Mirajane said.
"Damn it, so this is your power, Mirajane," Gray said, surprised at the mage in front of him. He was ashamed to say, but he had been relieved when he saw her, since he considered her as a good opponent that they should be able to defeat, especially with the battle being three against one. He had underestimated her.
"No, she is way stronger than the last time we fought," Freed informed.
"Yeah, what gives, sis? Shouldn't you go a little easy on us?" Elfman asked.
"The only S-Class that has to hold back is Gildarts, all the others can fight at full strength. You are three strong men, I thought I could all out on you, was I wrong?"
"Crap, let's just do this, you guys!" Gray yelled at his partners. They nodded in response and all of them went against her again.
Laxus finally arrived to the place where all mages were to gather in order to get healed by the little Sky Dragon Slayer. She had come with the other S-Classes so that she would have time to prepare the beds where the hurt mages would rest.
Over Laxus' shoulder was Natsu's unconscious body, and, as soon as Wendy say this, she went to him, but Laxus stopped her.
"Where do you want me to put him?" he asked, looking down at her.
"Oh, just put him in one of those futons," Wendy answered shyly. Laxus did as he was commanded.
Once he put Natsu down on the said futon, he suddenly felt a murderous intent coming from behind him. Once he turned around, he was suddenly punched and thrown to a tree.
"Ugh, what the damn hell?!" Laxus yelled as he looked at the man that had caused this. It was his grandfather.
"That's what I should be saying! What the hell were you doing, playing a mind game with Natsu?! In that moment, you would have to throw in the towel, why did you do such a thing?!" Laxus looked around, and noticed that there were many magic seals that showcased the battles happening around the island, but they had a problem.
"The fights, you can't actually hear what they are saying, so you don't know anything that was just spoken, do you?"
"No, I don't, does it matter?"
"It sure as hell does in my case, he wanted me to give up on Lucy if he won!"
"I'm sure he didn't mean for you to completely back off, he just wanted you to let them try it out together again. Don't think it justifies how you decided to play a little game with him. You should have made this a clear win, no manipulation or other dirty tricks. That's not how we, as mages from Fairy Tail, fight!"
"Fine, whatever, I won't promise I won't do this again, but I'll try not to. Anyway, who's in the lead, and who is fighting whom?" Makarov scoffed at him before replying.
"Gajeel is the one that has the most points, rocking a good 24 points, and next is Levy, with 22. I'm guessing that with the little stunt they pulled in the boat, they were able to go to the place with the most beasts more easily. They are right now facing Erza, but they seem to be going pretty good, having already pushed Erza to her last resource. Then we have Cana, with 18, who hasn't yet started fighting anyone, but she will have to face Gildarts, he's the only one left-"
"What about Lucy? She was with Cana-"
"I was getting there, if you would let me talk," Makarov reprimanded, but Laxus just avoided eye contact. "She only has 14, with Gray and Freed ahead of her, both with 16 each. Those two and Elfman, who has 12 points by the way, are against Mira, and they are having a really tough time. In last place, we have Natsu, with 0 points."
"So Lucy and Cana are going to against Gildarts, huh? How much has he got to hold back?" Makarov looked at him, noticing he didn't even care about the fact that Freed might have to lose or about how Gajeel and Levy have a good chance in winning.
"He did everything in his power to make sure Natsu wouldn't get Lucy, and now he doesn't seem to even care about anyone else. What's up with you, boy?"
"Gildarts can only use half of his magic, and he doesn't have to be defeated to let the opponent pass, he just has to find them a good S-Class material."
"I see," Laxus said, as he kept observing Lucy and her partner trying to get to an opponent.
Lucy and Cana were fighting a pack of animals that had them surrounded. They were weak, so it was not too hard for the mages to take care of them, and soon enough they were back to running to their target.
"Hey, Lucy, I got to ask you, why did you summon Capricorn in the middle of the sea? You could have summoned Aquarius and she could have pushed the boat farther away from the island," Cana said while running.
"Aquarius only wants to me to summon her once, so I'm saving her for later, and since Capricorn is half mermaid, I summoned him instead," Lucy explained. "Also should we be running? If we just keep on running, we might never find an S-Class mage."
"Don't worry, I know where he is, my cards are taking us to him."
"He? What do you mean by he? Who are we going to fight?"
"Hihi... Who else, but my old man?!"
"What the hell?! We can't fight him, we will be defeated immediately!"
"We have no choice, everyone else has already found an S-Class, he is the only one left! Besides, how were you expecting to find one? At least I have a card that he gave me, so I can locate him, wherever he is. At least he was a sure thing in finding in a way that wouldn't take us long."
Lucy nodded in understanding. While there wasn't a time limit to finding and defeating an S-Class mage, they had to also defeat the animals they would find, ending up expending magic. "Wait a second..." Lucy thought, "Why do we need to fight those animals? There is a point-system, but what is that for? I thought if we find and defeat a mage we pass the test. But what Makarov said was that we could pass it, which means..."
"Cana! Listen to me, we can't afford to spend all our magic on Gildarts! There must be second phase to this exam!"
"Yeah, I thought it was weird that we only got one challenge this time around. That means we're even more screwed here."
"Isn't he going to hold back anything?"
"I am allowed to let you guys pass without having you defeating me," a deep voice suddenly rang through the women's ears. It made them on the look out for the possible encounter, which made it possible for them to observe as Gildarts came out of one place of the forest.
"Hello there. Are you ready to face me? Don't worry, I'm only allowed to use half of my power, so you guys should have a chance. Add that to the fact you don't even have to beat me, just making me understand you can become an S-Class, and that makes you pretty much the pair with the best shot at passing the first phase."
"All right, look out for him, Lucy," Cana warned.
"Yes, I know," Lucy replied, raising her keys and her whip.
"Well then, I'm going to prepare myself as well," Gildarts said, as he took out what seemed to be a bracelet made out of red beads from his pocket. "Hope you're ready, Lucy."
Lucy looked at Cana, seeing her smile bravely at her. She started to doubt what was happening, until she looked at Gildarts again, as he put on the bracelet and said.
"OVERSOUL - DEMON RIDER!"
A pillar of light appeared behind Gildarts, as he emanated a white aura. Out of that pillar, a demon Lucy knew all too well appeared.
Rider appeared.