Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Grand Magic Games, Day 3: Beauty and Brains
Lucy stood outside of Sabertooth's inn with Sting and her teammates, and she smiled happily as the sun's rays of light shined down on to her face. The third day of the Grand Magic Games had arrived, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard was quite happy about that. Sabertooth started to get recognition again, as some citizens who passed by the group joyfully greeted them, and one man even gave Team Sabertooth a thumbs-up while noticing them for a moment. Clearly, Sabertooth was starting to get more popular. Unlike last year, they really did well on the second day of the tournament.
Lucy still felt astounded by Kira's strength in her match against Kagura, not expecting the red-haired merchant to have those fiery spells that were definitely amazing, and the way Kira fought in that heated battle only made Lucy feel pumped up for her own fight against someone from another guild. She felt like it would be great to show off more of her skills, as she really couldn't just use Heavenly Body Magic all the time, but which crystal would need to be placed on the spell book? That was the tricky part of using a different type of magic, since Lucy wouldn't know who the opponent would be.
If she chose the wrong set of spells to use, then things certainly would end badly. Lucy looked down at her black shirt and orange skirt that went well with her purple flat shoes as a careful expression found its way on to her face, and she really hoped to not deal with anyone who could overpower her with ease. Lucy turned her attention to Kira, who simply gave her a joyful smile of confidence, and seeing Kira feel satisfied made Lucy think somewhat deeper about that fight against Kagura. If Kira could make the match be turned around to where it was in her favor, then couldn't Lucy also do that?
After all, Lucy did earn most of her Rainbow Crystals by turning the battles around to where she would obtain victory. Despite the fact that the opponents seemed to be much tougher than they were last year, Lucy would defeat them by using her strong spells in clever ways. Last night, she actually thought about how it would be very interesting to upgrade her spells like how Hizuki made her final attack go from being dark green to being jungle green in the fight against Natsu. Evolving spells was something that Lucy could not do yet, but she was still curious about it.
"Kira, how could I evolve my spells?" Lucy asked her with a smile on her face, as her cocoa brown eyes somewhat twinkled.
The fire-wielding mage responded nicely, as she thought about it, "Well, the simplest way is to train hard with them. Another method of raising your spells up to a higher level is to fuse two compatible types of magic together. When you do that, the spells can be more fascinating."
Sting added nicely as he smiled at Lucy, "Fusions can be just as strong as Unison Raids, in some cases. It looks like someone's thinking about getting much stronger."
Lucy confidently informed Sting that she was definitely planning to boost her strength, since the blonde-haired girl probably needed to be stronger for the purpose of unlocking the spell book's next sets of spells that still weren't readable, and Lucy would be sure to do well today. She hoped to be the person who would fight today for her team, and Lucy was not going to let her teammates down. Rufus and Kira did very well in their battles, so it really was only natural for Lucy to feel like she needed to keep the winning streak going.
She was soon given a kiss on the lips by Sting, blushing pink while assuming that he gave her this nice kiss for good luck, and Lucy happily looked into Sting's eyes as she felt like it would be great to show him how much she had improved in the past three months. Lucy's skills had risen to a pretty awesome level that would've probably made Kyouji have feelings of fear, but she wouldn't automatically believe that she was unbeatable. After all, increasing the power of her spells wasn't the same as evolving her magic to where her attacks looked incredibly strong.
As Lucy felt like thinking about which spells she'd use today, the sight of a hot dog vendor dropping a brown bag of money at Kira's feet as he passed by the group was enough to get her attention. She was about to tell the vendor that he dropped a large bag that contained 100,000 jewels, but Kira happily stated that she received her money from selling hot dogs at sunset. Even though Kira had been a merchant, she was glad to take over the hot dog cart for a vendor who felt lazy enough to ask her to manage it for him. Her first customer had almost been Minerva, but a rich man approached the women.
Lucy felt surprised to hear Minerva bring up how Kira got that money from selling only ten hot dogs yesterday evening, but that was because of how her wealthy customer seemed famished. He actually felt hungry enough to buy ten of them for 1,000 jewels each, but Minerva increased the price to ten-thousand jewels per hot dog. Due to how Kira earned her respect and gave Sabertooth some crucial points, Minerva felt like it was only fair for her to help Kira get a high profit. The red-haired merchant actually ran off before the hot dog vendor could come back to give her the bag of money last night to keep for herself, but at least she got it today.
"Well, we should go to the Domus Flau. After all, the champions should always get there before the other teams." Minerva told her teammates in a calm tone while smiling, before running off towards the arena with Rufus.
Kira confidently said as she ran back into the inn with Rogue, gladly holding the bag of money with her right hand, "After we put this money away, we'll follow them!"
Lucy told Sting while looking somewhat embarrassed as she heard him chuckle, "Well, at least they're psyched up for this morning's tournament."
The two protagonists chose to happily run after Minerva and Rufus while feeling good about today, and Sting's blue eyes glanced at Lucy as he felt like she would definitely win a fight against anybody. There was still the matter of fighting against someone from Fairy Tail, which could possibly be difficult, but Sting could only grin as he felt like Lucy would not lose. She wanted to show off her strength, and Sting also began to chuckle at how good it would be for a mouthy person like Erza Scarlet to see firsthand how Lucy became so much stronger.
Lucy held the pink spell book in her right hand while also feeling sure about her skills, and she was ready to fight against anyone. Even if her opponent was smart like Takuya or very strong like Kagura, Lucy would not back down. Besides, it really would not be good for her to lose today. Many people would be watching while some of them would really be rooting for Sabertooth, but let's just say that the guest judge for the third day of the tournament was someone who Lucy would want to impress. After all, getting a victory could inspire this person to someday hire her.
Meanwhile, in a coffee shop...
Samantha Kalos wore some black sunglasses to disguise herself while she was in Crocus today, not wanting the paparazzi to spend the entire day chasing her through the city, and she sat down at a black table in a coffee shop while some of the participants from this year's tournament were also getting coffee on this calm morning. Samantha felt pretty honored that the organizers of the Grand Magic Games contacted her to be a guest judge for today, and the magazines would certainly talk about what she wore on this day.
She merely wore one of her black T-shirts with some white pants to match, along with some black high heels that had white stripes on them, but Samantha had four black rhombus-shaped hair clips in her creamy blonde hair. Despite the fact that she wore sunglasses to hide her grey eyes that were quite charming, her disguise was rather shoddy. There was no way that anyone could think she was an ordinary civilian, but some of the people who were from the guild called Haina Ganseki didn't seem to care right now.
Samantha watched Shinji be hugged by one of his orange-haired teammates while the girl gave him a rather confident look, begging to compete in today's event, but Shinji didn't feel like it would be good for her to do that. He told the girl who wore a brown shirt and orange jean shorts that she was like a glass cannon, meaning that she could have powerful attacks while her defenses were not that great, and Hyde interrupted them by proudly saying that he would compete again. The girl with orange eyes calmly told Hyde that she wouldn't be careless like him, but Shinji covered both of their mouths with his hands before they could bicker.
Hibiki and Jenny from Blue Pegasus were also in the cafe, interestingly sitting at a table across from Samantha, and the two wizards hoped that their guild would not continue to be in sixth place. Jenny looked pretty upbeat about today, thinking that this would be where Blue Pegasus could get more points to be ahead of the other teams, and she confidently told Hibiki that they couldn't give up. Jenny seemed very excited about competing today while she stood up, and Hibiki's calm smile made her blush. As Jenny was about to give him a confident speech, she turned her head to see a certain woman who soon made her look irked.
"You're Samantha Kalos, the famous fashion designer! You know, it really wasn't funny to hit me with that magic! You made me far too skinny!" Jenny exclaimed to Samantha while walking over to her, clearly not fooled by the black sunglasses.
Samantha replied nicely as she took off her sunglasses, frowning at the sight of Jenny, "Oh, it's you. Well, I only made you be able to wear one of my dresses. In the world of fashion, a designer must make the model adapt to the clothes."
Jenny retorted harshly, narrowing her blue eyes, "I could've done that with Transformation Magic!"
Samantha simply scoffed at her while proceeding to fold her arms, saying how Transformation Magic was merely a cheater's bland way of trying to find success in the fashion industry, and she would have no interest in having Jenny as a model. After all, fashion was not simple enough to where Transformation Magic would be enough to make a model be successful. Samantha recalled her own days as a model, remembering how she always walked in a confident mood, and she felt like this blonde-haired girl certainly needed more practice with modeling.
Jenny walked up to Samantha while telling her that she could adapt to anything, as she had gotten stronger since last year's tournament, and being a model for the best clothes in Fiore would certainly make Jenny get more money. Samantha still gave her a look of refusal, but Jenny surprised her by saying that she could even take down people like Lucy Heartfilia in battles. Samantha thought about how that seemed pretty laughable, but the ambition in Jenny's eyes informed her that this woman really desired to wear her clothes.
Samantha initially felt like it would just be a waste of time to see Jenny fight anyone, but her grey eyes widened at the thought of getting to see more of Lucy's abilities. After seeing what Lucy could do in Shioru Town with the spell book and the Rainbow Crystals, Samantha had secretly been interested in seeing her skills again. The fashion designer imagined how great it would be to have Lucy work as a model for her company, but the confident girl would fail to truly get stronger if she wasn't fighting powerful opponents.
Upon seeing Jenny continue to give her a stern look while her eyes were starting to fill with confidence, Samantha merely told Jenny that she would be very great in a fight against anyone. In fact, Samantha soon looked apologetic as she observed Jenny's body. The celebrity surprised the wizard from Blue Pegasus by saying she was wrong to turn her down before, but Samantha became nicer as she told Jenny that the best models needed to show off some cockiness. After all, beautiful women did need to show off their egos. Some of Samantha's clothes were even made to represent the brightness of a woman's ego, and she'd love seeing Jenny wear them.
"You really think I'm great?" Jenny asked Samantha while she began to smile, glad to hear this praise come from a very fashionable woman.
Samantha responded sweetly, hoping Jenny would take the bait, "Yes, Jenny. However, be very smart and cocky. If you battle and fight hard, be at your cockiest."
Jenny told the designer with a cocky grin on her face, putting her hands on her hips, "If I get to fight, I'll show you how skilled I am! In fact, you'll be surprised by my newest transformation! It's powerful, and even Mira won't be able to defeat me!"
With the Grand Magic Games starting soon, Jenny said goodbye to Samantha before running out of the coffee shop. Hibiki followed her, and the fact that they left caused the members of Haina Ganseki to run out of the coffee shop as well. Neither one of the teams wanted to be late for the tournament, and they left Samantha alone with her thoughts. She would be interested in seeing Jenny fight Lucy, but the latter's skills were what she'd really be observing. With seven crystals at Lucy's disposal, it was only a matter of time before she'd learn how to ascend even higher with her magic.
As for Jenny, Samantha put a finger to her lips while wondering if it would truly be good to hire her. She would most likely be useful for just getting more information on how far Lucy had truly come with her spells, but there probably was potential for her to be a great. Losing the match would result in her being fired, however. Samantha felt like that scenario would result in Jenny's dream of modeling for her being crushed into black shards, down in ruins, but she still did need models who were cocky and not questioning her endgame motives. Samantha soon smirked about what happened to models who were hot on her trail, and they unfortunately remained in the shadows while she enjoyed the bright fame.
One hour later, in the Domus Flau...
The ratings for the Grand Magic Games were still quite high, as many of the spectators decided to talk about how Kira's fight against Kagura was so awesome, and some people even brought up how Natsu jumped down to the battlefield after the match ended. He solely went down into the pool of lava to slurp it all up, liking how Kira's lava was incredibly hot, and Erza had to pull him out of the hole after five minutes. He had enjoyed eating it while Lisanna giggled at his appetite, but Erza and Gray were embarrassed at how did something stupidly comedic after a serious fight.
The Grand Magic Games also brought more tourists to the city of Crocus, and let's just say that a certain pink-haired guitarist was up in the stands today while she stood next to a certain stern princess who decided to personally watch the tournament while Hayato waited for her to return to Eisetsu Town. Minami asked Clair if she thought today's event and battles would be great like rock music, and Clair merely gave her a bored look while holding a large bottle of cola in her right hand. She simply stated that the tournament needed an ice skating event, and she began drinking her cold cola.
As Clair took several sips from the bottle and swallowed her soda, her blue eyes soon shifted to the booth where Sabertooth's members were located. She could see Lucy happily chatting with Sting, and Clair began to smile in a confident manner from how she could see fierceness in Lucy's eyes during the first day of the tournament. She hoped that the blonde-haired girl would continue to show off her strength with some powerful attacks, and Clair would have a weird way of cheering for her. Unlike how Minami would be psyched to see Lucy fight, Clair would only tell her to slam the enemy down with intense amounts of water.
Everyone soon heard Chapati test his microphone once again while he was getting ready to announce what today's event would be, and some people wondered if the event would be as destructive as Darkness Seeker. Some people hoped that the event would once again be Pandemonium, since it would be spectacular to see Erza Scarlet defeat 100 monsters again by herself, but other people desired for the tournament to have an archery contest. The event that would transpire today would be somewhat odd, however.
"Hello, everybody! Today's event is Magical Fashion Flair, and it seems quite fun! In this event, whoever shows off their magic in an appealing way will win first place! Also, there is the possibility of two people getting ten points for their teams! That just depends on your performance!" Chapati announced to the crowd while seeming pretty excited, as he smiled brightly.
Yajima commented as he looked calm, folding his arms, "This should be interesting to watch, since most wizards don't normally focus on the beauty of their moves."
Samantha Kalos added with a delighted facial expression, as a Lacrima Vision screen focused on her, "This is certainly a great event, especially when it advertises fashion! Whether it's on a stage or runway, show us that passion for fashion! Be like models, but for magic! Make us see which types of magic are hot, and which ones are not."
As the spectators cheered happily from seeing that the famous fashion designer was here, Natsu decided to compete for Team Fairy Tail A. This surprised his teammates, who felt like he couldn't distinguish flair from flare, but Natsu jumped down from his team's booth. Juvia chose to compete for Team Fairy Tail B, wanting to win points for Gray, and Chelia would compete for Lamia Scale. Jenny would try to earn points for Blue Pegasus while Risley would play for Mermaid Heel, and Bacchus would attempt to get points for Team Quatro Cerberus. Shinji was about to participate for Haina Ganseki, but his teammate named Moka Ishidatami went down to be in the event.
Minerva felt like she would do very well in an event involving fashion, but Lucy looked pretty confident while she jumped down from Sabertooth's booth. If this event was going to focus on showing how a spell could be appealing, Lucy certainly had a spell that would probably blow everyone away. In fact, this last spell of Heavenly Body Magic was rather special. She had been waiting to unleash it when the spell could creatively be used, and Lucy really liked seeing the spell's description in the book. What was it going to be?
The eight competitors went to the center of the sandy battlefield to see Mato give the command for the field to open, and it was surprisingly a black stage with a small staircase on the left side. There was a purple tiled catwalk extending from the center of the stage while it was lined with gold metal, and the competitors were told to line up. Natsu was excited to be at the front of the line while Lucy chose to be at the back of the line, and a gong was struck for the event to begin. Chapati instructed the competitors that they could use any kind of magic, and Natsu thought this event would be easy.
He went up the stairs and on to the catwalk while looking confident, and Natsu aimed his Fire Dragon's Roar down at the ground. It created a fiery explosion that left behind some flames, and Natsu smiled while folding his arms. He expected to get praise from the judges, only to see the Lacrima Vision screen display Samantha holding up four fingers while she looked bored, and that meant Natsu's team got fourth place in this event. He jumped off the catwalk while comically asking the judges if they were serious, and Samantha's response would surprise him.
"If I wanted to see flames, I would tell my personal chef to prepare a spicy meal. To me, those flames had no flair." The fashion designer explained to him, before sighing.
Lisanna told Gray in a calm manner, looking a bit disappointed, "In the world of fashion, you have to impress who you work for. Making spells look appealing is the same as how a designer must make clothes look appealing, so the true judgement for this event comes down to what's good in the eyes of a designer."
Gray replied while putting his hands in his pockets, seeming somewhat irked, "We should've let you or Erza participate instead, Lisanna."
Natsu's performance was followed by Juvia using her Water Magic to make a large rain cloud appear in the sky, before making it harshly rain down on the battlefield, and the blue-haired woman soon made the water rise up to form some large waves. The watery waves crashed against each other, which was interesting, and Samantha gave Juvia an 8 out of 10. That meant her team got second place in this event, and Juvia soon made her rain cloud disappear. That performance seemed like it would be tough to follow, really.
The next person on the catwalk was Chelia, and she formed two large tornadoes of black wind with her Sky God Slayer Magic. They circled around the battlefield in clockwise directions, mimicking Takuya's tactic, and Chelia's tornadoes soon flew upward to explode in midair. Samantha gave her a 6 out of 10 for that, thinking that was somewhat cool, but the blonde-haired celebrity gave Jenny a 3 out of 10 for transforming into a pink bikini while doing sexual poses on the catwalk. Even though most of the men in the arena were impressed, Samantha found that Transformation Magic to be bland.
When Risley's turn came around, she used her Gravity Magic to become skinnier. Samantha decided to give her one point, not finding it to be that interesting, but that wasn't as when it was time for Bacchus to show off his magic. He actually went off the catwalk to demonstrate how his strikes could greatly damage a wall in the Domus Flau, and he received no points for not staying on the stage. The members of Quatro Cerberus looked pretty shocked at how they still couldn't get any points, and they wondered if their purpose in the tournament was to provide comic relief.
Lucy watched Moka go up the steps to be on the stage while wondering which of them would get the higher score, and her brown eyes soon became filled with uncertainty about what would happen. She saw the girl with orange hair and orange eyes go to the catwalk, looking confident as she shot out five blobs of brown mud from her left hand, and the mud puddles landed on the sand. Moka raised her left hand in a slow manner before making it go around in circles, and five brown rings of mud rose up from the puddles. They went up into the air to spin around rapidly, before exploding in orange blasts that were quite large, and Samantha initially gave her two points. Upon seeing mud fall to the ground and be surrounded by an orange aura that gave the sand more density, however, she gave Moka bonus points to have a score of 10.
"Well, it looks like Lucy Heartfilia from Sabertooth is the only one left! Regardless of what she does, Sabertooth will get the ten points!" Chapati exclaimed in a shocked manner, realizing how the events had played out.
Samantha commented kindly, as her lips formed a smile, "Well, she did collect all seven crystals. Whatever spell she uses, she'll probably make it appealing."
Lucy thought to herself as she went up on the stage, her brown eyes starting to look quite fierce, "After what Moka just did, it looks like I'll have to unleash that special move and make it look really good. Just like a friend of mine who wanted to form a band, I'm ready to rock."
Lucy walked to the end of the tiled catwalk, the other competitors looking silent as they were several feet behind her, and the blonde-haired girl opened up the pink spell book with her right hand. She turned to the page with the picture of the Starry Crystal on it, and Lucy also pulled out the pearl pink case from the left pocket of her skirt. She took out the Starry Crystal while closing her eyes, and Lucy set the case down on the ground. She looked at the instructions for the pose in the pink spell book, and Lucy would enjoy this move.
She surprised everyone by starting to headbang like a rocker, raising her arms upward while her index fingers and her pinkie fingers were up. Her middle and ring fingers were held down by her thumb while she banged her head, and Lucy completed the pose by letting out a psyched up yell towards the sky. She attempted to use the Astral Star, only to see a pink aura engulf her body, and the clouds in the sky soon swirled around while they began to turn pink. In a few seconds, several pink star-shaped projectiles of heavenly energy began to come down from the sky!
Lucy's eyes turned pink to indicate that she could control them with psychic power, and she purposely made them come down towards her at a fast pace. Everyone was surprised to see Lucy punch one of the stars upward while her raised arm signaled for the other stars to move upward, and the stars all collided together to create a massive pink blast of Heavenly Body Magic! Its aftereffect made smaller star-shaped beams rain down from the sky, creating powerful blasts that could strike opponents who were on the ground, and the blasts were shaped like stars. The dense sand kept the blasts from breaking through the battlefield, and everyone looked amazed by that spell.
As Lucy saw the bubblegum pink clouds of smoke fade away, she looked at Samantha's face on the Lacrima Vision screen. The woman with creamy blonde hair smiled at Lucy while saying that her control over that spell was amazing, even saying that Heavenly Body Magic and psychic power were difficult to balance, and Lucy panted somewhat as she smiled. Her good performance earned Sabertooth ten points, and Lucy was glad to have used the S-Power of the Starry Crystal. She quickly put it back into the case, before putting the case in her skirt, and Lucy picked up the book while the judge's bell rang to signify that the event was over.
15 minutes later...
Since the third day's event was over, the battle portion of the tournament was able to commence. The first battle paired Wendy from Fairy Tail A against Lyon from Lamia Scale, and that battle was interesting. Wendy used her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic to take down some ice owls that Lyon created, and she managed to avoid his projectiles that were shaped like eagle wings. Lyon used his Ice-Make Magic to create an icy hawk that flew up into one of the clouds, and he was hoping to unleash a hailstorm. The rest of the match involved Lyon and Wendy blocking each other's attacks until the bell rang making the end result be a draw, and both teams received five points. Even though Ooba wasn't happy, Chelia thought both of her friends fought well.
The second match of the day pitted Cana against Milliana, and the match started off with Cana throwing several explosive cards in her opponent's direction. Milliana dodged them all, however, and she managed to slash Cana's abdomen with her sharp claws. As Cana slid back, she threw a Sleep Card at Milliana's chest to make the wizard from Mermaid Heel comically fall asleep on the battlefield. Due to Milliana being unable to battle, Cana earned ten points for Team Fairy Tail B, putting her group several points ahead of Fairy Tail's other team.
The third match featured Moka from Haina Ganseki taking on Bacchus from Quatro Cerberus, and Bacchus surprised everyone by dodging all of Moka's muddy attacks. In fact, he even used his Palm Magic to utterly smash down her tidal wave of mud. He soon slammed his palms against her seven times, sending her crashing into a wall, and Moka was knocked out. Bacchus made his team finally earn ten points, and Hyde rudely scolded Moka for typically focusing on powerful attacks instead of trying to defend herself. Shinji may have been disappointed by Moka's loss, but her getting ten points earlier today made him feel that she had earned a day off from doing jobs at the guild.
Minerva could now see that Sabertooth was once again saved for the last match, and the opponent would be from the Blue Pegasus guild. Those wizards were actually well-known for their intelligence and beauty, but they didn't exactly seem like the strongest foes. Whoever had to face them would surely win easily, and Minerva could honestly just teleport them out of the arena. She looked at Lucy to see her using the Cerulean Crystal to make the spell book turn blue, and Minerva wouldn't mind if Lucy took out the enemy in one hit. In fact, she wanted to celebrate already. As Minerva smiled at Lucy, her green eyes soon shifted to the booth where the judges were located.
"All right, everyone! It is time for the final match of day three, and this fight seems like it will be a battle of brains versus beauty! Lucy Heartfilia versus Jenny Realight!" Chapati exclaimed as he looked thrilled, before spinning around in his chair.
Kira told Lucy in a happy tone while smiling, giving her a thumbs-up, "Good luck, Lucy! Take her down!"
Lucy replied nicely as she smiled at Kira, before looking at Sting, "I'll be sure to fight hard, and I'll be back here with a victory."
Lucy proceeded to jump down from Sabertooth's booth while smiling confidently, seeing Jenny do the same as she seemed cocky, and both of the wizards walked to the center of the battlefield. This was a rather strange pair of opponents, since one used Water Magic while the other was mainly good at transforming, and Lucy kept giving Jenny a confident look while feeling that she would win. The gong was struck for the battle to begin, and Sabertooth began cheering for Lucy. Erza surprised her teammates in Fairy Tail A by loudly cheering for Jenny, but who would win?
Jenny started off the match by transforming into a new outfit for combat, taking this seriously because of how her team was in sixth place, and Lucy was surprised to see this new outfit. Jenny now wore grey gloves that extended all the way up to her shoulders, along with grey armored boots that were thigh-high, and her high heels were also grey. She also wore a grey bodysuit with two bells tied to each of her hips by red strings, and Jenny also looked quite curvaceous while this outfit also made some metal holes be attached to the center of her palms. What was she planning to do?
Lucy decided to attack with her spell known as Aqua Cloud, causing a blue cloud of rain to appear high above her head, and this spell had grown in power to where it rained down on the entire sandy battlefield. The blue ball of Water Magic came down from the cloud, gaining lots of power on its descent towards Jenny, but the woman known as Miss Fiore stepped back while stretching her left hand out to where she almost touched Lucy's projectile. Jenny's magical power went from her hand to the ball of water, making it turn grey, and Jenny punched the attack back towards Lucy!
Lucy slid to her left side, thinking she could simply dodge the attack, but its grey blast of magic sent Lucy crashing against a wall! The attack let out a high-pitched sound when it struck the ground, making the dragon slayers cover their ears while everyone else did the same, but Lucy didn't care. She stood up while running towards Jenny, who merely touched the grey bells twice with her left hand, and they rang loudly while Jenny sent magical power into them. Lucy attempted to punch her with her right hand, only to be sent flying backward by another grey blast of energy that was much larger, and Lucy landed on the ground while feeling a tiny bit of pain in her ears.
"What kind of magic is that?" Lucy asked Jenny while she began to stand up, feeling slightly wobbly as she frowned at her foe.
Jenny explained to Lucy in a calm manner as she smiled, gently cracking her knuckles, "This is Sound Magic. You may be famous, Lucy, but you're not the only one who's been training hard."
Mira said to herself with a frown on her face, thinking about Lucy's battle, "That is indeed Sound Magic, and that type of magic is disastrous for Lucy right now."
The fact that Lucy wielded Water Magic right now was not good, as water could only amplify sound, and the waves of Jenny's attacks could be transmitted through the water in the arena right now. Lucy activated her next spell known as Aqua Blue Cyclone, and it made a blue drill of water surround her right hand. The drill propelled itself off of her hand to go towards Jenny at high speeds, but the woman from Blue Pegasus shot out a ball of grey energy from her right hand! It engulfed Lucy's attack while the water made it seem to double in size, and this Sound Bomb headed straight for Lucy! (I know Jenny can't canonically use Sound Magic, but go along with it.)
She tried to dodge it, only to have the blast send her crashing into another wall, and Lucy winced in pain while seeing the large blast occur. She looked frustrated while now realizing that she was at a disadvantage, but things got worse when Jenny applied Sound Magic to her hands and feet. She soon ran towards Lucy, swiftly appearing in front of her, and Jenny dealt seven punches to her body while her fists moved at high speeds! Lucy coughed up some blood while she could hear Jenny's loud punches, and she struggled to stay on her feet while Jenny aggressively kicked her away with her left foot.
Lucy rolled through the water while her hands were on her pained stomach, feeling her ears also be in pain from Jenny's sound waves, and she used the spell known as Aqua's Azure Grace to heal herself. A blue aura surrounded her body while her wounds began to heal, and the Water Magic formed blue skates that were now on Lucy's feet. Even though that was a nice side effect, how would skating be useful in this situation? Lucy saw her opponent begin walking towards her while she had to think quickly, and the cocky smirk on Jenny's face was not a good sign.
As Lucy began to feel like things were hopeless, she soon looked up at the sky to see one of the clouds glowing mint green. That cloud was actually filled with the coldness from Lyon's ice earlier, which was why it floated at a much slower than pace than normal, and it seemed nearly numb. Lucy felt like using Lyon's ice for herself to make this watery situation become iced down, and a smile began to form on her lips. This was definitely going to make Jenny chill, and Lucy would finally get to have some icy fun with these skates. Sting and Takuya both looked curious about her smile, so what move would Lucy use?
"There's that smile of yours, Lucy. Let's see what you'll do." Sting thought to himself, as he smiled at her.
Takuya thought to himself as he grinned in a confident manner, remembering that fight with Lucy, "You're about to do something clever, Blondie. I can bet it'll be good."
Jenny asked Lucy in an arrogant manner, preparing to use a powerful attack, "Are you going to give up, or shall I blow you away with a nice blast of sound?"
Lucy smiled while telling her that getting blown away couldn't be worse than freezing, and Lucy called upon the spell known as Hydro Drill. Four beams of water rose up from the watery flood that covered the sandy battlefield, and the beams took the shape of watery drills. Lucy aimed the index finger of her left hand up at the icy cloud that was charging up lots of power, and she surprised everyone by ordering her drills to head up to the cloud! Even Lyon couldn't guess that Lucy would use a move for that purpose, and she watched her projectiles spin up towards the cloud.
They struck the cloud to create a blue blast of energy, before large light blue pieces of hail rained down from the sky, and Lucy jumped upward while seeing the hail explode when it hit the ground! The pieces of ice froze the ground while their energy waves made the water splash upward, and the extremely cold temperature from the hail froze some of the water that splashed upward! There were now large icicles lining some parts of the battlefield while Lucy happily skated on the ice, and Jenny looked quite baffled while she did not expect Lucy to think of something like this.
The blue-eyed woman used her Sound Magic on the icy ground, making it crack loudly while water could now be seen, but Lucy kept skating around while directing her blue cloud of Water Magic to come near her. It soon made blue puddles of water appear on the ground, and Lucy skated over them to double her speed! She remembered how this spell worked well against Kyouji, and Lucy watched more puddles be created. As she skated over them to gain more Water Magic and move even faster, Jenny placed her left hand in the cold water to break the ice apart with a powerful sound wave!
As chunks of ice rose up into the air, Lucy decided to pull out the key of Aquarius from the right pocket of her skirt. She opened the Gate of The Water Bearer, summoning the blue-haired spirit, and Aquarius felt somewhat glad that Lucy summoned her in cold water instead of having her be on dirty water from a jug that was in a tower. Aquarius gathered up some water into her urn while looking fierce, watching the water bubble while steam came out of the urn to signify that this water was boiling to a high temperature, and the fact that Lucy got stronger had greatly helped her spirits get stronger as well. She put the key back in her skirt's right pocket, and then looked at Aquarius.
Lucy exclaimed while kicking some chunks of ice into the water, watching them create more blasts as they froze some of the water again, "Aquarius, shoot your water at Jenny! We're going to try a new move!"
Aquarius nodded while thinking to herself, liking Lucy's confidence, "Lucy, you've certainly grown very strong. I mean, just look at yourself. Being bold enough to try new moves in the midst of a fight is risky, but you feel sure enough to do it."
"Go, Lucy! You're fired up!" Natsu excitedly exclaimed to her, before Erza comically punched him on the head for cheering her on.
Lucy decided use the Aqua Pinball spell, and this move made a blue ball of water rise up from the flooded battlefield. Five twisters soon rose up from the water as well, and they spun towards Lucy's ball of water to get absorbed by it. They were increasing its density while a blue aura engulfed Lucy's body, and she threw a chunk of ice at the ball. That icy magic caused it to turn light blue before it absorbed the ice, and the blue ball fell down on to a larger chunk of ice for the purpose of bouncing off it. The Aqua Pinball landed on another piece of ice, before bouncing again, and it soon ricocheted off of a large icicle. It bounced and ricocheted around the arena four more times at a rapid pace, until Lucy managed to hit it with a strong punch, and the pinball headed straight for Jenny!
It struck her a few seconds before Aquarius hit her with a scalding hot drill of water, and a large light blue blast occurred! A blast in a regular shade of blue occurred afterwards, and Jenny screamed in pain from the powerful attacks! The hot steam melted some pieces of ice while Jenny heard her battle armor slightly crack in certain areas, and those dense attacks definitely created a good chance for Lucy to really turn this match around. Jenny picked up a piece of ice with her left hand, before throwing it upward and slamming her left palm against it, and that loud vibration of sound made her smirk confidently as the ice landed at Lucy's feet.
She watched Lucy get hit by the harsh grey blast that sent her flying upward, and it was strong enough to send several chunks of ice up at her. Jenny predicted that would happen, and she soon placed both of her hands in the water. She let it all go into the holes that generated sound waves, and Jenny aimed both of her hands up at Lucy. She fired large beams of sound up at Lucy, only to see her throw down a chunk of dense ice, and the explosion created winds that drowned out the rest of Jenny's sound. Her waves of sound may have been strong, but their frequency wasn't strong enough to smash through ice without winds occurring.
Jenny panted heavily while seeing light blue clouds of smoke appear in midair, not thinking that Lucy used that ice to create a smokescreen, and she soon saw Lucy come down towards her with a blue drill of water surrounding her left fist. Lucy made her drill touch some chunks of ice, causing it to turn light blue while it suddenly absorbed the ice, and Aqua Blue Cyclone was now evolving into Icy Cerulean Cyclone! Lucy used this spell four more times, recalling how Clair's final attack involved five drills of water surrounding her hand, and the four drills of water that appeared on the end of her icy drill also became light blue!
"You really want this to be a close-range fight?!" Jenny asked Lucy while her hands went down to her sides for the purpose of touching the bells when the time was right, her expression being somewhat stern.
Lucy replied with a stern look on her face while thinking about how she trained hard with this Water Magic, envisioning Clair saying the same words for a moment, "I will not lose to anyone, and my Water Magic is strong!"
Clair thought to herself as she smiled at Lucy, enjoying the fierce way she battled, "Well, you've certainly improved with your skills. An ice drill is pretty powerful, but five of them means you're not messing around."
Lucy threw her book down on to the ice while Jenny was now within her reach, and she clenched her right fist before proceding to give seven powerful punches to her foe's armor! Lucy purposely struck the areas that had cracks, making them expand like a virus, and striking Jenny's weak points caused her to feel some pain. Those punches were Lucy's way of getting revenge for Jenny's harsh hits to her body earlier, but Lucy was going to finish this fight. After all, a time limit of thirty minutes meant that it couldn't last forever.
As Jenny slightly stumbled backwards from receiving those punches, Lucy slammed her spinning drills against Jenny's chest! They soon propelled off of her hand, and the spinning drills sent Jenny crashing into a wall! Lucy leaped back a few feet while hearing Jenny make her bells ring, and she saw five large light blue blasts of Ice Magic occur! Jenny screamed in pain from this attack, feeling it ultimately shatter her armor into fragments while her long gloves were torn apart, and her Transformation Magic became undone to where she was back in her purple dress.
The waves of the blasts made the water roar to where it sent Lucy flying backwards, as well as making her blue book float on the large waves, and Lucy landed in the water while she watched her blue cloud of rain begin to disappear. The battlefield was now both icy and watery while her eyes caught sight of Aquarius returning to the Celestial Spirit World, and Lucy felt the skates around her feet soon go away. Her body felt somewhat shaky from all of the damage that she took, as well as being exhausted from how those last attacks took up lots of magical power, and Lucy tried her best to stand.
The smoke cleared up to reveal that Jenny Realight was bruised and bloodied like Lucy, but the only difference between the two opponents was that Jenny had been knocked out by that final attack. Lucy managed to be the winner of the fight, causing Sabertooth to earn ten more points, and she smiled happily while seeing her book float towards her. Sting joyously cheered her name, pretty glad to see Lucy win such a great fight, and the spectators also applauded her for how that was a great battle for them to see. Both women were known for their different areas of intelligence, so this was like a battle of wits.
"What an amazing battle of analyzing each other's moves! Both ladies adapted to their opponent's tactics pretty well, but Lucy Heartfilia wins in the end!" Chapati exclaimed with a look of amazement on his face, astounded at how the battle featured high levels of intellect.
Sting exclaimed to Lucy in a happy tone while seeing her walk towards the hallway with the book in her right hand, "Lucy, that was awesome! You just keep getting stronger!"
Lector added in a confident manner while smirking, joining his friends with clapping for Lucy, "That's how Lucy-san handles things! Even the people in the ancient challenge couldn't beat Sabertooth!"
Gray and Wendy joined Natsu with cheering for Lucy, pretty impressed that she could fight like that now, but Lisanna stayed quiet as she saw Erza tightly clench her fists. She slammed her left fist on the ledge, breaking off a small chunk of it, and Erza had a look of disbelief on her face. Even if Jenny was an opponent who Erza herself defeated in one hit last year, Lucy was actually that strong in the fight? Erza felt like her brown eyes were playing tricks on her, thinking that Lucy couldn't possibly have gotten to that level, and she went up into her team's hallway while feeling like she seriously needed a plan to beat Lucy down into the ground.
Three hours later...
Lucy and Sting were now sitting down at a table that was on the patio of a cafe, enjoying some chocolate cakes that they were eating, and today was certainly interesting. Not only did Lucy get twenty points for her guild to remain in first place, but she didn't expect her Water Magic to work so well with the Ice Magic from Lyon's hailstorm. Lucy looked down at the spell book that pulsated in a light blue color for one moment, wondering about what other kinds of crazy spells she would wield later on, and she was quite glad that the battle against Jenny came with more than just points.
Lucy was also glad that Kira healed her body after the fight, but recently seeing her and Rogue eat desserts from a deluxe basket of candy at the inn was somewhat concerning. Both of those wizards became much chubbier from eating those sweets, even being chubby enough to where Minerva had to aggressively push them out of the inn's front doors, and they were ordered to go have the Darkness Magic from those desserts be nullified. Minerva did give Kira permission to later spend her money on other sweets at a different store, though.
"Today has certainly been interesting. The bad part is that the tag-team battle is tomorrow, though." Sting calmly stated, before frowning at his memories of last year's two-on-two battles.
Lucy asked Sting in a concerned tone, her eyes being filled with curiosity, "Why is that bad, Sting? Do you think we'll lose?"
Sting explained to his girlfriend in a calm tone, recalling last year's events, "Well, it's just that Sabertooth had to fight Fairy Tail last year. If you have to fight, Lucy, know that your old friends won't hold back. They've got immense friendship and ferocity on their side, which was how Natsu took down me and Rogue. It sucks to say this, but that just came to my mind."
Lucy soon frowned while looking down at her cake, wondering if she would have the strength to fight someone from Fairy Tail, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard felt like the people to really worry about would be Erza and Laxus. They were S-Class mages like Mirajane, powerful people who would not go down easily, and the desire to win had caused Fairy Tail to become last year's champions. Mirajane was also someone with the title of being an S-Class mage, and she was incredibly powerful with her Darkness Magic.
There was also the matter of having to fight Gray or Natsu, but Lucy wondered if those two boys would spend the entire battle fighting each other instead of directing their attention at her. They were still strong, so Lucy would have to be wary of them. Lisanna and Wendy were the unknown people in terms of strength, but Lucy could guess that they trained hard. Finally going against her friends from Fairy Tail was something that Lucy expected to happen at some point, but she hadn't exactly thought about a good strategy for taking on her old friends.
Her hands began to slightly tremble as she thought about Erza's power, remembering how her desire to win for her guild was what gave her immense strength, but Lucy narrowed her eyes while feeling like she couldn't afford to worry now. If Lucy had to go against the scarlet-haired woman, then she'd certainly have to be tough. In fact, Lucy wasn't planning on losing. If Erza was her enemy, Lucy would enjoy making her get beaten down. Erza perceived Lucy to be weak, but the mage from Sabertooth was going to show her how she was much stronger now.
Sting gently rubbed Lucy's hands with his own warm hands, soothing her while making her not shiver from feeling worried, and he calmly told Lucy that she would probably fight very hard. He even told Lucy that she wasn't just fighting for Sabertooth, but she'd fight for people like Hikari. After all, the people from Lucy's adventures had been tuning in to the Grand Magic Games. Even the dark mages from Hell's Blaze had watched the tournament, and they actually rooted for Kira when they saw her flames be as hot as theirs. Lucy thanked Sting for his encouragement while she smiled at him, preparing to kiss his lips, but the sounds of footsteps walking towards the table had caught her attention.
"Well, look what we have here. Lucy Heartfilia happily about to kiss her boyfriend and eating cake after beating a weak opponent." Erza stated to Lucy and Sting with a frown on her face, as she walked up to them while Mirajane was beside her.
Lucy asked Erza in a stern tone as she got up from the table, her brown eyes narrowed, "What do you want, Erza?"
The scarlet-haired woman told Lucy in a rude tone, denigrating her as she gave her a disapproving look, "I thought that I'd just come to tell you that it'll be nice to take you out in one hit. After all, you can't honestly believe you're strong from winning two easy events and having trouble against someone who is pathetic like you. Whether it's tomorrow or the day after that, your merciless beating is coming soon."
Mira looked embarrassed about this situation while she had only encountered Erza on her way back to the luxurious inn at the Crocus Gardens, and she hoped that punches would not be thrown. Lucy clenched her fists as she informed Erza that she'd regret acting so confident about their match before it even began, and the protagonist told Erza that she only saw a mere fraction of Lucy's skills in the tournament. Erza merely gave her an uncaring look while folding her arms, still believing that she would beat Lucy, but the verbal conflict was about to escalate.
Instead of getting mad at Erza in public, Lucy soon let out a breath of air while deciding to do what Kira would do in this situation. She asked Erza if she was secretly feeling threatened by her strength, which made Erza look somewhat shocked, and Lucy even brought up how the requipping wizard had to resort to Nakagami Armor last year in her fight against Minerva last year. Lucy confidently got in Erza's face while telling her that only a really cruddy wizard would use overpowered tactics in fights to become like a god, and Erza promptly stepped back several feet as she looked irked. She loudly told Lucy that she was weak, and she needed to shut that snarky mouth.
Their argument got the attention of bystanders, such as Shinji and Minami, but neither girl cared. Sting was actually proud to see Lucy standing for herself like this against a former friend, and he simply smiled. Erza rudely told Lucy that she was a loser who got lucky, but Lucy retorted that point by saying that Erza's desire to beat her down before apologizing made her even more of a loser. That prompted Erza to clench her fists, before angrily running towards Lucy, and she was going to strike her in the mouth with her left fist.
Much to everyone's surprise, however, Minami ran over to Lucy's side at high speeds to grab Erza's fist. She gave the agitated woman a stern glare while calmly slamming her backwards with her left elbow, and Mira actually gasped in shock from recognizing the guitarist's pink hair. Minami merely glared at Erza, before offering to be the person who she'd fight, but Erza began to just walk away with an irritated facial expression. Mira began walking away as well, but she'd surely tell Lisanna about this incident. Lucy merely watched Erza walk away, and she still looked stern. If Erza wanted to make this feud get physical, Lucy would show her firsthand how powerful she had become.
How was Chapter 36? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. This chapter was made to not only show how Lucy could improve her spells, but giving more development to Samantha was also necessary for the arc after this one. The events and battles were somewhat calmer than the last chapter, in order to give it some balance. This story is so exciting, though! :)