[Flashback]

It was during the few moments the teams were given to create their teams of 5 for the event. Emeraude gathered those she needed, making sure to bring Dimaria. After hearing the details of the event and the stipulation for Alvarez in Pergrande, Emeraude already had a plan in mind. And for that… "I need you, Dimaria."

Time was really no issue for Dimaria. Which is precisely why it stopped for all excluding Alvarez in this moment. "What?" Dimaria's eyes widened. "Em, I'm flattered…but I'm not a fighter anymore. That war…it woke me up to how awful battles can really be. I'm just a humble farmer now."

"Mari…" Brandish muttered giving Dimaria a small pout. In some way, she felt like she was responsible for Dimaria's domestication.

"I'm fully aware of how that war treated you." Emeraude crossed her arms. She held a stern gaze while addressing Dimaria. "And I'm aware that I promised that you wouldn't do any fighting, and you still wouldn't be. All you need to do is carry the baton to the end with your magic."

"…" Dimaria was uncertain and it was written all over her face. "While that sounds simple in theory…the stipulation in place makes that cleverly sneaky plan impossible."

"Impossible? You definitely sound like a different person." Jacob remarked. This was far from the cruel, warmongering woman he had known during the days of Emperor Spriggan.

"There are people who can interfere with my world. It has happened on more than one occasion…it's probably happening right now as we speak." Dimaria rubbed her arm and sighed, taking a glance over at Luke in particular. There was no doubt in her mind he was just riding the time stop out until it ended. She knew he could move. That alone was a wound to her pride. "It all started before the war even began."

"I know…" Emeraude recalled the initial build up to the war with Fiore. Fairy Tail and White Eclipse infiltrated Alvarez.

"They called me the 'easy one'!" Dimaria vented out frustration that had been lingering within her for a long while now. While the notion of still being needed for Alvarez did mean much to a retire solider like herself, the humiliation she suffered in the war weighed on her heavily. "I should have been more than capable of dealing with them back then, but I couldn't. And then I lost to children and another interloper, I was captured and thoroughly embarrassed…and again, I lost to a demon, and then that same man. I appreciate the notion but I do not deserve the right to fight for Alvarez anymore."

Emeraude stepped forward, placing a hand on Dimaria's shoulder, giving a stern look. "I'll tell you something that I realized once myself during that same war. It is not a fall that defines one's character, it is the steps that you take after that determine who you are. You have been a shell of your former self for a while now, and while it has never been my intention to force you back into the fold, as your friend, I cannot overlook your damaged pride. Your temper was your biggest weakness…having your strengths used against you is no doubt infuriating, but you've mellowed with time and know what to expect. The people that stole away your pride are standing within arm's reach…and this is the chance to take back what you were robbed of. I know for a fact that you haven't weakened over the last year."

"…" Dimaria glanced away, uncertainty still on her face. She was honestly quite happy in her life as a farmer…it brought her a sense of peace she never knew she wanted. But at the same time, deep within, the bitterness of defeat festered in her very soul. Just one chance…once chance to redeem herself after everything. Emeraude was tugging at that bitterness, goading it to come out, because Dimaria was holding it back.

"In order to succeed and get revenge, your powers are required. Alvarez needs your talents once more, Dimaria Yesta." Emeraude kept her yellow gaze on the time goddess. "This is your chance to take it all back. Does one mage truly scare you? You're the master of time. You should know the weaknesses of those who don't dabble in it as strongly as you do. Unless you are worried about this as well?"

"…." The silence was longer. Something within Dimaria stirred at the way the questions were phrased. The Empress knew just what to say to rile her up in the right way, at the right targets as well. Scared? No. Far from it. Fury and contempt fueled her as her gaze lifted to meet Emeraude's. Dimaria knew what was at stake if Alvarez lost. There was a lot riding on her shoulders like before…though she lacked the position of Spriggan this time. It was the trust that Emeraude placed in her abilities even now that spurned her into action. "You believe in my power even after all this time? You're strange, Em. But I will respond to this…faith of yours. If you need my power to claim victory…then you shall have it."

It was as Dimaria surmised. Luke was able to move a few seconds after time had stopped. While he was too far away to actually hear the conversation, he was fully aware that this had to be Dimaria's doing. There wasn't much he could do without raising suspicion, so he simply stayed put. What was a few minutes longer than actually allotted, it was simply a passing second to the world around them. That alone reminded Luke just how dangerous Dimaria could be. "…."

[End Flashback.]


Flash forward to the event now taking place. While the race was heating up in the first two areas, Dimaria had gotten the jump on Luke. The result of this surprise attack was Luke lying on his back, currently unconscious while Dimaria stood over him. There was clearly some kind of altercation since she wasn't entirely unscathed, but no one had any idea what happened in such a short amount of time. Many members of the audience were shocked at how fast it happened in their eyes. "What happened!?" Lector's paws were against his cheeks in complete awe.

"Luke-san is down!? But how!?" Sting's jaw dropped.

"I didn't even see it happen…" Jellal narrowed his eyes. "That's the woman with time stop, correct? Ultear warned me about her…"

"Unbelievable." Minerva growled lowly, placing her hands on her hips. "I can take care of it, he says. Now he's flat on the ground and he was the only suitable countermeasure."

"Can she get away with that?" Happy frantically looked at the others.

"Of course she can." Emeraude could hear Fiore's panic and she felt some pride. "They are allowed to disrupt their opponents by any means, excluding taking their lives. Rendering them unconscious falls in nicely with the rules."

"She is correct." Waltz clarified himself, just in case there were any doubts about the validity of Emeraude's assumption. "There is nothing in the rules against rendering one unconscious."

"Feels a bit dirty if you ask me…" Gaia huffed. But it was completely fair.

"We're still in a bind, though." Kagura mentioned. "If Luke is out cold then he can't finish the race."

"No, I think we're okay." Erza said while shaking her head. This caused everyone to give her a look.

"I usually have some level of faith in your words…" Minerva began. "But I fail to see how this is a favorable situation for us, Erza."

"We still have time." Erza explained. "While it is currently unfavorable to us that Luke is out, we still have time. He is the last one…so there is a chance he can wake up in time. Dimaria can't kill him so we have that advantage."

"If I can wake up from an intense hangover I'm sure he can wake up from a beat down." Bacchus made the comparison though it wasn't entirely fitting. It just made sense in his mind.

"I'd much rather rely on him awake than unconscious." Minerva grumbled. There was nothing they could do, however. This situation was out of their hands…


Reve narrowed his eyes as he saw that Luke was taken down. He expected a bit more from the copycat, but now wasn't the time for that. While Dimaria was basking in her apparent victory, Reve did have a perfect shot on the back of her head. From this distance, several miles away, he was going to take the shot. Reve was the only one who could during this window of opportunity. "I hope she didn't think it would be that easy." Reve then clicked the trigger, firing off the bullet all the way from his location towards Dimaria. There were many people questioning the fact if he could even make the shot to begin with…but Reve had full confidence that he would be able to. The bullet soared from his location, across the country, towards Dimaria.

Dimaria stared down at Luke, narrowing her eyes. While she did manage to take him down, she wasn't certain if that was really the end of it. She caught him by surprise but there was no guarantee he'd stay down by the time his team mate came around. Her eyes narrowed, senses picking up on something soaring her way. The time wizard turned, slicing through the bullet with her sword to prevent it from harming her. Even after all this time, her senses and reflexes did not dull. Physical labor as a farmer came a long way in keeping her up to speed. "Nice try."

"Tch." Reve narrowed his eyes. Dimaria had some fight. But more importantly, he heard something calling his name. Or rather, someone.

"REVE!" It was Lucy. By using the fluff cloud created with Aries' Stardress, she had Sagittarius set up a shot with the baton instead of an arrow. She was feeling incredibly drained both physically and magically after the encounter with Lambda, so she had to make up the difference by using her brains! "Now, Sagittarius!"

"Firing!" The archer nodded and released the bowstring, firing off the baton at high speeds! It crossed over the second section and into the third where Reve was. This was far better than covering the forest by foot.

"Hmph. Took her long enough. I would've gotten it done faster." Reve shook his head as the baton landed right next to him. It really did take Lucy too long in his eyes, especially since they were in a sticky situation because of Luke being down for the moment. There was no more time to sit around, so Reve picked the baton and started to take off. The instant he did…

Several large circus balls dropped down from above. Reve was able to maneuver around them, but just as he did, Marx appeared right in front of him. "Hey!" The Wizard hunter said while waving his hand, bouncing around jovially in front of the gunslinger.

Reve wasn't wasting any time with this kid. As soon as Marx appeared, Reve quickly pulled out a pistol and aimed it. The bullet was fired within a second, but one of the bouncing balls appeared in front of Marx, deflecting the bullet back to Reve. "…!" Reve rolled to the side, forced to come to a halt as Marx bounced all around.

"My circus spheres reflect allll types of magic!" Marx said happily. This was the youngest member of the Wizard Hunters, and despite being a young adult, still acted more of a child than a clown. "Bullets are no exception!"

"That's cute. But I'm Reve Volver. I am the exception." As cool as ever, Reve pointed his pistol forward, shooting at Marx once again. Instead of his bullets flying in a straight path like before, they temporarily vanished from sight, only to reappear behind Marx, striking his shoulder.

"Ow!" Marx recoiled from the unexpected attack.

"Like I said. I am the exception. So move." Reve's confidence was on full force. As far as he was concerned, this kid was probably one of the weaker members of the Wizard Hunters. If they were really so intent on stopping him of all people, they'd find how impossible that would be.

Marx furrowed his brows. He wasn't expecting to take a hit like that, but now that he was aware of this, it wouldn't happen again. "I have orders to delay your progress." He then caused the numerous balls around to burst out into harmless green dust. Reve was prepared to be harmed by the explosion, but nothing of the sort happened.

"That your big trick?" Reve scoffed. All he saw was Marx removing the one thing that prevented Reve from putting a bullet directly in his eyes, to knock him out of course. Not that it made a difference due to how Reve fired. As soon as Reve took a step forward, several large, spikey, thorny vines emerged from the ground, breaking it apart while attempting to wrap around Reve. Because his Precision Eyes could not see through objects, he had no way of knowing this would happen. "Of course…!"

"From the data we have on you, it says that you can't see through objects unless your eyes are gray." Marx reported. "Your eyes were green, so even if I couldn't land a hit on you, you wouldn't have seen my thorns coming!"

"Did your homework, did you?" Reve said while dodging and weaving through the rising thorns. It was mostly guesswork, since he did have to save his Foresight for a situation that truly called for it. Being a weed whacker was hardly the time to use such magic. Unfortunately for him, some of the rising vines cut his ankles and arms with their thorns, but he brushed that off. "Doesn't mean you'll ace this test!" Reve preformed a front flip, aiming another shot at Marx, finding an opening through the rising thorns. "Burst Shot!" A condensed bullet shot forward, shooting through the vines while making way towards Marx.

"Hah!" Marx lifted his hand into the air, creating numerous spheres in front of him. Though the Burst Shot was a highly condensed shot, it still rebounded elsewhere, tearing through a few vines in the process. He then flew into the air and started to fly off, dropping more seeds along the rocky Glissando Cliffs, and flying past numerous competitors in the process.


Others didn't have the grand luxury as Marx to just fly into the sky and cover a large distance. It didn't help that he was causing a massive hindrance to the others. With his vines shooting up wildly from the ground, it left very little safe space for anyone else. Blair was among the few who were grounded, strafing left and right as the vines rose up "What the hell is this!?" A pain in the ass, that's what. Left with no option, Blair drew the sword within her right arm and began cutting down the vines as they rose. As Blair ran, she suddenly came to a halt against her will. "What?"

Her feet were bound by a pool of darkness underneath her. As she struggled to move, Zero appeared, walking slowly with his baton in hand. The man stared at Blair, recognizing anyone and everyone from Pergrande as a direct enemy to Emeraude. "You are in Her Majesty's way. I will eliminate you?" As Zero said this he pointed a hand forward, numerous wolves of darkness spawning from the ground and rushing towards the bound Blair.

"I don't give a shit about the feud between Pergrande and Alvarez…but you got another thing coming if you think you can take me down." Blair said while her left arm erupted into its demonic form. She slammed her hand into the pool of darkness under her, consuming the magic to free herself. Once this was done, she charged towards the incoming wolves, cutting them down with her sword. Before she could get too close to Zero, more vines rose up between them, cutting them off. "Damn these things are annoying!"

It was only going to get worse from this point on. A bolt of lightning raced through the two of them in a flash. It was Raku Martell, speeding past any and all altercations with one goal in mind: victory. He failed in the previous event so he had to make up for it with his speed…unfortunately he would be stopped by a rising vine. As good as he was in avoiding them, he couldn't just barrel right past them and it showed as he hit one and was flung back. "Ugh!" He tumbled along, only to stop right in front of Blair. "Oh hey. Up for some dinner later?"

Blair just snarled and swung her sword at him, but he avoided it with ease, now groaning as he was slightly stuck between Blair and a Spriggan. This was a situation he was trying to avoid. "Hell no!"

"Yeesh!" Raku flipped back, glancing at the two obstacles in his way. While he was certain he could take one or the other…but both at the same time? Not favorable circumstances if he had to be truthful. "Okay…what's the plan…?" He asked himself. Marx currently had the lead due to his flight, and it didn't help he was impeding progress with his vines. Suddenly…the vines stopped moving, much to everyone's surprise. "Huh?"

"What now?" Blair looked around, keeping an eye out. Unfortunately for her, she had to avoid an attack from Zero, who was hyper fixated on her due to simply being allied with Pergrande. "Go away!"

The vines then started to shift around, beginning to wildly slam on the ground to catch all three off guard. They were under someone else's control which made this situation even more difficult than before. Club Strong had his hand on the ground, grinning at the golden opportunity that was presented to him. "Check out my Frenzy Plant! All these vines outta nowhere really gave me the perfect chance!" He was the only plant mage in this tournament, meaning he was the only one who could take advantage of this situation. He was aware that Marx was going up ahead, but he had plans for that as well.

"Four's a crowd, buddy." Raku said while moving left and right to evade the vines. He spotted an opening and dashed ahead to rush through it, but he was immediately cut off by a vine slamming into him again, causing him to crash into Zero. "Gah!"

"Grr…" Zero growled, throwing Raku to the side, finding this entire situation to be a waste of time. He had an event to help win for Emeraude and this was slowing him down considerably.

"None of you are goin' anywhere!" Strong exclaimed as he created a sphere of vines with Zero, Blair, and Raku entrapped in the middle. Glissando Cliffs was a rocky flat plain, but they were called cliffs for a reason. The vines moved to suspend the tree of them over the cliff; it was a steep fall, but not steep enough to kill anyone. Strong may not have been the smartest person in a guild with geniuses, but basic deduction was on his side. One: he knew for a fact all three would try to escape at the same time, even if it meant harming another; and two: he knew that these were all very capable mages, so this was his attempt at slowing them down. "Thorny Prison!" With this done, the bulky green haired man sprinted off as fast as he could, waiting for his trap to follow through.


Magnus was the only one on Marx's tail. He was following on foot, but he was able to predict where the vines were falling and rising, and use this to his advantage. It helped that Strong was suddenly taking control of them, but Marx didn't seem to notice this yet. "This one is causing issues due to his magic, so it's time that he's grounded. Hmph! Electric Sword II!" The tactician of Cosmic Star threw his hand forward, releasing a potent blade of lightning that soared towards Marx.

"Huh?" Marx noticed this at the last second, stopping his flight so the sword could fly right past him. "Haha! You missed!" He taunted…but then the sword exploded the moment it flew past him, a web of lightning entrapping him and shocking him as he fell to the ground. "GAAAH!"

"Not at all." Magnus said with a smirk, sprinting towards a falling Marx while bringing forth another weapon. "Dark Scythe I!" A black scythe manifested in his hands. He was planning to strike Marx the moment he hit the ground for maximum damage. Timing was everything and he already had the timing visualized in his head.

"Don't underestimate me! I'm a Wizard Hunter too!" Marx shouted while his cheeks started to inflate. He then parted his lips, releasing a gigantic blast of raw magic that tore through the electrical net around him, and utterly destroyed the surrounding area. As Marx did this, his appearance shifted to show that he was seriously; his arms and legs grew larger, his eyes shifted to a more demonic look, and his wings turned sharp and menacing, fangs now bared for all to see.

"…!" Magnus' eyes widened and he dove to the side, narrowly evading a blast that could have very well taken him out of the race. "This child is some sort of demon in disguise!?"

Marx spat a large black sphere forward towards Magnus. Its properties weren't clear until the moment it struck the ground, causing an explosion of ice that froze everything over. "Take that, you tactical jerk!"

Magnus had no immediate defense for this attack. All he could do was cross his arms, gritting his teeth as the frostbite threatened to set in from the extremely low temperatures. "What manner of creation is this? Fire Sword II!" A blazing blade of flame appeared within his hands now, using the heat from the sword to melt away the surrounding ice and keep himself warm.

"I don't have time to play with you! I have to pass this to Yukia!" And just as Marx was about to fly off, his own vines betrayed him, wrapping around his wings to keep him stuck in the air. It didn't help that the thorns punctured holes into his wings. "Ow!? What's going on!?"

"He's open!" Magnus sprinted to finish Marx off and take Joya out of the race, but the same fate soon befell him as vines wrapped around him and it hurt. "Gh…!"

Strong stampeded forward, barreling past the opposition with a grin. "Sorry, gotta run! Thanks for the vines!"

"You can't use my own magic against me, cheater!" Marx snarled in anger, his childish mentally soon turning into a temper tantrum. This anger reached a boiling point and…his body started to split in half, an ominous magic circle appearing in the space between his body. "People like you…need to be punished!" That magic circle had an incredible suction force, pulling Magnus and Strong into it despite their efforts.

"What is that!?"Strong gasped, digging his club into the ground to keep himself from sliding too far. All that did was delay the inevitable by a large margin. It bought time, but time was not on their side. "Diamond told me about this once but I didn't think I'd have to endure it!

"This young man…is not a normal being at all…!" Magnus grit his teeth. Even he was pressed for ideas, and time was running short with each passing second. Holding onto nearby rocks only did but so much when everything was being consumed.

Reve wasn't too far away after being slowed down. There were a few wounds on his body from the thorns but he shrugged them off. But out of one situation and into another; as soon as he arrived on the scene, he was also being pulled in despite being more than several yards away. The ground itself was starting to uproot and fly into the black hole that was Marx's body, consuming anything and everything in its wake. "You're kidding me? One thing after another with this kid…" All progress was being halted, and if they were dragged into that hole, it would do more than halt progress. It would change the dynamic of this race entirely.

Narrowing his eyes, Reve knew that there was only one thing to do in a situation like this. He had to take the shot…and he knew that he could make it.

.

.

Next Time: The Rocky Mountain.