Chapter Thirty Two - The 1st Annual Grand Magic Games: DAY TWO - July 2nd, X773

After sparring with Cana, making monitoring cards for Magical Overload for Lucy and Brandish, a big dinner, and a warm bath, I went to bed with the others and we all easily fell asleep.

We awoke bright and early, and Lucy and Brandish greeted the group of us as we left the room.

"Who's participating today?" Lucy asked eagerly.

"I'm doing the games!" Levy said happily.

Lucy hugged Levy. "Good luck, Levy-chan! I know you're going to do a great job!"

Brandish gave a shy smile. "I look forward to your victory."

"Thank you, Lu-chan, Dee-chan! We'll see you all for the lunch break!"

Levy couldn't find a shorter version of 'Brandish', so she went with 'Dee', from Brandy.

Lucy and Brandish went with Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen, and our team continued through our passage to enter the field.

"Remember," I told Levy. "It's okay to hide so you can think. You're not brawn, Levy, you're the brains, and you've got the magic power to back it up."

Levy nodded. "Right!"

As the group gathered for the game, I noticed Sol from Phantom Lord competing, and I scowled.

"Levy, you see the Phantom Lord mage?"

She nodded.

"His name is Sol, and he has power over earth. He's also a major jerk, and I know that in the future, he has a type of ability where he can read his opponents minds and make something."

"Make something?" Levy asked.

I nodded. "He's likely to make a stone statue as one of your family members, or maybe your kidnappers. I don't know if he can do it right now, but be careful of him."

I didn't want to scare her, but she had to know.

Levy was a bit more nervous as she went onto the field, but she was determined, and wary of him.

"Makarov, how old is the girl on the field?" Yajima asked.

"That is Levy McGarden, and she is five years old! She'll be turning six quite soon, however."

Jose started laughing. "You put a five-year-old on the field?"

"I have faith in her," Makarov said.

Mato started explaining the game, which seemed to be Hidden. I honestly didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but I had faith in Levy.

They were all transported to different places throughout the town, and Levy looked at the images around her. She also looked to the sky a bit, and seemed to be muttering something to herself, but the lacrimas didn't pick it up.

She turned to a copy of herself and went extremely close to it, leaning in and observing it, before turning and observing one of the others. She turned to one more copy before she turned back to hers, and she reached out and touched it.

There was an error noise, and Levy was transported somewhere else.

Jose was laughing. "She just touched one of the things, even though she knew she was going to get penalized! Your kids are stupid!"

"I have faith in her," Makarov said.

I smirked, and turned to the others. "Do you guys see her smile on the lacrima screen? She has a plan."

Sure enough, Levy turned and wrote, "Solid Script; Stairs!" STAIRS formed and Levy started climbing it, trying to reach the highest part of the city. When she finally stood on top of a building, she screamed at the sky as she wrote.

"Solid Script Magic; Heat Seeking Missiles!"

Four missiles burst out of the floating words and zoomed around the city, each of them hitting a contestant with the exception of the other Fairy Tail mage.

Levy's point count as -1 went up to 3, and she now had the most points, as everyone (except for the other Fairy Tail mage) had -1 point.

Sol got up angrily, and shouted, "Roche Concerto," at Levy, throwing a series of rocks at her.

One of them hit her in the leg, and even from my spot, I could hear the crack noise it made, and we winced as she yelled out.

Levy went down to 2 and Sol went up to 0.

Levy reappeared, but it was near Sol, and I couldn't help worrying.

"Solid Script; Eggs!" she shouted, and a series of eggs came exploding out of the word EGG and at Sol.

Their points switched back to 3 and -1, and Sol was transported.

But because of Levy's leg, which was probably broken, she couldn't move.

Or…maybe she could.

"Solid Script; Bandages!" and Levy began taping up her leg. When it was finished, she said, "Solid Script; Crutches!" and began to move along, albeit slowly.

Before she could get very far, the timer went off and the town disappeared.

Levy was ranked first, at 3 points, followed by the other Fairy Tail team at 0 points. The rest were all tied with -1 points.

"Fairy Tail Team A wins this round, kabo!" Mato said. "Followed by Fairy Tail team B, kabo!"

The scoreboard read as follows:

Fairy Tail A – 30 points

Fairy Tail B – 26 points

Phantom Lord – 10 points

Lamia Scale – 6 points

Quatro Cerberus – 4 points

Blue Pegasus – 2 points

"Since everyone else tied for last place, they get the lowest amount of points, which is zero."

Out of the ground, Sol appeared, and pushed Levy down. "You think you're so smart, you stupid girl."

I turned to Laxus. "Laxus, get her, and punch him, too."

Not questioning me (finally), he rushed onto the field in his Lightning body, and appeared at her side, right as Sol put his foot down on Levy's broken leg.

Levy let out a scream, and Laxus socked Sol in the face as well as electrocuted him, leaving him in a burnt pile on the ground. Laxus picked up Levy and activated his Lightning Body, speeding back through the tunnel and into the infirmary.

"Come on!" I told the others, and we all took off down the hall, not waiting to see what would happen with the crowd, though I could feel Makarov's magical power growing.

We burst through the infirmary door, and Laxus was laying Levy down on a bed while Porlyusica bustled about, grabbing potions.

"I've got a sleep card if you need it!" Cana said.

"No, I will be fine," Porlyusica said. "Laxus, move away, I need room to work!"

Laxus moved to the door where we were waiting, and Porlyusica gave Levy a potion that numbed the pain and slowly put her to sleep.

The door burst open, and Lucy, Brandish, Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen stood in the doorway. Behind them, I could see Macao and Wakaba, as well as Enno and Layla.

"She did well today," Porlyusica said, "But I'm afraid she won't be able to participate in the rest of the games. She won't heal in time."

She looked at Freed, who looked scared. "If this happened to Levy-san…I don't think I can do it."

I walked towards him. "Hey, Freed, don't worry. I believe you're ready. I think you can do it."

For a second, it looked like he was going to say yes, and participate, but then the fear was in his eyes again and he was crumbling to the ground. "I'm sorry, Ella-sama! I have failed you! I cannot do it!"

"Shhh, it's okay," I said, kneeling on the ground and embracing him. One arm wound around his back, and the other ended up on the back of his head, pulling him forward. "You don't have to participate if you don't want to. You haven't failed me. It's alright."

He continued sniffling. "It is?"

"Yeah, it is," I told him.

"But…Evergreen-san and Bickslow-san can't compete. An adult will have to compete, and it will ruin your plan!"

"Not necessarily," I said, getting an idea. "We….have one more option."

I looked up and met Lucy's eyes.

Her eyes widened. "Me? You want me to compete?"

I nodded. "I believe you're ready and you can do it. You were always going to join Fairy Tail, Lucy, we might as well skip ahead a few years."

She bit her lip. "You…you really think I can do it?"

I nodded. "Lucy, you're quite possibly the strongest Celestial Spirit Wizard in the world."

"I…I don't think so," she said quietly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Summon Crux."

Freed backed out of my embrace and we all watched (even Porlyusica, because she had set and wrapped Levy's leg). "Open, Gate of the Southern Cross. Crux!"

Crux appeared in thin air, and Lucy smiled. "Hello, Grandpa Crux! Ellie-nee asked me to summon you!"

"Crux," I said. "Can you tell me what the record is for holding Zodiac gates open? Or just power for Celestial Spirit Wizards, in general?"

He paused. "Well, the most amount of power ever used by a Celestial Spirit Mage was when they used Uranometria Nova."

"Yes, I've heard of it," I said. "It's equivalent to opening all of the Zodiac at once, correct?"

"Yes, however it was only cast once, and it was done by five Celestial Wizards, something history generally neglects to mention."

Freed was paying close attention, and I turned to him and asked, "You want to take notes for Levy?"

He immediately nodded and started taking notes on what Crux said, because he and Levy both loved to learn new information and they hadn't gotten a lot of time to ask Lucy about her magic the other day.

"Alright, so there's that," I muttered. "No one has ever opened two Platinum gates at once, right?"

"Yes, that is correct," Crux said. "Up until now, the record for holding open gates was three Zodiac gates at once, and it was set by Anna Heartfilia, Lucy's ancestor."

"Did you hear that, Lucy?" I asked. "The record was holding three Zodiac gates open. And how many can you open?"

Quietly, Lucy requipped a key into her hand, and held it out. I recognized Scorpio's symbol on it.

I smiled. "You see? You've broken the record for holding gates open, Lucy, and you're six years old! No one else in history has ever been able to hold open four Zodiac gates at once."

Freed gasped, and he had stars in his eyes at the new information.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Crux. "Is Lucy the strongest Celestial Spirit Wizard alive?"

Crux gave me an odd look. "I thought I made it clear that Lucy is the strongest Celestial Spirit Wizard in history."

That could be a bit of a problem, and I resolved to keep an eye on her, just in case.

I turned to Lucy. "So? What do you say? Will you join Fairy Tail, and compete?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes."

"Absolutely not!" came a voice, and Jude appeared in the doorway. "I refuse!"

"It's not like she has to move out or anything," I said. "Everyone else lives in Magnolia because they don't have family to live with, or their family is already there. She can stay at the Konzern and just come and visit every once and awhile."

"I don't want her doing this! She's too young!"

"I think she should do it," Layla said quietly.

Jude gasped. "Layla, how could you-"

"I want to do it, Daddy!" Lucy said. "It's my choice, isn't it? I want to do this!"

Jude looked at all of us, staring at him. "I don't-"

"I don't care!" Lucy yelled. "I want to be a mage, why won't you support me in this? Please, Daddy!"

With that, Jude caved. "Fine."

All seemed fine, but I noticed Brandish's depressed look.

"What's wrong, Brandy?" I asked her.

"Am I…not good enough?" she asked quietly.

"No!" I said, grabbing her shoulders. "Don't ever think that! I was going to ask you if you wanted to join Fairy Tail now, too! I didn't ask you about participating because you said you had some trouble controlling your strength, and because Lucy has been training for a lot longer than you. Alright? You're an amazing kid, Brandish, and in time you could easily become an S – Class Mage, alright?"

She smiled a bit. "Alright."

Without much more fanfare, Lucy got her stamp (same place and color as before), and Brandish got one in green (the same shade as her hair) on her leg. We ate lunch in the infirmary while we waited for Levy to wake up.

I was a bit surprised by how friendly Porlyusica was being, but it was a big infirmary, so she could hide on the other side of the room if she wanted to.

Freed engaged Lucy in a huge conversation about Celestial Magic, and she ended up showing him how she can manifest it.

Levy finally woke up, and was upset that she couldn't participate, but she was happy for Lucy and glad that she got first place.

Eventually, it was time for the battle portion, and we split our separate ways, though Lucy ended up coming with us down to the field. Using my ColorS, I changed the color of her dress to gold, and before she left I told Layla to pick up some black leggings for Lucy.

As we walked down the field, Laxus turned to me. "Is there a reason you had me pick up Levy, instead of doing it yourself?"

I nodded. "Yes, and thank you, thank you very much. I'm glad that you know when it's seriously time to listen to me."

"I told you, Elle," Laxus said. "I would listen to you. I know when to do it and when it's fine to not."

I smiled. "I don't know if you noticed, but I haven't teleported in front of anyone once. Even the commentators don't know how we exactly got first place, because it was too quick for them to notice. Though I'm sure they have their suspicions. I'm hoping to keep it a secret and use it in the future, because it will be a good asset. If possible, I'd like to hide it until the last day."

He nodded. "I see. That's smart."

Laxus was up first, and he was going up against Levy's Sensei, Clarke – who tried his hardest, but ultimately failed, putting us ten points ahead.

I think the most shocking thing about the battle (hehehehehe, shocking) was the reveal of Laxus's Dragon Slayer Magic.

Honestly, I don't think any of us heard what the judges were really saying, because we were too busy laughing at their reactions, as well as the audience when Yajima explained about Dragon Slayer Magic.

Afterwards, Lamia Scale was up against Cerberus, and ended up losing. Pegasus lost to Phantom shortly after.

So the total for today read:

Fairy Tail A – 40 points

Fairy Tail B – 26 points

Phantom Lord – 20 points

Quatro Cerberus – 14 points

Lamia Scale – 6 points

Blue Pegasus – 2 points

The group of us headed inside and had a hearty dinner, with the rest of the kids and the Heartfilias joining us, along with Levy as she got some crutches. When it was time to split up, Lucy begged her parents until they gave in, and she and Brandish ended up joining us in our hotel room for the night. With two more people, we all climbed into bed together.

Alright people, second day! :).

Thank you for all the wonderful comments, I eat them up like they're cookies. And from what I can tell from my schedule and the timeline I've created, you should get Gray by around next Friday.