It was another lovely sunny day for citizens of Crocus as almost every citizen of the capitol and every fan in Crocus was at the coliseum.
"Welcome folks to day three of the Grand Magic Games! Today is the halfway point of the main events and battles. Some teams are going to need to make a comeback now or else they will be realistically too far behind to win" Chopati Lola said.
"Quattro Cerberus and Twilight Ogre fit that bill perfectly, as they have a measly six points combined between the two of them!" Mr. Yajima said.
"Right you are, but everyone will be looking to do well in today's event, the Death-Defying Death Trap Maze!" Chopati Lola announced, followed by, "wizards, please select your contestants!"
Some deliberation happened between the many guilds but after about five minutes, the wizards had been selected from their guilds and a massive mockup of the city of crocus then appeared with guild logos placed at various spots.
"Before we discuss the rules of this event, here are our contestants" Chopati Lola said, then adding, "First, from Fairy Tail team A, the ice wizard, Gray Fullbuster. From Fairy Tail team B, the iron dragon slayer, Gajeel. From the Alvarez guild, their front man, Moreno. From Blue Pegasus and a crowd favorite, Hibiki. From Crime Sorciere, the speed demon, Sawyer. From Mermaid Heel, Risley. From SaberTooth, the minstrel who sings to the red moon, Rufus Lore. From Lamia Scale is their top dog, Toby. From Twilight Ogre, Dusty. Finally, from Quattro Cerberus and looking to break into the double digits, is War Cry!" he finally finished announcing.
Mato then said to the wizards, "for this event, you will start at various points based on the map, based on your points totals from worst to best. You must hurry through the city and get to the Domas Flau coliseum to win. There are many traps out there, and you have a maximum of 90 minutes to get to the coliseum. You can use magic to avoid the traps or stop other wizards, but you cannot use your magic to fly. Good luck!"
Each of the wizards took their time heading to their guild emblem's spot. Gray and Gajeel were starting the furthest out, while War Cry and Dusty were the closest. Everyone was in their position, and not a minute later, Mato announced, "let the race begin!" followed by a gong sound.
"And they're off," Chopati Lola said, followed by, "now, this might be a race, but with tons of possible traps being set up around the city, it will be hard to avoid them".
"Exactly, and while magic can be used, you cannot use it to fly," Mr. Yajima said, reminding the crowd of the rules.
The race itself started off slow, each wizard seeming to be put in a part of the city they were unfamiliar with. Even Moreno, who based his guild in the city, was not completely familiar with his surroundings. However, Hibiki and himself had an ace up their sleeve. Both began tapping on what appeared to be a screen that popped out of thin air. It looked like what we would associate to be a computer. This is archive magic, it allowed access to a magical database of information that was vast and expansive.
For both wizards it provided an easy route to the goal, and they took off running in that direction, of course one other thing that helped was, they could keep tabs on the other wizards. Like the viewers in the stands, they had access to who was getting closer to the finish and who wasn't.
By now, every wizard could tell they needed to pick up the pace and did their best to get ahead or catch up. Risley had now used her gravity to make herself weigh much less. She was now figured like one of the many stunning ladies of her guild, particularly like Kagura or Aranya. On top of that she was using her gravity magic to make the ground around her have less gravity, this allowed her to bounce with every step she ran, allowing her to make up ground.
The next who was trying a scheme was Sawyer, his magic allowed him to be fast, but only by changing the perception of those around him. His strategy for winning would try to get to the finish line as soon as he could and hope he could slow down the people ahead of him and this would be where he would succeed.
After that leaves the three who were left without a magic that could easily help their mobility, Rufus, Toby, Dusty, and War Cry. Though, Rufus had his memory make magic which could help him set off traps. This left the other three working towards the goal without much in the way of magic to help. Their plans varied but essentially revolved around trying to slow down or stop the competition. This of course was easier said than done, and each were the fastest runners in their guilds.
Gray and Gajeel had also figured out some tricks of their own. Gray had frozen the ground beneath him, this had the added benefit of lowering his resistance, and with him making ice skates for himself, he was getting through the city at a spectacular rate. Gajeel meanwhile had used his shadow dragon slayer powers to merge in with the shadows and jump from shadow to shadow, going undetected and was making almost as fast a pace as Gray!
By now, about thirty minutes had passed and the wizards were closing in on the goal and everyone was cheering on their favorite wizards. Some of the wizards had set off plenty of the traps, Rufus being the most notable, falling into a simple pitfall trap that only continued to sour the reputation of the once mighty Saber Tooth guild. Though he wasn't alone in these troubles, as Toby, Dusty, and War Cry were all struggling immensely.
At the forty-minute mark is when the action at the finish line heated up, Gray was first across the line in an impressive forty minutes on the dot. The Fairy Tail team A and guild suite were roaring with cheers, as Fairy Tail were left grumbling at Gajeel's defeat.
"I can't believe Gajeel lost to Gray," Bixlow said.
"Ultimately it doesn't matter, Makarov will have us defeat the number of enemies in the battle royale round to have us equal with team A" Laxus retorted, trying to calm down his comrade in arms.
Zeldris spoke up to break the silence, "and what if we're to compete against team A in one of the battles during the next two and a half days?" Every member looked at each in an ominous silence, nobody really had an answer to Zeldris's question, the silence only being broken by a surprisingly exhausted Gajeel crossed the line at forty-three minutes to take second.
"We will cross that bridge when we get there Zeldris" Gajeel said when he finally got to the team suite, "I just hope that I don't have to fight anyone in the battles today" he added as he slowly cooled down and caught his breath.
It was now the fifty-minute mark, and more contestants were coming into view of the finish. Moreno was in a dead sprint, only barely ahead of Hibiki as they dashed towards the line.
"They are neck and neck coming to the line, it looks like Moreno is going to cross the line third, and Hibiki only a couple seconds behind him!" Chopati Lola announced with excitement. The two wizards were dismayed to see they were only third and fourth. However, each guild were over the moon with the result.
"Lady Alayna, your husband made a grand result, it is awe inspiring, ma'am" Ree Zay said.
"Indeed, it is inspiring Ree Zay, it has me all fired up" Apollo remarked, Alayna only nodded, taking her guildmates compliments about her husband in stride.
A single congratulatory, "MEEEEEEENNNNNN!" was shouted by Ichiya Vandalay Kotobucki, followed by separate cheers from Hibiki's guildmates, Ren, Sho, and Eve.
Both Moreno and Hibiki returned to their guild suite's being celebrated like heroes.
Next across the line in fifth was Sawyer at the one-hour mark. His plan had partially succeeded but was equally thwarted by the closeness of Hibiki and Moreno were from the finish by their starting positions. Crime Sorciere were happy with his finish, they could only be left slightly dismayed as their progress seemed to stagnate.
Sixth across the line at the sixty-ninth minute-mark was Risley, who's nice result had been affected by Sawyer's speed magic and slowed her down, though of course she didn't know it. Crossing the line in seventh at the seventy-fifth minute-mark was Rufus, who's falling into traps is what sealed the deal on his lowly result. He hung his head in shame below the brim of his hat as he walked off the field exhausted.
It was now only fifteen minutes before the maximum time to finish when Chopati Lola announced, "we have just heard from the officials, if there are contestants who still have not finished by the ninety-minute mark, they will be scored based on distance to the finish line".
By now the activity in the arena had calmed down significantly, the heat of the July sun was bearing down on Crocus. Most of those in attendance were rather bored. In fact, most of the wizards were too. Zeldris had even managed to fall asleep during this lack of activity.
At the eightieth minute, Toby from Lamia Scale crossed the line, netting eighth place for his guild, not that this really satisfied the old hag, who gave him a big spin when he got there.
Finally, and only seconds clear of max time was Dusty from Twilight Ogre, this only left War Cry from Quattro Cerberus.
"Uh, well folks" Chopati Lola said after Dusty crossed the line and the timer reached zero. "It seems like we have everybody except War Cry from Quattro Cerberus" he said.
"His dot on the tracking screen has not moved for the past twenty minutes" pointed out Mr. Yajima.
"We'll try and find out where he is based off of the map with our tracker cameras" Lola announced.
It only took a couple minutes to find him, and it left many in the arena appalled.
"Uh" Chopati Lola began with as the camera's finally found War Cry, "it seems, that we have found War Cry, and he is in the Alvarez guild hall". The camera's turned to show the window of the guild's small bar, with War Cry guzzling down booze.
"I hope to leave this out of my memory" Ree Zay said, as all five Alvarez members were equally appalled by this.
"Thank heavens this is only a mock-up and not our actual guildhall" Moreno said, before adding, "otherwise all of our alcohol would be gone".
War Cry finally having had his fill stumbled out of the guildhall shouting, "WIIIIIILD!" as he then fell flat on his face, passing out as the mock-up of the city faded away.
All the Quattro Cerberus members were ashamed at their guild member's failing, with Bacchus saying, "that is so not totally wild man" rather embarrassed.
"Well, with that out of the way" Chopati Lola announced, as War Cry was escorted off the field. "Here are the results from today's event".
1st Gray Fullbuster, Fairy Tail team A, 10 points
2nd Gajeel Redfox, Fairy Tail team B, 9 points
3rd Moreno Zendaiyan, Alvarez Guild, 8 points
4th Hibiki Lates, Blue Pegasus, 7 points
5th Saywer, Crime Sorciere, 6 points
6th Risley Law, Mermaid Heel, 5 points
7th Rufus Lore, Saber Tooth, 4 points
8th Toby Horhorta, Lamia Scale, 3 points
9th Dusty, Twilight Ogre, 2 points
10th War Cry, Quattro Cerberus, 1 point.
"An excellent event for today!" Mr. Yajima said ecstatically.
"Absolutely, and we have just received the battle lineups for today! So, without further delay, first up will be a battle of sky and wind magic as Fairy Tail team A's Wendy Marvell takes on Rocker of Quattro Cerberus. Next, the poison dragon slayer Erik, will battle Blue Pegasus's new card master Sho. Our third battle of the day will feature the fiery Apollo of the Alvarez guild versus Aranya of Mermaid Heel. The fourth matchup will feature Toby from Lamia Scale versus Dusty of Twilight Ogre. Finally, a match that will have everyone's eyes on the prize, Fairy Tail team B's iron and shadow dragon slayer Gajeel versus Saber Tooth's celestial phenom Yukino Aguria! This will be a great set of matchups; don't you dare look away!"