Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 7: Strategic Celestial Spells! Fierce Fiery Power! Lucy vs. Akai!
Lucy charged at Akai while starting to smile confidently, and she hoped to do well in this fight. Lucy activated the spell known as Celestial Ball, which caused a golden sphere to form in her right hand while it grew to be the size of her palm, and Lucy threw her attack at Akai. The crimson-haired pop idol evaded the attack with some slow movements, however, and she ignored the golden blast that occurred. Akai smirked at Lucy in a rude manner, before building up some magical power, and she shot out a red stream of fire from her mouth!
The flames harshly struck Lucy while they also created a fiery explosion, and Lucy screamed in pain. She was pushed back by Akai's spell, panting a bit as slight burns were on her body, and Lucy watched Akai's body become engulfed in a red aura of Fire Magic. She thought that this was the perfect time to unleash her second spell from the Celestial Mage Ring, though, and Lucy would gladly use the Celestial Star Beam attack. She stretched out both of her hands, before firing a golden beam that had two rings of golden stars surrounding it, and Lucy remained confident as she watched her attack go towards Akai.
To Lucy's surprise, though, Akai dodged the attack by simply sliding to her right. That caused Lucy's orange eyes to widen in shock, as there was no way that Akai could've known how that spell would head straight for her, and she watched Akai start to smirk evilly. The princess of Cramoisi Town created a flame in her right hand, and she threw it high up into the air. The flame descended down to the platform while it gained much more power and speed, even having its fire become somewhat larger, and the flame smashed through a part of the platform! Its power created a line of red flames that all erupted up from the ground to create a line of hot fire, and the flames ended up striking Lucy! She was engulfed in a large blast of fire that made her skin become charred, and Lucy let out another scream of agonizing pain.
Akai smiled with pleasure from hearing Lucy scream, her raspberry red eyes showing delight from seeing her beautiful flames, and some red clouds of smoke appeared for a few seconds. Akai felt happy about how it seemed like she won, and she thought that Lucy was a loser who really underestimated her abilities. Akai was about to start walking away, only to hear Lucy panting heavily, and the pop idol turned around to see that Lucy was still standing while only being somewhat bloodied and bruised from that attack. Akai's eyes widened in shock for a moment, but she soon closed her eyes while hearing how the song from her band got faster. That caused Akai to relax while the red aura was still around her body, and she was glad to hear Kasai start playing some fast-paced riffs that sounded awesome.
"Just because I'm a pop idol who loves music, never underestimate me! In fact, let's see how you deal with my burning spells having more speed!" Akai exclaimed to Lucy with an arrogant smile on her face, before dashing towards her at high speeds.
Lucy replied sternly while narrowing her eyes, not intending to give up, "Even if your fire is strong, I won't lose to a fast-moving mage again!"
Akai rudely told Lucy while her smile changed into an evil smirk, getting closer as she created a flame in her right hand, "You'll regret trying to take me on, you weak piece of trash!"
Lucy thought to herself in a stunned manner, widening her eyes, "Akai's way too close! I can't create the Celestial Ball!"
Akai struck Lucy in the chest with the flame, before seeing it result in a red blast that sent Lucy flying upward, and the pop idol happily laughed as she was showing off her skills to the crowd. Akai decided to shoot out more flames from her mouth to simply create a large ring of fire around herself, showing off for the crowd while she strangely started to move around quite fast to be as fast as the music being played by her band, but hearing the guitars and keyboard stop for the drummer to slowly lead the group into the song's bridge made Akai's feet come to a halt.
Lucy looked quite shocked from seeing Akai slow down, which was weird to her, and all that she could soon hear was the electric guitar playing the exciting bridge part of the song. Akai began to move fast again while shooting out more fire to make her flames become stronger, and Lucy viewed that as a good opening for an attack. She fired the Celestial Ball down at the ring of fire, seeing it land somewhat close to Akai, and Lucy watched her opponent stop moving while the average-sized blast seemed to blind her for a few moments.
Lucy followed that up with the Celestial Star Beam attack, and she fired the golden beam from her hands. It harshly hit the platform, even hitting some of the flames to make them become golden, and the action Lucy slightly moving her hands caused those flames to start jumping away from the ring. Lucy used that spell again while she tried to hit Akai, only to see the pop idol quickly evade her attack, and Lucy didn't care that her attack struck more of the flames. She saw no reason to stop moving her hands around, but Lucy did start to notice how Akai's ring of flames was breaking apart.
"If that spell's effect works the same way as it did in my training, then I have an advantage now!" Lucy shouted fiercely, before having a delighted smile slightly on her face.
Akai thought to herself while looking a bit shocked, noticing most of her flames being in a different color, "What in the world did that loser do?"
Lucy shouted with a determined look on her face, feeling like she could win, "Celestial Cosmic Blast!"
Lucy stretched out both of her arms while spinning down to the ground in a circle, and unleashing even the slightest amount of her magical power caused a star-shaped projectile to appear in front of her. It began to circle around Lucy while spinning in the clockwise direction, almost like a boomerang being thrown through the air, and Lucy ended up spinning quite fast to where she nearly broke through part of the platform. Lucy stopped spinning to the point where she could easily stand up, and Lucy got to see the star still spinning around her body while Akai didn't look happy about how Lucy was showing off for the crowd.
Akai stretched her right arm forward to send the remaining flames that were under her control to strike Lucy, only to see the user of Celestial Spirit Magic counter each flame with the Celestial Ball, and Lucy aimed her right hand up at the moon for her hand to oddly take in the moonlight. Lucy wasn't a white dragon slayer like Sting, which prevented her from eating light, but she was trying to have some ideas for beating Akai. She watched her golden sphere collide the flames to create another golden blast, and Lucy put both of her feet on the star-shaped projectile that still floated around her.
Lucy watched the copious amount of thin golden beams shine from her attack, before choosing to jump upward, and the moment that her feet got off of it was the moment that the spell detonated to create a golden blast! The light from the explosion caused Akai to shut her eyes while Lucy was sent flying up into the air, and she could hear the crowd of people near the concert hall loudly cheer. They were enjoying this fight, similar to how Kaen and the band members enjoyed their act of restarting the song that they played on the new stage, and there was quite an interesting rhythm to this battle.
Meanwhile, near the concert hall...
Sting watched Lucy on the Lacrima Vision screens, seeing how she was fighting quite hard to win, and he smiled confidently while believing that Lucy could truly turn this match around. Sting observed how the Lacrima Vision screens shifted to Lucy's opponent, who let the gold clouds of smoke fade away as she weirdly tapped her feet softly from how the band began to play their new song again. The white dragon slayer watched Akai smile while seeing her be bruised from Lucy's attack, so this fight was clearly not over.
As Sting watched Akai build up magical and use a spell in a relaxed manner, he got to hear the band's slow buildup to their chorus. Kaen was part of that buildup while he oddly had a scheming smirk on his face, and playing some chords on his keyboard led into Kasai quickly strumming the electric guitar while her chords were fitting the song's melody. Those chords in the song, along with the drums and bass being played on the same beat with harmony to the other instruments, caused people in the crowd to cheer wildly while their attention wasn't fully on the fight.
Sting looked at the Lacrima Vision screen to see Lucy come down from the sky while Akai began to move much faster, and the guitar riffs being made by Kasai occurred right before Akai dealt five fiery punches to Lucy's face. The riffs continued while they led into the first chorus with the other instruments, and Akai quickly shot out a red fireball from her mouth. She followed that up with a red stream of fire emerging from her mouth, before firing three more of those streams at the fireball, and Akai smirked deviously as sshe saw the fireball get bigger.
Even though Akai quickly used those attacks, Sting and Lucy both saw her lightly punch the fireball with both hands while her hands were engulfed by the red aura. Akai made her attack go towards Lucy at a relaxed pace, which occurred at the same time that the band's song slowed down as they played the second verse, and Lucy widened her eyes in shock from seeing four flames coming out of the fireball while they rotated at a decent pace. The flames managed to reach Lucy, burning her skin while she screamed in pain, but Akai shot out a fast-moving fireball that was smaller. It hit her larger projectile, causing it to accelerate towards Lucy while the flames still roared outward, and Akai used that move with perfect timing as her band's song reached the second chorus. As the fireball made contact with Lucy and exploded, Sting widened his eyes from realizing why Akai kept shifting the pace of the battle from slow to fast at certain times.
"Those dirty mages are just asking to get trounced by me! They're not letting their precious princess fight fair at all!" Sting exclaimed with a serious facial expression, narrowing his eyes as he was starting to see through their performance.
Risa asked him with a curious facial expression, blinking her eyes at him, "Master, what are you talking about? Aren't Akai Hinotama's band members just playing music?"
Sting sternly replied to her, as he looked frustrated, "That's exactly it. Akai is fighting in tune with the music, Risa."
Upon hearing the drummer lead the band into the bridge again by slowly playing the drums, Risa took notice of how Akai suddenly slowed down to a halt. She watched the smoke clear up to reveal that Lucy had more burns and bruises on her body from that attack while she was also more bloodied, and Akai simply smirked with superiority in her eyes from seeing Lucy fall to her knees. Everyone got to see Akai scoff at the sight of Lucy trying to stand up, since Akai rudely smiled at Lucy for being foolish enough to keep this challenge going, and Akai didn't care if this particular opponent got killed.
As she heard Kasai's guitar riffs play again, Akai made the red aura engulf her body more while she moved much faster to be in tune with the music. Since Lucy was trying hard to stand, Akai chose to just confound her with high speed as she laughed in a snobby manner. She thought that Lucy's attacks were all completely useless, as she only landed one hit so far, and Akai would gladly let Lucy be a one-hit wonder before her death. She kept running around on the platform at high speeds, even appearing in front of Lucy to lightly punch her in the face before speeding off again, and Akai felt like she would easily achieve victory now.
Lucy panted heavily while looking frustrated, as she was unable to keep up with Akai's pace, and that prompted Risa to start running towards the staircase with a concerned facial expression. Sting ran after her while he also wanted to put an end to how the band was practically helping Akai cheat in this fight, but leaving the crowd to try and reach the stairs only made Risa get stopped by an average-sized fireball that struck her in the stomach! It created a miniature explosion while Risa coughed up a slight bit of blood, and Sting watched Risa fall to the ground. He looked up to see that the attack came from Ryuko, who smirked evilly as she wouldn't let anyone interfere with Akai's match, and Sting could tell that they would have to defeat her if they wanted to access the stairs. As Risa made a pink aura surround her body to heal herself, Sting wondered if he would soon have to take on all of Akai's assistants at the same time. This was a troubling issue for him, and for Lucy.
Lucy thought to herself as she looked very frustrated, unable to ignore that music, "If Akai's band didn't play that music so loud, then I could concentrate!"
Sting thought to himself as he tried to calm down, closing his eyes, "If I have to leave this up to Lucy, then I won't take back what I told her. I know that she can beat Akai, and Lucy can figure out how to throw her off-balance in this fight."
Sting turned to Akai's band to hear them ending the song again, before restarting it to make the song be played for a third time, and the white dragon slayer hoped that Lucy could take a bit of time to just listen to the music. Judging by the music, it didn't seem like Akai was only using it to manipulate the pacing of the battle. She could use the music to make her attacks seem slow and relaxed, before the fast chords were a loud signal for her to speed up those attacks while giving them more power, and Akai could also calm herself down in the very beginning of the song.
The fact that Akai was lightly tapping her feet again made Sting have a look of realization in his eyes, as he started to think about how the entire song was like a set of instructions. Every single spell and attack that Akai used was perfectly in tune with the music, and every single musical chord was an order that Akai carried out. Not only was this type of strategy very confusing for her opponents to handle, but countering it would take a bit of work. In fact, Lucy would have to find a way to stop Akai or stop that music.
Since stopping the music wasn't possible right now with four mages probably being ready to attack anyone who went on stage, Sting wondered how Lucy could turn the tables against Akai. The pop idol was not only wielding fire, but she definitely had the rhythm of this battle going in her favor. If this rhythm was truly set to favor Akai, then Lucy would have to find a way to just make Akai go off-beat. After all, the polar opposite of moving in harmony to music was moving in a discordant way to where Akai couldn't follow the music.
Lucy panted heavily while looking frustrated, unable to think because of that loud music, and she started to look down at her Celestial Mage Ring while wishing that there was some way for her to beat Akai. Lucy looked up to see the princess of Cramoisi Town giving her a smug grin, as she felt like her victory would occur in only a few minutes, and Lucy could hear Akai lightly tapping her feet to the beginning of the music. As Lucy observed Akai's feet, her orange eyes became filled with a look of realization. Akai was battling in sync with that music, and that was how she could quickly use spells while shifting the battle's pace.
Lucy frowned at Akai while wondering if she could win, but the images of Akai moving fast in her mind only made Lucy start to narrow her eyes as she thought about Kotomi Takeuchi. Lucy wasn't in her own body anymore, which meant that she didn't have her keys or have access to Kotomi's spells, but she did have access to trying to inhale wind. Lucy began to inhale a large amount of wind while hearing Kaen and Kasai play their instruments once again to signify the fast part of the song, and Lucy created a Celestial Ball in her right hand.
She exhaled some air down on to that Celestial Ball while infusing some magical power of her Celestial Spirit Magic into it, and Lucy inhaled more air. Akai quickly thought that Lucy's actions were useless, prompting her to run towards the green-haired mage, but Akai was surprised by Lucy exhaling a high amount of air to where she made the wind roughly push against Akai. The pop idol stood her ground while the winds quickly subsided, but running towards Lucy again was not the best idea. Lucy struck the platform with her Celestial Ball, creating an average-sizd blast while the golden light blinded Akai, and Lucy used that spell two more times.
She made the spheres strike Akai directly, making the light be so bright to where Akai could only see the blasts that were occurring around her body, and the damage didn't seem to bother Akai that much. Despite being bruised and thrown off of her rhythm, she still believed that Lucy's bright spells would be useless. The light began to fade away, but Akai opened her eyes to see Lucy firing the Celestial Star Beam attack from her hands. The attack hit Akai directly, creating a golden explosion while she screamed in pain, and Lucy smiled at her strategy while she was definitely changing the rhythm of this battle to suit her abilities. The crowd was enjoying it, too.
Sting got to hear one girl in the crowd exclaim in a shocked tone, making him look at the Lacrima Vision screen, "Whoa! She blinded Princess Akai with all that light! She totally did that to keep Princess Akai from dodging that sneak attack!"
Risa asked aloud in a snarky manner while smiling, seeing the screen show Akai start to look annoyed after the smoke clear up, "Who in the world seriously thought that a fire-wielding pop idol was the only one who could rock out in a fight against another mage? Did they think that no one would try to knock Akai's awesomeness off of the charts?"
Yukino added with a kind smile on her face, as she was enjoying the battle, "Go, Lucy-sama!"
As Lucy started to hear some people in the crowd cheer her name while the fight seemed thrilling, she channeled more magical power from the Celestial Mage Ring. Akai slowly stood up, only to get hit by the Celestial Star Beam attack again, and Lucy noticed how the golden aura around Akai's body started to grow larger than before. The red aura that engulfed Akai's body had now disappeared, since that attack hurt worse than last time, and she stood up again while feeling something drip from her face. Akai was not only badly bruised, but her face now had two lines of blood trickling down from a cut created by that explosion.
The sight of her own blood dripping on to the wooden platform, along with the damage to her face, caused Akai to let out a horrified scream. She narrowed her raspberry red eyes and clenched her fists tightly, before taking several steps back. Akai decided that she would need to truly get serious against Lucy, and she broke off a brown piece of wood from the platform. Akai held it in her left hand, before moving that hand around in a circular motion for ten seconds, and she made the red aura of Fire Magic surround her hand. The circular motions began to produce a ring of fire, which all converged on to the piece of wood to make it be covered in flames, Akai threw the piece of wood up into the air while she turned her hand sideways to make the piece of wood turn and spin in that direction. It completely remained in the sideways position without descending while Akai shot out a stream of fire from her mouth for it to hit the burning wood, and Lucy wondered about what her opponent was up to. Akai's extremely hot fire hit the piece of wood, resulting in an explosion that sent several large flames down on the ground, and Akai simply watched the large flames explode to create several smaller flames while one of the flames even landed beside Lucy. It exploded, which made Lucy get burned while she had to deal with the immense heat, and she was quite bruised. Lucy's wounds were also pretty bloodied while she rolled across the platform for a few moments, but she quickly got up with a determined look on her face.
Seeing all of the red flames that Akai created only made Lucy smile confidently, since she also still had a new move to show off, and Lucy created the Celestial Ball in her right hand again. She surprisingly stretched out that hand and her other hand to use the Celestial Star Beam spell again, but the Celestial Ball got caught in the large beam while it seemed to get three times larger than before. The attack was intercepted by Akai moving her hands to manipulate several flames into forming a wall, but the gold beam simply exploded while it also gave off an intense amount of brightness that blinded everyone's eyes. The golden light shined down on all of the flames, converting them to a golden color as a golden aura surrounded them, and the gold aura that surrounded Akai's body simply became much larger. As the light faded away, Akai looked astounded at what Lucy did to her precious flames.
"What have you done to my flames, you bitch?!" Akai asked Lucy in a stunned manner, before the feeling of anger entered her eyes.
Lucy responded to Akai with a stern facial expression, as she wasn't intending to lose, "I've made them be celestial flames now, Akai! In fact, they're part of a celestial solo that I'll let you hear firsthand!"
Akai replied with a frustrated look on her face, as she wondered how Lucy still had willpower, "You've got to be kidding me. After all those fiery attacks, you're like an obsessed fan who just won't go away."
Lucy shouted fiercely, as she would gladly put an end to this fight, "I'll be happy to win now, then! I call upon my fourth spell, Celestial Shield!"
Lucy summoned her magical power while she closed her eyes and aimed both of her hands up at the blue sky, before she made a golden aura start to engulf her body. Lucy slammed her palms together, and the immense amount of energy that she sent into the Celestial Mage Ring caused it to start shining while the ring became as bright as a burst of light from the Celestial Ball. After a few seconds, a star-shaped projectile came down from the sky to hit the spot where Lucy was currently standing. The projectile broke apart into seven stars, which all began to float around Lucy, and she would be glad to use these shields.
She aimed her right hand at some of the gold flames while the simple action of puling her hand backwards made the flames be sent flying in her direction, and one of Lucy's shields broke away from the circle to get hit by the seven golden flames. The gold fire was propelled back towards Akai, who was quite surprised to see the fire take the form of a fiery vortex, and Lucy aimed her right hand at another large cluster of flames. She made those flames come towards her, only for the shield to intercept the attack, and another vortex of gold fire was created. Lucy repeated that process for a third time, as she wanted to get some payback on Akai for having her band play a song that gave her an unfair advantage, and she sent the last large group of golden flames back towards Akai while they spun rapidly to look like a spiraling vortex. The first vortex struck Akai to create a golden explosion, which made her scream in pain from this spell was quite powerful, but the next vortex seemed to grow twice as large while it appeared to gain more power from being near an enemy who had a golden aura surrounding their body. The vortex began to have several little gold stars of Celestial Spirit Magic coming off of it, before striking Akai to engulf her in a massive golden blast, and the third vortex simply shined in a gold color with thin golden beams emanating from it while the little stars also appeared. That final vortex struck Akai directly while Lucy focused all of its power into a single point, and Lucy heard her opponent scream in immense pain from the consecutive blasts damaging her body.
The blasts gave off a massive amount of golden light that blinded the mayor while even Ryuko's orbs were blinded to where everyone watching the Lacrima Vision screens couldn't see anything, and some people in the crowd glanced up at the volcano to just see the blasts be around for several seconds. They soon faded away while gold clouds of smoke began to leave the battlefield, and everyone got to see that Akai was heavily bruised. The pop idol was also bloodied in several areas while the fiery vortexes charred her skin, even making her red dress being charred brown from the fire, and Akai simply looked down to see that her dress had several tears. She glanced up at Lucy to see her still looking determined while they stood across from each other, and Akai weakly aimed her left hand at Lucy. She attempted to shoot out a fireball, only to feel extremely exhausted to the point of falling forward to land on the damaged platform's wood with a loud thud, and Akai was incapable of continuing. Therefore, the fact that Lucy was barely standing as she panted heavily meant that she was officially the winner.
The mayor announced with a calm look on her face, seeing the results of the battle up close, "Akai Hinotama has fallen, and she is unable to battle! The celestial mage is the winner!"
Sting responded with an excited facial expression to the crowd, as he heard those results, "Awesome! Lucy Heartfilia won! Lucy Heartfilia from the Sabertooth guild just kicked Akai's ass!"
Risa added while giving Akai's band members a snarky look, seeing them be surprised to where they weren't playing their instruments, "It looks like Akai's flames burnt out, and Lucy was the person on fire with her moves at the end. Clearly, Akai getting burnt by her own flames being converted must be like dealing with a remix that turned out better than the original song."
Since Lucy was officially the winner, the mayor went around the platform and walked over to the red orb that was bordered by two torches. She watched Lucy do her best to walk over to the orb, panting as she was quite tired from that fight, and Lucy honestly felt like she only had enough magical power left for one attack. Every step that she took led her to the red orb, even if she had to jump off of the wooden platform to have her feet on the ground around the battlefield, and Lucy wondered if she would be able to impress the Fire Goddess who watched over Cramoisi Town.
Lucy closed her eyes for a moment while making herself be only a few feet away from the red orb, and she stretched out both of her hands to make the Celestial Star Beam spell be fired. Lucy aimed her attack at the orb, watching the beam create an explosion after hitting its target, and the explosion was hastily absorbed by the sacred item. The red orb now had the explosion's energy, causing fire to appear at the bottom of the orb before the heat made it grow higher to reach the very top of the red orb, and the mayor applauded Lucy while the people in the crowd also clapped their hands to show that they were proud of the girl who won this year's traditional battle.
The only people who probably weren't very happy seemed to be Kaen and the other band members, since they quickly left the stage to go run up the stairs with concerned looks on their faces, and Ryuko ran after them while Risa followed them with Sting quickly being behind her to make sure that she had backup. Sting didn't want Akai's assistants to harm Lucy when she didn't have much strength, and he wasted no time with running towards her. Risa also ran up to Lucy while making a pink aura surround her hands, and Risa placed her hands on Lucy's shoulders. She also shot out a thin pink beam of energy from her mouth, aiming it down at Lucy's abdomen, and Risa's healing magic started to flow throughout Lucy's body. A pink aura engulfed Lucy's body for a few seconds, as white clouds of smoke sizzled up from her wounds that were starting to vanish, and Lucy began to feel fully healed. Her skin returned back to its normal state instead of being charred, and the only thing that was somewhat damaged ended up being Lucy's outfit.
Despite how her clothes were damaged, however, Risa would gladly buy her some new ones. As Lucy smiled at her pink-haired friend for healing her body, that smile soon changed into a look of shock from noticing how the Celestial Mage Ring had shattered into several fragments from using that last spell. All of those spells, as well as the enhanced power, must've led to the ring breaking apart like a tiny glass object that hit the ground to now be in shards. The fragments fell down to the ground, unable to be repaired, and that made Lucy look quite disappointed. The mayor noticed Lucy sadly looking down at her left hand, almost like that Holder Magic was crucial, and the red-haired woman looked over at Kaen for a moment while adjusting her glasses.
"Kaen! You're the one who gave the battle's prizes to Princess Akai every year when she won, and this girl would like to receive the item that's for the victorious mage who provided flames to the Fire Goddess!" The mayor told him in a stern manner, as she watched him turn away from Akai's unconscious body to look at her with a frustrated facial expression.
Kaen replied with a miffed look on his face, as he walked towards the Sabertooth mages, "Yeah, I'll give that girl the prize for beating Princess Akai."
Lucy asked him while curiosity entered her eyes, wondering what she would receive, "What exactly did I win?"
Lucy's question prompted Kaen to tell her with the best genuine smile that he could make in this situation, as he took a red ring out of his jacket's left pocket, "This is the Crimson Ring. This ring will allow you to wield Fire Magic, as well as enhancing any spells of Fire Magic that you already have. Be sure to rock out with the Fire Magic, since the ring oddly can't break. Cramoisi Town's history claims that it's part of some legend involving six other rings that can reverse any spell when they're together, too."
Kaen held out his left hand for Lucy to take the ring, and she gently picked it up with her right hand before placing it on her ring finger. Lucy noticed how the Crimson Ring was surprisingly a ring in the normal shade of red, even having a ruby red gem in the middle, and wearing the Crimson Ring with the jewel facing upward surprising made the ring become a crimson color when the moonlight touched the ring. Lucy built up her magical power to create a little flame in her right hand, only to see Kaen quickly back away from her, and aiming that fireball at any of Akai's other assistants caused them to turn away while closing their eyes. They cowered in fear at the rumored power of Lucy's awesome item, and the fact that she defeated the strongest girl in Cramoisi Town only made them hope Lucy wouldn't burn them into ashes.
Lucy narrowed her eyes while thinking that it would be good to attack Kaen and the others as payback for trying to help Akai win by cheating, but she slowly closed her eyes. Lucy elicited a soft sigh of mercy, as she wouldn't harm the members of Akai's crew when they hadn't actually harmed her on their own, and she simply opened her eyes to look down at the ring. If Kaen's words were true about this ring having something to do with reversing a spell, then Lucy could probably reverse the spell that Kotomi activated for them to switch bodies. Even if she had to collect six other rings, Lucy would gladly do that.
As Lucy started walking towards the staircase, Rogue and Yukino came up the stairs in a hasty manner with Jason from Sorcerer Magazne being right behind them. The blond-haired reporter who wore a pink shirt with blue jeans looked quite excited as he ran up to Lucy, pulling out a pen and a notepad from his pocket for her statements about the fight, and briefly turning his head to see Akai get healed by the healing spell from Kasai's Fire Magic also made Jason be sure to get an interview with the pop idol for her statements that would be in Sorcerer Magazine. As Lucy walked towards the staircase with Sting and Risa following her, Jason had a delighted facial expression.
"Excuse me, Miss! That fight was cool! Really cool! Celestial Spirit Magic versus Fire Magic, and strategy versus passion with determination on both sides! All of it was so cool for myself and the photographers to see, so please give Sorcerer Magazine your statement about fighting Akai Hinotama!" Jason exclaimed to Lucy with a happy smile on his face, before comically cheering at how the fight was so cool.
Lucy responded to Jason in a stern manner for her statement while her eyes shifted to Akai and the assistants who seemed terrified of the Sabertooth mage, not forgetting their past actions, "Listen up, you cowards of Cramoisi who like to nearly clean out the fashion stores! If any of you cocky wizards or your band's snobby leader ever want to get your butts kicked, then just remember that we're the Sabertooth mages from Kogane Town!"
Ryuko replied for the group with a fearful facial expression, stretching out her hands defensively, "Yes, we'll remember that. Please don't hurt us, since Princess Akai already lost."
Lucy told her teammates while starting to smile happily, feeling ready to go down the staircase, "Everybody, let's go home."
As Lucy went down the staircase with Sting right behind her, she started to smile happily about the possibility of getting her body back. Sting started to walk beside her, putting his hand on her shoulder as he was very proud of her for earning so much respect from Cramoisi Town's people, and moonlight shined down on the team while Yukino started to kindly giggle at how that fight went well. Yukino may have been happy that Sabertooth's newest mage had a great victory while Rogue walked beside her, but Lucy and the others started to cheer from how the real rookie of Sabertooth came down the stairs behind them with cheers that couldn't be contained. Risa giggled happily before telling Lucy that she definitely showed Akai's crew who was truly the princess of flames and who ended up being the loser, so Risa was quite glad that a fashion sale complimented her cool job that led to Lucy rocking out to victory in Cramoisi Town.
How was Chapter 7? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. I wanted Lucy's first major battle in Kotomi's body to be epic, and I also wanted to keep the StiCy chemistry going. There may not have been many StiLu moments in this chapter, but I do hope that the next one or two chapters in between arcs will make up for that. Also.. this ends the Crimson Fire Arc! Anyway, I'm excited about what will happen in the post-Crimson Fire Arc chapters. They could be called aftermath chapters, too. As for what Kotomi has been up to with Team Natsu, that shall probably be seen. I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS:
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Matt: Thanks!
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Kiri-chan: Here you go!
Sena: Well, I hope you enjoyed their fight. Lucy has new magic, too. :)