Walking forward, Lucy inhaled deeply before completely walking into the clearing. Well then, let's get this show on the road.

Exiting the arena doorway, Lucy was met into the light with loud cheering, and countless people all staring at her in anticipation. Well, of course. The event was a major deal in the city after all. Gray was standing vertical towards her, facing her squarely as he readied his stance.

"Begin." The booming voice above the speakers caused Lucy to spring into motion. She needed that money. Bad. Shooting across from the dusty floor, Lucy created some distance by jumping off diagonally away from Gray, who had the opposite idea and came at her on full-throttle.

He was fast. Faster than she had anticipated. In no time at all, he caught up to her, bringing out a dagger, that seemed to match her own. Lucy's eyes widened as Gray struck, pointing his dagger at her, swiping at her head. Oh, that's right. Killing was actually aloud during this, though if you ended your opponent's life you would be unable to collect the reward, even if you continued the matches.

Letting out a quick, "tch", Lucy swung her head back wards, making an arch with her body. Kicking her feet up to do a backwards aerial, propelling her feet off of his bigger figure in the meanwhile. Sure, they had just met and maybe would've been friends, but at the time he was her opponent.

...And there was no way in hell, she would go down without a fight.

Honestly, Lucy herself had to admit - She was a pretty good fighter. She had trained constantly, ever since she was by herself and on the run from pirates. Bounty hunters and the sea criminals alike, all (well.. Most of them anyways) had all heard her name from sometime, somewhere. So she was incredibly surprised to see Gray nearly attack her. Her kick did land a solid underneath his jaw, though he seemed unfazed, when she took a look at his condition when she landed.

He had no idea, how many pirate captains flew through the air, several meters off the ground from that kick.

He was strong.

Stronger than her.

And no, Lucy didn't favor that in the slightest. Was all her hard-work nothing? In this small town of Hargeon, a minor port in one of the many countries of Earthland, she had already easily found someone as strong as he was. It was visibly clear he hadn't used nearly any of his energy yet, whilst Lucy was already sweating from the nervousness.

In fact... If she didn't know any better, he was actually looking at her with pity.

Whether it be for just becoming friends with her, or because he probably also knew she was no match, angered her nonetheless.

It didn't matter if he was stronger. She would still fight. Who cares? She just needed money, and if she was injured she would be unable to pay the food anyways... Though that was foolish to the option of surrendering unharmed and escaping without having to fess up the jewels. Lucy waved her thoughts off. Meh, whatever.

As she was dawdling with herself, Gray blurred out of sight, and the crowd cheered. He was far too fast for the normal eye to see, and meanwhile back in the girl's tent the females all gulped in shock.

"...He's fast." Ecila gulped.

"It'll take a lot of practice to even see him." Hime replied, bluntly. Ecila looked at her, a face of challenge. "Can you see him?" Hime scoffed in response, "Of course." The two glared at each other playfully, while the others (minus Greana and Jialiana) were murmuring to themselves, laughing nervously in agreement.

Lucy would assume the only ones capable of seeing Gray were a few selected males in the tent, and the four she saw earlier in the female pitch.

Of course, she could see him obviously...

...Barely.

Gritting her teeth, Lucy looked around, attempting to figure out where he was. Dust began to blow up from his running (he seemed to decide to add a bit of a kick to his step), and it was creating a pretty good smoke-screen. Lucy cursed, as she stood, helplessly looking around.

"Over here." His deep voice echoed from behind her, when suddenly a sharp chop nailed her in the back of her neck. Lucy gasped, as she slowly fell forward, the audience murmuring in confusion as they still couldn't see the arena with the sand flying through the air.

When his smoke-screen had cleared, many numerous voices gasped to see Lucy flat on the floor with Gray looking down at her.

"T-That's a knock out! Ten... Nine..." Lucy could hear the countdown, and she was desperate to try to stand, well-aware of the look of pity Gray had on her as he stared down at the struggling girl.

"Five... Four..." She tried to push herself up. She really did. But, her body just wouldn't do what she wanted it to. "Two..." Lucy cursed, mentally. Well, at least it was over now.

"One-" "I forfeit."

Her brown eyes bulged, as the figure who called surrender raised his hand in defeat. "I surrender. Lucy Celestial, wins." Lucy gasped, attempting even harder to struggle to her feet, as Gray walked off and out of the arena in supposed loss, as he stuck his hands into his pockets, allowing Lucy to win.

"Ah... T-T-Then, Lucy Celestial moves onto the next round!" The area erupted in a series of both jeers and celebration, as some were glad with Lucy's victory, and other's absolutely furious. Though it was clear to all, who had really dominated. Lucy had just been absolutely crushed. Assistants of the match came to help put Lucy on a stretcher (since she couldn't get up herself) and began to carry her away to the infirmary. Her sight was going blank, the results of unconsciousness almost completely overtaking her. It seemed, she did struggle against his chop, but not enough.

Black spots danced in her line of vision, as she felt light-headed, thoughts of the fight still confusing her, and she immediately wanted to demand a reason to his defeat. But, then again, she was in no position to call for hi-

And that was it. Everything completely blanked from there on.

A/ns: Short chapter! I know, I know. You guys did tell me you wanted long chapters not shitty ones like 800 words, and you did tell me to take my time with them, but I just realized I nearly forgotten about you all! I'm so sorry, my dear readers! Nalu, will be coming soon (Nuhuh, hopefully in the next chapter -evil grin-) and if you all are still alive, I'd like to hear your thoughts! Please review, and thanks for sticking with me till now! (I might update tomorrow)

[Chapter was around 1,083 words without the author notes]