Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
In the infirmary, Lucy was unconscious and lying on a bed, bandages placed on various parts of her body. Happy was leaning against her right arm, Flynn was sitting next to the bed with his head rested on his arms and Zale, Natsu, Gray, Erza and Wendy were standing around her looking sad, angry or both.
"Is Lucy all right?" Juvia hurried into the room.
"Lucy!" Mirajane followed from behind Juvia, along with the rest of Fairy Tail's B Team.
"It's you guys!" Gray said.
"We may be on different teams, but we're the same guild!" Cana pointed out.
"Wendy got to her in time." Porlyusica spoke up. "Her life is no longer in danger."
"No, it was Sherria's first aid that did the work." Wendy said.
"Don't be so modest, Wendy." Zale told her. "You were both a great help."
"I'm relieved that there aren't any scars." Erza said.
"Thank goodness!" Mirajane sighed in relief.
"Those Saber…!" Natsu growled through his teeth.
"I know what you want to say!" Laxus said to Natsu.
"Urg…" Lucy began to stir to consciousness.
"Lucy!" Happy exclaimed.
Lucy opened an eye and looked at her friends. "Sorry… everyone… I got… beat… again…"
"What're you saying?" Flynn grasped her hand with his. "You got second place! You're team got eight points!"
"Flynn is right." Gray said.
"Well done, Lucy." Erza complimented her.
"My… keys…" Lucy looked like she was about to cry.
"They're right here!" Happy held out her key pouch with the keys inside.
"Good…" Lucy turned to Happy. "Thank you…"
Lucy took her keys, held them close to her chest and fell peacefully asleep.
"It looks like she went back to sleep." Mirajane said.
"Those guys really get on my nerves!" Cana expressed.
"Sabertooth…" Gray stated who everybody was thinking of.
"They're all on our nerves!" Zale said.
"So team A and team B are all here." Makarov said as he entered the room. "Excellent."
"Master!" Cana was a bit surprised at their Guild Master's arrival.
"I don't know if this is good news or bad…" Makarov began. "We have received an order from the backers of the Games to combine teams A and B into one."
"What?!" Natsu exclaimed.
"One combined A and B team?" Laxus asked.
"But why?" Mirajane questioned.
"With Raven Tail disqualified and only seven teams remaining, the odd number is causing problems when scheduling the battles." Makarov answered. "So they've told us to combine both teams into one five-wizard team, see?"
"But what of our points?" Carla asked.
"I hear they're giving the new team the lower point total." The Master replied. "In other words, team A's 35 points."
"That's not fair!" Happy complained.
"If it's the backer's decision, we can do nothing but accept it…" Erza said.
"Although, if you think about it, we can create an even stronger team than before." Cana stated.
"But… even if we cut ourselves down to five wizards, all we have left are the tag-battles, right?" Gray asked.
"No." Porlyusica corrected him. "Tomorrow may be a day off, but after that is the final day's battle, which includes all five members. You should consider your members carefully."
"They're gonna pay for what they did to Lucy!" Natsu growled with gnashed teeth. "They laughed at my friend's pain! It's unforgiveable!"
"If you're done here, then get out. Lucy can't recover with all of you here." Porlyusica nagged.
Everyone left the room and as Zale was about to go through the doorway, but looked back and saw that Flynn was still sitting next to Lucy. Flynn eventually stood up and gently stroked a few hairs in Lucy's face before following everyone else out of the room.
Whereas most of the Fairy Tail members who visited Lucy either went back to their spectating guild mates or deciding which ones would be a part of the new team, Zale and Flynn were standing in an empty hallway.
"Why aren't you with Natsu and the others?" Flynn asked. "I thought you'd want a chance to show everyone what you can do."
"They have to combine both teams and I'm not in either of them." Zale explained. "Doubt that'd be legal."
"I really want to knock some decency into those Saber guys!" Flynn practically spoke through his teeth. "Especially Minerva! … But I can't…"
"Yeah, you'd get us kicked out of the games… even though you're not actually a guild member."
"Rules have nothing to do with it!" Flynn snapped at Zale, surprising him. "I'm still a novice wizard! If I were to go up against anyone else in the games, I'd get my ass kicked all week long! Natsu, Gray and Erza all have the strength to both say what they feel and fight for their friends! Me… I don't have that…"
"That's… not entirely true… When Minerva verbally demeaned Lucy, you were the first to stand up to her."
"But Erza stopped me before I could say anything else."
"If she hadn't, our guild would've gotten in serious trouble with the Games' committee. Besides, you got out what needed to be said."
Flynn didn't seem convinced by Zale's words.
Zale let out a heavy sigh. "… Honestly… right now, you remind me of myself from a long time ago…"
Flynn raised his head a little bit, but not much.
"I merely trained and got stronger just so I could get through jobs, and I only thought of myself as one of the weakest in the guild… But one day I took a job that was far more than I bargained for. It was supposed to be simple… Take out some bandits holed up in a mountain cave. It turned out that those bandits were all powerful wizards. With all of my previous jobs, I got by with just my quick thinking. While my sharp mind was a major factor, once I managed to defeat them all, that was when I realized my true strength, the power of a God Slayer. What I want you to take from this is that you might prove to yourself what you're capable of, as a wizard or a human being, when you least suspect it."
Flynn continued his silent pouting.
"The battles will be starting soon. We head back to my guild mates."
There was still no sign that Flynn was going to speak up, so Zale turned his back to him and started to walk away.
"… Zale?" Flynn finally spoke up, but still hadn't lifted his head.
Zale stopped and turned to face Flynn.
"… Thank you…" Flynn said without showing his face.
Zale exhaled through his and made his way back to the stands while Flynn stayed where he was, contemplating the words his friend had just told him.
Just as Zale was about to head to Fairy Tail's balcony in the stadium, he saw Jayden repeatedly throwing a ball against the wall and caught it after bouncing off of it.
"Jayden? Why aren't you watching the fights?" Zale asked. "Were they just boring to you?"
"Uhh…" Jayden shifted his eyes back and forth before giving an answer. "Yeah."
"… Okay…" Zale groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What's the real reason?"
"You know how I told you Kagura isn't very fond of our guild?" Jayden asked.
"… No. In fact, this is the first time you've EVER brought this up."
"Oh, yeah… Anyway, Kagura doesn't really like Fairy Tail and I didn't want her to see me with everyone else."
"Aaand what's her issue with us?"
"Actually, it's not the guild she necessarily dislikes. Apparently… what's her name again… Erza! She apparently knows someone who supposedly killed her older brother. I think his name was… Jellal?"
Zale's body froze up out of nervousness.
"Would you happen to know anything about that?" Jayden inquired.
"I… I'm sorry, but I don't know much about him." Zale told him. "You're better off asking Erza yourself."
"… Okay." Jayden casually accepted Zale's response.
Zale looked at the ball that Jayden continued to throw against the wall.
"… Excuse me? May I get through please?" Zale asked.
"Oh, sorry!" Jayden apologized as he caught the ball. "Go right ahead."
With nothing obstructing his path, Zale went out to the balcony to join the rest of his guild mates in watching the games.
What followed was an epic two-on-two battle between Dragon Slayers, Fairy Tail's Natsu and Gajeel versus Sabertooth's Sting and Rogue. It was a long and drawn-out fight, but Natsu managed to defeat both of his opponents at once by himself, partly because he purposefully pushed Gajeel into a mine cart. Thanks to that victory, Fairy Tail currently holds first place in the tournament and the guild couldn't be happier about the results. Most of the other guilds, aside from Sabertooth, were also excited about Fairy Tail's win and eager to take them on during the final day's battle.
In the audience, Soren was sitting down quietly next to his father as the day's battles had ended.
"Come on, Soren." Sam stood up.
Since Soren was still grounded, his father was taking him straight back to the inn they were staying at. As they were walking, out of nowhere people were running away in a panic.
"What's going on?" Sam wondered aloud.
Suddenly, Sam and Soren were pushed away from each other and the boy was forced to avoid the frenzied people running toward him. After several seconds, all of the people had cleared and Soren could safely stand where he was. He looked at where the stampede came from and saw a large, tengu-looking man sitting in place.
*That's Sabertooth's Guild Master.* Soren thought.
Just as Soren was wondering why everybody was running from him, he felt an overwhelming and deadly aura emanating from Sabertooth's master, Jiemma. Slowly, Jiemma turned his head towards Soren and the boy made out the raw anger in his eyes and the trembling of his body.
*He looks seriously pissed off!* Soren continued thinking in fear.
He tried to run with the rest of the audience that used to be around Jiemma, but his body didn't respond. When Jiemma finally stood up, Soren began to inwardly command himself to run away and his body was still frozen in terror. It didn't help that the Saber Guild Master started walking toward Soren.
*Crap! I think he's going to kill me!* Soren shouted in his head. *MOVE, BODY! MOVE!*
For half of a minute, which felt like an eternity that refused to end to Soren, Jiemma kept walking and eventually the large man went past the boy and continued until he had left. Soren let out a large sigh and fell on his bottom.
"Soren!" Sam ran up to his son and knelt down to him. "You didn't get trampled, did you?"
Soren didn't hear a single word his father said; his mind was rendered completely thoughtless and the only sound he noticed was the racing of his own heart.
In the infirmary, Lucy was beginning to wake up from her sleep and she couldn't help but feel that someone had been gently watching her. She rubbed her eyes, turned her head and saw Flynn sitting next to her bed.
"Flynn…?" Lucy groaned due to her grogginess.
"Lucy… Are you feeling any better?" Flynn asked.
"Ngh… How long have I been out?" Lucy inquired.
"Well, all of the matches are done. Natsu and Gajeel had a difficult battle against Saber's Twin Dragons… but we won." Flynn gave Lucy a huge smile. "Fairy Tail's in the lead!"
"… We… we won…" Lucy was at first shocked to hear the news, but that shock went away as she slowly started to smile even wider than Flynn's. "We won!"
In a spur of the moment, Lucy instinctively hugged Flynn and caused his face to turn pink.
"Wait, have you been looking over me this whole time?" Lucy asked.
"Well… I was here for a while at first to check up on you, but I left to see how the games were going so I could get you up to speed when you woke up." Flynn answered.
"Aw, how sweet of you…" Lucy said as she blushed a bit.
Seeing Lucy's smile, Flynn started thinking to himself. *Maybe I was just being paranoid about Lucy breaking up with me… But that's no excuse to not try to be more assertive.*
In spite of Fairy Tail's triumph in the day's games, there was a catastrophe looming over the horizon.
A/N: Finally done! I've been playing Tales of Berseria a lot lately and God does it get depressing later on. I love it! I hope you all enjoyed! Stay tuned for next time!