'Good luck Erza' Cole thought as he watched her step into the arena
'So Erza's up next, was thinking how long would it take before things got interesting' mumbled Reaper.
'It's her, and that weird kid from the other team, they both have a chance at this. Having 2 teams from the same guild isn't really fair' said Lector
'They're both weak' interrupted Rogue
'Weak, huh, Sting got his ass handed over in this round and you're calling them weak?' said Reaper as he looked at Rogue with a vague smile
'Who's side are you on?' asked Sting as he stood up. Reaper just ignored and closed his eyes as the timer for Erza's round was about to go off.
'The time starts now!' yelled the announcer right after which Erza sprinted towards the 4th path.
'She's going for the birds, she can automatically come out on top if she manages to pull one out' Cole folded his arms and watched as Erza stepped into a large grassland with a giant tree
'Alright, there must be that bird around here somewhere' she said as she quickly re-quipped into her black wing armor.
'She's gonna fly around and search for one?' thought Natsu
Erza used her magic to call out a shield in her left arm and then struck her shield with her weilded sword, resulting in a loud clap, following which birds started to emerge from the base of the tree.
'Bingo!' said Erza right after which she looked at the sky to see hundreds of birds flying around.
'One of them has to be the real thing, if she makes a mistake here it'll cost her valuable points. The firefly cost Sting 5, these should cost more or less the same.. Hold on.. What is she doing?' wondered Cole as he leaned towards the balcony to get a better view.
Erza kept looking around and out of desperation attempted to catch hold of one, which then disappeared.
'That's -4 for Team Fairy Tail A' .
'Damn, she's not gonna get anywhere with those many birds' said Gray as he watched Erza struggle.
'10 minutes left!' said the announcer, right after which Erza sat on the ground.
'At this rate I'll run out of time. I have to think fast' Erza thought as she took a deep breath, right after which she took off her earrings and placed them on the ground.
'What on earth is she doing?' asked Sting .
'You certainly do have a plan in mind' thought Reaper as he watched with a keen eye
Erza then placed her ear rings against the sunlight, making it sparkle, and stepped away.
The Ear rings kept sparkling bright enough for a bird to come and grab it.
'There!' yelled Erza as she flew towards it and grabbed it, making all of the other birds disappear.
'That's Erza for you' grinned Cole as he lifted his arm. 'Comeon! You got this Erza!' he yelled, surprising everyone else around him
'Haven't seen you get all riled up like that before' asked Gajeel
'Well what can I say' replied Cole, only to get interrupted by Laxus tapping his back
'You do know we're on a different team and Ursa is still out there' he said.
'Ohh.. Yeah.. My bad' replied Cole with a bit of embarrassment.
'5 minutes to go!' yelled out the announcer as Erza was flying towards the exit, when suddenly an attack from above grounded her.
'That's right... I almost forgot about you..' she said as she stood up with the bird in her hand, looking towards a Man covered with a black cloth having wings.
'That's the guardian? He doesn't look pretty tough' said Natsu.
'It's not always about how they look' interrupted Gray 'I'm pretty sure this guardian's priority is gonna be stalling Erza till the time runs out' he added.
'Ugh, I'm running out of time!' Erza yelled out as she threw a blade at the guardian, who easily managed to dodge it and flew right towards her.
'So fast!' she said as she blocked an incoming kick from him and kicked back and started sprinting towards the exit.
The guardian stood up and threw a barrage of energy blasts, which Erza kept dodging as she kept sprinting away. Erza immediately re-quiped into her Lightning empress armor and fired a lightning running. The guardian stood still and absorbed the bolt, after which it grew in size.
'What? Did that thing just grow? Or I'm seeing things?' questioned Gajeel in confusion.
'No, it definitely grew in size, that guardian can absorb magic' replied Laxus
'That's it!' thought Erza as she stood still and aimed her staff at the guardian.
'She just stopped. Why'd she do that?' asked Lector out of curiosity
Erza then began firing bolts out of her staff continuously, while the guardian took the bolts head on, constantly growing in size.
'What? Is she trying to lose on purpose now?' said Sting with a smile.
'What are you smiling about?' asked Lector as he looked at Reaper.
'The bigger the guardian gets, the harder it'll be to match up to Erza in terms of speed' said Reaper, surprising everyone.
Erza stopped firing and then reequipped into her black wing armor.
'Catch me if you can!' she said as she dashed towards the exit with a minute left
The guardian, now a lot bigger than before, attempted to stall Erza by firing energy blasts. Erza dodged through them and got out, keeping the bird in the bag and scoring 50 points.
'Incredible! Not only has Erza managed to score 50 points for her team, she also comes out on top of the table, with 44 points!, Team Fairy Tail A has set their sights aimed at the top!' said the announcer, right after which the crowd began cheering loud for her.
'Well done' mumbled Reaper as he looked at Erza walk back to her team.
'So that brings her to the top, now that Erza is done, Ursa is up next. I wonder what she has planned , since Erza already took out the bird, they're gonna change a lot of things. I doubt the same shiny object trick is gonna work with the birds again, it'll be too easy. All we can do is watch' Cole looked as Ursa stepped towards the starting line
'Ursa huh' said Natsu as he kept looking at her
'Interesting to see what she can do, I know she's powerful' added Gray
Meanwhile, where majority of the guild members were seated. A conversation was going on between Guild Master Makarov and Mavis. 'Finally Erza managed to rake up some points' she said as she looked at Erza having a sip of water with her team mates.
'Both of our teams have managed to score pretty decently, now it's a matter of who'll shoot towards the top. I just hope both of our teams do' he replied
Mavis smiled and looked at Cole, who kept his arms on the balcony and looked around
'Yeah, I'm sure they will!' she said with a smile.
Ursa stepped into the arena and stood near the 5 paths. The buzzer went off, soon after which she covered herself with an aura of lightning.
'Woah, what is she even planning to do?' asked Sting as he kept looking at her
'She seems to be powering up, but just near the entrance? Isn't that just a waste of magic?' said Rufus, right after which Ursa bursted onto path 5, taking almost no time to reach the area.
She entered into a swamp, with hundreds of thousands of fireflies moving around in broad daylight.
'It's a lot harder than it was for Sting, I should have known' said Laxus
Ursa kept her cool and sat down. She kept her resolve and focused her energy, till a white aura of lightning began to emit from her.
'She's focusing her energy.. But on what?' Cole looks at the timer which read out 13:21. 'That quick start did help, but we still don't have time'
As she gathered more and more energy, Ursa opened her eyes and lifted her arms, right after which thick black clouds began covering the stadium.
'What the hell? Weather manipulation?' said Gajeel as he looked surprised seeing the clouds covering the entire stadium, not letting a partial ray of light into the arena.
As the arena got darker with the convergence of the clouds, the fireflies began illuminating and circled around the area. Ursa had a faint smile on her face as she raised her right began illuminating her right arm with lightning at a frequency, seconds after which, a firefly approached her. She immediately caught hold of it and soon after which all the other fireflies disappeared. The crowd cheered loudly as she raised her arm after catching the firefly.
'She used the clouds to darken the area and then used her lightning to attract the fly, gotta admit, that was really smart, but now..' Cole grinned, right after which the stadium started shaking.
'10 minutes left, and it looks like the guardian is here to stop Ursa from scoring those 100 points' said the announcer.
'That's alright, if I use my dash again, I'll be able to make it out from here without having to fight the guardian' she though, right after which she felt something holding her legs.
'What the?!' she exclaimed as she tried to break free, using her lightning. The guardian then emerged, a giant firefly.
'I have to move fast' she thought, right after which she saw the guardian using it's abdomen to fire a huge energy blast, which she narrowly escaped by rolling over
'Wow, when they said the firefly's worth 100 points, I can see why' said Lector
The guardian then shot out three eggs, which hatched to release hundreds of tiny larvae. 'One bite from these and it can cause paralysis for hours' said the announcer, stretching the last part of his dialogue.
The larvae began swarming towards Ursa, while the guardian prepared to fire another blast. 'Ursa quickly drew out lightning onto her arms and fired at the larvae coming towards her, they in turn began to spread and Ursa couldn't keep up with their increasing numbers.
'Watch out!' yelled Cole from the stands, soon after which Ursa turned around to see a fireball aimed at her. She quickly rolled over and the fireball, barely hitting her, managed to burn off a part of her top, just near the shoulder.
'That was close..' she said as she immediately got up and ran, while turning and repeatedly firing bolts of lightning at the larvae.
She kept sprinting around, right after which she looked at the timer. 4:48 , it read out, making her feel nervous.
'If I keep this up, I'm gonna run out of time, I need to figure out a way to get rid of them all at once' she thought as she looked at the guardian charging an attack. She gave a faint smile as she began running around in circles, forcing all the larvae to converge towards her, right after which she began sprinting towards the guardian.
'I really hope this works!' she said as she saw the guardian ready to fire. As the fireball got released, she immediately shot two lightning bolts with both of her hands against the ground to launch herself into the air, dodging the attack and in turn killing off all the larvae behind her. As she was airborne, she drew out a sword of lightning and slashed through the head of the guardian.
She landed on the ground, panting after defeating the guardian. She raised her arm as the crowd began cheering out loud for her.
'All right! Now that's what being a Fairy Tail member is about!' yelled out Natsu in excitement.
'Indeed!' added Erza with a smile on her face
Reaper kept looking with a grin, but his emotions suddenly changed as he noticed something odd
'1 minute and 30 seconds left, she's not done yet folks!' said the announcer, right after which Ursa turned around and began sprinting towards the basket. She held the firefly in her palm and as she approached, she began to slow down.
'What's going on? Why is she so slow all of the sudden?' asked Juvia
'Ursa couldn't move without being in pain, she stood still and started sweating as she had less than a minute left.
'The larvae, it got her..' said Rufus as Ursa fell onto her knees.
'So close, yet so far..' added Lector.
Reaper kept looking at her and felt a bit restless. 'Come on kid..' he whispered as she tried to stand up.
'Oh no, Come on Ursa!' Cole wondered while looking at her struggle.
'30 seconds left!' said the announcer, as Ursa was meters away from the basket.
'Come on Ursa, you can do it!'yelled out Lucy
Ursa then collapsed on the ground, shaking as she couldn't carry herself forward. With 10 seconds remaining, everyone was on the edge of their seats.
Suddenly, a small aura of red lightning began surrounding Ursa, as she started to stand up.
'What the? Red?' Cole looked surprised, right after which the timer went off.
'Ursa DeVitt has been unable to bring the firefly to the basket, hence Team Fairy Tail B ends with 0 points!' said the announcer to the surprise of everyone in the crowd.
'I.. Failed...' she mumbled as she stood motionless and tears rolled down her cheeks.
The crowd cheered for her effort against the challenge but there she was, standing still, emotionless and when all of the sudden, she faints, collapsing on the ground.
'Someone take her to a Doctor!' yelled Cole as he felt agitated and jumped into the arena.
'Wait!' said Erza as she interrupted Cole.
'What are you doing? Why did you stop me?' asked Cole, right after which a group of men carried Ursa away from the field.
'We'll meet with her after today's games, right now it's best if we let her rest, and focus on our games.' replied Erza
'But what about the paralysis? I can help her!' Cole further pleaded.
'They have an antidote for that, believe me, don't worry about her now, she'll be fine, she just needs rest' added Erza soon after.
'I know you're worried about her, believe me, I am too, but she's gonna be alright Cole, you're probably gonna have a sparring match in today's fights, so better stay focused.' she added as she patted his shoulder, comforting him.
Cole looked at Ursa being taken away, he felt a bit uneasy but nodded his head and took a deep breath.
'Alright, today's game's almost over, and the fight rounds are gonna come in, I wonder who'll be facing whom. Whoever it may be, we'll make sure Ursa's effort today didn't completely go in vain' thought Cole as he looked at his team mates, who were looking back at him
Back? You know it~