Italic = narrating

"Speak"

- Thought

"CAPS LOCK" = SCREAMING

Disclaimer: not owning Fairy Tail nor the original fairy tales


Jellal and the armor clad princess

After a sudden flash of brilliance, Gray defeated his opponent. He returned to his brother and all of our heroes wondered who would be the next to fight.

As our heroes patiently awaited who of them that would fight the next match, they all noticed how empty the area around them had become. In fact, they were the only ones left – Gray and Natsu in one area, Erza and her sisters in another. Although Siegrain was waiting in silence with an unknown man who smelled strongly – not necessarily a disgusting scent but Siegrain felt as if he could have been without it.

"A round of applause for the participants who've gotten this far! There's only eight remaining now, meaning the final match is drawing closer!"

The three sisters who all had removed their helmets when they had realized they were the only ones left, looked at each other with pride and surprise. They wondered if one of them were to fight next, but before them it was Siegrain's named that was called out and just as every time before, Erza couldn't help but to flinch slightly when hearing the name.

"Fernandez", she muttered silently and Lucy looked at her.

"Did you say something?"

Erza shook her head. "Just talking to myself."

"If you're trying to calm yourself, there is no need for that as you are the most skilled there is", Lucy said to her older sister. Erza smiled at her sister's words.

Both Juvia and Lucy believed that Erza would be the one to win the tournament, but Erza felt a seed of doubt. Or more precisely, she felt a twinge of hope. She hadn't heard his name being called once, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was still alive and well. In her heart, she believed that she would have known if something would have happened to him. They had known each other all their lives before he disappeared. And even though she was so sure that he was okay, she still wondered why he had never come back.

After hearing his name being called, Siegrain entered the field to face the opponent he had heard being called Jura Neekis. Jura entered about the same time as Siegrain, but when comparing their physical appearance, Siegrain could have been a kid. Well he was only eighteen and Jura was surely closer to thirty, but it still seemed ridiculous in Siegrain's eyes. While he himself was somewhat tall and slender, his opponent was enormous compared to him. Above average in height and with a muscularity that the armor couldn't hide. But when walking Jura still looked flexible and fast enough to keep up with Siegrain. This was a fight he needed to be more skilled, fast and agile than his opponent. And if he took a blow straight on he could possible lose right away.

The oldest of the referees, the one with the ginger hair and back-slick, awaited the fighters in the middle of the court. He was the one of the referees who talked the least, followed by the blonde one.

"Ready? Begin", was the only words the referee uttered.

Siegrain figured that the way he would win was to attack first and fast, to make the match as short as possible so that Jura hopefully wouldn't be able to land any hits on him at all.

Unfortunately, Siegrain underestimated his opponent. Coming at Jura with high speed Siegrain aimed for Jura's sword hand in hope of unarm him quickly. But Jura brushed Siegrain's sword off with a swift movement as he sidestepped. The brush from Jura's sword was enough for Siegrain to stumble a few steps. But Siegrain was quick to attack once again, feinting with his sword as if he was going for Jura's legs, but really aiming a kick to the upper body. Although it being a direct hit it didn't seem to bother Jura much. Next, Jura lunged at Siegrain but using Jura's body to his disadvantage, Siegrain turned the attack from Jura into an attack from himself. However, Jura surprised Siegrain in doing a thing much similar to what he himself just had done at landed a hit on Siegrain that sent him back half a meter.

To beat Jura, Siegrain needed to be quicker than he had been when attacking earlier. That wasn't impossible for him, but it surely took a lot more energy, especially when moving in an armor – even if the armor he wore was surprisingly light.

Running much quicker than before, Siegrain lunged at Jura. Jura blocked what he thought was going to be an attack straight on as he couldn't see how Siegrain possibly would be able to attack in any other way with the speed he was moving in. But this time, Jura had underestimated Siegrain. Siegrain suddenly did a quick jump diagonally right before being in the striking zone and landed next to Jura's side instead. With Jura not having a chance to fully block the attack coming from the side this time he had to quickly move away from Siegrain. As Siegrain had suspected, Jura was both quick and agile enough, but the attack had caught him off-guard and thus, Jura wouldn't be able to attack unless Siegrain gave him a chance to.

Following was a series of quick but low-power attacks from Siegrain which Jura did a good job in defending himself from. A few landed, but what Siegrain really was looking for was an opening to unarm Jura. He doubted that he would be able to put Jura in a position where said man would die or get wounded if it was a real fight.

And then it came. Taking just a little bit more power in the swing, Siegrain aimed for Jura's sword from the left at the same time as Jura was moving in the same direction as Siegrain's sword came from. Having his sword further from his body would make it harder for him to control it and with this knowledge in mind Siegrain slashed his sword full power onto Jura's so that his sword would move even further from his body. Following the swing of his own sword, Siegrain moved closer on Jura sending his elbow of his non-dominant arm straight onto Jura's wrist causing Jura to drop the sword while he was still unbalanced.

"The winner is…"

But before the referee could finish the sentence, Jura held the sword in his hand again, but his other hand this time. Somehow he had spinned around and picked it mid-air with his non-dominant hand. Although it surely was impressive, it didn't leave Siegrain awestruck. If there was a right time to attack, that time was now. Although Jura was standing in a good position he hadn't time to switch the sword back and Siegrain was determined not to give him the time to either. Starting off with a kick to Jura's side with the hope to catch him unbalanced again, Siegrain followed it up by clashing his sword with Jura's. If the sword had been held in Jura's dominant hand, Siegrain would have lost with this move. But even if Jura could be equally strong in both arms and thus Siegrain still a lot weaker, Siegrain was sure that his opponent wasn't equally skilled in both hands as few trained to be ambiguous. And with what looked like ease but took a lot more strength than visible, Siegrain unarmed Jura. To make sure that Jura wouldn't catch the sword again Siegrain caught it mid-air this time and pointed both ends towards the bigger man.

"The winner is Siegrain Fernandez!" the referee called out.

Siegrain spun Jura's sword so that he himself held the blade and pointed the handle towards Jura. Jura gripped the handled, sheathed his sword before bowing to Siegrain.

"I have met my superior. I wish you good luck in the rest of the tournament."

Siegrain bowed as well. "I thank you for a great match. You surely are skilled."

Jura laughed. "I suppose I just were unlucky to meet you early on."

Few of the audience remembered the scene with the competitors thanking each other for the match, as most of them were greatly troubled of the amount of money they had lost. When Cana Alberona opened the betting for this match, she had staked the bets as 50/50 since both participants had shown great swordsmanship, but most had believed that Jura would win, and thus many were either in shock or rage because of their loss. And although Cana felt slightly bad taking money from the ones who bet on the wrong one, she didn't feel bad enough to cut them some slack.

- After all, business is business, she thought as she gave a large amount of money to her friends Mira and Elfman who'd been two of the few who had betted that Siegrain Fernandez would in fact win the match.


Well look at that, I'm back and updating again - sorry for the long wait but I suppose you guys are used to it. I have said that I won't drop this story and I still stand by that. Finally I have figured out what's going to happen.

...

I can't give any answers to my guest reviews of the last chapter because I somehow have gotten confused as to which of them I already have answered (usually I flag my emails but then I had unflagged them before and everything is just a mess with that at the moment), but I hope you all find this chapter again to read the continuation and I hope you're all doing fantastic!

Have a great day/evening/night all of you and I hope I'll see you in a review and for the next chapter!