Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 23: Shady Schemes, Similar Habits
Sting, Lucy, and Lector had gotten breakfast at a waffle shop in Crocus, and all three of them were happily smiling while cutting up their syrup-covered waffles and eating them piece by piece. Today was the sixth and final day of the Grand Magic Games, the day that would decide everything with its survival tournament. Of course, everything leading up to this day was pretty climactic as well. All of the drama that had transpired up to this point would definitely settled here with the winners getting the golden trophy and the losers walking away with nothing, right?
Lucy had been thinking about the stuff that Shelly had told her yesterday, still determined to take down her rival for trying to seduce Sting, and unlocking the book's new powers would help her out with that task. Of course, she had to learn the black spells first. They were from an unknown type of magic that Shelly had planted into the spell book, most likely to help Lucy unlock her hatred, and the blonde girl was intent on testing them out today. She wanted to be on the same level as her rival, even though the tanned woman was more advanced, and Lucy did not want to be taken down easily if they had a battle in the survival tournament.
She was still curious about how to get on Shelly's high level of physical strength, as well as wanting to find a way to counter her large amount of flatulence, and Lucy had even been skeptical about getting past the tanned woman's dense defenses. That water sphere could pretty much negate almost anything, except for when the Aqua Ball had made it implode, but Lucy did not have any many spells that could be variations of Aqua Ball. She sighed in a calm manner while knowing that today would definitely be a challenge, and the blonde mage simply looked at the black book like it was meant to truly troll her sometimes.
Sting and Lector also wondered what was going on with the book, thinking it was not possible for those unreadable spells to ever be read by Lucy, and they both were hoping that the blonde girl would not be scared when she opened the book to use the black spells. Sting had informed his red Exceed about everything that had been happening with him and Lucy lately, making the latter smirk at the fact that Sting was being a good boyfriend to Lucy. Lector also let Sting know that Lucy had been falling for the charms of the white dragon slayer, seeing as she blushed a light shade of pink while putting her left hand on the black book.
Lucy's heart beat with nervousness, feeling a bit fearful about something bad like a demon popping out of the book to try and destroy her, but then she exhaled a breath of air while remembering that Sting was with her. If any monster of any kind came out of the book, Sting and his Holy Nova would definitely put it to rest. Lucy also had to wonder what the ninth spell or any of the new spells could be like, since she had known that many of her attacks came with side effects and drawbacks. What would the book give her, and how dangerous could it possibly be?
When she narrowed her brown eyes, having some courage in them, Lucy read from the first three lines of shining blue text in a calm manner while she had used most of the willpower in her left hand to open the book and overcome her fears, "Welcome, book wielder. Congratulations on now having the eighth type of magic in your arsenal, since mastering this will be the key to reaching the next level in the spell book, and these spells represent your hatred. They will work well with feelings of vengeance, especially when your malice strikes from the shadows. It can even make Celestial Spirits become darker, too, but at a price."
From reading these words, Lucy looked a bit puzzled. The book had simply delivered a message to her, and it seemed to be trying to collaborate with Lucy's Celestial Spirit Keys. She knew that they would get stronger while she got stronger, but how strong had she truly gotten? Lucy would hate to have Aquarius be weak against anybody in the survival tournament today, and she certainly did not want any of her other spirits to be weakened. She could now open five Celestial Spirit gates, but would even five spirits be enough? Also, how could they possibly become dark against their own will?
Sting told Lucy with a kind smile on his face, letting his left hand touch hers while making her feel a bit more relaxed about today, "I think the book is letting you know that your spirits don't all directly work with its powers, but they can. Your Fire Magic can combine with the arrows of Sagittarius to make fiery arrows, and that's pretty cool. By the way, thanks for telling me that you refused Shelly's offer to join Aqua Kyogre. That guild is shady with all of the moves they can pull, but let's show those creeps that they're only second-best when they go up against us."
He let his girlfriend know that Sabertooth would never even think of merging with Aqua Kyogre, especially because of the fact that Shelly worked for a dark guild, and the white dragon slayer hated how Shelly would use her charms to pull him in. He had never loved evil women, knowing that they could be really vicious, and Sting found it weird for Shelly to have allied with Lucy. Even after she had refused the offer, it was like Shelly had other plans in mind. Sting let Lucy know that they would beat Shelly today, and he would make a Holy Nova attack hit her right in the face.
Lucy always felt lifted up by Sting's words of encouragement, ready to beat Shelly with these darker abilities, and she would be teaching a few lessons to her old friends from Fairy Tail while she was at it. Judging by Lucy's big feud with Shelly, it would not be surprising if people got caught in their raging battle. After all, it is a pretty major for a villain to be nude in front of her rival's boyfriend. Lucy was going to show Shelly that she was not a weak little crybaby, even though they did have a warming bond in the hot spring, and this would certainly be a good battle.
Aside from the dark power, however, the other types of magic would still be able to be used by her in many battles. They were the ones who really listened to her, with the sole exception of Darkness Magic, and Lucy simply had to pick one type of magic to be used today. Of course, depending on who she encountered in the battles on this final day, Lucy would have to pick very carefully. One wrong move, and it would be over for her. She had to think smart like Shelly, outwit her enemies with some clever tactics, and that's how the game would be won.
She could only use one type of magic until it completely ran out, meaning that she could not risk fighting with a type of magic to take down Gray Fullbuster while that same kind of magic may be ineffective if Juvia were to come along and join in on the fight. She would have to be extremely careful in a different situation, too. If her Lightning Magic could beat Juvia, it may not be strong enough to defeat someone like Laxus. Type match-ups were crucial in every type of battle, but fights like this with multiple opponents being a possibility was certainly an issue.
Upon seeing the clock on the wall, Lucy's cocoa brown eyes widened in surprise at the current time. It was now 8:30 in the morning, and the survival tournament would begin at 9:00 in the morning. All of the members had to be present in their team's starting area of Crocus before the event could transpire, so Lucy decided to get up out of her chair and start to go out of the restaurant. Sting smiled while following her as well, and he stopped for a second when Lucy's stomach rumbled. She had eaten a stack of six waffles with whip cream, so he could only laugh when she let out a toot. It comically looked like Shelly's villainous ways rubbed off on her, right?
Meanwhile...
Natsu could not go buy anything in Crocus without being thrown out of a store or restaurant, mainly because of the fact that all of the townspeople had seen the lewd video that featured the fire dragon slayer getting dirty with Marina, and his friends from the guild of Fairy Tail could also not go shopping if they would bring him along with them. He had really been in a huge mess because of the fact that he tried to have an affair within an affair, something that would inevitably fail for anyone who was foolish enough to do it, and his stupidity really came as a surprise to Lisanna.
She had really thought that he was better than this, since he had once told her that he felt that their bond was good enough for the prospect of love, but it was now clear to Lisanna than Natsu was nothing more than a sleazy jerk who only played with new women when he was tired of the current one he was dating. In fact, the pink-haired male could not even get a hot dog from the vendors that were selling them because they thought he would put the wiener deep inside of Marina before he ate it. He was certainly being the butt of every joke in Crocus, that's for sure.
Most women in the town would throw their purses at him, hating the fire dragon slayer for how he had been so disgusting in that video with Marina, and many people had even thought that he forced her into being with him. She had luckily not gotten pregnant, since having a baby would bring too much drama to Natsu's life, and having to advance far into that stage would just make Lisanna feel even angrier at him. She did not even want to speak with him anymore, feeling that her heart was utterly crushed like when Lucy had been heartbroken because of being cheated on, and karma really did come back around to bite the two current Fairy Tail mages in their butts.
After all, if Natsu had never been sneaking around behind Lucy's back while thinking that she would remain oblivious to his deceitful way, then they would still be together. She would still see him and Lisanna as friends without all of the guild members in Fairy Tail having to go along with the fire dragon slayer's plan, not having so much hatred towards them for putting knives of fake friendships in her back, and that bright situation looked a lot better for Natsu. Sadly, he had screwed up his own dating life by cheating on a great girl and putting his trust in Aqua Kyogre's best master of espionage. The boomerangs of karma were really beating him down, were they not?
As he walked down the path towards the Domus Flau, knowing full well that the people from Team Fairy Tail A and Team Fairy Tail B had left the inn while leaving him behind, Natsu looked a bit happy to see Marina looking out at the calm blue sea with a small smile on her face. She wore a simple blue dress with dark blue high heels while her bra and panties were light blue, but Natsu did not care about what she wore today. He wanted to know if she was suffering like him, going through a vast amount of ridicule for the entire morning, and let's just say that the teal-haired spy for Aqua Kyogre would make Fairy Tail implode even faster than anyone had expected.
"Natsu, I saw the video last night! It's so horrible how that footage had reached the eyes of the public, causing us both to look really steamy in something that was like a porn film, and I'm so sorry for leaving the Lacrima Vision Crystals out in the open while I had to go in the bathroom. I honestly think that the crystals were tampered with by someone in Fairy Tail, since only they could hear us making love in the suite." Marina told him in a very unhappy tone, looking very sorry with regret feinted into her green eyes to make her performance look truly plausible.
As he looked concerned for her while holding her left hand in his right hand, Natsu calmly replied with soft smile of comfort on his face, "Well, I'm just glad that you're doing all right. It's shocking to know that someone messed with the crystals, mostly because they did not want me to be with Lisanna, and I would bet all of my jewels that it was Gajeel. Even though he would never enter my suite for any reason or use a hidden camera for anything that would be dealing with me... Aw, crap. I guess that I'll mark him as innocent, since he'd probably say I embarrass myself all on my own."
Marina let out a soft giggle at how Natsu would find faults with the words that came out of his mouth, clearly not thinking before he spoke, and it was a bit funny for her to see the most hated guy in Crocus having a slight sense of humor. He was so concerned for her well-being, even though she was just using him like a pawn, and Natsu still did not even know that his lover's team had been messing with the fairies throughout the tournament. He truly was blinded by love and lust, even though he could have found happiness with Lisanna, and now his vision of a perfect love had been broken. He thought that he had Marina, but the fire dragon slayer really had nothing.
Upon realizing that Erza would kill him if he was tardy, Natsu gave Marina a kiss on the lips and said goodbye to her. He had sped off towards the arena, knowing that the crowds would hate him in the Domus Flau as well, and that left Marina alone for now. Her soft smile had quickly turned into a scheming look, ready to ensure the success of Shelly's plan for the final day of the Grand Magic Games, and the green-eyed woman was glad to have Fairy Tail's heat on her. This kept suspicion off of Shelly while she would try to work with Sabertooth, and both plans were going pretty great.
Besides, Marina knew that any plans of revenge from Lisanna would come to a halt. She'd really look like a hypocrite, since she had agreed to be the mistress of Natsu in his little scheme to cheat on Lucy, so she could not exactly say that Marina's actions were deplorable without having to look in the mirror. Marina also thought about the idea of Lisanna crying while being on her knees in front of Lucy, but that would be futile because of how the former Fairy Tail mage disliked Lisanna for breaking up her relationship with Natsu. Fairy Tail was definitely starting to implode, and the results of Natsu's cheating had made the stench of betrayal worse than Shelly's flatulence.
With the Grand Magic Games starting soon, Marina decided to run off towards where Team Aqua Kyogre was located. She would certainly be helping her team take down Fairy Tail to wreck their chances of winning, but let's just say that the teal-haired woman thought ahead while she knew that someone had eaten some tainted food last night. She was certainly capable of creating Water Clones, but she could also use water to transform. Well, the person who she would morph into was really going to cause some havoc while being a real traitor. After all that they had done, it was pretty clear that Shelly and her team could use their clean water to create dirty advantages.
25 minutes later, at a park in Crocus...
Lucy and Sting arrived at the park to see that their teammates were waiting for them, smiling confidently about wanting to win today. Lucy looked around to see that Yukino was not with Rogue, Rufus, and Orga, and that surprised the blonde mage. She had a strategy that would have involved all of the 12 golden Celestial Spirit Keys, but it looked like that would not happen. Sting let her know that this event would only let five members of a team participate, and that meant Yukino had to watch everything unfold from the sidelines.
She might not be much help, anyway. Libra and Pisces had been easily defeated by Kagura Mikazuchi last year, and even Ophiuchus fell victim to the style of the sheathed sword. That had actually lowered Yukino's confidence in herself, so Lucy would definitely win for her friend. She also had a score to settle with Natsu and Lisanna, since she had never really given punishment to both of them for being the ones responsible for her heartbreak. Lucy wanted to decimate Fairy Tail today, actually feel like she could achieve victory over her ex-boyfriend, and he would no longer be able to say that she was weak or annoy her anymore.
The blonde mage also wanted to win against Fairy Tail for another reason, too. They had Mavis on the sidelines to guide them, and she was an extremely excellent tactician who could figure out the strengths and weaknesses of almost everyone. She had obviously been observing Lucy, seeing everything that she could do, and Lucy knew that she had only used two of her eight positive types of magic. She had not used six of them in this tournament, even though she would try out the darkness that Shelly had given her, and she did not want to reveal her other skills to any enemies.
She also knew that Fairy Tail would be playing smart, too. Erza had informed her about Fairy Tail's strategy last year, and it had started off with Gray taking down Rufus because he was the main piece in Sabertooth's strategy. Gray had beaten Rufus making many weapons of ice at an incredibly high shaping speed, and the Memory-Make mage just could not keep up. He had lost to the ice mage in the library, making him gain one point for Fairy Tail, and Lucy had to wonder if Rufus and the others would truly be okay. After all, she still had her doubts about Shelly's team being on the side of Sabertooth.
After all, she had to worry about her new friends. Orga was instantly taken out by Jura last year, and he did not even have a chance against him. Rogue had easily been taken down by Gajeel, and Sting had surrendered to Fairy Tail after seeing how determined they were to win. If Fairy Tail could have a master strategist, then Lucy could definitely be one. In fact, Fairy Tail had ironically given her a few interesting ideas about what she could do in an event like this. Her spells of Darkness Magic and Heavenly Body were seen already, though, and the dark spells of black magic were still unknown.
Lucy also did not have any new spells that she could use, so surprising enemies would be kind of useless. She would truly have to think in creative ways with those eight black spells, especially since the blonde girl knew that brute force would not be enough to win battles, and Lucy could guess that the other teams would be giving their best efforts on this final day of the Grand Magic Games. It really was no surprise that Sabertooth was keeping first place, since they had been working well as a team, and things were looking good for them right now.
She was also hoping to not run into bad match-ups, knowing full well that the spell book only allowed her to use one type of magic at one time. For example, Fire Magic would work well against mages who used ice like Gray and Lyon. However, Fire Magic would be pretty futile against somebody who manipulated water like Juvia could. Lucy would have to get her opponents by themselves, making these battles be one-on-one for any real chance of success, and she would have to make every shot count while it would also deplete the energy in the type of magic that she was using.
Sting and the others looked concerned for their brown-eyed friend, seeing her tremble with what seemed to be nervousness, and they hoped that Lucy would not crack under pressure. She did not know if winning would be possible against anyone, but Lucy could not let negative thoughts get into her head right now. She began to look determined about winning, refusing to have anyone show her up, and she did not plan to lose today. What would make Lucy end up ultimately winning here, though?
Chapati announced from the judges' booth in the Domus Flau while sounding excited, "Since it's a new year with new things transpiring, here's how this survival game will work! When a member of a team is defeated, their opponent gets five points for their team! When the last person on a team is knocked out, the opponent's team gets 10 points! That totals up to 30 points, meaning that an extremely fast and strong person could earn 210 points overall for their team by defeating everybody else! If you understand all the rules, then let the Grand Magic War Game begin!"
Everyone could only grin in satisfaction at this shocking rule change, and they knew there was more than a slight chance to finally move up from their losses or keep ascending in wins for their respective guilds. Upon hearing the gong be struck for the event to begin, many of the mages began to split up into solos, duos, and trios. The members of Team Sabertooth diverged into five different directions, each person going on their own. Lucy's brown eyes were filled with the determination to win for her new guild, and she was going to do her best.
While Lucy had ran off to the fashion street of Crocus, she did not realize that her large breakfast this morning would come back to haunt her in a strange way. Her stomach rumbled from the waffles that she had eaten, since they had been boosted up with magic to give off more of their flavor, and let's just say that the magical energy was not stable. If the magic in the food had been used to a perfect amount, the person on the end would feel no problems. However, let's just say that a certain black-haired woman from Aqua Kyogre added more magic than necessary to get Lucy to release the massive power of the black spells in a few various ways.
As she let out a soft fart, the blonde mage blushed a light shade of pink while knowing that it was rude to do that in public. She had to wonder how Shelly could just do it without any hesitation at all, simply just letting it all out, and Lucy had to resist the urge of letting out anymore gusts of wind. She was really hoping that Sting or any of the other dragon slayers had not picked up on that sound, and the brown-eyed girl resumed her quest to beat down Shelly or her former friends in Fairy Tail on this final day. Just because she was going to think creatively like Shelly, was the tampered magic making Lucy gain some of her traits as well. (Just so you know, the idea of Shelly having that farting flaw to counter her sexiness was messaged to me by a user on here. It certainly blew you guys away when it first occurred, right?)
Meanwhile, up in the stands...
Mavis Vermilion sat on the ledge next to Makarov, looking at all the movements of every participant on the Lacrima Vision screens, and she had been paying special attention to seeing Lucy. She was the one who now wielded the book of spells that had only been spoken of in many legends, becoming a myth after so many centuries when Zeref had came on to the scene, and the First Master recognized that book to be the one rumored to have been created from the Rainbow Wings of a legendary bird named Ho-Oh in the faraway country of Johto.
She had hoped that her prediction would be right on target, though, since she had seen Lucy's spells of Darkness Magic and Heavenly Body Magic be used on the previous days of the tournament. She was hoping that Lucy would either encounter Mirajane or Jellal, both being strong opponents, and they would easily take Lucy out of this event. Mirajane's Darkness Magic was said to be extremely powerful, and Jellal had been one of the Ten Wizard Saints in the year of X784. Either way, they would give Lucy a tough time. Could Lucy outwit them in a battle, though?
The First Master also smiled a bit from knowing that her calculations were rarely ever off, and she had known that her strategy from last year would work once again. She had instructed Gray to fight Rufus, knowing that the ice mage's emotions could outweigh her calculations as he had proven to her last time, and Mavis had confidence in Gray's abilities. She knew that he would not show any fear towards his enemies in this tournament, and neither would any of the other Fairy Tail members. Knowing how Erza pretty much used godly abilities and friendship power to win almost every fight, how could Fairy Tail possibly lose? (Sorry to any fans of Erza, but the way that she wins battles with friendship power and the Talk No Jutsu is really getting old.)
With hope building in her green eyes, Mavis smiled a bit at the sight of someone who appeared to be Lucy on the Lacrima Vision screen in front of her. She wore her blonde hair down, having no ribbons to tie it, and Lucy wore a dark green midriff shirt while also wearing a pale green skirt to match. Her flat shoes were in a forest green color, pretty much making her be colored green like money. The winning guild would get fifty million jewels to spend, after all, so it was not really wrong to dress for success. Being green and having a good personality sure was a great contrast from Shelly's outfit being blue while she had a pretty bad personality, you know.
Mavis knew that Erza would possibly only have trouble facing off against Kagura, since they did have a vicious fight last year, and she also knew that Laxus could be an even match for Jura. Even though she had seen the abilities of the females from Aqua Kyogre, however, Mavis did not exactly have any surefire plans to get them defeated by any of the people from Fairy Tail. They could pretty much do almost anything with their spells, since most of their real techniques had been kept secret for no one to see how the dark guild was so advanced, and the green-eyed spirit could not even predict that Lucy had to defeat Shelly for their rivalry to reach its apex.
"Have you come up with some kind of plan to defeat Lucy, First Master? I checked the database of mages last week, and she isn't an S-Class mage or anywhere near the level of a Wizard Saint. Defeating her should not really be too difficult, since she is not on the same level as the girls from that guild known as Aqua Kyogre, but Lucy is still one of my children from the Fairy Tail guild. After seeing both Shelly and Lucy's strength, do you really think that the outcome will be a given if these two face off?" Makarov asked with a confident look on his face, since he could sense the tension in the moment of when the two girls locked eyes like they were fierce rivals.
She told him, as she began to frown a little bit, "I haven't figured out a true way to deal with her yet, for a few reasons. First, even though my predictions may be on target, I cannot exactly predict the emotions of others. I don't know what type of magic Lucy will use. Secondly, the spells in that magical book are just as unorthodox as they are useful. Lucy could summon up an electric dragon, for all we know, and I would not know how to counter it. Furthermore, I really have no idea about what will happen if Lucy and Shelly should meet in battle. They are both strong fighters, maybe even on the same level as Erza, so the dream of seeing them fight would be interesting.
Makarov had faith that Lucy could win, really having more faith in her than in the kids of his own guild, and that was because Natsu's sexual footage with Marina had really made rends in the teams. Lisanna had told Team Fairy Tail B that they would all stay together while taking out Natsu first, even though the varying opinions would just make the fairies from both teams have conflicts with one another, and the Third Guild Master of Fairy Tail could only sigh while facepalming himself at the fact that Natsu put women before money. He secretly believed that cash could be used to get dates with beautiful women, and that's why Makarov would his telescope to check out the hot springs in Crocus from a far distance.
In fact, he had even shocked Natsu by taking the Lacrima Vision Crystal from the projector last night and taking it to his room for some nice viewing pleasure. It wasn't Natsu's fault that the old man did not know he was having an affair within an affair, but Makarov had felt bad for never even thinking of peeping through Natsu's window to see Marina's nice body. She definitely was model material, mainly since she had been one of the nude models in the magazine titled X-Class Female Villains, and that magazine could only be purchased by people who were adults. Of course, Makarov had to wonder why a dark mage would love Natsu.
Speaking of Marina, as he turned his attention back to the survival tournament, Makarov was hoping that Natsu would not lose to her like how he had lost the match on the second day of the Grand Magic Games. She totally was quite the charmer, luring Natsu in with her scented perfume that gave off a smell of blackberries, and Marina had gotten inside of his head. Makarov knew that Natsu was also dating Marina, so bringing himself to fight her might be out of the question. Either way, no matter who would win that fight, the affair between Natsu and Marina had made the Fairy Tail guild have a few major cracks in its great bonds of friendship.
Elsewhere...
On a street in Crocus, Kagura and the rest of her team were intensely glaring at the five members of Team Aqua Kyogre. The two groups of five females were simply standing across from each other, not even moving a single inch, and Shelly started things off by using her Water Magic to shoot out a large spiraling beam of cold water from her mouth. The females from Mermaid Heel immediately jumped back a few feet, not wanting to be slammed with so much water that covered the street, and Beth looked surprised to see that the large amount of water had suddenly been frozen by the water's cold temperatures to turn it into a solid block of ice. The large cube of ice had also blocked access to the other side of the battlefield, but why had the women from Team Aqua Kyogre vanished?
They were nowhere to be seen, odd since Milliana and other girls could clearly see through the ice, but Kagura refused to let her prey get away. She looked calm while simply slashing her sheathed sword at the large block of ice, and a large explosion transpired while it broke the frozen cube into many small ice shards! As the sounds of glassy ice could be heard while the shards hit the ground, still not breaking because of how dense the water had been, the girls from Team Mermaid Heel still wondered where their opponents had went. If they weren't behind the ice or above it, where could they have gone in such a short amount of time?
Suddenly, much to the shock of Beth Vanderwood, Shelly had come out of one of the falling ice shards while grinning evilly. She made a thin rapier of blue water materialize in her left hand, simply giving Beth a light slash on her right cheek, and Kagura was utterly surprised to see that these people could even hide inside of ice. That little slash on Beth's face might not have seemed like much, but the effect from Shelly's sword had made Beth immediately become a frozen statue! She was now unable to even talk or move while the white glacial ice covered her entire body, and her heart would freeze if she was not thawed out quickly.
Kagura charged at Shelly for pulling such a dirty move, ready to retaliate against the tanned woman, but the purple-haired leader of Team Mermaid Heel was caught by Shelly creating a second rapier that would be in her right hand. She made it be a little variation of Kagura's Archenemy, having seen its power in the year prior to the current Grand Magic Games, and one slash from this rapier had made Kagura become frozen by the cold wind that blew past her. She was now a petrified icy statue like Beth, not inclined to move, and the other girls from Team Mermaid Heel looked furious while they decided to gang up on Shelly.
However, they were suddenly stopped by a large bubble of boiling hot water that had formed around their feet. Shelly could only smile and do a hair flip while Marina emerged from a nearby ice shard with the other members of Team Aqua Kyogre, and the teal-haired woman snapped her fingers gently to increase the temperature of her boiling bubble. She had a sadistic smile on her face, having a predatory look in her green eyes, and Marina could only watch in a happy manner as the girls from Team Mermaid Heel screamed in pain from the water reaching 130 degrees Fahrenheit before it exploded. Scalding hot water came down to the ground in a large flood, even though no one from Aqua Kyogre was really affected by the boiling liquid, and all of the members from Team Mermaid Heel were now defeated.
"Well, that was an easy way to gain thirty points. These teams are nothing but a bunch of amateurs from a few second-rate guilds, except for Fairy Tail and Sabertooth, but let's keep causing a bit more havoc throughout Crocus. Don't forget, girls, that we're not here to win. Today is the day where I make sure that Lucy Heartfilia unleashes her sweet hate upon her enemies. It shall be good to see her in such a dark state, and then she will join us." Shelly told her team in a stern manner, smiling softly as Mizu, Kanata, and Midna went down into small puddles of water to simply scout for enemies.
Marina replied in calm manner, folding her arms while smirking a bit as Chapati announced that Team Lamia Scale had decimated Team Quatro Cerberus "Not only will our guild have so much power on our side, but just think of what we could do after crushing Fairy Tail. It would be pretty nice to crush the Balam Alliance, even though we take down other dark guilds for some fun, and there's never anything wrong with going against a bunch of people who lose to those fairies. They're so very easy to manipulate, and it's almost not fun. However, it is pretty entertaining to watch them all fight each other."
Knowing that she still had the crucial task of seeing how Lucy was doing right now in the tournament, Shelly simply jumped high into the air before landing on a rooftop in Crocus. She looked out into the distance, looking for an exact pinpoint to the location of Lucy, and Shelly had a calm look in her aqua blue eyes while she could see someone walking down a street where the fashion stores were located. It may or may not have been Lucy, but Shelly would surely take that chance. She turned into a puddle of water, before slithering off of the roof to move through the town at a fast pace to find what she was looking for.
While Shelly had now gone on her mission of seeing Lucy's dark powers in action, Marina knew that she had the job of taking out the fairies from this little event. Even though they might end up fighting each other, would it not still be fun to make sure that both teams were left mangled like how they should've been? Marina decided that the fairies truly did need a taste of their own medicine, in order for them to keep crumbling, and the way to do that was to simply transform into someone while hoping that a little bit of voice imitation would work as well. Really, if she was this clever, would everyone really fall for her act?
Marina put her hands together while a sphere of hot water surrounded her body, and she focused on her magical power as she looked pretty calm. Steam was coming out of the hot sphere for a few moments, as the warm water helped Marina relax while she was about to transform, but the teal-haired woman had a better idea at the last second. She did indeed use the Water Transformation Technique, after she stepped out of the water sphere, and the green-eyed girl transformed into an exact copy of Juvia Lockser. Wow, now wasn't that keeping the theme of love for Aqua Kyogre?
Marina had turned into Juvia for a good reason, since the Rain Woman was unconscious right now because of how Marina had used water droplets put a strange blue powder into the bottle of Coke that Juvia drank from, and this powder made its consumer lose all their magical power for 48 hours. With the real Juvia knocked out while her team thought she was only running late, that gave Marina the chance to wreak some havoc among the fairies while her leader would handle the main mission. In a weird sense, even though she was evilly helping Shelly keep Lucy to herself, Marina was also kindly helping Lucy have some peace that was greatly needed. She was definitely a big-time schemer, right?
She had heard the news about how Elfman had been asked to be in the stands today, mainly since Lisanna and Mira wanted to pulverize Natsu while Cana would help them beat him down, and the white-haired male knew it would be a manly decision to let a trio of angry ladies beat down a cheater. Of course, Juvia had agreed to be on Team Fairy Tail B before drinking down the cola that Marina had spiked. She had studied Juvia enough while being in Fairy Tail, smart enough to imitate her perfectly, and Marina simply ran off while knowing that faking Juvia would be more fun than the Rain Woman's habit of filling up her diary with many fantasies about Gray.
Elsewhere, in a different part of Crocus...
Lucy walked down a road in Crocus known as Glamour Street, a street with extravagant stores that were filled with some of Fiore's most fashionable clothing. However, there weren't any tourists here today. The street seemed to be deserted, and she had looked pretty miffed at the fact that she hadn't found one single opponent yet. Had she been walking around in the safe part of Crocus or something, the part where almost no one would even think of going to? Would Lucy not get the chance to fight anybody, and would the final day really be so boring for her?
While she was walking around, Lucy also heard Chapati make an important announcement about Team Mermaid Heel. All five of those girls had been frozen and burned by Shelly and Marina, giving thirty points to Team Aqua Kyogre, and Team Mermaid Heel finished the game in seventh place. Team Aqua Kyogre was now in first place with 100 points, meaning that Team Sabertooth needed 20 more points to catch up, and Lucy would definitely make sure that her team would end up winning. With only six teams left in this event, things were bound to get a little bit crazy.
The blonde mage continued to walk down the street, still seeing no one nearby, but then she narrowed her brown eyes when she heard some sounds of books falling in a place that seemed like a nearby library. She heard the following sounds of explosions occurring from within the library, making her wonder who could be causing so much havoc inside of that building. There was obviously a fight going on in there, and Lucy had remembered how Erza had informed her about Fairy Tail's strategy to make Sabertooth crumble last time.
If Rufus was supposedly the key point in Sabertooth's downfall, according to the belief of Mavis, why not put a little halt in that plan to hinder Fairy Tail's chances of winning? However, better yet, why not cause a slight bit of confusion? Lucy had begun to close her eyes while exhaling a soft breath of air, and this allowed her to use her non-spell ability of Wind Magic to gain some magical power. Then, she proceeded to open the black spell book to try out the first spell of this new magic that Shelly had given to her. What would come out of it, and how powerful would it be?
The first two lines of black text on the current page had begun to glow, letting Lucy know that this spell was ready to be activated, and it was known as Shadow Beam. This spell caused Lucy to fire a large black beam of dark magic from her left hand. It struck a nearby building, making eight thin black shadows stretch out in the eight directions of a compass rose to at least 100 feet, and the shadows were pulled back fast like slingshots to create eight large blasts of black energy in the spot where the building had now been reduced to rubble. The blasts had combined to make a pretty large attack that could be seen by everyone, and its power had left a massive crater in the spot where the building once stood.
A familiar female voice told Lucy in a stern tone, as her footsteps came from behind, "Wow, that's a pretty big move you've got there. Still, I really doubt that it will be enough to help you in our fight. After all, Lucy, I must win for Fairy Tail while you must win for Sabertooth. Just because your former friends are down in third and fourth place, that does not mean we are out. Don't expect me to go easy on you, Lucy."
Upon hearing this person's voice, Lucy had a stern look on her face while replying with tension in her cocoa brown eyes, "If you think that I'll go easy on you, Erza, then you're really wrong. Just because Natsu is now taking heat for cheating on Lisanna with that other girl, I'm still mad at all of you for helping him keep his first affair from me. Just because I may be delicate like a flower to you, that's still no excuse for not letting me know such crucial info. You were supposed to be one of my most loyal friends, but you still let me get blindsided by a jerk like Natsu."
The blonde mage turned around to see Erza standing a few feet behind her, clearly having been directed by Mavis to come here to try and deal with Lucy, but there was no way that Lucy would let herself get beaten by Erza. Even if they had been fighting right now, couldn't Erza just not focus on the game? After all, she had been wanting to make up with Lucy for not being a good friend when the window of opportunity had been opened. The chance to make things right may never come, especially if Erza planned to help Fairy Tail win, and Lucy still saw them all as traitors for not being there to pull her up when she was falling off the cliff of an intact relationship.
Deciding to end this as fast as possible, not wanting to do inflict too much damage on Lucy, Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor to fly high into the skies. She used her magic to create 100 swords, sending them all straight at Lucy from three different directions, but the blonde girl had a small smirk on her face while she used the second move of her eighth type of magic. It was known as Shadow Speed, and this spell caused Lucy to evade Erza's assault at extremely high speeds. She had vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving her scarlet-haired opponent shocked to see all of her weapons strike the ground, but this was only part one of Lucy's revenge.
She reappeared right in front of Erza, having used her high speed to spring up into the air, and Lucy called upon the next spell known as Shadow Smoke. This spell allowed the Celestial Spirit Wizard to exhale black smoke from her mouth, but it was not ordinary smoke. It had a rather putrid smell, making Erza cough while also losing her focus for a few moments, but she recovered quickly while requipping into her Black Wing Armor to blow all of the smoke towards Lucy. When the black smoke had engulfed her, it made black shadowy explosions occur. The dark power of her own spell made Lucy scream in agony, and she fell down to the ground with a hard thud.
Lucy had fallen down hard on the concrete, coughing up some blood after she hit the ground, and the blonde mage was sent sliding back a few feet. She slowly tried to stand up, not even paying attention to the fact that the shadows from Erza's swords were now being grabbed by her own shadow, and the blonde wizard did not know that this non-spell ability was made to amplify the darkness within her before she would be fully healed. She could see Erza flying higher into the air, before proceeding to swoop down and end this fight with a powerful strike, and Lucy tried to crawl away. She was injured pretty badly from that fall, since it also dislocated her left shoulder and made her right leg feel pain while it was bleeding, so how could she get out of this situation?
As she closed her eyes with worry, not wanting to be slashed by Erza, Lucy heard the familiar sound of loud flatulence. She heard more farts being let out with ease, creating quite a thick blanket of smoke, and Lucy coughed a bit while knowing who the smell belonged to. She opened her eyes to see that Shelly had arrived on the scene, quickly putting Lucy in a sphere of warm water with healing properties, and the blonde girl could only let her damaged clothes slip off of her body to now leave her in a pink lacy bra with pink lacy panties to match. Her stomach still rumbled, something that made Shelly smirk a bit, and Lucy's dark powers had made the water turn black to obscure her while the smoke cleared up.
Erza asked in a curious tone while she flew down to the ground, narrowing her brown eyes from seeing Shelly from Team Aqua Kyogre arrive on the scene, "You're the leader from Team Aqua Kyogre, aren't you? Why in the world are you getting in on this little fight? Are you trying to make a variation of the three-way battle that was between me, Kagura, and Minerva last year?"
"That's right, Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail. I am the infamous Shelly Izumi who works for the guild known as Aqua Kyogre, and I just thought that I'd check in on my rival. Trying to kick a woman when she's down is really what a garbage guild must be about these days, so you're in the right place. With that being said, I already told my curious little rival that I would not betray her in our little truce. Lucy and I have fought a few times in the past, but she still has yet to truly take me down. You must be pretty lame, picking on a girl who is just getting a taste of dark power, but I'll have you to entertain me while she lets it flow into her body. If you're ready, then, let's have some fun." Shelly explained to her foe in a sadistic manner while smirking deviously, ready to show Erza that trying to hurt what Aqua Kyogre wanted would have dire consequences.
How was Chapter 23? Did you like it? I apologize for the long wait and changing the chapter's plot a bit, since I had to register early for classes in the spring semester. The StiCy will improve in this two, three, or four-part arc, so don't fret. Anyway, will Shelly truly show Erza how brutal she can be? What happens when Lucy recovers, and joins in? Will these battles get pretty serious? Will Gray run into trouble, as he encounters "Juvia"? Standby for the update!