Round Robin
Ch. 7
Day 2 had opened with two very different matches, with Erza vs Chelia coming to a surprising draw, and Kagura had defeated Eve in a rather one-sided effort. Now the crowd cheered as Mato stood in the center of the arena to begin the third match.
"Radioactive Decay's Minoru Kanemoto and Mermaid Heel's Milliana, please step forward, kabo!"
Milliana took a deep breath to calm her nerves before walking out, and Minoru made his way out at the same time, the two mages stopping several feet from each other.
"Before we start the next match, lets take a moment to talk about it, Yajima-san. What important things should we be looking at in this one?" Chapati said from the announcers' booth.
"Hmm... Well, there's several things. One being that this is Milliana's first fight of the tournament. That means she's coming into this at 100 percent, while I'm sure Minoru is still feeling the effects of yesterday's match with Emerita. However, after losing that hard-fought battle yesterday, I'm sure Minoru's determined to make up for it by scoring some points."
"Excellent points. And lets also keep in mind that Mermaid Heel is currently one of three undefeated guilds in the Round Robin, the others being Sabertooth and Black Phoenix. Two wins have brought some good early momentum for this guild, so I'm sure Milliana will want to keep that going as well."
Back in the arena, Minoru's expression was as stern and borderline emotionless as usual, while Milliana seemed to have a nervous, but serious presence about her as Mato looked to both mages.
"Are you ready, kabo?"
Both mages responded with a silent nod, and Mato raised his hand as the sound of the gong rang through the arena.
Milliana was the first to act, as her nails extended and she rushed right at the Solid Script mage, then leaped in the air toward him as she attempted to scratch him. But she suddenly gasped as she was met with a strong fist right in the center of her stomach which launched her backward. She rolled back as she hit the ground but managed to spring to her feet a moment later, clutching her stomach.
"Kagura-chan was right. I need to be more careful in this one." she muttered to herself as Minoru stood there, cracking his knuckles.
"What's wrong? You're not done already, are you?"
"Of course not! I'm just getting started!"
Milliana then extended a hand forward, pointing her palm toward Minoru.
"Nekosoku Tube!"
A magic circle opened in front of her hand, releasing a rope which surged forward toward Minoru.
"Hmph. Too slow." He said, unimpressed as he simply sidestepped the oncoming attack, writing the word "Fireball" in the air with his index finger. His magic then turned the word into a large ball of flame which was then sent hurling at Milliana. The Mermaid Heel mage's eyes widened in surprise at the incoming attack, but she managed to dive out of the way at the last moment, and the fireball exploded as it crashed into the wall behind her. Not wanting to give Minoru a chance to continue his attack, she then began to run around him from a distance, hoping her movement would make her a difficult target, and also waiting for an opening to attack again.
"Interesting." Kagura said as she watched on from Mermaid Heel's section, to which Beth replied.
"Hm? What is, Kagura?"
"Milliana knows she can't overpower him, so instead she's waiting for him to make a mistake she can capitalize on. She's grown since the Grand Magic Games."
"Don't underestimate Milliana!" Risley said with a confident grin.
Minoru was quickly growing agitated as Milliana ran around.
"Oi, get over here and fight!"
He lifted his finger again, this time writing "Lightning Storm" in the air. A magic circle then opened, firing multiple bolts of lightning toward Milliana. One by one, they struck the ground right behind her, barely missing as she continued to run, until one finally hit close enough to cause her to stumble and fall. Once again she quickly got to her feet only to see another fireball already coming toward her. With no time to dodge, the fireball exploded as it hit Milliana, drawing a light scream from her as it launched her back into the wall. As she slumped to the ground in a dazed state, Mato ran over to check on her, and Minoru simply stood with his arms crossed as he waited. However, just before Mato reached her, Milliana slowly started to struggle to her feet, causing Minoru's eye to twitch in anger.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you? Fine then. Have it your way."
He lifted his hand and wrote the word "War Hammer" with his finger, and the massive, two-sided hammer appeared in his hands as he started walking toward her. By the time he was within range to attack, Milliana was still not completely back on her feet. Minoru then lifted the hammer high over his head, and swung it down as hard as he could. But to his surprise, Milliana had managed to roll away at the last second, and the hammer smashed into the ground instead, leaving a large crater were the hammer hit.
"You annoying little..."
He lunged toward her, swinging the hammer repeatedly as quickly as he could. But Milliana somehow managed to duck, dive, or jump out of the way of each attack he sent. This continued for several minutes, until Minoru finally decided he'd had enough.
"This game of cat and mouse has gone on long enough!"
With that, he wrote "lightning" along the handle of the hammer, and the weapon became engulfed in electricity. Raising the hammer high over his head once more, he brought it down again. And though Milliana once again dove away from the hammer, the lightning burst out in all directions as the weapon hit the ground, delivering a painful shock to her. Once again she collapsed to the ground as Minoru approached her ready to ensure that the fight was over. But suddenly, he was surprised as he felt something wrap around his wrist, and looked down to see Milliana's Nekosoku Tube. To make matters worse for him, his hammer then disappeared into thin air. Milliana smirked as she looked up at Minoru.
"Feelin spi-"
Before she could even finish her signature phrase, Minoru pulled on the rope, sending the female mage flying toward him, then slammed his right arm across her head, clotheslining her and sending her crashing into the ground again. Dazed from the hit, she rolled over to see Minoru standing over her, the hammer back in his hands again, lifted up as he prepared to finally bring this fight to an end.
"Nowhere to run now. It's over."
But at that moment, the gong sounded, bringing the fight to an end.
"The time limit has been reached, kabo!" Mato announced. "This match ends in a draw!"
"WHAT?!" Minoru yelled as he heard the announcement. And as the crowd cheered, Milliana smiled as she laid her head down as she tried to catch her breath. But her expression quickly turned to a much more frightened one as she saw Minoru still standing there and holding the hammer up as he glared down at her. The S-Class mage's rage had escalated far past his breaking point. He was seeing red, and was fully prepared to attack with no regard whatsoever for whether she would survive, or the consequences that would follow. Those in the crowd all watched in utter shock and disbelief, and desperate cries for someone to stop this came from seemingly every direction. Minoru's hands tightened on the hammer, and he was just about to bring it down when he felt something pull on his arm and a voice in his ear.
"MINORU! IT'S OVER! PLEASE, STOP!"
Recognizing the voice, he turned to see the tear-filled eyes of Radioactive Decay's guild master as well as Minoru's girlfriend, Avani. He then looked back at Milliana, only now realizing what he was doing as he saw her terrified face. The crowd had gone dead silent now as the war hammer disappeared into thin air and Minoru slowly lowered his arms back down by his sides. His eyes then went to Mermaid Heel's section in the stands, where Milliana's guild mates all watched on with concerned expressions, with the exception of Kagura, who was now standing halfway to where they were, with a look similar to Minoru's a moment ago, and was tightly clutching her sword in case she decided to intervene. Minoru looked down at his hands, which were now shaking, then took one more glance toward his guild master before he finally spoke.
"I...I'm sorry, Avani..."
He turned and quickly walked away from the scene, wanting to get out of the arena as soon as possible, not even stopping to talk to the rest of his speechless guild mates as he walked right by them.
"Minoru..." Avani said as she watched him walk away. She then turned back to face Milliana and the Mermaid Heel mages, and gave a polite bow.
"Gomen nasai."
And with that she went and quickly followed after Minoru.
Kagura walked out and put Milliana's arm over her shoulders and helped her stand.
"Are you alright, Milliana?"
"I...I think so..." she answered.
Erza Scarlet had also run out into the arena to help her friend, and had now caught up to them.
"Milliana!-"
"I appreciate and understand your concern, Erza. But we can handle the situation." Kagura interrupted.
Milliana turned her head to face Erza and gave a small smile as she nodded.
"Thanks, Erza-chan. But don't worry too much about me. I'll be feelin' spiffy again in no time!" she said, though there was clear pain in her voice as she forced the words out.
Reluctantly, Erza nodded in acceptance.
"Just don't push yourself, alright?"
Milliana nodded, and Kagura helped her to the infirmary as Erza went back to Fairy Tail's section in the stands.
When the arena floor had been cleared, the announcers commented on the situation.
"Wow...So with that draw, Mermaid Heel remains undefeated and Minoru gets on the scoreboard. But I think it's safe to say what's really important with this one is the aftermath. wouldn't you say, Yajima-san?"
"Without question. I don't know what got into Minoru, but this is the kind of thing that starts wars between guilds. This is a very dangerous situation, particularly for Radioactive Decay. There's no doubt the council will be watching everything they do very closely for the remainder of the tournament."
"The last time a full-scale guild war occurred was between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord, and we all know how that turned out. Indeed, Radioactive Decay will have to proceed cautiously if they don't want to meet the same fate as Phantom Lord. We'll follow this closely as it develops, but as they say, the show must go on. So lets proceed with the next match."
While the crowd was still buzzing about the incident from the previous match, Mato stood in the center of the arena with his microphone in hand.
"L-Lets start the next match, kabo! Would Blues of Quatro Cerberus, and Mathias Cronqvist of Black Phoenix please make their way out now!"
Both mages walked out to the center of the arena, stopping several feet in front of each other.
"Are you both ready, kabo?"
Both mages nodded, and the gong sounded.
"Begin!"
"Water Dragon's Roar!" Blues immediately shouted, surprising both Mathias and the crowd as he immediately launched the massive torrent of water from his mouth right at the S-Class mage, the attack tossing Mathias back several feet.
Blues grinned as Mathias got back to his feet.
"Not bad. You actually managed to catch me off guard. But don't get too full of yourself, puppy. It won't happen again." Mathias said. "It's my turn now. Lapiste!"
As he said this, one of his glyphs formed a large stone fist which launched toward Blues, causing the Dragon Slayer's eyes to widen as he barely managed to dive out of the way in time.
"That could've been bad. Looks like I can't afford to underestimate this guy. He is S-Class after all..."
His train of thought was interrupted as he noticed several lightning bolts now coming toward him, having been created with Mathias' "Fulgur" glyph. Blues leapt into the air in time to avoid them, only for Mathias' right fist to slam into his face, sending him crashing back into the ground. Mathias chuckled as he landed on his feet.
"Sorry. Was that too fast for you? I can slow down some if you'd like."
Blues shot Mathias an annoyed glance as he got back up.
"Oh don't worry about me. I'll be just fine. Blue Drive!"
The Water Dragon Slayer was then covered with a Blue aura as he entered his Blue Drive, and rushed right at the Glyph Mage.
"Water Dragon's Punch!"
Blued gathered large amounts of dense water as hard as steel around his fists, and began throwing them in rapid succession at Mathias' head and torso. With Blues' speed being enhanced by the Blue Drive, it was difficult for even Mathias to follow the Dragon Slayer's movements, though he still managed to avoid each strike before jumping back to create some distance between the two.
"Not too shabby. But I'm sure you know you're not the only one who can transform. Arma Miles!"
Mathias' body was then covered in a suit of black armor, with a giant sword in his hand
"Heh. That looks pretty wild. But it's nothing I can't handle."
With that, the blue aura around Blues became even thicker, and scale-like patterns formed on his body as he entered his Dragon Force. The Dragon Slayer then dashed around Mathias before rushing at him from behind. Mathias spun and swung his large sword, which Blues ducked under before lunging forward and slamming a water-infused punch to Mathias' stomach. Because of the armor, the punch didn't do any major damage, though he did stumble back a couple steps. Trying to press the offensive, Blues repeated his strategy, dashing around this time to Mathias' left side. Again Mathias swung the sword and Blues, ducked under it. But as Blues rose up to deliver another attack, he was suddenly met with the armor-covered knee of Mathias slamming right into his stomach, causing Blues to gasp, and knocking him back several feet. Panting a bit as he got up, Blues decided now was the time to try to end the fight with one of his strongest techniques, while he still had enough energy to use it.
"Secret Dragon Slayer Art: Heavy Rain!"
A huge magic circle then opened over the arena, unleashing a relentless onslaught of heavy raindrops as hard as steel.
Looking up and seeing the impending attack as the circle covered the sky above, Mathias activated his "Scutum" glyph, creating a shield on his arm. He then crouched down and held the shield over his head, gritting his teeth against the force of the rainstorm. For several minutes, Blues waited for his energy to recover so he could capitalize on Mathias' situation and attack again, while Mathias was simply waiting for the attack to end so he could move back on the offensive. However, neither mage would get a chance to act on their strategy, as the gong suddenly rang again.
"The time limit has been reached, kabo! This match is a draw!"
Blues' attack finally died down, the Dragon Slayer grinned slightly, while Mathias grimaced and rolled his eyes under his armor.
"Of course..." he said as he let his armor disappear. "Oh well. I suppose one point's still better than nothing."
"Oi, wild fight, Mathias." Blues said, just feeling proud of the fact that he had fought one of Black Phoenix's strongest to a draw.
"Yeah, same to you." Mathias replied, returning the Dragon Slayer's grin as he turned and walked back to his guild's section.
As Mathias made it back to his guild-mates, Tristan gave him a on the shoulder.
"Good fight, Mathias-san."
"Thanks. May not have gotten the two points, but I think it was a good warm up for tomorrow's fight."
"Hm? Who are you fighting tomorrow?" he asked curiously, to which Mathias chuckled and grinned.
"You'll see soon enough."
As Blues walked back to Quatro Cerberus' section, each of his guild-mates came over to congratulate him.
"Hell of a fight, Blues!" said Kuro, the Water God Slayer.
"Damn straight! That was wild!" Bacchus chimed in with a grin as they all then shouted.
"FOUR!"
"Speaking of wild, isn't your fight next, Bacchus?"
"Sure is. Guess I better get goin then. Today's started out good for us so far. I'm gonna make sure it ends that way too." the Drunken Falcon replied as he began walking out into the arena.
Once again Mato stood in front of the crowd.
"And now lets begin our next match! Bacchus form Quatro Cerberus, Emerita Megido of Black Phoenix, please come here, kabo!"
Bacchus was already a good ways out into the arena, and laid down on his side, propping his head up on his hand as he waited.
Rita simply walked out to the arena and stood several feet from Bacchus, glancing the Quatro Cerberus mage as she stood with her arms crossed.
"Well, puppy? Are we going to fight, or are you just going to stay there and take a nap?"
"Oi, oi. Why the rush? Lets just take our time and make this fight as wild as possible, huh?"
"I couldn't care less about that. I'm here to help my guild. I don't care how long it takes or what I have to do as long as I get the points I want."
"Ehh, you're such a downer." Bacchus said, scratching his head as he stood up. "My soul ain't even quiverin'. But whatever. Hopefully that'll change by the end of this fight. Oi, pumpkin head," he called out to Mato. "I'm ready. Lets get this started." he said as he crouched into his fighting stance.
"I-I see, kabo. And you, Rita? Are you ready?"
She thought for a moment about using her tag partner, but decided against it, choosing to wait and use it later in the tournament. Rita nodded to Mato to signal she was ready.
"Very well! Begin!" Mato shouted as the gong rang for the fifth time today.
His grin widening as he heard the sound of the gong, Bacchus burst out of his stance in a fast charge straight at Rita.
"I don't think so!" Rita shouted as she took out her scroll. Though she normally preferred to start her fights with hand to hand combat to conserve magic energy, she knew that wasn't an option today, considering Bacchus' style of fighting. So as Bacchus approached, she quickly read from her scroll.
"Hero's bane come down to defend! Blade Roller!"
She spun as she finished the incantation, and a blade as tall as her swung out toward Bacchus as he approached. However, his grin never left his face as he dropped to his knees and leaned back as he slid right under the blade. Coming to a stop right behind Rita, he quickly spun and slammed a magic-infused palm strike into her back, knocking her forward. Though the attack had hurt, she still had the presence of mind to land on the palms of her hands and spring back up to her feet, facing Bacchus again.
"Tch. He might've landed the first hit, but at least he helped me create some distance." she said to herself as she read another one of the scroll's incantations.
"Raise them high, o' mighty storm. Sky Fall!"
This time, a strong gust of swirling winds formed around Bacchus, tossing him high into the air.
"He's strong, but the puppy can't fly. Lets see if he can take the fall... Wait a minute..."
She squinted her eyes as she watched him in the air. Something wasn't right. Normally in this case the opponent's body would be twisting and turning every which way as it descended, but not Bacchus. In fact it seemed as if he held himself in an almost straight line as he started coming down. And as he did, Bacchus' voice rang out, quiet at first, but gradually getting louder.
"wwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLDDDDDDDD!"
Rita's eyes widened in surprise as she realized he had used her own attack as a support for an aerial strike of his own, and barely managed to dive out of the way before the Drunken Falcon's palm slammed into the ground where she had been standing, destroying a much of the ground in that area and creating a large cloud of dust around him. Despite her attack not having had its desired effect, Rita wasn't about to let up.
"O' flickering flame of eternity, burn bright! Fireball!" she said, creating a large fireball which rushed into the cloud of dust and exploded.
When the smoke and dust finally died down, Bacchus was seen grinning as he stood there, though a bit of the armor around his wrists had chipped off.
"Gotta admit, that attack was more wild than I woulda thought. But as ya can see, it ain't quite enough."
"I think I'll decide for myself which of my spells are 'good enough' or not." retorted Rita as she recited from the scroll once again.
"Come forth, O sparks of the skies! Bring judgement down on thy sinners! Lightning Reign!"
"Hm?" Bacchus looked up and saw dark clouds forming overhead. Remembering this technique from watching Rita's fight in Day 1, Bacchus took off in a sprint toward Rita just before the bolts of lightning started raining down, swaying and zigzagging as he went to avoid the strikes as they hit the ground. Once he'd closed about half the distance between him and her, Bacchus pushed off his back foot and lunged forward at a fast speed, slamming a palm strike into Rita's stomach, causing her to gasp in pain, and launching her backward. Bacchus then grinned and crouched back into his stance.
"Wild..."
"FOUR!" his guild-mates responded in unison from their section in the stands.
Rita coughed up some blood as she got up. And once again she had to debate her strategy. She could use a healing spell on herself, but that might mean she wouldn't have enough magic energy for some of her stronger moves. But then she remembered Bacchus' palm strikes were only as powerful as they were because of the magic energy he put into them. Maybe taking that energy away would give her the advantage she needed. So she recited another incantation.
"Come forth o' avaricious netherworld and crush the evil before me! Oblivion Gate!"
What appeared to be a black hole then surrounded Bacchus. But instead of dragging him in, it sucked his magic energy right out of him, causing Bacchus to look around at his limbs in confusion.
"Hm? The hell's goin on...?"
"You're out of magic, puppy. You might as well surrender now." Rita answered with a confident smirk, to which Bacchus simply laughed.
"Huh?! Ya really think I didn't come prepared for somethin like that?"
With that, Bacchus smirked as he pulled his gourd out of his pocket.
"Damn!" Rita thought to herself. "I can't believe I forgot about that!"
She already wasn't in a good situation. But if Bacchus was going to power up, she needed to end this as soon as possible. Despite what Bacchus said earlier about prolonging the fight, it had now become a race to see who could land the bigger attack first. And so, Rita began preparing her Elder's Ruin spell, one of her most powerful, hoping to end the fight with it.
"O gods of old, grant me thy favor to punish thy defi-"
But before she could finish the incantation, Bacchus had drunk the alcohol in his gourd, enhancing both his physical strength and speed, while also replenishing his energy. And in what appeared at a glance to be one quick movement, he had dashed right by her, with lights emanating from her torso where seven near-instantaneous strikes had all hit their mark with full force. In addition to the fact that Bacchus had landed seven strong hits at once, he had interrupted Rita's incantation, unknowingly causing her to waste a lot of magic energy at once. It was all too much for Rita to handle at once, and she collapsed unconscious to the ground as Mato ran over to check on her.
"Rita is down! Bacchus wins the match!"
Bacchus grinned and threw his fist into the air.
"Wild!"
"FOUR!" his guild-mates responded.
As Rita stirred and began to regain consciousness, Bacchus smirked over at her.
"Better luck next time."
Not waiting for a response, he then walked back over to his guild's section.
Rita rolled her eyes at hearing Bacchus' words, before simply standing up and sighing as she limped back over to Black Phoenix's section, where Mizaki was the first to speak, giving Rita a light punch on her shoulder.
"Good try, Rita. You'll get him next time."
"Of course I will. That dumb puppy got lucky today. But for now, I need to go to the infirmary." Rita replied before continuing on to the infirmary to have her injuries treated.
"Well, it's certainly been an eventful day here in the inaugural Round Robin. With these last several fights, Black Phoenix's winning streak has come to an end, Eve has used his tag partner, and after all of Day 1 passing without a single draw, three of our first four fights today ended in draws. But the big story from today has definitely been the actions of Radioactive Decay's Minoru Kanemoto after his fight with Milliana." Chapati said in the announcers' booth.
"Indeed. If this results in an actual war between the guilds, we can likely expect one, if not both of the guilds to be forced to disband. Hopefully that doesn't happen, especially considering this tournament is meant to 'help' the guilds involved, not destroy them. However we'll have to wait and see what happens before we jump to conclusions."
"Very true. Whatever happens, we'll be sure to follow it very closely. And lets not forget, there's still three more fights left today. Aira vs Gajeel, Tsuki vs Rogue, and Orga vs Reve. Can Sabertooth keep their undefeated streak going through Day 2 of the tournament? Can White Eclipse get on the scoreboard? Can Gajeel get some momentum for Fairy Tail? We'll find out the answers to these questions and more soon, so stay tuned!"
