Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 23: Smart and Outsmart; Hunting

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 and the losers, right?

Lucy was trying to clear her head of everything that Karen had told her yesterday, not wanting to really believe any of the stuff about Thorn being her ancestor, and she dipped a piece of her waffle into maple syrup before stabbing it with a fork and bringing the food up to her mouth. The waffles were delectable and sweet, just like how she was. She giggled while smiling down at her food, and noticing on the corner of her left eye that the pink spell book had turned blue during the night and it was now having blue beams of light shine from it.

She looked curious about this, wondering why the blue color representing Water Magic would appear once again, and Lucy knew very well that she had already unlocked the first eight spells of Water Magic. They had been her main attack spells when she was out at sea, or having to do jobs in faraway lands that could only be accessed by crossing the harsh oceans where pirates lived, and the blonde mage really had to wonder why a ninth spell or more would be showing up now. Had she grown in some way?

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. 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 blue book.

Lucy's heart beat with nervousness, feeling a bit fearful about something bad like Thorn 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?

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 breaking the seven seals, along with now having all eight types of magic at your disposal. However, you are still permitted the use of only one type of magic at one time. Nothing seems to have changed now, but your golden key allies will help you see the changes in the book."

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?

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 or something, you know. Also, I heard everything that Karen said to you yesterday. Just because you're related to Thorn, that does not mean you are actually like her. Thorn's darkness may be in you, but that doesn't mean it is you."

He let his girlfriend know that the dark magic she used had only come from her hate towards Natsu, since Thorn was more vengeful than competitive, and the other seven types had much more positive energy. Even the Darkness Magic of Darcy was not necessarily bad, since it had a more anti-hero and trickster feel to it, and that type of magic was actually meant to be used as the attacks with immobilizing capabilities. Darkness Magic consumed more energy than the other six, so a powerhouse like that had to be backed up by something else at certain times.

Lucy always felt lifted up by Sting's words of encouragement, and she just had to not let the dark power become loose. Of course, 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 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 noticed that Lucy held her book open while she was walking. He unleashed a thin beam of white light from the tip of his left index finger, and hit some of the unreadable light blue words in the section for Water Magic. When Sting saw them pulsate with a light blue glow for a moment, he knew that the book had listened to his silent wish about letting his girlfriend abide by the rules of using only one type of magic with a little loophole that gave her some extra juice in her attacks.

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 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, since Thorn technically won the tag-team battle against him and Erza. Lucy wanted to finish that match, actually feel like she could achieve victory over her-ex boyfriend, and he would no longer be able to say that she was weak.

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 seven of her two positive types of magic. She had not used five of them in this tournament, and she did not want to reveal all her skills to her 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 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.

Lucy also did not have any new spells that she could use, so surprising enemies would be kind of useless. At that moment, her mind flashed bac to the tag-team battle. Lucy's brown eyes widened in amazement from hearing her dense ex-boyfriend tell her that her spells were great with thinking outside the box. Those four words at the end of that last sentence meant that her spells could be used in creative ways, allowing her to not really be as predictable as anyone thought that she would be.

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 blue spell book was still pulsating because of Sting hitting it with a thin beam of light. His light had not given her any new spells to use, not wanting Lucy to be overpowered in something like this, and even the book knew that she could win with eight spells alone. However, let's just say that the light had actually caused the spells in Lucy's book to undergo their first stages of evolution for a nice little power boost to transpire.

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 Thorn, the spell book that could be used for extremely evil purposes if it ever fell into the wrong hands, and Mavis hoped that the black book was not being used in a malicious manner by Lucy. It was one of the most unpredictable tools of magic, and the First Master of Fairy Tail somehow knew this.

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.

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.

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.

"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 Thorn Heartfilia. What happened in the last tag-team battle was only some kind of dark coincidence, right?" Makarov asked with a confident smile on his face, thinking that Laxus or Erza could manage to defeat the brown-eyed girl.

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. Lucy may have Thorn's book, but their sets of spells are far too different when I compared them to each other."

Makarov could only have a stern look on his face, from knowing that there was someone who was able to read the book that a sorceress named Thorn had written. There were many history books about her, but varying things between them made it quite impossible to know the actual details of the sinister things she had done. One thing remained consistent throughout all of the books, though. She created all of the spells in the book she had written, and the magic in that book was malleable enough to create almost anything.

Meanwhile…

Lucy was really keeping her guard up while she tried to find some opponents, and she did not notice that her own shadow split into six shadows that made six other clones of herself rise up from the darkness. The only differences between Lucy and her clones were that they wore the same outfit that she did and had spell books. The only differences were the colors of the books and the outfits that varied from red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, and pink. All of these shadow clones only possessed one type of magic, however, based on the colors of their books.

This was actually one of the book's curses being activated, and it was known as the Seven Shadow Gates. This curse could only be activated when all eight types of magic had acquired the chance at evolution, and this curse would allow Lucy to use more than fourteen percent of her everyday energy. It would release the book's restraints on her amount of magical power, but she could only use this curse after canceling one type of magic. In other words, Lucy and a duplicate of herself could not use spells at the same time. However, this was not a total drawback.

When one clone had finished a fight, they would transfer their type of magic back into Lucy's book for her to now be able to use that type of magic. Thankfully, the Lacrima Vision screens did not catch sight of the seven girls standing on the street. Lucy, however, decided to cancel out this curse. She saw the clones retreat back into the shadows, and she would only call upon them when it was really necessary. After all, it was never a really good idea to use up magical power in a mere matter of seconds.

While Lucy continued to walk around the town, searching for some enemies, she heard Chapati announce that all five members of Team Quatro Ceberus had been defeated by the members of Team Lamia Scale. This meant that the Quatro Cerberus guild was now out of the Grand Magic Games, giving them eighth place with zero points to their name, and Team Lamia Scale was now in second place with sixty-two points. Those guys were certainly powerful, and Lucy was hoping that she would not run into any of them right now.

Elsewhere...

On a street in Crocus, Kagura and the rest of her team were intensely glaring at the five members of Team Sweet Melancholy. The two groups of five females were simply standing across from each other, not even moving a single inch, and Karen started things off by using a sneaky little tool of Holder Magic. It was known as a Light Bomb, a weapon that was normally used to create a large flash of light that would blind opponents for only a few moments while it was in effect, and it was mainly used for fleeing.

However, the woman with silvery-blue hair had planned to use it for a different purpose. She held the white sphere in her hands for only a few moments, before slamming it down on the ground to activate its luminous effect. The bright white light was intense enough to actually reach many parts of Crocus, blinding even Laxus and Orga before they could begin their battle, and the five women from the guild known as Mermaid Heel were engulfed in most of the light. What was Karen planning to do?

She smirked evilly while seeing Kagura's shadow stretch outward from behind her, and the purple-haired woman had managed to quickly grab her sword. She was about to try and attack Karen with her blade still sheathed, but Kagura's eyes widened in pure shock from feeling something wrap itself around her legs tightly. She turned her head around slowly to see that her own shadow was immobilizing her, and the shadows of the other girls had also ceased their mobility as well. Was this just an immobilization technique, however?

Haruka Furawa, the only member of Team Sweet Melancholy who had not fought yet at all in this tournament, had an interesting trick of her own. She exhaled a large breath of air, sending a pink substance towards the nostrils of Milliana, and it smelled like beautiful roses. However, the fumes themselves did not have such pleasant effects. They caused Milliana to evilly glare at her team, and she quickly began to use her Cat Binding Tube to attack Beth before she slashed at the young girl's face. Arania and Risley tried to stop the commotion, but Mable revealed her light blue eye once again while giggling sadistically.

She fired a light blue beam from that eye once again, but this beam was sure to shock everyone. When it hit Kagura and her teammates, they were immediately turned into petrified stone statues. They were now like pale white rocks, not even moving a single bit, and the girls could not even think right now. Karen thought about tipping them all over to break them and kill those girls for good, but Mable told her that the effect of this laser only lasted for twenty minutes. With Team Mermaid Heel unable to keep fighting, Team Sweet Melancholy earned 30 more points to add to their score. They had also managed to take out Mermaid Heel, leaving them in seventh place with 24 points. Karen's team now had 84 points, taking first place away from Sabertooth.

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?

While she was walking around, Lucy also heard Chapati make an important announcement about Fairy Tail. Due to Lisanna choosing not to compete today, since Erza refused to let her blackmail or bash Natsu any further into throwing more fights to make the guild lose, the Fairy Tail mages were now down to ten. Since one team had six people while the other team had four people, it was only fair to make one person from Team Fairy Tail A join Team Fairy Tail B. Mirajane wanted Juvia to take Lisanna's place, since letting her work alongside Gray would give too much of an advantage to Team Fairy Tail A.

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 another curse in the book. It was known as Shadowy Eyes, and it allowed the book to give its wielder the chance to see everything through the darkness of shadows. It was like having hidden cameras without anyone even finding them.

She was letting her eyes search through the shadows, hoping to find what she was looking for, and what she was trying to find would be of utmost importance to Fairy Tail. If logistical support was needed to scout and find enemies, then why not get rid of that support? Lucy knew that Fairy Tail would also be trying to find Sting, who had hidden safely this time around, and she needed to draw their focus away from him. If they thought the others were such great threats, not really seeing her as the main priority, then why not change Fairy Tail's plans?

Lucy opened up the blue spell book, seeing the words for the first spell of Water Magic glow once more, and the brown-eyed girl ran towards the library where Gray and Rufus were fighting. It did not seem like much was going on right now, since the Lacrima Vision screen actually showed that both mages were locked in a stalemate right now, and that was the perfect opportunity for Lucy to help Sabertooth win. She had also heard that Team Sweet Melancholy was now in the lead with four points, and getting five points would put Sabertooth back on top.

Gray and Rufus were both smirking at each other, feeling amazed that neither mage could land an attack on the other, and this battle had seemed like it would never end. Rufus had even used Memory-Make: Shrine of Turbulent Fangs, but Gray had simply countered by making tornadoes of ice cancel them out. Every explosion was only large enough to make shock waves transpire, knocking the books off of the shelves, and the library was still intact. As Gray and Rufus were about to try another set of attacks, the library's entrance doors were pushed open.

Rufus asked the intruder in a kind manner, knowing who she was, "Excuse me, but won't you let me handle this?"

Lucy replied in a confident manner, noticing that Gray was here, "I'm sorry, Rufus, but I want to truly earn respect from Fairy Tail. I want them all to acknowledge how strong that I have become, and I want to show them that me and Thorn are not one and the same. Gray, I challenge you to a battle!"

How was the 23rd chapter? Did you like it? Sorry for the little filler fight, but I did not want to introduce anything major in only the first part of the survival tournament. There will be StiCy, too. Will Lucy be able to handle Gray in a battle, especially when it is a full eight-on-eight spell battle with no substitutions allowed? Will Gray accidentally trigger the full power of Lucy's Water Magic? What other fights transpire? Standby for the update!