Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 24: Water Magic... Evolved?!
Rufus could only look bewildered at the fact that Lucy was here right now, since he had remembered how the members of Team Sabertooth had gone in five separate directions to cover more ground. Why in the world had Lucy come here? If Gray could do it, he would be taking out two mages instead of one. Based on his memory and calculations, Rufus honestly did not even see Lucy as a good match-up against Gray. It wasn't because of the fact that she used a spell book, but the current color of the book made Rufus seem worried.
Water Magic was great as a defensive type of magic, but water could easily be frozen by ice. On top of that, Lucy had let her teammates know that the book only let her use one type of magic at a time. Rufus knew very well that the rules of logic made fire be very effective against ice, and using Water Magic in a situation like this would only be asking for trouble. He did not want to see what would happen, having predicted the possible results of a fight like this, and Rufus simply used his Memory-Make Magic to disappear from the library while Gray was distracted with Lucy.
The ice mage looked a bit curious while going into a combat stance, wondering what would come out of Lucy's blue book, and Gray kept his guard up while he could hear Chapati announce that a new fight had started between Lucy Heartfilia and Gray Fullbuster. The black-haired male narrowed his dark blue eyes at her, not wanting to go easy on her because she was his friend, and Gray decided to start things off with one of his favorite moves. He simply fired five large ice shards from his hands, and they headed straight towards Lucy.
However, she had confidence in her brown eyes while proceeding to evade all of Gray's attacks. Lucy thought about using the book right off the bat, but she smiled confidently while having a little plan. She pulled out the golden key of Aquarius from her brown pouch, opening the Gate of the Water Bearer, and the blue-haired spirit was summoned. Despite now being here, she looked utterly miffed at the fact that Lucy had requested her presence in a place where there was no water around for her to use.
It was true that there was no water in the library, but Lucy was smart. She knew that using the blue spell book's Water Magic in a combination with the powers of Aquarius would get the job done, and the blonde girl proceeded to use the Aqua Ball spell in a way to retaliate against Gray for trying to get a few early strikes at her. Lucy knew that the first spell took a few moments to work, but she also knew that its effects were really nothing to laugh about. She used the first spell of Water Magic, only to discover something interesting.
When Lucy used Aqua Ball, she looked surprised to see that her attack had changed. It was no longer a simple ball of blue water that would pop like a water balloon, but it was a blue ball of water with rings of water spinning around it. It was almost like her attack had evolved, became something new, and Lucy was surprised to see it propel itself from her hand to attack Gray. He jumped out of the way of the attack, grinning a bit when he saw the ball of water simply pop when it hit a bookcase behind him, and Gray laughed a bit.
"Is that really the best that you can do? Come on, Lucy. Even Natsu can aim better than that!" Gray asked and told her in a cocky manner, smiling at the fact that her aim was supposedly off.
She responded nicely while a small smile formed on her lips, noticing something interesting going on behind Gray, "If I were you, I wouldn't celebrate just yet. Let's just say that water has its ways of sneaking up on you."
Lucy pointed to the bookcase behind Gray, and he looked shocked to see that all of the water on the books and the bookcase had begun to stretch outward while detaching itself from whatever it had come into contact with. The Aqua Ball spell divided itself into five Aqua Balls, and they all came towards Gray at high speeds. He dodged each of them, jumping around to try and get out of their way, and Lucy could also control the path of all her projectiles with her left index finger. She accidentally bent it gently, causing five blue blasts of Water Magic to transpire around Gray.
He took notice of her being distracted right now, and Gray ran towards Lucy while he prepared to end this with Ice-Make: Ice Bringer. He made two swords of ice appear in his hands, ready to slash at Lucy in a cross-pattern, and he looked totally ready to win this. However, Gray suddenly found himself having to stop in his tracks when he found the ground to be a bit slippery. He turned his head to see that Lucy's five blasts of Water Magic had made most of the floor wet, which was perfect for to now create twenty Aqua Balls.
Gray kept running towards her while she had to take the time to create them, and he ended up stabbing Lucy in her stomach with one of his swords. She gasped in shock while some blood poured from her stomach, obviously having her guard down, but this close proximity between the two fighters caused Lucy to have an idea. She wouldn't use the powers of Aquarius just yet, but Lucy would use some of her basic spells. Judging by how Aqua Ball had changed, it was highly possible that the other spells had undergone a few changes in them as well.
She used the second spell, Bubble Implosion, and it surprisingly caused the brown-eyed girl to cough up a tiny bubble. Gray looked puzzled by this, simply evading it while he found the attack to be harmless, and he even ignored the fact that Lucy's twenty Aqua Balls were now moving towards the small bubble. When one of them made contact with it, the bubble simply absorbed it and doubled in size while eating up the power of that spell. It ate another Aqua Ball, doubling in size and power once again, and this process repeated itself for a few minutes.
When it was over, Gray found himself looking shocked at the size of the bubble that was once small enough for him to pop. It had now grown to a monstrous size, towering over the ice mage while it floated up to the ceiling, and Gray could presume that a huge blast was coming. It would probably obliterate the entire library, so he did the only logical thing. Gray used his Ice-Make Magic to try and freeze the large bubble in a solid sphere of ice, but it was too late. Lucy had smiled like she had honed in on something, and simply made a popping sound with her mouth to pop the large bubble.
Lucy told Aquarius in a confident manner while smirking as her plan now came to fruition, seeing the bubble pop while it began to send down massive waves of water from above, "Aquarius, absorb all of those waves into your urn! Take in every last drop, if you can!"
The spirit of water shouted fiercely while angrily looking at Gray, "Anyone who tries to freeze such a vast majority of water will be slammed down by the tidal waves of my fury! Prepare to experience your briny defeat, ice mage!"
Aquarius absorbed all of the enormous waves of water into her urn, having no trouble taking in such a high amount of water, and a blue aura began to surround the body of the water spirit. She smirked a bit while definitely feeling the enormous chain power of Lucy's Water Magic, and the Celestial Spirit also took notice of her owner's blue book beginning to shine in accordance with the aura. Lucy began to glare at Gray while focusing on her emotions, building them all up into one huge shot to give some more power to her fourth spell. (Cerulean Charm would not be effective here, and it's the third spell.)
She unleashed Scalding Shot, and this was the spell that was fired as a scalding and spiraling blue beam of water from her mouth. Gray looked surprised to see so much steam surrounding the attack, implying that he would literally be in hot water soon, but the ice mage looked even more surprised to see that Lucy fired the spell at the urn being held by Aquarius. The hot water was easily absorbed into the urn, and the blue aura surrounding the body of Aquarius began to distend. Gray hd to wonder what Lucy was up to, since her attention was now away from him.
Lucy had remembered how Scalding Shot had increased in power and size when she had used it to break the lock in the Snowpoint Temple, mainly thanks to the help of the Aqua Balls, and Aquarius had already absorbed two powerful spells that were chained together. Using the chain power for one spell was pretty dangerous, but using so much chain power for three spells? What kind of crazy idea had Lucy come up with? She could feel that something amazing was happening inside of the urn, and the power inside of it was going to help her win this match.
By this point, Gray was looking pretty impatient. He had wanted to finish his match against Rufus, but Lucy had to come along and ruin that for him. The ice mage simply used his magic to create a large arm out of ice, and he lunged the massive closed fist at Lucy. This attack would not only hit her very hard, but it would also freeze her. This attack was known as Ice-Make: Frozen Fist, by the way. Lucy looked shocked at the enormous size of this attack, but she absolutely could not let her confidence waver now.
When Gray's Frozen Fist came mere inches away from Lucy and Aquarius, the blonde mage now became fierce while she told her Celestial Spirit to unleash all of her water at full power. Aquarius did as instructed, and she nearly became pushed backwards when she unleashed a large spiraling blue beam of scalding hot water. It was at least twenty times larger than Scalding Shot, obviously affected by the chain power of the other spells, and Lucy could definitely feel the intense heat from this attack.
It smashed right through Gray's Frozen Fist attack, the scalding water having enough power to break down while also melting it down easily because of the chain power increasing the temperature of the heat, and Gray looked pretty scared when he noticed how this spell also had increased greatly in speed. He tried to run away from it, but Lucy's spell was way too fast. It had all of its power focused into one point, and Gray could feel the boiling hot heat of the attack getting closer to him. Would Lucy be the one to beat now, instead of Rufus?
As the black-haired male was running away, Lucy jumped high into the air and used the spell known as Cerulean Chew. She chewed a blue bubble of water in her mouth for a few moments, before spitting it out and aiming the saliva to hit Gray's feet. This spell had evolved as well, growing to the point where it could expand on an opponent to immobilize their legs, and Gray's movements were now restricted. He could only scream in terror while Lucy's more major move was mere millimeters away from his face, knowing that a winner had clearly been decided.
Lucy quickly sent Aquarius back into the Celestial Spirit World, not wanting her to be hit by the result of this attack, and it was a good thing that she had quick thinking. The result of what she could now Explosive Scalding Shot, hence the name, had created quite a massive blast of blue energy to fill the skies. This attack destroyed the remaining pieces of Gray's Frozen Fist, and some of his ice shards had landed on the blue spell book. The library had also become decimated, crumbling to pieces while the remaining puddles of water also exploded with blue smoke to destroy the debris.
The blonde mage from Sabertooth stood across from an unconscious and heavily damaged Gray, who had been hurt from directly taking the full power of that final attack, and the explosions had certainly gotten the attention of the other competitors who were walking around Crocus. Lucy smiled a bit at the fact that she had really become stronger, and she was happy to have won a battle against Gray. This victory caused Team Sabertooth to gain five points, a crucial amount of points that had given them a score of 85. They were now one point ahead of Team Sweet Melancholy, and that point was certainly not something that Sting would cry about.
While the Lacrima Vision screens went away, now that this fight was done, Lucy suddenly began to disappear in a puff of white smoke. The truth is, she had never actually come to the library. The shadow clone curse was not used, which was true, but the book had decided to use the curse of its own free will. It had wanted Lucy to win, and it also wanted to see how strong she could truly be with individual types of magic. It was also the perfect way to prevent Lucy from feeling limited, should she end up having a bad match-up with more than one opponent around. Where was the real Lucy, and how were her clones doing in their battles?
In a grassy park...
Lyon and Chelia were facing off against another one of Lucy's clones in one of the grassy fields of the city of Crocus, just like how Gray had been doing. This clone wore a green midriff shirt, a green miniskirt, and some green high heels. She also had a green spell book with her, which clearly meant that she possessed Wind Magic. She looked pretty confident about winning this battle, thinking that she would not exactly have to push too hard for a decent win, but Lucy's clone still knew that it was better to be safe and sorry.
She decided to start off this battle with the first spell of Wind Magic, and it was known as Aerial Disc. This spell caused Lucy to shoot out three green buzz saw-like blades from her left hand, and they flew towards the two Lamia Scale mages. Lyon and Chelia both managed to evade Lucy's attacks, taking note of the emerald green blasts that had transpired behind them, and Lyon had heard about Gray getting defeated a few moments earlier. He was going to show Lucy the power of a real ice mage, and Lyon was determined to not lose.
He used his Ice-Make Magic to send a few ice eagles towards Lucy, but she simply vanished into the wind while Lyon's projectiles struck the ground. Lucy immediately chose to now use her second spell known as Aerial Piercer. Lyon now decided to send a few ice serpents to attack the blonde mage, but Lucy put her hands together before opening them to reveal five small green birds that were made from the wind. Lucy commanded them to strike the large ice serpents that had been created by one of her opponents, and the birds flew towards them at high speeds.
They flew straight through the ice serpents, piercing right through them like a set of sharp swords, and the birds made more emerald green blasts of Wind Magic occur when they had struck the ground. Lyon looked baffled at the fact that one of his best attacks had been pierced through so easily, as he saw his icy creations shatter while they fell apart to become rubble of what they once were, and he did not want to lose in the survival tournament like last year. He still doubted his teamwork with Chelia, but what else could he do?
Speaking of the pink-haired Sky God Slayer, she narrowed her blue eyes at Lucy while proceeding to use Sky God's Bellow. She unleashed a spiraling beam of black winds from her mouth, sending it straight towards Lucy at high speeds, but the blonde girl simply opened her mouth to surprisingly eat the black winds. Both Lyon and Chelia looked pretty shocked by what had just happened, having never seen something like this before, and she really wondered what her opponent would plan on doing next.
"I have to admit, she's just as good as the rumors make her out to be." Lyon told Chelia in a calm manner, maintaining his smirk of coolness while knowing that their blonde opponent would eventually run out of magical power.
The pink-haired girl responded while looking confident as well, feeling that they really could win this, "You're right, Lyon. Even though she absorbed my black winds, I really doubt that she can use anything more than Wind Magic. As long as I eat her spells like she ate mine, we can both keep fighting for a long time."
However, Lyon and Chelia just had to tempt fate by saying those words. Lucy's clone of Wind Magic wasn't exactly the type to reveal what exactly she was planning to do, but it was probably going to be something that was pretty big. She seemed to be looking straight up at the sky, looking at the clouds in a rather bored manner, and Lucy's clone simply used the fifth spell known as Feather Dancer. This move caused many green feathers to float in midair, before they landed around Lyon and Chelia, leaving both of them looking pretty puzzled.
In an instant, a multitude of medium-sized emerald green blasts of Wind Magic transpired. They were powerful enough to damage Lucy's two opponents from Team Lamia Scale, but this spell had also evolved. It made the blasts have the ability to blow their opponents far away, rather than sending them flying, and the winds from the Feather Dancer spell had blown Lyon and Chelia out of the city's limits. Since they were now in the ocean, despite resurfacing quickly, they were still eliminated from the survival tournament.
Since this Lucy had technically gotten her opponents out of the battle, she had earned ten more points for Team Sabertooth. This gave them a score of ninety-five points now, widening the gap between them and Team Sweet Melancholy, and Lucy had also reduced the number of competing members on Team Lamia Scale from five to three. Even though things seemed to be pretty exciting now, this was still only the beginning of the survival tournament. With the weak and comical competitors getting weeded out, it would take more than power for the book to keep up Lucy's winning streak...
How was Chapter 24? Did you like it? Sorry about yet another plot change, by the way. Lucy's spells have now evolved to a new level, which is really cool. Lucy versus Gray was the main battle, so Lyon and Chelia were there for semi-filler. The StiCy will occur in the next chapter when Sting accidentally comes face to face with an opponent from Fairy Tail. Will Sting be able to beat her? Will he be saved by an unlikely ally from Lucy's book? Will the roars and bellows of lightning be a match for some electric screams? Standby for the update!