AN: Thank you kratos1991, AliceCullen3, Goku275, and scoolharis.
kratos1991, I chose Romeo over Gajeel because I really wanted to show off his new Fire God Slaying Magic. That being said, your question has made me realize that it doesn't really make sense for Romeo to be chosen over Gajeel to compete in the GMG. So much so, in fact, that I have edited Chapter 36 to have Gajeel be the fifth member of Team Fairy Tail B. I still intend to have Romeo participate in the GMG, just as a reserve member.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
"Now for the opening contest!" declared Chapati. "Prepare for the 'Hidden'!"
With that, the eight teams began choosing who would complete.
"We don't know the rules," started Erza. "But if it is called 'Hidden,' then I assume stealth would be critical."
"If only Wendy were here," lamented Lucy. "She's little."
"Plus Team B's definitely going with Rogue," added Sting. "He can literally melt into shadows."
As they spoke, Teams Quattro Cerberus, Mermaid Heel, Raven Tail, Blue Pegasus, Fairy Tail B, Garou Knights, and Lamia Scale selected Jäger, Beth, Nullpudding, Eve, Rogue, Kamika, and Lyon, respectively.
"I'll take this one," said Gray to Lyon after the latter decided to compete. "You can show me what these games are all about, and I might just show you something I learned up over these past few months."
"Not to mention it will give me an opportunity to investigate what Crime Sorcière told me about," added the ice mage mentally. While Ultear was helping Gray learn to use the Ice Devil Slayer Magic she transferred to him, her and the others revealed a shocking fact to him and Juvia.
Every year, when the Grand Magic Games took place, the mages of Crime Sorcière sensed a strange magic, similar to Zeref's. As they were all wanted criminals, the independent guild asked Gray and Juvia to keep an eye out for anything unusual while the games took place.
"I'd rather not tell the others, in case it's nothing," thought Gray as Nullpudding tried and failed to stir up trouble over Fairy Tail having two teams in the games. "The GMG is a chance to have fun and show the world that we're back and better than ever."
With that, the field was spawned into existence around the eight participants and the X791 Grand Magic Games truly began.
As countless copies of himself and the other competitors formed around Rogue, the dragon slayer dropped into his shadow. Then, he started moving around the artificial town and examining the crowds of fakes for the real mages.
Within a minute, Rogue found Eve channeling his Magic Power into a spell that had yet to trigger. The dragon slayer charged at and struck at his opponent from behind, not giving Eve a chance to complete his spell or counterattack.
Like a shark, Rogue surfaced just long enough to deliver a Shadow Dragon's Slash before returning to the shadows. Eve was teleported away moments later, barely aware of what had occurred. Rogue repeated this tactic against Beth and Jäger, earning himself two more points.
Soon after, he came across Gray and Lyon. The dragon slayer attacked Lyon like he had the others but remained corporeal afterward.
"That is four points for me," stated Rogue. "How many have you gotten?"
Gray grimaced. "Negative two. It doesn't help that my 'new trick' isn't suited for stealth. Guess I'll have to wait until later to show it off."
"What did you expect from a game called 'Hidden'?" questioned Rogue, equal parts sarcastic and genuinely curious.
Fortunately for Gray, the ice mage was saved from responding when Nullpudding popped up and struck the two with spike-covered arms. "Watch me get two Fairies at once!"
"What is his problem?" complained Gray quietly.
Rogue still heard him, though, and quickly put together the pieces. "Nullpudding… no… Raven Tail is targeting us!"
Rage surged through the dragon slayer. "How dare they! Nobody attacks my friends and gets away with it! Raven Tail will pay!"
Rogue got to work the moment he respawned. The dragon slayer used his nose to hunt down the real Nullpudding while in shadow form. Not satisfied with the simple-but-fast strikes from earlier, he activated Shadow Drive and, upon finding his enemy, rose up to deliver a Shadow Dragon's Roar. The spell sent Nullpudding crashing into a nearby building, leaving a small crater on the wall before the Raven Tail mage was teleported away.
"Not enough," thought Rogue darkly. So he hunted down and attacked Nullpudding again. And again. And again. The Raven grew more afraid with each strike, eventually begging in vain for mercy.
Only the end of 'Hidden' stopped the dragon slayer's rampage. When the field faded away, however, Rogue noticed the audience looking at him with fear.
Results
1st: Fairy Tail B, 10 points.
2nd: Garou Knights, 8 points.
3rd: Lamia Scale, 6 points.
4th: Blue Pegasus, 4 points.
5th: Mermaid Heel, 3 points.
6th: Quattro Cerberus, 2 points.
7th: Fairy Tail A, 1 point.
8th: Raven Tail, 0 points.
"They hurt Wendy and taunted us about it," thought Lucy. "In the game, they put crushing Gray first and winning second."
The Celestial Spirit mage was pumping herself up. Although Rogue's actions were overkill, she did not want to feel sympathy towards Raven Tail. Especially not given the current situation.
Lucy and Obra were standing in the arena, face to face, as Chapati gave a preamble to the second half of Day One. The two of them were up first, giving Lucy thirty minutes to get back at the person who attacked Wendy.
"Begin!" declared Chapati.
"Open! Gate of the Golden Bull!" shouted Lucy, wasting no time. "Tauros, get him!"
"As yoooou say, Lucy!" mooed the Celestial Spirit. He charged at Obra, swinging his axe. "For your beauuuuutiful body!"
While Lucy facepalmed, her opponent contorted their body in impossible ways to avoid all of Tauros's strikes. Obra then grabbed the Celestial Spirit's face.
"Huh!?" exclaimed Tauros, dropping to his knees. "I'm feeling wooooeak all of a sudden!"
"Tauros!" shouted Lucy, concerned. "Star Dress: Sagittarius Form! Star Shot!"
As her clothes changed and a bow appeared in her hands, Lucy drew the bowstring and fired three energy arrows at the Raven. Obra pulled back from Tauros, attempting to dodge. However, the arrows homed in on them, all hitting the mage.
Despite this, Tauros remained tired. Meanwhile, Obra rose to his feet unfazed.
"I'm going to need more power," muttered Lucy as she unsummoned Tauros and undid her Star Dress. "Open! Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio, Sand Buster!"
"Yeehaw!" yelled Scorpio, getting on his hands and feet as he fired a tornado of sand at Obra. The Raven, not having enough time to dodge, held onto the ground for dear life as the Celestial Spirit's spell threatened to blow them away.
But, after a few seconds, the storm of sand disappeared without a trace. As Scorpio gawked in confusion, Obra dashed toward the Celestial Spirit. Before they could drain him, though, Scorpio was unsummoned.
The Raven turned to Lucy, only to discover that Scorpio had been a decoy.
"Oh 88 Stars of the heaven… shine!" chanted Lucy and… Lucy in nothing but a towel? Obra quickly concluded that the second Lucy was actually the Celestial Spirit(s) Gemini, assisting her in casting a powerful spell. This realization did not make Obra feel better about what was coming.
"Urano Metria!" finished Lucy and Gemini. They unleashed upon Obra eighty-eight spheres of light containing the majority of Lucy's remaining Magic Power plus some of Gemini's. The spheres hurtled toward the Raven…
"Kee," uttered the creature on Obra's shoulder unhappily. It looked like it would have to reveal a greater extent of its power than expected.
…only to disappear completely.
Lucy gaped uncomprehendingly. Her legs wobbled for a few moments before she collapsed completely, lacking the strength to remain conscious. Beside her, Gemini disappeared, returning to the Celestial Spirit World.
Raven Tail had won.
"I'm up next!" said Uosuke cheerfully. Following Obra's victory over Lucy, Ren of Blue Pegasus began fighting Araña of Mermaid Heel. After their match ended, he was to battle against Warcry of Quattro Cerberus. The matchup hadn't been announced yet, but the Garou Knights were informed of all the pairings ahead of time.
His words earned Uosuke a scowl from Kamika, who was still sour about getting second place in 'Hidden.' She had used her Paper Blizzard magic to transform into a swarm of paper squares, stealthily track down other competitors, and then attack them. It was the same tactic as Rogue, yet the dragon slayer had pulled it off better than her, one of the kingdom's best executioners.
"Don't forget about the mission," warned Kamika. "We're here to ensure that enough Magic Power is gathered for the Eclipse Project and to assist in the 'acquisition' of the Celestial Spirit mages."
"That's later, though," replied Uosuke. "Just as planned, Raven Tail's prepared one of them for 'acquisition,' so we just have to wait for our leader to deal with the other one tomorrow."
At that moment, Chapati declared that Ren had won. He then made the official announcement that Uosuke and Warcry would be fighting one another.
Unsurprisingly, the Garou Knight ended up winning against the crying mage. It wasn't that difficult to use his Terrain Effect magic to create a space too arid for tears. Without his magic strengthening him, Warcry fell to Uosuke quite easily.
Natsu grinned. In front of him stood Jura, one of the Ten Wizard Saints. Resigning as guild master was definitely the right decision.
"Start!" declared Chapati.
Natsu shot at the Wizard Saint like a rocket, activating Fire Dragon King Mode. Jura responded by raising a few pillars directly below the dragon, shooting him into the air. The earth mage then created several more pillars, slamming them into Natsu.
Before the strike landed, though, Natsu produced a flame from his right elbow to launch himself into a rapid spin. He used the rotation to kick apart the approaching pillars with a Fire Dragon King's Claw.
Natsu then shot a fire from his other foot, breaking out of the spin and launching himself at Jura. The earth mage responded by making a large stone arm shoot out of the ground to punch his opponent. Natsu took the spell head-on, smashing through it with a flaming headbutt. "Fire Dragon King's Sword Horn!"
However, the clash killed his momentum, leaving a gap between the dragon and Jura. Natsu breathed in, then unleashed a Fire Dragon King's Roar on the Wizard Saint.
"Rock Mountain!" shouted Jura, joining his palms together. A large, humanoid statue performing the same pose emerged from the ground, blocking Natsu's spell at the cost of being reduced to a deformed lump of rock and lava.
"Fire Dragon King's Destruction Fist!" yelled Natsu, punching through the statue's half-melted remains to reach his opponent. Unfortunately, Jura used the time that the statue had bought him to gather Magic Power for one of his strongest spells.
"Rumbling Mt. Fuji!" bellowed Jura, joining his hands together again. A massive surge of energy shot up from beneath Natsu, engulfing the dragon.
"Aaaaah!" screamed Natsu, his whole body getting brutalized by the attack. When it ended, the dragon was left panting and covered in wounds. Shockingly, his grin was even wider. "Wizard Saints *huff* are no joke. Guess I'll have to *puff* use that now."
"'That'?" wondered Jura. Had Natsu been holding back?
"Pseudo-Dragon Force!" roared Natsu. Scales grew across his face, arms, legs, and back, all connected by thin trails. Wings and a tail sprouted from his back. The flames of his Fire Dragon King Mode, dimmed by Jura's previous attack, grew brighter and hotter. "Gotta make this quick. Fire Dragon King's Roar!"
"Rock Mountain!" yelled Jura, creating another stone guardian to protect himself. This time, however, the statue was destroyed completely. Small flames and bits of rubble exploded everywhere, several of them blasting toward the Wizard Saint.
Rather than defend himself, Jura chose to take the hit in order to send an Iron Rock Fist through the cloud of shrapnel to strike Natsu while his guard was down. Unfortunately for him, the dragon was no longer there.
A jolt of panic shot through the earth mage as he used his eyes to scour every inch of the arena for his opponent. Then, a thought occurred to Jura and he looked up. "His wings!"
"Fire Dragon King's Brilliant Flame!" shouted Natsu, flying over the battleground.
The dragon threw a massive ball of fire down onto the Wizard Saint, who desperately formed countless pillars of earth to defend himself. When their spells collided, a massive shockwave was produced, forcing the audience to avert their eyes.
Once the blast faded, the crowd turned back to the epic battle in time to see Natsu swoop down at his opponent, both mages drawing back their fists for one final clash. Flames ignited around the dragon's hand, while the arena floor became an entire two inches lower at Jura gathered up all the earth he could.
Fire Dragon King's Destruction Fist met the ultimate Iron Rock Fist in a clash that made the earlier exchanges seem like sparklers compared to a real firework.
When the dust settled, a Wizard Saint laid on the ground, unconscious. After being declared the winner, a dragon joined him.
Results
1st: Fairy Tail B, 20 points.
2nd: Garou Knights, 18 points.
3rd: Blue Pegasus, 14 points.
4th: Raven Tail, 10 points.
5th: Lamia Scale, 6 points.
6th: Mermaid Heel, 3 points.
7th: Quattro Cerberus, 2 points.
8th: Fairy Tail A, 1 point.
Omake
"…confirmed that God Serena has defected to the Alvarez Empire, which brings us to our next matter," said Dracolus Hyberion, the second strongest member of the Four Gods of Ishgar. When the Wizard Saints (minus Makarov and, for now, Jura) had rebuilt the Magic Council, he found himself as its new leader.
"Natsu Dragneel," continued Dracolus. "Between his role in defeating Tartaros a few months ago and his narrow victory over Jura earlier today, it is clear that he has the strength to be one of the Ten Wizard Saints."
"You can't be serious!" protested one of the other Wizard Saint. "We've all seen the headlines! He's always been a walking disaster area, and that we before becoming a literal dragon!"
"Actually, outside of the Tartaros incident, the Natsu-related damage reports have gone almost extinct these past couple years," corrected Warrod, defending the ex-master of his former guild. "It seems like having a family has caused the Salamander to settle down, at least to some extent."
The debate continued for another hour, including a five minute break to collect themselves when the Wizard Saints realized (to their horror) that the Blaze and Iggy Dragneel would likely grow up to be like their father.
In the end, a 'maybe' was put next to Natsu's name on the short list of Wizard Saint candidates. All decisions were postponed until the end of the GMG at the soonest, which the Wizard Saints watched to evaluate the dragon's growth (some with hope, others with dread).
AN: The Pseudo-Dragon Force is the product of using transformation magic to enter a form halfway between human and dragon, to access the power of the dragon form without becoming huge. Maintaining such an unnatural state, however, where one is pulled between becoming one of the two proper forms, is exhausting physically, mentally, and magically. I created this because of my own headcanon that a dragon slayer-turned-dragon cannot use the Dragon Force. After all, they already have the power of dragons.
Also, the omake is based on something from the cover of Fairy Tail chapter 352, where Laxus was considered for the position of Wizard Saint, only for it to be put on hold because of his past behavior.
That's all for now. Goodbye.