Kagura and Daryan stepped into the center of the arena, a few feet apart from each other, and the crowd roaring in favor of Kagura, since she was well known, and quite liked. Daryan ignored the fact the crowd was essentially against him, as he stared at Kagura, obviously checking the female out. "This is going to be greaaat…"
"Is he checking her out?" Melody blinked a few times.
"Stop that!" Milliana shouted, but her command fell upon deaf ears as hearts now appeared in Daryan's eyes.
"Daryan is an S class mage of the new, upcoming guild, Cosmic Star! From what I've heard, his magic is first generation Skeletal Dragon slaying!" Chapati explained to the crowd, which left them utterly confused.
"Skeletal dragon slaying…?" Mavis blinked a few times, completely lost.
"It's quite interesting, actually…" Makarov said, looking to Laxus after.
"It's a pain in the ass," Laxus replied, crossing his arms as he didn't even bother to look at his grandfather.
"Judging by his current attitude, it doesn't look like he's focused on the upcoming match, per se…" Yajima started while furrowing his brows. "It looks as though Kagura may have an easy time.
"Daryan…" Gaia sighed heavily, bringing a hand to her face from embarrassment.
"He'll be fine, don't worry," Magnus said with a nod.
"So, ace of Mermaid Heel, eh?" Daryan asked while straightening up.
"That is right," Kagura said with a nod.
"Damn you are fine…" Daryan said with a firm nod.
"Excuse me…?" Kagura raised a brow.
"You heard me. Alright, how about a bet, me and you?" Daryan said while stretching, limbering himself up.
"I don't have time for such petty bets…" Kagura replied, holding in a sigh of annoyance.
"You had a bet with Yukino just last year!" Daryan protested.
"That was a bet for our lives…" Kagura responded.
"Alright, a bet for your live then, eh…?" Daryan started.
"He's not going to…" Alex's eyes widened.
"There are all kinds of people out there, huh…?" Cynthia said with an innocent expression.
"You want to be your life?" Kagura asked while the crowd fell silent.
"Sure, my life, if you win, is yours; but, if you lose, you HAVE to go on a date with me, alright?" Daryan nodded sternly.
"He's an idiot…" Evanee said while letting out a groan of annoyance.
"I don't believe this guy…" Luke stated while shaking his head.
"Don't fight his logic either," Magnus shouted to Kagura. "It's better to just go with it."
"Tch…fine…I'll accept…" Kagura gave up the talk, now sliding into an offensive stance as she held her sheathed blade out.
"A-Are both fighters finale ready-kabo?" Mato asked as he looked back and forth between the two soon to be combatants.
"Ready," Kagura said with a nod.
"Heh, playing with sharp objects, are we? Well, if it's as sharp as your looks, I think this'll be fun…" Daryan smirked slightly and held his hand out, a tan magic circle appearing, which created a several foot long bone in Daryan's hand, which he twirled around a few times before getting into a battle ready position. "Cosmic Star's Daryan Skeletalus! Ready for battle!"
"Was the intro really necessary…?" Alex asked with a sigh.
"Begin!" Mato shouted.
Kagura made the first move, using her Gravity Change magic immediately, weighing down the opposing Dragon Slayer, mainly to catch him off guard. Kagura then sprinted forward, gripping her blade tightly as she then jumped into the air, swinging her blade down towards Daryan.
"Alright, let's get start-!" Daryan started, but before he could actually finish, he sudden found himself on a knee from the gravity. He was unfazed, however, as he brought his bone up quickly in defense, easily blocking Kagura's attack, though the ground under him cratered a few feet due to the sheer force of it. Kagura flipped back after, gaining a few feet of distance between the two, planning her next plan of attack afterwards. Though, she was surprised as Daryan managed to fight through the increased gravity, and sprinted towards her, aiming a swing, but she managed to block it just as he did hers, sliding back a few feet across the ground after. "Heh, you really think gravity's gonna help you win this?" Daryan asked as a slow smirk appeared on his face. Right after that, within the next second, he ducked slow, attempting a powerful sweep kick on Kagura's ankles. He didn't expect much from the attack, but the least he expected was to trip the gravity mage up a little bit.
"I won't win just with gravity," Kagura replied, unable to help but ignore Daryan's question despite not being one for small talk during battle. She forgot the question right after, however, as she found that she was suddenly falling back; the leg sweep connected. However, since Kagura had amazing agility, she flipped, catching herself, and landed in her normal battle position, almost as if nothing happened. Kagura then bent her knees, gripping her blade tightly as she decreased the gravity around her person, thus increasing her speed as a result. She sprinted forward, aiming to use this speed to throw Daryan off guard, and aim multiple slashes at the dragon slayer, all of which powerful enough to shatter high defenses such as Erza's Adamantine Armor.
Daryan merely smirked as Kagura came in; he had no intentions of taking any hits, so he sprinted forward as well, using his bone as a pole vault, keeping it in his hands as he launched himself over an attacking Kagura, who was surprised she missed. Seeing the perfect opportunity to attack, Daryan did so, puffing his cheeks out, throwing his head forward seconds later as he unleashed a tornado of bones that sped towards Kagura. "Roar of the Skeletal Dragon!"
"Not so fast…" Kagura replied in a quiet whisper, using her decreased gravity to propel herself high into the air, higher than Daryan, and attempted another downward swing at the dragon slayer, but Daryan proved he had quick reflexes, turning just in time to block Kagura's strike, a miniature shockwave occurring from the two weapons meeting. After that, the two flipped, landing on opposite sides of the arena.
"So far this battle can go either way, as proven when Daryan landed the leg sweep, but it proved to be nothing for Kagura! Which way will this battle turn!?" Chapati asked while hyping himself, and the crowd up as a result.
"Daryan's got this…" Magnus simply replied.
"Of course he does! Goooo Daryan!" Alex shouted while moving her arms energetically.
"Go, GO GO Daryan let's go!" Hiruka shouted while clapping a few times; the exceed was obviously overly excited about this.
"The fact he's lasting this long against someone like Kagura is amazing…" Erza thought to herself.
"Alright, how about we amp this up a bit, eh?" Daryan said with a smirk as he brought his hand down, bringing it up slowly as four tan magic circles appeared on the ground. From the circles, four skeleton warriors rose from the grave, equipped with swords and shields.
"He raised the dead?!" Melody asked as her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"King of the undead! That's what they call me!" Daryan replied.
"I had my doubts about this magic…" Yajima started. "But, I can see it's quite effective…" He then nodded, showing interest and approval to both Daryan and his magic.
"It's quite flexible! It's really cool too!" Jenny replied to Yajima with sparkles in her eyes.
"Now!" Daryan started as he pointed his finger forward. "Charge!" The warriors complied with Daryan's command, charging with their swords at the ready.
"Even more annoying…" Kagura though to herself as she sprinted forward, simply slashing the skeletons with her blade, sending them all back to the grave as quickly as they rose, continuing her sprint as she now went for Daryan.
"That's…not good…" Daryan blinked a few times before snapping out it, hurling the bone in his hands at Kagura, which would eventually come back as a boomerang, though Kagura was unaware of this fact as she merely swayed out of the way of the incoming bone, continuing her sprint. "Why do I always miss that!?" Daryan asked himself, though he was too distracted to see the incoming Kagura, which resulted in a hit that slammed into his side, causing Daryan to tumble across the ground a few feet. As was there, stunned, a single thought crossed his mind from that impact. "...She's the one..." Kagura then went in for the finishing blow, but before she could manage such a thing, the boomerang bone struck her in the back of the head, throwing her off as Daryan now rolled to the side, grabbing the bone and hopping up, a smirk on his face.
"Ugh…" Kagura rubbed the back of her head, highly annoyed at Daryan by this point in time.
"She's upset that he wasn't an easy opponent like he portrayed himself to be," Gaia started. "And now she's paying the price for it…either that, or since Daryan's been winning since it started, she's annoyed. Either way, she's not winning this."
"That's because Daryan is the strongest, duh!" Hiruka nodded.
"Alright, I think that concludes my analysis." Daryan nodded as his smirk started to grow slowly.
"Anaylsis…? Kagura asked as she slowly slid into an offensive stance once again, ready to move once Daryan made a move. In fact, she wasn't going to allow him the chance to move. She bolted from her position as Daryan was ready to strike, beating him to the punch while slipping past him. "Flipped Form!" Daryan attempted to defend against this, but Kagura was the clear winner of this exchange. Numerous cuts appeared on Daryan's body and his eyes widened as they were deep cuts too, numerous gashes appearing along his body. He was open.
"That's game!" Melody exclaimed.
"Daryan!" Alex's eyes went wide.
"He's fine." Magnus said while crossing his arms.
"What are you doing, Daryan? Win." Karma wasn't entertaining the dramatics. There was a result he expected, and he wanted to see it.
Blood dripped from Daryan's body, but he let out a cough. "You are the one. I knew it..." This was the strength he was looking for. He turned around to face Kagura with a bloodied grin, his body almost tipping over, but he kept himself on his feet despite all odds. "You see…" Daryan started, but before he continued he turned around causing a large tan magic circle to appear in front of him, ten times the diameter of the previous circles. From the large circle, a fifty foot monstrosity of a skeleton towered into the sky, Daryan now standing on the skeletons left shoulder. "I know the human antimony like the back of my hand! It was a part of me becoming a dragon slayer!"
"W-What is THAT?!" Alex asked in utter amazement.
"He's completely serious…" Magnus replied.
"What's that have to do with this battle?!" Kagura replied as she lunged forward towards the skeleton.
"It means, Mikazuchi that you're out of luck!" Daryan shouted out as the skeleton reared its left fist back, throwing it down towards the Mermaid.
"I haven't relied on luck since the moment I was born…" Kagura replied as she jumped up, avoiding the fist the skeleton threw, and now ran up its left arm. "Everything that's happened has been the result of my choices! It's time to finish this!" Kagura shouted out, jumping high once she got close enough, now a few feet away from Daryan. But, Daryan beat her to the swing, and slammed is bone right between her neck and shoulder; that's when everything froze. Kagura's eyes widened as she dropped her blade, falling to the ground on her back, motionless, but still conscious; she was defeated.
"A-And with that...the winner of this battle is Daryan Skeletlus, giving Cosmic Star 10 points!" Mato was also stunned by this turn of events, but they had a result to deliver, and this was it. An upset to be certain.
"S-SHE LOST?!" Milliana's eyes widened as the crowd, and Mermaid Heel went into shock.
"U-Unbelievable…!" Jenny spoke with her mouth hanging open, though no one could blame her.
"He defeated her…" Erza was taken aback by this, unable to believe what she was witnessing.
"I knew he would win!" Hiruka shouted.
Everyone could feel the moral of Mermaid Heel dropping at the sight of their ace defeated; Daryan's large skeleton faded into nothing, along with the bone he had been using as he hit the ground, landing on his feet with a smirk. "That's a rather nice pressure point you have right there; it's a shame for you that I was able to exploit it to win. And that, my friends, is the power of a TRUE dragon slayer!"
"What do you mean by a TRUE dragon slayer?" Natsu shouted.
"Oh…you don't know, that's right…I suppose I'll have to indulge you." Daryan's smirk turned into a rather creepy grin ever so slowly.
"Oh, this isn't going to turn out well I can already tell…" Magnus blinked a few times.
"Oh, I love this story!" Hiruka nodded frantically as he looked towards his partner attentively.
"You see…you third generation dragon slayers, well, most of you, I assume, have killed a dragon right? No…let me rephrase that…you killed a SICK and WEAK dragon," Daryan said with a nod.
"Only because they wanted us to!" Sting shouted rather defensively.
"Bullshit! Anyone can defeat a weakened opponent! You see, I am a TRUE dragon slayer! Meaning that I, Daryan Skeletalus, had killed a dragon at full power!" Daryan exclaimed, resulting in audible gasp from everyone. "You see, I had knowledge that the dragons would be leaving on the seventh day of the seventh month on X777! And I adored my dragon ever so dearly, so I did the only thing I could do to make sure he wouldn't leave me; eat bones. And that's exactly what I did…I ate his bones."
"A-A dragon…" Gaia's eyes widened, completely taken aback even more than everyone else, being a dragon herself. Her expression told those who knew her secret that she was unaware of this.
"He killed a dragon…?" Adam asked while raising a brow, interested to see how someone such as Daryan was capable of such a feat.
"D-D-D-Daryan has just admitted to killing a full powered dragon!?" Chapati spoke in disbelief, and not a single person around could blame him for speaking that way.
"The perfume of this man has turned bitter...sour..." Ichiya commented from the side, his eyes narrowing. "Men..."
"YOU DID WHAT…?" Natsu asked as he started to move forward in anger, but Lucy gripped his arm tightly, preventing him from moving.
"YOU HEAD ME DRAGNEEL!" Daryan replied to Natsu's shouting, looking around at all the looks of disbelief. "You don't believe me? " Daryan shrugged, snapping his fingers after, which created a magic circle in the air; the magic circle then dropped full sized dragon head skeleton on the ground. "I kept the head, so that way he'd stay with me forever, love right?"
"That's not what love is…" Chelia said while frowning deeply at the sigh before her.
"YOU…" Sting clenched his fist, unable to believe what he was seeing. Even Rouge, who usually opted not to show so much emotion was unable to hold back the anger rising within him as he clenched his fist alongside Sting, but he kept silent.
"How could you…" Selene clenched her fist, diamonds starting to coat it as she barely managed to keep a lid over her anger.
"Heh, I like this one!" Dait said with a chuckle. "Killing his own foster dragon with no remorse, then showing it off and he's even got proof."
"So the bloke really did kill a dragon then, eh?" Maggie asked while crossing her arms.
"Oh, and now it's time for a reality check for you Dragon slayer; your dragons? Yeah, stop looking for them, because they aren't coming back; ever. So stop looking for them, because they ARE GONE, NEVER COMING BACK! IF they really cared about you, they wouldn't have left you right!? As for your weak sick dragons, you shouldn't have any pride or whatever because you slayed them; how can they even be considered dragons at that point?" Daryan nodded, but his comment really hit home for the other dragon slayers who could barely hold back their boiling anger, especially after that.
"YOU BASTARD!" Natsu tried to leap forward, but multiple members pinned him down to the ground before he could even try.
"Natsu, chill out!" Gray shouted.
"G-Grandney…" Wendy sniffed as tears started to appear in her eyes; she always thought what Daryan just said was possibly true, but she didn't want to believe it.
"W-Wendy…" Cynthia's eyes widened at the sight of her crying friend, which caused her to gain hatred for Daryan for making her cry.
"Tch…Like I cared about that dragon anyway…" Gajeel crossed his arms, growling as he spoke. Though it didn't seem like he was going to lunge, he was going to, but Levy grabbed his arm quickly, frantically shaking her head.
"Don't do it, Gajeel..." Levy pleaded.
"THAT'S IT! I'M KILLING THAT CRETIN!" Heather shouted, poisonous fumes emitting from her body as she attempted to lung herself at Daryan, completely enraged that he had the audacity to speak of dragons that way, but Luke and Kairi had their arms wrapped around the poisonous woman, holding her back while coughing from the poison.
"H-Heather…he's not worth it!" Luke shouted while coughing from the poison.
"How dare you talk about Tunundra like that?!" Waitson roared, but he too was held back by Reve, Kuro, and Zalen.
"W-Waiston! He's not worth it! Not at all!" Kuro shouted.
"S-Selene! Relax, he isn't worth the effort!" Takeru shouted while he and Aira held the enraged Dragon slayer back.
"I'LL DROWN YOU!" Blues shouted, struggling desperately to escape the attempts of his guild members holding him back.
"Blues, he's not wild enough! Don't do it!" Bacchus shouted.
"Aquatica isn't coming back…" Tears started to fall down Melanie's eyes, which quickly turned into a river as she bursts out crying.
Evanee, though quiet, hit the wall, using it as an outlet for her anger, unable to come up with any words at the time. "…."
"Oh, the reactions are priceless!" Maggie said while laughing, unable to hold it in.
"Wah wah wah! Is all I'm hearing!" Kiora shouted while holding her stomach from laughing so hard.
"J-Jellal..." Meredy looked to Jellal and Ultear, wondering about their input on the matter, however, neither of them had anything to say about it.
"Oh, quit your crying, and accept the facts," Daryan replied while waving a dismissive hand.
"I-I think that's enough for today!" Mato shouted as he attempted to divert everyone's attention to the scoreboard. White Eclipse was in the lead with a perfect 20 for the first day, followed by Cosmic star with 16, Fairy Tail 14, Twilight Zone 13, Lamia Scale 5, Mermaid Heel 4, Quatro Cerberus with 2, and Sabertooth with only one point to their name so far, a dramatic difference between this year and the year before. "And that is the end of the first day of the Grand Magic Games! We'll see everyone again tomorrow-kabo!"
"Heh…" Daryan turned, placing his hands in his pockets as he started to walk off, while Kagura was just starting to get up. "Remember our bet, sweet cheeks. I'll see you soon. And that, my friends, is how the Star defeated the Mermaid."