I'm going to say it here, this arc may not be as long as Devil Advocate or Edolas. Maybe, like, 15 chapters.
Enjoy!
Nashi was somewhere in the middle of the crowd that reached the beach first, and she sprinted as fast as she could, propelled by fire, towards the tunnels. Everyone else was shouting either insults or complaints, but Nashi remained silent, breathing in and out rhythmically. Talking and shouting would waste air she could use to keep running, after all.
"Keeping up, Dragneel?!" Nashi cocked her head slightly to the left to find Rocky riding a wave of rocks, smirking at her.
"You had to catch up to me, Dirt Face." Nashi retorted, applying a bit more pressure to her flames and speeding ahead. She was now near the front of the pack, right up there with Drake and Elise.
"Hey Nashi." Elise greeted as she reached them.
"Hey." Nashi replied.
"We're almost there." Drake reported, jumping ahead. "Sorry girls, it's nothing personal!"
"What?" Nashi asked, but Drake was already attacking.
"Move!" Nashi felt Elise grab her by the collar of her vest and drag her out of the poisonous blast. Other guild members were not so lucky. Several of them were hit dead on and collapsed, paralyzed. "Bastard." Elise hissed as Drake laughed manically and disappeared down into a tunnel. "Trying to take out all of the competition like that. Come on!" Nashi nodded and spurred herself onward, finally reaching the tunnels.
"I'll take this one!" Nashi said, taking the tunnel next to the one that had been sealed off from Drake. "Maybe I can kick Drake's ass on the way through."
"Good luck." Elise replied. "Hey, uh, Nashi?"
"Yeah?" Nashi turned to look as Elise called out to her again. The shorter Dragon Slayer grinned, a competitive one.
"I better see you on the other side of these tunnels!" Nashi smiled back and nodded.
"Count on it." With that, both girls disappeared down their respective tunnels towards their first challenge.
Lucy waited impatiently as Gray helped Mira with the setup for the Advancement broadcast. Even with Laxus' help, Mira could not grasp the concept of the lacrima. She could hear Gray muttering insults to the magical stone as he played around with it, attempting to make it work.
"Come on, Gray!" Levy shouted from next to Lucy. "Put some back into it!"
"You wanna do it, shorty?!" Gray shot back, glaring at the bluenette. "No? Than shut up!" Levy chuckled as the angry Devil Slayer worked away at the lacrima, all with Mira standing there with a blank smile on her face.
"It'll be over by the time Ice Stripper gets it working." Gajeel grumbled from next to Levy. Just as Gajeel finished his sentence, the lacrima vision came to life, showing a still of Tenrou Island.
"Finally!" Gray shouted in triumph. He stood and was about to hand the remote to Mira, but frowned.
"Something the matter, Gray?" The takeover mage asked. Gray said something incoherent, before he shook hi head.
"It'd be best it you weren't in control of the lacrima." Gray advised. "You might break it or something." Mira frowned, but Gray showed no reaction whatsoever. Just as Gray was about to do it himself, Damien hopped up on the stage.
"I got it." he told Gray. "I'm much more competent then my mother." Gray nodded and relinquished control of the remote. Damien grinned and turned to the crowd. "Fairy Tail!" he shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Are you ready?"
"Get on with it, kid!" Gajeel shouted, causing everyone to laugh and Damien to falter.
"Yeah yeah, Gajeel. Lighten up! I'm sure Elise lost already anyway." Everyone laughed again, Lucy included. "Anyway! Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the annual S-Class Advancement broadcast! I'll be your host Damien Dreyar! So, before Gajeel loses all of his patience, let's get this underway!"
Drake knew he'd played rather dirty to get ahead of everyone, but he didn't plan on losing to anyone, Mavis forbid Nashi or Elise. He really didn't care which tunnel he'd picked though, it really didn't matter. He knew, though, he'd get one of three options. One, he'd face a mage from Fairy Tail who was already S-Class. That option he wasn't very fond of, seeing as he knew people like Erza were an option. The second was someone else who was trying to become S-Class, which he was more certain he could win. The last was one of the three safe pathways, which meant he didn't have to fight anyone at all. He was obviously most fond of the last option, the less energy he expended early on the better for later. After a moment, he approached a small slide down into what he assumed was either an exit or his fight.
"Here goes nothing." he muttered, sliding down into the open chamber. Once his walked into it, the path behind him was sealed off. "And it appears I can't go backwards." Drake looked forward and observed the area ahead of him, wondering who is opponent was. "Hello?"
"Oh, you're here." Drake's eyes widened at the familiar voice. The chamber lit up all at once, blinding him temporarily. Once he opened them, his eyes confirmed what he already knew. "So, how's it going Drake?" Simon asked, crossing his arms.
"Good, good." Drake replied, doing the same. "I suppose I'll have to defeat you to proceed?"
"About right, yeah." Simon chuckled. "I think it's pretty fair, personally."
"Me vs. a Scarlet. Yep, totally fair."
"You can hear everything I'm going to do before I do it." Simon replied. "Please explain how I have the advantage."
"You're a Scarlet." Simon face palmed at Drake's reasoning, but it was the truth. Simon had an extensive family history of kicking ass and not losing. Ever.
"Well, are you prepared to lose then?"
"I never said that, now did I?"
Elise was quite sure she'd chosen a safe tunnel. She'd hand't seen anyone else yet, and it was making her edgy. Maybe kicking someone's ass would calm her down a bit.
"Hello?" Elise called, listening to the echo to entertain herself. "Anyone else in here? At all? Nope, I guess not. Man, this is so boring! I thought I'd be able to beat someone up, but all I got was a safety path! This is bullshit!" Growling angrily and mumbling curses directed at whomever she deemed responsible for this. "Well, I suppose not using up any magic is always a plus. On top of that, everyone else except for two others will be exhausted, clearing the path to my victory!"
Elise laughed loudly as she realized this, and then gulped.
"Unless, by some cruel twist of fate, Drake and Nashi get the other two safe routes...Fuck! What if that happens?! They'll be just as energized as me! Not to mention Drake plays dirty and Nashi goes overboard all the time...Damn it!"
Taking a moment to attempt to cam herself down, Elise thought it over. The odds of one, not even both, getting one of the other safe routes was 1/19. As unlikely as it sounded, Elise also had to factor in how unlikely it was that all three safe tunnels were side by side. Almost seemed like a lazy setup, no?
"Y-yeah, no way that happened," Elise reassured herself. "At least one of them will have to fight, so I should be in the clear...for the most part, anyway."
Asuka had been in the middle of the pack when they'd all gotten attacked by Drake, so everyone out in front had taken all of the attack. This obviously allowed the slower members to get out in front. She'd jumped up on the cliff side to get to the tunnel of her choice, wondering who she'd come into contact with. She had half a mind to hope for Nashi, as she really wanted to see how much the pinkette had grown. However judging from the stories she'd been told, she really didn't want to do that. Apparently Nashi was a lot like her father in the power regard, and that if she got to angry or pissed, the worse the fire burned. Among a lot of other good stories, Asuka would have to see later. Right now she was approaching her chamber, supposedly with her opponent inside. Taking a deep breath, Asuka entered and immediately spotted her enemy.
"Oh hey!" Ultear greeted, waving with a bright smile on her face. "It seems I'll have to stop you here, Asuka."
"You're S-Class?" Asuka asked, and Ultear nodded. "Didn't know about that." Ultear hung her head.
"Yeah, most people forget." She mumbled. "Maybe because I work with people like Simon and Damien, I just get overshadowed...But!" Ultear brought her head back up with a determined smile spread across it. "I can guarantee I'm strong enough to take you out!"
"Hm?" Asuka asked, her rifle appearing in her hands. "Is that so?" Ultear nodded, and Asuka took aim. "Alright, let's see you dodge this!" Asuka fired off three quick shots, all three flying towards Ultear quickly. One wave of the girls hand later, however, and the bullets crumbled to nothing. "...!"
"Like I said." Ultear said, smirking. "I'm not someone you underestimate."
"...What magic was that?!"
"It's a secret, so...sh!" Ultear said, looking back a the lacrima floating behind her. The red light above it told Asuka it wasn't currently broadcasting back to the guild, so no one had seen Ultear destroy the bullets. "Good, no one saw that. Now," Ultear turned back and grinned. "Shall we do this, or no?"
"..."
Rocky was incredibly disappointed his opponent hadn't been Dragneel. He'd, obviously, already finished off the poor sap from some other branch who thought he could take on someone from the main branch.
"Idiot." Rocky muttered, staring at the unconscious form in front of him. "Did you honestly think you were any challenge for me? Ugh." Rocky wiped his hair out if his eyes. "I hope this ends with me kicking Dragneel's ass, otherwise I'll be disappointed. Severely." Of course Rocky had lost to the pink haired demon bitch once before, but he'd been unprepared for her amount of skill. He'd trained all these past few months in order to surpass her.
"She thinks she's such hot shit just because she's a Dragneel." Rocky muttered, his blood boiling. "Mavis, I hate her..."
Sammy considered it a stroke of luck he'd gotten a safe path. He wasn't the most battle oriented person that was nominated, so getting this was lucky as hell. How did he know, you may ask? He'd been walking for a good ten minutes or so and judging by what he knew, he should have already seen his battle chamber and an opponent.
"I'll probably be knocked out in now time flat after this, anyhow." He mused, chuckling. "How the hell did I even get in? I'm damn near useless, so..." He laughed at the thought of getting the absolute shit beaten out of him by any of the other contestants. He knew winning this would take a miracle, especially with people like Nashi, Drake, and Elise in the running.
"Oh well, whatever." he said, rounding another corner. "I really don't care anyway."
Nashi was still wandering around in the tunnel, looking for any sort of exit. She knew it was unlikely she'd gotten lucky and taken a safe tunnel, so she was looking around for anyone's ass to kick. She couldn't let Rocky beat her, after all. After a few more twists and turns in the tunnel, Nashi could see what appeared to be a chamber up ahead of her. Breaking into a sprint so she'd reach it, she stopped as she entered.
"Hello?" She called, and she could see someone standing across from her. As the chamber began to light up, Nashi paled.
Her opponent had the physic of a monster. They were much taller than she, and radiated raw magic.
And also had a head of salmon colored hair.
Nashi's father looked up and his eyes widened, then he laughed.
"So, it's you huh?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as Nashi stared. "I had a feeling me participating would result in this."
"D-Dad?" Nashi managed, feeling her chances of winning going down the drain.
"Hey." He replied. "I kind of agreed to be an opponent, so..."
"I have to beat...you...?"
"It would appear so." He said, grinning. "Just so you know kid, I don't like going easy." Seeing the competitive smirk on her fathers face made Nashi grin.
"Good." She replied, shedding her vest, leaving her in just the black wrappings over her chest. "Neither do I." As if on cue, both of them erupted in flames, causing the chamber to shudder. As they rushed forward and their fists met, fire exploded everywhere.
And with that, the Fire Dragon King Natsu Dragneel engaged in combat with his daughter, to determine who was stronger.
I'm sure a few of you knew where Natsu was, am I right? I couldn't resist having Nashi fight him in this arc, it was too awesome of an idea to pass up. I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!