Hey guys! I hope you guys enjoyed your Christmas! Or whatever you celebrate, it doesn't matter to me. Apologies for the leave of absence, but I wanted to thoroughly enjoy my break from school I tend to do that. School makes it easier for me to update somehow. I don't know.
Just a quick heads up, I'm going to be slowing down updates with this story. I have been criminally ignoring my two other stories, Partners and Roommates. No hiatus, none of that. Just slowing down a bit. Besides, we're ten chapters deep already. No need to rush,
Enjoy!
"And today ladies and gentlemen, we have a high risk, high reward, crazy event of Pandemonium!"
Erza perked up at the sound of the event, the one in which she had made infamous. The crowd was roaring and cheering, but she could still hear Ross shouting hype and asking who was competing.
"No wonder they brought this back." Lucy said with a smile. "With us competing, they couldn't not." Gray chuckled.
"I think I know exactly what they wanted to have happen." He then looked knowingly at Erza, who's stomach turned slightly.
After all, her son was on their competing team.
As Ross hyped the crowd up for the following event, Simon remained quiet, as with the others. None of the spoke up to take the contending spot for the event, all of them probably assuming he himself was going to do it. He didn't blame them. Pandemonium was an infamous event, so much so it had been turned into it's own competition away from the Games. And now, with Simon and his friends competing with the guild that had made it infamous in the first place, he felt pressured incredibly.
"Pandemonium, as the name so accurately describes, is an event in which the contestants will draw numbers from one through six. The contestant who draws one will go first, and then in order of the number they receive. Once they enter the event, they must choose how many monsters they wish to fight! This can range from 1 to the max of 100! Whoever has accumulated the most defeated monsters by the end of the event will be the winner!"
Someone shoved him.
He turned to look and found Drake standing there, an innocent look on his face as he avoided Simon's gaze. He looked at everyone else weakly but they avoided his gaze, or just didn't bother saying anything. Finally, he stood straight up and rolled his eyes.
"You guys can at least tell me I should do it." he said flatly, walking towards the edge of their stand and jumping over the side, leaving his pathetically silent friends to their own thoughts. He knew why they'd done so, anyone but him competing would have been an insult to the guild. He had to do it. If Nashi or Damien did it, no one would be as hyped up. No one would be looking forward to it.
In other words, they probably only brought it back in hopes he'd be the one to descend into the arena and take on the challenge.
"Look at this!" Ross shouted, finally taking notice of Simon walking to the center of the arena. "Our first contestant is coming down onto the field, Simon Scarlet!" At the announcement of his name, the crowd erupted in screaming and cheering, making Simon flinch as he stopped walking, reaching the center of the arena. "And looks like he's being joined by Kunio from Quatro Cerberus, Akio from Blue Pegasus and Winter Vastia from Lamia Scale!" Simon looked over as the three others approached the center of the arena, but he kept his gaze firmly on Winter and Akio as they walked up to him with a smile.
"Hey." Winter greeted. Simon smiled back.
"Hey. You ready for this?" Winter sighed and stretched.
"Yeah. Terra wants to hold back in case there's another event we may need her for. Besides, with my ability to heal myself makes me an excellent candidate." Simon nodded at this and turned to Akio, his eyes asking the same question. Akio shrugged.
"I'll be okay as long as I don't bite off more then I can chew." He said. Simon made a face at this saying. Because judging from what he guessed was expected, he might have been mentally preparing himself for just that.
"I'm sure we'll be..."
"And would you look at that!" Simon jumped as Ross interrupted him with his screaming. "Juno Orlando from Sabertooth has descended to the arena!" Simon turned to find the raven haired girl walked towards him and the other contestants. She stopped and looked at Simon, who met her gaze halfway and held it as the tension grew. Of everyone Sabertooth sent out, it would be her. It was like they were trying to start something with the crowd and Ross. However as she approached him, he smiled kindly.
"Are you ready?" he asked her lowly, so that the crowd might assume he was threatening her or something. She nodded curtly.
"Trying to psych the crowd up are we?" She asked in an equally low tone, Simon nodding to answer her question. After all, there was no harm in it after Saber decided to send her down there. She took a step closer and grinned smugly. "Let's see how you stack up then, Simon." Simon did not back down from her, and the crowd was now dead silent.
"What's going to happen as these two wizards face...OH MY GOD! YOU AREN'T SERIOUS!" Simon made a face, as did Juno, both of them turning to discover the reason for the yelling. "YES EVERYONE, THIS IS HAPPENING! IT ISN'T JUST YOUR EYES!"
Her hair was midnight black, and her red eyes focused on him. She was clearly underplaying her power as she casually made her way to the center of the arena, her sheathed sword still at her side she stuck a hand in her pocket.
Nami Mikazuchi had descended to the arena.
"Hey." She greeted casually, a beautiful smile Simon would not normally associate with such powerful looking individuals. "You must be Simon." He recalled his mother telling him about this girl, and how she might be one of the only people who would be able to stand up to him. And now, with her standing roughly six feet from him, he could feel why. The magic practically flowed from her.
"And you must be Nami." He replied. "It's a pleasure to finally speak to you." Nami nodded and whipped her hair out of her face.
"Too bad it has to be in such a competitive environment." She said, another brilliant smile aimed at him, but Simon knew better. That smile, albeit friendly and with good intentions, was her attempt at downplaying her own strength. However, he nodded at her.
"I was about to say the same." The crowd was absolutely losing their shit over what was happening, even though Simon, Juno and Nami were making casual conversation before the event got underway. Finally, Ross called for some semblance of order.
"And with all of our contestants ready ladies and gentlemen, please make way for Pandemonium!" Simon was about to voice his curiosity when the ground around them began to shake violently. Looking around, he finally found the source, which was the gigantic magic circle floating above them. Soon enough, something began appearing out of the circle, and it grew it size. After a few minutes, the coliseum as a whole had appeared, floating ominously above the arena.
"Damn." Kunio murmured from somewhere behind Simon. "That's a huge arena."
"Up in the air as well." Nami noted. "Not that big of a deal." Simon wasn't all that afraid of heights, he'd had battles to the death several hundred feet up in the sky anyway. Once the arena was done with it's preparation, the lacrima vision lit up, showing the inside of the arena where creatures crawled all around.
"Pandemonium features five types of creatures." Ross said, sounding surprisingly calm given how hyped he'd been acting for the last few days. "These monsters are ranked from D-rank to S-rank. Obviously, S-rank monsters, or rather monster, is extremely powerful. Should you happen to be unlucky enough to cross it, pray you are enough to kill it."
"So the rank of the monsters is random." Winter mused. "Interesting."
And now, ladies and gentlemen, your lovely contestants will be given a randomly generated number! Here we go!" The lacrima vision switched over to pictures of the six contestants, with flashing numbers next to their names. Simon watched with a knot in his stomach as the numbers flashed wildly, waiting for it to tell him when he was supposed to go.
He had a bad feeling he already knew.
As the numbers flashed rapidly, Natsu felt as if he already knew what was in store for them. Randomly generated felt a whole lot more like 'Give Simon 1 and after that it doesn't matter'. He cast his gaze over at Erza, who's gaze was glued to the numbers like many others. Finally, after what seemed like forever, one set of flashing numbers finally stopped, which where next to Kunio's name.
5
One down.
Michael watched the numbers, waiting for it to tell him when Juno was up and could go and compete.
"I hope she gets one." Rina said with a chuckle. "That way she can wipe out a ton of them first and disperse them for everyone else."
"Would certainly be helpful." Blake agreed. Kyoko nodded, and Michael looked over at Keita, only to find him distracted. Following his gaze, Michael's eyes landed on the young Iron Dragon Slayer on Fairy Tail's team.
"So what did you mean by...off?" He asked in a low tone so no one else could hear him. When Keita did not give him a reply,Michael looked over at him. His partner seemed conflicted, his hazel eyes still watching the girl carefully. "Keita?" After more silence, Keita sighed and turned his eyes back to the arena.
"I said forget about it." he murmured. Michael frowned.
"Yeah..." He muttered, miffed. "Just tell me something's wrong with someone I know and withhold what..." Keita did not reply, so Michael promptly stopped asking. Another set of numbers stopped moving, this time next to Akio's name.
4
Two down.
"They really could've done this in a less dramatic manner." Mami said quietly as the numbers continued to jump around wildly. Of all things to make people sit through.
"All for the sake of drama, Mami dearest." Bella said with a smile. "Can't have a decent event without the drama."
"Coming from our resident drama queen that comes as no surprise." Mami replied, narrowing her gaze at the blonde, who just raised her shoulder in confusion.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
'Got your water and food, Bella!" Both girls looked over to find Ken and Taro on their knees presenting food and water to Bella, shit eating grins plastered on their faces like they were genuinely proud of themselves. Bella giggled.
"Thank you boys!" She took the water bottle from Ken and a bite of the sandwich Taro had before winking at them, causing them to fall over.
"Realight, I'd appreciate you stop making our teammates into seduced paste..." Mami muttered as the boys started to drool on themselves. Bella giggled.
"Drama, Kotobuki. Drama." Another set of numbers stopped, this time next to Winter's name.
2
Halfway done
Terra really did want to compete in Pandemonium, but she felt that conserving her strength for anything else would be better. After all, no matter how powerful she was, Winter could heal herself at will. That was an undeniable advantage the white haired God Slayer definitely had.
The others with her were getting antsy as the numbers slowly stopped ticking next to the remaining three. Besides, the skill of the mage mattered, not who went when. Another set of numbers stopped, this time for Juno.
3
Only two left.
Nashi was biting her lip as the remaining two names, Nami and Simon, slowly ticked down.
"I'll be totally honest right now." Damien spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "If they didn't set this up for Simon to be number one..."
"Agreed." Drake said. "They had to set it up, there's no way they wouldn't." Nashi agreed as well. They knew Fairy Tail would be competing, so naturally they had to set up Pandemonium for them. It only made sense.
"I wish they'd stop making us wait." Elise hissed. "Just get it over with damn it."
"It's stopping..." Ultear said quietly, the numbers slowly coming to a stop for everyone to see.
Nami Mikazuchi: 6
Simon Scarlet: 1
As if there was any doubt.
You guys must've thought I wouldn't go through with it huh? I did XD. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!