Hey guys, sorry for the wait! If you guys follow Partners, another story of mine, you would have seen the most recent update, which I explain I'm having issues in real life that need to be dealt with, along with writers block.
You guys will be okay though. This whole story is mapped out, so it's not to hard for me to get a chapter out.
Enjoy!
Nami Mikazuchi: 6
Simon Scarlet: 1
As the numbers stopped flashing, it took the crowd a moment to process that yes, Simon's name had the first number next to it.
And when they did finally realize it, they erupted.
Simon winced as they did so, but it also made his stomach swirl violently from the weight that was now pressing down on his shoulders. He knew what these people were expecting, and he knew what everyone was expecting. They wanted him to stand tall and say he was taking on every single monster, all one hundred. To follow in his mothers footsteps.
But could he?
Simon didn't exactly know if he could. He didn't need to be told his mother was extremely powerful, but did he stack up to how she was when shed done this? Was he better?
Everyone was waiting.
What was he going to do? He brought his gaze up to the crowd, as they had died down considerably, now waiting for something to happen.
"And that's it!" Ross announced. "It appears the first contender for Pandemonium is Simon Scarlet!" The confirmation only solidified the hype, and Simon frowned.
"You okay?" It was Winter speaking to him. "Nervous?"
"More than you know." He replied quietly. He brought his eyes up to the monstrous event chamber floating above him, wondering just how he'd come out of it. He looked over at his friends, who were watching him warily. All of them seemed tense, waiting for him to say how many monsters he was planning on taking on.
Theoretically speaking, Simon could take on only fifty-one monsters and win by default. That way, nobody would be able to defeat more monsters than him, even by taking on the remaining forty-nine. But was he going to do that? Was he going to cheapen the setup?
He looked out over the sea of people waiting for him to speak up.
"How many monsters is Simon going to take on?!" Ross shouted. Simon wished he had an easy answer to that question, but he didn't. Ten? Twenty? Fifty-one?After much internal deliberation, Simon cast his gaze over towards the Fairy Tail stands, where his guild was watching.
Where his mother was watching. Simon knew that, despite the distance between them, she was meeting his gaze. After staring at each other for quiet some time, she finally smiled and looked down, beckoning forward.
A pit formed in Simon's stomach.
He knew what she was trying to tell him. He knew what the cheering crowd was attempting to tell him, and he knew what they wanted.
"Alright." he said, looking up at the monstrosity above him. He narrowed his eyes as he turned to the crowd, giving them a glare of steely determination.
"Give me all one hundred"
Michael choked on his own spit as the words left Simon's mouth. He watched as the red head did not retract his statement, he simply waited.
WHAT A CHALLENGE!" Ross announced, the ramp beginning to descend. "Simon Scarlet will attempt to be the second person in history to clear all one hundred monsters solo! A feat only his mother has accomplished before him!"
"Well, damn." Blake said, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't think of all numbers it'd be the only three digit one available."
"What's he trying to pull?" Rina demanded. Kyoko frowned.
"As I recall..."
"Surprise surprise..." Michael butted in with a smile, earning himself a slap on the back of the head.
"Anyway, like Ross said, Simon's mother is the only person who has ever successfully defeated Pandemonium in one go." Kyoko finished as Michael rubbed the slap mark on the back of his head. "I'm willing to bet the whole event was rigged to give him the same chance if he so choose to compete."
"Makes sense, I suppose." Keita said. "I'd do that too." Michael watched as Simon turned his gaze back to the floating fortress, waiting for what the red head would do.
"Guess we'll see if it runs in the family."
"Hey now, Simon. Are you sure about this?" Akio asked warily as Simon looked back up at the fortress.
"Yeah." he answered, exhaling loudly. He was well aware the rest of the competitors were watching him in disbelief, so he turned to look at them. "What?" he demanded.
"Just wondering how insane you are..." Kunio answered, and Winter shot him a glare
"Just trying to figure out what the hell you're thinking." She then replied, putting her hands on her hips. "Seriously Simon, I know you're more powerful than I give you credit for, but this...Are you sure?"
"I already said. Yes." He then looked over at Juno and Nami, who looked less bewildered. "You two gonna try and stop me?" Both girls blinked a few times before Juno shrugged.
"Do what you want." She said. Simon shifted his gaze to Nami, who met it. They watched each other before she smiled and placed a hand on her hip.
"Don't fuck up, Scarlet." She told him. Assuming that was the best he was getting out of either of them, he turned and watched as the ramp into the fortress finished descending, stopping in front of them. Taking another deep breath, he started to walk up it. The farther up he got, the louder the cheering became. Finally, he reached the top, and the door began to open. He stepped inside without hesitation, and it slammed shut behind him. As he walked inside, lights began to come on as he reached the center. Once he did, the floating fortress began to shudder. Simon braced as his sense of balance was slightly thrown off, but he recovered. Looking back up, he could see the source.
Monsters had spawned inside the castle. they were multicolored, supposedly to differentiate between the classes. As they advanced slowly, Simon took a deep breath. The monsters threw themselves at him, and he grinned.
"Show time."
The monster threw themselves at Simon, and he didn't move as they all landed on top of him. There at least two dozen bearing down on him, but their friend did not appear from them, and this worried Nashi a little. What was he doing.
Until the pileup started to glow.
A blinding light exploded from the center of the monsters, sending them flying every which way. Simon stood in the center, wearing his Black Wing armor, glowing gold.
"And with that we are off!" Ross shouted. "Pandemonium has begun!" Some monsters disappeared from the blow, but others got back up and launched themselves at Simon once more. He darted out of their way with his Heavenly Body magic and sliced them with his sword, causing them to disappear as well. More monsters crawled out of the woodwork to throw themselves at him, but Nashi watched as he darted around every single one, either ignoring them at first or hacking away at them with his blade.
"Look at him go." Elise said, sounding slightly impressed. "He's got this."
"Don't be so quick to judge." Damien replied, gesturing upwards. Looking up, Nashi spotted a counter, ranging all of the classes of monsters. The D-Class counter dropped by ten. "He's only defeated ten."
"We've got a long way to go." Ultear translated.
Simon covered his eyes as his blast of Heavenly magic destroyed another monster, and he heard another behind him. Turning,it was not the silvery color that ranked D level monsters. It was a different color. Simon brought his sword up, only for the creature to attack with it's tail, which forced him spin and break his current blade to block it. More of these monsters spawned, all doing the same. Simon ran along the wall to avoid it, but he was then caught off guard by another one, clawing at him head on. He felt it scratch his face and he lost his momentum, landing on the ground. All the higher class monsters converged on him, attacking with his tails.
Shit...This might hurt a bit.
He quickly cowered in the fetal position. This may have seemed pathetic and weak, until the shield of golden light formed around him, deflecting all the tails and claws from the currently spawned monsters. he jumped up quickly to avoid more of the monsters, using Meteor to rocket around and hack away at different monsters who dared contest him. Floating neat the center of the arena, he noticed many had been defeated.
Where is...?!
Simon was struck in the back by a hard surface, which sent him right into the wall.
"Oh boy! The first of the B-Class monsters have arrived everyone!" Lucy watched as the higher tiered monsters attacked Simon relentlessly, throwing him this way and that, not giving him a single moment to recover.
"That looks like it hurts." She said, flinching as Simon was thrown into the dirt once more.
"I'm sure he's going to be fine." Natsu said. "Right Erza?" Erza did not answer Natsu. Looking over, Lucy found the mother of the competitor had her eyes glued to the lacrima vision screen, not even paying them the slightest bit of attention. "Hey, Erza?" Natsu went to tap hr on the shoulder, but Lucy stopped him.
"Don't." She advised.
"Why not?" He asked.
"Use your head, flame brain." It was Gray who spoke up this time. "She's worried. You aren't doing her any favors." Lucy nodded and looked over at Erza, who was still watching the lacrima vision.
Lucy was no fool. She could see Erza's clenched fists sitting no the edge of the stands.
Simon cursed as he finally got some breathing room to stop the relentless onslaught. More monsters had since spawned in, and he'd been trying his absolute best to get himself some room. He needed some kind of strategy, or he wasn't going to get out of this. Slicing up a lower tier creature, he decided on his strategy. He requipped into his Flight Armor, and then activated Meteor. He flew at the speed of light around the monsters, driving his rapier into each one over a dozen times. The act forfeited a little too much of his remaining magic, but it worked, and the spawned in monsters died. Before he could recover, more monsters flew at him. He dodged them as much as he could, requipping his Lightning Emperor Staff and electrocuting them. He only got himself a little bit of time before another wave came after him. He fought them off and killed them, until the ground began to shake underneath his feet. He turned and saw a hulking, red figure approach him.
"Well then." he said in between breaths. "I assume you're A-Class? Maybe even S?" The creature roared in response and drove it's fist at Simon, who brought up his blade to block it.
That didn't work. The monster had just a bit more driving force behind it's swing. He flew back and created a brand new crater in the wall. Before he could recover though, the monster was on him, slamming all of his body weight into him in one go. Simon felt the wall of the castle buckle behind him, and he flew out into the open air. Growling, he flew back towards the castle, which the creature was now crawling up the side of. He attacked it's back, but it turned and decked him for his attempt. Destabilizing himself, Simon grimaced as his right arm throbbed.
Did I break it...?
He quickly assessed his arm, and found it wasn't broken. It did, however, really hurt. No weapon wielding for him anymore, even moving it a little really hurt. He put his lightning staff away and amplified the glowing light around him. It wasn't really his style to go all in with his Heavenly Body magic, but with his arm in that condition he didn't have much of a choice. he flew at the creature scaling the castle again and aimed his open palms at it, blasting away at it. It flinched as he hit it, and it turned in an attempt to hit him again. He dove underneath it's fist and hit the hand holding it to the side of Pandemonium, causing it to fall. He stopped to watch it fall, but it disappeared before it could. He assumed that they probably de-spawned if they got to far away from the castle, which made sense.
Alright, now I just need too...!
A tail of one of the smaller monster soared past him. Looking back, the hole the A-Class monster had created was leaking other monsters, who had presumably spawned inside the castle and were now crawling out to face him. Sighing, Simon turned to them and glowed brighter.
"Well, I guess I did ask for this."
"Would you look at that! Simon has decimated half of the monsters! Can he take out all one hundred?!" Nashi could hear Ross asking the question, and part of her was wondering the same thing. Simon looked pretty exhausted already, which wasn't a good sign.
"He's hurt." Drake said, Nashi nodding in agreement. "That A-Class thing hurt his right arm, I can tell by the way he's cradling it." It was blatantly obvious from the way Simon fought almost exclusively with his left arm he was hurt.
"I'm sure he's be okay...Right?" Nashi asked warily. Nobody answered her. She looked around at the others, and then at Ultear. "You've been awfully quiet Ul, what do you think?" Ultear did not give her a reply. The girl was focused intently on the golden dot darting around the outside of the fortress. One fist was clenched, another was against her chest, also clenched.
She's pretty in the zone...Does she doubt him?
More monsters fell and disappeared, but this, as usual, did not give Simon any breathing room whatsoever. More bore down on him, and with his wounded sword arm, he couldn't do much. He dodged a few, got hot way too much, and ended up scrapping against the ground back inside during an impromptu crash landing, which forced him to dodge even more attacks. Almost every one of his blasts killed more monsters, and at this point, he couldn't see anymore silvery monsters. Had he taken the whole class out?
Moving out of the way of another few, he finally decided he needed to attempt to use his weaponry with his left arm. Requipping his Fire Emperor sword into his left hand and immediately feeling out of place, he swung it at monsters that came at him. It felt odd and just not right, but it worked well enough and killed off the monsters coming after him .He slashed and blasted monster after monster, until eventually there were none left in front of him.
"What the...?" He asked, leaning heavily on his right leg from the pain. "Did I...Did I do it?"
He was a fool to even consider it.
The roof above him broke, and he looked up to find two A-Class monster raining down on top of him. He had no time to dodge, and all he could do was cover himself as best he could.
"Holy shit!" Ross shouted. "Simon has been landed on! Is he okay?!"
"I damn well hope so."Damien muttered.
Simon gritted his teeth under the pressure. He'd managed to requip into his Adamantine shield before the two landed on him, but they had both recovered from it and were now both pounding him into the ground in their attempt to defeat him. Finally, it stopped. He felt one of them grab his shield and whipped him back into the wall, and the other punched him, and thus another hole in the wall. This time however, He was thrown right into another tower of the fortress, and didn't move.
He'd been in a lot of pain before. Fighting Eoin, the Edolas army, Icas, Apocalypse, Lennix. All of these fights had been painful. This one was no exception. But the repetitive drain on his magic, coupled with the monsters that were created for the sole purpose of beating him into the dirt, it was much worse. The two A-Class Monsters came out of the holes in the wall, and he watched them painfully.
I"m just about done with these fucking things...
Simon took a deep breath. It hurt, which wasn't a good sign. However, it a breath he desperately needed. And with that deep breath, he activated his requip.
Into his red pants, and the bandages around his arms.
This was his final hurrah. He needed to end this now. He grabbed his katana as it spawned near his hand, and launched himself out of the crater towards the A-Class monsters. The two of them were restricted to staying attached to the castle, so that gave him a very small edge. Also, they were also stuck with one arm, the other obviously keeping them attached to the fortress. Another few monsters crawled out of the holes in the wall, but Simon was on them. He flew down and hacked them too pieces. He went after one of the other A-Class monsters, cutting it's arm off, the one that kept it latched to the fortress, and it fell down and other one tried to hit him, but he dodged it's fist and drove his katana between it's eyes, killing it immediately. He fell, his Heavenly magic too weak to sustain his weight in the air, and he managed to grab one of the chains and managed to stand on them.
"This is it!" Ross roared, the crowd absolutely losing their shit. "Simon has defeated ninety-nine monsters! Only the S-Class monster remains!"
"Only the S-Class monster remains!" Nashi watched as Simon attempted to stand on the chains holding Pandemonium up, and frowned.
"I don't know about this." She murmured. Damien nodded.
"He's running on fumes." he agreed. "This is not good."
"Who knows," Drake added. "He might have something."
"I'm no expert on his limits." Elise said. "But he does not look very good.
"What do you think Ul?" Nashi asked. However, Ultear was still being quiet. Her eyes were still glued to the screen as Simon started to glow, and eventually disappeared. He reappeared as the lacrima vision changed locations, this time showing what appeared to be a throne room. The room lit up, and the final monster revealed itself.
It was at least thirty feet tall, and obsidian black. It stood from the throne and a low rumbling sound came from it.
And it launched itself at Simon without remorse. He was thrown left and right, as the S-Class beast bore down on him.
Speaking truthfully, Simon felt like tapping out. the other ninety-nine has exhausted what magic he'd gone into the event with, and now with the strongest of them all bearing down on him, he had nothing left to fight it off with. He felt utterly powerless. It kicked him in the midsection, and he finally lost the grip on his katana, which slid away from him and into the dark corner of the room, out of sight. Now he didn't even have his weapon. What was he supposed to do?
Simon looked up as the gigantic monster came towards him raised it's palm and a dark glow came from it. Simon realized all too late he should've moved. The attack blew a hole in the wall, exposing the top of the fortress to the open air. Simon probably could've lured it outside and dealt with it that way, but there was no point. He probably wouldn't be able to sustain flight long enough to do that. The creatures fist landed on top of him, and then again, and then again. Finally, it's foot was placed on top of him, keeping him in the dirt.
"Is Simon done?!" Ross roared. "It this it?!" Simon wanted to move, but he couldn't. He wanted to tell Ross he was still there, but he had no energy left.
So yeah, he was basically done.
"Simon!" A voice reached his ears. He looked over to the hole in the wall, but he couldn't see who was shouting at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Get up!" The S-Class beast kicked him, and he landed hanging over the edge, threatening to fall out. Looking down, he found the source of the voice.
It was Ultear.
She was shouting up to him, a rather irritated look on her face.
"You still owe me dinner for winning my battle!" She shouted, a smile on her face. "Make sure you can still move to take me up on that!" Simon stared at the girl in bewilderment, and his gaze drifted to the others. They all looked worried, but they were all still looking at him.
Expectantly.
They were waiting for him to finish this up.
Simon gritted his teeth. He looked to his side and spotted his katana sitting there, gleaming from the light shining in from outside. He heard the S-Class monster lung at him, and he dodged. The creature teetered on the edge of the hole, and Simon made it to his blade. He grabbed it with his good arm, even his bad sword arm technically, and jumped at the beast. He plunged the whole blade into it's back and listened to it roar. It started swinging around wildly, knocking over pillars and creating a huge mess. Simon took his blade out of it's back and jumped high into the air. He gathered all the remaining magic he had left into his hands, causing them to glow bright gold. The creature looked up just in time to see him bringing his sword down. A roar of anger escaped Simon.
His strike, much like a sword piercing the heavens, was driven straight through the monsters head.
BOOM!
Simon's final strike had caused the lacrima vision to lose contact with the room. But that became apparent why, as the whole of Pandemonium started to collapse from the heavenly explosion. The other competitors, still waiting below, started to move to avoid being crushed by the falling debris. The crowd watched, anxious as ever, for what had happened. who was still standing? The monster or Simon. The dust started to settle, and everyone, collectively, leaned forward.
And the shining blade of a katana could be seen through the debris.
Simon was still standing. Bruised, bloodied, beaten, wounded, but standing. The crowd waited.
The head of the S-Class monster hit the dirt and disappeared.
.
.
.
The crowd erupted. They were screaming and cheering unlike anything they had thus far, and it was insane. The other competitors were bewildered that he was actually still standing.
OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! SIMON SCARLET...NO! THAT DOESN'T EVEN DO THIS JUSTICE!" Ross screamed. "OBERON HAS DEFEATED ALL ONE HUNDRED MONSTERS! I REPEAT, OBERON HAS DEFEATED ALL ONE HUNDRED MONSTERS!"
Simon started to walk out of the debris. During everyone's shocked silence, Drake and Damien jumped down onto the field and ran to their friend, supporting him as he began to fall over from the exertion. Ultear smiled as she wiped her eyes, Nashi and Elise hugging and cheering as they danced around.
"I knew you had it in you, Oberon" She said with a smile.
"Never doubted him." Natsu said with a grin. "Right Erza?" Everyone looked over at Erza, who had relaxed incredibly. She had her head rested on her arm as she watched Drake and Damien carry her son back to the infirmary.
"Yeah." She agreed, tears escaping her as well. "Not once."
...Well? Did I do good? I'll be honest, part of the reason I held off for so long was I was struggling to write this well, but I think this was good, right? Anyway, you guys may see me tomorrow for the next chapter, seeing as I'm in the mood!
Oh, and the GMG is just getting started!
And as always, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!