So after last chapter, I did a little inventory on myself, so to speak. I don't think I can force this arc to go on much longer given how close every member of FT's team is close to falling over. But it's already the largest arc in the story, so that's pretty cool.

"What has happened to Elise Redfox?! It seems Keita's shadows have become one with her!"

"What is that?" Lucy asked. "The Iron-Shadow Dragon?"

"No." It was Gajeel who spoke, his voice sounding somber and angry all at once. "This is something a lot more sinister." Everyone kept their eyes glued to the lacrima vision, which was displaying the girl in question squaring off with Keita, who seemed to be in shock. "She's been corrupted by it. Almost like Rogue was when we fought."

"So now what?" Natsu asked as the standoff continued. No one answered him for a moment, until Levy took a deep breath.

"He has to beat her."

Keita didn't know what he was supposed to do. Elise wasn't herself anymore. She'd succumbed to the darkest part of herself, and his shadows hadn't helped that whatsoever.

What do I do?

Keita looked up at the lacrima vision displaying everyone still left in the Games. His whole team save Michael, all of Fairy Tail, Nami, Terra, and Bella still remained. He then returned his eyes to Elise, who was still watching him lifelessly.

She's not herself, I have to beat it out of her...But if I do that...

He then looked up at the lacrima vision displaying the points. Sabertooth had 106 points, and Fairy Tail had 94. If he defeated Elise, he was severely limiting their chances of winning.

But that's the least important thing happening right now...

Elise started to giggle. Keita looked up at her, and she had a hand over her face.

"You know, you're thinking about this way too much." She stated, Keita remaining silent. "I beat you once, and I'll do it again. You got your fucking answer, so come at me!" Elise ran at him, and Keita simply dissolved. He needed to think. He needed to take a breath.

He needed a plan.

Simon blasted the debris to pieces as it flew towards him, and dodged out of the way as more soared towards him. Nami had made him to center of gravity for everything near them, so anything blown apart in the fight came at him. Ever since the girl had appeared, he and Juno had been blown every which way in their attempts to get her out of the way. She was an incredibly formidable opponent.

And probably the most insulting part of the fight was that she had yet to even draw her blade. It rested on her back as she used her hands to change gravity and fend them both off. Simon landed on a rooftop and watched as the two girls started to fight. He could feel his body begging him to stop, but he still had a lot of magic to expend. He cast a gaze up at the scoreboard. They had ninety-four points.

Realistically, I could seal the deal if I took both of them out, but...

Simon didn't think he could. This was more than Pandemonium's mindless monsters, this was two incredibly smart and powerful human opponents. Not to mention the others on his own team. If any of them fell, to Sabertooth anyway, they wouldn't be able to catch up. Simon had already done the math in between bursts of combat.

The best they could hope for was being a few points ahead of Sabertooth.

"Stop hiding from me, Simon!" Simon was brought back to reality as more debris flew towards him, Which Nami was broken apart from the buildings around them whilst fighting Juno. He broken them apart and remained stationary as the useless bits of dirt that was left hit him.

"You know," he said. "For a girl who wanted a spectacular fight, you sure are holding back."

"Don't be that way." Nami replied. "You're not trying as hard as you can either. I'm not falling for that." Simon saw Juno reappear out of a building behind Nami, but payed her no mind. Both of them had formed some kind of truce until Nami had been dealt with. Simon laughed a little.

"Or are you going easy on me because I'm already hurt?" He asked. "That's so kind of you."

"In your dreams." She answered immediately. "I know you're hurt, but you can still put up a fight." Simon frowned and tried to come up with a plan. Sadly, with the way the fight had been going thus far, none of his plans were going to work. Nami wasn't like anyone he'd ever gone up against before. She was too powerful.

The space around Nami started to glow, and the girl quickly turned and altered her own gravity to jump high into the air and avoid Juno's attack. She soared high into the air and quickly reversed her own gravity once more, bringing herself down on top of Juno as fast as she could without killing either of them. Simon watched as Juno used her Territory to disappear, and Nami slowed her descent as she saw this. She landed just in time to catch a Territory explosion, which forced her back a little. Nami clicked her teeth.

"Damn, that kind of hurt." She said, Juno watching her closely. "I don't mean to sound rude Juno, but I really didn't come here to fight you and you alone." Juno smirked.

"Fair enough, I don't think I can beat you anyway. But if I soften you up for Simon? Then someone might." Nami chuckled.

"That's a cute disposition. Unfortunately, you're in my way." Simon watched as Juno tried to raise her arms, but couldn't. They were being weighed down. Nami took her sheathed blade off of her back and walked towards Juno, who still tried to use Territory as a defense. Nami sped through the attempted explosions and drove her sheathed blade into Juno's midsection.

The resulting blast of force as gravity altered for Nami caused Juno to fly backwards and through several buildings, including the one Simon was standing on. He jumped to the ground and turned to look through the hole that had been created, just in time to watch all three buildings break apart.

And flew right for where Juno was trying to stand from. They collided with her, creating a huge pile of rubble.

Juno did not reappear from there. The sheer force had probably knocked her out.

"I-I think that's it for Juno Orlando!" Ross announced. "Nami has taken her out! She's earned Mermaid Heel five points!" Simon took a deep breath as Ross said this. That left him with Nami, alone at that. Everyone else was reoccupied with something else. Turning, Nami was watching him closely.

"I'll have to make sure I didn't hurt her too bad later." She said, planting her sheathed blade on the ground and rested her arms and head on the hilt. "I just wanted her out of my way." Simon sighed.

"This battle must mean a lot to you, huh?" he asked. Nami giggled.

"I just want to fight someone strong. Realistically my guild can't come back from this deficit we're in thanks to Sabertooth wrecking us, but no matter. I'm still standing, and I think it's fair to say I'm enough for most of the people left in this competition." She had a point. Even though she, like everyone else must have been a little bit tired at least, the power behind her attacks was more than enough for most remaining competitors.

Simon requipped into his Samurai pants and felt the wraps on his arms. His katana spawned in his left hand, the bad one sadly, and he raised it, pointing it at Nami.

"Then looks like you an I get to go at it." He told her. "And I'll beat you." Nami laughed, but her figure glowed white.

"Big talk coming from a wounded warrior." She replied. "Tell me Simon, do you really think in that state you'll be able to beat me?" Simon shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Fact of the matter is, even if you beat me, You'll be a pushover for everyone else. Now, stop playing around and come at me like you mean it."

Nami stood up straight, and picked up her blade.

"You're going to regret that request." She said, unbuttoning her black jacket. She shrugged it off, leaving her in her black tank top. "Because you're not going to beat me."

The wind flowed past them, blowing their hair around. No one moved, no one spoke. Both were skilled warriors, waiting for the other to make a move.

Simon did so.

Activating Meteor, he flew at Nami with everything he had, swinging at her with his left arm. Nami, obviously surprised by the speed of his attack, only had time to bring up her sheathed blade to defend. The sound of Simon's blade resounding off of Nami's sheathed one rang in his ears, but he had no time to think about a plan of attack. He swung, and she parried. He swung again, and again she parried. Despite Meteor boosting his speed, Nami was able to block his attacks. She ducked underneath another one of his swings and swung at her himself, but Simon blocked it in time. He felt his back weighing down on him, and then he slammed into the ground thanks to Nami's Gravity Change.

But he wasn't going to let her get that advantage.

Using up a lot of his magic power, Simon used his Heavenly Body Magic to push himself upwards, against Nami's magic. He made it up in time, as the spell was not as powerful as before. Nami's swing missed him and he round housed her in the midsection. She slid back and Simon was on her again, Swinging as fast as he could. Their blades locked, and Nami laughed and blew her hair out of her face.

"Where the hell was this Simon a moment ago?" She asked. Simon smirked.

"Hiding for the moment you showed yourself or Juno became too big of a problem." He replied, boosting himself forward to try and gain the upper hand with Meteor. Nami replied in kind and used gravity to force herself forward as well. Simon's blade started to groan from the force of the stalemate. It was just about to break at this rate.

So Simon let up.

He used Meteor to back himself up away from Nami, who started to fly forward from all the force she was using to push towards Simon. She stumbled forward, and this gave Simon a chance to deal damage to her. His palms glowing, he shot arcs of light at her, and several struck her due to her being unprepared. Simon landed and kept his blade up and ready, which provided useful when Nami soared through the smoke from his attack and the too started to duel once more. The blades resounded off each other repeatedly, neither letting up in the slightest.

Until Simon's katana started to groan again. The repeated force was causing the thin blade to lose it's shape quickly. Backing up, Simon requipped into a different one. Nami sighed and wiped her brow with her hand.

"This has gotten incredibly heated." She said with a grin. "Everything I could've hoped for." Simon was panting as well, but he nodded. Nami brought her hands down to her blade.

"But, I think that after that display, you've earned my full strength."

Her full strength?

Nami's hands rested on her sheath, which had been around her blade the whole fight.

And she took the sword out of the sheath, tossing it too the side.

"My mother and I specialize in Sheathed Sword Style." She said, the blade starting to glow. "So i can count on one hand the amount of times the actual blade has seen sunlight." Simon felt the magic radiating from the girl, even though he was about twenty-five feet away from her. Nami's entire figure was glowing with white magic, and she raised the now unsheathed blade, pointing it at Simon. "Ready?" She asked.

Simon wasn't sure either answer was how he felt.

Even so, he raised his own sword, preparing for her to attack.

And attack she did.

Nashi managed to dodge the entire plasma charge that time and rolled to her feet. She tried to get close to Blake, but he blew her away easily with his Plasma Magic.

"Come on Nashi, where is that legendary family spirit of yours?!" he yelled as she struggled to stand. "I was hoping for more of a challenge, not this disgrace!"

"Bastard..." Nashi hissed, managing to get on one knee. "He's so powerful...I really underestimated his magic." Nashi, albeit very powerful herself, usually required being in close range to her opponent to actually do any damage. She had other means, but her preferred style was close range. Blake's was the obvious opposite, and with her in the state she was in, it did not mesh very well at all. He was systematically devastating her as she tried to get close. And even if she did get close enough, he did have a protective lining around his body.

"Hey, come on." Blake said. "Get up and try a little bit harder. Or were the rumors really that blown out of proportion?" Nashi didn't reply to him, she felt no need. She was using all of her current processing power to try and come up with a plan of attack. However, her mind was only being plagued with one question.

"Why?" She asked, trying to get to her feet. "Why did you do it?"

"Hm?"

"You attacked us, but we've been nothing but kind to you...What did we do? Why did you do it?!" Nashi met Blake's eyes, but she saw no answer there. He simply watched her closely before he sighed.

"I want to win." He answered. "So I..."

"Don't give me that." Blake looked back up in surprise as Nashi got to her feet. "That's a pathetic reason. Had you really wanted that so badly, you'd have gone after it fairly. You've risked getting Sabertooth disqualified with what you've done. But no, even if you did a real number on us, we still could've cried foul and had today rescheduled because of what happened. You must've known all of that. So why did you do it?" Blake watched her closely before he laughed.

"You're smarter than they gave you credit for." He said. They? "I must admit you saw right through that."

"Wasn't hard. Now, what is your true intentions?" Blake did not answer her right away, he simply laughed and looked down.

"They've got it all planned out anyway..." he muttered to himself. "It doesn't matter what I do as long as they get their calculations in..."

"What are you mumbling about?" Calculations?" Blake looked up with a smile.

"I don't know what you did to anger them Nashi, but the Olympians sure have a big interest in you."

Like I said above, I'm not trying to drag these fights on. This won't be the last arc, where most of it was baseless running around after the opponents. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!