Fairy Tail's victory surprised Ishgar's magic world a little. It's not because they never thought that Fairy Tail wouldn't win. But their team's line up this year was far different than last year when they sent their best mages to compete.
No one ever thought that a team full of lesser-known mages could overpower the other guild's teams that have sent their best mages. Even Jura competed again, but he could still only get Lamia Scale 2nd place like usual.
Still, people were surprised because none of Team Fairy Tail's members is a S-Class mage. They have the most S-Class mages on the continent of Ishgar and didn't even send one of them. People thought it was foolish, but now everyone knew that Fairy Tail was just that confident.
Ben smiled widely because this is the result he wanted when he proposed this team's line up. He wanted to show the world how far Fairy Tail had come. They've left other guilds in the dust with their mages' monstrous progress.
But Ben's true goal isn't boasting to the world that they're the best. This is a competition, so the participants are trying to be the best. Ben hopes that this competition will make other guilds more competitive and the mages have more desire to become even stronger because they don't want to be left further behind.
If Fairy Tail's S-Class mages competed, then the other guilds will think it's normal. But they won't think like that now because they all remember Wendy wasn't this strong last year. That means Wendy had grown a lot faster than any of them in a year and they were ashamed.
So they need to become even stronger to save their pride because it meant they were slacking off for a year. They didn't, but Wendy's progress made them realize that they didn't train hard enough.
This is the result that Ben wanted although not every mage thought like that. But that's enough for now because at least some mages are motivated to become stronger. Ben couldn't care less about people who didn't have the desire to get better.
He is very concerned about this matter because he knew a war was on the horizon. Even if he displayed incredible power to August, the Alvarez Empire will still attack Ishgar. Even Ben couldn't protect a entire continent by himself.
So he needs his allies to become stronger to protect the continent together. Also, it's not just the Alvarez Empire that's a threat. Ben knew that if the Alvarez Empire attacked Ishgar, then Acnologia will also appear because clashes of magic will attract him.
Ben was the only one who can face Acnologia on the continent of Ishgar. He knew how powerful it was and even Zeref wouldn't stand a chance against Acnologia in a normal situation. Only Ben was able to defeat Acnologia right now.
So he won't be able to fight the Alvarez Empire if Acnologia appeared. There's no way he can fight Acnologia and the Alvarez Empire by himself. That's why he needs the others to fight Alvarez's troops while he fought Acnologia.
Even if Acnologia doesn't appear, he will need to face Zeref and the Spriggan 12. There's only so much he can do alone, so he needs the others' help. Ben isn't arrogant enough to think he can do everything by himself.
Anyway, his guild had won the Grand Magic Games again. It's time for the celebration now and the teams have returned to the stadium after the injured mages were treated. They will give medals and prizes to the top 3 teams now.
But before they could start, someone suddenly barges into the stadium. The intruder wears a ragged black cloak and he suddenly released strong heat using his magic. The heat was so strong it melted people's clothes.
Ben raised an eyebrow when he sensed the intruder's magic power. He wasn't affected by the heat at all because of his magic. The only one in the stadium other than Ben who wasn't affected at all is Romeo who has Fire God Slayer Magic.
Although some mages like Mira, Laxus, Erza and other S-Class mages are fine because they can protect themselves with their magic. Normal people and average mages had their clothes melt because of the strong heat.
"So Fairy Tail won again, huh? That's good. Now, why don't you guys fight me so we can see each other's progress?" The intruder asked, revealing himself by removing his cloak.
The intruder was actually Natsu who looked very dirty and had longer hair because he never trimmed it after a year. He looks very excited as he challenges his guild mates who have just won the competition.
But then, someone approached him from behind and said, "That's quite the entrance, Natsu. Why don't you show me your progress and I'll show you mine."
Natsu looks back and grins excitedly as he saw Ben walk towards him. Without any hesitation, Natsu agreed to Ben's proposal and coated his hands in fire. Then Natsu sent the fire towards Ben, creating a massive fire attack that will engulf everything in it's path.
Ben was impressed by the scale and power of Natsu's attack. But that's just it, he was just impressed because Natsu had grown a lot in one year. He wasn't going to tolerate Natsu's behavior and he snapped his fingers towards the massive fire attack.
A small dark red fireball came out and flew towards Natsu's fire attack. They hit each other and suddenly the small fireball turned into a massive fire that engulfed Natsu's fire. It kept moving until it engulfed Natsu's body before disappearing in a second.
But in just that 1 second, the dark red fire destroyed Natsu's fire spell and burned his clothes. Ben used a Sun Devil Slayer Magic spell and it's actually one of his basic spells. It was powerful enough to destroy that strong spell and burn a Fire Dragon Slayer's clothes off.
Normal people would be flustered if their clothes disappeared, but Natsu is a weirdo. He didn't react at all to being naked in front of thousands of people. He is just excited to fight Ben and showed the results of his hard training.
Ben sighed after seeing Natsu's reaction. He forgot how shameless this guy is. Well, having their clothes destroyed in battle shouldn't fluster mages like them because it can cause them to lose, but not reacting at all is strange.
Natsu rushed at Ben while fully naked and it made people embarrassed just looking at him. It also embarrasses their guild, so Ben needed to end this immediately. He flashed towards Natsu and sent a palm chop at Natsu's neck, knocking the idiot out immediately.
Ben just took him out with very little effort. Happy, who was watching, was in shock because he knew how much Natsu had grown in one year. Ben knocked him out with a simple chop as if he hadn't become stronger at all.
Well, anyway, Ben teleported Natsu away so they could continue the ceremony. The organizer also acted fast and distributed clothes to the ones that had their clothes melted. Then they continue the award ceremony while Makarov and Erza are thinking about the best way to tease Natsu later.