Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.

-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 27: Training with Gildarts

Year: X755. 29 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

When I awoke the next day, I quickly had some breakfast, had a shower, got dressed, said hello to everyone in the manor, before running down into town to see how Gildarts little date went last night.

I was still half asleep when I bolted out the manor and was running through town. By the time I made it to Gildarts house. I realised something.

'Wait. Will Gildarts even be awake yet? He isn't one for getting up early in the morning, and he'd probably be exhausted after last night.' I figured. 'Maybe I'll come back later and see if he's awake then. Wouldn't want to wake him up like that.' I thought considerably.

'Well then what do? I've got around an hour or so to kill…' I thought. 'Maybe I'll go see what's happening at the guild.' I then began to walk towards the guild, with me taking my time as I was in no rush.

'I hope things went well for him last night. It'd be shame if it went badly, mainly because cause he has the trials coming up. That'd probably throw him off focus, and we can't have that happening.' I thought with a sigh.

A few minutes later I arrived at the guild and went inside. The guild was mostly dead, as it was still quite early in the morning. There were a few guild members scattered across the room. Some of them at benches talking with each other, with others at the request board to see about getting the good jobs early.

I decided to go over to a table and chat with some of the guild mates to see what they thought about the S-Class trials this year. There were a few members at the table I was approaching, and they moved to the side a little to make room for me to sit down.

"Oh Cade. Fancy seeing you here." One of the members said.

"I'm just killing some time till Gildarts decides to wake up today." I said as I looked around the table. "What are you lot up to right now?"

"Well we were going to get some jobs dead early today, but the one we were after was already taken when we got here." Said the man to my left.

"We've all been there." I said with a sigh. "So who do you think will win in the trial this year?" I asked not long after.

"Pff! Gildarts obviously!" Said the women across from me. "He's gotta be the strongest non S-Class wizard in the guild right now!"

"Yeah, but the trials aren't based on strength alone." Said the man to my right. "Ivan's a smart kid. He may get the upper hand on Gildarts on one part of the trial – not that I'd want him to." He said quietly towards the end.

"I think it's anyone's game. Yeah if it's strength alone, then Gildarts had this in the bag. But from what I've heard, Master almost always asks for a secondary challenge in the trial as well." One of the people at the table explained.

"Who'd you hear that from?" I asked curiously.

"From me." Came a voice from behind me, causing the people in front of us to look at who said that, and causing me and the others next to me to turn around.

"Ah! Quikora!" I said in surprise, not expecting the illusion mage to catch me by surprise – Ok, then again he is an illusion mage.

He was wearing a causal purple shirt, with some thin white lines that came across and down. He wore some grey trousers, with red shoes. Not that I was much closer to the man, I could see that he had both a red left eye and a brown right eye. Quite rare that.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be helping master for the trial?" Said the lady at our table.

"We've already prepared everything. It's just a case of waiting for the trial in a few days time." He said, as he put his hands in his pocket.

"Is that actually you or an illusion?" I wondered with skepticism, as I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Oh it's me." Quikora said casually, as he poaked at his face lightly. "Anyway. I believe one of you were saying about the structure of the trials?" I nodded at him, and he continued. "There has always been a fighting section in the trials. Then after that there is a section that will rely in something other than battling. That can vary on the location." He explained.

"Isn't this classified S-Class information?" One of the guys at our table said.

"Well the way I see it, everyone that's done the trials before, whether you win or lose will always go through the same thing. I see no reason to hide that." He replied shrugging.

'A non-strength related section huh? That's good to know.' I thought with interest.

"You er, aren't going to tell us what kind of non-strength section will come up will you?" I said with hope.

"No." Quikora said dryly.

'Well it was worth a shot…' I thought with disappointment.

Many of the other guild members at the table I was at began to swarm Quikora with more questions relating to the S-Class trials. Realising that I won't be getting anything out of the man, I left the table and saw that Master Makarov had arrived and was sitting at the guilds counter.

I went over to him to say hello. "Hey Master. How's things with you?" I greeted as I sat on a bar stool.

He looked back at me and sighed. "Oh fine. I just wish we could get a barmaid again for this place. We used to have one a few years back, but she left due to her moving town. I'm willing to allow the guild members here to still have beer and ale, as long as I make sure they don't take too much from the barrels. I need a good drink every now and then." Master scoffed at that last part.

"Oh I see." I said with a bit of surprise.

'Not sure why I'm surprised here. If there a bar here, then there was obviously meant to be a barmaid.'

"So how's Ivan getting on with the trial?" I asked curiously.

"He's been a busy young man preparing for the trial coming up. When I announced that it was the Wass forest that the trial would be taking place in, he immediately started to study the forest in great detail. He is quite serious about becoming S-Class." Master said with a nod.

"Yeah so is Gildarts. Though he seems to be taking it a bit easy on the training aspect." I told Master.

"That doesn't surprise me." He said with a chuckle. "Speaking of which, where is Gildarts? I should think he would be with you preparing as you are both partners." He asked me.

"Still asleep. He, er… had a rough night." I said, quickly fashioning an excuse. I didn't want to tell the whole guild about Gildarts little date without his approval first. "Figured it was best to let him sleep a bit before I woke him up."

"Sound like Gildarts alright." Master proclaimed as he took a swig of bear. "And how are you getting on with your magic training?" He asked curiously.

"It's coming along alright. Had a bit of a battle with Gildarts yesterday, and I was able to land a good hit on him!" I said with proudly.

"Oh?" Master perked up with interest. "Well that's quite impressive there Cade. Gildarts is a tough wizard. To even get a hit on him during a fight is impressive." He nodded approvingly.

"Thanks." I smiled at him, before lying back a little and looking around the guild some more. Master then asked me an interesting question.

"Have you ever thought about S-Class Cade?" He asked curiously.

"S-Class?" I repeated to him, as if to double check what he said.

"Of course. Have you thought about becoming an S-Class wizard in this guild?" He said again, in a not more of a basic manner.

I passed for a moment. "Well I'd love to go out on harder jobs and help people on some really difficult things." I began to say. "But, the position of S-Class comes with a deal of responsibility." Master then raised his eyebrow at me, and gestured for me to keep going.

"To be an S-Class wizard means that you have to be responsible for others in the guild at all times. Making sure set a good example and being there to help them. You also have to make sure you face a situation head on no matter what it may be." I concluded.

Master gave me a curious look. "How'd you learn that then?" He said intrigued. I spoke up to answer him.

"My father told me a few days before he died." I answered, remembering that day.

"Mmm hmm. He was dedicated about the role and took it very seriously." Master replied. He looked like he was about to say something else but quickly stoped himself before he could.

Somewhat happy about this conversation, I stood up and made my way to the guilds door. "Well, I'm on my way back to Gildarts now. He should be awake at this point."

"If not, you better drag him out of bed!" Master yelled to me with a laugh as I left the building.

I then took my sweet time heading back to Magnolia, with me taking in all the shops on the way, getting a bite to eat at a restaurant along the way, and even stopping in the library for a look at some books. I did lift one book on the way out of the restaurant, as I believed it would help Gildarts for the rest of today.

It was now a little bit later on in the day, so I was sure that Gildarts had woken up by now. I made my way to his house and listened in through the keyhole. I could hear moving from behind it so I knew he was up. I then knocked on the door, and a bit after that, Gildarts opened the door.

He looked happy to see me. "Hey there Cade." He said casually.

I smiled. "Well? How was it?" I asked with excitement and a bit of fear.

"Hmm? Oh you mean last night!" Gildarts said after thinking about what I could of meant.

'What did you think I was talking about?'

"Yes, yes! Last night! How did it go?!"

Gildarts sighed when I said that. "Oh boy… that's a long story. It went well! Just figured I should say that now. But it got pretty crazy." He muttered at the end. "Erm, how about we walk and I'll talk along the way?"

'Well at least things went well. But what does he mean by things got crazy?' I perked up at that mention.

"Sure. We still good to practise in the East Forest today?"

Gildarts nodded and we began to make our way out of Magnolia and towards the East Forest up the hills. Gildarts spoke up as we were walking.

"Ok so I met up with Cornelia at her apartment at 7:00pm. Before that I did go and see the restaurant to look at the menu. I was fine with what to get there so I wasn't worried. Anyway, I wore some of the nice clothing I got and waited at her apartment." Gildarts started.

"A few minutes after I began to wait, she exited her apartment. She was dressed in a really nice looking dress. It want anything SUPER fancy, but it did make me feel like I was a bit underdressed myself." Gildarts said as he turned red in remembering.

"I complimented how she looked, and she said the same with me. We then both walked to the restaurant and I was able to think of some nice things to say about her along the way to not make her bored." He followed on saying.

"We then got to the restaurant and I made sure to pull out her seat for her to sit in before I sat in mine."

'Good. He's been following all the advice we gave him yesterday.'

"After that we order some nice food and we just started talking about some casual things. I did mention about me becoming a candidate for the S-Class trials this year which seemed to make her excited. We kept talking and the food arrived and we ate it… That's kinda when the calm and peaceful dinner ended though." Gildarts frowned.

"Oh… what happened?" I asked as we had now reached the top of the hills, and made our way to the East Forest ahead of us.

"Well. Cornelia thought it would be a good idea if she maybe ordered some beer, as she had never had any before. I wasn't really against the idea, so she ordered it anyway." Gildarts took a deep breath. "Trust me when I say this: You've never seen someone as drunk as her before."

"She was getting beer after beer. Alcoholic drink after alcoholic drink. She was insane!" Gildarts shouted as a bit of sweat rolled down his face. "I felt like it wouldn't be a good idea if I started to drink on my very first date, so I just took a little bit of beer."

"Anyway. Within minutes she was completely drunk and laughing at everything around her. We had to make an early exit from the restaurant and I carried her back to her apartment. After that I went back to my place and fell asleep." Gildarts finished explaining.

I paused for a minute to take all of that in. "That's what happened last night?" Gildarts nodded. "Well don't go and start blaming yourself about that. I didn't expect Cornelia to get drunk like that, it was out of your control so don't worry."

"Oh I'm not worried. Before she got drunk she did say that she would want to do this again sometime in the future." Gildarts told me.

"She said that!?" I said with excitement. "Well that's great! Just think of a time/date and you'll be set!" I grinned as I slapped his back in delight. Gildarts thanked me by ruffling my black hair with a grin. "Ok but don't do that again." I said sternly.

We had now just entered the East Forest. Porlyusica's house was a fair distance away, so I wasn't worried about us bumping into it. This means I could start preparing Gildarts on how to actually navigate forests, instead of him wandering aimlessly and getting lucky (which is what always happened with us on jobs.)

I pulled out the book that I had borrowed from the library and handed it to Gildarts, who took it with a bit of surprise at seeing the title.

—

The Forestry Approved Book of Navigation

—

"What… is this meant to be?…" Gildarts asked slowly, as he read out the title.

"This." I pointed to the book. "Is how we are going to teach you how to navigate a forest properly!" I said triumphantly.

"We're actually doing that?" Gildarts groaned. "I thought we came out here to practice fighting in a forest?"

"Relax. We'll get some actual training in today. I still need to help you with destroying magic attacks that combine multiple types of magic." I reassured him. "But we still need to get you prepared to navigate the forest you'll be in." I said firmly.

"I done some research, and I learned that the Wass Forest is huge, way bigger than this forest." I said as I looked around the forest. "Also I learned today that there will always be a non-combat related challenge in the S-Class trials. So I think it's best that you how to learn to navigate a forest without going in circles." I stated.

Gildarts mulled over this for a minute, before he came to an answer. "Deal. But you better help me out with my magic today!" He warned me.

"We're partners. I won't back out of a deal like that." I said with a laid back shrug and a smile.

For the next hour we both read the book and began to learn a bit more on how to navigate a forest successfully without going in circles 24/7. Gildarts was able to learn how to tell what way north is by looking at the sun. He also learned how to mark trees with a stone to tell if he had came this way or not.

The Wass Forest was a gigantic forest several miles long, with big thick trees that could completely block sunlight from entering the forest. There was a small path that lead through the whole forest from the north entrance to the south exit. However the pathway was so easily camouflaged within all the leaves and branches that there would be a high chance you would walk away from it by accident.

My guess was the combat focus part of the trial would put the candidates against another wizard to test them to see if they had the strength necessary for S-Class. That wouldn't be an issue for Gildarts, as I'm fairly certain that by this point he's surpassed every non S-Class wizard in terms of strength. The non-combat focused section would be the real issue.

If Gildarts would be asked to find a certain tree in the forest to finish the trial, then I had no guarantees that he would be able to do it. Right now if he were in that situation, he would probably run around aimlessly trying to find it. So by reading that book he should be able to navigate a forest a little bit better (also it'd be nice to know if we ever have to navigate a forest again on jobs.)

There was still a lot more in the book that we hadn't gotten around to reading yet, like making sure you keep walking in a straight line, or being able to find a creek of water easily. I planned to have Gildarts learn the rest of this in the next few days before his trial, so he would be ready.

When we finally finished reading the book for today, we both tested each other to see if we actually remembered the things we read in the book.

Thankfully we did.

The both of us then tested to see if we could actually use the information we learned to navigate the East Forest without staying on the main path. We were both able to do so, and were able to get back out of the forest to face Magnolia, by following the sun in the sky to see what way north was. That gave me confidence that this plan of mine would actually work for the trial.

We then both headed up to the hills and I began to help Gildarts with strengthening his Crush magic. We stood a fair distance away from each other and I required into my armour and began to send a flurry of spells with two forms of magic towards him.

We practiced this for a good around an hour or so, and the result was always the same: I would cast a fusion spell and Gildarts would match it with a Crush spell, then the attacks would meet and one half of my spell would still make it through and hit Gildarts.

"Thundering Ice Beam!" I cried out, which sent a beam of thunder and ice towards Gildarts with rapid speed.

Gildarts calmly held up his hand and prepared to cast a spell to destroy the beam completely. "Crush!" He shouted, as the yellow ball of magic was fired out of his hand to my beam spell.

Both attacks hit in the middle, and just like yesterday one part of my fusion spell was completely annihilated by Gildarts spell, but the other half of the spell (in this case the lightning) still made it through and hit Gildarts square in the chest.

He was pushed back a little from the impact of the spell, and I could see a frustrated look on his face. "Argh, I don't get it! Why isn't my magic able to destroy your entire spell?" He questioned.

I scratched my head with my gauntlet. "Maybe it's the way my spell is fused together? Or maybe your magic is not used to dealing with attacks that combine magic together like Union Raids!" I suggested.

Gildarts kicked a stone on the floor next to him, before he then took a seat on the ground. "I don't know… I've always felt like my magic was always strong enough to destroy anything it touched." He muttered.

I walked over to the young adult and sat down next to him. I then began to think. "Hmm… maybe you just need to rethink how you use your magic?" I suggested as I scratched my chin.

"Rethink my magic…?" Gildarts responded slowly. "In what way?"

"Well… What do you think about when casting your spells all the time? I'm always trying to remain calm even in worst of situations." I stated.

Gildarts tuned to look at me. "Well obviously I'm thinking about what my opponent may do next, what I'll do next, I'll look around my surroundings to make sure no one gets hurt..." Gildarts listed.

"But what do you think about the spells themselves when you cast them?" I interrupted.

"Well… I mostly try to make sure that I'm not casting my spells to be that destructive, mainly because if I go all out I er, may end up destroying a small town in the process. I've been trying to find a way to use much more of my magic without risking to hurt anyone." Gildarts confessed.

"There we go! I think that's why you can't destroy my fusion spells like that." I said with a grin. "It's not bad if that you're holding back your magic, it's just that it does seems to make your spells a bit weaker." I followed on saying. "We need to find the perfect mix between you holding back your magic and you being able to use a lot more magic power in the process."

"You think that's possible?" Gildarts asked. "I mean, it'd be great if I could get that perfect mix." He said as he began to think of what that would be like.

I paused and began to think of a way to help Gildarts out here. "Hmm… You know when I cast my Ice Magic I often try to try pretend that my ice will be really cold and hard when I form it. I think that helps it to be a lot stronger and sharper. I think thoughts and feelings can help amplify magic."

"Huh. Didn't know that thoughts and feelings could impact your magic that much." Gildarts said with a bit of surprise. "Do you really think if I focus my thoughts and feelings a bit more then I'll be able to make my magic stronger?" Gildarts wondered. "I never bothered trying cause my magic was already very destructive."

"Well it's worth a shot I think." I said as I stood up and looked down at Gildarts. "So what does crush magic focus on then?" I asked my partner in a rather testing manner.

"Pure destruction that's what! Just gotta be careful on how you use it. I still accidentally destroy the odd building or two if I'm not careful…" Gildarts replied.

"Well try casting your magic up in the air while thinking about how much more destructive it could be." I suggested to him.

"Hm, ok then." Gildarts said curiously, as he stood up and help up his hand to the sky. "Crush!" He yelled, as he then sent a ball of yellow energy up in to the air. What I found interesting about his attack just there, was that the ball of energy was much more brighter and much more yellow.

The ball flew up into the air for a bit before it dissipated due to not hitting anything. Gildarts looked curiously at where the ball previously was. He had his hand under his chin and gave a deep expression.

"So you saw it then too?" I asked, referring to the ball of magic he sent.

"Yeah… It seemed much more yellow than before, as well as a lot brighter. Do you think that made it stronger than it was before?" Gildarts said to me.

"Well I can't say for sure… but we don't have to say anything to check do we?" I said to him with a smile on my face.

Gildarts knew what I was thinking and smiled as well. "Alright then. Let's see if that makes a difference." I said as I backed away from him, with him doing the same.

We then prepared to fire off our attacks at each other. "Don't worry about me over here! I'll be fine, you just focus on casting the most destructive Crush spell you can!" I cried encouraging Gildarts as I equipped my swords.

"Alright then!" Gildarts said back, as I saw him take a deep breath.

"Crush!"

"Thundering Ice Beam!"

We both shouted out simultaneously, as we fired off our attacks at each other. The attacks met in the middle causing an explosion. What I did not expect was Gildarts Crush attack to not only destroy my attack in an instant, but rather it completely shatter it like glass and continue to fly towards me without slowing down.

"Argh!" I cried out at seeing the fast approaching spell.

'Soar! Soft!' I quickly cried out internally, before then immediately leaping up into the air to avoid the attack. With me not caring if I hurled while up there.

Gildarts attack went flying right by where I was a few seconds ago and then crashed into a small hill. The hill was completely destroyed in a instant, with a gigantic crater forming where it once was. Whereas before Gildarts attacks would have probably just destroyed the hill, this attack completely vaporised the hill and destroyed a huge chunk of land under where it once was.

I landed back on the ground and looked behind me with my jaw dropping in astonishment. Gildarts came up next to me and looked at the destruction he caused.

"Well then." I said plainly. "That seemed to do the trick." I nodded.

"Yeah… That's kinda why I was trying to hold back my magic like that." Gildarts stated.

"Ok, well we can work on that over the next few days. Make it easier for you to suppress your magic, while also being able to use a lot more of your power." I suggested to Gildarts, as I began to brainstorm a method for this going forward in the next few days.

"I hope we don't cause too many craters doing this, else many of the people entering and exiting the town will think there's a mad bomber on the loose…" I said in realisation.

Gildarts laughed when he heard that, and I couldn't help but join in on the laughter. When we finished laughing, we both set out a plan for the next few days until Gildarts trial.

We would meet out here, and we would take time to train Gildarts in trying to use much more his magic power when fighting, while also making sure he doesn't destroy too much of the area around him.

Also we would make sure to study the navigation book we got from the library to make Gildarts a veteran at navigating forests, to the point where he could do it with his eyes closed.

This worked very well for the days leading up to the trial. Gildarts was able to get a good handling on firing off much more powerful attacks nice could completely annihilate any and all attacks I sent his way.

It was tricky however, to try to get him to hold back his magic and then have him quickly let out more and more magic on the fly. We were somewhat able to do this, by having Gildarts hold back his magic as much as he could; then he would try to let it all out as fast as he could. This would end up causing the ground beneath us to shake due to how quickly he was doing it. In the end he was able to quickly switch between suppressing and increasing his magic without that much trouble.

However if Gildarts was still not being fully observant of where he was going at times, and he accidentally walked into something while not holding back too much of his magic, then he would mostly certainly destroy whatever he walked into.

Today was the final day in which we had to train with each other before the trial tomorrow. We had finished reading the book I had gotten from the library, and we went down to the town to hand it in as we no longer needed it.

Gildarts was now a expert at navigating forests easily. He knew all sorts of things that could help him successfully exit a forest without getting lost. Now it was time for one final test.

The both of us had returned to the hills that overlooked Magnolia for a final training session. Gildarts had wanted another round with me since our last fight and I promised him that I would do so the day before his trial.

Honestly I wasn't completely sure if I could beat Gildarts at this point since he could now pierce through my fusion spells with relative ease now. But I didn't want to break a promise to my partner like that. It would be rather unsportsmanlike for me to not want to fight him anymore simply because I thought he was stronger than me.

Fighting a powerful opponent like him will help me gain a lot more experience for my future. While I'm still not sure if I even want S-Class, it'd be for the best if I just try to be as strong as I could be to protect others when they needed it.

Me and Gildarts were at facing each other a good distance apart from one another. I had requiped into my armour and was now giving Gildarts a stern look, with my eyes narrowed.

"Well, time to see how well you handle yourself against me this time." Gildarts grinned, as he crossed his arms.

I raised an eyebrow. "This is your assessment about how well you've been training this past week you know?" I piped up. "To see how much you have learned?"

"Oh yes, I know. But all the same, I am curious how well you will do. I actually plan to teach you something here as well. A thank you present for all the help you've given me." Gildarts said, a smile forming on his face.

"Oh? Well I'm curious to see what it is." I responded back. "I've known this fight has been coming for a while now. I've been preparing just as much as you have!"

"Good. Let me tell ask something Cade. How many fights have you lost now?" Gildarts asked with interest.

"Hmm? Well I haven't really lost any fights except against you-"

"Those training sessions don't count for this." Gildarts interrupted, as he waved his hand to the side. "So you haven't lost then huh?" Gildarts muttered.

"Well ignoring those training sessions I've had… then no… I guess not." I realised.

"That so? Just curious you know, you are my partner after all." Gildarts explained. He then relaxed his arms by his side, and tilted his head back a little.

I saw Gildarts cross his arms. "You must be sure of victory if your posture is like that." I commented.

"I'm just being a generous partner to you, and letting you make the first move." Gildarts stated, as he tilted his head to side.

"You may come to regret that in the coming minutes." I responded back.

"We shall see." Gildarts said, as his happy and relaxed face vanished, and was replaced by a much more serious and focused look.

I quickly pulled one of my swords out from my holster and held it up in the sky. "Illuminating Flash!" I shouted, which caused a burst of bright light to emerge from the sword.

Gildarts tried to raise his hands to cover his eyes to stop the light from blinding him, but his relaxed state earlier meant that he was unable to do so in time.

He cried out and was forced to turn his head away from me to try to avoid the light. It was at this moment that I began to cast a flurry of spells at Gildarts.

"Ice Slicer! Light Slasher! "Fire Bomb!"

These spells were sent flying in Gildarts direction, however before they reached him he was just able to regain his sight and was shocked to see all the attacks coming his way. Gildarts swirly raised his hand to counter my flurry of different spells with only one of his own.

"Crush!" He bellowed, as he fired off a single ball of energy that hit all of my attacks just before they reached Gildarts – only a few meters away from him.

The attacks connected and caused a huge explosion. Thankfully all my attacks were enough to destroy Gildarts crush attack before it reached me.

I then casted all of my defence enchantments with great haste. 'Hopefully this will help me.' I prayed as I felt the enchantments taking place all over my body.

I then held up my hands in the sky and fired off my next move. "Ice Rain!" Which sent hundreds of small cubes of ice thundering down over Gildarts. The ice wasn't meant to damage him per say, but rather meant to distract my opponent.

Gildarts looked up and held up both his hands to launch an attack that would destroy the ice coming down to him. "Full Crush!" He shouted, as he sent a wave of yellow energy that shattered the ice coming down to him turning it into very small cubes.

'Now's my chance!' I cried out in my mind, as I launched my self up into the air and fired off my next spell. "Ice Bomb!" I yelled.

This attack sent a huge bomb of ice shaped like a hexagon down towards Gildarts. The attack in question was very fragile – even the weakest wizard could destroy it with a ranged attack from afar. When the attack exploded it would send out small sharp shards of ice quite close to where it detonated.

Gildarts was preoccupied dealing with the ice falling down on him, so he did not see my bomb attack coming until it was too late. The bomb attack exploded right at his feet and sent dozens of small ice shards right into Gildarts body. He had armour on his chest area so I knew he wouldn't be roughed up too bad.

When the explosion resided, I could see that Gildarts cloak had several gashes on it due to my ice. Gildarts himself was holding out his hands in a cross formation to protect his chest area from harm. I could see that his sleeves were ripped and there were a few red marks on his arms.

"Hmm. That was a half decent attack that you sent to me just there. Smart of you to occupy my hands so I couldn't cast magic to stop your bomb." Gildarts remarked.

'He looks completely fine after that!' I thought in horror. 'That attack is strong enough to bring down some real nasty creatures and he just shrugged it off!'

"You've gone and ruined my good cloak." Gildarts added with a frown. "It wasn't exactly cheap you know. I just can't let that slide…" He followed on saying, as he now got into a proper stance.

'Guess he's finally getting serious now…' I thought as I anticipated his next move.

"All Crush!" Gildarts shouted firmly, as he fired off dozens of yellow balls of crush magic in my direction.

'Ah crap! How do I deal with it, how do I deal with it!?' I panicked internally as the attacks were flying in my direction.

"Gah!" I cried out – not a spell I knew but rather a cry of desperation, as I jumped into the air to avoid his attacks.

"Ice Double Beam!" I uttered, as I fired off two beam of ice in Gildarts direction.

Gildarts raised his hand and channeled some of his crush magic into it. He then took the attacks head on using his raised hand. My beams hit his hand and were completely crushed into small little ice cubes due to his magic.

'I really need to work on trying to summon more than two beams…' I sighed. 'Dammit! So many of my attacks are focused on long range and not close combat! If I actually want to land a hit on Gildarts then I need get up close and personal. Of course that's easier said then done…' I thought carefully.

I landed back on the ground and planed out my next move. 'Hmm. I can't keep jumping up into the air all the time. Gildarts will just send more attacks my way when I do that, and I can't dodge in mid air! I need a way to increase my speed… Aha!'

Thankfully, a lightbulb lit up in my head of how to deal with Gildarts. A familiar tactic, but one that will give me some good agility over Gildarts.

"Ice Floor!" I shouted as I waved my hands close to the ground beneath me. Since training with Gildarts recently I was now able to use my Ice Floor spell without having to touch the ground with my hands. I still did need to wave my hands in the general direction of the ground though.

Within an instant, the ground turned into thick slippery ice. Gildarts was thrown off a little when the spell was casted, but he remained calm and steadfast.

"This attack again…" He muttered under his breath with a low voice but still loud enough to where I could hear it. "You know I've been exposed to this several times during my training with you. I know how to slide and skid on ice now!" Gildarts gave me a cunning smile.

"Well then that's less of a chance if you using your Mizuwari spell to get rid of the ice. Makes this a lot more fun if you ask me." I grinned.

Me and Gildarts then began to carefully slide our way towards each other. It wasn't exactly anything graceful – we certainly wouldn't be winning any ice skating competitions anytime soon like that. Neither of us had any ice skates on, so it was tricky for us to slide to each other in a fast pace.

Nonetheless, we continued to close the distance with each other to continue the fight.

Gildarts held out his hand the best he could, and fired off a spell at me. "Crush!"

I counted his move, with a spell of my own. "Ice Spikes!" I yelled with determination. Multiple spikes of ice suddenly burst out from the ground and began to skewer Gildarts crush attack. What I also did, was summon more spikes around the now ice rink we were sliding on. They might help me later.

Gildarts attack was destroyed due to all the Ice Spikes that skewed it. At this point we were getting quite close to each other. 'Well I'm getting closer to him alright. This attack I have here should hit him and deal some real damage.'

As the distance between me and Gildarts began to close more and more, with us only a few metres from each other now, I began to power up my attack.

It was when we were about to meet each other in the middle that I fired off my attack. "Ice Fist!" I shouted, as I closed my fist and covered it in ice. I then launched my fist towards Gildarts chest.

Gildarts simply smirked as he took the attack directly to his chest without even trying to stop it! Right when I thought he had lost his mind, I saw that my fist of ice was being completely shredded when it made contact with Gildarts chest!

I then realised what Gildarts had done. 'No! Did he really surround himself with Crush Magic to not let any of my attacks through!?' I then immediately pulled my fist back to not let my skin get damaged and instinctively melted the ice on it.

Me and Gildarts had flew right past each other just there, with us now sliding away from each other. I was still sliding at a decent speed despite my failure just there, as I had a plan forming in my head.

I slid towards one of the ice spikes a few second after passing Gildarts, and gripped my hand on it so that it would turn me around where I would now be facing Gildarts back.

This worked just as intended. I was now facing Gildarts back, him completely unaware that I was facing his backside.

"NOW!" I shouted with all my might and vigour. "Shining Waves of Flame!"

I fired off my fusion attack of fire and light, which was one of my strongest fusion attacks that I had. The fusion attack was fired off at Gildarts, with him only catching on what was happening when I cried out my spell just there.

He turned his head to see what I had done, and showed a look of surprise when he saw the attack coming towards him. He had let his guard down, thinking I was in too awkward of a position to fight back against him at that point.

His eyes widened as the attack hit his back. He slipped and fell face first onto the ice below him. Gildarts let out a grunt of pain as he did so.

'Alright!' I thought with enthusiasm. 'That did the trick! Now I just need to do a similar sort of stunt like that another fifty odd times and he'll go down just like that!'

I could have just kept launching attacks at Gildarts there to harass him and not let him get back up on his feet, but that would be quite a rude way to win.

Just about everyone in Fairy Tale had a sort of unspoken rule, to where it would be seen as a bit dishonourable to keep firing off attacks at your opponent when they were knocked down on the ground. We liked to give our opponents a chance to get back up and counter attack. Makes brawls at the guild a bit more interesting.

Of course we obviously didn't do this if we fighting something or someone that was trying to kill us or were doing something evil in the world. We wouldn't try to hold back if possible, and deal with them as quickly as we all could.

Gildarts got back up on his own feet, him struggling a little due to the ground being made of ice. He turned around to look at me, and he gave an approving nod, surprising me.

"That wasn't half bad there Cade." He admitted "That attack actually hurt me there a bit, and made me stumble backwards – or forwards technically, but whatever!" He waved his hand aside. "I think it's time I stopped messing around here, and show you why I'm really S-Class worthy." He finished, as he began to power up more and more of his magic.

I then immediately began to think about whether this was a good idea or not, as I began to scale my magic power to his.

The difference between our two magic powers was like comparing the distance between heaven and the earth. Gildarts magic power was colossal in size and power! I felt like an ant next to him. With such strength like that, he could probably destroy all of Magnolia without that much effort!

'Why the hell did Master wait until now to select him as an S-Class candidate?!' I thought in fear as I sensed the magic emanating off of Gildarts.

"This isn't my full power." Gildarts stated. "I think it's still enough to destroy the entire town if I wanted to." He said sternly. "But." He added on, as the aura around him began to die down. "I'd be homeless if I did that and I'd be abandoning Fairy Tale."

'W-What!? W-Why?! What did I do to deserve this!?' I thought in agony when properly scaling his magic to mine.

"No… please…" I muttered in fear, as my head dropped.

"Oh? You giving up now?" Gildarts wondered with a bit of sadness in his voice that I could make out.

'Wait. No, no I can't give up!' I thought in realisation. 'If I give up now then everything I've done with Gildarts up to this point will have been meaningless to me!' I lifted my head up with a determined face.

"I'm not giving up just yet! As long as there still blood running through my veins then I'm not quitting against you just yet!" I cried out, as I pointed one of my swords to Gildarts.

"That's the spirit!" Gildarts cried out with excitement as he got himself ready to continue the fight.

That's another chapter done and dusted. Feel free to leave a review if you so desire. Reviews do help the dozens of stories on this site.

We got to see Cade help train up Gildarts for the upcoming trial ahead (not that Gildarts really needs help in the strength department.) Gildarts of course got lucky with Cornelia on the date that was highlighted in the last chapter.

We also got see Cade and Gildarts battle it out again, with Gildarts showcasing a lot more of his power to Cade this time. We shall see the conclusion of the fight in the next chapter as well as whether Gildarts got the promotion to S-Class or not.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I shall see you later. See ya!

PS: Seems like some people on Fanfiction have issues with their stories. In my case the view count for this story has completely stoped rising. I know this is actually not the case, as I have many followers of this story. Thankfully, I can still see the number of people that favourite and follow this story and I think reviews are still working.