Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 50: The Cool Morning Date & The Frigid Fracas In The Ice Garden! Scalding Stubbornness & Soft Snow! Juvia vs. Emiria & Hiyasu!
Since Lucy trained quite hard on the previous day to master the Kaze's Feather Dance spell, Sting felt like she deserved to have a day of leisure in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour. The event didn't exactly have a rigid schedule for when Emiria would be fighting against specific mages, which made Sting believe that Emiria would just fight against wizards when she felt like it was necessary. Emiria had defeated Lucy early on in the festival, but the fact that Lucy hadn't been declared as being eliminated only made Sting feel like this event was weird.
Under normal circumstances such as the rules of the Grand Magic Games, someone could be eliminated from an event if they failed to win. However, failing to win and being kept around in this current competition was a strange kind of consequence. Sting started to have a puzzled look on his face as he glanced down at the mint blue table, ignoring the mint blue brownies that he had purchased for himself and Lucy to share. She casually ate a brownie while Sting concerned himself with the strangeness of this event, and he started to slightly frown.
Even though Sting would gladly inform Lucy about how the entire competition felt bizarre to him, he wondered if any of the other mages who had been invited were also sharing his same feelings. Sting hadn't seen any of them fight against Emiria, but he had managed to faintly sense the general direction of where magic was being used when it seemed like a fight was happening. Sting had picked up on some magical power that came from two random mages who had been invited, but sensing their levels of power around the evening of the previous day had been a short activity for Sting. That was because of how he had quickly sensed Emiria's magic overpowering them.
She wielded powerful icy magic, which made Sting wonder how bad it must've been for Lucy to fight against her. Lucy had informed Sting on that day about how she couldn't absorb the Ice God Slayer Magic into her wind-based attacks, which caused her to feel very powerless against Emiria in that fight, and that battle had ensued after Emiria had provoked Lucy into fighting her at Seigan's Sadistic Frost Field. Sting started to calmly glance at the people walking on the street near the bakery's window, thinking that Lucy needed to use the environment to her advantage in a way that could allow her to win, but he was taken out of his thoughts by the feeling of Lucy holding one of his hands to get his attention.
"Sting, are you going to eat the brownies that we ordered? You were hungry, right?" Lucy asked him with a nice smile on her face that showed a moderate amount of concern, as her orange eyes were filled with the feeling of kindness.
That prompted the blonde-haired dragon slayer to reply with a surprised facial expression that displayed the feeling of realization, "Yeah, I'm hungrier than I originally thought! Thanks for not letting the brownies go to waste, Lucy!"
After comically stuffing two of the brownies in his mouth and enjoying their wintery mint flavor, Sting confidently told Lucy, "Speaking of not going to waste, your spot in the competition won't be for nothing because you'll be able to take Emiria down."
"I've been wondering about that, Sting. Defeating Emiria wouldn't be a task that I could accomplish with brute force and using spells recklessly, so I would need to have a plan." Lucy responded to him with a soft smile on her face, her eyes starting to display the slight feeling of worry.
Lucy felt worried about the scenario of forming a great plan in her next fight against Emiria, since there was the possibility for the plan to fall apart at a critical moment during the battle, and the green-haired woman didn't desire to end up frozen in a block of ice or be defeated twice by the same opponent. Thinking about Emiria while eating another warm brownie made Lucy start to feel like she would be the one to bring a powerful amount of heat to that fight, as she didn't intend to lose to that smug hostess again. However, getting rid of Emiria's smugness would require Lucy to eliminate the problem of that mage's dangerous ice.
An Ice Goddess Slayer seemed to have the kind of ice that wouldn't easily melt down into water, and Emiria's ice hadn't been very easy to shatter. The density of that ice was definitely a chilling issue that made Lucy feel worried, and she glanced down at the Emerald Green Ring for a moment. The ring's Wind Magic had been powerful, but Lucy thought about she needed to make her spells have much more power. Not having a high amount of power to support high speed and high intelligence would only be a problem, and Lucy began to clench her right hand very tightly.
She clenched her hand into a fist with the feeling of confidence, believing that she could make her spells be pushed to much higher levels of power, and Lucy was glad that Sting was so confident to assure her that the next fight would result in a victory. Thinking about being victorious was something that Lucy really needed to do, since that was more productive than just imagining an outcome involving another loss happening again. Lucy started to smile more while imagining the sight of herself being successful against Emiria in a fight, and Lucy definitely needed to thank Sting for being such a supportive boyfriend.
"Sting, thank you for reminding me that this event won't amount to nothing for me. I'm glad that you're always believing in me." Lucy told him with an appreciative look in her eyes, before giving Sting a soft kiss on the lips.
After lightly returning the kiss and arrogantly smiling, Sting responded to her with confidence in his eyes, "I've never doubted your skills, Lucy. You've always been taking down enemies with great strategies and powerful moves, so you're just like me by striving to be one of Sabertooth's most awesome mages."
"Although, I would have to say that you're a better motivator." Lucy playfully told Sting with a cute smile on her face, her cheeks blushing light pink from their shared kiss.
The fact that Lucy thought he was a good motivator only made Sting start to smile happily, also blushing from their kiss, and he was glad that Lucy also believed in him. Just as how he believed in her, Lucy had faith that Sting would always inspire anyone in Sabertooth to always succeed. If he hadn't successfully convinced Lucy to not give up against Emiria, then she may have just wanted to go back to the Sabertooth guild and sulk. However, Sting didn't want any of his friends to be depressed about losing to enemies. When losses occurred, rematches could result in achieving victory.
That belief was what kept Sting from faltering in situations such as when he and Lucy had to fight against Miru and Shizue for a second time, and Sting personally felt like he managed to help Lucy achieve victory on that day by preventing their enemies from going to interfere with Risa's battle against Kyoko. That battle itself also involved two enemies meeting again after several years, which Sting also viewed as a rematch, and he was glad that his friend was able to succeed in that fight. Sting turned his thoughts back to Lucy, who stood up after eating two more of the mint brownies.
Sting liked how Lucy looked very cute when eating halves of the brownies, before swallowing the sweet dessert. The mint blue brownies complimented her new light blue winter coat that she purchased yesterday from Seigan's fashion store, the coat going well with her dark blue snow boots that matched her azure winter pants. Sting liked how Lucy upgraded her fashion choices before this morning date, since she wasn't just following Risa's method of shopping during a mission in any town that had a clothing store. Aside from having a clothing store, Sting also heard other customers have an earlier discussion about how this town had an ice garden. The ice garden seemed like an interesting place for him and Lucy to see on their morning date, prompting Sting to get up from the blue chair he had been sitting in. He glanced down at the chair and table, before picking up the blue bag of the remaining brownies, and Sting motioned with his hand for Lucy to follow him. She smiled nicely while following Sting out of the bakery, glad that she would be following him to their date's next destination, and the warmth in her heart from being on this romantic date with Sting caused Lucy to feel less cold in the frosty town.
Meanwhile, at Seigan Town's fashion store...
The winter town of Seigan hadn't been cold for Risa, who wore her green jacket while she stood in the clothing store's section for small jackets. Risa wasn't purchasing the small jacket for herself, and she was buying it for Kusabue. The young mage from Sabertooth ended up having her jacket be ripped in some places, along with the fabric of the clothing seeming like it would fall apart. The jacket's condition was a result of Kusabue helping Kūkiatsu fight in their battle against Kaisui and Kōsui, who had been a vicious pair of opponents.
Those evil opponents made Kusabue feel like she and Kūkiatsu were lucky that they managed to achieve victory, especially since their win wouldn't have happened without Kagura's help. The strong woman from the Mermaid Heel guild was currently training Kūkiatsu on how to use his Wind Magic more effectively, along with making the teenage boy read some books on dense Wind Magic from Seigan Town's library, and Kusabue recalled hearing the blue-haired librarian simply explain how some green books ended up in this town because of a chief researcher who came from Ryokufū.
Ryokufū Town's researcher had interestingly been missing for weeks now, but Kusabue shifted her thoughts back to the small jackets. The jacket had higher priority to Kusabue right now, and she moved some light blue jackets aside to find one that was in an aqua shade of blue. The aqua blue jacket didn't exactly match Kusabue's dark green hair, but she did manage to pick out sapphire blue winter pants and cobalt blue snow boots to make herself wear a better outfit today. Kusabue followed Risa's perspective of always needing to look fashionable in any town that she visited, and fashion allowed Kusabue to view this as a fun experience.
She picked out the aqua blue jacket, before casually walking around the clothing store with Risa by her side, and Kusabue started to glance down at the plain blue floor that had the design of a periwinkle blue diamond on each tile. On some of the tiles, Kusabue noticed a black rectangular shadow somewhat stretching across the floor. The shadow didn't belong to Rogue, instead belonging to an amethyst purple poster that was situated in between an ocean blue rack for cute-looking shoes for women and a celestial blue rack containing high-heeled shoes that all seemed to belong to gothic and hardcore styles of fashion.
The woman in the poster certainly looked gothic and hardcore, since she had extremely pale skin while her long black hair had lavender highlights, and she wore black fishnet leggings that covered her thick thighs. She posed in a relaxed manner, her eyes closed to display the violet eyeshadow on her eyelids, and she wore a black choker around her neck. The choker matched the front part of her orchid purple corset, which had circular mauve brooches on the corset's purple straps that went over the woman's shoulders. After glancing down from the woman's shoulders, Kusabue's eyes noticed that the woman wore plum purple bracelets that were made from bat-shaped beads, the beads being the same color as her medium-length ruffled skirt that was below the corset, and Kusabue's eyes started to twinkle in an amazed manner from seeing that the woman's violet high-heeled shoes that had small violet spikes protruding from them.
"If Gunjou Town's fashion is appealing to you, aspire to be like the beautiful Miss Rairakku!" Kusabue read in a happy manner, noticing that the poster's light purple words were located under the woman as an advertising slogan.
Risa commented in a snarky manner with a somewhat confused facial expression, "Yeah, make sure that you aspire to actually have your shoes compliment your corset in terms of the color shade and the design."
"Miss Risa, you don't like her outfit? Doesn't she look like a vicious princess or an elegant and serious leader that can easily defeat other people?" Kusabue asked Risa in a calm tone, her eyes starting to be filled with curiosity?"
"Well, she appears to be a very intimidating person in the fashion world. In terms of attire, I prefer princesses to wear outfits that correspond with how they're royal and kind." Risa responded with a small smile on her face, thinking about her own fashion preferences.
As Risa began to avert her cherry red eyes away from the poster, she glanced at the ocean blue rack of shoes. Some of these shoes appeared to be on sale while their blue price tags marked the footwear as being fifty percent off for customers during the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, and Risa liked how the shoes for a cute princess in a winter wonderland had been light blue while they almost resembled glass. The glass-like shoes were picked up by Risa, who felt their material to actually resemble extremely dense ice, and the shoes were also very cold.
Their temperature caused the shoes to exude white frost, which nearly made Risa's hands shiver with a chilling coldness, and Risa was quick to just put the shoes back in their spot on the shoe rack. She picked up an adjacent pair of shoes, which were light blue while they had sapphire blue snowflakes designed on the front straps, and these shoes seemed to be quite fancy. Risa looked at the price tag for a moment, only to see that this specific pair of shoes would require her to pay 600,000 jewels at the discounted rate, and her eyes comically widened in shock.
"Why are these shoes so expensive?" Risa asked aloud in a calm manner, prompting Kusabue and the cashier to look at her for a clear view of the shoes.
The cashier who had her dark blue hair in a bob style politely explained to Risa from behind the azure counter that was near the door, "Miss, the first reason is due to the fact that those shoes are all in fashion and they're very popular in this winter weather. Secondly, those shoes were added to the store's inventory by Suzuna of Cerulean Frost."
"She's that kind lady who goes around Seigan Town to help people get out of dangerous situations!" Kusabue kindly replied to the cashier, recalling how Suzuna helped her get out of trouble when she first encountered Kaisui.
Kusabue's words would quickly prove to be ironic, as she immediately heard the sound of ice layering over someone like they were being frozen. That sound of frosty ice came from the street where the clothing store was located, and it had also gotten Risa's attention. She looked out the window to see Flare Corona from the Sun Village become a light blue ice statue, her crimson red hair starting to lose several of its large red flames, and Risa took a few steps forward to see the aftermath of the event. Red fire was burning on several parts of the street that had craters on the cracked ground, along with several long strands of crimson red hair appearing to have been cut, and even a crimson red wolf that was made from Flare's hair had been burning as it whimpered in agonizing pain.
Flare's fiery spells started to be extinguished by azure blue bubbles that Hiyasu shot out of her mouth, creating billowing blue clouds of hot steam, and Emiria activated the Frost Orb spell. She fired a light blue orb from her mouth, aiming it up at the sky, and the orb ascended towards the grey clouds. It quickly detonated to create a light blue blast that was quite large, which resulted in strong icy winds occurring to blow away all of the steam, and the broken ground began to get coated in a sheet of Ice God Slayer Magic. Hiyasu added her Water Magic to the situation, filling in the ground's cracks to allow the water to be frozen by the ice as a temporary way of repairing the street before Suzuna would be signaled by the gusts of frigid air. The icy winds made Seigan Town colder, even adding more coldness and density to Flare's human ice statue.
Risa kept her eyes focused on the statue while stepping back to make her hand return the shoes to the rack, noticing how the woman's crimson red dress was now light blue while her hair had reached down to her neck after being cut. Flare's chunks of hair didn't get frozen by the most recent spell, which Risa recognized from when Emiria battled Lucy, and Risa quietly pulled out the Communications Lacrima Crystal from the right pocket of her green jacket. She gently tapped the orb to turn it on, before scrolling down to Rogue's name, and Risa felt like contacting him about the situation that just occurred outside. Kusabue kept Risa from going outside by walking in front of her, also observing the street, and she watched both of the women walk up the street. Kusabue wondered if they were heading to the ice garden, which was the place where Kagura was going to meet up with Kūkiatsu for his training session, and the young girl began to look anxious while hoping that her brother wouldn't be turned into the next ice statue.
20 minutes later, in the ice garden...
Ice statues ironically existed in the ice garden, which was a place that contained aegean blue tiled paths for people to walk on while the tiles were also areas where the botanists of Seigan Town had set up round tables and chairs that were cobalt blue. Kūkiatsu sat down at a table with Rogue and Yukino, who were both as attentive as Kūkiatsu towards Risa's earlier message about how Emiria demonstrated her high level of icy power again. Yukino gently took out her golden Zodiac Gate Keys from the left pocket that matched her light blue winter skirt and pale blue boots, and she was ready to restrain anyone with Libra's Gravity Magic or the brute strength of Pisces if they foolishly tried to challenge Emiria's level of power without some sort of strategy. Kūkiatsu managed to sense that level of power, too, and he had sensed a weaker presence that was fading away. However, those weren't the only source of magical power that obtained his attention.
Upon looking in the northern direction to see an admiral blue stone bridge with light blue flowerbeds of tulips on both sides, Kūkiatsu took notice of how Juvia Lockser was casting spells such as Water Nebula and Water Cyclone as a way of training herself for the eventual time when she would have to fight either Emiria or Hiyasu. Those women were capable of detecting strong amounts of power, but Juvia hadn't been using her spells at their highest levels of strength. Based on what he had seen and heard, Juvia was likely wanting to conserve her skills until she could fight the girl who she believed to truly be Kotomi Takeuchi.
Kotomi was actually Lucy, but Kūkiatsu felt that it would be more logical to just let Juvia eventually realize that fact. After all, Lucy could've probably beaten Emiria if she was truly as vicious as Kotomi. Viciousness was something that Kūkiatsu couldn't sense from Juvia's spells right now, as the dense water only created winds that shifted the cold air to different areas of the ice garden, and the teenager felt that he could use this time to just explore the ice garden. He got up from the chair while applying a mint green aura of Wind Magic to his feet, and Kūkiatsu ran across the stone bridge before going down a curved path.
This curved route in the ice garden led to snowy ground, which contained light blue trees that were covered in powdery snow, and Kūkiatsu recognized this type of tree from some books on botany. The books had informed him that these were Frigid Trees, snowy trees with icy blue tree bark that could instantly freeze a person if they breathed near the trees for a long duration of time. There was also a small garden of admiral blue sunflowers that stood near the riverbank, which was admired by a young girl who had been with her parents, and Kūkiatsu glanced at other areas containing other types of plants to see most of the patrons who were in the ice garden.
"The Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour has garnered tons of attention, so that's probably why there aren't very many people here today." Kūkiatsu stated aloud to himself with a calm smile on his face, before glancing at a straight path nearby that led to more plants.
As he got closer to some small gardens that had dark blue signs in front of some specific plants, Kūkiatsu heard Lucy calmly read, "These are the Frost Berry plants. Light blue and tasty, yet they give you chilly breath."
"Well, they're better than the nearby Icicle Flowers and the Powdery Tulips. The former of the two plants is extremely sharp to cut you, and the latter has to be grown carefully or it falls apart into powdered dust." Kūkiatsu commented nicely, getting the attention of Lucy and Sting as they observed all the plants that were in the dark blue grass.
Lucy told her friend in a kind tone, smiling happily, "Hey, Kūkiatsu. We'll be happy to not disturb any of the plants on our date. After all, it takes hard work to grow such beautiful pieces of nature."
Lucy and Sting began walking in the opposite direction that Kūkiatsu came from, presumably going to meet up with the rest of the team if Risa and Kusabue had arrived yet, but Kūkiatsu remained relaxed as he desired to see more of the ice garden. He went towards an arched stone bridge that curved upward, this bridge having fast-moving water flowing under it like magical power had been applied, and he managed to reach a section of the ice garden that was located at the entrance of the garden's deeper areas. This current section had a small field of navy blue lilies in front of some arctic blue acacia trees, which intrigued Kūkiatsu.
From his time as a researcher, these trees were known as Iced Acacias, due to how their rhombus-shaped leaves never blew in the wind while they'd sometimes fall to the ground without making any other movements. The lilies were simply Oceanic Lilies, but they were capable of shooting out ocean blue bubbles of water when the icy winds blew past them. The winds interestingly provided energy to those flowers, and watering them would make them cutely shoot out larger bubbles that would hastily burst to create sparkles.
Some sparkles resembling diamond dust had emerged from some plain blue lotuses that had light blue leaves underneath them, the plants quickly blooming to spit out regular blue sparkles of diamond dust that would quickly gain a frosty appearance from the icy breeze that blew through this part of the ice garden. This sight amazed people such as Samui and Aoiumi, who both wore fashionable blue dresses for a modeling event as they stood near the entrance to the clearing. Kūkiatsu decided to walk past the clearing, ignoring the two women, and he started to walk on the dark blue grass that was near another tiled path. That long path led to another clearing containing the garden's depths, only having baby blue fruit trees as a differing factor for the area, and Kūkiatsu decided to just walk up to a pale blue tree while he stood against it to share his friends' great views of the diamond dust.
However, his view of the diamond dust was quickly contrasted by the feeling of a burning sensation that came from the pale blue tree. Kūkiatsu's new green jacket and green pants couldn't protect his body from ice burns, which appeared on the tree in an ascending spiral formation to severely burn it. Kūkiatsu tried to gently touch the tree, only to burn his hand before the ice burnt the fronts of his lime green snow boots that touched the icy tree bark, and seeing that the tree was dying had caused him to feel quite alarmed.
"This spiraling path of Ice Magic really burnt through the tree and left its markings, but Powder Blue Trees don't even squeeze each other with roots if they're made from dense ice. Still, whoever harmed this tree with burning ice seemed to strangle it and they did such a horrible thing." Kūkiatsu stated aloud to himself, as his eyes showed concern at how the damage didn't seem to be very recent.
He soon heard Lucy shout in a concerned manner, "Juvia, you're creating a huge rain cloud!"
Kūkiatsu thought to himself, wasting no time with thinking if Juvia had sensed someone's specific magic, "If that's an invited mage activating magic, then does that mean...?!"
"Ice Goddess' Bellowing Stalagmites!" Emiria ruthlessly yelled from a different location, before firing a pale blue beam of Ice Magic from her mouth.
Everyone got to witness Emiria's long-range spell striking Juvia's rain cloud, the icy effect turning the rain into hail, and Emiria sneakily placed her right hand in the beam's path. She made light blue icicles grow out of the palm of her hand, before propelling them forward, and the resulting blast took everyone's attention away from the diamond dust in the ice garden. Their attention was now on the heavy winds that accompanied the light blue and pale blue blasts, shielding their eyes from the blinding lights, but people such as Sting and Lucy were smart enough to dodge what immediately came next.
The effect of this fusion spell made small icicles hit the ground, only for them to immediately become jet streams of icicles that headed towards people, and some of the innocent people who were hit by this spell had been frozen solid in spiky pillars of light blue ice that shined with a pale blue glow. Juvia, however, had made herself fall into the slower-moving river. She quickly emerged from it to see the icy streams of icicles changing direction to freeze specific people, even seeing a father and mother get stuck in the ice right after pushing their young daughter out of harm's way, but Juvia couldn't stop Emiria from using Ice Goddess' Subzero Stalagmites as a spell on its own.
Emiria concentrated a heavy amount of a light blue aura in her right hand, before slamming it down on the frosty plateau that she stood on with Hiyasu, and sending that magic into the ground worked well for Emiria. She slightly moved her hand to the left, before moving it to the right, and sliding her hand backwards against the ground in a rough manner caused several icicles to emerge from underneath where a teal-haired woman was located. The woman who had been dressed like a fashion model was specifically targeted for running towards the frightened young child who had been crying, and some models such as Samui had to watch their co-worker get stabbed by several icicles that resembled stalagmites. In addition to how they felt like sharp swords, the stalagmites instantly froze her to make her resemble a lifelike ice sculpture. Her teal cocktail dress was now light blue, just like the rest of her body, and she had elicited screams of terror as her eyes were stuck with displaying the feeling of fear. She probably only retained her sense of sight, being unable to hear the child screaming as she was also impaled by the icy spikes and made to be frozen.
The sounds of people screaming for help in a worried manner prompted Lucy to move behind some nearby trees with her friends, going to a spot where they could catch quick glimpses of the location of the person who disrupted the peaceful atmosphere of the ice garden, and Lucy managed to see that Emiria was standing on the plateau with Hiyasu by her side. Seeing the pair of sisters in Seigan Town again caused Lucy to tightly clench her fists, and she sternly narrowed her eyes at the situation. Emiria was attacking people in the wintery gardens without singling out anyone, not even focusing her attacks on Juvia.
Glancing over at Juvia for a moment had allowed Lucy to see that the blue-haired woman wore an azure blue coat with dark blue winter pants that matched her knee-high neon blue boots, and she managed to grab her admiral blue Russian-style hat. As Juvia put her hat back on and stepped on to the ground that was now covered in ice, her wet feet nearly caused her to lose her balance. She started sliding forward with no control, until Kūkiatsu quickly ran from his section of the ice garden to hold her upright by putting his arms around her waist while Wind Magic was still being applied to his feet.
Kūkiatsu ran towards the Sabertooth mages with Juvia, who had been alarmed to see that Kotomi Takeuchi was here, and Lucy merely turned her attention towards the sight of Risa running up to the group with Kusabue behind her. Those two females had arrived late to the situation, due to Kusabue and Risa both thinking that Emiria wouldn't hear their footsteps crack any ice on the streets if they took the longer route to the ice garden, and Risa immediately glared up at the cold antagonist in a very fierce manner. The sight of Risa only made Emiria coldly frown, as she looked at the trees to see strands of Lucy's green hair, and Hiyasu started to glare back at Risa for her older sister. To the sisters, the Sabertooth mages were being persistent pests by interfering with the town's nobles again.
That reminded Emiria about Kūkiatsu, prompting her to activate a spell called Ice Goddess' Chill, and Emiria unleashed a spiraling beam of light blue snowflakes from her right hand. They were accompanied by Hiyasu using a spell called Azure Whirlpool, and she let a small azure blue whirlpool form in between both of her hands. She pushed it in the path of Emiria's spell, the dense water giving more hardness to the beam of icy snowflakes, and Hiyasu confidently grinned as she believed that Kūkiatsu couldn't counter Emiria's attack. However, her eyes widened in amazement from seeing Lucy quickly activate the spell called Wind Altitude Aerial Burst. Lucy's hands were placed together to form the shape a fanged mouth, before it absorbed a large amount of the ice garden's cold winds, and Lucy swung her hands towards the now-dense spell at the trees that had been shielding the group! As Kūkiatsu helped Juvia slide back with everyone else, he watched the emerald green blast be large enough to where its power acted as a wide shield that knocked Emiria's attack off-course. Her attack created a light blue blast that was powerful, but it ended up decimating some flowerbeds that were several feet behind the group. Upon hearing some other people scream about the commotion, Kūkiatsu heard Lucy give direct orders to him and the rest of the protagonists.
"Kūkiatsu, take Juvia to the entrance of the botanical garden with you and guide every other unfrozen bystander out of here! Kusabue, absorb sound waves from the blasts and apply Sound Magic to your feet as a way of assisting Yukino with finding anyone else who may be too scared to run away! Sting, work with Rogue to provide some kind of distraction. As for Risa and I, just let us handle this situation." Lucy stated to her teammates in a commanding tone of voice, looking strict with her orders.
Juvia promptly spoke in a defiant tone, looking offended by the first command, "Juvia is not going anywhere with anyone who is a friend to you, and Juvia is not a weak woman who must be protected! Today, this is Juvia's fight and you should all just stay out of this matter!"
"Yeah, make sure those quotes are written on your gravestone that you'll receive as a consolation prize." Risa retorted in a snarky manner, before making the magenta aura of Psychic Magic engulf her entire body while her eyes also became magenta pink.
Sting commented with an arrogant smile on his face, cleverness entering his blue eyes, "In the meantime, allow me to distract our mutual enemies."
He unleashed White Dragon's Holy Breath at some stalagmites that were underneath the shrinking raincloud, and Sting did that by hastily gathering a large amount of light in his mouth before firing it all at the ice in the form of a large white beam. The white light from the resulting blast reflected off of the ice to make Emiria and Hiyasu both be blinded by a massive light blue glow of light, not minding the sounds of the ice cracking, and Rogue used the shadows to fire the Shadow Dragon's Roar attack down at a chunk of ice that had broken off. He fired the grey vortex from his mouth, before watching a black explosion of magic occur, and Rogue's red eyes were calm because of the fact that a black smokescreen would be behind the light to add another way of concealing the group's movements.
That quickly prompted Kūkiatsu to run towards a group of frightened bystanders who had just entered the ice garden, and his facial expression displayed urgency as he silently made a hand motion for them to follow him out of the dome-shaped building. As Kūkiatsu guided people to a safer area, Kusabue applied Sound Magic to her feet and quickly ran to the entrance of a clearing that had been far away from everyone else. They would probably be happy that Kusabue had the interesting and smart idea to start with seeing if any people were hiding in the deep areas of the ice garden's forests, and Yukino ran to follow her.
They were trying to efficiently carry out their roles for the group, which made Juvia look surprised at how some uninvited wizards were treating this situation as one where they still had to cohesively work as a group of mages from Sabertooth. Juvia glanced over at the other side of the bridge to see Samui and Aoiumi smiling confidently about the situation, before they sternly turned their attention to getting people thawed out from their icy pillars. Juvia watched Aoiumi gently touch the ice sculpture of a young girl, only to quickly get her hand away from noticing immediate signs of frostbite making her hand be covered in light blue frost before the thick frost instantly became glacial ice that coated Aoiumi's hand.
"Well, this is just disappointing. I thought we already froze all of the people in the ice garden as a way of having fun with raising the stakes of a battle." Emiria stated aloud to the remaining wizards in a somewhat annoyed manner while the light faded away, ignoring how Rogue went down into the shadows with Sting as a tactic for going towards the furthest frozen person in hopes of safely defrosting them first.
Hiyasu added with an irritated frown on her face, not expecting anyone to counter their fusion spells, "It looks like we'll have to actually put immense effort into winning this battle, sis. Let's show them how good our teamwork can be when there's ice and water around."
"Regardless of your teamwork, we'll be strong enough to take you down!" Risa fiercely stated to the two women, her eyes seeing that they leapt off of the plateau to walk towards their opponents.
Juvia stated aloud with a stubborn look on her face, before firing the Water Cyclone spell from her hands, "Juvia will take them both down at once! Juvia doesn't need to get help from you! Water Cyclone!"
She stretched out her hands while a circular torrent of blue water appeared in front of them, and Juvia fired the Water Cyclone at Emiria. The attack was quickly intercepted by Hiyasu, who countered it with a spell called Azure Aquatic Wave. An azure blue aura surrounded Hiyasu's body, before she moved her hands to make them for undulating waves in opposite directions. These hand motions made the water from a nearby river rise up to attack Juvia in the form of a medium-sized tidal wave, before a smaller wave rose up from the puddle that Juvia's water had created.
She gasped in shock from seeing the smaller wave attack the Water Cyclone, surprisingly tearing through it with a mild slam that involved frosty air coating the wave, and the Water Cyclone fell apart to form large puddles as an azure blue blast occurred. The blast's light prevented Juvia from having her attention on the larger wave, which slammed down on her while the frigid temperature hardened the water. Juvia screamed in pain from the power of Hiyasu's attack, getting caught in a larger azure blast of Water Magic, and Juvia was sent flying into the air.
The blue-eyed woman roughly landed on some icy ground, her body being bruised and slightly bleeding from that attack, but Juvia quickly stood back up. She looked resilient while activating the Water Jigsaw spell, and Juvia transformed the lower half of her body into a mass of swirling blades of blue water that could act as scythes to slice through enemies. She began to rapidly spin like a drill while heading towards Hiyasu, who activated a spell called Azure Akuruku. Hiyasu's hands began to change into azure blue claws of water, her nails looking dangerous from how they were sharp and long, and Hiyasu also gained claws of water around her feet. Running on some puddles rapidly increased her speed, evident by the aura around her feet growing brighter, and Hiyasu sliced through the water around Juvia with her sharp nails. Right before the spell was canceled, Juvia witnessed Hiyasu slamming her head down into the ground with a heel kick right before using her other foot to kick Juvia into the air again.
As Juvia used her Water Body spell in midair to hopefully become intangible, Hiyasu asked Emiria in a bored tone, "Sis, do you want to help me land the finishing blows? Why can't more of our opponents be very strong?"
Emiria responded with a smug facial expression, "Just keep letting the stubborn moron be more and more pathetic for a few minutes, Hiyasu, and I'll help you end this pitiful battle."
Juvia shouted with determination in her face, as she narrowed her eyes and went up near the ice garden's ceiling to fire another spell, "Juvia is not pitiful, you fiends! Juvia will not lose! Water Nebula!"
As Juvia aimed one hand down at the fast-moving river to create a large amount of water that took the form of two large twisters creating the appearance of a double helix, Hiyasu aimed her left hand up at the sky blue ceiling. She activated a spell called Azure Rain's Waterfall, and Hiyasu managed to create an azure blue raincloud that was quite large. Instead of sending down rain, the cloud interestingly had a plentiful amount of azure blue bubbles rising up from all of the water puddles to fly up into the raincloud. The bubbles lightly popped to release their Water Magic into the raincloud, strengthening it, and Hiyasu let the cloud charge up its power.
She easily dodged Juvia's spell, letting the water cover a large amount of the ground before Hiyasu touched it with her hand that was previously raised. That water went into the cloud, too, and Hiyasu arrogantly smirked at Juvia. That made the Fairy Tail mage become angry enough to use Sierra, which was a spell that Juvia used in conjunction with her Water Body to increase her level of speed. She became much faster while white clouds of steam surrounded her body, which implied that her water's temperature was getting much hotter, and Juvia rushed down towards Hiyasu in attempt to scald her.
However, Emiria jumped up into the air and frowned at Juvia with a cold facial expression. She made her hands form circles that were held in front of her lips that blew out air, almost like a makeshift sniping gun that would ironically be used at close-range, and Emiria used a spell called Ice Goddess' Homing Glace. She smirked deviously while strangely making the spell only graze Juvia's scalding hot body, hitting it with frost that was cold enough to not melt very quickly, and Emiria mainly aimed her attack up at her sister's cloud. She unleashed a light blue tower of hexagonal ice shards up at the cloud, causing the azure blue cloud to become coated with light blue frost as it gained much more power, and Emiria overfed the cloud to where it forcibly sent down a large and dense waterfall of Water Magic towards the ice garden. Emiria slyly activated Ice Goddess' Swift Snowflake, and she made two small snowflakes appear on the soles of her feet. They instantly gained the consistency of light snow that was powdery, resulting in a light blue aura surrounding Emiria's feet, and she rapidly rode the incoming air current down to Hiyasu before the attack descended down far enough.
"Is that waterfall going to hit us, too?" Lucy asked Hiyasu in an enraged tone, thinking that these girls were trying to annihilate multiple factions of people at once.
Emiria spoke for her sister in an uncaring manner, stretching out her arms with her palms up as if she couldn't give an answer while she looked relaxed, "Before we had both the Ice Stone and the Azure Stone, we only used this fusion once. Its level of power now will probably be enough to submerge that loser into a state of defeat, but I shouldn't be that cold in anticipating the result."
Lucy shouted up in an alarmed manner, her eyes displaying concern, "JUVIA!"
However, Lucy's shout came too late. The waterfall slammed down entirely on Juvia, creating an azure blue blast that was quite massive, and a light blue blast quickly followed it. Juvia was engulfed in the pressure of the tremendous energy, screaming in immense pain, and some tears could be seen coming from her eyes as she felt herself being struck by extremely cold water that also gave her frost burns. The ice of the spell was designed to be homing in on Juvia, mixed in with the waterfall's water to make it partially be like a waterfall of frosty and dry ice. The coldness of the spell overpowered Juvia's Sierra attack while the burns pushed her out of her Water Body, and Emiria had grazed Juvia with frost as a way of making the situation worse for her. That frost had been making itself spread throughout Juvia's watery body, effectively preventing her from being intangible in any way, and Juvia couldn't move a muscle while her pained body began to experience powerful waves of pressure from thick ice forming on her torso's lower half as a way of deep-freezing.
Juvia's body fell down from the sky, and she would die from breaking apart if that ice shattered. Risa wasted no time with activating Stellar Psi, and aiming her right hand at Juvia's frosty statue allowed Risa to make the wounded woman gently float down on to some dark blue grass that had been covered by a large patch of snow. Juvia watched the azure and light blue clouds of smoke come down upon the ice garden, which prompted her to believe that activating Sierra again would help her melt this ice without anyone noticing, but Juvia could only manage to sit down on her frozen knees. She could hardly move, in contrast to Hiyasu moving towards her on the water puddles at high speeds while Emiria also moved quite fast.
Emiria sent some of her Ice Goddess Slayer Magic into Hiyasu's claws, making their aura become black for a moment before it became light blue. Hiyasu's claws had much more power, the ice allowing her cold water to have the ability of freezing targets, and Juvia weakly looked up at the two women as she was bloodied and bruised from this fight. As she coughed up blood, Juvia's eyes were filled with tears as she could feel the ice around her body ascending higher to freeze more of her. Hiyasu decided to hopefully accelerate the freezing process by punching Juvia directly in the face, and she stretched out her fist towards the battered woman. The cold winds from an impact would accelerate the freezing of Juvia's body, but the last image that she got to see was Kotomi Takeuchi protectively being in front of her with an emerald green aura immensely surrounding her body. Lucy had remembered Suzuna's lesson on fighting defensively, causing her to take Hiyasu's attack to the forehead in place of Juvia, and using Kaze's Feather Dance whilst being ignored by her enemies allowed Lucy to also make Wind Magic surround herself to reduce any impacts before she'd move at rapid speeds to confound anyone.
Juvia used the last few seconds of her life before being completely frozen to tell Lucy in a fearful manner, tears of water going down her face in streams, "Kotomi, please... help... Juvia.."
Lucy replied in a calm tone, turning back around for a moment to see Juvia's tearful ice sculpture, "Don't worry, Juvia. I'll avenge you, and your loss won't be in vain."
"Well, those are some determined words. I'll admit that Juvia lasted longer than expected, so she can probably be useful for breaking one of the seals later on." Emiria responded to Lucy with a smug smile on her face, subtly implying that Juvia would be a more useful participant for later on in the event.
Lucy angrily replied with strong emotions in her voice, looking disgusted with Emiria, "You treat people and magic like mere tools, but we don't have to do anything for you if this event involves you fighting unfairly! Juvia would've been at a disadvantage in a 2-on-1 battle, anyway, but you added so much extra pressure by freezing all of these innocent people!"
"Yeah, about that issue. If I were you, I'd do something before their hearts freeze instead of trying to get a rematch and make yourself be beaten down again." Emiria calmly argued back in an arrogant tone, snickering right after she smirked.
Risa confidently spoke for Lucy while walking towards her, before stopping to lock eyes with Hiyasu, "Lucy will definitely fight you and be able to free everyone, but don't view this as a rematch. In case you forgot all of the invitees on your roster, I still haven't fought yet. Also, you created a situation of unfinished business when you left the icy field and my match against Hiyasu never even began."
Hiyasu couldn't offer any kind of rebuttal to that statement, as there was nothing in the rules about invitees being able to challenge a hostess if they hadn't fought yet. Risa began to loudly tap her right foot against the ground in a somewhat impatient manner, not wanting to be kept waiting for her turn to fight, and the psychic mage was hoping that this fight would result in a victory for the mages who were representing Sabertooth. From Risa's viewpoint, she wouldn't mind making Hiyasu and Emiria go through an extra match after they had beaten Flare and Juvia today.
From Lucy's perspective, this moment was also one that she had been waiting for. This fight would serve as her rematch against Emiria, prompting Lucy to tightly clench her fists, and she chose to glare at the dark mage who seemed to just value people as tools. Lucy would gladly take down Emiria, and she started to think about how a strategy would definitely need to be utilized. This wasn't like the previous situation where Lucy had gotten to see Emiria's skills for the first time, and she chose to make a pale green aura slightly emerge from the emerald green aura to surround her body.
Lucy decided to start off with her second spell of Plant Magic, which was Forest's Verdant Energy Ball, and she shot out a pale green sphere from her mouth. Lucy aimed the attack at Emiria who quickly countered it with the Frost Orb to create a light blue blast that was strong enough to make Lucy's spell burst into pale green powder, and Lucy's eyes immediately shifted to the sight of Hiyasu reapplying Azure Akuruku to her iced claw as a way of resetting that ability to its original state for a new fight. Even though this was the newest battle in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, the raining and icy environment of the ice garden was the current battlefield.
Risa asked in a startled manner, her eyes widening in absolute shock as Lucy began running towards the furthest clearing in the ice garden, "What are you doing? Aren't we going to fight? What's the idea in running away from our opponents?"
Lucy thought to herself while looking extremely angry, her eyes displaying the feeling of urgency, "We've got to avoid being careless at all costs!"
The two girls carefully ran past some icy spikes where people were trapped, and Lucy frustratingly glanced at each stalagmite. That ice would probably decrease in temperature over time, due to the rain making the ice garden feel colder than it had initially been, and Lucy was also worried about the possibility of cold water creating thicker layers of ice that would keep the hostages trapped. If they didn't get released in a quick amount of time, then they would likely die from the sheer coldness that would spread inward from the spikes to internally freeze their bodies.
Risa thought about creating magenta flames in her hands, but she groaned at the thought of how fire may not be able to melt ice in rainy weather, and she realized that any fiery kind of magic would need to be large like a raging inferno for it to last in the cold rain. As the rain began to stop, Risa and Lucy noticed that Sting and Rogue had been standing near an icy stalagmite that was near the upcoming clearing. Sting had been trying to break through it with Holy Nova being used multiple times, only to experience the light brightening the stalagmite to where it would immensely glisten, and eating several shadows only allowed Rogue to make some small cracks in the ice by using Shadow Dragon's Raven Arrows.
The small cracks in the ice were symbolic to what Lucy needed to find in this fight against Emiria and Hiyasu, needing to find a crack in their spells or teamwork for Lucy and Risa to have a chance at winning. However, their chances of winning seemed somewhat slim at the moment. Lucy started to look more serious and less angry while running straight past some blue bushes that were at the clearing's entrance while Risa was right behind her, The two girls ran into this clearing where the dark blue grass changed to being light blue and snow-covered, but this snowy section of the ice garden thankfully contained large snow-covered trees with blue leaves that would somewhat shield the girls from any rain that was directed to fall here.
Five minutes later, in the snowy portion of the garden...
The sound of the rain finally ceasing had reminded Lucy of Juvia not being able to use her Water Magic, and seeing that Juvia couldn't even defend herself with scalding hot water against Emiria's frost and ice really provided Lucy with the knowledge related to thinking like an observant researcher. She and Risa were probably not matching up well against two women who could freely manipulate the ice and water in this place to their advantage, unless they could move fast enough to avoid their attacks. If either one of them became frozen by the Ice Goddess Slayer Magic or Water Magic, then the team's chances of winning with a decent strategy would be nonexistent.
Lucy began to contemplate about what could possibly be the best plan for winning this battle, putting her hands together as she maintained a frown expressing feelings of anxiety while thinking. She felt like the only logical decision in this fight would be to make the enemies be defeated in a quick manner, whether that occurred before or after saving all of the people who were frozen in ice, and Lucy would have to move as fast as possible. She sat down on the ground's soft snow with Risa, who sat across from her with a fierce facial expression, and Risa used her psychic abilities to just foresee a few minutes into the future.
Risa began to witness the sight of Lucy's attack failing to hit Emiria, but it had enough power to break a frosty stalagmite with some explosions. Risa widened her eyes in amazement from seeing this scenario occur at three different points during only a small amount of minutes, but she decided to wait for Lucy to explain how those pieces would all fit together. She glanced down at the snow for nearly a minute, before looking up to see that her friend's angry expression was followed by Lucy exhaling a deep breath of air. Lucy closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them to have a more confident look on her face.
She seemed to have an idea in mind that could be worth testing, but Lucy began to look bold at how she hadn't thought out the entire plan. Risa started to seem confused, wondering if Lucy was attempting to strategize without getting overconfident in herself. Lucy simply stood up with one hand on her hip, looking confident as the wind blew past the snowy clearing, and Risa felt like she also needed to stand on the snowy grass. Whether plants or wind would be utilized to help Risa win this battle, Lucy's recent methods of countering spells and using blasts as distractions for running away were displaying that she was becoming a skilled tactician.
"Listen, Risa. In this fight, I'll need you to use more than 100 percent of your strength. Those dark mages have obviously been training hard to achieve that level of skill, and we can't fight them with any impulsive attacks. Without getting too emotional, try to follow my directions as precisely as possible." Lucy explained to her teammate in a confident tone, sounding a bit stern as she had formulated the basic aspects of her idea.
Risa replied with a determined look in her eyes, ready to follow a plan for winning this fight, "All right, Lucy. Tell me how my mystical psychic flames can hopefully have a role in this battle."
Lucy told the girl with magenta pink hair in a calm manner, "They'll have to be very fast with their speed, which is an important key for what we'll do before winning."
Risa nodded in approval to that request, smiling with assurance that she could launch spells in a rapid manner. That would probably also apply to Lucy, based on how she had gotten high amounts of practice with using Kaze's Feather Dance in battles that were in Seigan Town. The fact that so much ice had been around really made Lucy desire to use the low amount of traction to her advantage, and sliding around quite fast while using that beneficial momentum was a thought that made Lucy proudly smile. The confidence that Sting gave her earlier in the day was now manifesting itself in the form of a strategy. The two girls proceeded to walk back out of the snowy clearing, Risa feeling that she could work well with Lucy like a better pair of sisters than Hiyasu and Emiria in this battle, and Lucy would gladly challenge Emiria to a little game of confounding foes with speed during their rematch.
How was Chapter 50? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. After a long duration of real-life issues getting in the way, I'm back to finally write this chapter. Thanks to Sting, Lucy now feels fully prepared to take on Emiria again in a rematch. Additionally, Risa and Hiyasu will finally fight each other. As for the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour itself, Kūkiatsu and Kusabue aren't stopping with their parts of being involved in Seigan Town's wintery customers. Also, it wouldn't be a wintery arc without eventually giving Yukino something to do. Now, the invited mages. Some of them will be kept around for the importance of the arc's ending phase. Anyway, I'm just as excited as some of you to see what Lucy's strategy will be for helping herself and Risa have their skills be on par with Emiria and Hiyasu. By the way, this is the seventh part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
REVIEWS!
FireBlitz: Thanks!
OrangeDetermination: Thank you!
YellowThunder5: Here you go!
GreenGrass4: Thank you!
BlueWater234: Thank you so much!
PurpleReis155: Thank you very much!
Matt: Thanks!
jennie: Thank you!
Kiri-chan: Here it is!
Sena: Thank you very much!