Chapter 198
End of Day One
I was walking down the halls inside, looking for a place to watch the next few matches in the upper levels. At first, I couldn't see any place to watch, but then I came across an opening leading to seats close to the stairs, which showed a good view of the arena.
"Perfect! Now I can watch the matches from here! Usually, I would have just flown back to the others, but considering the hostility of most of the audience, I didn't want to take any chances. Plus, this is a good opportunity to see what my competition is like."
I went over to the opening hiding in the shadows of the side, making sure no one saw me. As I looked at the arena, I could see that Fuzen and Bora were already standing in the middle of it. However, I focused mainly on Fuzen while remembering my last encounter with him.
"Hopefully, by watching this match, I can get an idea of what kind of magic he used on me before and what his fighting style is, and I can't let my guard down because he'll probably play dirty as Flare did. Either way, I'll be observing this match very closely."
"All right, folks! For the second match, here are our fighters!" Chapati spoke out. "In the dazzling purple cloak with blue hair from Gramlush, Bora the Prominence, and wearing the clown mask representing Raven Tail, the mysterious Fuzen!"
Bora then elegantly flipped his cape and flashed a flirty smile toward the audience as they cheered, while Fuzen remained silent, not even saying a word.
"Who will come out on top and join Willy in the semi-finals?!" Chapati said. "You won't have to wait long to find out because the next match will start now!"
NO POV
The gong let out another mighty crash, and Bora was quick to go on the attack.
"PROMINENCE WHIP!"
While waving his arm in an arc, he summoned a magic circle that released multiple beams of purple fire. Fuzen quickly started dashing to avoid them, using swift and controlled movements. The blasts pursued Fuzen while he dodged until they surrounded him from all sides. He jumped high into the air when they were close enough as the beams collided, exploding like fireworks.
Bora then snapped his fingers, making a spiraling tendril of flames erupt from the bottom of his feet, carrying him high into the air as he stood on the tip.
"Now, RED SHOWER!"
While summoning another magic circle, Bora unleashed multiple bullets of purple flames. But despite this, while shooting toward him, Fuzen dodged them all, jumped into the air, and before Bora could defend, swung his leg and landed a swift kick nailing him square in the gut and knocking him off of his tendril of fire.
As Bora plummeted and eventually hit the ground, Fuzen let out a throaty chuckle as he landed safely.
"Well, well. You're quite a capable wizard," said Fuzen. "But I'm afraid that you won't be enough to beat me. But, then again, I shouldn't expect much from a second-rate fire wizard."
"S-Second-rate?!" Bora repeated crossly. "How dare you call me such a thing?! PROMINENCE TYPHOON!"
With a mighty yell, he spread his arms wide while summoning another magic circle and unleashing a powerful and spiraling column of fire at his enemy. The blast seemed to connect, creating a powerful explosion.
Bora smirked, pleased with himself, but his mood would soon change as a voice came next to his ear.
"Exactly as I said. Second-Rate. And it's not just me who thinks that either."
Bora jumped from startlement, surprised to see Fuzen as he turned around.
"Everyone in this arena believes you're pathetic," Fuzen continued. "After all, you got kicked out of a previous guild for certain "bad behaviors." Titan Nose, correct?"
Bora's face went a bit pale. "Th-That may be true, but I've gotten clean since then!" he stammered, trying to be confident. "St-Stop talking trash and fight!"
The fire mage summoned another magic circle, gathering power into it, and fired a destructive laser beam that tore through the arena's floor, creating a chain of several explosions.
As smoke billowed everywhere, Bora couldn't see if he had hit his target, but he did hear Fuzen's voice.
"So, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that since you got clean, you signed up for this tournament to thank the guild that took you in or something. How sad. A fruitless effort. It doesn't matter how clean you say you are; you're still a worthless mage."
Bora grew angrier and self-conscious as he fired his laser beam repeatedly, kicking up more smoke. "Shut up! Show yourself, you coward!"
"Me? A coward? Have you looked into a mirror lately?" Fuzen's voice said. "After all, you stole and belittled people and even went as far as to sell women to slavery. It makes me wonder if you love being hypocritical."
Bora's confidence slowly crumbled, his eyes filling with fear as he whipped his head around trying to find Fuzen. And as he did, a subtle black glow enveloped his body.
"Listen, do yourself a favor and stop this whole charade. You're not fooling anyone," Fuzen went on. "We all know that there's no point anymore, and there's only one thing you can do to make it stop and make all of us happy."
At that moment, Bora sank to his hands and knees as the smoke cleared, revealing Fuzen standing a few feet away, motionlessly. While Bora appeared to be on the brink of breaking down, Fuzen calmly walked up to him until he was only a few steps in front of him.
Then, while looking up at Fuzen, Bora uttered two words in a trembling and meek voice.
"I-I-I surrender."
No sooner than he said that, Matto made the call. "This match is over!" he shouted. "Bora has surrendered!"
"And just like that, the next match is over!" Chapati called out. "The winner of this match and semifinalist number two is Fuzen from Raven Tail!"
WILLY'S POV
As the crowd cheered, I could hardly believe what I had seen.
"I don't believe it. That Fuzen guy hardly used any attacks, yet he forced Bora to surrender just by saying stuff about him. He wasn't even trying, from the looks of it."
I closed my eyes using my Aqua Sense, focusing on Bora, and I could see that he still had magic power within his body.
"And it doesn't look like he had outside help either. But did he make him do that by intimidation alone, or did he do something to Bora during the fight? I can't make sense out of this."
Fuzen then walked away while Bora remained on his fours, frozen with horror and wounded pride. It was then that Fuzen's head turned towards my direction, and despite wearing a mask, I could feel that he was looking straight at me as he left the arena.
"Well, it looks like I know who my next opponent will be."
"That was certainly an unexpected end to that last match! However, we still have two more to go through that will hopefully be just as such!" Chapati announced. "It's Yuka Suzuki versus Chrisack!"
Both Yuka and Chrisack then made their way to the center of the arena next. I already knew who Yuka was, given I saw him before in the prelims, but Chrisack was someone new.
He was a tall young man who had the same green ponytail as I saw in the image before. He wore a dark blue blazer with trousers tucked into black boots, having a green symbol of a knight's helmet with a visor inside an incomplete circle of chains which I assumed was his guild symbol.
Before long, the battle started, and Chrisack was the first to throw the first attack by summoning a powerful gust of wind from a point from his fingers.
Yuka stood there while raising a hand, erecting a sphere-like barrier that canceled out the wind upon impact, receiving no damage. Then, he quickly countered by firing a chain of blasts while holding out his hands, forcing Chrisack to avoid them.
"He was able to dispel that last attack? And can even use it to attack as well? That's a type of magic I've never seen before."
"Whoa! This battle is already getting exciting!" Chapati cried out. "Chrisack is trying desperately to blow Yuka away with his wind magic, but Yuka's got him on the defensive! Just what you can expect from one of Lamia Scale's elite!"
"If memory serves, Yuka is a master of Wave Magic," said Yajima. "It allows him to nullify magic almost entirely, and it's not only perfect for defense but also an offense."
Chrisack grew annoyed as he continued to blast Yuka with more wind magic, but while running towards him, Yuka extended his arms behind him and released powerful blasts from both of his hands. This action increased his momentum, shooting straight at his opponent at a blinding speed. When he was close enough to breach his defenses, my eyes narrowed.
"He's done for."
Yuka slammed his hand into Chrisack's abdomen and released a powerful blast of his Wave magic, encasing him in a bubble. Then, with a wave of his hand, Yuka unleashed an incredible amount of force from his palm, sending it along with Chirsack, flying across the arena and into the wall with a powerful explosion. Rubble and dust flew everywhere.
After a brief moment of silence passed while the dust cleared, Chrisack lay propped against the arena wall, his eyes rolled back, and his jaw slacked open, utterly unconscious.
The bell then sounded.
"And it's another knockout, folks! Chrisack is down!" Chapati yelled in excitement. "The winner of this match is Yuka Suzuki of Lamia Scale, our third semifinalist!"
The crowd once again exploded into cheers as Yuka gave a wave to them.
"Pretty impressive. Yuka used his magic to encase his opponent, preventing him from using his magic, and then used the power to send him flying and finish him off. Sherry wasn't kidding when she said that Lamia Scale's grown stronger over the seven-year gap. He could be a strong opponent if I end up having to face him in the finals."
"Now we come to the final match of the Crocus Fighter's Tournament!" Chapati said. "Whoever wins will join our other three winners for the semi-finals! So for the final match, ladies and gentlemen, we give you Baccus Groh from Quartro Cerebus and Li-Chung from the Silver Wolves!"
The two men in question made their way to the arena.
Bacchus had the same hairstyle as his mugshot but was more muscular than I thought, with blue armor covering his arms and shoulders while wearing baggy brown pants and black slipper shoes. Not only that, but he was also carrying with him a small gourd in his hand.
Li-Chung was the same, his hair mostly shaved with a long braid of hair in the back. He also wore a white tunic with green trims and black baggy pants with shoes. But what stuck out the most was that he had a giant frying pan tied to his back.
"So, he uses a frying pan as a weapon? Interesting choice. But I do wonder how he'll fight with that thing."
Then, the sound of the gong came for the fourth time, and Li-Chung took a stance, ready to start the fight. Bacchus, on the other hand, didn't seem as such. He not only had a bored expression on his face, but he also appeared to be in pain, holding his head a little. From the looks of things, he seemed to be having a headache.
"What's that about? Is that guy sick or something?"
Li-Chung appeared to be puzzled too, but that didn't stop him from attacking as he dashed forward wielding his pan and gave it a mighty swing, only for Bacchus to bend backward and avoid the blow. The fry pan-wielding male continued to attack while Bacchus dodged and weaved while keeping that same bored expression on his face, while his weapon repeatedly slammed into the ground, kicking up rubble.
Seeing the large pieces of rock, Li-Chung using his strength and flexibility, gathered some of them into his frying pan and then, using one hand, hurled them straight into the air. Then, as Bacchus glanced upwards toward the rocks, Li-Chung swooped in and made for the hit, swinging his frying with all of his might.
But then, the unthinkable happened. As Bacchus stood there, he took up and stance and, with a mighty thrust, slapped his hand right into the frying pan, the force snapping the round part of the pan clean off its handle. In addition, as the rubble fell toward him, he dodged and weaved them all without letting a single one hit him.
Li-Chung recoiled in surprise, staring at his broken weapon in shock. However, he didn't have time to grieve about it, for Bacchus then gave him a powerful palm strike right smack in the chest, the force being so powerful that Li-Chung flew across the arena and crumpled to the floor in a heap, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and foam spewing out of his mouth.
"Whoa, nelly! Yet we have another TKO!" shouted out Chapati. "I may not be a chef or frying pan, but it's clear to see that Li-Chung got cooked!"
"Despite your poor taste in puns, Chapati, I have to agree," said Jenny. "Bacchus didn't even look like he was even trying in that fight, yet he defeated Li-Chung without taking a single hit."
"It would appear that we've got another strong contender in this tournament," commented Yajima.
"More like we just weeded out the weak competitors," I thought.
"And with that, folks, that brings Day One of the Grand Magic Games and the Crocus Fighter's Tournament to a close!" Chapati went on. "It's been an exciting day thus far, and we have a whole slew of talented wizards! As expected, Sabertooth is in first, while the two Fairy Tail teams are dead last. In addition, we have our semi-final matches for Day 2!"
The lacrima display then showed mugshots of me, Fuzen, Yuka, and Bacchus again,
"In the first match, Willy will square off against Fuzen while Yuka will face Bacchus! After that, the winner of those two matches will face each other for the honor of fighting the current champion, Orga! So make sure you don't miss it!"
With the matches being over, I decided to take this chance to leave and meet up with the others.
"They're probably wondering where I'm at. Plus, I better check back in with Sieri and Lapis. Considering that I have a target on my back, I don't want anything going wrong today."
I then started off jogging down the halls towards the upper levels.
But as I rounded a corner while not watching where I was going, someone happened to walk out of the corner and bumped straight into me, causing both of us to stumble a bit. Luckily, neither one of us fell.
The person wore a long black hooded cloak with white edges that covered most of their body, including half of her face but excluded her feet, of which she wore sandals. They also looked to be pretty slim and petite.
"Oh, crap! Sorry about that," I apologized. "Are you okay?"
"D-Don't worry about it," the cloaked person spoke in a female voice. "I should have watched where I was-"
It was then that the person appeared to look towards me, while I had a strong sense of deja vu upon hearing her voice. Something about it made it seem like I knew it from somewhere.
"Say, have we met somewhere before?" I asked. "You sound a bit familiar."
The cloaked female went silent as she seemed to stare at me. It was then that I noticed that the hooded girl began to tremble while her mouth hung open. From the looks of things, she appeared to be on the brink of crying.
"Um, miss? Is something wrong?" I asked. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
The girl appeared to recollect herself and shook her head. "No. Don't worry. I'm fine," she reassured. "And no. I don't believe we've met. I'm just one of those people that has deja vu vibes. So tell me, where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Oh, I was just going to meet up with my friends," I told her. "I've been away from them for quite a bit, and I don't want them to worry."
The mysterious girl smiled. "Yeah. That's understandable," she said. "Then, you'd better get going. Sorry for bumping into you."
"Don't worry about it. It was an accident," I smiled back. "Well, I'll see you around, miss."
And with a slight wave, I started to walk away, but then I heard the girl speak to me again.
"Make sure you take good care of them, Willy. They're your precious family and friends and deserve to be treasured."
I immediately stopped freezing for a few seconds before looking behind me only to find that the girl had disappeared. I couldn't help but feel a bit spooked as I looked around.
"Who was that girl?" I murmured to myself. "And how did she know my name?"
The first day of the Grand Magic Games and the Crocus Fighter's Tournament has ended!
However, a mysterious stranger appears to Willy before disappearing!
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!
Dragomaster, signing off!