Chapter 119: Let the Grand Magic Games Begin!
Dante could hear the loud cheering for the pre-game celebrations happening as he stood in the team locker room along with the rest of Fairy Tail. Looking in the mirror, Dante admired his new look with the team uniform Markov gave them. His uniform consisted of a purple jacket he was wearing open with a purple undershirt and pants. As Dante was admiring his new look, he heard Natsu start to speak.
"Purple is so lame. I'd rather wear my regular clothes than this crap" stated Natsu in an annoyed tone. Turning his head towards Natsu with a smile, Dante started to speak.
"Come on Natsu, purple isn't that bad" responded Dante in a cheerful tone. Hearing the loud celebrations, Dante could not wait to show everyone what Fairy Tail was made of. His friends that were left behind suffered ridicule for seven long years. Dante intended to wipe away all that ridicule in these next five days.
"Yah you are just going to have to deal with it. Unless you want to tell master Markov why you don't like the clothes he picked out" responded Lucy in an annoyed tone as she lectured Natsu. Erza and Gray both stated their like for their uniforms. Looking at how cute and sexy Erza and Lucy looked in their uniforms, Dante definitely had to agree that master Markov had good taste. After Erza and Gray spoke, Lucy continued to speak.
"Although I feel bad for being here. It should be Wendy standing with all of you" stated Lucy in a sad tone. A moment of silence followed as everyone thought of Wendy before Dante started to speak.
"It doesn't do us any good thinking about that right now. You are on the team Lucy so just focus on doing your best" stated Dante with a smile. Lucy smiled back at her master as she nodded her head. Dante just hoped that Lucy wouldn't have to actually fight since her combat power is by far the weakest out of the team. Soon after saying this, Dante and the rest of the team made their way towards the tunnel they were going to walk out of.
"The person who attacked Wendy, do you think they are taking part in the games as well" asked Natsu as the team stood in a tunnel, ready to enter the arena. The cheering of the crowd could be heard as Lucy responded to Natsu.
"I'd say there is a big possibility" responded Lucy in a serious tone, her nerves getting to her as they were about to make their debut in the grand magic games.
"You got to wonder if it was to weaken our team or for some other reason" responded Gray in his typical measured tone.
"It doesn't matter what the reason was, the fact remains one of our own was attacked. If we find out who attacked Wendy, they will be sorry" responded Dante feeling anger well up inside him as he thought about whoever attacked Wendy.
"Yes, but it's like you said master. Right now, we should focus on doing our best" responded Erza in her typical serious tone. Nodding his head, Dante smiled at his team ready to take the games by storm. They all stood inside the tunnel, waiting for their signal to walk into the arena.
"Alright guys let's give them hell" stated Dante in a determined tone as he started to walk forward with the rest of the team. As they walked into the arena the announcer's voice echoed through the speaker system.
"Now the time has come to meet our competitors! First up in eighth place an old school bunch of wild wizards from Magnolia! They had luck in the preliminary and now are looking to take first place by force! It's Fairy Tail" shouted the announcer over the speaker system.
Dante smiled confidently as he walked into the arena with the rest of his team. Natsu held his fist high in the air, as if he was challenging anyone that dared to think they could stop them from taking first place. Almost immediately as they walked into the arena, the crowd started to boo loudly. Hearing the loud boos directed towards him and his team, Dante smiled thinking that proving all these people wrong as an excellent motivator.
"Let them boo guys, we are about to show them how wrong they are about Fairy Tail" stated Dante to his team as they stood in the arena. Through the loud boos, Dante and the rest of the team could hear Markov and the rest of Fairy Tail cheer for them. Smiling in their direction, Dante continued to speak.
"Remember we are doing this for everyone in Fairy Tail. With everyone from the guild behind us and cheering we cannot lose" stated Dante with a smile. The rest of team Fairy Tail nodded their heads with determined smiles at these words. Surprisingly to everyone in team Fairy Tail and the rest of the guild, Marvas was sitting next to the rest of the guild and cheering. Seeing this, Natsu started to laugh before he spoke.
"Even master Marvas came out to cheer for us?! We got this in the bag" stated Natsu with a wide smile. Looking towards his friends in the stands, Dante thought it was strange that Mira was still nowhere to be seen. Where in the hell could she be? It wasn't like her to not cheer on her friends.
The announcer then announced the team that came in seventh place, Quatro Cerberus. Looking at the team walk into the arena; Dante thought it was weird the guilds strongest member was not among them. Was Quatro Cerberus really that confident that they didn't need Bacchus leading them to win? Dante was brought out of these thoughts when the announcer continued with the sixth place team.
"In sixth place is a guild filled to the brim with the fairer sex, Mermaid Heel" shouted the announcer as the crowd cheered. Looking at the new guild walking into the arena, Dante couldn't help but smile perversely. An entire team filled with beautiful and sexy woman made him think of certain ways he could defeat that team. Looking at her master's wide perverse smile, Erza started to speak.
"Don't' let their looks distract you master; we have to do our best" stated Erza in a flirty tone. Smiling back at Erza, Dante nodded his head as the announcer continued with the team in fifth place.
The team in fifth place was blue Pegasus. Walking out into the arena was the Trimens including their teacher Ichiya. Strangely a man in a bunny costume was also standing among them. Dante was confused about who this mystery person was, he didn't sense any sort of powerful magical energy from him. Regardless of this, Dante knew this team would be hard to beat because of Ichiya. Ichiya might be weird in creepy, but he was still a powerful S-class wizard.
The announcer then continued with the team in fourth place, Lamia Scale. As the announcer said this, the team walked into the arena. Looking at the team, Dante saw Lyon and his friends were part of the team along with a woman who looked like Sherry and around Wendy's age. The most troubling person however was Jura.
"Damn things are going to be tough with Jura on the team" stated Dante with a smile. Despite the challenge presented to him, Dante hoped that he would get the chance to fight Jura so they could see who was the strongest Wizard Saint. As Dante was thinking this, he noticed the mystery woman trip while she was walking. Chuckling to himself, Dante remembered the first time he meet Wendy who also tripped.
"This is Sherria, one of Sherry's cousins" stated Yuka as Sherry smiled at team Fairy Tail while lingering on Dante. Looking at the grown and mature woman who appeared to be Wendy's age, Dante wondered if she knew about his relationship with Sherry. Deciding to think about that later, Dante focused as the announcer continued with the team in third place.
"Now to introduce our third place contestants! What a shocker! Swopping in from a midnight dreary, this dark and gloomy bunch are making their debut in this years games! Give it up for Raven Tail" shouted the announcer as Dante and the rest of Fairy Tail stared with shock and anger.
"What the heck are they doing here" asked Natsu in shock. Looking at the team as they walked into the arena, Dante didn't think this was good. He knew the history with Raven Tail, how it was formed by Markov's son. Apparently, the goal of Raven Tail was to wipe out Fairy Tail.
"This is bad. Their leader is master Markov's son Ivan" stated Erza in a serious tone.
"I'm willing to bet it was one of them that attacked Wendy" responded Dante with anger in his voice. Looking at the team and guild that were dedicated to eliminating his guild Dante could not help the anger swelling up inside him. Even the sexy looking redhead on their team could not distract Dante from his growing anger.
The crowd then started to voice their confusion and disgust towards Raven Tail. Many crowd members, including Markov were demanding to know why a dark guild was allowed to participate. Dante had to agree, letting Raven Tail join the games was a mistake. According to the announcer, Raven Tail only recently revived official status which made them not a dark guild. Thinking this was a load of bull crap, Dante's attention was turned towards the large, masked member of Raven Tail as he started to speak.
"Fairy Tail, I trust your friends is recovering" asked the masked man in a mocking and menacing voice making it clear he was the one who was responsible.
"You were the ones you attacked Wendy?! I'm going to make you regret it" responded Natsu with an ice cold stare. The rest of the team looked towards Raven Tail, determined to make every single one of them pay for what they did to Wendy. Shortly after this the announcer continued with the guild in second place. Knowing that Saber Tooth was likely in first place, Dante wondered what guild was left to take second place.
"Our first place runner up is, oh wow! What a surprise! This year's competition just got a whole lot more interesting folks! It's Fairy Tail team b" shouted the announcer in an excited tone. Dante along with the rest of his team was stunned as they watched their friends step inside the arena. Looking at the team, Dante received his answer about where Mira was.
"Mira" asked Dante in shock as others from his team said similar statements.
Looking at the team before him for a moment, Dante figured that the two Fairy Tail teams were almost evenly matched. With Laxus and Mira on the team, they could match himself and Erza. Juvia was an excellent fighter and Gajeel made sure that Dante's team didn't have the dragon slayer advantage. Seeing what appeared to be Mystogan, Dante was confused for a moment. After a moment spent thinking about it, Dante figured that there was no possible way it could actually be Mystogan. If it wasn't Mystogan then it had to be Jellal.
As Fairy Tail team b stepped into the arena serval boos from the crowd could be heard. Serval members of the crowd were asking how it was fair that Fairy Tail had two different teams. Hearing these complaints Dante could not blame them. He certainly hadn't heard anything about two teams entering the grand magic games. While the crowd continued to complain about the two Fairy Tail teams, the announcer started to explain.
The announcer explained that each guild was allowed to enter two teams in the preliminary round. Most guilds had chosen to stack all their strongest members into one team. It seemed Fairy Tail was the only major guild with the idea to push two teams through to the grand magic games. Smiling to himself, Dante thought that the games just got a lot more interesting. Still looking at the Fairy Tail team b, Dante got a little nervous about the possibility of fighting Mira.
"This is a big load of crap" shouted Natsu in an angry tone. As everyone turned their attention towards Natsu, he continued to speak.
"Being in the same guild don't mean jack! If I fight against any of you, I'm not pulling any punches! As long as we are in this tournament, we are enemies and I'm not going to lose to any of you" yelled Natsu while he looked towards Fairy Tail team b.
As Gajeel and Natsu started to argue and challenge each other, Dante smiled as he watched them. The crowd was complaining that this gave Fairy Tail an unfair advantage since they could team up against everyone else. Looking at Natsu and Gajeel argue however, Dante figured that this would not be the case. Sparing another glance at Mira, Dante had a nervous look. He knew firsthand how strong and ruthless his normally sweet little sister could be in a fight if she actually tried. Smiling sweetly at her big brother, Mira walked up to Dante and started to speak.
"What's the matter big brother? You look terrified" asked Mira in her signature sweet tone. Smiling nervously back at his little sister, Dante started to speak.
"I wouldn't say terrified, but I certainly know facing the she devil is going to be one hell of a challenge" responded Dante in a nervous tone which caused Mira to laugh slightly. He had to compete against his insanely strong little sister who happened to be his fiancé as well as his rival Laxus who always matched him in strength. After another few moments the announcer started to announce the final team.
"And last but certainly not least is the team that came in first place in the preliminary! That's right, you know them, and you love them! Get on your feet and scream for the most powerful guild in all of Fiore! The one and only Saber Tooth" shouted the announcer.
The crowd went wild as they cheered for the Saber Tooth team as they entered the arena. The Saber Tooth team seemed on top of the world as they strutted out into the arena, cheered on by thousands. Looking at the Saber Tooth team Dante had to admit that they all looked confident and strong. His eyes lingered on the sexy and beautiful woman that was a part of the Saber Tooth team.
As Dante stared at this mystery woman, he noted that she looked a lot like Lisanna. While she looked a lot like Lisanna, there was something else that seemed familiar about this woman but Dante could not quite think of the reason why. It was clear looking at this team that they would be the biggest competition. Smiling as he looked at the Saber Tooth team, Dante could not wait to show them who really was the number one guild. After the crowd stopped cheering so loudly, the announcer revealed the rules of the grand magic games.
"So, each day there is a competition followed by rounds of combat The first four days also have an extra round of combat. This means that each guild will have the opportunity to fight twice in the same day and earn more points. It looks like we don't know the rules of the competition or what it involves until after we selected which member to represent the team. Also we don't choose who battles, that had already been determined" stated Dante after the announcer finished his explanation. Shortly after this the name of the first competition was announced, hidden.
"Whatever the rules, I'm sure the name is a clue. I have a feeling that stealth and guile will be the key to winning" stated Erza. Dante nodded his head; he was thinking the same thing. As Dante was thinking which member of the team should step forward, it was announced that Lyon would participate in the competition.
"If Lyon is participating then I will take this one" stated Gray in a confident tone. Smiling at Gray, Dante started to speak.
"Sure, that sounds good. Go on and get us a win Gray" responded Dante in a supporting tone. Dante smiled from the area the team was watching the games from as he waited to see what Gray could do. Once this competition started, and the battels after the entire kingdom will see just how powerful his guild was. They were going to end the first day by taking first place, Dante was so confident about this that he would bet money on that.
End of Chapter 119