"Poison…Demon…?" Jellal questioned Trinity while preparing to make a move. "So, you're not human…?"
"I thought that would be obvious…" Trinity replied while walking in circles around Jellal. "I'm also the Poison Demon slayer, if you wanted to know that much…"
"Interesting…" Jellal said while he began to walk in a circle along with Trinity.
"We need to get Jellal out of there before things get really bad…" Ultear said while biting her lip nervously.
The match begun, started by Trinity, who with his impressive speed appeared in front of Jellal with pitch black poison coating his fists. He swung at Jellal, who just narrowly dodged by swaying to the side. "That poison…!" Jellal thought to himself as he continued to sway away from Trinity's punches, not even daring to make a physical counter just yet. Eventually, Jellal found an opening and ducked, spinning for a quick leg sweep, successfully knocking Trinity off his feet. Trinity recovered with a flip, but Jellal pointed the stave in his hand forward, shooting off a blast of energy that struck Trinity square in the chest, causing the poison demon to slide back across the ground a few feet.
"Hm…" Trinity looked down at his chest, noticing the hole in his clothing and the mark on it. "Ah…the rush of fighting someone new…not knowing their abilities…" Trinity then smirked and sucked in a deep breath, pitch black poison swirling around his mouth. "Poison Demon's Screech!" Trinity threw his head forward, unleashing a torrent of pitch black poison towards Jellal. The poison literally melted the street as it flew through the air.
"Meteor…!" Jellal quickly exclaimed, a golden light appearing around his body which granted him the speed to evade the incoming poison by flying off to the side. The poison struck through a building, completely corroding the structure before the building collapsed. "What power…"
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"W-What the hell…?" Gray's jaw dropped as the building eventually corroded into nothing.
"That's some serious poison right there…" Cygnus said while raising a brow. "I've never seen poison like that before…I didn't even know that kind of poison existed…"
"Trinity is a demon slayer, so what did you expect to see?" Lucina said towards Cygnus in a rather condescending tone. "He's got this in the bag…and that's not me just being cocky, I'm being realistic here. That poison is extremely dangerous, one touch and I doubt that masked guy will be able to continue…"
Lucina's words only made Erza's worry for the bluenette increase. "Jellal…" She muttered under her breath.
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Knightwalker was in a fit, waving her spear around in frustration. "What I want to know is why he is in Earthland!? Didn't you destroy the Anima Machine to the point of no repair!?" She yelled at Hyde, who found it hard to keep his calm composure under all the yelling.
"Yes, I did do that…" Hyde replied while groaning somewhat. "I don't understand it myself, but let's keep watching…There may be some clues in this battle…you can tell a lot about a person by the way they move in battle…"
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"You're not getting away…" Trinity shouted while running towards Jellal, the deadly substance forming on his arms and legs this time. The demon threw a flurry of poison coated punches and kicks towards Jellal who barely managed to dodge.
"This is getting dangerous…" Jellal thought to himself as he constantly stepped back to avoid the poisonous attacks.
"Okay, that's it…" Ultear said while standing up, pulling out a jar of chili peppers. "We're pulling him out of this match. Meredy, make a link."
"D-do we have to use the peppers again…?" Meredy said as comical tears ran down her face, recalling the last time they had to pull Jellal from a match abruptly.
"We don't have time weigh choices!" Ultear replied.
"R-Right!" Meredy nodded. "He needs to get more space before I can do anything…"
Jellal flew up into the air with the use of Meteor, placing his arms forward as a golden magic seal appeared before him. "Heavenly Beams!" From the magic seal, multiple beams of Heavenly Body Magic shot out towards Trinity, an attempt to separate the two.
"Not so fast!" Trinity exclaimed while holding his hands like a gun, forming black poison on the tip of his fingers. "Poison Demon's Bullet." Bang, bang, bang; Trinity shot forth multiple bullets of his poison to match the incoming beams. Each collision created a yellow and blackish-purple smoke cloud, restricting sight.
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"Oh…Now I see what's going on here…" Hyde said as a smirk appeared on his face.
"What? What's going on?" Knightwalker asked while impatiently tapping her foot.
"That is not the Mystogan you know…that is in fact his Earthland counterpart, Jellal Fernandes posing as him…" Hyde replied. "The Heavenly Body magic makes it clear…though, I'm curious as to why he's here…"
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"Now, Meredy!" Ultear shouted.
"Right!" Meredy nodded, immediately creating a Sensory Link between herself and Jellal, dreading what was about to come next.
"I'm in the clear…" Jellal thought as he hovered above the smoke cloud, scanning the area for Trinity. In the next second, he felt the familiar feeling of a sense link implanted on him, and he knew what was coming next…but it wasn't what he was expecting. Trinity landed a poison infused axe-kick on Jellal's back, sending the heavenly body mage hurtling towards the ground.
"AHHH!" Meredy screamed out as she felt what Jellal did, immediately cutting off the link after because the pain was unbearable.
"Meredy…!?" Ultear glanced at the orb, narrowing her eyes as she saw Jellal lying on the floor with a hole in the back of his clothing, black poison now on his back. "Oh no…"
"Damn…" Jellal groaned as he stood up, wincing as he felt the poison invading his system. "I'll have to make this quick then…" He then flew back into the air, spotting Trinity on the ground, looking up.
"It appears this match isn't going to be as long as I thought…" Trinity smirked slightly as the demon inside of him began to come out, the rush of battle being the cause. Before Trinity could take another step, the five staves on Jellal's back hit the ground around Trinity, creating a circle around him. "What the…?" The staves shimmered brightly for a second, creating a large magic seal above Trinity, and a smaller second seal after that above it. This continued for about three more seals until there was a total of five floating over Trinity.
"Five Layered Magic Circle: Sacred Song!" Jellal shouted at the top of his lungs. A large beam of magic ran through each magic seal, starting from the top and increased in speed and power every time it passed through another seal. Eventually, the attack hit its target, creating a large explosion that created a flash of light.
When the light cleared, Trinity was heavily bruised and damaged from the attack, but he was still standing, showing no signs of exhaustion. "…Not bad…"
"He's still standing…?!" Jellal's eyes widened before he winced, feeling the poison starting to get to him rather quickly now. But then it happened. Trinity took a step forward...and fell to his knees.
Trinity took a deep breath, calming the demon that was about to release itself. "The poison will spread through you quickly…I don't suggest you keep fighting…although, it appears I can't do much moving myself right now..."
"Is there a cure…?" Jellal asked with his eyes narrowing.
"Of course…" Trinity pulled out a vial and tossed it over to Jellal. "Just drink that, and you'll be fine."
Jellal nodded, drinking what was in the vial. The poison faded away from his skin after. "Thank you…" Shortly after that…he began laughing uncontrollably, rolling around on the floor. This brought a weird look from everyone who was watching.
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"…What's happening." Cynthia asked as she watched Jellal rolling on the floor laughing his ass off.
"I don't know…" Wendy replied while giving a blank stare at the screen. "I feel like this has happened before though."
"Uh…Is he okay…?" Ola wrote in the air while giving the most confused look ever.
"Okay is not the word to use here…" Tayakata said while rubbing the back of her head.
Jack and even Tia couldn't help letting a shocked and confused expression takeover their faces. Tia blinked rapidly, trying to decipher Mystogan's problem. "I…I don't understand what's happening here…"
"He's having a laugh…?" Jack suggested.
The hooded male and his partner just stared in awe at Mystogan's laughing, neither having anything to say about it. Just…awestruck silence. "…"
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Ultear was tickling Meredy to the point where she was practically crying, glancing over at the sphere to notice that Jellal was pretty much in KO at this point. "Oh, it's over…?"
Meredy caught her breath after Ultear finished tickling her, letting out a heavy sigh after. "I was trying to tell you that it was over before you started…!"
"…Oops?"
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"…I guess this is a draw?" Ola wrote in the air, still having a befuddled expression.
"That was a little…anticlimactic if I do say so myself…" Luke blinked a few times.
"How embarrassing to lose a fight like that…" Reve chuckled in a condescending manner towards Fairy Tail. If it wasn't a win, he'd call it a loss to annoy them.
"Laugh while ya can, Gunslinger…" Laxus said while taking a step forward. "I'll be the one laughing once I finish moppin' the floor with your other S class."
"HA!" All of White Eclipse seemed to erupt in laughter at Laxus' confident statement.
"I didn't know you were a comedian…" Tayakata said while chuckling a bit.
"The joke's starting, I'll be sure to give you the punchline when it's over. It'll shock ya…" Laxus replied while brushing off the doubt White Eclipse gave him.
"Laxus has this hands down," Freed nodded firmly.
"Well then, let's see if you can put your money where your mouth is…" Taya merely gave a nod towards Laxus before turning on her heels and walking out.
"I'll make this quick…" Laxus scoffed while following Taya out.
"This is gonna get messy I can tell…" Lucy said while watching the two S classes walk out.
"Laxus has this!" Natsu practically shouted at the top of his lung. "If he doesn't I'll be sure to kick his ass!"
"Taya's got this no problem!" Nami gave a firm nod, placing the upmost faith in her elder sister.
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"Tayakata…" Tia muttered as she watched the S class of White Eclipse take a position across from Laxus.
"What's up with her? Someone we should be worried about?" Jack asked.
"Yes…" Tia nodded almost immediately. "We didn't get to see much of her abilities when she was held captive along with those others, but she gives off the same feeling Heartless does…"
"So…you mean she's…" Jack started.
"That's right…she's not human…"
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"Sorry, but I ain't one for formalities…" Laxus stated as he began to stretch, loosening up his muscles.
"You don't look like the gentlemanly type, anyway…" Taya replied while throwing off her coat, giving her neck a roll.
"Cute…" Laxus shrugged before electricity began to spark around his body. In the next second, he popped his jaw open, unleashing a Lightning Dragon's Roar towards Tayakata without warning.
"Hmph…" A small smirk appeared on Taya's lips as she took a step forward before gracefully leaping out of the way, sliding across the already beaten down street. From her abdomen, a vector appeared and launched towards Laxus, striking him square in the chest, causing the S Class lightning dragon to take a step back.
"Where the hell did that come from…?" Laxus raised a brow before shaking it off, activating his Lightning Body Spell to morph into a bolt of lightning, appearing in the sky within seconds. Laxus placed his hands forward, generating a decent amount of electricity before discharging it all in the form of lightning spheres, firing off these spheres one by one like bullets.
Taya was quick, and she could move in heels, which was a little surprise. She swayed from side to side, avoiding the Lightning Bullets sent by Laxus. Each bullet that failed to his Tayakata hit the ground in an electrical explosion. One bullet got lucky and struck her dead in the chest, causing her to slide back, but she quickly caught herself, not too damaged by the attack. "Hm…"
Laxus now used his descend to an advantage, cupping his hands over his head while electricity violently sparked around them; when he was close to Taya he swung them down, aiming for her skull. "Jaw of the Lightning Dragon!"
"Not so fast…" Taya whispered while bringing her hand up, creating about three vectors to protect herself from the attack. Though it was blocked the force caused Taya's knees to buckle slightly. Eventually, she pushed Laxus away and sent these three same vectors forward, aiming them towards Laxus.
Once pushed away, Laxus activated his Lightning Body spell once again, zipping around the incoming vectors and appeared behind Taya, his sparking leg thrown at her side. A direct hit, Taya stumbled off to the side; Laxus had this now. He pulled his arm back, but he wasn't expecting a vector to protrude from her back, which stopped his arm before he could start his attack. "Tch…" No problem, he could just use his other arm…nope, she grabbed that one too.
"Try again…" Taya replied as she used her vectors to flip Laxus over her and slam him into the ground. Before she could do much else Laxus sent a shock through the vectors to her, causing her to take a few steps back, releasing her grip on him. With the opening, Laxus followed up with a roundhouse to Taya's side, following up with a powerful uppcercut, the power sending Taya flying off the ground a few feet and hitting the ground on her back.
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"He's got this!" (Got this! Got this!) Bickslow and his babies exclaimed.
"Ha, she's just warming up, you know…" Reve smirked.
"She's pretty strong…" Cynthia said, unable to help but admire Taya's strength so far.
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Taya stood up, dusting herself off. She was scratched in a few places, but fine nonetheless. "Hm…not bad, I admit…I felt that one…" She rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck after.
"Let's see how you feel after this one." Laxus raised his arms above his head, creating a bolt of lightning in his hands; it was time for his strongest original technique. "Raging Bolt!" Laxus then hurled the halberd of lightning towards Taya, watching as it raced through the air.
Taya placed her hand forward, a darkened seal appearing on her palm. A blackened sphere appeared from the seal, growing to about twice the size of a basketball. "Shadow Sphere!" With this exclamation, the sphere shot forward, clashing with the Raging Bolt in what seemed to be a stalemate. The two attacks exploded, the shockwave picking up a large wind that nearly blew the two combatants back.
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"Geez…! Those two are way too powerful…!" Luke said after witnessing the explosion.
"Come on, Laxus! Now's your chance!" Evergreen shouted rather obnoxiously.
"The match is yours for the taking!" Makarov shouted.
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"This was a nice warmup…" Laxus said as he stared into the smoke cloud, waiting for it to clear to see Taya's position. In the next second, two vectors latched onto his arms. "What the hell…?" The vectors released a small electrical surge (which didn't bother Laxus due to his elemental affinity) through Laxus' arms. "Get offa me…!" Laxus attempted to swing his arms to remove the vectors off of him, but to his surprise his arms weren't responding to his movements.
"Tsk, tsk…" Taya's heels clicked on the ground as she walked forward through the smoke, a smirk drawn on her face. She stopped a few feet away from Laxus. "Is there a problem, Dreyar?"
"Oi, what's going on?" Laxus growled as his arms weren't responding the way he wanted them to.
"My vectors aren't just for attacking; you know…They have the ability to cut off nerves for small amount of time…" Taya replied, now raising her arms to the sky, creating a darkened magic seal above Laxus. "Twilight Rain…" From the magic seal, darkened drops began to fall onto the lightning dragon slayer, the rain quickly getting heavier.
"LAXUS!" The Raijinshu exclaimed with grave worry.
"Game, set, and match…" Reve stated, and his statement.
"Like hell you'll be getting me like this!" Laxus roared as his body began to bulk during the onslaught of "rain", scales appearing on his now useless arms, his pupils vanishing. Laxus entered Dragon Force, and he did what he could while trapped, he opened his jaw once again, unleashing a point blank Lightning Dragon's Roar on Taya. It was a direct hit, and the eventual power of the Twilight Rain and the Lightning Dragon's roar created a smoke cloud that covered the area.
"O-Oi! What happened?!" Freed asked, immediately jumping from his seat.
"We're about to find out…calm down pretty boy…" Cygnus said towards Freed.
The smoke cleared, and revealed a heavily damaged Tayakata. The lightning dragon's roar left sparks dancing around her body periodically. She was panting somewhat as the attack was a heavy one, but she was still standing. Laxus was the one on the ground in KO, his mouth hanging open to show his shock (no pun intended) in losing. "Better…luck next time, Dreyar…" Taya said with somewhat of a taunting tone.
"…He lost…" Natsu and the rest of Fairy Tail fell silent at Laxus' defeat.
"I told you so," Reve said in his everlasting cocky tone. "Just be thankful it wasn't me out there…it would've been much worse…"
"And Tayakata of White Eclipse moves onto the second round." Ola wrote into the air. She was starting to get a little excited herself, these fights made her impatient to get to hers, whenever it may be.
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"M-Man…" Jack said after watching Taya defeat Laxus. "She's some type of strong, isn't she…?"
"Yes…" Tia nodded. "She's dangerous…we MUST keep an eye on her…"
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"Huh…not bad…she took down the legendary lightning dragon…" The hooded male nodded in approval.
"I'm very surprised as well…" The female said in an awestricken voice.
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Now it was time for the next match; Selene vs. Kagura. Both were decently aware of the others' abilities, but many people bet that Kagura would be the one to take the victory because she was Mermaid Heel's strongest mage. "Go, Kagura-chan!" Milliana and Melody shouted in unison.
"This'll be a tough one for Selene…but I think she can pull through…" Luke said with a nod, putting the upmost faith in his best friend.
"She will pull through," Takeru said while giving an even firmer nod than Luke.
"Those diamonds are a bitch to deal with; they really are a girl's best friend…" Luke chuckled while rolling his shoulders.
"They're about to begin, so let's see how this turns out…"
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For once, the two ladies decided to take a section of Clover Town that wasn't partially destroyed due to the previous fighting. Selene's diamonds immediately covered her body because she knew the strength of the woman she was about to do combat with, though she couldn't help but smirk, showing off the same cockiness all members of White Eclipse had before they began battle. "The White Eclipse tradition is to let the weaker opponent have the first move, you know…"
Kagura showed indifference to the "tradition" explained to her. "Very well…" The mermaid ace bent her knees, gripping her blade, Archenemy, by its blade. Using her Gravity Change, she lightened the gravity around her person and raced towards Selene, drawing her blade in one swift motion. She aimed the blade towards the diamond dragon, but Selene was fast enough to counter with her own diamond blade, entering a quick struggle with the mermaid. The two jumped back a few yards after, repeating the process once again.
"I got her this time…" Selene thought to herself as her sword morphed into a diamond version of Gajeel's Iron Dragon's Sword, jagged edges complete with the rotating chainsaw-like motion. Instead of clashing like the previous time, the two slashed each other simultaneously, sliding to a halt with their backs facing each other.
"Did they just finish each other right there…?" Lucy asked as she watched for the first to fall.
Kagura's eyes shot open as a searing pain appeared in her chest. She looked down; noticing a large gash on her chest, running down diagonally to her left hip; not only this, but her blade was broken in to pieces. "..!"
Selene wasn't faring any better than the ace mermaid, however. Kagura's slash pierced through her diamond scales, leaving the mage heavily injured…in fact, she collapsed right then and there in KO, but it amazed everyone how quickly the two managed to damage each other and finish.
"Oh my…It looks like Kagura makes it to the second round…" Ola wrote, surprised at how quick the match was.
"Now it's time for my fight, right!?" Natsu shouted with a large grin as he hopped up.
"Unfortunately…" Ola would've let out a nervous laugh, but because she didn't have a voice box it just came out as an awkward wheeze. "It's getting rather late, so the idea was to finish the rest of the first round tomorrow, start the second round and see where that got us."
"Lucky for you, Salamander…" Waiston said with a smug grin, his hands resting his jacket pockets. "Saved you another few hours of embarrassment."
"I'll kick your ass!" Was Natsu's only reply, and it seemed good enough for him. The fighters who fought were resting in the infirmary now, being treated by an S class mage by the name of Mathias, who specialized in Glyph magic, similar to runes. Black Phoenix's infirmary was extremely high tech, as the beds healed those who slept in them.
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Hyde sighed as night came, floating in the air with a bored and uninterested expression. "How dull…things aren't looking very entertaining in this dreadfully long tournament…"
"We could always shorten it…" Knightwalker said in her usual dark, sadistic tone. "I'm sure these fighters wouldn't mind another fight…"
"Oh…I think we're coming along with a nice little side story here…" Hyde grinned.
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"…Wanna mess with the fighters?" Jack asked in a hopeful tone. "It's better tonight than never…"
"…Jack…" Tia groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Do whatever you want…just don't kill anyone…"
"I won't." Jack replied as a bright light surrounded him. He entered his Corvus Armor and immediately took flight into the air. The first night of the tournament wasn't going to be a pretty one…