"Mind if I take this alone?" Meliodas asked Lily. Lily nodded in response and a grin formed on Meliodas' face. He put a hand on Mel Force and unsheathed it, holding it out in front of him.
There was a brief silence between the two of them. Neither of them moved a muscle or said a word. Lily watched from the side, feeling the intense anticipation. He watched them intently, curious if they were waiting for some kind of signal before attacking.
Above them in the cave, water was leaking from above on the ceiling. The water trickled down, forming a drop that fell to the ground. The instant the drop hit the ground, both Meliodas and Erza charged at each other. Lily's eyes widened as he watched them fight.
Sparks flew around everywhere, as the sound of one sword hitting another rang throughout the cave.
"Their swords...I can hear them hitting each other, but I can barely see them swinging it!" Lily commented in disbelief. "Erza's also grown a lot since I saw her battle Musica."
Meliodas and Erza stood firmly planted in the middle of the clearing, unleashing a multitude of slashes at each other. Lily noticed that blood was starting to drip down from Erza's right arm as they continued slashing at each other while Meliodas had yet to receive a single scratch.
'They're both monsters but...there is an obvious gap in skill…' Lily thought as he continued observing.
The rallying of blistering slashes eventually stopped, with the sound of swords hitting each other fading as the last echoes died out in the cave. Erza jumped back away from Meliodas, assuming a more defensive stance. Blood was dripping down her arms from multiple cuts.
"Looks like our sparring has been paying off." Meliodas commented. "You're a lot stronger than when you fought Doryu and better than when you sparred with Musica."
"After that display of weakness I showed against Doryu, I trained even harder. But it appears it wasn't enough. I can tell you've also grown significantly since the Doryu fight as well. Is your original power starting to return to you?" Erza replied.
"Just a bit, but I'm still far from it. Anyway, I think that's enough of a warm up. How about we get serious?" Meliodas asked. Erza smiled as she gave Meliodas a determined look. In her left hand, another sword began to form, glowing and taking shape into a shortsword with a rose-like handguard.
Meliodas assumed a different stance. He removed the scabbard of Mel Force off of his back and held it in his right hand. With his legs spread apart, he pointed Mel Force out in front of him towards Erza while he held the scabbard up in the air behind him.
"He's using the scabbard of his sword?" Lily questioned.
Both Erza and Meliodas charged at each other again, unleashing a flurry of slashes at each other, with Meliodas holding his scabbard out behind him as he parried the slashes of both of Erza's swords with only Mel Force.
"Erza's sword speed has drastically increased yet Meliodas is still able to keep up." Lily commented.
Erza shifted her stance and lunged at Meliodas with both blades. Meliodas in turn blocked her blades with both Mel Force and his scabbard. As Erza's blades grinded against Meliodas' scabbard, both of them immediately felt an enormous magical energy followed by tremors.
"An earthquake?!" Lily exclaimed.
The room around them began to shake, with the tremors increasing even more violently every second. Both Meliodas and Erza backed away from each other as the magical presence continued to grow. Several seconds later, the tremors died down as the cave stopped shaking. Meliodas looked up at the cave ceiling.
"Huh...I wonder what that was?" Meliodas narrowed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling as he questioned the strange occurrence of magic.
"That must have been Gildarts...but I wonder who he was fighting to have displayed his magic like that." Erza commented.
'That's an impressive amount of magic' Meliodas thought as he felt the surroundings shake.
"Well then, why don't we continue." Meliodas said. To Meliodas' surprise, Erza dispelled the blade in her left hand, only holding the katana in her right. In response, Meliodas mounted Mel Force's scabbard back onto his back.
"I know you're still holding back against me. But this time, I want you to go all out." Erza said. She held her katana with both hands to her side. Meliodas suddenly felt an intense magical energy being gathered into her sword as it began to glow.
"If it were anyone else who has made it this far, I would have let them pass by now. But as your final test, I want to challenge you with everything I got!" Erza declared with a look of fierce determination in her eyes. Meliodas nodded, knowing full well Erza wanted to test herself and assumed an offensive stance with Mel Force out in front of him.
"Well if you're going to truly go all out, then it would be rude of me to not give it my all either." Meliodas replied.
"Then here I go!" Erza yelled as she charged at Meliodas. Meliodas stood his ground as Erza approached, her blade radiating even more magical energy.
"Take this! Demon Blade Benizakura!" Erza shouted as she got within striking distance of Meliodas. As she swung her sword, her eyes widened. Meliodas had dropped his guard completely and put his sword down. Instead he put his right hand in front of Erza's blade.
Lily watched, his face frozen with wonderstruck as his jaw remained open. There was a large explosion of dust and debris that filled the cave clearing where they were standing. Lily put his arms out in front of him as shockwaves pushed him back. As the shockwaves died off, he put his arms back down and watched the smoke clear. His eyes grew wide with shock.
Meliodas' appearance had changed. His emerald green eyes turned pitch black and a black spiral shaped henna formed above his right eyebrow as he had a serious look on his face. Erza was not visibly shocked but Lily was in complete disbelief in the power he was feeling radiating from Meliodas. Between Meliodas' index finger and thumb, Meliodas was holding Benizakura's blade. Shrouding his fingertips, were traces of darkness.
The serious look on Meliodas' face vanished but his demonic features still remained. He gave Erza a warm smile.
"I think that's enough right?" Meliodas asked. Erza returned a smile back to Meliodas and her clothing and sword began to glow. Meliodas' demonic features receded and Erza was back to wearing her regular armor.
"It looks like I still have a lot of work to do before I can reach your level." Erza said. "Anyway, you passed this exam brilliantly. Go on to the end of the path. There will be others waiting there for the next trial."
"Well at the rate you're progressing, you'll get there in no time!" Meliodas responded with a grin. He looked to his side and saw Lily approaching him. He nodded at Lily and Lily returned a nervous nod back at Meliodas as the two walked towards the exit.
Meliodas and Lily arrived outside the cave several minutes later. The cave exit opened into a forested area with several rocks jutting from the ground. Sitting on the rocks were Gray, Loke, Lucy, Cana, Gajeel, and Levy. Sitting by themselves in the corner were Natsu and Happy. Natsu was surprisingly silent and was looking away from the group.
"Looks like quite a few people made it here before us." Lily commented.
"You guys sure took your sweet time getting out here." Gajeel said with a grin as he looked at Lily.
"Honestly, I was expecting Meliodas to come here sooner." Lucy said. "Who did you end up fighting anyway?"
"Erza." Meliodas replied.
"Wait, you beat Erza?!" Lucy exclaimed. "Although, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that."
"So you've all made it." Makarov said as he walked towards the group, gaining their attention. He looked at all of the people left.
"Is this everyone?" Makarov questioned. He looked at the remaining participants and tried to think who could be left.
"Wait!" A voice shouted from the bushes. Everyone turned their heads to where the voice came from. The bushes rustled before two figures walked out.
"We beat Mira!" Elfman shouted as he struggled to walk over to them. Hanging onto him was Evergreen who was also struggling to keep herself up.
"First exam passed!" Evergreen commented. The rest of the mages looked at Elfman and Evergreen in disbelief as Meliodas looked over at Natsu, who was still oddly silent. Suddenly, Natsu jumped up from his slump and stood on top of the rock he was sitting on.
"I'll defeat you all and become an S Class Mage!" Natsu exclaimed.
"In any case, let's get on to the next part of the exam." Makarov interrupted. "The second part will be to find the first master's grave. You have six hours to locate it. Good luck everyone."
"I'm all fired up! I'm gonna go get S class! Happy let's go!" Natsu shouted enthusiastically.
"Aye Sir!" Happy cheered as he and Natsu immediately ran into the forest. The other mages followed as they split up in different directions. Meliodas instead, decided to stroll into the forest last, with Lily right next to him.
"You're pretty calm about this. You must have an idea where the first master's grave is." Lily commented as he and Meliodas casually walked through the forest.
"Nope, I have no idea where it is." Meliodas replied with a confident grin.