Max stood in the center of the arena along with over twenty other people from different guilds. Each person stared at each other, trying to size up one another as they waited for the announcer. Max looked at the others who were participating. He immediately recognized Orga Nanagear from Sabertooth, a heavily muscular, massive man with long green spiky hair that fell to his shoulders.
'Tch...had to be that guy of all people who is here.' Max thought to himself. 'From what people say about him, he's practically Sabertooth's Laxus…'
"NOW THAT YOU'VE ALL SELECTED A PERSON, WE WILL START THE OPENING EVENT CALLED "SCAVENGERS." Chapati announced. The arena began to warp, with many buildings and terrain appearing out of nowhere as the competitors stared in awe. From above, the arena was seemingly split into four quadrants: a city quadrant, A farm quadrant, a mountainous quadrant, and a forest quadrant. Four interfaces appeared in the center of the arena, providing a live feed for those in the audience.
"THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS. VARIOUS MONSTERS WILL SPAWN ACROSS EACH QUADRANT. DEFEATING MONSTERS WILL GRANT YOU POINTS. THE INDIVIDUAL WITH THE MOST POINTS AFTER THIRTY MINUTES WILL BE THE WINNER. HOWEVER, YOU MAY ALSO ATTACK OTHER PARTICIPANTS. RENDERING THEM UNABLE TO BATTLE WILL EARN YOU HALF OF THEIR POINTS! EACH OF THE PARTICIPANTS HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO FIND A PLACE TO START FROM! SO YAJIMA, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK THE KEY IS FOR OUR PARTICIPANTS TO PERFORM WELL IN THIS!"
"Hmm...I think the key here is to score as many points off the small monsters as you can and prioritize having your own points taken as there are some strong contenders in this match from what I can tell." Yajima responded.
"THAT'S RIGHT! YOU HEARD THE WISE WORDS FROM YAJIMA HIMSELF. TAKE THAT ADVICE TO MIND AS WE START THIS EVENT."
As soon as Chapati finished speaking, Max and several other mages took off towards one of the quadrants immediately. Max ran towards the mountainous quadrant, finding a spot between a few rocks to wait as nobody was nearby him.
"5...4...3...2...1...BEGIN!"
As Chapati yelled "begin," strange bipedal monsters with no faces and weird red markings across their bare dark blue bodies sprouted from the ground. Max looked around and saw nobody else was near him.
"Easy points!" Max said enthusiastically as he jumped out from his spot behind the rocks. The monsters spotted him as he raised his hands out in front of him.
"Sand Wave!"
Sand generated from Max's hands shot out towards the monsters, sweeping them off their feet before they had time to react. Five of them got swept up in the massive torrent of sand and found themselves unable to get out. Max grinned as he shifted the position of his hands for another attack.
"Sand Rebellion!"
The swirling sands around the monsters pushed the monsters together, converging them into one point. Above them, a large mass of sand slammed into them. The monsters' bodies began to disappear one by one, breaking down into magic particles.
"Hardly a fight." Max said as he turned to look at the interface. He saw he was in third place with five points. Above him were Lyon and Orga with 7 and 8 points respectively.
"Looks like I need to step up my game." Max said as he continued running through the terrain. As he ran through the mountainous area, two more monsters jumped up from behind the rocks next to him. Max made a swiping motion with his hand as sand shot out from it.
"Sand Slash!"
The sand took the form of a blade, cutting both monsters in half and causing their bodies to dissipate. Max continued running through the zone, looking for more monsters. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as a bolt of black lightning struck the ground in front of him. He looked up from where the lightning came from and saw Orga staring at him as he stood several meters above on some rocks.
"Heh...you're the last person I wanted to run into." Max commented.
"You seem pretty strong...give me your points." Orga said with a grin. Orga jumped from his spot, black lightning crackling around his right hand as he formed it into a fist.
"Lightning God's Charged Fist!"
Max's eyes widened and he immediately put both his hands out in front of him.
"Sand Wall!"
From both sides of Max, two large waves of sand formed to protect him as they closed in front of Max. Orga's fist clashed with the sand, his fist getting stuck within it as he continued pushing forward. The black lightning in his hand crackled even further as he exerted more magical power.
"Not bad. But what will you do about this!" Orga remarked as his magical power flared up. Max immediately jumped backwards as Orga's fist broke through the sand wall.
"Damn...your magical power is insane…" Max commented. "I knew you were strong, but I didn't realize the gap between us was that large…I don't think I want to fight this."
Max raised both of his hands up. Orga attempted to walk forward but froze as he looked down at his feet. Both of his feet were stuck in the ground as sand was engulfing him up to his ankles. He looked back up and saw a large wave of sand coming towards him. A smile formed on Orga's face and he took a deep breath in, his chest puffing up.
"Lightning God's Bellow!"
With a mighty shout, Orga exhaled and a large beam of black lightning shot out of his mouth. The lightning collided with the wave of sand, going straight through it and right into the rocky mountain formation behind it. The beam hit the rock formation with a loud crash, causing a massive explosion as rocks and debris were kicked up into the air followed by a large cloud of black smoke.
"Ah...he got away…" Orga said as he looked back at the interface and saw he had gained no points.
'Holy crap!' Max thought as he looked back at the smoke coming from the explosion while he ran away. 'If I stayed to fight that guy, I would have been screwed! Oh well...I just need to focus on getting as many points as I can…'
Max eventually ran into the city area, taking out several monsters in the process. He glanced over at the scoreboard hovering in the center of the arena. He was in 5th place with 18 points. Above him was someone named Arwyn from the White Tiger guild who had 19 points. In 3rd place was another named Tynan from the Black Bulls guild with 22 points. In second place was Lyon with 38 points and Orga with 41 points. Max looked at the timer above the interface that had ten minutes left.
"Damn...I'm really behind. I should start hunting people down instead of monsters." Max commented to himself as he looked around the city area. He felt a large rumbling nearby as the building next to him collapsed. Four people were engaged in a fight with each other with fireballs and large rocks going flying up into the air.
'Now's my chance! I don't know how many points each of them are worth, but that should be enough to climb the ranks if I take all of them out!' Max thought as he rushed in towards the group. Max jumped into the air, with the four people fighting unaware that he was joining in their battle. Max raised his hands above his head, with sand forming in his palms.
Max stood atop a nearby building as a large wave of sand swept the mages underneath their feet, covering them as it dragged them all to one point.
"Sorry but your points are mine! Sand Rebellion!"
The mages looked up in awe as a huge wave of sand appeared from behind Max. Max made a swiping motion with his hands, converging the sand straight towards the mages on the ground.
He looked back at the interface and saw he had gained 20 points, pushing him up to 38. To his surprise, Lyon was now at 49 points and Orga was at 52. There were a few more names listed below Max who had around 20 points and below them, were a bunch of names that were X'd out with their scores next to them.
"Man...the gap just keeps closing. I gotta find more monsters!" Max said as he jumped off the building. A slide of sand formed underneath his feet and he slid down back to ground level, continuing his run through the city zone.
--
"Hey Max is doing really well!" Laki exclaimed.
"I haven't seen him fight in a while. I had no idea he was this strong now." Jet commented.
"Hmm...he's about as strong as Natsu was at this point probably." Meliodas remarked, shocking Laki, Jet and Alzack.
"No way...he's that strong? I mean...I guess it's been a couple of years, but that's such a huge jump for Max." Alzack said.
"I heard he's been working extremely hard but I didn't think he would be at this level already.." Laki commented.
The Fairy Tail team continued watching for the next few minutes when the sound of a loud buzzer echoed throughout the arena.
"AND TIME IS UP!" Chapati announced. "THESE ARE THE CURRENT RANKINGS!"
Above the interface, the timer read 0:00. Meliodas read out the top five of the scoreboard.
"Pretty good start." Meliodas said as he saw Max had managed to get 49 points and third place. Above him were Lyon in second place with 59 points and Orga in first with 71 points.
"Damn...Lamia Scale and Sabertooth are really something else aren't they…" Alzack remarked.
"It's only just started. We have plenty of chances to catch up." Meliodas said reassuringly.
"Whew!" Max said as he walked into the waiting area. "I busted my ass trying to catch up to at least Lyon but he and Orga are too fast for me. Sorry guys but third place was all I could get."
"Not a problem, this was a great start!" Laki responded.
"We can only go up from here. Let's show Fiore what Fairy Tail's made of!" Jet shouted out.
---
Current Rankings (Top 5)
Sabertooth: 10
Lamia Scale: 8
Fairy Tail: 6
Mermaid Heel: 4
Blue Pegasus: 2
Everyone else: 0