All participants enter the water sphere in their swimsuits. Of course, the spectators prefer to see the women in bikinis rather than the men. Luckily, there are just 2 men in this game, so the crowd is happy.
The Naval Battle finally starts and Lucy immediately makes a move. She summons Aquarius who is displeased to get summoned. Aquarius gets mad at Lucy and creates a large-scale attack that spins the water.
Lucy has expected it, so she swims to not get hit by the strong water current. The others who aren't ready get thrashed by the raging water. Then Dora of Scarmiglione gets thrown out of the water sphere.
Some people follow her, starting with Rocker who gets thrown around in the sphere before finally gets out of it. Jenny gets thrown after him, followed by Risley and Sherria. The raging water finally stops after some time and only 3 people are left inside the sphere.
Minerva & Laxus didn't get affected by the raging water. Laxus has expected it, so he transforms into lightning and moves around in the sphere. He was actually the one who pushed Risley, Jenny, & Sherria while moving around.
As for Minerva, she protected herself with a kind of magical sphere. Her sphere didn't get affected by the raging water, so she was safe. Laxus also didn't attack her because he targeted those who get thrown around.
The crowd is surprised by the fast development which makes them speechless. They look at Lucy with surprised expressions because they thought she was weak. Well, compared to Yukino's gigantic Pisces and Ophiuchus, Lucy's Celestial Spirits don't look that great, after all.
Laxus smiles satisfiedly seeing Lucy get the limelight. Just like Ben, he wants to show that his guild is full of strong Mages. So now Laxus stays at the side to give Lucy a chance to show her power once more by fighting Minerva.
But then Lucy gets scolded by Aquarius, which makes everyone sweatdrops. Aquarius suddenly leaves after saying she wants to go on a date. So now Lucy can't summon her again, she can only use other spirits now.
Minerva & Lucy are looking at Laxus now because they see him as the biggest threat now. But he tells them to not mind him and have a fight. Both of them think for a while and they think that it's better to fight Laxus last.
"Will you really let us fight?" asks Lucy.
They strangely can talk even though they are underwater. Well, the water sphere is a magic spell, and it was made so that everyone can breathe inside it.
"Yeah, I won't intervene with your battle," says Laxus while grinning.
"Heh, you better keep your words," says Minerva.
"I will try," says Laxus.
So they look at each other and Lucy grabs one of her keys. However, there's nothing on her waist, none of her keys are there. She looks at Minerva in surprise as her keys are in Minerva's hand.
Then suddenly, Lucy gets attacked by a heat attack from Minerva despite being underwater. But she endures it and swims toward Minerva to attack the latter. However, she suddenly gets teleported in front of Minerva and gets hit by Minerva's punch which is coated by a magic sphere.
Lucy gets thrown back, but she suddenly gets teleported back to Minerva. She gets hit again by Minerva and the cycle repeats. Lucy gets hit and pushed back before teleported in front of Minerva and gets hit again.
It happens a few times before suddenly a hand blocks Minerva's fist. Laxus steps in and stops Minerva while also holding the beaten Lucy. He wanted to stop it faster, but Lucy's eyes are full of determination to fight, so he couldn't step in yet.
But he finally couldn't wait anymore as Lucy's condition will be very bad if he doesn't intervene. He knows Lucy wants to fight to the end, but he also knows that it's more important to save her. So he intervenes in the fight despite saying he won't do it.
"I-I can still fight," says Lucy weakly.
"Don't force yourself, this is not a life & death battle," says Laxus before flashing to the edge.
Laxus throws Lucy out of the sphere and Ben flashes to catch her.
"You've done well, so rest," says Ben before casting a Sleep spell at Lucy.
Ben doesn't say another word and he teleports to his guild's stand. Wendy immediately casts her healing spell on Lucy while the others seem rather angry.
"Hold your anger, just focus on treating Lucy now. Take her to the hospital as soon as Wendy finishes her spell. Leave the rest to Laxus, he knows what to do," says Ben.
"But he should've stopped it sooner," says Gray.
"And makes Lucy feel useless? She wanted to fight and proved that our guild is strong, so Laxus lets her fight. He stopped the fight before it gets worse even though Lucy still wanted to fight. That is his way to show his trust & care for his friend," says Ben firmly.
Everyone gets silent and holds their anger as they watch Lucy being treated by Wendy. Then they all look at the match again and see Laxus is facing Minerva now. His expression tells everyone that he is enraged by how Minerva treated Lucy.
"You said you won't intervene in our battle," says Minerva while smirking.
"Yeah, I was. But that was not a battle, you just wanted to humiliate her," says Laxus while covering his body with lightning.
"So what if I was? There's no rule that forbids that," says Minerva while extending her hand toward Laxus.
Suddenly, many small blackish rainbow spheres appear around Laxus. He doesn't react to them and they suddenly explode. Massive explosions happen in the water sphere and Laxus takes them directly.
People are surprised and thought that Laxus won't survive that attack. The Sabertooth Mages are smirking and also think the same as the crowd. They know Minerva's power very well and it's terrifying.
Minerva also smirks because even if Laxus can withstand that, he will still get a lot of damage. But then her smirk disappears and her eyes widen to the max. Laxus suddenly appears right in front of her without any injury.
"You called those explosions? I've taken far more powerful ones many times, this is a child's play. Let me show you what a real attack is, let me show you the power of Fairy Tail that Lucy wanted to show," says Laxus coldly.
Minerva wants to get away, but Laxus is a lot faster than her. He punches her stomach with his lightning-covered fist very hard. Minerva coughs the air in her lungs before she gets shot out of the sphere at a high speed.
She flies very fast toward her guild's stand and her guildmates move to catch her. The 4 Sabertooth team members catch her, but they get pushed 2 meters back. Even the 4 of their combined strength can still get pushed, so Laxus's attack was very strong.
Minerva is still conscious despite the pain and she looks at Laxus. She barely holds on though and she finally passes out after seeing Laxus's cold gaze. Her teammates also look at Laxus angrily before they take Minerva to the hospital.
Laxus comes out of the sphere and returns to his guild's stand. He asks Ben about Lucy's condition and Ben tells him that Lucy will be fine. Laxus stopped the fight before she get injured too badly, so it's good.
"You didn't hurt her too much, weren't you?" asks Ben.
"No, I am not that cruel to hurt someone too much in a competition. I just used enough power and hit her at the right spot to make her lose consciousness. The big effect of that attack came from my magic that surrounded her," says Laxus.
"Good, she still needs to see our guild's power, and this is not the stage yet. The final game tomorrow will be the best place to show Fairy Tail's power to the world," says Ben.
"I know, I will go to the hospital now to check on Lucy. She will need her keys, after all. Don't call me unless I get chosen to fight in the battle round," says Laxus while showing Lucy's gold keys in his hand.
He has taken the keys that Minerva took before. Minerva didn't realize that Laxus has taken the keys before he punched her. That's just how fast the current Laxus is and not many people can see or even match his speed.
Ben nods and Laxus leaves the stand to go to the hospital. The Naval Battle turned out to be fiercer than people thought. But it also becomes more interesting. So now, everyone anticipates the battle round.
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