Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Tenrou Island.
December 15, x787.
"Is everyone ready for the final part of this year's promotion exam?" Ur asked once everyone was seated, as not only the S-Class wizards were seated in the viewing stands. A moment later, she turned her attention to Alzack, who was standing in the ring. "Then, Alzack Conell, tell us, whom among the S-Class wizards present do you wish to face in order to prove your qualifications to join their ranks?"
"Yes, I have chosen." Alzack said in a solemn tone. Then, he let his gaze roam over all the S-Class wizards in the stands before stopping on a certain person. "I choose Alfonzo Marcus."
Hearing Alzack's choice, most of the audience was stunned. Other than Irene, Alfonzo was objectively the strongest member of the guild. Alfonzo, on the other hand, smiled at Alzack's choice. Then, he stood from his seat and slowly made his way to the ring.
"Man, I don't think this is gonna go well for Alzack." Gray said quietly while he watched Alfonzo approach the ring.
"Indeed, Alzack uses guns that Alfonzo made. So, he's at a serious disadvantage." Fried said, assessing the situation calmly.
"Don't underestimate Alzack." Laki, who has trained with both Alfozno and Alzack for a very long time, said while smiling. "Alzack is stronger than you think."
"Besides, Alfonzo will probably let him show what he's got so that we can evaluate him." Laxus added. "He knows how hard he can go in this fight."
"I think you're wrong this time, Laxus." Gildarts said. "Did you see the smile on the Kid's face? He's really looking forward to this."
"Gildarts is right." Elicia added. "Fonzie looks really excited."
"Then I guess Alzack has got something to show us, huh?" Ur asked rhetorically while she focused on the ring.
"Yes, that young man is definitely hiding something, if his confident expression is anything to go by." Irene said in an interested tone. "I just hope it's worth all this anticipation he's making everyone feel."
As soon as the last word left her mouth, Irene smiled. However, when everyone saw that smile, they could not help but shiver. For Alzack's sake, they really hoped he would put on a good show in this fight.
While the others were discussing the upcoming fight, Alfonzo reached the ring. Then, after a light leap, he landed on the ring opposite Alzack.
"Are the two of you ready?" Ur asked.
While Alfonzo nodded immediately, Alzack took a deep breath. Then, he unholstered his pistols, Evony and Ivory and looked at them with a complicated expression on his face.
"*Sigh* This is probably the most important fight of my career." Alzack muttered, though everyone present was able to hear him. "Unfortunately, I can't use you, my partners this time."
Reaching that point, Alzack looked up into the viewing stands. Then, when his eyes fell on Elicia, he tossed Ebony and Ivory towards her.
"Hold on to these for me, would you?" Alzack asked.
Naturally, this action surprised everyone. Despite that, Elicia acted quickly, shooting out a pair of threads from her fingertips and catching the two pistols.
"Of course." Elicia said as she pulled Evony and Ivory to her.
Nodding in response, Alzack returned his attention to Alfonzo. Then, he spoke once again.
"I'm ready." Alzack said in a determined tone.
"Then, let the match begin." Ur said loudly as she raised her right arm high above her head. A moment later, she swung it down as she continued. "Fight!"
In the next instant, Alfonzo was covered in arcs of violet lightning. Then he vanished from where he stood in a burst of speed. At the same time, Alzack tilted his head to the left. Then, he tilted his head back before turning his body to the right.
In that brief moment, Alfonzo, who was moving faster than the eye could see, had thrown a jab, a right uppercut, and a left front kick. All of which Alzack dodged successfully. Then, Alzack flicked his right hand upwards with his index and middle finger extended.
"[Bullet Magic: Finger Pistol]." Alzack chanted as two compressed bullets of magic power were fired from the tips of his fingers, forcing Alfonzo to evade. Still, he was moving too fast for the crowd to see with their eyes.
A moment later, a purple flash lit up the ring. And when it did, Alzack side flipped from his position. An instant later, a purple bolt of lightning fell from the sky. At the same time, while he was upside down, Alzack pointed his right index and middle fingers at a corner of the ring before firing his [Finger Pistol] once again.
A collective gasp could be heard from the stands. Not because Alzack seemingly fired randomly. No, instead, it was because Alfonzo was forced to stop for a moment to block Alzack's spell with his right hand covered in his magic power.
Despite the fact that he was forced to stop for a moment, Alfonzo quickly vanished in a burst of speed once again. However, Alzack continued firing his [Finger Pistol] in seemingly random directions. Yet, every time he did, Alfonzo would appear for a brief moment to deflect the spell.
"Damn, when did Alzack get this good?' Laxus asked as he leaned forward to watch the high speed match. "And when the hell did he start shooting without his guns?"
"It's not that he just got this good." Elicia said. "it's just that he's never had a reason to show it in front of the rest of the guild. Even when he fought Gray and Lucy two years ago, he was able to shoot all the [Ice Bullets] gray shot at him out of the air. But he only shot down the ones he needed to, instead. As for your second question, that's new to me, too."
Not only Elicia, but everyone was seeing Alzack use [Bullet Magic] for the first time. In fact, this was the first time he had used it in front of anyone, other than Bisca. And he only showed her after the two got married.
In reality, Alzack only started learning [Bullet Magic] after the Tenrou Island incident back in x784. After hearing Alfonzo's story about when he faced Hades, who also used this kind of magic, Alzack took it upon himself to take the [Bullet Magic] magic book that was recovered from Grimoire Heart's airship after Alfonzo let him choose from any of the magic books he and Elicia were able to recover.
"But he still got knocked out in that fight." Gray said in rebuttal.
"That's only because Aries' caught him and Bisca in her [Wool Bomb]." Lucy replied. "That spell has an effect that causes the opponent to relax, making ambushes much easier."
"Seriously?" Gray replied. "I never knew that."
A moment later, he slumped his shoulders in dejection.
"Despite all that, we still lost that fight." Gray said in a depressed tone.
"Yeah, we did." Lucy added, slumping her shoulders dejectedly , as well.
Back in the ring, Alzack had been moving to avoid attacks from Alfonzo, who was dropping bolts of lightning, firing balls of electricity, showering him with metal rain, and even throwing in the occasional melee attack to keep him on his toes for nearly fifteen minutes. Despite the fact that he had been on the defensive the entire fight, Alzack was still able to accurately shoot his [Finger Pistol] at the places where Alfonzo was moving to, causing him to stop his movement to defend.
Eventually, the flow of the battle changed when Alzack ducked to avoid a high kick from Alfonzo. At the same time, he slammed his right palm onto the ring.
"[Bullet Magic: Hand Cannon]." Alzack chanted in an intense tone.
In the next instant, the ring under Alzack exploded, propelling him high into the air. At the same time, Alfonzo quickly moved to avoid the flying debris. Then, when Alzack reached the height of his ascent, he placed the butts of his palms together with his fingers spread out and pointed at the ring.
"[Bullet Magic: Aerial Bombardment]." Alzack chanted.
With his chant, Alzack began flicking his fingers rapidly. And with every flick of a finger, a [Finger Pistol] about twice as large as the ones he fired earlier in the match was shot towards the ring. And as time went by, not only was Alzack keeping himself afloat with the recoil from his shots, but he was also covering every inch of the ring with his bombardment.
In the end, Alfonzo, who had yet to do so, was forced to fly away from the ring to avoid taking damage. An instant later, Alfonzo appeared above Alzack, who had stopped firing towards the ground and used the recoil from his last shot to turn around, with his right palm pointed at the Magic Gunner and gathering UV radiation on his outstretched palm.
"[Electromagnetism Magic: Big Bang Attack]." Alfonzo chanted.
At the same time, Alzack, with his hands still together, pointed his palms at Alfonzo, as well.
"[Bullet Magic: Buster Cannon ]." Alzack chanted.
In the next instant, both Alfonzo's [Big Bang Attack] and Alzack's [Buster Cannon] were fired simultaneously. While Alfonzo remained in place after casting his spell, Alzack was sent rocketing downwards due to his spell's recoil. However, Alzack was counting on that.
*Boom~~~~~!*
Just as Alzack managed to flip himself over and land in the ring, the two spells collided, exploding on impact, engulfing Alfonzo's position in the air.
"*Pant* *Pant* *Pant* Damn…" Alzack muttered in a discontent tone. "I guess I lost."
In the next instant, Alfonzo appeared to Alzack's right with a short sword pressed to Alzack's throat.
"Yeah, but that was a hell of a fight." Alfonzo replied.
"*Sigh* You're just too damn fast." Alzack said with a shrug.
Although it seemed as if Alfonzo had been caught in the explosion, with the use of [Lightning Enhancement] in combination with [Shave], he left a long lasting after-image in his place. In fact, he had moved away before the two spells even collided. However, Alzack had actually caught that with is [Magic Power Detection]. Unfortunately, thanks to the fatigue from using such a powerful spell combined with the extra magic power consumption from using [Bullet Magic] instead of Ebony and Ivory, he was simply too exhausted to avoid Alfonzo's blade.
"Winner, Alfonzo." Ur declared after seeing that Alfonzo had a blade pressed to Alzack's neck. "That concludes this year's promotion exam. Now, I want all the S-Class wizards to meet me on Sixth Sense to discuss Alzack's qualifications to join the ranks of the S-Class wizards."
With that, Ur stood up. Then, she started walking towards Sixth Sense with the other S-Class wizards following behind her shortly afterwards, leaving the S-Class candidates to talk amongst themselves, as well. Naturally, all the S-Class candidates were impressed by Alzack's showing in his match against Alfonzo with Gajeel adding him to his list of people he wanted to fight when they got back.
A while later, all the S-Class wizards were gathered in Sixth Sense's dining hall. While most of the wizards were seated around a large table, Alfonzo was in the ship's kitchen cooking.
"Alright, is there anyone who doesn't think that Alzack is qualified to be an S-Class wizard?" Ur asked, getting right to the point once everyone was seated.
The only response Ur received to her question was silence, which she expected.
"Are you kidding, Ur?" Laxus asked. "I think there are several among us who would have lost even worse than Alzack if they fought Alfonzo while he was fighting like that."
"Yeah, and you're probably one of them." Gildarts added with a chuckle.
In response, Laxus growled in annoyance. However, he did not deny that accusation.
"It seems that Alfonzo has increased his speed by quite the considerable margin." Fried replied. "From what I can tell, he was comparable to Laxus in his [Lightning Form]."
"And that's while he's not using his [Soul Armaments]." Elicia added. "but you have to remember, Bedlam amplifies his creation ability. And that includes the creation of electricity."
"Meaning, his speed gets even faster when Bedlam is released." Erza followed up. "Then, there's the increase in power the released state provides, as well."
"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Laxus said in an annoyed tone. "he's faster than I am, now. But we're not here to talk about me. We're supposed to be talking about Alzack and him becoming S-Class."
"I thought we already covered that." Cana said while tilting her head in mock confusion. "No one disagreed that he should be S-Class right? So, that conversation is over."
Not only Cana, but everyone else sitting at the table looked at Laxus as if he had just said something stupid. And the fact that even Natsu, the objectively least intelligent member of the guild, was looking at him like that, too, made Laxus even more annoyed than he already was.
"Then why are we even here?" Laxus asked, his annoyance growing with every word.
"Because Alfonzo/Fonzie/The Kid is cooking." Everyone replied in unison.
In response, Laxus could only remain silent.
Like that, the discussion about Alzack's "qualifications to be promoted to S-Class" continued until dinner was over. Then, the S-Class wizards returned to the camp that was set up a few days ago. Not before all of them took a shower using the special soap Alfonzo and Elicia used back when they snuck into Crocus' prison to kill Jose Porla to wash off the scent of Alfonzo's cooking first, though.