Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
October 15, x784.
The third fight began almost immediately after the second. Standing on opposite sides of the ring were Gray and Lucy from Team Natsu, and Alzack and Bisca from Team Alzack.
While most of the spectators were excited to see another exciting battle, there was one blue-haired girl who was currently biting on the nail of her right thumb while staring at one of the competitors with blatant hostility.
"Juvia, are you alright?" Lisanna asked curiously after feeling Juvia's turbulent emotions.
"That blonde floozie." Juvia muttered while staring a hole in the back of Lucy's head. "How dare she think of teaming up with my Gray."
Hearing that, the rest of Team Strauss looked at Juvia with a mix of confusion and concern.
"*Sigh* You don't have to worry about her going after Gray." Mirajane said with a wry smile. "I'm fairly certain she is interested in someone else."
"Hmph!" Juvia snorted in displeasure. "So, she thinks my Gray isn't good enough?" Juvia asked, even more anger seeping into her tone. "Perhaps I should teach her what a real man looks like."
Immediately, Mirajane and Lisanna face palmed as they knew what was coming after that.
"Haha! Yah, everyone should know what a real man is." Elfman said energetically. "I will help you show the world what a real man looks like."
"You have no right to comment on that." Juvia replied. "The only real man in this world, Gray, needs no advice from the likes of you."
Elfman's expression froze upon hearing Juvia's cutting words. Eventually, he slumped back into his seat with a bit of depression on his face.
Mirajane and Lisanna could only smile wryly at that short interaction. However, instead of trying to comfort their brother, they turned their attention back to the ring, as the fighters had all started to move.
"[Open! Gate of the Ram, Aries]." Lucy chanted with a Golden Celestial Key in hand.
A moment later, while Gray took a step forward with his hands in his usual casting gesture, a beautiful young woman with pink, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes wearing a white, long sleeved, off the shoulder, mid-thigh length, dress and boots with a black band around the top that were all made of a wool-like material appeared next to Lucy.
Meanwhile, from the other side of the ring, Alzack, with his two pistols, Ebony and Ivory, drawn, charged forward. At the same time, Bisca fell back, creating as much distance between herself and the opponents as she could without stepping out of the ring.
"*Sigh* It's too small." Bisca said as she reached the edge of the ring.
"That's what she said." Alfonzo shouted from his seat in the stands.
"How am I supposed to put my best gun to use when I'm so close to the enemy?" Bisca continued without paying Alfonzo's shout any attention. "[Requip: Magic Rifle]."
The weapon Bisca was referring to was a high caliber magic sniper rifle that she named, Last Kiss. With the ability to use any number of magical bullets, the sniper rifle had an effective range of a little over a mile and a half (2.5 km).
Most enemies who were struck by one of its bullets would find themselves unable to do anything, whether fight or flee, for quite some time. Thus the name, Last Kiss, as the battle would be all but over if a single shot landed.
Alzack, on the other hand, was the real surprise for most of the spectators. However, to the group of young wizards who often trained with Alfonzo and Elicia, his actions were perfectly normal.
Unlike the canon timeline, Alzack was not a mid to long range fighter. Instead, he like to fight from close to mid-range, incorporating martial arts into his fighting style. Basically, he used Gun Fu as Elicia called it. On top of that, his attire was completely different from the canon version, as well.
Instead of dressing like a desperado, he dressed a lot like Dante from Devil May Cry. In fact, if you switched the color of Dant's eyes and hair from blue and white to black and black, respectively, you would get the current Alzack's look.
Wearing a black long sleeved shirt, black pants, black boots, and a red trench coat over all that, Alzack's charge came to a halt when Gray chanted his spell.
"[Ice-Make: Bullet Storm]." Gray chanted as he extended his hands forward.
With his chant completed, a magic circle appeared in front of Gray's outstretched hands. Then, dozens of ice bullets appeared in the air around him before being shot forward at high speed towards Alzack.
"Really, Gray?" Alzack asked, raising his pistols in front of him. "You're going to use bullets against me?"
*Bang!* *Bang!* * Bang!* * Bang!*
Immediately after speaking, Alzack rapidly pulled the triggers of his pistols, firing quickly and accurately to shoot down all the incoming bullets. Or rather, he shot down those he needed to while dodging those he didn't with rather acrobatic movements.
Meanwhile, from as far back as she could, Bisca, looking down the sights of her rifle, took aim at Gray.
*Bang!*
"[Wool Wall]." Aries chanted, raising her hands towards Gray.
In the next instant, a pink wall of wool appeared, Bisca's bullet then sank into it harmlessly.
"Tch!" Bisca clicked her tongue as she pulled the bolt on her rifle.
By that time, Alzack had taken care of all the ice bullets headed his way. Then, he started dashing forward once again, ejecting the empty magazines from his pistols as he did. A moment later, he lowered Ebony and Ivory to his thighs, where there were several more magazines strapped to them.
"I figured that wouldn't work." Gray muttered as he gestured once again. "but it gave me enough time for this. [Ice-Make: Stomp]."
Above Alzack, a large foot, made completely out of ice, materialized before falling down towards him.
"[Guns Magic: Firestorm Shot]." Alzack chanted while raising the black pistol in his left hand towards the falling ice construct.
As Alzack pulled the trigger, instead of a bullet being fired from the gun's barrel, a tornado of flames spiraled into the sky, engulfing the ice foot. Then, before the flames could die out, Alzack aimed the silver pistol in his right hand at Gray, more specifically his hands, and pulled the trigger.
"[Guns Magic: Glue Shot]." Alzack chanted.
*Bang!*
This time, a normal looking bullet was fired from the barrel of Alzack's gun. However, when it made contact with Gray's left arm, as he had reacted quickly to block with is arm covered in a thick layer of ice, it was proven to be no normal bullet.
Upon contact, the bullet exploded into a glob of glue that covered Grays arm from the elbow down. On top of that, the forced behind the bullet forced Gray's arm into his torso before gluing them together.
"Damn!" Gray shouted as he was forced to take a step back from the impact.
"[Wool Shot]." Aries shouted, firing a ball of wool towards Bisca, who had lined up another shot on Gray.
"Tch!" Bisca clicked her tongue again before she was forced to dodge the incoming ball of wool.
"Good, keep her busy, Aries." Lucy said, reaching under her skirt to the handle of her whip. "I'll help Gray deal with Alzack."
"Okay, Miss Lucy." Aries said in a shy, yet determined, tone.
With that, Aries ran forward , trying to close the distance with Bisca.
"Not so fast." Alzack said, pointing his right pistol at Aries. "I'd rather you stayed here with the rest of us."
"I don't think so!" Lucy shouted, swinging her whip and wrapping it around Alzack's barrel.
With the whip wrapped around Alzack's gun, Lucy pulled, diverting the barrel away from Aries. However, she regretted taking that action less than a moment later after seeing Alzack's smirk.
Without thinking, Lucy had pulled the whip towards herself. As a result, Alzack's barrel was now pointed directly at her.
*Bang!*
Luckily, Gray was still close enough to react. Throwing himself between Lucy and the bullet, he made sure that the bullet would hit the glue covering his frozen arm, which had also hardened due to the cold temperature.
*Shatter!*
As soon as the bullet struck, both the glue and the ice shattered. However, Due to the force behind the bullet, Gray was knocked back into Lucy. In the end, they were both tangled together before falling to the ring.
Meanwhile, Bisca, who had been avoiding Aries' wool-based spells, had been forced to close the distance between the rest of the fighters. However, as a master of mid to long ranged combat, she found herself in a perfect position to take advantage of the situation.
"[Requip: Magic Shotgun]." Bisca chanted.
At the same time, while Gray and Lucy were rolling across the ring, Gray managed to make his casting gesture.
"[Ice-Make:…]." Gray said, beginning his chant.
"[Guns Magic: Net Shot]." Bisca chanted as she pulled the trigger of her magic shot gun.
*Bang!*
A moment later, a slug was fired from the barrel of Bisca's shotgun and headed directly towards Gray and Lucy. Then, just before it hit, its tip opened before a net large enough to wrap up two or three people unfolded.
"[… Geyser]." Gray managed to finish his chant just before he and Lucy were wrapped up in the net.
"[Wool Bomb]." Aries also chanted at nearly the same time.
A moment later, Gray and Lucy were wrapped up in the net. However, a few things happened in short order after that.
First, Aries' [Wool Bomb] engulfed the entire ring in a large amount of pink wool. However, those trapped inside the wool were still able to move. On top of that, Aries could control the wool to attack from any direction.
So, using the magical wool, Aries forced Bisca towards Alzack. However, since she was unharmed, Bisca did not think much of it. Unfortunately, lulling Bisca into a false sense of security was Aries' aim from the start.
In the next instant, once Alzack and Bisca were close to one another, ice shards exploded upward from beneath them.
Naturally, because they were completely off guard, they had no way of putting up any defense against the sneak attack. As a result, they were both hurled into the air along with the explosion of ice shards.
Alzack had been quite unlucky, as it would seem, as he was struck on the head by the blunt side of an ice shard as soon as the ice exploded upward, resulting in him falling unconscious immediately.
Bisca, however, found herself flying above the cloud of wool. And when she saw the unconscious Alzack she was worried, but unconcerned for the outcome of the fight. Because before she was covered by the pink cloud of wool, she knew that her [Net Shot] should have sent Gray and Lucy out of the ring due to the force behind the shotgun shell.
And just as she expected, Makarov's announcement sounded while she was falling to the ring, covered in shallow cuts and bruises.
"Gray and Lucy are both outside of the ring." Makarov's voice sounded across the venue. "Winner by ring out, Alzack Connell and Bisca Mulan. And winners of the match with score of two to one, Team Alzack.
With that, the cloud of wool dissipated to reveal a confused Aries standing in the middle of the ring. Meanwhile, Gray and Lucy, still tied up in Bisca's net were laying on top of one another just outside of the ring.
"Aries, Alzack is unconscious.!" Lucy shouted after seeing the situation from the ground. "Catch him!"
Immediately, Aries snapped back to her senses and looked into the sky. Then, she raised her hands, one towards Alzack's and Bisca's landing locations each.
"[Wool Cushion]." Aries chanted.
A moment later, before Alzack and Bisca could fall to the ring, a pink cushion made of wool appeared under both of them. As a result, when they fell, they received no harm.
"*Sigh* Good work, Aries." Lucy said, holding Aries' key in her hand. "Why don't you go back and take a rest. You deserve it."
"Okay, see you later, Miss Lucy." Aries said with a polite bow before returning to the Celestial Spirit World.
"Now, can we do something about this net?" Lucy asked in an uneasy tone. "I feel like if we stay like this much longer, my life will be in danger."
Meanwhile, in the stands where Team Strauss sat, a column of steam was shooting up into the sky.
"That hussy!" Juvia shouted with clear anger in her tone. "How dare she make a move on my Gray."
"Um… I think you should calm down, Juvia." Lisanna said cautiously. "Lucy didn't do it on purpose."
As she spoke, Lisanna patted Juvia on the shoulder. However, she was forced to pull her hand back quickly due to the high temperature Juvia was emitting thanks to her [Sierra] form, a form that caused her [Water Body] to super heat.
"Ow!" Lisanna yelped in pain as her hand was scolded.
"Lisanna, are you okay?" Elfman asked with concern, finally snapping out of his funk after Juvia insinuated that he was not a real man.
"Don't worry, Big Brother Elf." Lisanna replied with a smile while waving her slightly red hand. "I was just surprised, that's all."
Juvia, on the other hand, looked at Lisanna apologetically. She had no intention of hurting anyone. But her [Sierra] was activated automatically when she was angered.
"Like Lisanna said, Lucy didn't do it on purpose." Mirajane said, reaching into her cleavage to pull out an ointment that would sooth the slight burn on Lisanna's hand. "They only ended up that way because of Bisca's [Net Shot], right?"
With that said, Juvia's glare moved from Lucy to Bisca.
"Then, she's getting in the way of my love, huh?" Juvia asked, the sound of boiling water coming from her.
In response, the Strauss siblings could only sigh in unison before completely ignoring their clearly unstable teammate while Mirajane applied the ointment on Lisanna's hand.