Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
July 1, x790.
After Alfonzo's display of not just destroying, but evaporating, the Magic Power Finder, the entire city of Crocus and the other seven Preliminary Arenas fell into a tense silence. However, that silence did not last long, as Blue Pegasus's, Lamia Scale's, Mermaid Heel's, Quatro Cerberus', and Sabertooth's teams decided they would not be out done.
And when the audience saw those five guilds start to move, they all cheered in excitement.
"Come on, Lamia Scale!"
"Let's go, Blue Pegasus!"
Mermaid Heel, I love you!"
"Sabertooth is the strongest!"
"Do it, Quatro Puppy! *Smack!* Ah! *Cough* I mean, Quatro Cerberus!"
Cheers like those rang out throughout Crocus so loudly that even those who were not woken up by the loud buzzer at midnight, found themselves awake and interested in the proceedings. Meanwhile, Alfonzo, Elicia, Marin, Sun, and Brandish stood just outside the central plaza and watched the screens like everyone else.
"So, who do you think is gonna get the highest score?" Alfonzo asked curiously with a smile on his face.
"You mean other than you?" Brandish asked in a dry tone.
"Naturally." Alfonzo replied. "Not to sound arrogant, but can't none of them fuck with me."
"Bring it down a notch, Fonzie." Elicia said in a somewhat reprimanding tone.
"Take it easy, Lici." Alfonzo said as he reached out to start combing his fingers through Elicia's hair. "I'm talking about single target attack damage. I know I'm out classed in a few categories by some of them. For example, I can't compare to Jura in defensive techniques. Nor am I as quiet as Yoruichi when I move at top speed."
"But you didn't say that your defense is weaker than Jura's or your speed is lower than Yoruichi's Marin pointed out, playing devil's advocate.
"Well, that's because I'm not sure." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "But I'm not counting myself out."
"Oh, look, the first one is attacking." Sun said, drawing everyone's attention to the screens.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, GMG Preliminary Arena #5.
After discussing with his teammates, Jura, the leader of Team Lamia Scale stepped forward with a peaceful expression on his face. However, everyone in the arena could feel his magic power roiling just under the surface, ready to be unleashed in a devastating attack. The closer Jura got to the Magic Power Finder, the further away the other wizards stepped from it.
*Smack!*
Once Jura stopped, he slapped his palms together while flaring his magic power to its limits. Then, he surged his magic power into the ground underneath the floating Magic Power Finder.
"Now!" Jura said sharply as he cast his spell. "[Rumbling Mount Fuji]."
*Boom!*
With that, the magic power Jura sent into the ground exploded upwards, destroying the ground as it did so. Then, along with debris that was sent flying from the ground, Jura's magic power slammed into the underside of the Magic Power Finder. And just like the debris, it, too, was sent flying into the sky.
Meanwhile, Jura, with his expression still peaceful, watched the devastation his magic power caused. At the same time, the other wizards in the arena, although they could only see Jura's silhouette, had to admit that his silhouette against the bright light of his spell mixed with the flapping of his Wizard Saint's robe was quite the sight.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
"Not bad." Alfonzo said with a nod. "He's gotten quite a bit stronger while training in the gravity chambers."
"Yeah. That would be hard to take head on." Marin replied with a nod of her own.
"If you ever took that spell head on, you'd be in for some serious punishment." Elicia said sternly.
"Oh, no!" Marin shrieked playfully with a hint of mischief in her tone. "Please, don't punish me, Mommy!"
Hearing Marin's exclamation, a few people near the place where the five Fairy Tail wizards were watching the rest of the preliminaries from turned to look at their group with strange expressions.
"OMG!" Elicia exclaimed in exasperation. "Why did you do that? Now everyone's gonna think we're perverts."
"Aren't we?" Marin asked while tilting her head.
"Even if we are, don't spread it around." Elicia shot back. "*Sigh* Erza's bad habits are rubbing off on you."
Marin only chuckled good naturedly at that.
"Oh, Jura's score is out." Sun said, once again drawing everyone's attention to the screens.
{Magic Power Finder Scoreboard
Rank Name Score
Fairy Tail ∞ Lamia Scale 9238}
"What! It's over 9,000!" Alfonzo shouted in an exaggerated show of shock.
That outburst caused the four ladies to stare at him blankly with Elicia's stare being the most damaging. However, her blank stare melted away a moment later as her blank expression turned into one on the verge of tears an instant later.
"Fonzie~!" Elicia whined. "I wanted to say that~!"
"Hahahaha!" Alfonzo laughed loudly. "You thought you would be the first to say it, but it was me, Alfonzo!"
"Oh! My! God!" Elicia shrieked while pulling her hair. "Stop taking these lines from me, Fonzie~!"
Alfonzo's and Elicia's little act only made Marin, Sun, and Brandish stare at them with confusion in their eyes. However, when they realized that neither Alfonzo nor Elicia had any intension of explaining what they were talking about, they simply returned to watching the screens to see how the others were doing in the preliminaries.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, GMG Preliminary Arena #3.
"Alright, I'm going." Bacchus said after watching Jura.
"No, I think I should go." Guy said while placing one hand on Bacchus shoulder while using the other to raise his thumb with a smile on his face. "Your youth is meant to explode in a different setting."
*Shine!*
Then, Guy's smile shined inexplicably for a moment.
"Yeah, I think we should let Guy go up." Yumichika said casually. "Your new martial art focuses more on redirecting force, right?"
"*Sigh* Fine." Bacchus said, backing down surprisingly easy to anyone who had not seen his changes.
"Don't worry, trust in Guy." Genma said while taking the senbon he usually kept in his mouth into his right hand. "He's got a lot of power. Especially if he uses the [Inner Gates]."
"Yeah, I know." Bacchus replied. He then turned to look at Guy with a grin. "Give 'em a show, Guy."
In response, Guy gave Bacchus another thumbs up. Then, he walked towards the Magic Power Finder confidently.
A few moments later, Guy was standing a few yards away from the Magic Power Finder. Then, he took a horse stance and clenched his fists tightly. He then agitated his magic power and used it to force open his body's limiters.
"[Gate of Wonder, Open]!" Guy chanted.
Immediately, Guy's skin reddened thanks to the increased blood flow while a vein started to bulge on Guy's forehead. At the same time, thanks to the force of his increased magic power, guy's hair stood straight up. And to top it all off, the unlocking of his limiters made Guy start secreting a blue-colored sweat that immediately vaporized upon contact with the air, making it look as if he had a flame-like aura surrounding his body.
A moment later, Guy stepped forward with his left foot while drawing his right fist back into position to throw a punch. Then, while precisely directing all the power of his body into his right arm, Guy slammed his foot down while throwing the punch.
"[Daytime Tiger]!" Guy shouted with youthful passion as he threw the punch.
*Roar!*
Guy's punch contained so much force that instead of pushing the air in front of his fist forward, it was compressed. Then, when the pocket of compressed air finally burst, the air was pushed forward with great velocity. On top of that, with his magic power control, Guy shaped the rushing air into the shape of a white tiger without letting it lose its density. Meanwhile, the wind was so strong that it sounded just like a tiger's roar as it rushed forward.
*Boom!*
Less than a second later, the [Daytime Tiger] slammed into the Magic power finder with enough force to send it flying from its position. And Guy, without even waiting for his score to be calculated turned around, closed the [Gate of Wonder], and raised a thumbs up in his team's direction.
"See that? My youth is burning brightly." Guy said while his muscles repeatedly twitched from the strain opening the [Gate of Wonder] put on them.
Earth Land, Ishgar, kingdom of Fiore, GMG Preliminary Arena #2.
"I'm going." Sting said, wanting to show off his power.
"Go." Minerva replied with a nod while watching the other screens. "Don't disappoint me, Sting. Sabertooth is the strongest."
"I know." Sting replied with a nod of his own. "And I'll make sure everyone knows it, too."
With that, Sting walked forward, leaving his teammates to watch him from behind.
"Princess, are you sure that was the right decision?" Rufus asked. "I mean, with my [Memory Make Magic], I could probably do what that guy from Fairy Tail did without showing what everyone else is capable of."
"I know, Rufus." Minerva replied without looking at the wizard in red. "but I want to keep that magic a secret until the main event starts, at least."
"I see." Rufus replied.
Not long after that short conversation, Sting was standing in front of the Magic Power Finder. He then took a deep breath before turning slightly and stretching his right arm backwards with its fingers outstretched, as well. Meanwhile, his left arm was slightly bent in front of him.
"[Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Holy Ray]." Sting chanted while motes of light gathered on his fingertips from the surroundings.
While the expressions of the other wizards in the arena turned from those of disinterest at watching a new player try to compete with those that everyone knew was already in the big leagues to ones filled with shock at the fact that Sting just called his spell a [Dragon Slayer Secret Art], the shock intensified when they felt the amount of magic power that Sting was concentrating into his hand.
A moment later, Sting flashed forward with his right fist now clenched. Then, once he was in range, he swung his fist, coated in light, at the Magic Power Finder.
*Boom!*
Then, as soon as Sting's punch landed, the gathered light exploded, obscuring the view of everyone watching. At the same time, the sound of the arena floor being destroyed could be heard, even over the sound of the explosion.
"Good." Minerva said simply while turning to look at the scoreboard for their arena. Now, let's see by how much Sting surpassed the others.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
"Whoa! That was pretty cool." Marin said. "The light show, I mean. The way the light looked like it was rushing to gather in his hand was cool."
"Yeah, it wasn't bad." Brandish added. "But it wasn't all that strong. I mean, I've seen Natsu tank harder hits than that from Laxus... And Gajeel... And Gray... You know what? The list is just too long to name."
"Well, he does fight just about everyone, all the time.' Elicia said with a giggle.
"Yeah, that's our Natsu." Alfonzo said with a nod.
'Well, back in the canon, Natsu tanked that attack with only one hand during the GMG in x791.' Alfonzo thought to himself while watching the screens. 'Meaning, Sting had a year more to train. On top of that, Natsu was pretty much still at the same level as when he fought on Tenrou Island. So, it's really not that strong.'
"Oh, look, the scoreboard has finally been updated." Sun said, also not all that impressed with Sting's power.
As she spoke, Sun pointed up at the combined scoreboard where there were now four names listed. And that naturally drew Alfonzo's, Elicia's, Marin's, and Brandish's attention.
{Magic Power Finder Scoreboard
Rank Name Score
Fairy Tail ∞ Lamia Scale 9,238 Quatro Cerberus 9,028 Sabertooth 5,138}
"Oh, that was stronger than I expected." Alfonzo said with an impressed tone.
"Which one?" Brandish asked.
"Sting's Secret Art." Alfonzo replied. "I wouldn't have been surprised if it was a thousand points lower. I guess I underestimated him a little too much."
"Well, he is a Dragon slayer, you know?" Marin said while rolling her eyes. "They always have a way of surprising people, don't they?"
"*Sigh* I guess you're right." Alfonzo replied while shaking his head. "Dragon Slayer's are bullshit."
In response, Elicia, Marin, Sun, and Brandish all nodded their heads in agreement. Then, they all turned to look in a particular direction when they felt a surge of magic power flare up in anger.
"Who is that?" Sun asked with a slight frown on her face. "Their magic power feels so gross."
"Yeah, it almost feels like a dark wizard." Marin added. "But there's no way any dark wizards would be in Crocus at this time, right?"
As soon as Marin's words ended, several wizards in the city sneezed at the same time. And the most notable of which was Ivan Dreyar, Makarov's son and Laxus' father, who was irritated that Laxus was not representing Fairy Tail this year, as he intended to make contact with him and try to pull him over to his side to gain the ultimate power Fairy Tail was hiding, the Fairy Heart.
Unfortunately for Ivan, he had no idea what Fairy Heart was exactly. But the face he would show when he found out that Fairy Heart was actually the first guild master, mavis Vermilion, who had been freed from the lacrima she was sealed in, and was currently watching the preliminaries with Makarov and Ur, the expression on his face would probably be a sight to see.
However, Ivan was not the wizard flaring his magic power in anger. Instead, that was Jiemma Orland, Minerva's father, as well a the guild master of Sabertooth, who, for some reason, is convinced that his guild is much stronger than any other guild on Fiore.
"Anyway, it looks like Mermaid Heel and Blue Pegasus will be stepping up next." Elicia said. "I wonder who they'll send up."
"Well, I'm almost certain that Mermaid Heel will send up Yoruichi." Alfonzo said. "I mean, that [Raijū Senkei] spell was pretty strong when she used it against Erza. So, she'll probably use that."
"Yeah, I remember that." Marin said in a sour tone. "As much as I hate to admit it, she's really strong. I probably would have never been able to punch her if she didn't let me back then."
"*Sigh* Probably not." Elicia replied. "Anyway, let's just keep watching."
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, GMG Preliminary Arena #8.
"Well, I'm up next." Yoruichi said, proving Alfonzo's prediction correct. "This won't take long."
In response, the other members of Team Mermaid Heel simply nodded. Then, using the [Flash Step], Yoruichi vanished from where she stood, reappearing in front of the Magic Power Finder an instant later.
"[Shunkō]." Yoruichi chanted quietly without wasting time.
In the next instant, Yoruichi's magic power spiked. Then, the orange long sleeved shirt she was wearing over her battle attired exploded before being vaporized by the large, white wings made of [Lightning Magic] that sprouted from her backless battle attire. At the same time, her arms were wrapped in the same [Lightning Magic], as well.
"[Shunkō: Raijū Senkei]." Yoruichi chanted once again.
Then, the large [Lightning Magic] Wings on Yoruichi's back began to change, taking the form of a large circle resembling a drum that floated above her head. And once this drum was formed, Yoruichi pointed her right index finger at the Magic Power Finder.
*Boom!*
In instant later, the Magic Power Finder was engulfed in a column of white [Lightning Magic] while the area behind it was gouged out in a straight line. A moment later, when the [Lightning Magic] dissipated, the Magic Power Finder could be seen smoking while the ground that had been gouged out was glowing bright red.
"Alright, let's go back." Yoruichi said as she turned around.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, GMG Preliminary Arena #1.
After seeing the other guilds take their turns, without discussing with the rest of her team, Karen started walking toward the Magic Power Finder wit determination burning in her eyes.
"She's gonna use that spell, isn't she?" Sorano asked.
"Probably." Ichiya said with his trademark smile spread across his face. "She's going to show everyone what Blue Pegasus is made of. Men!"
"*Sigh* I guess I'll go after her." Sorano said while shaking her head. "She's going to need some help when she's done."
Meanwhile, Karen continued to walk forward. However, her mind was filled with only one thought as she flexed her fingers that were adorned with magic rings.
'I'll let you see how strong I am now, Elicia.' Karen thought to herself as she reached her optimal attack range. 'Then, when you see how much I've grown, you'll definitely make me your pet. And finally, you'll punish me just the way I deserve.'
While those thoughts were running through her head, Karen flared her magic power to its limit. At the same time, her face reddened while she began to pant slightly.
Seeing Karen's current state, the other wizards in the arena thought she was pushing herself as hard as she could, which was correct. But it was not the whole story. Only Sorano, who knew Karen the best of all those present, knew what was going through the green-haired beauty's head.
'*Sigh* Even if you were to break the MPF, too, she wouldn't accept you.' Sorano thought while approaching Karen from behind and shaking her head. 'But whatever you need to tell yourself to get the proper motivation, I guess.'
In the next instant, Karen drew both of her arms back, the rings on her fingers thrumming with magic power.
"[Ring Magic: Nova Stream]." Karen chanted as she thrust both of her fists forward.
*Boom!*
With that, streams of different attribute magic power shot from Karen's rings before combining into one large column of chaotic magic power. Then, the column slammed into the Magic Power Finder with great force. However, unlike most of the other spells that were seen during these preliminaries, there was no explosion. Instead, the column continued stretching forward while taking the Magic Power Finder along with it.
Finally, when Karen's spell sputtered out, the Magic Power Finder could be seen in the distance, about a mile away, emitting smoke.
At the same time, Karen stumbled. Yet, before she could fall to the arena floor, she was caught.
"I got you.' Sorano said s she threw one of Karen's arms over her shoulder. "Let's head back, you need rest after using that spell."
Karen did not respond, however, as she was too exhausted from pouring all of her magic power into that spell. Even so, she glared at Sorano, who, although she still did not like very much, Karen had come to respect her over the years.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
After Karen's display, the other guilds hesitated for a moment. However, they soon scrambled to be the next ones to show their power after that. And by the time they were all finished, the overall scoreboard, that showed the top eight teams, looked like this.
{Magic Power Finder Scoreboard
Rank Name Score
Fairy Tail ∞ Mermaid Heel 9,983 Lamia Scale 9,238 Quatro Cerberus 9,028 Blue Pegasus 8,700 Sabertooth 5,138 Final Fantasy 5,022 Twilight Ogre 1,999}
And when Alfonzo and Elicia saw the final rankings, they stared at the name of the team in seventh place with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. However, before Marin, Sun, and Brandish could ask them what was wrong, Mato's voice rang out for the last time.
{"Well, folks! That's it!"} Mato shouted energetically. {"The eight teams have been decided! So, I hope you're looking forward to this year's Grand Magic Games! I'll see you bright and early at the Domus Flau! Until then, good night!"}
With that, all the projections, except for the one showing the overall scoreboard vanished from the night sky. Then, all the wizards returned to their lodgings so they could be well rested for the beginning of the Grand Magic Games later in the morning. And that went double for the eight teams that would be competing.