Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
July 2, x790.
{"And now it's time for the Battle Round."} Loli said as he received the envelope with the day's match-ups. {"Which wizards will be facing off in this round. The anticipation is killing me."}
{'Well, you could just open the envelope."} Yajima said in a snarky tone. {"Then, the anticipation wouldn't be a problem, right?"}
{"Well... You're not wrong."} Loli said, sounding as if he did not know what to say exactly.
{"This should be quite the show."} Darkness added. {"With such powerful wizards facing each other, *Pant* the collisions will definitely be incredible."}
When Darkness stopped there, both Lali and Yajima sighed in relief. Being in the booth felt like they were rolling the dice. And every time Darkness opened her mouth, it was like a crap shoot. Unfortunately, the house was more likely to win than the player.
{"Yes, the impacts brought on by these heavyweights should be quite impressive."} Loli said as he opened the envelope as quickly as possible. {"So, without further ado, let's see who will be matching up for today's battles. And the first match will be between... Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy and Sting Eucliffe of Sabertooth."}
With Loli's announcement of the upcoming match, both Squall and Sting leapt into the arena from the spectator stands. And when the signal to start was given, neither wasted time, dashing towards each other and exchanging a flurry of sword strikes, punches and kicks. However, there was a noticeable sound of explosion with every swing of Squall's sword, the gunblade, which increased the power of each strike. Yet, Sting was able to hold his own with little effort. And as the match went on, both competitors began employing more than just melee combat, as fire and ice spells were cast by Squall and [Dragon Slayer magic] was employed by Sting.
In the end, however, neither combatant was able to take the victory before the thirty-minute time limit, resulting in a draw.
The next match was between Thibault of Twilight Ogre and Jenny of Blue Pegasus. And that match did not last very long at all. In fact, Jenny did not even have to use any of her armaments. Instead, she only used her [Machina Soul: Battle Suit] to augment her abilities before taking Thibault out in one attack.
After that, was a match between Sui-Feng of Mermaid Heel and Might Guy of Quatro Cerberus. And judging by the difference in magic power at the beginning of the match, everyone expected the match to end just as quickly as the one between Jenny and Thibault. However, when Guy opened the [Sixth Inner Gate, the Gate of View], the match was even.
That stalemate lasted for most of the match. And just when the timer ticked down to five minutes, Sui-Feng activated one of her trump card techniques, [Shunkō]. However, unlike Yoruichi's version of the technique, Sui-Feng did not employ [Lightning Magic]. Rather, she used [Wind Magic].
As soon as Sui-Feng activated [Shunkō], she took control of the match, immediately. She even managed to end the match before Guy could open the [Seventh Gate: Gate of Wonder], by striking several pressure points, leaving Guy completely immobile. Though, she was certain a tactic like that would never work a second time on such an accomplished martial artist.
{"Now, we come to the last Battle of Day Two."} Loli said once Guy and Sui-Feng vacated the arena. {"Brandish of Fairy Tail, Jura Neekis of Lamia Scale, please come to the arena.}
{"Oh, this could be quite the match."} Yajima said in an interested tone. {"From what I know, Brandish is quite the powerful wizard. As for Jura, I think everyone knows him. As one of the Ten Wizard Saints, he is one of the ten most powerful wizards on the continent. I'm really looking forward to this match, Loli."}
{"So, you have some insider news about this Brandish, Yajima?"} Loli asked, the interest in his tone noticeable. {"Now I'm even more excited about this match than I was before."}
{"*Pant* So am I, Loli and Yajima."} Darkness excited tone rang out over the Domus Flau. {"With such powerful wizards, I can only imagine how much damage they can inflict with their spells. *Pant* The thought is exhilarating."}
Although Darkness had not said anything in appropriate, stopping Loli from cutting her microphone once again. For some reason, he felt like he should have. And judging by the look he was receiving from Yajima, the ex-Magic Councilman was thinking the same thing.
Meanwhile, Jura and Brandish had both jumped down into the arena. As they stood across from each other, they locked gazes, though they did not speak. While waiting for the match to begin.
{"And now, let the Battle begin."} Loli said once he realized that both fighters were ready.
Despite Loli's signal, neither fighter moved. Instead, Jura found now a good time to speak.
"I'll admit, I'm looking forward to this." Jura said in his always peaceful tone. "I know nothing about your magic. So, this could be quite the interesting experience."
"If you say so." Brandish replied, sounding slightly bored. "Can we just get this over with? I really wanna go back to the hotel to curl up in my room and read a good book."
As she mentioned reading a book, Brandish's cheeks reddened slightly, letting those who knew her know exactly what kind of book she was talking about.
"Don't be embarrassed, Brandi!" Marin shouted from the stands. "Just because no one understands that level of art, doesn't make it any less valuable!"
"Marin is right!" Erza shouted, as well. "Once this is all done, let us come together to discuss the newest release!"
Instead of becoming more comfortable, Brandish's face reddened even further after hearing the members of her "book club" adding their two Jewels.
"I understand." Jura, completely unaware of the type of book Brandish was referring to, said while nodding his head. "Well, as I wouldn't want to keep you from your passion of reading, let's begin. [Iron Rock Fist]."
With Jura's chant, he stretched his right hand forward with its index and middle fingers pointing at Brandish. Then, in the next instant, the ground in front of Jura rose before forming into a gauntlet made of rock with its fingers clenched into a fist.
*Swoosh!*
The rock fist then rushed forward, the arm it was attached to extending at high-speed, towards Brandish. Meanwhile, Brandish, still looking slightly bored, did not even move to avoid the incoming attack. Instead, she only spun Hecatoncheires between the fingers of her right hand.
Seeing this, the crowd was shocked. Then, that shock turned into disappointment, thinking that Brandish was not as powerful as Yajima had hinted at. Especially since she seemed incapable of reacting to Jura's attack.
"[Command T: Reduction]." Brandish chanted as she reached her free hand forward before tapping the incoming rock fist with her index finger.
The result of such an action left all those who were unaware of Brandish's magic gaping in disbelief. Because as soon as Brandish's finger came in contact with the rock fist, it shrank to the size of a model that could fit in Brandish's hand. And that did not just apply to the fist itself. Rather, the entire elongated arm had shrunk. Then, before it could fall to the arena floor and break, Brandish caught it before holding it up to her face to examine it.
"The gauntlet and fist are quite exquisitely made." Brandish said after finishing her inspection. "But this elongated arm takes quite a bit from the overall aesthetic appeal. So, I'll give it back."
With that said, Brandish drew her arm back into a throwing motion. Then she threw the arm towards Jura with force.
"[Command T: Expansion]." Brandish chanted.
An instant later, the stone arm Brandish threw at Jura increased in size. However, instead of stopping at its original size, it grew to three times the size of Jura's original attack, making the audience gape in shock once again.
Jura, on the other hand, widened his eyes in surprise. Even so, thanks to his years of experience as a wizard, he reacted in time to defend himself from the incoming, gigantic, projectile.
"[Iron Rock Wall]." Jura chanted while pointing the, still, outstretched index and middle fingers of his right hand at the ground before raising them to point at the sky.
*Crack!*
With Jura's chant and hand gesture, a thick rock wall sprang up from the ground in the giant rock fist's flight path. However, feeling that just one wall would not be enough, Jura chanted once again while performing the same rock gesture a few more times.
*Crack!* *Crack!* *Crack!*
This time, a few more walls popped up between Jura and the first wall he erected. And they as just in time for the fist to strike the first wall.
*Boom!*
And that collision proved that Jura was correct to raise extra defenses, as the fist, without losing much momentum and only taking minimum damage, burst through the wall with little resistance.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Crack!*
And the fist continued forward, bursting through the second and third wall, as well. However, by the time it struck the fourth wall, its momentum had been greatly reduced. As a result, instead of bursting through, it only cracked the last defensive wall heavily.
Seeing that his defenses were enough, Jura stepped forward and struck the, now, cracked wall several times in rapid succession.
"[Iron Rock Avalanche]" Jura chanted while striking the wall.
With that, every damaged piece of the rock wall Jura struck was sent flying forward to where he remembered Brandish was standing.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
*Gasp!*
However, when Jura heard the collective gasps from the crowd, despite the sounds of devastation accompanying them, he realized something was off about the situation. And since he had lost sight of Brandish after raising the rock walls, he figured that he was attacking an empty space instead of his opponent.
And Jura's suspicions were actually true. Brandish, who did not intend to let this match drag on, started moving as soon as the first rock wall was raised. Then, by the time Jura used his [Iron Rock Avalanche], she was already standing to his left.
"[Resize the World, Hecatoncheires]." Brandish said, chanting her [Soul Armament's] release command as she pointed it's tip at Jura's neck. "[Expand]."
In the next instant, as Brandish's magic power spiked, Hecatoncheires' blade, originally a simple double-edged dagger, extended at high-speed. However, this was different from Brandish's [Command T] spells, as when she uses [Command T], not only the size of the object she chose to resize would increase or decrease, but it's mass would increase or decrease proportionally.
But with Hecatoncheires' ability upon being released, Brandish could control an object's size and mass independently. For example, in this case, Brandish resized Hecatoncheires, which now had bloodletting groves on its blade and several hooks pointing towards the handguard extending from the sides of the blade to deal more damage when the blade was extracted from a foe's body, to the length of two greatswords. Yet, the weapon's mass had not changed in the slightest.
On a side note, Brandish would usually increase the mass of Hecatoncheires' when she extended it like that. However, as she felt that she would not have to fight any longer after cornering Jura in this competition, she decided to just make handling the blade easier by leaving its mass unchanged.
By the time Jura realized that something was wrong, Hecatoncheires' blade was less than an inch from his throat. Jura then looked down at the blade before tracing his gaze towards the one holding it. However, he was surprised to see that the blade was at least twelve feet long. Even more surprising was how effortlessly Brandish seemed to be holding it with only one hand.
"Well, it would seem that I've lost." Jura said with a chuckle. "It looks like Alfonzo is not the only one I need to find a way to catch up to in Fairy Tail."
{"Ladies and gentlemen, Jura has surrendered!"} Loli shouted in a tone mixed with disbelief and excitement. {"And with this unexpected turn of events, Brandish has secured another victory for Fairy Tail, adding ten more points to their overall score. In fact, why don't we take a look at the scores now that all the activities for the second day have come to an end?"}
And with that, all the screens in the Domus Flau chanted to show the overall scoreboard.
{Overall Scoreboard
Rank Team Score
Fairy Tail 40 Pts. Mermaid Heel 34 Pts.
3 Blue Pegasus 23 Pts.
4.. Final Fantasy 22 Pts.
Sabertooth 16 Pts. Quatro Cerberus 10 Pts. Lamia Scale 3 Pts. Twilight Ogre 0 Pts.}
{"Oh my. Looking at these results..."} Loli said, unsure of what to say.
{"I know what you mean, Loli."} Yajima said. In the last two Grand Magic Games, Quatro Cerberus and Lamia Scale have finished in second place once each. Yet, after only two days, their scores don't make victory for them seem very hopeful."}
{"Mr. Yajima is right."} Darkness added in a solemn tone. {"I just hope they don't lose hope after today's events. *Click!*}
Seeing the expression on Darkness' face, Loli could tell she was about to go off on another one of her special tangents. So, he decisively cut off her microphone before she could start making the audience feel uncomfortable.
{"Well, that'll do it for the second day of the x790 Grand Magic Games."} Loli said while once again wiping the sweat off his forehead with his wig while Darkness' perverted ramblings could be heard in the background. {"We'll be back to with more action tomorrow. And there's a good chance we'll have a new guest joining us."
Those with good hearing were able to hear Loli speak under his breath. And when they heard the words, "Thank goodness," they could not help chuckling good naturedly.
{"But until then, everyone please stay safe and make sure to enjoy the festival."} Loli continued, as if he had not said anything. {"And we'll see you tomorrow at the same time."}