After Miki's appearance concluded, Marcus enthusiastically announced, "Next up is the magic demonstration segment!"
Right on stage, Miki performed a set of punches, her tiger-claw-shaped gauntlets glowing with magical energy.
Her pet bird, Xiaobi, fluttered around her, sometimes transforming into fireballs, other times into ice spikes.
"Oh my, what a wild and powerful performance!"
Marcus kept up his commentary, explaining to those unfamiliar with magic the highlights of Miki's act, eliciting rounds of applause.
Even Makarov was caught up in the excitement, cheering loudly along with the regular audience.
Rhodes looked helplessly at the little old man hopping excitedly beside him. "Master, why did you squeeze in over here too?"
Makarov retorted, "This is a guild event; what's wrong with me participating?"
Rhodes said, "Well, it's not that... Don't you need to accompany Mr. Ajima and Guild Master Goodman?"
"They know this city even better than you do; why would they need me to show them around? Alright, enough of that, let's enjoy the contest."
Makarov suddenly complained, "I almost missed the best part because of you."
"..." Fine, that's just how the guild master is, Rhodes accepted it.
"Next up is contestant number 2, Levy McGarden!"
Following the same format as Miki, Levy showcased her Solid Script magic.
Using her fingers, she wrote words like 'Flowers,' 'Butterflies,' 'Snowflakes,' making them surround her, highlighting her cuteness and liveliness.
Cute girls are also very popular, especially Jet and Droy; their shouts overpowered a large portion of the surrounding audience.
"Contestant number 3, Bisca Mulan!"
Bisca took the stage dressed in a cowgirl outfit, carrying a long rifle. Bang bang! She precisely hit the pre-set targets.
Then she activated her Requip magic, switching the rifle for handguns, and fired another round.
Finally, her action of blowing away the guns' smoke caused a burst of screams, and made Alzack's face in the audience turn red.
"Number 4, Cana Alberona!"
There was a bit of an accident with Cana. It seemed that she was already drunk when she took the stage.
She was wearing her usual attire and, upon coming on stage, hugged a large barrel of wine and gulped it down.
If not for Marcus's explanation, the audience might have thought her magic was drinking alcohol.
"What is Cana doing?" Reedus held his paintbrush from afar, unsure whether to start sketching.
Warren said, "It seems she joined to earn the prize money for more booze, but ended up drinking on stage."
Nab commented, "That's just like her."
Bisca and Levy, who had just finished their performances, came back on stage to carry off the collapsed Cana, while Miki moved the wine barrel away.
"Ah, it seems contestant Cana had a slight mishap. But next up is a heavyweight contestant:
Contestant number 5, possessing both stunning beauty and incredible strength—the Fairy Queen, Erza Scarlet!"
"Oooh!!!"
Erza's fame clearly far surpassed the previous contestants. Just appearing in her usual armor ignited the most enthusiastic cheers since the beginning.
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!"
With a flash of light, a magnificent metal armor appeared on Erza. A pair of steel wings unfolded behind her like butterfly wings, lifting her into the air.
Holding dual swords, with sixteen swords from the Heaven's Wheel Armor circling around her, they slowly rotated with her thoughts.
"Oooooh~~~" Many audience members couldn't help but let out wolf whistles.
In the instant when her old armor vanished and the new armor appeared, they seemed to see something, yet seemed to see nothing.
Wearing the Heaven's Wheel Armor, Erza looked like a beautiful angel, yet also like a valiant goddess of war.
Even Rhodes had to admit he was stunned by Erza's outfit.
"Ooooh! Erza!" Makarov was actually jumping up and down, shouting Erza's name, looking like a crazed fan ready to rush the stage at any moment.
Rhodes had to remind this one of the Ten Wizard Saints beside him, "Master, please mind your image."
"What image? We're watching the contest, Rhodes!" Makarov slightly restrained his excitement.
"By the way, Rhodes, you look just like Mira when she tries to persuade me to drink less."
The guild master sure knows how to compliment people. Rhodes said, "Then perhaps you should listen a bit and drink less."
Makarov didn't want to talk to him anymore.
Rhodes looked around; the audience was marveling at Erza's beauty and heroism.
No wonder Erza and Mira had been rivals since childhood; these two are really neck and neck in every aspect.
He was now a bit worried whether Mira could win.
Until Erza swung her swords, and the surrounding swords lined up and shot out.
Sixteen swords from the Heaven's Wheel Armor flew swiftly over the heads of the numerous audience members, the sword lights forming circles, pentagrams, snake-like patterns, before finally returning behind Erza.
Erza contentedly landed back on stage, reverting to her usual attire.
The audience below only felt their scalps tingling; they could almost feel the wind from the flying swords!
That sensation of swords whizzing over their heads was something they absolutely did not want to experience a second time.
"What astonishing control! What beautiful swordsmanship!" Marcus tried his best to salvage the situation, but it was difficult to recover the somewhat awkward atmosphere.
Macao touched his short purple hair, "Erza went a bit too far."
Wakaba nervously adjusted his pompadour hairstyle, feeling as if it had been sliced off just now. "Normally, who would showcase their armor in a contest like this?"
As if they weren't among those just now staring at Erza with hearts in their eyes.
On stage, Marcus had no choice but to continue the contest. "Next, let me introduce contestant number 6!"
"Our guild's proud poster girl, whose beauty will one day captivate the entire continent—that is Mirajane Strauss!"
Mira appeared on stage wearing her favorite red dress.
"Ooh!!!"
"We've been waiting!"
"She's even cuter than in the magazines!"
The cheers from the audience were no less enthusiastic than those for Erza, perhaps even more so due to the earlier incident.
Mira greeted everyone with a sweet smile, "Hello, everyone. I'm skilled in Transformation Magic, so I'll be demonstrating that for you."
Rhodes remembered something ominous.
The first time Mira showed him her Transformation Magic, she had transformed into the 'only the head is Plue' and 'only the head is Rhodes' series...
After that, besides a costume showdown with Jenny, she seemed to have also transformed into Gajeel once.
In this kind of contest, Mira wouldn't pull off something crazy, right?
Had he known, he would have accepted Laki's suggestion to give Mira some reliable advice and requests.
When she asked him again the day before yesterday, Rhodes had only said he'd like to see some outfits different from her usual ones.
Please don't make it too different!