The criminals have reached a valley between 2 mountains on the other side of the forest. It's also the border of Fiore Kingdom, so they almost succeeded in leaving the Kingdom. But Alex's team manages to catch up.
These criminals are smart. They made many fake trails to redirect their pursuers away from the correct path. It was the reason why Blue Pegasus and Phantom Lord couldn't go far even when they started much earlier than Alex's team.
They were confused by the fake trails that the criminals made. Fortunately for Alex, he could differentiate the trails quite easily. The criminals used animals they controlled with magic to make the fake trails.
They transformed those animals to look like them using Transformation Magic. It made their trails look like human trails, not animal trails. This means that someone in their group is very proficient with Transformation Magic because it's not easy to use it on others.
Unfortunately for them, Transformation Magic only changes appearance. It can't erase the smell and magic power signature. They tried to mask the smell by putting some pieces of their clothes on those transformed animals, but the animals' true scents can't disappear.
Alex who relies on his sense of smell to track them isn't fooled by this trick. Furthermore, he can see the real traces that they tried to erase. Their technique to erase their traces was good, but Alex could still see them with his sharp Matatabi eyes.
In the end, he manages to find them in a relatively short time. Maybe he would still find them faster than Blue Pegasus and Phantom Lord even if he didn't lure them away with that explosion trick. But at least by doing that, his team now has more time to defeat these criminals without disturbance.
Anyway, without any warning, Alex attacks the criminals from behind as they walk carefully in the valley. He runs at a very high speed in his Mini Matatabi form and jumps at the tall blue-haired man who has the most magic power in the group of 6 people.
Alex can move very silently even when he runs very fast. It's the trait of being a cat, one of the best hunters in the animal kingdom. Alex's great skills in hunting are also mostly thanks to him having Matatabi as a part of himself.
The criminal group doesn't realize that a big black-blur flame cat is charging toward them from behind. They only realize it when the big cat bites their leader's neck and pins him down on the ground.
"WHAT?!"
"BOSS!?"
Alex bites the man's neck strongly, but not strong enough to break his neck. Then as he pins the man down on the ground, Alex hits his back really strongly too, making the man cough some blood in pain.
Alex looks at the other criminal Mages menacingly while absorbing their leader's magic power. The blood on the leader's mouth and neck makes them terrified. After all, their leader is the strongest in their group, yet he is taken down by a single beast this easily.
Suddenly, a magic card flies to each one of the remaining 5 criminal Mages from behind. They hit the criminal Mages's backs and ice suddenly encases the Mages. The Mages' bodies are frozen, making them unable to move.
Cana doesn't want to give them any chance to break free from the ice, so she throws more Magic Cards at them. These are just normal cards meant to hit targets with basic attacks. But she throws a lot at their heads from behind.
Because the criminal Mages can't move, they can't block or dodge the cards. So they get hit by the cards at the back of their heads a few times. Even if they have strong bodies, some hits on the back of their heads are enough to eventually knock them out.
"Nicely done."
Alex releases the criminal leader that gets knocked out after having almost all of his magic power absorbed. Then he starts absorbing the others' magic power to weaken them so Cana can trap them in her cards easily.
After trapping all of them in Cana's magic cards, they leave the location and return to the village where the knights are waiting. They move fast with Alex in his Mini Matatabi form and Cana on his back.
It doesn't take long for them to arrive in the village with Alex's speed as Mini Matatabi. They don't meet the other 2 Guilds on the way here, but it shouldn't take long for those 2 Guilds to receive the information about their success.
The other teams' expressions when they return to the village a while after the Knight Captain contacted them that the criminals have been captured are very amusing for Alex and Cana, especially the guys from Phantom Lord.
"Sorry about this, people, but it seems we are some steps ahead of you." Alex can't help but be smug about this.
Team Blue Pegasus congratulates them even though they are annoyed that they failed. Ichiya is very sincere when congratulating them though. It's just that his way of doing it is quite disturbing because he just needs to put his face so close to them.
Team Phantom Lord doesn't congratulate them. Well, Alex's team just gives them a big headache, after all. Now they need to think of how to explain this to their Guild Master who will surely get very angry when he knows that they lose to Fairy Tail.
The next day, Alex's team doesn't return to Magnolia immediately. They go into the forest again because Alex still wants to find Nirvana. He tells Cana that he sensed something unusual in the forest yesterday and wants to check it out.
She surprisingly agrees, so now they are exploring the forest. This is also a good chance to hunt animals for Meteor's food. The bear cub is getting bigger and needs more food. Buying meat for the bear will make them poor slowly, so it's better to hunt wild animals.
While exploring the forest, Alex is also using his senses to find Cait Shelter's village. After all, if he manages to find Nirvana and takes its energy, he will basically destroy it and it will make the Cait Shelter's Chief spirit disappear because the reason it stays in this world is to keep Nirvana from being misused.
If the Chief spirit disappears, then the whole Guild will also disappear because they are just illusions made by his magic. When they disappear, then Wendy and Carla will be left alone, so he needs to find them first before destroying Nirvana.
Looking for a small settlement in this very wide forest isn't easy, if they just walk around. But Alex has a very good method to find it, the Sand Eye technique. It's Gaara's ninjutsu that allows him to see from an eye made of sand that can be moved anywhere and Shukaku who has been sealed inside Gaara's body for years can copy it.
Alex transforms into Mini Shukaku and uses the Sand Eye technique. He makes the Sand Eye fly as high as possible and looks around with it. With his sharp vision, he can see very far locations very clearly, so he should be able to find the Cait Shelter village.
"Bingo!" After looking for a while, Alex sees a small traditional village near a lake. Their buildings are very traditional, like ancient tribe's buildings.
Alex and Cana go there while still hunting animals on their way. They arrive after a few hours and their arrival surprises "everyone" in the village. The villagers quickly gather near the village entrance to see Alex's team.
"Who are you?" A short old man walks forward and asks them. Behind him is a little girl with blue hair and a small white cat.
"Hello, Sir. We are Mages from Fairy Tail. We don't mean to disturb you. My name is Alex."
"I am Cana, this is Meteor Destroyer." Cana introduces herself and Meteor who stands beside her.
"We have just finished a job in this forest and are currently hunting animals for this kid's food when we discovered your village, so we decide to check it out because we don't know that there's a village in this forest."
"Are you really from Fairy Tail?" The old man asks suspiciously.
Alex's team shows their Guild symbols, even Meteor shows his. Now the old man believes them and becomes more relaxed. He was worried that they are criminals because normal people won't enter this forest without reasons.
"Wow, Carla, they are also from a Magic Guild. It's my first time seeing another Guild's members. I wonder if their Guild is similar to ours." The blue-haired girl talks to the white car excitedly. Alex doesn't even need to ask to know who she is, Wendy Marvell, one of the Dragon Slayers.
"Oh? So you also have a Magic Guild here? No wonder I can feel magic power from you guys." Alex acts oblivious.
"You can hear her?" The old man is surprised because Wendy talks with a very low voice, but Alex can hear her.
"My senses are very sensitive. Anyway, Sir, I actually have something to ask you. I can even pay for the information if you want, as long as it's a fair price and I can afford it." Alex suddenly becomes serious.
"It seems like a serious business. Let's talk inside." The old man invites Alex to the cat-head building. It's time to find out more about Nirvana.
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Ch. 127. Gildarts Return