Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
July 4, x791.
Immediately after the signal was given, Elicia burst forward at blinding speeds. Her target, Fried, who stood with his [Soul Armament], Thoth, drawn. However, before she could get close enough to strike, Laxus had already reacted.
Stepping forward, Laxus made a wide sweep with Elexion, intending to stop Elicia in her tracks to give Fried a chance to use [Dark Ecriture]. Yet, Elicia, with her incredible agility and flexibility, dropped to her knees and limboed under Laxus strike.
Then, as soon as she cleared Laxus attack, Elicia lunged forward, three of her dragon motif needles held between the fingers of her right hand, and thrust them at Fried's torso, aiming to hit pressure points that would knock Fried out in one strike.
*Ting!*
However, Fried was not someone to be taken so lightly. With one elegant swing of his sword, he parried Elicia's thrust to his right, opening her up for an attack.
But instead of attacking, Fried used the opening to concentrate magic power on his left index finger and start writing on his body, knowing that Elicia would make it nearly impossible to write any of the necessary characters on her.
"[Dark Ecriture: Darkness]." Fried chanted as he finished writing on his chest.
*Voom~~~~~!*
Immediately after his spell was chanted, Fried began radiating dark light. At the same time, Elicia, who had been knocked slightly off balance by Fried's parry, was forced back by the magic power that was rolling off of him.
"Oh, he's going for the big guns immediately, I see." Alfonzo said in an impressed tone. "Thought he'd release Thoth first, though."
Even while speaking to himself, Alfonzo was making his move. Raising Bedlam in his left hand, a sphere of swirling magic power appeared on the tip of the long side of his weapon.
"[Electromagnetism Magic: Gravity Ball Rasengan]." Alfonzo chanted as the ball of magic power finished forming.
"Not so fast." Laxus said, appearing next to Alfonzo in a flash of golden lightning.
"Actually, this was exactly what I was waiting for." Alfonzo said with a smirk playing across his lips.
Then, in one quick motion, while chantlessly activating his [Lightning Enhancement] spell, Alfonzo turned to his right and jabbed the end of Bedlam's long end, where the [Gravity Ball Rasengan] was swirling, into Laxus abdomen.
"Gahh!" Laxus groaned.
In the next instant, Laxus was sent flying backwards at great speed. And what was the most irritating about this impromptu flight, was the fact that he was completely unable to move while midair. Even his [Lightning Form] was not helping him.
*Crack!*
'*Cough* Damn it… Just how high is the gravity around this little ball?' Laxus asked himself as he was thrown into the arena's separating wall, spider web cracks extending around him from the point of impact while the [Gravity Ball Rasengan] pinned him in place.
Unfortunately, Laxus would not get too much time to think or do anything about the gravity he was under. Because Elicia, who should have been right next to Fried, was suddenly flying towards him with her feet extended.
'Shit! Is she really that fast?' Laxus asked himself. 'No, it's those damned illusions of hers.'
And just as Laxus thought, the Elicia who attacked Fried at the beginning was only an illusion. Instead, she had been waiting for Laxus to attack Alfonzo and be sent flying while controlling three of her needles to attack with her threads.
Then, as soon as Laxus was planted on the wall, she shot her threads to either side of him and used them to propel herself into a devastating kick.
"[Dark Ecriture: Wings]." Fried chanted as he wrote more characters on himself.
As the swirl of [Darkness Magic] dissipated from around Fried, revealing his demonic transformation to the entire stadium, a pair of dark wings sprouted from his back. Then, with a powerful flap of those wings, he shot forward, chasing after Elicia. All the while, he was preparing a spell in his left hand while he still held Thoth in his right.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Fried rushed past Elicia and put himself between her and Laxus with is back facing Laxus and his left hand raised in her direction. However, things were not all good, as he could feel himself being pulled towards Laxus thanks to the [Gravity Ball Rasengan]. Even so, that did not stop him from casting the spell prepared in his left hand.
"[Darkness Flare Bomb]." Fried chanted as he watched Elicia draw closer and closer.
Normally, the spell [Darkness Flare Bomb] was one that Fried used at close range after charging his opponent. However, with Elicia flying directly at him and Laxus, the charging part was not necessary.
Unfortunately, with Fried so focused on protecting Laxus, something that has not changed since they were all children, Alfonzo and Elicia were able to figure this into their strategy for fighting these two with no issue.
"Wrong move, Fried." Alfonzo said, once again drawing attention to himself.
In the next instant, chains shout out from the tips of both Riot and Bedlam and flew forward even faster than Elicia before wrapping around her. And once the chains were wrapped securely, Alfonzo reeled them in.
Seeing Elicia being pulled out of harm's way, Fried balked for a moment. However, he was quickly snapped out of his dumbfounded state when Laxus shouted at him.
"Fried, cancel your spell!" Laxus shouted.
Snapping back to his senses, Fried immediately canceled his spell, not even sure why Laxus ordered him to do so. However, when he looked down, he saw just how close his left hand had come to touching his own chest. And when he did, he could not help but shiver.
'I almost blew myself and Laxus up with my own magic.' Fried thought to himself.
While that throught ran though Fried's head, Alfonzo and Elicia did not stay idle. As Elicia was being pulled towards him, Alfonzo dashed forward and leapt into the air. Meanwhile, Elicia took a tight hold of the chains that were wrapped around her. Then, she spun her entire body.
Elicia's spin was not just for show, however. As Alfonzo was still connected to the chains and off the ground, he was spun around with her. And once his momentum was carrying him towards Laxus and Fried, he dispelled the chains.
"Shit! This is bad." Laxus, having been watching Alfonzo and Elicia from over Fried's shoulder, groaned out.
"Indeed, it is." Fried agreed.
Seeing the realization appearing on Laxus' and Fried's faces, Alfonzo could not help grinning. At the same time, he pulled his tonfa back, readying them to be thrust forward while an unhealthy amount of violet electricity sparked at their tips.
*Zap~~~~~!*
A moment later, Alfonzo was in front of Fried, his tonfa thrusting forward into the green-haired man's chest.
"Ahh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!" Fried screamed in agony as his body began to convulse.
Laxus, on the other hand, was completely unaffected by the electricity flowing through Fried and into his body. In fact, he was taking the opportunity to devour all that he could to give himself a little boost.
But there was no way that Elicia would just let that slide. And the two pinches on the side of Laxus' neck was proof enough of that fact.
"Shit… She got me." Laxus muttered as he started to lose consciousness. But before he did, he saw the heads of two golden, needles with dragon motifs sticking out of the side of his neck.
At the same time, the [Gravity Ball Rasengan] that was keeping him and Fried pinned to the wall finally ran out of energy. As a result, the two defeated wizards fell on top of one another just in front of the separating wall.
Meanwhile, Alfonzo took a step back so that the two would not fall on him. Though, he made no attempt to stop them from face-planting. A moment later, Elicia caught up to him and draped herself on his back.
"You know, Fonzie…" Elicia said while nuzzling her face against Alfonzo's. "I think this is the first time we've ever teamed up to fight members of the Thunder God Tribe together."
"Uh? Really?" Alfonzo asked, a surprised expression making it onto his face. Hs expression then turned contemplative as he thought back to all the times, he or Elicia fought Laxus and his team in the past. "Now that you mention it, we've fought them in the Tournament in Magnolia. But we've never actually been in any of the two-on-two battles against them, have we?"
"Nope." Elicia replied, popping the "P" as she did so.
"Either way, they still can't beat us." Alfonzo said with a shrug. "Well, let's go. I'm tired and I still have work to do. *Yawn~~~~~*"
"You really should take a nap before you start working again." Elicia said, a hint of concern in her tone. "It's not like a couple of hours will hold you back for too long, right?"
"Maybe." Alfonzo muttered. "I'll think about it when we get back to the hotel."
"*sigh* If you say so." Elicia said whiel shaking her head at Alfonzo's work-aholic attitude.
{"And that's the end of the battle!"} Loli shouted as Alfonzo and Elicia returned to join the rest of their team. {"And I've gotta say, Alfonzo's and Elicia's teamwork is quite impressive."}
{"Yes, those two work together so seamlessly."} Yajima replied. {"But then again, they've been a team even before they became wizards. They are the children of former Fairy Tail wizards Bianca Rollen and Orlando Taylor, after all."}
When Yajima mentioned the names of Alfonzo's and Elicia's mother and father, quite a few of the older people in the audience were dumbfounded by what they heard. The younger members of the audience, however, were suitably confused, which lead to them being lectured about great wizards of the past by their older companions.
{"Well, with the last battle concluded, the day's events have ended."} Loli said energetically. {"So, before we sign off, let's take one last look at the scoreboard. That way, everyone will know what to expect going into the last day of the Games."}
{Grand Magic Games Overall Scoreboard
Rank Team Score
Fairy Tail A 75 Pts. Fairy Tail C 56 Pts. Mermaid Heel 49 Pts. Fairy Tail B 48 Pts. Quatro Cerberus 32 Pts. Sabertooth 23 Pts. Lamia Scale 17 Pts. Blue Pegasus 11 Pts.}
{"If nothing unexpected happens, it looks like Fairy Tail Team A will be retaining their titles as the strongest in Fiore."} Yajima said. {"Though, that seems to be less impressive than Fairy Tail having three teams in the top four of this year's Grand Magic Games."}
{"Yes. It looks like they wanted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Fairy Tail is the strongest guild in Fiore by having such a strong showing from the three teams they managed to get into the main event."} Loli replied.
"Oh, now he's putting a target on our guild's back." Ur said as Alfonzo and Elicia returned to the stands. "Not that it matters. Everyone's been gunning for our top spot for years. This is no different."
"There is a difference, actually." Elicia said with a smile.
"Oh?" Ur intoned, her raised eyebrow a signal for Elicia to continue.
"Now, we can beat them up instead of just bragging about all the stuff we've done to make us so great." Elicia said as her smile widened.
Matching Elicia's smile, Ur patted her on the shoulder happily.
"That sounds like fun." Ur said, the desire to show off her power burning in her eyes.
"Anyway, let's get going." Marin said while looking at Alfonzo, who was now being supported by Sun. "If we don't' hurry, Fonzie might fall asleep before we get back to the hotel."
That caused Elicia and Ur to turn their attention to Alfonzo. And when they saw just how tired he was, they could not help but laugh.
"Looks like you'll be taking that nap, after all. Huh, Fonzie?" Elica said in a teasing tone.
"It's okay, I'll take a nap with you, Alfonzo." Sun said with her usual sunny smile.
"Nah, I'll be fine." Alfonzo said, waving his hand weakly. "I just need to rest my eyes for a little bit."
"Right~~~~~!" x 4
Alfonzo wanted to roll his eyes in response. However, when he tried, they closed. So, he just shook his head and let Sun help him towards the stadium's exit.
Meanwhile, Future Lucy, who had already felt guilty about the extra work she gave Alfonzo during the Grand Magic Games, was watching him while Sun helped him walk out of the stadium. And although she was not willing to go as far as Levy suggested the other day, she did want to find a way to help him relax. And if possible, get him to slow down.
As for Brandish, she was getting even more frustrated that Alfonzo was never alone.
'How am I supposed to move forward with my plans if he's always with someone?' Brandish asked herself frustratedly. 'I mean seriously? Why won't these women just let him have some time to himself.'
["That's quite the hypocritical thought, isn't it?"] Hecatoncheires ask from Brandish's inner world. ["As for how you could move forward, telling him how you feel isn't such a bad idea."]
Needless to say, Brandish completely ignored Hecatoncheires once again, her mind to preoccupied with her own plans to listen.
And just like that, most of the Fairy Tail guild left the Domus Flau with the rest of the crowd. Though, Bickslow, Evergreen, Chico, and Saya all stayed to check up on Laxus and Fried in the infirmary.