"Ahem. Chase certainly seems relaxed."
Being a trained professional, Chapati quickly switched the main camera feed to other battlefields. "Now then, let's take a look at the other contestants' performances!"
"Oh my! Gray of Fairy Tail has run into Nullpudding of Raven Tail!"
Inside the town.
Nullpudding, with his purple skin and two pointed chins, walked openly toward Gray.
"Hehehe. Finally found you," Nullpudding sneered.
Raven Tail's entire purpose for participating in this Grand Magic Games was to target Fairy Tail relentlessly. Since Chase was too difficult to handle, Gray—another Fairy Tail mage—naturally became his target.
"Raven Tail..." Gray's eyes turned cold instantly.
"You should have received our greeting last night, right? Can't even handle a little girl—Obra really is useless," Nullpudding said, hiding behind his magical doll.
Knowing that Fairy Tail members valued their comrades above all else, he deliberately hinted at the previous night's attack, hoping to provoke Gray into attacking a magical doll and losing points.
"You've got guts."
As expected, Gray's expression shifted instantly. His right fist struck his left palm, and an Ice-Make magic circle formed. "Ice-Make: Ice Hammer!"
The freezing cold coalesced into a massive hammer, crashing down toward Nullpudding's magical doll.
Seeing this, Nullpudding couldn't help but chuckle from behind. "Heh. So easy to fool—URK!!"
Before he could finish his sentence, the ice hammer suddenly changed course mid-swing, bypassing the doll and slamming into him. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he crashed heavily into a nearby building.
"H-How did you find me?!"
Struggling to his feet amid the rubble, Nullpudding's ugly face was filled with disbelief.
"Sorry to say, thanks to a certain troublesome Celestial Spirit Mage in our guild," Gray said, smirking as he looked down at his opponent. "My ability to detect fakes has reached an all-time high."
The S-Class trial on Tenrou Island was still fresh in his memory. It was precisely because he hadn't noticed Gemini's true identity in time that Lucy had successfully stolen the win, costing him his long-awaited S-Class title.
Even now, just thinking about it made him furious.
There was no way he'd make the same mistake twice!
In the audience, inside the card—
Lucy shrank her head guiltily. "That 'troublesome Celestial Spirit Mage' he mentioned... that's not me, is it? I mean, I'm so cute..."
"Stop flattering yourself, Lucy! It's you, you cunning Celestial Spirit Mage!" Happy said with conviction.
"That's right, that's right," Natsu added earnestly.
"You two! Stop adding unnecessary prefixes to my name!" Lucy shouted in anger.
Back on the field, having earned a point, Gray wanted to press his advantage, but Nullpudding was teleported to another area by a sudden magic circle.
This was a hidden rule of "Hidden"—designed to prevent stronger contestants from relentlessly farming weaker ones for points.
However, there was no way Nullpudding was going to let this slide.
Not only was he eager to save face, but he also needed to carry out Master Ivan's orders to target Fairy Tail. He quickly came back to "donate"—ahem, to ambush Gray again.
Unsurprisingly, Gray scored another point.
Two consecutive failures sent Nullpudding into a rage. He showed up yet again, charging out from a dead-end alley with his magic—only to be frozen solid into an ice sculpture.
"You're so annoying. I was trying to find that bastard Lyon—wait."
Watching Nullpudding disappear once more under the teleportation circle, Gray suddenly realized something. A sly grin spread across his face.
This guy was a godsend!
With that thought, Gray simply stood still, waiting. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the point donor Nullpudding appeared once more—this time with a reddish flush on his already purple face.
Out in the stands.
Watching the holographic screen's constantly updating [Fairy Tail Team A — Gray +1+1+1], the paying spectators went from confused to outright furious.
"Hey! What the hell is this?! Why does Raven Tail keep feeding points to Fairy Tail?!"
"Referee! Where's the referee?! Are you just going to ignore such obvious collusion?!"
"I knew Fairy Tail couldn't possibly take first and second place in the preliminaries legitimately! This must be another rigged operation!"
"Refund! Refund! Refund!!"
Most of the audience were ordinary people with low magical power. They couldn't see the details of the fight between Gray and Nullpudding, nor did they know about the irreconcilable hostility between Fairy Tail and Raven Tail. All they saw was Nullpudding feeding points to Fairy Tail.
Chase had calculated everything, but the torrent of criticism and abuse had still landed on Fairy Tail's heads—just in a bizarre, unexpected way.
However, unlike the frustration and helplessness of the original story, everyone in Fairy Tail was practically losing their minds with laughter.
Future Macao and Future Wakaba were doubled over, joking that Raven Tail even had magic to change skin color. Future Levy and Future Kinana covered their mouths with quiet laughter. Éclair turned her head away to hide her smile.
The two Mavises, barely containing their laughter, pretended to be angry and looked at Makarov: "Oh my, even for a father-son guild, isn't this a bit too obvious~"
"Targeted" by the First Masters, Makarov was laughing so hard he was rocking back and forth. He leaned toward Ivan's Thought Projection in the opposite seats and trash-talked him directly: "Ivan, don't be so polite! We can win with our own strength—have your people do something else!"
Ivan's Thought Projection ignored his old man's sarcasm entirely. His face was as sour as if he'd eaten shit, his gaze toward Nullpudding on the field dark and murderous.
The increasingly red "sweet potato" Nullpudding said nothing. He simply kept attacking Gray, relentlessly, mindlessly, frantically.
One flashy move after another—and a record of 0-5.
Seeing Gray's score climb ever higher, the other contestants finally lost their composure. They abandoned hiding and went straight after Nullpudding.
Of course, there were unavoidable skirmishes along the way.
Lyon froze Beth from Mermaid Heel. Eve snatched a point from Iyeka of Mermaid Heel using ice magic. Each had their wins and losses.
But the one who suffered the most was undoubtedly Raven Tail's point donor. He got hit by magic roughly every one or two minutes, getting forcibly "sent back to base" over and over again.
By the time the match neared its end, his score had reached an astonishing -22!
At that moment, the scene inside the town—much like Ivan's state of mind—suddenly shifted from bright daylight to night.
"The time is right. Everyone's positions, auras, magic, and scores are exactly as I remember," said Rufus, the Memory-Make mage who had been missing for so long. He appeared at the highest clock tower in town, gracefully adjusting his hat. "Let me wash away Sabertooth's shame of ranking third."
After all that chaotic fighting, Gray was currently the highest scorer with 7 points. All it would take was one hit on everyone else, and he would be the undisputed winner!
That's right—Chase, still sitting at 0 points, was also on Rufus's "hunt" list.
As for why? Don't ask. Ask and the answer is simply the confidence of Fiore's strongest guild mage!
"Memory-Make: Meteor Night!"
Rufus raised both hands, and a magic circle appeared behind him. Seven meteor attacks shot out at incredible speed, locking onto each contestant in the chaotic melee.
At that very moment, Chase—who had been waiting all along—waved his hand: "Activate Trap Card: Mirror Force!"
The trap card flipped open before him. A holy, shining mirrored barrier easily deflected the meteors, and then—
Reflected back as an even faster, more powerful burst of white light!
In an instant, all seven contestants were struck—including Gray, who had barely dodged the Meteor Night, and Rufus, who had been showing off from the tower.
DONG~
The match-ending bell rang out!
***
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