"Dark Écriture: Reject."
The blade of light slashed out by Kagura was violently deflected, smashing harmlessly against the cave wall.
"Dark Écriture: Pain."
"Archenemy: Slash Form."
With a swift, diagonal downward slash, Kagura cleanly cleaved the incoming pain rune entirely in half.
...
"Freed is probably about to get serious," Raizel commented, casually eating a grilled meat skewer while sitting on the beach.
He, Makarov, Ur, and Cana were comfortably watching the fights play out on a magical Lacrima projection hovering over their campfire.
"It should be Darkness, right? He didn't use it during his last battle in the Harvest Festival," Ur noted, showing a keen understanding of Freed's magic.
...
Right as Ur spoke, the Darkness rune written by Freed with his rapier merged directly into his body on the screen.
Freed's slender frame bulked up massively, his entire body transforming as if covered in thick, demonic armor.
The forbidden magic, Dark Écriture: Darkness, completely transformed his body into a terrifying, demon-like form.
Kagura didn't speak.
She only slowly reached up and began unwrapping the thick bandages binding her sheathed sword, Archenemy.
In Kagura's view, Freed had proven himself as a worthy opponent to draw her actual blade against—this was a rare sign of deep respect.
"Darkness Bullet!" Freed roared.
He conjured a swirling, black magic bullet between his demonic claws, the sphere crackling as it showed a tendency to grow larger and more unstable.
"Freed has improved quite a bit too," Makarov nodded approvingly at the Lacrima screen.
Even through the projection, this dark magic bullet looked incredibly imposing.
In a less strict guild, Freed would easily be considered the ultimate ace.
"Archenemy: Soaring Form!" Kagura watched the black magic projectile charging toward her, neither dodging nor backing away.
Instead, she gripped her unsheathed katana and charged straight forward.
A massive cross-shaped slash struck the black magic bullet directly, safely detonating it.
Using the momentum of her charge, she closed the distance to Freed in an instant.
"Gravity Suppression, activate!" Kagura commanded.
However, she carefully controlled the range of her Gravity Magic.
Lucy hadn't undergone extreme gravity training, and if Kagura used it recklessly, the blonde mage would easily lose her balance and fall.
Freed immediately noticed the tactical issue.
Accelerating with his demonic wings, he quickly regrouped with Bickslow.
He realized that as long as they stayed in the exact same area as Lucy, Kagura couldn't use her devastating Gravity Magic freely without hurting her own partner.
"Sorry, Kagura. It seems I am holding you back," Lucy apologized, realizing the enemy's tactic.
"No, you have already been a great help. Bickslow is just strong," Kagura shook her head, signaling Lucy not to worry.
"By the way, be careful of his eyes," Kagura reminded her, suddenly recalling the Thunder God Tribe's unique abilities.
"Okay! Gemini knows about them too, so don't worry."
Moreover, Lucy had watched the Harvest Festival battles and seen the internal fight between Freed and Bickslow, so she was already highly wary of Bickslow's Figure Eyes.
"I am getting serious too!" Lucy yelled.
She had been training hard with Virgo on her whip techniques recently, and she was ready to show them off.
To say she could wield it perfectly like her own arm might be a bit exaggerated, but she could definitely manage highly effective attacks.
"Puppet Piercing Kill Cannon!" Bickslow yelled.
While Gemini and Bickslow were busy exchanging heavy magical blows and energy attacks, Lucy aggressively swung her Star River whip.
The crackling energy cord extended, firmly entangling Bickslow's foot, and she yanked back with all her might.
As Bickslow stumbled wildly and was about to fall, Lucy seized the golden opportunity, taking two or three quick steps forward.
"Lucy Kick!"
A flawless flying kick landed squarely on Bickslow's exposed chin, sending him sprawling.
"Gemini! Transform into Kagura!"
The moment she saw Bickslow fall to the ground, Lucy immediately took command.
Freed could barely handle fighting one Kagura, but two Kaguras quickly proved to be far too much for him.
This was especially true since Gemini could perfectly read and understand Kagura's thoughts, coordinating with the real swordswoman seamlessly.
One ruthlessly attacked Freed's upper body, while the other flawlessly targeted his lower blind spots.
After groggily getting up, Bickslow wanted to assist Freed.
"Your opponent is still me!" Lucy yelled.
She cracked her glowing whip loudly against the stone ground, exuding an impressive, fiery aura.
"I never expected Lucy to fight so fiercely," Raizel remarked back at the beach, pleasantly surprised by her raw determination.
Logically, Kagura shouldn't have been putting this much pressure on Lucy to perform.
Recalling her own interactions with Lucy and her sweet performance in the guild, Ur commented.
"Although I haven't known her for long, I can sense she has incredibly strong empathy and compassion for her friends."
"She is a genuinely kind-hearted kid," Cana nodded with an air of drunken maturity.
"Hey, you stole my line! What am I supposed to say as the Guild Master now?!" Makarov exclaimed in frustration.
"Besides, how old are you anyway, acting all high and mighty..." Raizel teased Cana.
Back in the cave, Freed was completely overwhelmed by the two Kaguras, his demonic armor already covered in deep slashes.
Seizing the opening, Kagura and Gemini struck simultaneously, each delivering a devastating blade strike that finally took Freed down.
What followed was a joyful three-on-one battle.
Bickslow, who was not as skilled in close-quarters combat as Freed and normally served as the long-range artillery of the Thunder God Tribe, was quickly defeated under the trio's relentless assault.
There was no holding back—Freed and Bickslow were simply outmatched, and to their credit, they accepted their defeat graciously.
Though neither had completely lost consciousness, they acknowledged they were no match for the girls' teamwork.
"Phew... we won..." Lucy let out a massive sigh of relief, dropping to her knees.
While Kagura and Gemini had been besieging Freed, she had been incredibly tense during her solo fight with Bickslow, terrified that a single hit from his puppets would render her unable to continue.
"The path is open," Kagura noted as the heavy iron gate slowly lifted.
"Great!" Lucy jumped up, and she and Kagura raised their hands for a victorious high-five.
"We passed the first exam!"
"Let's go, Lucy."
"Mm!"
"We lost pretty badly, huh, Freed?" Bickslow sighed, sitting up from the rocky ground only after the two girls had left the cavern.
"Yeah. It seems our training still isn't quite enough. This defeat will help us learn to support Laxus better in the future," Freed admitted, reverting to his normal form.
"Alright, let's go regroup with the others at the beach."
...
Meanwhile, deep in the E passage—
"Gildarts! Where are you?! Come out and fight me!!!" Natsu had been shouting Gildarts' name at the top of his lungs ever since entering the dark cave.
"Gildarts might not necessarily be guarding this specific path, right?" Happy couldn't help but point out.
"No! I am completely sure of it! Right at the entrance, I clearly caught Gildarts' scent!" Natsu insisted, sniffing the air.
"If I defeat Gildarts up ahead, I will definitely become an S-Class Mage!"
"Um... Natsu... this is only the first test. And besides, can you really defeat Gildarts?" Happy asked, shrugging helplessly at his friend's boundless confidence.
"Natsu, the path ahead is widening."
The two followed the rocky passage until it opened up into a massive, cavernous area.
"Doesn't this feel exactly like an arena?" Natsu wondered aloud as he looked around the vast, empty space.
"There is someone standing over there..." Happy whispered.
With the faint help of the glow-worms' ambient light, Natsu finally caught sight of a large, imposing shadowy figure waiting in the center of the cavern.
"Who could it be?" Happy trembled.
He still didn't want to believe it was really Gildarts.
This wasn't Happy's first time participating in the exam.
Raizel would usually set up various magical obstacles aimed specifically at preventing overpowered tracking abilities like Natsu's sense of smell or Cana's tarot card divination from cheating the system.
It had to be a trick.
Then, the figure stepped forward.
"It's Gildarts!" Happy shrieked, his blue fur standing completely on end.
"It really is you! Gildarts!" Natsu grinned widely, his fists igniting with fire.
"I knew my nose didn't deceive me!"
"It's over... we are dead..." Happy whimpered, shaking his head helplessly in pure despair.
"Hey, Natsu," Gildarts smirked, his immense magical pressure already filling the cavern.
"Your luck doesn't seem to be too good."