Under the interference of so many clones, it was disadvantageous for many Mages, but it was highly advantageous for Dragon Slayer Mages.
Just now, they had gathered so close that Gajeel could hardly forget their scents, especially the strong bloody scent on the Golden Lion Knight, Ren.
The problem was that the town was somewhat large, and there wasn't much wind.
Gajeel was certain they were spread out quite far apart. Currently, he hadn't smelled any familiar scents.
Raizel noticed that having many crystal screens wasn't very useful. There were too many clones; even Raizel couldn't distinguish who was real and who was fake.
The restrictions in this competition were significant.
Using massive Area-of-Effect attacks could indeed clear the screen, but your score would likely plummet into the negatives.
"Fortunately, it's not me up there. I'm the worst with this kind of thing," Elfman sighed in relief.
Kagura had already come down from the rooftop; being up there was too conspicuous.
Everyone was walking on the streets, and if you were on the roof, who else would they attack? After all, you didn't need to knock them out—just hitting them earned points.
After observing Kagura's actions, Erza said, "If you act recklessly, it's easy for the enemy to discover your position. What will you do, Kagura?"
Kagura walked expressionlessly down the street, her sword held loosely in her right hand.
Her clones all had the same expression.
If Kagura didn't speak, she blended in perfectly.
"In this arena filled with clones of yourself and the enemy, how can one find the actual enemy? Mr. Yajima." Seeing that no battles had broken out yet, Chapati Lola asked Yajima to avoid an awkward silence and to give some hints to the audience.
Yajima said, "There are many ways to find the enemy. For example, try to detect the opponent's magical power, or observe the subtle differences in behavior between the clones and the original. Then there are personal, unique methods."
Yajima watched Gajeel running through the town, occasionally stopping to track directions using his keen sense of smell.
"Detecting the opponent's magical power? Isn't that difficult to detect among so many? Even if detected, locking onto the target seems to be a problem." Layla didn't quite agree with Yajima's opinion and turned to ask Raizel.
Raizel nodded.
"It requires some special tracking magic, but Kagura and Gajeel don't know it. Gajeel probably wants to rely on his sense of smell, but I'm not very clear about Kagura's actions yet."
Detecting magical power wasn't actually that difficult, but who told Kagura to focus solely on training with her sword and not learn utility spells? The action Kagura took was to test her patience.
She walked quietly first, waiting for someone to attack her or for a fight to break out somewhere, then she would follow.
After that, it was simple—just draw her sword and fight.
But there were some restrictions for her here; she couldn't use her Gravity Magic.
Using wide Gravity Magic would count as attacking a clone and result in a severe point deduction.
Kagura, who had been walking expressionlessly, suddenly stopped.
She felt a slight vibration under her boots.
"Carrot Missile!" The ground before Kagura suddenly erupted with flying debris as over a dozen glowing carrots shot violently toward her.
Having anticipated this, she simply sidestepped to evade the vegetable projectiles.
"How strange, they actually missed," a head emerged from the crater left by the carrot barrage.
It was Beth from Mermaid Heel, who seemed surprised her sneak attack hadn't connected.
Despite the close range, Kagura's face showed no panic.
"Eek!!!" Beth suddenly felt something strange under her feet.
Before she could react, a giant magical plant sent her flying into the sky, and she crashed back down into the dirt.
"Heheh! Serves you right for using magic where I could see you!" Yeager from Quatro Cerberus laughed heartily.
But just as he was laughing triumphantly, Kagura struck him with her sheathed blade—right across the face.
Kagura hadn't intended to hit his face, but who told him to attack a young girl?
"Contestant Yeager gains points but immediately loses them! Contestant Kagura scores one point!" Chapati Lola yelled.
Yeager and Beth were quickly teleported to other areas to respawn.
Kagura hadn't taken more than a few steps when she encountered an unexpected opponent's sneak attack—Gajeel's Iron Dragon Club.
Fortunately, Kagura's attention was still heightened from the earlier assault, and she barely dodged it by leaping to the right.
"Encounter!!! The civil war within Fairy Tail!!!" Chapati Lola shouted excitedly.
"Tch, your reflexes are pretty good." Gajeel was annoyed that he hadn't managed to hit Kagura.
"Gajeel actually launched a sneak attack!!!" Levy strongly condemned Gajeel's behavior from the stands.
"I followed the freshest scent here, but I didn't expect it to be you," Gajeel didn't continue his assault after the failed strike.
"Your actions just now didn't seem like you'd mistaken your target." Kagura raised Archenemy, her eyes narrowing like a hawk's.
"Exactly. Who could blame me when Master Makarov made such an enticing offer?" Gajeel shrugged.
"An offer?" Kagura didn't lower her guard, asking in confusion.
Gajeel grinned, baring his iron teeth. "When he asked us to participate in the Grand Magic Games, he promised that the winning team could order the losing team around for a whole day."
Gajeel was already prepared—if he won, he'd make Kagura and the others his captive audience.
After all, someone ought to appreciate his beautiful singing, right?
"We actually didn't know about this..." Ultear sighed helplessly in the waiting room.
"Wendy kept it from us..." Erza felt a deep sense of betrayal.
"Wendy has turned bad!" Cana also strongly condemned Wendy.
It was normal for Natsu, Gray, and Laxus to keep quiet—Cana knew those guys all too well—but she truly hadn't expected this from Wendy.
Wendy revealed her little fangs in a mischievous smile.
Though she was usually well-behaved, it was fine to be a little scheming once in a while.
"Master, since this applies to their team, it should apply to ours too, right?" Erza looked down at Makarov from the balcony as she spoke.
"Uh... Yes! Yes! Yes!" Makarov immediately cowered under Erza's glare.
Makarov sighed helplessly.
It was all because of his quirky idea to form a Dragon Slayer Mage team.
With Gajeel and Laxus showing little interest initially, he had no choice but to make this stupid guarantee.
"That's more like it!" Cana and Lucy snorted in satisfaction.
"You're the one in the wrong here, Gramps." Raizel patted Makarov's shoulder. "With these conditions, you should've told me! Preliminary rounds, semifinals, playoffs, revival matches—I can compete in any tournament! If my Examon joins in, wouldn't it become the Five Dragons? You're still too young."
"Get lost! No respect for your elders!" Makarov irritably slapped away Raizel's hand from his shoulder.
"It's because you're so stubborn! I just won't tell you!"
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