Misaki had originally assumed that once Enny was dragged into Blue Dimension, she would lose control over her own movements.
Instead, Enny successfully Requipped into the Armor of Ruin she had recently reforged with dragon flame under Selene's assistance—and, to Misaki's surprise, she could still move freely inside Blue Dimension.
Enny immediately tried to close the distance and turn the match into close combat, but Misaki's Blue Vortex constantly interfered with her approach.
That was where Enny's limitations became apparent.
She only possessed one Armor of Ruin.
Unlike Erza, who had accumulated well over a hundred sets of armor if one included all the outfits she used for performances and special occasions, Enny did not have an enormous arsenal of specialized equipment she could swap between depending on the situation.
Blue Dimension gradually regained control of the battle.
In the end, the clash between Guiltina's strongest female Mage and strongest female alchemist went to Misaki.
From the spectators' perspective, the entire battle had happened remarkably quickly.
Enny first opened her Purgatory World, filling the arena with flames.
Then Misaki activated Blue Dimension, and an ocean of blue seemed to flood across the entire battlefield.
The two women fought within that distorted space.
But one second inside Blue Dimension corresponded to an hour in the outside world.
So although it looked as though Enny had only lasted a short while, she had actually spent several hours getting battered around inside Misaki's dimension.
And physically, Enny simply could not compare to a Dragon Slayer.
...
The next several matches ended much faster.
First came Laxus versus Sherria.
Laxus still held back considerably.
Sherria was a fellow guild member, after all, and she was much younger than him.
Rather than immediately ending the match, he stood there and allowed her to attack him as much as she wanted.
Sherria threw everything she had at him.
She even used her God Slayer Secret Art, Ame-no-Murakumo.
And yet, from the audience's perspective, Laxus appeared completely unharmed.
That was not entirely true.
Her attacks had damaged him, but Laxus's recovery and physical resilience were simply absurd.
Since he had taken her strongest techniques head-on and remained standing as though nothing had happened, the difference between them looked even greater than it really was.
Sherria stared at him for a moment.
Then she decisively raised a white flag.
"I surrender!"
There was absolutely no reason to continue hitting that monster.
...
The next match was Brandish versus Wendy.
Brandish hated troublesome things and had never been particularly fond of fighting.
Unfortunately for her, both her mother, Grammi, and August were watching.
Even though her opponent was Wendy, Brandish decided that for once she would actually take the match seriously.
She opened with Command T.
Wendy instantly shrank until she was roughly the size of Happy.
"Huh?!"
At that size, Wendy's Dragon Slayer Magic had nowhere near enough power to threaten Brandish.
Wendy immediately tried cleansing herself of abnormal status effects.
Nothing happened.
Command T was not a status ailment.
Realizing that, Wendy immediately switched approaches.
"Enchant: Separation!"
A magical formation appeared around her body.
Wendy forcibly separated Brandish's Magic Power from herself, stripping away the effect of Command T and restoring her body to its normal size.
That immediately caught everyone's attention.
Brandish clearly had not expected it either.
She had not even bothered defending herself.
Wendy entered Dragon Force and instantly capitalized on the opening, rushing forward and kicking Brandish squarely beneath the chin.
Brandish staggered backward, visibly unpleasantly surprised by how much it hurt.
Even Irene could not help commenting from the stands.
"Her talent is extraordinary."
This specialized application of Enchant: Separation was something Irene herself had only begun researching during the past two years.
Her original purpose had been to find a method of separating Dragon Slayer Magic from the body.
If the technique were used during the very earliest stages of dragonification, it should theoretically be possible to reverse the transformation before it progressed too far.
For Irene herself, of course, that discovery had come centuries too late.
But that had not stopped her from continuing the research and eventually teaching the technique to Wendy.
What impressed Irene most was how little time Wendy had needed before she could use it proficiently.
Even so, Wendy remained at a disadvantage.
Her Magic Power was considerably lower than Brandish's, which meant she could not simply use Enchant: Separation on Brandish herself.
The technique was extremely powerful, but it had an important limitation.
The target could not actively resist.
There was no absolute rule stating that it would fail against someone with greater Magic Power than the caster, but the more Magic Power the target possessed, the harder the separation became.
And Brandish was precisely the kind of person with an enormous magical reserve.
Still, the match lasted far longer than anyone had expected.
Wendy stubbornly held on until she could no longer sustain Dragon Force.
At that point, Brandish enlarged Wendy's head.
The sudden shift in weight destroyed her balance.
Wendy took one confused step—and fell flat on her face.
That was the end of the match.
Raizel privately thought it was a shame they were fighting inside an arena.
If this had been an outdoor battle, Wendy might have been able to summon enough pollen with her wind to take Brandish down through entirely different means.
...
Raizel's opponent was Gajeel.
"Heh. I'm gonna show you my new mode too."
For once, Gajeel did not underestimate his opponent in the slightest.
He immediately drew upon the rare metal he had absorbed recently.
Dramon Steel.
The material was known as "dragon steel," and Gajeel had only managed to obtain an amount roughly equivalent to a dagger.
That was already enough.
His body shifted.
Dramon Steel Mode!
Compared with ordinary iron, the metal was both lighter and vastly tougher.
Gajeel transformed his right arm into a steel blade and charged straight toward Raizel.
Seeing that, Raizel chose his own transformation.
[Take Over: Leopardmon.]
Wings spread behind him as his body changed into the elegant Royal Knight.
His feline features were framed by long golden hair more like a mane, and a slender western-style sword appeared in his hand.
Everything about the form radiated refinement.
Gajeel's blade came down.
Raizel casually parried it aside.
At the same time, he swept Leopardmon's sword in an arc above his head.
[Extinction Wave.]
A crescent-shaped blade of light shot forward.
It was far too fast.
Gajeel had no time to dodge and could only brace himself.
The crescent struck him head-on.
BOOM!
The impact blasted a massive crater into the arena floor.
When the smoke cleared, Gajeel had already fallen out of Dramon Steel Mode.
He lay unconscious at the bottom of the crater.
To be fair, Dramon Steel Mode would have been extremely useful against almost anyone else.
Against opponents who lacked enough offensive power to break through its defenses, Gajeel could potentially wear them down through sheer durability and the recoil generated by his hardened body.
Unfortunately...
Raizel was simply playing in an entirely different league.
...
The next match was one everyone had been looking forward to.
Lucy versus Kagura.
Lucy knew perfectly well how terrifying Kagura's footwork and swordsmanship were, so she immediately opened two Gates.
"Open, Gate of the Goat! Capricorn!"
"Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!"
Capricorn appeared beside her.
Loki emerged on the other side.
The instant Loki saw who their opponent was, his face collapsed.
"WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE KAGURA?! I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT HER!!!"
His objection was extremely simple.
He could not beat Kagura.
Years ago, when Loki had still been unable to return to the Celestial Spirit World, girls had constantly shown up at Fairy Tail looking for him.
Kagura had gotten tired of his behavior and beaten him up more than once.
Those incidents had happened several years ago, and at the time Loki's Magic Power and life force had been steadily draining because he could not return to the Celestial Spirit World.
That did nothing to erase the psychological trauma.
Capricorn, by contrast, remained perfectly composed.
"If our opponent is Miss Kagura, I welcome the challenge."
He calmly closed the book he had been reading and took up a proper combat stance.
Kagura removed the wrappings binding Archenemy.
Then she drew her dragon-slaying sword, Astron.
Archenemy rested in her left hand.
Astron in her right.
Facing simultaneous attacks from both Leo and Capricorn, even Kagura had no intention of being careless.
With both weapons drawn, she did not attack first.
She waited.
Capricorn stood directly in front of her.
Lucy and Loki positioned themselves on either side.
Kagura could afford to remain perfectly still.
Lucy could not.
The moment Celestial Spirits were summoned, they continuously consumed her Magic Power.
She Requipped into her Capricorn Star Dress.
Then, without needing a word between them, all three moved at once.
Lucy, Leo, and Capricorn attacked Kagura simultaneously from three directions.