"Taurus!"
Lucy screamed as the colossal fabric hammer slammed into the arena floor. The sheer impact blasted away the dirt, creating a massive crater, but miraculously, Taurus was holding the line!
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Taurus's hyper-muscular arms bulged and screamed under the crushing weight, but he planted his hooves firmly into the cracked earth, stubbornly refusing to be flattened!
"I MUST PROTECT LUCY'S BOOBS!"
Yes, to protect Lucy's immaculate chest from being crushed, the perverted Celestial Spirit would push past his physical limits!
"..." Lucy sweatdropped.
"...." Finn, Flare, and the entire stadium fell dead silent.
Taurus was an absolute pervert, but undeniably, he was incredibly strong. (Though, to be fair, the primary reason he had agreed to a contract with Lucy in the first place was her figure. Fortunately, despite her recurring wardrobe malfunctions, she defended her chastity aggressively.)
Still, even with Taurus's legendary strength, the sheer, crushing mass of the fabric hammer was absurd!
"MOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Obi Magic. Or, more accurately, Clothing Magic. This was the specialization Flare had chosen when Finn asked her how she wanted to restructure her combat style.
Why this magic?
First, much like her original Hair Magic, manipulating fabric required extreme, micro-level magical control, making the transition seamless. Finn had downloaded advanced 'Weaving Techniques' into her mind via Archive Magic, allowing her to rapidly condense and harden silk into various weapons, shields, and utility tools. When infused with raw magical power, ordinary fabric became harder than steel.
Furthermore, the stealth potential was terrifying. Since practically everyone in Earthland wore clothes (with the sole exception of Gray Fullbuster), Flare could theoretically turn an opponent's own wardrobe into a deadly assassination tool.
But secondly, and most importantly to Flare, the magic allowed her to instantly transmute her own outfits into anything Finn desired. A nurse, a police officer, a demure housewife, a schoolgirl, a bikini... the utility was endless. It was a deadly magic specifically designed to ensure Finn could never pull himself away from her.
"MOOOOO!!! I AM STRONG! UWOOOO!"
With a final, desperate roar, Taurus actually managed to heave the massive hammer upward, throwing it off balance!
But standing across the arena, 'Flare' remained perfectly calm.
"You managed to block one. But what about a second?"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Before Taurus could even recover his stance, the azure obi snapped back, instantly weaving into a second colossal hammer that smashed down with double the force!
"It's useless, moo! Pure strength is my specialty! I won't lose in a contest of muscle!"
Taurus roared, swinging his giant, double-bladed axe upward to intercept the second hammer. The weapons collided with a deafening crack. But this time, it wasn't the fabric that yielded—the metal shaft of Taurus's legendary axe cracked under the pressure!
"MOOOOO!!!"
"Taurus!" Lucy cried out as her spirit groaned in intense pain, his arms shaking violently.
"Do you honestly think my hammer is just a heavy object?" 'Flare' sighed.
The hammer didn't just rely on blunt force. Finn had infused the strike with highly localized, high-frequency shockwaves. When the hammer connected, the vibrations bypassed physical defenses, rattling the opponent's internal organs directly!
But Lucy wasn't just some helpless damsel; she was a core member of Fairy Tail!
Whipping another golden key from her belt, she summoned reinforcements!
"Open! Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"
"We are great~!"
Unlike the bovine Taurus, Scorpio appeared as a tall, humanoid man with a massive, mechanical scorpion tail acting as a heavy sand-cannon.
Seeing his comrade on the verge of collapsing, Scorpio immediately dropped into a low stance, aiming his mechanical stinger directly at Flare.
"Sand Buster!"
A massive, swirling tornado of high-velocity sand erupted from his tail, tearing across the arena to blast Flare into oblivion!
Yet, facing the devastating sandstorm, 'Flare' didn't even blink. The thick obi wrapped around her waist instantly unraveled, weaving itself into a massive, elegant barrier in front of her.
"Shield Weave."
But it wasn't just a defensive wall. The moment the shield formed, the edges suddenly sharpened inward, creating a razor-thin, hyper-compressed blade of silk. When the sand tornado struck, the shield didn't just block it—it sliced the tornado perfectly in half!
Swooosh!
"What?!" Scorpio gasped as the bisected tornado rushed harmlessly past Flare on either side.
However, Lucy wasn't finished. If they couldn't win alone, they would combine their strength!
"Taurus! Absorb Scorpio's sand!"
"Say no mooore!"
Raising his cracked axe high, Taurus caught the remaining, swirling vortex of sand, wrapping the gritty, high-velocity tornado entirely around the blades of his axe!
"We are great! Go, Taurus!" Scorpio cheered.
Taurus flexed every muscle in his body, gripping the heavily reinforced, sand-wrapped axe as he prepared to launch an all-or-nothing strike!
"NOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" Lucy screamed.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Taurus swung the massive weapon down with terrifying force. "Sandstorm Axe: Aldebaran!!!"
"AWESOME!"
"GO LUCY!"
"YOU CAN DO IT!"
The Fairy Tail balcony erupted into desperate, hopeful cheers. Lucy was carrying the pride of the guild on her shoulders, and she refused to back down!
As the devastating, grinding impact of the sandstorm axe threatened to tear the arena apart, 'Flare' finally moved her hands. The layered silk of her obi instantly restructured, weaving rapidly into a massive, hardened cone. But the cone didn't remain static—the enchanted silk began to spin at hyper-velocity, transforming into a colossal, shrieking drill!
In the original timeline, Flare had been forced to resort to a pathetic, underhanded tactic—threatening Bisca's young daughter, Asuka, in the stands—just to secure a victory against Lucy. But now? With her vastly expanded magical reserves and Finn's flawless piloting, those cowardly tricks were completely unnecessary.
Through the sheer power of Dual Cultivation and Finn's tutelage, Flare had quietly evolved into one of the most terrifying female mages on the continent.
As the high-pitched shriek of the silk drill echoed across the arena, it met the Sandstorm Axe head-on.
"Eh?"
BURST!
The spinning drill didn't just stop the attack; it annihilated it. The vortex of sand was violently dispersed, Taurus's axe shattered into a thousand pieces, and both Celestial Spirits were violently torn through by the spiraling shockwave, forcibly returning them to the Spirit World in a burst of golden light.
The massive drill tore across the remaining distance, stopping barely an inch in front of Lucy's face before instantly unspooling and falling flat to the ground as a perfectly normal silk obi.
"Do you want to continue?" 'Flare' asked, her calm voice cutting through the stunned silence of the arena.
"I..."
Lucy fell to her knees. She didn't want to give up, but as the silk obi twitched, ready to weave into a weapon again, tears pricked her eyes. The power gap was an absolute, insurmountable wall. She wasn't even close to being a match for Flare.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The stadium erupted. The sheer, overwhelming dominance of a mage defeating two Zodiac Spirits with a single piece of clothing sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Lucy gripped the dirt. She had one final trump card. But could it really pierce that drill?
"You have one more trick up your sleeve, don't you?" 'Flare' noted calmly, standing perfectly still. "Let me see it. I will defeat that, too."
Lucy's eyes widened. She wiped her tears, her resolve hardening. "Fine! If you can defeat this, I'll admit I've lost!"
Carrying the absolute last desperate hope of Fairy Tail, Lucy pulled another key.
"Open! Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"
"Piri! Piri!"
"Transform into me, and cast the spell together!" Lucy ordered.
"Yeah!"
Gemini instantly transformed into a perfect clone of Lucy. The two girls stood side-by-side, clasping hands as their magical auras synchronized flawlessly.
This time, they were unleashing the ultimate Celestial spell!
"Survey the skies, open the heavens...
All the stars, far and wide...
Show me thy appearance...
With such shine, oh Tetrabiblos...
I am the ruler of the stars!"
The air pressure in the stadium suddenly plummeted. The bright afternoon sky was violently overwritten, plunging the arena into a deep, mesmerizing blanket of an absolute, starry night sky.
"Throw wide the raging gate!"
A massive, breathtaking array of multi-colored, hyper-dense spheres of starlight manifested in the void, swirling in a rapid, orbital ring around Flare!
"All eighty-eight constellations... SHINE!"
A gigantic, multi-layered magical array illuminated the ground beneath Flare.
"Urano Metria!!!"
On the final, echoing command, all eighty-eight spheres of starlight converged and detonated simultaneously, engulfing Flare in a cataclysmic, blinding explosion of celestial energy!
Yet, exactly one second before the spell detonated, 'Flare' simply smiled.
Her obi didn't weave into a shield. It wove into a drill once again, but this time, it was infinitely denser, vibrating with a terrifying, oscillating frequency.
"Core Excitation: Spiral Weave."
As the words fell from her lips, the drill surged upward.
It didn't just pierce the celestial light. It tore the very fabric of the spell apart. The oscillating drill shredded the orbital bombardment before it could even connect, ripping Urano Metria entirely out of existence and returning the stadium to the bright afternoon sun in a violent shockwave of dispersed mana.
"....."
Plop.
As the ultimate spell was casually erased from reality, absolute silence fell over the arena. Lucy's legs gave out, and she collapsed heavily onto the dirt, completely drained of magic.
Standing amidst the fading stardust, perfectly unharmed, 'Flare' looked down at her.
"Do you still want to fight?"
With a heavy, shattered heart, Lucy bowed her head. "I... concede."