Ominous Nebula
July 4th, X791
"Alright we're on the fourth day! I'm all fired up!" Natsu exclaimed.
"I wonder who should participate in this next event." Gray said as he stared off into the center of the arena.
"I'll go." Meliodas said. "We have to catch up with Team B right?"
"OH CRAP THE BET!" Gray exclaimed.
"The bet?" Wendy questioned.
"Yeah...Master added a bit of motivation for the teams where the team who came out with the most points at the end of the Grand Magic Games would be able to force the other team to do whatever they wanted for a day." Erza answered.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Guess I should really go then." Meliodas said.
"What would you even want the other team to do for you Meliodas?" Gray asked.
"Hmm...I could start up the Boar Hat again and make them all work for me." Meliodas pondered.
"WELCOME BACK EVERYONE TO DAY 4 OF THE GRAND MAGIC GAMES! THE COMPETITION FOR TODAY IS NAVAL BATTLE! EVERY TEAM CHOOSES ONE MEMBER FOR THIS EVENT." Chapati announced. Just as he finished speaking, a huge magical circle that almost filled up the arena appeared on the ground. The circle began to glow brightly, and a huge sphere of water began materializing, floating high in the center of the arena.
"IF YOU LEAVE THIS SPHERE OF WATER, YOU'RE CONSIDERED OUT OF BOUNDS AND YOU LOSE. THE ONE WHO IS LEFT IN THE WATER AT THE END IS THE WINNER. BUT WHEN ONLY TWO ARE LEFT IN THE WATER, A SPECIAL RULE GOES INTO EFFECT. THIS IS CALLED THE FIVE MINUTE RULE! WHEN ONLY TWO CONTESTANTS ARE LEFT, FOR A PERIOD OF FIVE MINUTES, THE FIRST ONE THAT GOES OUT OF BOUNDS WILL BE RANKED LAST!"
"So they're announcing the event first this time." Erza commented.
"If I recall, they had an event similar to this called King of the Hill back when I participated." Meliodas commented.
"I heard from Max you participated in that one and won right?" Wendy asked.
"So Meliodas will definitely win this one for us!" Natsu said enthusiastically.
"If I recall, Team B is three points behind us." Erza commented.
"You know how to swim, right?" Gray asked as he looked at Meliodas. Meliodas returned a wide grin to Gray.
"Probably." Meliodas answered smugly.
"Well you better get first place then!" Natsu shouted.
"Fine, fine. I will." Meliodas replied nonchalantly. "If you really want, I can knock out whoever is going for team B either first or last because of the 5 minute rule." Meliodas said.
"Hahaha! Perfect! We'll catch up on points to team B in no time if you do that!" Natsu said with a smirk.
---
All of the contestants floated in the huge water sphere, evenly spaced between each other and wearing swimsuits. Meliodas himself wore a pair of dark purple swimming trunks with a white Fairy Tail insignia on his right thigh.
"Huh...I can breathe in this water for some reason." Meliodas commented. He looked around at the other contestants and noticed Juvia from Fairy Tail B was participating in this event. 'Of course she would. This event is probably the most suitable for her.' Meliodas looked around at the other contestants and raised his eyebrows as he saw Minerva. Minerva looked back at Meliodas and returned a calm smile to him.
'I'll have to keep my distance from her if I don't want what happened to me to happen again…' Meliodas thought.
"NOW THAT EVERYONE IS IN THE WATER, WE WILL START THE EVENT!" Chapati announced.
As Chapati finished announcing, the other contestants began to swim around and engage each other in combat. Meliodas remained in his place and looked at Minerva who was floating by herself away from the action. 'How do I go about this…' Meliodas pondered for a few moments when an idea popped into his head.
"Requip: Neo Mel Force!" Meliodas said as Neo Mel Force was summoned into his left hand. With great speed, he propelled himself into the direct center of the circle. Minerva's eyes widened as she observed Meliodas' actions.
"Sorry Zel, I'm gonna have to borrow this." Meliodas commented as he began to flare his magic up. The other contestants who were brawling with each other immediately stopped what they were doing as they sensed Meliodas' magical power rise. Meliodas' features began to change, his eyes turning pitch black and a small spiral shaped henna formed just above his right eyebrow.
"He's using that?!" Laxus questioned as he stared at Meliodas, remembering how Meliodas' power skyrocketed when he turned it on in their fight.
"Heh...that's quite the magic. Makes my skin crawl." Gajeel said with a smirk.
Sitting far away from the arena, Meredy and Ultear sat atop a tall building looking into Ultear's crystal ball to watch the events.
"He's using his demon powers in this?" Meredy questioned.
"He's probably taking Minerva seriously after what happened in the last Grand Magic Games he was in. Her raw power alone isn't a threat to Meliodas, but the nature of her magic in this situation makes her tough to deal with." Ultear responded.
"That's strange...I thought Meliodas' mark looked different from that. Isn't it normally larger and takes up most of his forehead now?" Meredy questioned.
"Perhaps he's able to control its output." Ultear said. "There isn't nearly as big a change in power."
---
'Alright...how did Zel do this again? I just have to release my darkness and spin it around really fast…' Meliodas thought. He raised his hand up in the air as small particles of darkness left his body and spread out around him. He immediately swiped his hand, causing the particles to begin circling around him, getting faster and faster until they could no longer be properly seen.
The other contestants looked in complete shock as a huge vortex began to form where Meliodas was standing and started sucking them in at a rapid pace, bringing them right up to Meliodas in mere moments.
"W-what's going on!" Sherria exclaimed as she found herself unable to swim away.
"This force is too great!" Jenny shouted.
"Even in the water, Juvia cannot get out of this?!" Juvia questioned.
"What a fascinating technique…" Minerva commented as she remained the only contestant not affected by the suction.
Unable to escape the pulling force, the other contestants found themselves all right in front of Meliodas. A grin formed on Meliodas face as he swung his sword. Suddenly, four bodies shot straight out of the water circle to the ground below.
"INCREDIBLE! MELIODAS HAS JUST KNOCKED OUT FOUR PEOPLE AT THE SAME TIME!" Chapati exclaimed.
"They all left the circle extremely fast. We'll have to replay the scene on our slow motion lacrima vision to confirm the point order." Yajima added.
"You may be strong, but Juvia is not affected by physical attacks!" Juvia commented as she floated right in front of Meliodas, her body liquified and forming back to normal.
"Hmm...that will be troublesome…" Meliodas commented. He raised his right hand up, causing the vortex of water he created to stop as his darkness all gathered around his hand. He immediately swiped at Juvia with his darkness covered hand, the darkness from his hand forming around Juvia's body.
"W-what's going on?! J-Juvia's body feels strange!" Juvia questioned as she felt a strong pressure force her liquified body back into its solid state and unable to move. As she floated surrounded by a veil of darkness, Meliodas gave her a friendly smile before looking up at Minerva and slowly swimming just a bit closer to her.
Meliodas suddenly felt a strong, invisible force slam him backwards. Meliodas immediately sprouted wings of darkness from his back and stopped himself. Minerva looked at Meliodas with noticeable surprise on his face. 'That attack...it was supposed to have sent him flying right out of the arena, but he resisted it?! I guess I'll have to resort to baiting him to get closer to me.'
"You took that well, Blond Demon. But playing at that distance won't let you triumph over me." Minerva said with utmost confidence.
"Is that so?" Meliodas replied with a cheeky grin. He suddenly slashed diagonally forward with Mel Force. At that instant, the portion of the water sphere Minerva was in suddenly separated from the rest of the main sphere.
"W-WHAT?!" Minerva exclaimed as the portion of water around her burst, leaving her out in the open as she fell to the ground below.
"WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DISPLAY OF POWER AND SWORDSMANSHIP! WITH THAT, MINERVA IS OUT! LEAVING JUST MELIODAS AND JUVIA AS THE ONLY TWO COMPETITORS. THUS, WE BEGIN THE FIVE MINUTE RULE. FOR THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES WHOEVER IS KNOCKED OUT OF THE ARENA WILL NOT GAIN ANY POINTS!" Chapati announced.
"Meliodas was really trying to win this one huh." Max commented.
"He managed to knock out Minerva and Juvia is stuck in place! He has this in the bag!" Jet exclaimed.
"J-Juvia cannot move!" Juvia grunted as she remained covered by the veil of darkness. 'What is this darkness that keeps Juvia from turning into water?!'
"Sorry Juvia." Meliodas said as he swam back towards her. "But I have to win this one."
Meliodas grabbed Juvia's left arm then suddenly hurled her straight out of the arena. As she fell to the ground, Meliodas' darkness around her vanished and she landed on her feet.
"THE MATCH IS OVER! THE WINNER IS FAIRY TAIL TEAM A! AND BECAUSE JUVIA WAS KNOCKED OUT DURING THE FIVE MINUTE RULE, TEAM B GETS ZERO POINTS!" Chapati announced.
---
Sabertooth: 50
Fairy Tail A: 47
Fairy Tail B: 40
Mermaid Heel: 25
Lamia Scale: 23
Blue Pegasus: 20
Quatro Cerberus: 14
---
Meliodas, Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Wendy joined up with the rest of their guild in the spectator area as Chapati announced a thirty minute intermission.
"You did a really great job out there Meliodas!" Lucy cheered. "I'm sorry I couldn't join you guys in this event…" Lucy said, her tone suddenly becoming somber as she looked down. She suddenly looked back up as she felt a couple of light pats on her head.
"Don't worry about it. Wasn't your fault." Meliodas said reassuringly.
"Yeah it was those damn Raven Tail bastards. At least they got disqualified." Gray said.
"Yeah! Way to show Minerva not to mess with you twice!" Max said as he patted Meliodas on the back.
"Well, we can't lose to team B right?" Meliodas said with a smile.
"Gee hee. You may have won that, but you better watch your back, cause we'll still catch up! Gajeel responded with a smirk.
"Is that so?" Meliodas responded.
"Looks like everyone is gathered up here." Makarov said as he approached the group the members of Fairy Tail immediately turned to face Makarov.
"Good work out there today. I have some news for team A and B though. I don't know if I should call this good or bad news but, I received orders from the backers of the game to combine team A and B into one team."
"WHAT?!" Natsu shouted.
"But why?" Mirajane asked.
"Since Raven Tail was disqualified, there are only seven teams left. Because of the odd number of teams, it is causing a problem in scheduling the battle section." Makarov answered.
"So they want us to merge and form just one five man team then." Erza said.
"So what happens to the points?" Carla asked.
"They're giving the new team the lowest point total. In other words, Team B's 40 points." Makarov said.
"That's pretty unfair!" Happy exclaimed.
"Dammit! We were so close to first place too!" Natsu shouted angrily.
"If the backer is deciding this, then we have no choice but to oblige I suppose." Erza commented calmly.
"In this case, this just means we'll have an even stronger team than before." Cana added.
"Don't we only have tag battles left?" Gray asked.
"Not quite." Makarov said. "After tomorrow's day off, there will be an event which includes all five members. We'll have to consider our members seriously."
---
"NOW THAT WE HAVE FINISHED OUR INTERMISSION, I WOULD LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THE NEW FAIRY TAIL TEAM THAT WILL BE PARTICIPATING DUE TO CERTAIN TEAM CONSTRAINTS. BOTH TEAMS A AND B HAVE COMBINED TO BECOME ONE TEAM." Chapati announced.
As Chapati finished announcing, the new Fairy Tail team walked into the arena lined up with each other side by side. At the outer edges were Laxus and Erza, with Natsu and Gajeel at the inner edges. In the middle, walking slightly ahead of them was Meliodas.
The crowd went wild as the Fairy Tail group walked into the arena, with the other groups staring in awe at the new team composition.
"That's quite the team they have there." Jura commented.
"Meliodas…" Kagura said as she looked at him. "Not only him, but also Erza…"
"If I recall, they have quite the dangerous lineup." Rufus said.
"You scared or something Rufus?" Sting asked.
"I merely have a not so fond memory in dealing with Meliodas. But I guess you could say nearly all of us are on that boat-" Rufus immediately stopped as he sensed a menacing presence coming from Minerva behind him who was glaring at him. Minerva quickly calmed down and focused her attention back at the Fairy Tail team.
"AND NOW THE BATTLES FOR TODAY WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE BOARD!" Chapati announced as a large screen appeared in the middle of the arena.
[BLUE PEGASUS VS QUATRO CERBERUS]
[MERMAID HEEL VS LAMIA SCALE]
[SABERTOOTH VS FAIRY TAIL]
"So we're going up against Sabertooth? I'm all fired up!" Natsu said as he cracked his knuckles.