381. Intruder
Fairy Tail's victory surprises Ishgar's Magic world a little. It's not because they never thought that Fairy Tail would win. But their team's line-up this year is far different from last year when they sent their best Mages to compete.
No one ever thought that a team full of less-known Mages could overpower the other guild teams that have sent their best Mages. Even Jura competed again, but he still could only bring Lamia Scale to 2nd position as usual. This is a team tournament, after all, so he couldn't do everything.
Still, people are very surprised because none of Team Fairy Tail's members is an S-Class Mage. They have the most S-Class Mages in the whole Ishgar and didn't send even 1 of them. People thought it was foolish, but now everyone knows that Fairy Tail was just that confident.
Ben smiles widely because this is the result he wanted when he proposed this team's line-up. He wanted to show the world just how far Fairy Tail has gone. They've left other Guilds in the dust with their Mages' monstrous progress.
But Ben's true goal isn't boasting to the world that they are the best. This is a competition, so the participants are trying to be the best. Ben hopes that this competition will make other Guilds more competitive and the Mages have more desire to get even stronger because they don't want to be left even further.
If Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages competed, then the other Guilds would just think that it's normal. But they won't think like that now because they all remember that Wendy wasn't this strong last year. That means Wendy has grown much faster than any of them in the last year and it shames them.
So they need to get even stronger to save their pride because it means that they were slacking off in the last year. They didn't, but Wendy's progress makes them realize that they didn't train hard enough. The ones with a strong desire to be strong can't accept this and promise to give more effort into their training.
This is the result Ben wanted although not every Mage thinks like that. But that's enough because at least some Mages are motivated to get stronger. Ben couldn't care less about people who don't have the desire to get better.
He is very concerned about this matter because he knows a war will happen soon. Even if he has shown a very great power to August, Alvarez Empire will still attack Ishgar. After all, even Ben doesn't have the power to protect a whole continent by himself.
So he needs his allies to get stronger to protect this continent together. Also, it's not just Alvarez Empire that becomes their threat. Ben knows if Alvarez attacks Ishgar, then Acnologia will also appear because the numerous clashes of Magic will attract that thing.
Ben is the only one who can face Acnologia in the whole of Ishgar. He knows that thing's power very well now and even Zeref won't stand a chance against Acnologia in a normal situation. Only Ben has the chance to defeat Acnologia right now.
So he won't be able to fight Alvarez Empire if Acnologia appears. There's no way he can fight Acnologia and Alvarez Empire by himself. That's why he needs the others to fight Alvarez's troops while he fights Acnologia.
Even if Acnologia doesn't appear, he will need to face Zeref and the Spriggans. There's only so much he can do alone, so he needs others' help. Ben isn't arrogant enough to think he can do everything by himself.
Anyway, his guild has won the Grand Magic Games again. It's time for the celebration now and the teams have returned to the stadium after the injured Mages get treated. They will give medals and prizes to the top 3 teams now.
But before they can start, someone suddenly barges into the stadium. The intruder wears a rugged black cloak and he suddenly releases a strong heat using his Magic. The heat is so strong it melts people's clothes.
Ben raises an eyebrow when he senses the intruder's magic power. He doesn't get affected by the heat at all because of his Magic. The only one in the stadium other than Ben who doesn't get affected at all is Romeo who has Fire God Slayer Magic.
Although some Mages like Mira, Laxus, Erza, and other S-Class Mages are fine because they can protect themselves using their Magic. But normal people and average Mages have their clothes melt because of the strong heat.
"So Fairy Tail won again, huh? That's good. Now, why don't you guys fight me to see each other's progress?" asks the intruder who reveals himself by opening his cloak.
The intruder is actually Natsu who looks very dirty and has longer hair because he never trimmed it in the last 1 year. He looks very excited as he challenges his guildmates who have just finished the competition.
But then, someone approaches from behind and says, "Quite an entrance you have there, Natsu. Why don't you show me your progress and I'll show you mine?"
Natsu looks back and grins excitedly as he sees Ben walks toward him. Without any hesitation, Natsu agrees to Ben's proposal and coats his hands with fire. Then Natsu shoots the fire toward Ben, creating a massive fire attack that will engulf everything in its path.
Ben is impressed by the scale and power of Natsu's attack. But that's it, he is just impressed because Natsu has grown a lot in 1 year. He won't tolerate Natsu's behavior though and he flicks his fingers toward the massive fire attack.
A small dark red fireball comes out of Ben's flick and flies toward Natsu's fire attack. They hit each other and suddenly the small fireball turns into a massive fire that engulfs Natsu's fire. It keeps moving until it engulfs Natsu's body before disappearing in a second.
But just in that 1 second, the dark red fire destroyed Natsu's fire spell and burnt his clothes. Ben used a Sun Devil Slayer Magic spell and it's actually one of his basic spells. But it is powerful enough to destroy that strong spell and burn a Fire Dragon Slayer's clothes.
Normal people will get flustered if their clothes disappear, but Natsu is a weirdo. He doesn't react at all to him being naked in front of thousands of people. He is just excited to fight Ben and showed the result of his hard training.
Ben sighs seeing Natsu's reaction. He forgets how shameless this guy is. Well, getting their clothes destroyed in battles shouldn't fluster Mages like them because it can make them lose, but not reacting at all is also strange.
Natsu rushes at Ben while being fully naked and it makes people embarrassed just by looking at him. It will also embarrass their Guild, so Ben needs to end this immediately. He flashes toward Natsu and sends a palm chop at Natsu's neck, knocking the idiot immediately.
Ben just took Natsu out very easily with no effort whatsoever. Happy who sees it is in shock because he knows well how much Natsu has grown in the last 1 year. But Ben knocked Natsu out with a mere chop as if Natsu doesn't get stronger at all.
Well, anyway, Ben sends Natsu away so they can continue the ceremony. The organizer also acts fast and distributes clothes for the ones who get their clothes burnt. Then they continue the award ceremony while Makarov and Erza are thinking about the best way to cook Natsu later.
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