Chapter 286: Fairy Tail's Strongest Mage Showdown
Fried's purpose in participating in the tournament was to clear George out of Laxus's way.
Even if he lost in the end, exhausting a large amount of George's magic power would still lighten the burden for Laxus.
Although Laxus would certainly disdain such an act, for the sake of Laxus, he had to do this. This was not cheating; it was simply a strategy.
"Your strength is not bad. Then let's begin."
George nodded and hooked his cat paw toward Fried.
George wasn't very clear about Fried's magic. In fact, not only he but also the other guild mages weren't very clear about it; they only knew the basics.
Because the Thunder God Tribe, like Laxus, were rather solitary and didn't often mingle with everyone.
George only knew that Fried was proficient in rune and dark script magic.
He had already experienced the rune magic at the guild gate before; it was indeed very powerful. He and Levy had teamed up and it had still taken them quite a while to break through it.
As for the dark script, during the earlier battle, George saw Fried using it — carving magical words like "Fear" and "Pain" onto his enemy's body with a rapier, causing them to feel fear and pain.
Thus, Fried could easily defeat opponents who were affected by the dark script.
Fried's close combat and swordsmanship skills were also very impressive.
However, given that Fried was the leader of the Thunder God Tribe and had defeated S-Class mages multiple times, it was likely that his abilities did not stop there.
"Forbidden Art: Dark Script - Darkness!"
Fried immediately went all out, using his rapier to cast dark script magic on himself.
A dense dark power flowed into his body through the dark script. In the blink of an eye, his human form transformed into a demon form with twin horns atop his head.
His physical strength and magic power surged dramatically.
"Dark Script: Wings!"
Immediately after, a second dark script was engraved on his body, and black energy wings spread from his back.
With a flash, he turned into a streak of black light and charged toward George.
"Interesting."
Seeing that script magic could be used in such a way, George's eyes lit up.
The script magic he had learned was similar to Levy's — using written characters to cast various magical effects.
He hadn't expected that one could also cast script magic on oneself to enhance their own abilities.
Indeed, many magics in the library were merely foundations. True powerful mages would develop these foundations further according to their own conditions.
Just like how Erza had developed ordinary Requip magic into the far more powerful Knight Magic.
It was no wonder that most mages in this world only learned one type of magic.
Because, apart from true prodigies like Jellal, it was extremely difficult for an ordinary mage to even develop a high-level use of a single magic.
"It's over!"
Just as Fried circled behind George intending to launch a sneak attack, George's body suddenly swelled rapidly, transforming from a palm-sized kitten into a giant beast over thirty meters tall.
Electric arcs surrounded his body, and his cat paw, moving at lightning speed, swatted the demon-transformed Fried like a fly, smashing him into the arena floor and knocking him out cold.
One-shot KO!
The Fairy Tail mages who had been worried about George were instantly dumbfounded. Even Laxus, who had finished his match on the other side, stared with wide eyes.
Laxus had a premonition that Fried might not be able to defeat George, but he never expected that Fried would be one-shotted.
Demon-transformed Fried had defeated several S-Class mages before; his strength was definitely not weak.
"Winner: George!"
Recovering from the shock, Mirajane flew above George and announced the result of the match.
George also returned to his normal kitten size.
Fried's demon form was indeed strong, but unfortunately, George's combination of gigantification, lightning-stimulated body, and inherited magic dragon constitution meant that his overall power exceeded even the Saint Ten giant-form Makarov.
Even demonized Fried couldn't come close.
Moreover, with a cat's naturally fast reflexes, Fried didn't even have time to leverage his speed advantage before being swatted down.
The fifth round ended, and the final round's draw began.
Laxus versus Erza, George versus Lucy — the winners would compete for the championship.
The losers would compete for second and third place.
Half an hour later, the semifinals began.
For the semifinals, according to Makarov's arrangement, the matches were not held simultaneously but one after another.
First match: George versus Lucy.
Unsurprisingly, Lucy lost, though she didn't surrender directly. She summoned Aquarius from the lake outside the arena, almost flooding the entire small island.
It proved that when pushed, her power was not weak at all.
Second match: Erza versus Laxus.
Honestly, this was the most exciting battle, and even George watched very attentively.
Because both Erza and Laxus had passed the guild master's test to become S-Class mages.
Their strength was at the pinnacle of S-Class, and perhaps even on par with the Saint Ten.
Previously, Erza's strength might have been inferior to Laxus, but after the Tower of Heaven incident, defeating top S-Class mage Ikaruga, and seeing through her own heart, it was hard to say who would win.
In any case, George wasn't sure whether Erza or Laxus would emerge victorious.
As the battle began, Erza immediately equipped her Thunder Emperor's Armor, which had very high resistance to lightning.
Wearing the Thunder Emperor's Armor, holding a thunder spear, and her hair braided into pigtails with ribbons, she looked valiant and heroic, causing the spectators on the shore to cheer for her enthusiastically.
Laxus, too, seriously used his Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic.
The battle between the two was fierce and back-and-forth.
In the end, Laxus's Dragon Slayer Magic proved superior, devouring the lightning from Erza's thunder spear, destroying her Thunder Emperor's Armor, and, before she could re-equip, knocking her unconscious.
However, he was also exhausted — it was a narrow victory.
"I didn't expect Erza's strength to reach this level!"
At this moment, Laxus realized he had truly underestimated the guild's mages.
The Erza he had always looked down upon turned out to be only slightly weaker than himself.
And earlier, Natsu and Gray's strengths had also far exceeded his expectations.
Could it be that his ideals were wrong and the old man's ideals were correct?
Half an hour later, Mirajane floated in the air and announced to everyone through a microphone:
"Now, we will hold the final match.
This match will determine the strongest mage of our Fairy Tail Guild this year.
At the same time, it will decide the candidate for our next Fairy Tail guild master.
Will it be Laxus, the Lightning Dragon Slayer, or our future cat guild master George? Stay tuned!"
(End of Chapter)