"Bang!"
Natsu fell to the ground, gritting his teeth in pain. Even though he had used all his strength to defend, he still couldn't withstand Moen's punch.
As for dodging, he had tried—but it was impossible. The punches were too fast, and Moen didn't just stand still. While his fists were quick and heavy, his movements were also agile.
Natsu had finally realized the full-scale gap in strength between him and Moen. No wonder he was defeated so easily.
"Again!"
Natsu got back on his feet, his eyes full of fighting spirit. If this was the standard for the people he wanted to catch up to, then this was exactly the strength he needed to aim for!
"Damn it! Natsu, you brat! Now it's my turn!"
Gray jumped out beside him, stopping Natsu. Natsu had already been the sparring partner for two hours; now it was Gray's turn!
"Huh?! What does that have to do with you?! Go train on your own!"
Natsu glared at Gray irritably. Moen had called him over to be a sparring partner, and Gray just had to come and butt in.
"What do you mean it doesn't concern me?! Before you came, I was the one sparring with Moen all this time!"
Gray shot Natsu an angry glare, and the two started butting heads again, neither willing to back down.
At first, Gray had intended to just watch Natsu and maybe laugh at him, but as he observed, he felt something was off.
Training with Moen, though grueling and exhausting, truly brought progress. If Natsu continued monopolizing Moen as his sparring partner, Gray would be at a huge disadvantage.
So Gray couldn't hold back—he needed to reclaim his right to be Moen's sparring partner!
"."
Moen watched this scene and couldn't help but laugh. These two were truly incompatible by nature—even taking hits, they had to compete.
How to describe their relationship?
If there were a pile of something undesirable on the ground, and one insisted on eating it, the other would definitely have to take a bite too.
It wasn't an exaggeration. These two were stubborn to the core.
"Stop fighting. Both of you come at me together. This time, I won't strike back—you attack me."
Moen reached out, grabbed the two by the back of their collars, separating them again, and announced a new training drill.
The previous exercise had Natsu dodging Moen's attacks. Now it was their turn to attack, and if they failed to evade, they would take solid hits.
Moen's training methods were brutal. His focus was on real combat—not just pure strength, stamina, or magical meditation. He was a practical fighter. The drills also included developing tolerance for being hit and enduring pain.
A mage's profession wasn't a safe pretend game—it was dangerous, filled with life-threatening battles.
On this continent of Ishgar, where the Fiore Kingdom lay, there were institutions like the Magic Council to regulate official guilds. The distinction between official and unofficial guilds was determined by them.
The Magic Council maintained order in Ishgar's magical society and monitored the actions of guild members, punishing rogue guilds and pursuing dark guilds.
Dark guilds, expelled and hunted by the Magic Council, consisted entirely of black mages. They carried out criminal assignments: theft, assassination, annihilation. Wars often broke out between dark and official guilds, with official guilds responsible for suppressing the dark ones.
Therefore, Moen believed that as a mage—especially one in a famous guild like Fairy Tail—having combat strength was essential. Otherwise, even life could be at risk, as dark guilds wouldn't show mercy.
In this sense, Moen's philosophy shared some similarities with Laxus. The difference was Moen wasn't as extreme.
Laxus wanted the guild to be purely elite. Moen thought weaker, lower-level mages were also necessary—they handled low-difficulty, low-pay requests, the foundation of the guild's existence.
Regarding the future of Fairy Tail and the position of guild master, Moen had his own ideas
Here, Moen and Laxus were direct competitors, making Moen's new task even more difficult to complete.
"Whew… whew… I can't… I'm exhausted!"
After two hours of training, Gray and Natsu lay on the ground like two dead dogs, their chests heaving as they gasped for air. Their physical strength was completely drained, their magic nearly exhausted, and their entire bodies ached and felt powerless, as if they had just fought a massive battle.
Moen stood beside them, also slightly out of breath. His magic power was excellent, but facing the combined assault of these two beasts had drained it at a frightening pace.
While his magic was depleting, it was simultaneously regenerating rapidly. Inside Moen's body, a magic source like a cosmic starfield emitted a gentle glow, slowly rotating and continuously releasing energy. His body greedily absorbed the ambient magic flowing through the natural world.
Magic power is a special element of nature, existing both in living beings and widely throughout the natural world.
Magic itself is the materialization of internal magical power resonating and harmonizing with external natural magic.
Many factors affect magic power and magic performance, including one's life force, soul, emotions, alignment with natural fluctuations, sensitivity to magic, and more. A mage's talent is never determined by a single factor.
Moen's body possessed exceptional magical potential: high mana capacity, rapid recovery, and fast absorption of external magic, making him stand out among mages of his age.
The first time he sensed magic through meditation, Moen realized he was born to be a mage!
"Let's call it a day."
Seeing Natsu and Gray lying motionless on the floor, Moen declared the training session over. The timing was just right to eat; after the meal, they would continue with meditation exercises.
"Food!"
At the mention of a meal, Natsu seemed to find new energy. Eating properly was crucial for mages, as hunger slowed magic recovery and left the body weak.
The three returned to the guild hall's main floor, found a table, and sat down, picking up the menu to order.
It was almost six in the evening. Many guild mages were already having dinner. Mages without families usually relied on the guild for their meals, as it was significantly cheaper than eating outside.