Fairy Tail: Metal and Threads

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

July 3, x790.

{"The first match of today's Battle Round will be between Bacchus of Quatro Cerberus and Flamer of Twilight Ogre." Loli said, reading from the card in the envelope. {"Would both fighters please come to the arena to begin the match?"}

"Flamer?" Alfonzo asked from the seating area. "Do you think he uses [Fire Magic]?"

"I hope so." Elicia said with a grin. "Otherwise, his name would seem a bit silly."

"What does it matter?" Brandish asked nonchalantly. "It's not like anyone will remember his name five seconds later, anyway."

In response, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Marin, who was still a little confused after losing the Battle Board event in the way she did, shrugged their shoulders, having no words to retort.

Meanwhile, Bacchus and Flamer jumped down into the arena. And just as quickly as the match started, it ended. Bacchus only needed one palm strike to send Flamer flying and imbed him into the arena's wall.

{"Well, that certainly was quick."} Roy said, a hint of a smile in his tone. {"Things really aren't looking good for Twilight Ogre."}

{"Indeed."} Yajima added. {"This is the end of the third day for them. Yet, they are still sitting at 0 points. I really don't see how they could climb out of this."}

{"You're both right."} Loli said while looking down at the match card. {"But let's move on to the second match. This time, Elicia Marcus Taylor of Fairy Tail and Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki of Blue Pegasus, please make your way to the arena."}

At the same time, Elicia grimaced, not wanting to deal with someone like Ichiya. Even so, she jumped into the arena after pecking Alfonzo on the cheek with a forlorn expression on her face.

"Why does she look like that?" Brandish asked curiously. "I mean, Elicia should have no problem dealing with a guy like him, right?""

"You've never had to deal with Ichiya, have you?" Sun asked while looking at Elicia empathetically.

"No, I haven't." Brandish replied.

"Well, just watch." Sun said while shaking her head.

Although she was still confused, Brandish turned her attention to the arena to see why Elicia looked down before jumping into the arena. However, when she saw what happened next, she understood immediately.

"Men~~~~~~~!" Ichiya shouted energetically as he jumped from the stands into the arena with a rose between his teeth.

"Listen up, Ichiya." Karen said in a stern tone. "If you hurt my Elicia, I'll make you wish you'd never been born. And being whatever you consider a gentleman will be the least of your concerns."

*Bang!*

While on the way down to the arena floor, Karen's words startled Ichiya. As a result, he missed his footing when he landed and feel to the ground before rolling forward in a comical fashion. Yet, when he came to a stop, the rose, completely undamaged, was still in his mouth and he lay on his right side while supporting his head with his right hand and smiling the most charming smile he could muster.

"Men~~." Ichiya said in his most seductive tone while shooting a finger pistol at Elicia, making her shudder in disgust.

"Ugh!" Elicia groaned at Ichiya's actions. She then looked up towards the broadcasting booth and continued. "Please, just start the match already. Dealing with this guy is just too much for me."

"Miss Elicia, I can understand why dealing with someone as ruggedly charming as myself is a bit much, but do you really have to rush?" Ichiya asked as he picked himself up from the ground. "Instead, why don't we have a cup of tea and talk about life. Then, once we're both comfortable, we can start the match."

Hearing that, Elicia shuddered violently. She then turned around to look at Alfonzo with pleading eyes.

"Can you just use a [Railgun] to get rid of him, Fonzie?" Elicia begged.

"*Sigh* If I could, I would." Alfonzo said while shaking his head. "But you know that would get us disqualified. Plus, I don't wanna become a dark wizard."

With Alfonzo's words, Elicia dropped her head. Then, she slowly turned back to Ichiya with determination burning in her eyes.

'I'll just end this as quickly as possible so that I don't have to deal with this for too long.' Elicia thought to herself.

"Now, now, now." Ichiya said after seeing the look in Elicia's eyes. "Please, don't look at me with such passionate eyes, Miss Elicia. You have a husband. And I wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea. Although Alfonzo and I have not always seen eye to eye, I still consider him a friend, you know?"

"Please, just start the match." Elicia pleaded once more.

{"Uh... Begin!"} Loli said, taken aback by the distress in Elicia's tone.

As soon as Loli gave the signal, Ichiya reached into his suit's inner pocket and pulled a pair of small bottle of perfume. He then held them to his nostrils and inhaled deeply.

"[Perfume Magic: Power Perfume, Fleet-Foot Perfume]." Ichiya chanted after inhaling his perfumes.

In the next instant, Ichiya, a short, stout man, grew in size. As he grew, and became more muscular, his suit tore, leaving only part of his pants intact, covering his nether region. At the same time, he became a hulking mass of muscle.

"Since the match has started, I won't go easy on you, Miss Elicia." Ichiya said while posing with his new muscular build. "So, please forgive me if you get hurt."

"If you hurt her, I'll end you, Ichiya!" Karen shouted from the Blue Pegasus seating area. However, she was completely ignored.

Instead, Ichiya ran forward at blinding speed, his speed augmented by his [Fleet-Foot Perfume]. Along his way to Elicia, who had not moved in the slightest, he began to spin, yet he somehow did not lose any momentum while doing so.

"[Sparkle to Infinity]. Men~~~~~!" Ichiya chanted while spinning. "Huh? Men?"

However, when he stopped spinning and prepared to throw a devastating punch at Elicia, Ichiya found himself unable to move. Then, when he looked down, he saw that he was wrapped from his neck to the soles of his feet in magical threads.

{"Spinning like that when dealing with someone who uses [Thread Magic] really isn't a good idea."} Roy said with a hint of amusement in his tone. {"Still, it seems like that attack would have been rather powerful had it been delivered."}

{"That it would."} Yajima replied. {"From what I've heard, Ichiya's attack is strong enough to destroy an entire tower. He once used it to bring down a dark wizard's tower during a Dark Guild subjugation quest."}

{"That's rather impressive."} Loli said. {"Unfortunately, it seems rather ineffective against someone like Contestant Elicia. Instead, he's been wrapped up like a spool of thread."}

Meanwhile, Ichiya was struggling to free himself from Elicia's threads with all the additional strength afforded to him by the [Power Perfume]. Yet, there was no visible effect. And when he noticed that, he looked up to meet eyes with Elicia.

"How bout we sit down and talk about this?" Ichiya asked while wearing what he considered a charming smile. "I'm sure there's a way other than violence to settle this, ri--- Men~~~~~~~~~~~!"

Unfortunately for Ichiya, Elicia had no interest in talking to him. Instead, she spun on her heels. And as she spun, Ichiya was pulled along with her. Over time, Elicia's rotation got faster and faster. Meanwhile, Ichiya's screams began to doppler as he was spun along with her.

Then, once Elicia was spinning as fast as she could, she flicked her arms upwards, sending Ichiya high into the air.

"[Thread Magic: Thread Catapult]." Elicia chanted once Ichiya was high enough up in the air.

In the next instant, Elicia was pulled upwards, as well as her threads contracted. However, instead of flying into Ichiya, she flew past him. And when she did, she let the threads lengthen once again.

"["Thread Magic: Meteor Hammer]." Elicia chanted once she was high enough in the air.

Elicia then summersaulted forward, causing Ichiya to be flung through the air with her rotation. Then, after making a full rotation, Elicia disconnected the threads from the cocoon wrapped around Ichiya.

"Men~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!" Ichiya screamed as he was sent rocketing down towards the arena floor.

*Boom!*

Ichiya's shout was cut off when he slammed into the arena floor. And upon impact, a cloud of dust and debris was kicked up into the air. Meanwhile, Elicia used her threads to weave a glider so that she could slowly circle the dust cloud, eventually landing just outside the cloud before walking back towards the stands.

Seeing the power behind Elicia's attack, the crowd was in awe. Other than Ur, Erza had been publicly considered the strongest woman in Fairy Tail. However, after seeing Elicia's feats in her fight with Ichiya, that notion came into question.

{"Wow..."} Loli muttered in dumbfounded amazement as the dust settled. {"All I can say is... Wow... Oh, I think I can see Contestant Ichiya. Will he be able to rise and continue the fight? OR is this the end of the match?"}

As Loli said that, the crowd was also able to see Ichiya. However, when they did, they all shook their heads. Currently, Ichiya's body was still enlarged thanks to his [Power Perfume], his hair was a mess, he was smiling in his usual fashion, making it look as if he would stand up at any moment. However, when looking into Ichiya's eyes, it was clear that he had lost consciousness.

{"I think it's pretty obvious."} Roy said. {"I don't think Ichiya will be getting up anytime soon."}

{"Indeed."} Yajima said while nodding in agreement. {"From what I know, Ichiya is quite durable. However, after taking an impact like that, I don't know many wizards who could maintain consciousness."}

Shortly after that, Elicia was declared the winner. At the same time, Elicia leapt back into the stands while the Trimens jumped down in to the arena to move Ichiya to the medical station to get his injuries taken care of.

After that, Loli announced the next match, Terra of Final Fantasy versus Yoruichi of Mermaid Heel. Unfortunately, Terra was no match for Yoruichi. Although she put up a good fight with her array of support magic such as [Protect], [Shell], and [Reflect], Yoruichi was just too fast for Terra to land a hit on. Even after stacking [Slow] on her opponent three times.

And the last match of the day was between Yuka of Lamia Scale and Rufus of Sabertooth. And like two of the three previous matches, this one did not last long, as Rufus completely overwhelmed Yuka with his [Memory-Make Magic] and the vast number of spells he had memorized.

{"And that will bring an end to the third day's events."} Loli said once the final match of the Battle Round ended. {"Now, why don't we thank our guest commentator, Colonel Roy Mustang. Colonel, thanks for coming today. We really appreciate it."}

{"No problem, Loli."} Roy said in a charismatic tone. {"It was a great experience. I hope I get to do this again next year."}

{"We might be able to arrange that."} Yajima replied.

{"I'll hold you to that."} Roy said with a chuckle.

{"Well, before we end today's broadcast, why don't we take one more look at the scoreboard?"} Loli said.

{Overall Scoreboard 

Rank Team Score 

Fairy Tail 58 Pts. Mermaid Heel 47 Pts. 

3 Sabertooth 36 Pts. 

4.. Final Fantasy 28 Pts.

Blue Pegasus 24 Pts. Quatro Cerberus 22 Pts. Lamia Scale 7 Pts. Twilight Ogre 0 Pts.} 

While Loli announced the scores for the end of the day, the crowd made its way to the exits. Meanwhile, Jiemma, whose guild received 20 points for the day, was in a much better mood than he was at the end of yesterday's events.

On top of that, two men wearing black cloaks with red cloud patterns and straw hats were also leaving the arena. However, they seemingly went unnoticed by anyone in the arena as they made their way out. Though, there were more than a few wizards in the audience who noticed their presences. Those wizards just did not do anything about them.

"What do you think we should do, Itachi?" Kisame asked while he and Itachi ran towards the city outskirts by jumping from roof to roof. "It seems the members of Fairy Tail are stronger than we expected."

"Yes, they are." Itachi replied. "But I don't think they're too much for Pain to handle. Still, we should let him know what we've found out about the wizards in the Grand Magic Games. He may want to reconsider attacking Crocus to retrieve him. There are just too many strong wizards in the city right now."

"Yeah, there are quite a few." Kisame replied. "And that Magic Seamstress, she's much stronger than I expected, too. If she weren't protecting the Nine-Tailed Brat last time, things would have been much more difficult, wouldn't they?"

Hearing that, Itachi, with his Sharingan active, glanced back at Kisame to see if he had been replaced by someone using the [Transformation Jutsu]. Although his expression did not change, he was thoroughly surprised that Kisame would say something like that.

'I have to find a way to get Pain to give up on attacking during the rest day like he wanted to.' Itachi thought to himself after looking away from Kisame. 'Although I have no doubt that he would still end up defeated, the collateral damage would be much worse if he were to attack in Crocus rather than Magnolia. Luckily, Kisame, who has more muscle than brains, is wary of all the strong wizards in the capital right now, too. Otherwise, I don't think he would listen to me. Well, we'll just have to wait and see.'

While those thoughts ran through Itachi's head, he and Kisame left the city. However, they were unaware of the scarlet-haired former dragon who followed them from the air with a curious smile on her face.