Fairy Tail: Metal and Threads

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus. 

July 4, x790. 

{"Alright, it looks like all the contestants are ready for the resumption of the game!"} Loli shouted. {"Then, let's go~~~~~~~~!"} 

With Loli's shout, the game resumed. However, instead of only one yellow ball, two of them fell into the court from the ceiling. And just like last time, everyone moved to secure points. Needless to say, Alfonzo and Yoruichi, who decided to go for different balls, were the ones to take control of the balls. 

Both cloaked in lightning, Alfonzo in violet and Yoruichi in white, the two sent the balls flying in opposite directions. And that led to the absolute bedlam called Super Balls. 

"Don't think I'll be caught off guard again!" Thibault shouted as the ball kicked by Yoruichi rocketed towards him at blistering speeds. "I'll show you the true power of Twilight Ogre!" 

*Bang!* 

With his shout, Thibault imbued as much of his magic power as he could into his Kanabō as he could. All the while he was standing in position as if he were playing baseball. Then, with perfect timing, he swung the kanabō. However, things did not go as he expected them to. 

Instead of sending the ball away, it shot straight upwards. And because of the amount of magic power Yoruichi used combined with Thibault's own magic power, it rose at an extreme speed. Then, it bounced off the ceiling and came back down just as quickly. 

*Argh!" Thibault shouted in pain. 

*Bang!* 

The reason for Thibault's scream was because the ball, after rebounding off the ceiling, slammed into the top of his head, slamming him face first into the ground. At the same time, because of the angle that it struck Thibault's head, the ball went flying off in a random direction. 

"[Iron Rock Fist]." Jura chanted, having given up on trying to stop Alfonzo's movement, instead trying to capitalize on the ricochet. 

*Bang!* 

In the next moment, a rock fist grew from the ground and threw a punch at the ball that rebounded off of Thibault's head. However, before it could even strike the ball, it was lifted from its course before the ball was struck by another. 

Moving like a flowing stream, Bacchus moved across the court gracefully. Then, just before Jura's [Iron Rock Fist] could strike the ball, he placed his left palm against the underside of the rock fist's thumb. Finally, he pushed upwards, redirecting the force. 

"[Palm Magic: Whirlwind]." Bacchus chanted as he struck the ball with his palm while putting a spin at the end of his strike. 

*Bang!* 

The ball was then sent back towards Twilight Ogre's undefended goal with some added spin to it. 

"No way you're taking advantage of my hard work like that!" Yoruichi shouted as she appeared above the ball with her right leg raised high into the air. 

"Shit!" Bacchus shouted as Yoruichi lowered her foot with great force. 

*Bang!* 

A moment later, the ball was slammed into the ground. However, thanks to the spin Bacchus put on the ball, it did not shoot straight up like one would expect. Instead, it went flying off in the direction of Quatro Cerberus' goal. And unfortunately for Bacchus, there was no one there to defend it. 

{And the second score goes to Team Mermaid Heel!"} Loli shouted excitedly, which led to another round of cheering from the audience. 

{"And look at that, now two yellow balls and a green one have fallen from the ceiling."} Yajima added. {"Meaning, with the ball from the last time, there are five points worth of balls on the court. Never mind, there are only four for the time being."} 

The reason for Yajima retracting his statement so quickly was because Alfonzo, after tormenting Sting for a while by causing the ball to be rebounded towards him with different [Metal Magic] constructs whenever he defended his goal, decided to get his lead back after Yoruichi scored. So, he simply used his speed to completely overwhelm Sting before shooting the ball into Sting's goal. 

{And that's another point for Team Fairy Tail!."} Loli shouted. 

{"And there are more balls falling from the ceiling again."} Yajima added once again. {"This time, there are three yellow balls and a green one. This is going to be one hectic game after a while, isn't it?"} 

{"Yes, it is, Yajima!"} Loli replied enthusiastically. {"And it's sure going to be fun to watch. I'm really looking forward to it."} 

And every time one of the competing wizards scored a point, the number of balls, as well as the value of the balls would increase. AS a result, there were dozens of multi-colored balls flying around at any time after only five or six minutes. And with those balls, spells, flashes of lights, and bodies flew around the court, as well. 

By the time the game was over, nearly all of the wizards had bruises from being hit by balls, spells, or a combination of the two. The exceptions were Alfonzo and Yoruichi, who were simply too fast for anyone to hit. And those who left the court the worst off were Sting and Thibault. Surprisingly, however, Thibault had fewer bruises than Sting. 

But that was a bit misleading, because Thibault was not conscious by the time the game ended. On top of that, Alfonzo targeted Sting almost exclusively. At least, every time he struck a ball for the first time, he sent it in Sting's direction. And every time Sting would deflect it with a punch, a kick, or a spell of some kind, a shield would materialize and send the ball back at Sting faster than he could react. 

*Buzz~~~~~~~~!* 

{"Ladies and gentlemen, that's the end."} Loli shouted as his wig flew off of his head due to his excitement. {"and I gotta say, that was one of the most action-packed, high-intensity events in Grand Magic Games history. What do you think, Yajima?"} 

{"I have to agree."} Yajima replied with a nod. {"And it's rare to see so many spells used in such a small area in such a short period of time. It was truly a sight to be seen."} 

{"Yes!"} Loli shouted excitedly. 

Meanwhile, as the commentators continued to talk about the event that just ended, the audience was just as excited. Well, most of the audience was just as excited. However, there was one portion of the audience that was not very happy. And needless to say, that was where the members of Sabertooth sat. 

Seeing the way that Alfonzo targeted Sting over and over, they were furious. To make things even worse, because of how relentless Alfonzo was, Sting did not score even once, putting him on the same level as Thibault in this game. However, because of Alfonzo's efforts, Sting ended up with an even lower score than Thibault thanks to all the times Alfonzo targeted his goal as well. 

Thibault, on the other hand, although he also had a negative score, as well, the other five wizards defended his goal for him many times, as they all realized that he was not strong enough to do it himself in most cases. As a result, the goals were spread out pretty evenly among the rest of the teams. 

In fact, the only one who did not have the goal scored upon them was Alfonzo, who kept the entire court in his [Magic Power Detection]. Meaning, every time a ball approached his goal, a Vibranium shield would appear in front of it and send it in another direction. And if the force behind it was strong enough, it would go flying towards Sting to add even more pressure, not that he needed it. 

{"Now, let's take a look at the scores for the event."} Loli said once he and Yajima were done discussing some of the more interesting points of the event. 

And with that, the scores showed up on the Lacrima-Vision screens. And they went a little something like this. 

{Super Balls Event Scoreboard 

Rank Team Score 

Fairy Tail 158 Pts. Mermaid Heel 97 Pts. Lamia Scale 87 Pts. Quatro Cerberus 87 Pts. Blue Pegasus 78 Pts. Final Fantasy 75 Pts. Twilight Ogre 0 Pts. Sabertooth -100 Pts.} 

"Well damn... I guess I'm better than I thought I was." Alfonzo said with a laugh while leaving the arena and looking at the screens showing the score for the event. He then jumped into the stands without even looking at Sting.

Meanwhile, Sting finally understood the difference between him and Alfonzo. Unfortunately, that would not save him from the punishment he was sure to receive for losing in today's event. 

"What kind of crap is this?" Sting muttered while making his way back to his seating area. "He's gonna punish me for not being able to do something he couldn't do either. This is so unfair." 

{"I wanna say this was unexpected."} Yajima said while shaking his head. {"But after hearing Alfonzo's declaration at the after his battle with Sabertooth's Orga Nanagear, I could not see this ending any other way."} 

{"Well, this should definitely shake up the overall scoreboard."} Loli added. {"As a matter of fact, why don't we take a look at that right now?"} 

{Overall Scoreboard 

Rank Team Score 

Fairy Tail 68 Pts. Mermaid Heel 55 Pts. Sabertooth 36 Pts. Final Fantasy 30 Pts. Quatro Cerberus 28 Pts. Blue Pegasus 27 Pts. Lamia Scale 13 Pts. Twilight Ogre 1 Pts.} 

{"Now, it's time to move on to the final Battle Round of the x790 Magic Games."} Loli said with a smile. {"And since I just got the envelope with the day's matchups, let's get right to it! First up, Anko Mitarashi of Mermaid Heel versus Rogue Cheney of Sabertooth."} 

"If you lose, be ready for severe punishment, Rogue!" Jiemma shouted from his seat in the stands. 

Hearing that, Rogue's expression hardened as he jumped down into the arena. Meanwhile, Anko shook her head before doing the same. And when the match started, though it was interesting and rather flashy with Rogue controlling shadows and Anko using fire and snakes. In the end, the match was called a draw because neither wizard was able to land a hit on the other, thanks to Rogue's intangibility and Anko's [Substitution Jutsu]. As a result, both teams received 5 Points. But that did not seem to be good enough for Jiemma. 

The next match was between Sherry Blendy from Lamia Scale and another random guy from Twilight Ogre. And unfortunately, by the end of this match, Twilight Ogre had fallen back into their habit of not scoring any points, as Sherry took the victory when she used her [doll Attack Magic] to create a [Rock Doll] that had no issue pummeling her opponent into unconscious ness. 

After that was a match between Vivi Ornitier of Final Fantasy and Sorano Agria of Blue Pegasus. Unfortunately, this match did not go in Final Fantasy's favor, despite having just climbed up to fourth place. Sorano was just too much for Viv to handle. In fact, she did not even use her signature magic, [Angel Magic], to defeat him. Instead, she only used her hand-to-hand combat skills to deal with him. Because for all intents and purposes, Vivi was only a glass cannon with extreme firepower. 

{"And the last match of the day will be between..."} Loli read, pausing for dramatic effect. {"Ikkaku Madarame of Quatro Cerberus..."} 

"Yes~~~~~~~~~!" Ikkaku shouted as he instantly started doing his happy dance. 

{"... and Sun Seto of Fairy Tail."} Loli continued without minding Ikkaku's exclamation. 

"It's your turn, Sun." Alfonzo said with a smile while combing his fingers through Sun's hair. "Go have fun. Ikkaku is gonna make things as hard as possible for you out there." 

"Okay!" Sun said excitedly in response. 

"Just look out for his Shikai." Elicia added. "I won't tell you what it does exactly, but it can be tricky if you're not careful." 

"Oh... I remember htat one." Marin said with a nod. "Yeah, it can be tricky. But it's not that bad." 

"Okay, I'll be careful." Sun replied happily. "I'll see you when I get back." 

Then, without waiting for anyone to say another word, Sun picked up Kanade and jumped into the arena where Ikkaku was already waiting and dancing around on the tips of his toes. 

"You know, ever since I saw you fight on the first day, I was hoping I would get a chance to fight you." Ikkaku said as he brought his happy dance to an end. "So, I must really be lucky to get this opportunity." 

"But you know we could have fought in a couple days during the last event, right?" Sun asked while tilting her head cutely. 

"And that would have been good, too." Ikkaku replied. "But there's always a chance that someone could interrupt us while we're fighting in that event. But this ..." 

Reaching that, Ikkaku raised his arms and spread them wide while spinning around. 

"... this has no chance of being interrupted." Ikkaku said with a happy, child-like smile on his face. "Meaning, today, our wonderful duel won't be interrupted by anything." 

"Unless we reach the time limit." Sun added, trying to be helpful. 

Unfortunately, that only caused Ikkaku to lower his arms and slump his shoulders. 

"*Sigh* That's right." Ikkaku replied in a disappointed tone. "There's that." 

"Well, don't worry." Sun continued in a cheerful tone. "I didn't intend to let the match go on that long, anyway. So, are you ready to fight?" 

Hearing Sun's declaration, Ikkaku raised his head and saw her take an iaido stance. At the same time, his disappointed expression also disappeared as he smiled happily once again before drawing his Zanpakuto, Hōzukimaru, and taking his fighting stance. 

{"Well, it looks like both contestants are ready."} Loli said excitedly. {"Then, whenever you're ready, you can... Begin!"}