Chapter 265
Cana might be lazy, shamelessly unmotivated, and allergic to studying, but she had one extremely capable little brother and a ridiculously daughter-obsessed father.
In terms of connections alone, there probably wasn’t anyone in Fairy Tail with a stronger backing.
Lucy, meanwhile, was vain, a little materialistic, and fundamentally a walking comedy act—but she was also filthy rich and descended from a direct, pure-blooded line of Celestial Spirit Mages.
If anyone in Fairy Tail could claim to have luck on their side, it was probably her.
Put the two of them together, and Marshall was willing to call them Fairy Tail’s strongest pair of second-generation magic elites.
Their backgrounds were absurdly stacked. Wherever they went, they could practically bulldoze straight through.
Card Magic, as a Holder-Type Magic, was especially dependent on resources.
How powerful a Card Mage could become depended heavily on how much money they were willing to pour into their deck.
Cana had things easier than most because she made the majority of her own cards.
Aside from the years she spent living at the church as a child, she had never really suffered from a lack of money again.
In a sense, Cana herself was already a wealthy woman.
After all, ordinary people couldn’t casually ask Marshall and Gildarts to help them manufacture cards for free.
That was why Cana could throw out Crush Cards, Laser Cards, and everything else without the slightest hesitation, as though they cost nothing.
At first, Freed tried to avoid her barrage and take a defensive approach, planning to wait until Cana exhausted her stock before counterattacking.
Then Cana just kept throwing cards.
And throwing cards.
And throwing more cards!
She did practically nothing else.
By the time Lucy was already disappearing into the distance with the Fairy Heart, Bickslow finally sent his dolls crashing directly into Cana’s incoming cards.
"Freed! Go after Lucy! I’ll hold her here! If you don’t move now, they’re going to win!"
"Got it! Hold on!"
Freed immediately broke away and tried circling around from another direction.
A laser beam shot him out of the sky before he got far.
Cana grinned maliciously.
"Trying to run? Did I say you could?"
She rubbed her hands together, revealing another thick stack of cards between her fingers.
"From now on, every turn is my turn! Draw! Hahahahaha!"
Cana proceeded to bombard the two of them without restraint, looking less like a Card Mage and more like an arms dealer who had somehow acquired an unlimited stockpile of military hardware.
Lucy had mentally prepared herself to fight off anyone who tried to intercept her, but nobody ever managed to catch up.
She carried the Fairy Heart safely back to their camp without so much as a scratch.
And just like that, the bizarre match came to an end.
The Marshall Team won the second event!
Explosions were still going off on the island even after the result had been announced. Cana had apparently gotten carried away.
Hopefully Freed and Bickslow were still alive.
The audience was rather divided over what they had just witnessed.
"That was incredible! I never knew Card Magic could be that powerful! As expected of the Card Queen who created the Card Summoner profession!"
"...Hold on! Who carries that many magical cards around with them? At market price, even an average card costs around ten thousand Jewels. She must’ve burned through more than a million Jewels in that one match! How rich is she?!"
"Exactly! I didn’t see strength. I saw money."
"So what? Having good cards doesn’t mean anything if you can’t use them properly! You people are just jealous!"
Cana couldn’t have cared less what anyone thought.
As far as she was concerned, what else were cards supposed to be used for?
She had so much stock piled up in storage that she barely knew what to do with it. If she wasn’t going to use them now, then when?
The moment she returned from the match, Cana hurried straight over to Marshall.
"Marshall! Was I awesome or what?"
Marshall glanced over at Freed and Bickslow, both covered from head to toe in dust and soot, and nearly burst out laughing.
If those two had rushed Cana immediately and prevented her from using her ranged cards, they might actually have had a chance.
Instead, they had chosen to defend.
Once Cana got to freely cycle through her deck, defending was basically all they could do.
Every one of those cards contained an attack produced seriously by either Marshall or Gildarts.
They were not easy things to block.
Marshall sighed inwardly.
The pay-to-win build was truly terrifying!
The Thunder God Tribe had lost fair and square.
"You did great~ As expected of Cana-nee."
"Hehe!" Cana beamed. "Now it’s your turn. The final is you against Laxus. Feeling confident?"
Marshall smirked.
"Of course. It’s just Laxus afterall. Watch me handle him."
He had plenty of confidence.
Aside from possessing more Magic Power, Laxus didn’t really have any obvious advantage over him.
Laxus’s primary Magic was Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic, which Marshall roughly estimated as LV4 Lightning Magic combined with LV3 Dragon Power.
His Light Magic was decent as well, but even in physical stamina and endurance, he might not necessarily surpass Marshall.
On paper, the only stat Laxus could truly brag about was his larger Magic Power reserve.
Granted, having more Magic Power was normally the greatest advantage a Mage could possess.
Unfortunately for Laxus, the gap between the two of them was no longer large enough to decide everything by itself.
140,000 versus 220,000.
’Clearly, the advantage is mine!’
...
The final event—
One-on-one arena combat!
No elaborate terrain. No gimmicks.
Just an enormous arena and a straightforward fight.
The championship would be decided in a single battle.
Who was the strongest member of Fairy Tail’s younger generation?
This match would provide the answer.
Laxus had already taken his place in the center of the arena, standing there with his eyes closed and doing his best to look imposing.
Marshall floated in the air in front of him using the Sky Dancing Technique—
No.
Flying Magic.
Laxus was taller than Marshall, and Marshall had never enjoyed craning his neck upward to look at people.
Laxus suddenly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam passing through them.
"You came."
Marshall tilted his head.
"Was I not supposed to?"
"?"
Laxus paused.
What the hell kind of response was that?
"Marshall... truthfully, I’ve always envied you."
"Huh? What for? Because I get along well with girls?"
"..."
Laxus’s expression darkened.
Did this brat know how to have a normal conversation?
"I’ve had more than a dozen ex-girlfriends. What the hell are you bragging about?"
"Oh." Marshall nodded. "That’s still worse than Loki. Loki has more than a dozen girlfriends at the same time."
"..."
Laxus took a deep breath.
He genuinely had no idea when his temper had become this good!
"When I was younger, I loved Magnolia’s Harvest Festival. Fairy Tail wasn’t nearly as powerful back then as it is today, but everyone’s smiles were genuine—"
"Everyone’s still happy now, though. Look at the Master. He walks around grinning every day." Marshall blinked.
"Are you unhappy, Laxus?"
A vein visibly appeared on Laxus’s forehead.
"BRAT! Are you deliberately messing with me?! Can you shut up and let me finish talking?!"
"Whoa, come on! Of course not. We’re close, aren’t we, Laxus? You even taught me Lightning Magic when I was little!" Marshall hurriedly made a zipping motion across his mouth. "Fine, fine. Don’t get mad. Go ahead. I won’t interrupt anymore."
"..."
After being interrupted twice, Laxus had completely lost the flow of his speech.
Where had he even been?
He took another breath and forced himself back on track.
"But things are different now. Fairy Tail has become too powerful. Our name is known everywhere, the guild owns all kinds of businesses that have nothing to do with Mage work, and we’ve taken responsibility for protecting far too many ordinary people..."
Marshall shrugged.
"Isn’t that good? Business is booming, people are living comfortably, and everyone’s prospering. Sounds like a golden age to me~"
"NO!"
Laxus’s voice hardened.
"There are too many interests tangled around Fairy Tail now. The guild has lost its purity! At this point, we barely even resemble a Mage Guild anymore!"
He raised one hand and pointed directly at Marshall.
"And the person fundamentally responsible for all of it... is you."
"Marshall, you changed Fairy Tail."
His eyes sharpened.
"So I’m going to defeat you here."
"And then I’m going to turn the guild back into what it used to be."
Marshall stared at him.
"...?"
----
There for some of you who said that Fairy tail is not Fairy tail anymore... Laxus represent you guys!