Chapter 259
"Then let’s warm up first. Take this!"
Marshall pulled out his staff and charged straight at Erza.
The two immediately clashed in midair, sword and staff colliding again and again as the shockwaves from their weapons slammed into the protective barrier surrounding the arena, making it flicker violently with every impact.
Just from the reaction of the barrier, anyone could tell how intense the battle had already become.
"What kind of Magic was that? Her attacks passed straight through him!"
"He’s incredible! He can actually fight the Fairy Queen evenly? Is that really just a kid?"
"So this is the strength of Fairy Tail’s S-Class Mages? This isn’t anything like the S-Class Mages I know! Is that entire guild full of monsters?!"
Erza naturally had no idea what the spectators were saying.
If she had heard them, she probably would have given them a wry smile and explained that she wasn’t actually fighting Marshall on equal terms—she was struggling desperately just to keep up.
Marshall was simply too fast.
Her eyes couldn’t properly follow him at all, and whenever he moved at full speed, the trails of light left in his wake only made matters worse.
Erza was almost entirely relying on instinct and years of combat experience to judge the general direction of his attacks and swing her sword before he arrived.
Without that experience allowing her to roughly predict his trajectory, she might already have lost.
The little brat she remembered from years ago had grown into someone strong enough that even she now had to look up to him.
Yet after that brief moment of emotion passed, all that remained in Erza’s heart was the pure joy of battle.
The exhilaration of weapons crashing violently together, the thrill of meeting an opponent she could fight without constantly worrying about going too far—very few people could give her that feeling anymore.
Marshall could.
Erza quickly brought out her strongest form, completing her armored transformation in an instant, and the battle in the sky grew even more ferocious.
...
Unlike the spectators watching through the broadcast, the teammates of both captains could feel the violence of that clash firsthand.
Sho, Wally, and the others had already hidden themselves inside the mountain, yet the entire peak seemed to tremble around them.
The group stared at one another, somewhat dumbfounded by the constant rumbling overhead.
"Marshall is way too strong. This is even crazier than yesterday... Are all of Fairy Tail’s S-Class Mages this terrifying?"
"I feel like we can’t help Erza at all. Are we really supposed to just hide in here the whole time?"
"What else can we do? Either one of those two could probably beat all of us by themselves." Someone sighed.
"My suggestion is that S-Class Mages should be banned from future tournaments. Otherwise, what’s even the point?"
Another voice quietly interrupted them.
"Actually... we don’t need to hide anymore."
Everyone looked over.
"Our opponents already found us."
...
A few minutes earlier, on Marshall’s team—
The instant Juvia heard Marshall openly tell Erza how much he liked her, she let out a strangled gasp and nearly collapsed on the spot.
"Juvia?! What’s wrong with you?"
Juvia fell into Levy’s arms, trembling from head to toe as though she had just witnessed the end of the world.
"L-Love rival... She’s a love rival! Crisis! This is a huge crisis!"
"..."
Levy stared at her in silence for a moment before unceremoniously setting the trembling woman aside.
Wasn’t this something they had all seen coming from miles away?
What was there to be so shocked about?
"Well, she can still talk, so she’s fine. The rest of us shouldn’t just stand around either." Levy looked toward the opposite mountain.
"Time to go bully the poor girls over there!"
Lucy timidly raised one hand.
"Um... how about we just wait until Marshall and Erza finish?"
"Absolutely not!" Cana immediately rejected the idea. "How we perform in this tournament affects who gets selected for the upcoming S-Class promotion trial. We need to show something too!"
Then her expression darkened with years of accumulated resentment.
"I’ve already failed seven times! Seven! Do you people have any idea what these past seven years have been like for me?! I’m becoming S-Class this year. Absolutely!"
Lucy instinctively shrank back beneath the sheer force of Cana’s resentment.
"O-Okay... but they seem to be hiding. How are we supposed to draw them out? Do we just go over there?"
"Exactly. We’ll go straight over and camp outside their door."
"But can any of us use Flight Magic? If we fall off the mountain, we’re eliminated."
"Are you stupid? Look at what’s happening in the sky." Levy pointed toward the violent flashes created by Marshall and Erza’s battle. "Anyone who tries flying through that is liable to get blasted out of the air before they make it halfway across."
Lucy blinked.
"Then how do we get over there?"
Cana calmly pulled out one of her cards and smiled.
"I have a teleportation card. Can any of you get this onto the mountain opposite us?"
Lucy’s eyes immediately brightened.
"I can!"
She took the card and raised a Gold Key.
"Open, Gate of the Archer—Sagittarius!"
Sagittarius appeared, and Lucy quickly secured Cana’s card to one of his arrows.
A moment later, the arrow shot across the enormous gap between the mountains and buried itself securely on the opposite peak.
"Perfect!" Cana grinned.
Once the teleportation card activated, Cana naturally appointed herself field commander.
"Levy! Set up a formula so they can’t escape! Juvia, use your mist to block their senses! Lucy, you..."
Cana paused.
She apparently had no idea what assignment to give Lucy.
"...just do whatever you want!"
Lucy stared at her.
"?"
"Everyone else, move out! Surround them!"
And just like that, Marshall’s four teammates successfully launched a surprise attack on Erza’s group.
Neither side had any intention of taking the encounter too seriously, and before long the interior of the mountain descended into a chaotic mess of traps, mist, cards, summoned spirits, and people chasing one another through tunnels.
...
Meanwhile, Marshall and Erza had already exchanged hundreds of blows overhead.
All right, perhaps they hadn’t literally ground away the laws of reality, but Erza was having more fun than she had in a very long time.
Whenever she fought ordinary weapon users, she always had to worry about accidentally cutting someone in half.
No matter how enthusiastic the battle became, part of her attention remained focused on controlling her strength.
Against Marshall, she didn’t have that concern.
She could swing as hard as she wanted!
Erza suddenly pulled away, creating some distance between them.
"That’s enough, Marshall."
She leveled her sword toward him.
"You know weapon combat isn’t really your specialty. Isn’t it about time you started taking this seriously?"
Erza understood Marshall very well.
Despite how capable he had become in battle, he had never truly been someone who loved fighting for its own sake. I
n the past, most of his combat training had been something he forced himself to do because he believed he needed the strength.
There was always something unmistakably scholarly about him.
Magic research, experimentation, theory—that was where Marshall genuinely belonged.
Swinging staffs, swords, and guns had always been closer to a secondary profession for him.
For years, Erza had quietly wondered what exactly drove someone like Marshall to pursue strength so obsessively, but she had never found a satisfying answer.
Marshall casually rested the staff against his shoulder.
"Erza-nee, I have been taking this seriously the whole time~"
Erza narrowed her eyes.
"In terms of pure combat technique, you’re still below me. The reason you’ve been suppressing me is because your physical abilities and overall stats are simply higher."
That fact had always bothered Marshall slightly.
One of the principles he had believed in for years was simple: When speed becomes overwhelming, nothing can stop it.
Yet Erza kept proving that idea incomplete.
Marshall genuinely couldn’t understand how she was managing to defend against so many of his attacks when his speed was so much greater.
Against almost anyone else, he would have landed a clean hit long ago.
And he wasn’t even holding back.
"Did you develop another new spell?" Erza asked. "Something you were preparing to use against Laxus?"
She smiled faintly.
"Let me experience it first."
Erza Requipped into the Crimson Armor once more.
The previous match had technically ended before she ever got to show the full extent of her swordsmanship, but Marshall hadn’t revealed many of his true trump cards either.
She wanted to know whether this new spell of his could actually defeat her.
Truthfully, although Laxus currently possessed more Magic Power than Marshall, Erza felt somewhat more confident facing Laxus than facing Marshall.
Laxus’s Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic was brutally powerful, but at least she understood what it did.
There were only so many ways lightning could be used to crush someone.
Marshall was completely different.
Against him, Erza never knew what kind of Magic he might produce in the next second.
She tightened her grip on her sword.
"Are you sure?"
Marshall looked slightly hesitant.
"This spell might be... pretty unpleasant."
He smiled awkwardly.
"And I haven’t completely finished developing it yet."
"Come on."
Erza’s gaze remained firm.
"Let me see your real power!"
Marshall stared at her for another moment before finally sighing.
"All right, then..."
He shook his head.
The next instant, he vanished.
Erza’s pupils contracted.
Before she could turn, Marshall had already appeared directly behind her with his hands came together.
"Domain Expansion!"