บท 173: The Mysterious Figure
The crowd roared loudly as Meliodas raised his hand up in victory and smiled at the audience.
"What a fight!"
"I barely saw what happened…."
"Me too but it was probably great."
"WHAT A BATTLE! MELIODAS OVERCAME KAGURA'S POWER WITH HIS OWN!" Chapati announced.
"Amazing!!! What a great display of strength." Yajima said.
"That was COOOOOOL!!!!" Jason yelled.
"Damn, he really powered up." Laxus said with a grin as he turned to Jellal. "You ever get to see him go all out?"
"I don't know his exact strength either. Even in our training matches, I could never push him to get truly serious." Jellal replied.
"What happened?! I thought Obra drained his magic?!" Nullpudding questioned as he looked towards Obra who had no change in expression.
"He did." The masked figure sitting next to Nullpudding replied.
"Then, he fought without any magic?" Kurohebi asked nervously. "That shouldn't even be possible!"
"So even without magic, he still possesses that monstrous strength...We need to watch out for him. However, even he will still fall against our anti Fairy Tail team." The masked figure said in a sinister tone with the others around him nodding in agreement.
---
"Damn!! It's definitely him!" Sting said as he gnashed his teeth.
"You make it sound like you've met him before." Orga said.
"We ran into him on a job once," Rogue added.
"Oh, what happened?" Rufus asked.
"It...was nothing..." Sting said as he clenched his fists. He realized he had blurted out something he shouldn't have. He recalled three years ago, when their job to subdue the dark guild "Masquerade" was stolen by a cloaked fellow who completely overwhelmed them and left. After returning to the guild, they had taken credit for the mission because they were embarrassed about what had actually happened.
Orga and Rufus remained silent and looked at each other with skeptical looks, choosing not to question the dragon slayers further.
"Splendid!" Jura said enthusiastically.
"That guy keeps getting stronger and stronger!" Lyon smiled.
"WHY IS HE SO STRONG DAMN IT!" Toby yelled.
"Don't get mad about it…." Yuka said as he rolled his eyes at Toby's sudden outburst.
Meliodas made his way back to the group, feeling fatigue all over his body as he walked as his entire magic reserves had just disappeared. 'Wow, what a wicked spell.' Meliodas thought to himself.
"Meliodas, good job out there." Erza complimented.
"Yeah! Fight me next!" Natsu added.
"Hey flame brain, relax. Meliodas' magic was completely drained." Gray retorted.
"Right..But he was still crazy strong!" Natsu commented.
"Meliodas, are you feeling alright?" Erza asked. Meliodas nodded his head.
"Yeah, it feels weird to have my magic completely drained like that in one go."
"Just... weird...?" Max asked. Meliodas nodded his head.
WELL, THAT'S THE END OF THE FIRST DAY FOLKS! WE'LL SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW FOR THE THIRD EXCITING DAY OF THE GRAND MAGIC GAMES!. Chapati announced.
---
July 3rd X791
WELCOME TO THE THIRD DAY OF THE GRAND MAGIC GAMES! ALL TEAMS HAVE PERFORMED SPECTACULARLY THUS FAR. AND REMEMBER, IT'S STILL ANYBODY'S GAME! WE WILL ONCE AGAIN START TODAY OFF WITH AN EVENT. CONTESTANTS, PLEASE SEND IN A REPRESENTATIVE TO PARTICIPATE!" Chapati announced.
"I'll go for today." Erza said as she stepped out.
"Good luck!" Meliodas said as he gave her a thumbs up.
"Good luck Erza!" Wendy beamed.
Erza nodded and made her way towards the arena.
---
"Damn it!! We can't lose this round. Jura, you go!!!" The guild master of Lamia Scale ordered.
"As you wish." Jura said as he made his way.
"With Jura going, we can't lose." Lyon commented.
---
"I'll go." Orga said.
"Do whatever you want. Rogue replied solemnly. 'Hmph! If Natsu or Meliodas aren't coming out, then I have no interest.'
---
"I guess I'll go for us." Hibiki said as walked out on behalf of Blue Pegasus.
"Good luck!" Ren and Eve both said.
The remaining participants all entered the arena.
"Welcome everyone! "Mato, the man wearing the pumpkin head, said as he greeted the contestants.
"This will be where the event takes place." He said as he pointed behind him. Suddenly, the arena shook and a large castle appeared from the sky. It hung upside down. Once it settled a lacrima vision appeared in front of the spectators.
"This is Pandemonium, the palace of monsters! Inside the walls of this palace are 100 monsters. Well, they're really just magical incarnations that we conjured. So they should pose no risk to the audience! The monsters are sectioned off into five levels: D, C, B, A, and S. The levels are based on their battle prowess. Each class of monster should be twice as strong as the class below it. And the S class monster is so strong, there's no guarantee even a wizard saint could take it down! You each will enter and decide how many monsters you will fight. For example, if you chose to fight three monsters and beat all three, you get three points. Then the next contestant will choose the number out of the remaining 97. We will continue until no monsters are left or the contestants run out of magic, whichever comes first. But keep in mind, the monster classes you will fight will be at random and you get the same amount of points for defeating a D and S rank. Once you enter the palace, you will not be allowed to leave until you vanquish the number of monsters you chose. If you are to go down fighting the monsters, you will keep whatever points you scored but you will not be able to participate for the rest of the event. Now then, does anyone have any questions?" Mato asked.
Seeing that there were no questions, he pulled forward a jar with 8 sticks.
"Everyone, please pull one. The number you get is the order in which you will go."
Each contestant walked up and pulled a stick from the container.
Now that everyone has received their numbers, will the first person please come up.
Erza pulled up her stick with a smile on her face. It had number 1 on the bottom. She walked up to Mato and handed it over.
"Great, how many would you like to face?"
"All of them." Erza replied as she walked into the Castle.
---
"FAIRY TAIL A'S ERZA SCARLET HAS DONE IT! SHE HAS ATTAINED AN INDISPUTABLE, OVERWHELMING WIN!" Chapati announced.
In the middle of the stadium, covered head to toe in wounds and bruises was Erza wearing her clear heart clothing and raising her hand up in the air. Around her, the crowd cheered loudly.
"Yeah! Erza!" Natsu shouted enthusiastically as he, Gray, Wendy, and Meliodas went to congratulate her.
"That was incredible!" Gray commented.
"Erza, you're amazing!" Wendy added.
"Good job out there." Meliodas said. "Although I'm surprised you didn't use Entenka."
"Thank you guys. And Entenka is still a bit too much for me to handle." Erza responded.
"Entenka?" Gray asked.
"It's a sword that Musica crafted for me seven years ago just a bit before the S Class Trials. Meliodas held onto it all those years and gave it to me yesterday." Erza responded.
"That must be a powerful sword then!" Wendy commented.
As Fairy Tail Team A walked with Erza back to the spectator stands, Minerva watched their team with a smile of interest on her face.
"First Meliodas, then Mystogan...and even that Erza Scarlet is quite formidable...how interesting." Minerva commented. "This certainly makes things harder for Sabertooth…"
---
Meliodas stood at the spectator stands, leaning over the guardrail as a huge pillar of light engulfed the arena. The crowd grew dead silent as the mpf read 9999 before disintegrating. Standing at the center of the arena was Cana.
"She could do that?!" Gray exclaimed.
"Well, well, well. That was quite the light magic." Meliodas commented.
"Erza, are you sure you don't want me to heal you?" Wendy asked as she stared at Erza, covered head to toe in bandages.
"Don't worry about it. Save your magic in case you might be going next." Erza said.
"Of course!" Wendy replied.
"I hope they put me up against one of those Raven Tail bastards!" Natsu shouted eagerly.
---
Meliodas stared at the arena below with a perplexed expression on his face as he watched Alexei overwhelm Laxus with brute force. Beside him, were the rattled shouts of his teammates.
"Laxus! What are you doing?! Don't lose!" Natsu shouted out.
"You can't let Raven Tail win this!" Gray shouted.
"Something wrong Meliodas?" Erza asked as she noticed Meliodas' expression and quietness.
"Yeah. There's something that's off about this fight. This isn't how Laxus normally fights. I fought him myself so I would know." Meliodas responded. He looked over across the stage towards where Raven Tail was sitting in the stands. "This might be an illusion."
"How can you tell?" Erza asked.
"Just a hunch."
Suddenly, a veil of smoke broke out from the center of the arena. The arena grew silent as Laxus stood in the center of the arena with the unconscious bodies of every Raven Tail member on the ground around him.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! THE ENTIRE FIGHT WAS JUST AN ILLUSION?! LAXUS TOOK A FIVE ON ONE ATTACK AND CAME OUT ON TOP IN THE END DESPITE RAVEN TAIL HAVING BREACHED THE RULES!" Chapati announced.
"As expected." Meliodas commented as he watched several royal guard members drag Raven Tail away.
---
"WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE! NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE FINAL FIGHT OF THE DAY! FAIRY TAIL A'S WENDY MARVELL VERSUS LAMIA SCALE'S SHERRIA BLENDY!" Chapati announced.
Meliodas watched as the two girls walked into the center of the stadium, tripping and falling flat on their faces on the way. At that instant, his eyes widened as he sensed an ominous presence like the one he felt in the first Grand Magic Games.
As the two girls began their fight, Meliodas stared at the arena with a serious expression.
'Is that coming from her? No...it's something else, but right now it's in the arena and it chose to show up at this exact time.' Meliodas thought as he scanned the spectator stands.
"Meliodas!" Jellal exclaimed as he ran into Fairy Tail A's spectator stand. Erza, Natsu, and Gray immediately turned around, surprised to see Jellal there.
"J-Jell- Mystogan?!" Erza exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Gray questioned, confused at the sudden panic with Jellal.
"Is this about the strange magic you two have been feeling?" Erza asked. Meliodas nodded his head.
"Yeah I felt it too." Meliodas said. "That magic is back."
"Wendy's in grave danger!" Jellal continued. "Sherria may have a connection to-"
"It's not her." Meliodas interrupted. "You haven't been around as long as me. I can tell there's a difference in the magic."
"So it has to be somewhere in the audience." Jellal said, calming down a bit as he watched the battle unfold with the rest of the Fairy Tail Team A members.
"THE MATCH IS OVER! IT ENDS IN A DRAW!" Chapati announced. Natsu, Gray and Erza turned their attention back to the arena as Meliodas and Jellal continued to try and sense the magical presence.
"The exit!" Jellal shouted as he pointed across the stadium at one of the corridors. Meliodas nodded and the two of them immediately dashed out of the spectator stand.
---
"It's that figure up ahead!" Jellal said, pointing to a particular person in the large crowd of people in front of them. Suddenly, Doranbolt appeared right in front of Jellal and Meliodas.
"Stop right there." Doranbolt asserted as he placed a hand on Jellal's shoulder. Meliodas glanced at Jellal and Jellal nodded at Meliodas.
"Mystogan I'll go on ahead!" Meliodas said as he ran past Doranbolt, ignoring him completely before jumping up into the air. Black wings sprouted from Meliodas' back as he took off straight down the corridor.
---
Meliodas flew through the corridor, quickly catching up to the mysterious figure. The figure glanced back at Meliodas before suddenly taking off into a full sprint and sinking into the ground.
'He slipped into a shadow?' Meliodas thought as he stared at the spot where the figure sunk into the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow on the ground quickly dart towards the main street.
'I won't let you get away!' Meliodas chased after the shadow, gaining on it until he was flying just above it. Meliodas watched the shadow as it dashed through alleyways and underneath the feets of people as it tried to escape.
The shadow continued to run through the streets until arriving at the edge of a park next to a sidewalk, with not a single bystander in sight. Meliodas immediately swooped down on top of the shadow and wound his fist back, covering it in darkness.
The shadow suddenly moved towards the sidewalk, slipping into the grates of a sewer. Meliodas stopped himself and landed on the ground just above the sewer grate. 'I'm not going to tear up this whole city trying to find this guy.' Meliodas thought as he turned back around to face the Domus Flau arena which was now across the entirety of Crocus. 'I should check on Jellal.'
---
Sabertooth: 44
Fairy Tail B: 40
Fairy Tail A: 37
Mermaid Heel: 22
Lamia Scale: 19
Blue Pegasus: 18
Quatro Cerberus: 14
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
ShayZero
ShayZero Back from an unexpected hiatus. Not much to say about this chapter considering Meliodas took no part nor had any impact in any of the Day 3 battles.
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