Chương 276: 276. Learning by Watching
The 3rd Wizard Saint tournament finally starts and it's still as popular as ever. There are so many people who come to watch it just like when it was held for the first time in Fiore. It's a continental event, after all, so people from all Nations in Ishgar want to participate.
Ben has taken Fairy Tail Mages on the previous 2 events and this year's event as well. He asked Makarov to bring all young members and only left some senior members in the guild. This is a good chance for the young members to learn because they can watch the battles of high-level Mages here.
"Argh, I want to join this tournament and fight strong people too," says Natsu in frustration while they walk to the stadium.
"You can't, we have a Wizard Saint in our guild, so we aren't allowed to join," says Lucy.
"Well, it's not like you can't join at all," says Ben.
The Tenrou boys' ears twitched excitedly, "REALLY?"
Ben grins and looks at them, "Yeah, but there's something that you need to do first."
"What is it?" asks Gajeel.
"You need to defeat me. If you can do it, then I will resign from my position and you'll be able to join the tournament because we won't have any Wizard Saint anymore," says Ben while still grinning.
The boys' smiles disappear and they all look away while sweating. Then they continue their walk without saying anything. They've tried to fight Ben many times since they return from Tenrou Island, but he always defeats them with mere flicks on their foreheads.
Their gaps in power have grown a lot wider in these 3 years because Ben keeps growing while they didn't. They couldn't even defeat him 3 years ago, not to mention now. He has even surpassed Gildarts, so they don't have any chance.
With the boys get silenced, Fairy Tail can watch the tournament happily. They have seats in the front rows because of Ben's privilege. Ben was invited to watch from a special room with Ellie and some high-ranked people, but he refused because his guildmates are there.
The first round finally starts at 9 AM and it's still a battle royale like usual. But different from the tournament in Fiore & Seven, this battle royale round has just 4 groups, not 8. They will just choose 4 winners from each group, so there will be 16 people for the next round.
That's why the size of each group is big with more than 300 participants in each group. The arena looks very cramped with more than 300 people fighting in it. But it will also make the contestants work harder to defend themselves & attack their opponents.
The battles in this round are quite interesting and the Fairy Tail Mages learn a lot of things from this round. Well, Ben explains a few things to them like the right & wrong things that the contestants do in this kind of battle.
They also can see Mages who use the same or similar magic as them. But these Mages can utilize their magic better or have stronger spells. The ways these Mages use their magic in battles have inspired the young Fairy Tail Mages.
Even Ben can learn a lot of things in this tournament. Each person has a unique fighting style even if they learn from the same teacher. That's why there are always things to learn from other Mages even though Ben has seen them fought before.
In the 3rd battle royale group, Ben sees an interesting thing. Mike, the former Wizard Saint who got his title taken by Ellie is fighting in this round. He becomes the favorite contestant in this tournament instantly because he was a former Wizard Saint.
Of course, Mike passes the 1st round and then the 4th group is up. Ben sighs when he sees a familiar face. It's the Plant Mage woman who won the last tournament but lost against Ben in the title match.
She joins all Wizard Saint tournaments so far, truly a persistent woman. Ben doesn't know whether she will target him again this time, but she is surely a top-winner candidate. By the way, her name is Jessica Mile, and of course, she passes the 1st round.
The next day, they start the 2nd round which uses a knock-out duel system. There are 16 people in this round, so there will be 8 battles in a day. Mike & Jessica pass this round easily and go to the next round.
For the next round, they use a point system, not knock-out again. They all will fight against each other one at a time, each person will fight against 7 people, so there will be 28 matches. Each battle has 20 minutes time limit.
The winner of each battle gets 3 points and the loser doesn't get any points. If the 2 fighters still stand when the time is up, it will be counted as a draw and each of them will get 1 point. After the 28 matches finish, the 2 Mages with the highest points will fight against each other for the final.
It's an interesting system because the audience can see all 8 Mages fight against each other. It is also fairer even though it's very time-consuming. There will be 7 matches in a day, so this round needs 4 days to finish.
For the next 4 days, the audience can see different kinds of battles. It's quite interesting to see someone lose to an opponent who lost against a Mage that they defeated before. The compatibility of their magic is bad, after all.
At the end of this round, Jessica & Mike get the highest point. Jessica has full point as she won all her matches while Mike lost against Jessica. So for the final, Jessica becomes the favorite winner candidate.
She lives up to that expectation and wins the final match that gets held 2 days after the previous round. It's an overwhelming victory and Mike's Art of Paint's magic gets destroyed easily by her Plants. Jessica wins the match just in 5 minutes because she has understood Mike's magic in their previous match.
Ben thought she will challenge him again, but she chooses another Wizard Saint. It seems she has given up on challenging him because she knows it will be useless. She doesn't even have confidence she can defeat the last year's Ben with her current power, not to mention the current Ben who obviously has gotten stronger.
Jessica challenges a man who is the oldest among the Wizard Saints below Gods of Ishgar rank. The man's name is Arman, a Mage who uses Bending Magic. He can bend objects and magic but he can't bend living beings. Arman is 53 y.o but his body is big & muscular like a bodybuilder.
They fight the next day because Arman isn't here so he needs to come through a teleportation device. Their fight is quite intense because Arman can't bend Jessica's plants. They are considered living beings, after all, so he can't bend them.
Arman can only bend the arena ground and wall, making it looks like he uses Earth Magic. His use of earth isn't as good as Jura but it's better than average Earth Mages. However, it's not good enough to be used against Jessica.
In the end, Arman gets defeated after an hour. He is still a veteran and a strong Mage. So he can hold his ground against Jessica despite all the disadvantages. But when he gets defeated, Arman seems happy instead.
"Good for you, old man," says Ben after he teleports beside Arman.
"Hmm? Oh, Little Ben, what are you talking about?" asks Arman while smiling.
"No need to hide it, I know you want to retire as a Wizard Saint," says Ben.
"Hehehe, I really can't hide it from you," says Arman.
"Well, everyone knows it already, even Ellie," says Ben.
Arman has a surprised look, "Really? Sigh, it seems I've gotten too old to not realize it. Well, I really want to retire and live a peaceful life. But I can't let anyone weaker than I take over my title. That's why I went all out, but I lost, so I'm happy with the result."
"Yeah, yeah, good for you. Anyway, Master wants to meet you after this, so hurry up and get healed," says Ben.
"Hey, I am not you who can heal in mere seconds. But well, I want to talk with Master Makarov too. It's been a long time since I saw him," says Arman.
There are some plots happening here, but the tournament finally ends. Ishgar now has a new Wizard Saint, Jessica the Plant Mage. The Fairy Tail young Mages also learned a lot by watching this tournament, so Ben is very satisfied.
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