The second day of the Grand Magic Games' formal competition featured fishing as the racing event!
Of course, the contestants weren't catching ordinary fish, but rather a type of magical beast classified as piranhas.
For weaker mages, it was more like feeding the fish than fishing.
These fish possessed formidable strength and exhibited a heightened sensitivity to magic.
To reel them in, contestants had to infuse their specialized fishing rods with copious amounts of magic power as bait, then use superior strength to haul them out of the water.
Fairy Tail was represented by Stella for this event. While Stella possessed considerable magical power and strength, she unfortunately lacked expertise in angling.
Moreover, this was a mage competition, so simple fishing was out of the question. The key was to complete the fishing task while contending with interference from opponents.
Raven Tail harassed Stella relentlessly. Several times, she hooked a fish, only to lose her prey due to a lack of technique and constant disruption.
This infuriated Stella to the point of nearly losing control of her magic, wanting to ditch the rod and blast those Raven Tail scoundrels into oblivion.
However, this only worsened the situation. Piranhas were indeed sensitive to magic, but they also possessed a survival instinct, and were directly frightened away by Stella's immense power.
Ultimately, Stella only managed to secure seventh place, earning a single point, while Raven Tail, as a result of Stella's retaliatory strikes, ended up in last place.
As an aside, Mermaid Heel's Millianna took first place. The cat-loving girl indeed possessed a certain racial aptitude, coupled with her already excellent magical abilities, making her success unsurprising.
After the event, Drake spent considerable time consoling the both angry and aggrieved Stella, finally restoring her spirits.
The afternoon's combat round pitted them against Twilight Ogre. Rogue, having lost at rock-paper-scissors, stepped onto the stage and ended the tedious battle in a single second, his opponent unable to even cast a spell.
Thus, at the end of the second day, Fairy Tail held first place with a total score of forty-one points.
Second place went to Blue Pegasus, who placed second in one racing event and third in another, and won their combat rounds against Mermaid Heel and Quatro Cerberus, earning thirty-four points.
Sabertooth followed closely behind, also securing a total of 28 points.
As per Fairy Tail's custom, this situation naturally called for a celebratory banquet. After all, it was clear to everyone that, with this momentum, the Grand Magic Games championship would undoubtedly fall into their hands.
"To Fairy Tail, cheers!"
Everyone cheered, clinking their glasses together, and the atmosphere instantly became lively.
"Let's keep winning and bring the title of the kingdom's number one guild back home!"
Everyone said this with smiles, but in truth, the disappearance of the Tenrou Team had weighed heavily on everyone, and they were only now truly relaxing.
Drake took a sip of his drink, feeling that something was missing.
Indeed, without Natsu and the others, although the banquet was more "harmonious," it felt like something was lacking.
In truth, Drake had searched the site of Tenrou Island on his last trip back to the Fairy Tail world, but found nothing.
Fairy Sphere wasn't a simple sealing spell; it was a super magic capable of sealing even Acnologia.
Tenrou Island hadn't simply been sealed and sunk into the sea; it had been sealed directly into another dimension, like the Celestial Spirit World.
So even though the kingdom desperately wanted to find Lucy and her golden keys, and had undoubtedly searched that area of the sea countless times, they ultimately found nothing, and could only conclude that they were missing.
Moreover, even after being sealed for seven years, time seemed to have stopped for the Tenrou Team; they returned with wounds that hadn't healed.
Therefore, breaking the Fairy Sphere was up to the efforts of the first guild, and Drake was powerless to help.
Seven years was indeed too long… Drake quickly collected his thoughts, deciding it was best not to dwell on such disheartening matters.
Besides, someone was even more disheartened than Drake!
Stella downed a large gulp of fruit wine, looking like she was drowning her sorrows. It seemed that the defeat in the fishing competition still weighed heavily on her.
This was only natural; she was the only one who had scored poorly thus far. Stella, already fiercely competitive, couldn't help but feel that she was holding the team back.
Even though Drake had said something very Fairy Tail-like, "We all make mistakes, but our comrades will help us fix them," Stella couldn't forgive herself.
"Yo! Little lady, why are you drinking alone?"
A frivolous voice sounded behind Stella, and a man sat down next to her.
"Why don't you let me buy you a drink?"
Without even looking, Stella said: "Are you a thug? I'm not in the mood to deal with you; please be a good boy and go away, okay?"
However, the man clearly wasn't giving up so easily; instead of leaving, he reached out to grab Stella's shoulder.
But that hand stopped in mid-air, unable to move any further.
"Didn't I tell you to get lost?"
The man looked up, seeing Drake, who had appeared unnoticed, and gave a provocative smile.
Drake looked at the man with his hair tied up in a dumpling bun, wearing only scaled armor covering his arms, with a clearly visible guild mark on his back.
Shaped like a stylized number four, it was the emblem of the Quatro Cerberus guild.
Drake remembered who this person was: Bacchus Groh, Quatro Cerberus' veteran S-Class mage.
Even though Drake had forgotten most of the details about him from the original story, he had obtained information about him while operating in this world.
In the Fairy Tail world, magic that possessed no particular strengths or weaknesses was generally considered orthodox magic. For example, classic elemental magic and enhancement magic.
Bacchus wielded just such orthodox magic, allowing him to focus his magic power into his hands to enhance his attack power.
This alone wouldn't be enough to make him an S-Class mage; his greatest strength was his first-rate martial arts.
Using a martial art called Palm Pushing, he could maximize the power of his magic.
In particular, he had developed a technique called Drunken Palm Pushing, which used alcohol to make his attacks unpredictable and even more powerful.
It was said that Erza had clashed with him several times during her work, with the results being inconclusive.
However, everyone knew that Fairy Tail mages operated on a different level when their beliefs and comrades were involved, so that "inconclusive" result was just a polite way of putting it.
Even so, Bacchus' strength was undeniable.
The Quatro Cerberus guild master, Goldmine, and Fairy Tail's Makarov were longtime friends, and Drake couldn't understand why Bacchus was provoking him at this time.
However, looking at Bacchus' face with that frivolous expression, Drake wasn't in the mood to think about it too much.
Crack, crack!
A strange sound came from Drake's hand, the sound of Bacchus' scaled gauntlet being crushed.
A look of shock flashed across Bacchus' face; coming to check out Fairy Tail had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. However, he had been on high alert since earlier.
The greatest strength of his Drunken Palm Pushing was that it allowed him to evade and attack beyond his opponent's predictions.
But when Drake grabbed him just now, he couldn't evade at all, and now Drake was unleashing incredible power.
Bacchus' face still wore that frivolous expression, saying: "How terrifying! Even more terrifying than Erza. My soul is trembling!"
Sensing the power coming from Drake's hand, Drake frowned; the next moment, the gauntlet where Drake was gripping turned incandescent red.
Even Bacchus' face showed a look of pain, before he gave up resisting. Drake released his grip.
"Truly… wild!" Bacchus stood up, gave Drake a long look, and then turned to leave.
Only after leaving the hotel did Bacchus look at his arm. Beneath the shattered armor, his skin was badly burned.
Revealing an excited expression, Bacchus said: "I thought without Erza this Grand Magic Games would be boring, but there's such an interesting man, he really makes my soul tremble!"
Drake didn't take Bacchus' provocation to heart; he'd rather think about how to cheer Stella up.
And so, after the banquet, the third day of competition arrived.
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