Lecka had expected at least a little fear after delivering his challenge.
Instead—
"You guys are from a legal guild?!" Gray turned toward Skullion in genuine surprise.
"Of course we are!" Skullion snapped. "We only came to this battlefield because we accepted a commission!"
"Then why do you act like such arrogant thugs?"
"You're a member of Fairy Tail, and you have the nerve to criticize someone else for that?!"
"Fair point…"
Lecka watched the two of them casually strike up a conversation instead of trembling before him.
His temper immediately exploded.
He slammed one fist into his palm and roared,
"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, YOU BASTARDS!"
Flames gathered between his hands and formed a long sword.
Gray instantly created an ice blade of his own and charged into a sword fight with him.
Skullion joined without hesitation, supporting Gray with his Dragon Slayer Magic.
One rule applied equally across both continents:
No matter how viciously two legal guilds fought while competing over the same job, the moment a dark guild appeared, they joined forces against it.
Internal feuds were one thing.
Outsiders who needed beating were another.
...
The same situation unfolded across the other battlefields, where the remaining fighters encountered members of Fire and Flame.
Haku carried Sherria on her back, clutched the stuffed-toy Lyon in one hand, and fled into the distance at full speed.
Sherria looked embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. My leg was injured…"
"It's fine! Who could've expected Fire and Flame to suddenly appear here?"
Haku answered with a cheerful grin.
Still trapped in his stuffed form, Lyon asked in confusion,
"Who was that clown with a mouth growing out of his hand? Isn't he one of your companions?"
Haku immediately rolled her eyes.
"Of course not! That's Brian, a member of the dark guild Fire and Flame. He's a fanatical worshipper of the dragon in the sky."
While Haku struggled to explain, an enormous hand suddenly descended from above.
A hideous maw filled with sharp teeth opened in its palm.
That same attack had ambushed them moments earlier and nearly bitten through Sherria's leg.
Haku had been forced to help her opponent at the last second and knock it aside.
Still moving at tremendous speed, Haku sprang sideways.
The mouth snapped shut on empty air.
The huge hand slowly returned to normal size.
Now busy protecting both Sherria and Lyon, Haku finally stopped and faced the man who had appeared.
Brian wore a top hat and heavy clown makeup. He watched them with a sinister smile stretched across his unsettling face.
"Hey! Turn me back already!" Lyon shouted. "We've got an enemy here!"
Haku ignored him completely.
She loosened her shoulders and confidently began warming up.
"Brian, you know you can't beat me alone, don't you?"
Brian spread his lips, the clown makeup making his mouth look even more grotesque.
"Stupid brat."
Haku blinked.
Then she suddenly felt a wave of heat gathering behind her head.
Alarm shot through her, and she ducked just as a scorching blade of wind swept overhead like a tidal wave.
"Wade!"
Haku's expression became grave as she stared at the armored man behind her.
Wade was second only to Ignia within Fire and Flame.
If Haku had been alone, she might not have been able to defeat him, but she was confident she could at least escape.
While carrying Sherria-chan, however…
"This could be bad."
Brian gave a pair of sinister chuckles.
The tall, imposing Wade glanced at his smug companion and spoke in a deep voice.
"Stop laughing. I've got trouble behind me."
Now it was Brian's turn to freeze.
"Who? Someone actually managed to overpower you?"
Boom—!
To Haku's and Sherria's delight, two figures burst from the dense steam obscuring the battlefield, both radiating tremendous Magic Power.
"Heaven's Wheel: Circle Sword!"
"Blue Dimension!"
Scarlet and azure magic erupted together.
Wade raised his enormous burning sword and barely blocked the combined attack. Several more sections of his armor shattered beneath the impact.
"Erza!"
"Misaki-nee!"
Recognizing the signature spells, Sherria and Haku cried out in relief.
Seeing the situation turn in their favor, Haku pointed arrogantly at the two enemies.
"Our people are here, idiots! Surrender while you still can!"
Misaki emerged from the mist carrying a badly injured Suzaku on her back.
"Haku, stop fooling around!" she shouted urgently.
"Huh?"
Haku timidly lowered her finger.
Erza followed with the unconscious Kagura on her back.
After confirming that Sherria and Lyon were safe—and noticing the two enemies ahead—she immediately became wary.
"I hate to admit it, but there's someone even more troublesome behind us."
Sherria's eyes widened.
Even Lyon spoke in disbelief.
"Someone stronger than the two of you?"
"She ambushed us after we'd already worn each other down!"
Erza had been holding in her anger for quite some time. She spun toward Misaki and shouted,
"Didn't you say you were the strongest female mage on the northern continent?! Then what the hell is she?!"
For some reason, Misaki and Erza seemed completely incapable of getting along.
Misaki immediately shouted back,
"That's only a title people gave me on their own! Besides, how was I supposed to know Fire and Flame's battle commander was a woman?!"
Those words immediately restored Brian's and Wade's confidence.
Brian looked eagerly toward the mist.
Sure enough, a figure surrounded by fire and dark energy emerged from within it.
Her body seemed almost ghostlike.
Flames and black power drifted around her, while ripples of spatial distortion flashed continuously as she moved.
This was Fire and Flame's strongest member beneath its guild master—
Bestia.
A formidable mage who wielded Dark Magic, Fire Magic, and Spatial Magic simultaneously.
She was the true strongest female mage on the continent of Guiltina.
Like Misaki, Bestia could drag people into another dimension. She could also control flames imbued with the power of darkness.
She simply lived in seclusion, so her reputation was not as widespread as Misaki's.
Wade relaxed when he saw her.
Brian hurried forward to welcome her, only to notice several bloody cuts across the face that normally wore an indifferent smile.
Brian fell silent.
'Don't tell me…'
"Run! The one behind me is even stronger!"
After dropping that warning, Bestia hurried straight past them without even looking back to fight Erza and the others.
The situation had reversed yet again.
Before Brian and Wade could react, Erza looked behind Bestia and smiled in delight, as though the answer were obvious.
"It's Laxus. Of course he's strong!"
Misaki's eyes lit up when she spotted Kirin beside him.
Both women raised their hands to greet the senior members of their respective groups—
Then noticed that Laxus and Kirin looked rather disheveled themselves.
"RUN! THE ONE BEHIND US IS EVEN STRONGER!"
Kirin dragged his chained coffin across the ground as he sprinted for his life.
Everyone fell silent.
Laxus raced forward in a storm of lightning, too busy fleeing to explain anything.
As he ran, he repeatedly fired powerful bolts behind him.
A moment later, everyone finally saw the true source of the danger.
Ignia pursued the two men with the overwhelming presence of a colossal dragon toying with helpless infants.
Mocking laughter rumbled from between the Fire Dragon God's terrifying fangs.
"Run faster, puny humans!"
The members of Fire and Flame cheered wildly.
Everyone else felt their hearts sink.
Facing a true dragon was rarely fortunate for a mage.
Even worse, nearly everyone present had already experienced being chased by a dragon.
Some of them had suffered through it more than once.
Ignia gazed mockingly at the gathered humans and raised one enormous claw.
"You call yourselves Dragon Slayers?"
"Then show me how you intend to slay a dragon!"
Having been challenged directly, Laxus's anger surged.
His hand tightened around the Lightning Dragon Lacrima.
Just as he prepared to unleash its power, transform into a dragon, and fight Ignia to the death—
Ignia's massive head suddenly snapped violently to one side.
BOOM—!
A tremendous impact erupted.
Caught completely off guard, the Fire Dragon God was knocked sideways and plunged into the ocean, sending a wave more than a hundred meters high surging into the sky.
The members of Fire and Flame stood frozen.
The mages of Diabolos stared blankly.
Ishgar's fighters erupted with joy when they saw the man who had come to their rescue.
Ankh, who had chased after Ignia, shook out the fist he had just used to punch the Fire Dragon God into the sea.
It had gone slightly numb.
He gave a disdainful snort.
Then he turned around, saw the enormous crowd gathered behind him, and nearly flinched.
"This place is packed."
"You're throwing a party and nobody invited me?"
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