216 The Finals; Part 1 - Elicia Vs. Evergreen

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

October 15, x784.

"Geez! I thought she was gonna make us miss the beginning of the finals." Cana said as she and the rest of Team Ultear left the medical station. "I mean, it was only a few scratches. So, why did she keep us so long?"

"She was only worried about us." Meredy said with a smile. "Besides, Laki got pretty beat up."

"I won't lose next time." Laki said, a sadistic smile on her face. "Then, I'll teach her how to enjoy pain like what she inflicted on me."

"Wow, I've never seen Laki get so competitive." Cana exclaimed in surprise.

"Although I agree with you, I wonder how Evergreen managed to sneak that last attack past her [Magic Power Detection]." Ultear said, voicing her curiosity at Laki's defeat.

"That's a good question now that you mention it." Cana said with a contemplative expression on her face.

"Team Steel Threads and the Thunder God Tribe, report to ringside." Makarov said, his voice echoing over the entire venue. "The finals will begin momentarily."

"Is it just me, or did Gramps sound a little sad just now?" Cana asked curiously.

"It definitely wasn't just you." Meredy said. "But why would he sound like that? The tournament has been a huge success so far."

"He probably just realized that the guild could have made a lot of money off an event like this." Ultear said with a shrug.

A proverbial lightbulb lit up above the rest of Team Ultear's heads in response to Ultear's comment.

"Alfonzo seems unbothered." Laki said, pointing at Alfonzo in the distance.

Looking in the direction Laki's finger pointed, Alfonzo was smiling while chatting happily with Elicia, Marin, and Sun while they made their way to the ring.

"Maybe he didn't notice?" Meredy asked in an unsure tone.

"Not a chance." Cana, Laki, and Ultear replied in unison.

"Whatever, we can think about that later." Cana said, shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts. "Let's get to our seats so we can watch the match."

In response, Laki, Ultear, and Meredy nodded their heads. Before they reached their seats, however, Meredy started sniffing the air and looking around.

"Looks like someone is hungry." Ultear said with a smile after seeing Meredy's actions. "If we're quick, we should have time to get something before the match starts."

Smiling broadly, Meredy grabbed Ultear's arm and started pulling her towards a stall selling funnel cakes run by a relatively new company named Sixth Sense Catering. Meanwhile, Cana and Laki continued on to their seats.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the finals of the first ever Battle of Fairy Tail Tournament will feature eight of Fairy Tail's most talented wizards!" Makarov said, hyping the crowd for the final match. "First, from Team Steel Threads, the Master of Metal, Alfonzo Marcus, the Magic Seamstress, Elicia Taylor, Marin Kitagawa, and Sun Seto. Although the latter ladies have yet to received epitaph's of their own, I have no doubt that they will in the near future."

With Makarov's introduction, the crowd applauded wildly. Then, without waiting for the cheers to die down, Makarov continued.

"And from the Thunder God Tribe." Makarov said, his voice overpowering the crowd's applause. "Laxus Dreyar, Fried Justine, Bickslow, and Evergreen. Don't let the fact that they, too, do not have epitaphs of their own fool you. As teams go, there are few in the kingdom who could ever hope to match them."

Once again, the crowd erupted into cheers.

"And now, without further ado!" Makarov said, raising his voice once again. "Both teams, send your first fighter to the ring!"

"And that's my cue." Elicia said with a smile. Then, she kissed Alfonzo on the cheek before she started moving towards the ring. "Wish me luck."

"Will Lici be okay?" Marin asked with some concern in her tone. "Evergreen looks really confident."

"She always looks really confident, though." Sun said, tilting her head slightly. "So, what's the difference?"

That caused Marin's expression to stiffen. Although what Sun said was true, Marin felt like something was different. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to explain it. Before she could start to stammer out an incoherent explanation, Alfonzo's hand landed on top of her head before he started combing his fingers through her hair.

"Don't worry, I get what you mean, Marin." Alfonzo said with a smile. Then, he turned his head towards Sun, combing his fingers through her hair, as well, as he continued. "Evergreen probably has something new up her sleeves that she'll reveal during this fight. At least, that's the impression I got when she challenged Lici to this fight."

"Yeah, that's what I meant... sorta." Marin said with a bright smile.

"Oh?" Sun exclaimed in confusion. "When did that happen?"

"While your dad was bothering you during the break." Marin said.

"*Sigh* I see." Sun said, lowering her head so that her bangs covered her eyes. "He made me miss something that sounded interesting. On top of that, he said so many mean things about Alfonzo. I guess we'll have to have a little talk later. Hehehe..."

"Sun's kinda scary when she gets mad." Marin muttered.

"Well, if you're gonna fuck him up, don't fuck him up too bad, Sun." Alfonzo said with a shrug. "I don't think you wanna cripple your dad, right?"

"You should be trying to stop her, not encourage her." Marin said in a reprimanding tone.

"Oh, and don't forget to record it." Alfonzo continued without minding Marin's reprimand. "Seeing Gozaburo get his ass kicked by his daughter should be comic gold."

"Sure thing." Sun replied.

Then, both Alfonzo and Sun started chuckling evilly.

'Please let the match start soon.' Marin thought to herself. 'These two can be pretty scary when they're up to no good. But it's kinda hot, too.'

As if to answer Marin's prayers, Makarov's voice rang out over the venue once again.

"Round one of the finals, Elicia Taylor from Team Steel Threads versus Evergreen from the Thunder God Tribe. Fighters, are you ready?" Makarov asked after giving his introductions. Then, after receiving nods from both fighters, he gave the signal. "Begin!"

Immediately, threads shot out from the tips of Elicia's fingers, traveling along the surface of the ring towards Evergreen. Evergreen, on the other hand, immediately created her [Fairy Wings] and took to the sky.

Realizing that she had been seen through, Elicia's threads flew up from the ring when Elicia jerked er arms in Evergreen's direction.

"[Fairy Magic: Fairy machine Gun: Leprechaun]." Evergreen chanted, ejecting [Fairy Dust] from her body as she did.

Near instantaneously, the [Fairy Dust] formed needles that Evergreen immediately fired towards Elicia's threads with a wave of her left arm. A moment later, Evergreen's right arm was also waved at Elicia, who was rocketing towards her.

Using her threads in a similar manner to the way Marin used her daggers to approach an enemy quickly, Elicia was currently soaring through the air at Evergreen with great momentum. However, once Evergreen waved her arm at her, she was forced to do something to defend.

"[Thread Magic: Loosening Spool]." Elicia chanted as she began spinning through the air.

Though many of Elicia's threads were destroyed by the needles, all the needles were dispersed by the vibrations. Unfortunately, that meant that Elicia was now surrounded by a large cloud of [Fairy Dust].

"[Fairy Magic: Fairy Bomb: Gremlin]." Evergreen chanted with a smug smile on her face.

"Boom~~~~~~~!"

The explosion from such a large amount of [Fairy Dust] shook the entire venue. A moment later, a smoking figure was thrown out of the explosion's area of effect, hurdling towards the ground outside of the ring. Naturally, that figure was Elicia.

"Hmph!" Evergreen snorted smugly. "That was even easier than I thought it would be. Looks like I won't even have to use--- What the…?""

Evergreen's words were eventually cut short as Elicia's figure smashed into the ground… and dissipated on impact. As a result, Elicia's [False Appearance] spell was lifted. At the same time, a partially destroyed, whirling column of threads appeared leading down from the center of the explosion to the ring.

'Using the vibrations and the spinning, she created a path for herself out of the explosion's area of effect.' Evergreen thought to herself while analyzing what she was seeing currently. 'Meanwhile, she used her [Camouflage Magic] to make me see an image of her being caught in the explosion.]

While thinking, Evergreen scanned the area with her eyes. Unfortunately, before she could locate Elicia, she felt the younger wizard's threads wrap around her left ankle before she was yanked downwards.

"Kya~~~!" Evergreen screamed in surprise as she quickly lost altitude.

At the same time, Elicia, having used her threads to propel herself once again, was approaching from directly below.

Although she was startled, Evergreen still managed to generate a small cloud of [Fairy Dust] around her. Unfortunately, Elicia was upon her too quickly for her to use it to attack.

With hardened threads wrapped around her hands and feet, Elicia threw a left uppercut while continuing to rise that Evergreen avoided by tilting her head back. Before Elicia could launch another attack, however, Evergreen lashed her right leg at Elicia's upper torso.

Tanking the kick, while using her threads to cushion the blow, Elicia clamped her left arm around Evergreen's leg and pinned it to her left side. Then, she brought her right palm down onto Evergreen's trapped thigh.

"Hmph!" Evergreen grunted din pain while simultaneously throwing an overhand right at Elicia's head.

Tilting her head to avoid Evergreen's punch, Elicia took the punch on her right shoulder. Simultaneously, she raised her right arm, hand lowered at a ninety degree angle, and struck Evergreen on the chin with the back of her wrist.

Disoriented by the blow, Evergreen's head snapped back. Meanwhile, Elicia lowered her right hand back to Evergreen's right leg. Then, with one quick spin, Elicia released Evergreen's leg and sent her hurdling towards the ring.

Allowing herself to also fall, Elicia used her threads to disperse the cloud of [Fairy Dust] Evergreen left behind before she was thrown.

Watching Evergreen's descent to the ring. Elicia briefly made eye contact with evergreen. Seeing Evergreen smirking as she lowered her glasses and her eyes change color as they started glowing, Elicia flared her magic power to the limit.

Then… Nothing happened, leaving Evergreen thoroughly confused as her eyes returned to normal.

The change to her eyes was actually what Evergreen was counting on to gain the advantage over Elicia. Like Fried, she had also awakened a type of [Eye Magic] over the last few years.

While Fried's [Dark Écriture] allowed him to draw his runes in the air and without the use of a writing implement, Evergreen's [Stone Eyes] allowed her to turn anyone who looked directly into her eyes into stone.

Unfortunately, Elicia outclassed her in terms of magic power reserves by such a large degree that her [Eye Magic] had no effect outside of causing Elicia to stiffen for a few seconds.

*Bang!*

A moment later, Evergreen slammed back first into the ring, coughing up blood on impact. She quickly rolled to the side, however, as Elicia, with her right foot still wrapped in hardened threads, slammed an axe kick into the ring where she once lay.

"[Fairy Magic: Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun]." Evergreen chanted while rolling away from Elicia's landing point.

Quickly flipping herself onto her feet, Evergreen waved her right arm at Elicia, launching another volley of [Fairy Dust] needles at her. In response, Elicia side flipped to avoid the needles rather than using her threads to disperse them before dashing forward to close the distance once again.

Meeting Elicia's charge head on, Evergreen, with a small amount of [Fairy Dust] on her right palm, threw a palm strike at her opponents chest.

Twisting her body to avoid the palm strike, Elicia watched as a small explosion occurred with its force directed away from Evergreen's palm. Then, she heard Evergreen chant quietly.

"[Fairy Magic: Fairy Hand Grenade: Pixie]." Evergreen chanted in barely a whisper.

Though Elicia was surprised and wary of Evergreen's new close quarters spell, she was undeterred. Using the momentum from her charge, Elicia threw a knee strike into Evergreen's abdomen, causing her to bend over at the waist.

At the same time, Evergreen pulled her right arm back and wrapped her arms around Elicia's thigh. Then, she retaliated by slamming her shoulder into Elicia's abdomen before straightening her back quickly.

'This isn't good.' Elicia thought to herself as she ejected threads from her fingertips into the ring behind Evergreen.

At the same time, once Evergreen was standing upright, she jerked her body forward, attempting to slam Elicia, back first, into the ring. Unfortunately, her body only jerked forward slightly as Elicia's threads did not allow her to complete her slam.

Instead, Evergreen stiffened momentarily as her muscles strained from the unexpected stop. Something that Elicia took advantage of.

Releasing her threads, Elicia raised her hands, interlocked her fingers together, and smashed her joined hands into Evergreen's back.

"Gahh!" Evergreen gasped as the wind was knocked out of her and her grip on Elicia's leg was loosened.

Placing her hands on Evergreen' shoulders before she could recover, Elicia hoisted herself up, doing a hand stand on Evergreen's shoulders before she pushed off and swung her legs downward.

*Bang!*

As a result, Evergreen was kicked in the face and sent flying backward.

*Boom!*

Hearing the sound of the [Fairy Bomb: Gremlin] she left behind exploding, Evergreen started to smile. Before she could finish, however, she noticed that she was approaching several threads that had been impaled into the ring. And if she wasn't mistaken, they were all pulled taut.

Letting her gaze follow the threads, Evergreen saw that Elicia was quickly approaching from an upward angle. As she contracted her threads.

'She saw through it, huh?' Evergreen thought to herself as she was barely conscious after that last kick to the face.

*Bang!*

Aided by the force of her contracting threads, Elicia landed a kick into Evergreen's abdomen before driving her back first into the ring a moment later. AT the same time, the small amount of [Fairy Dust] Evergreen had gathered on her palm dissipated as she lost consciousness.

"Evergreen is unconscious, therefore unable to continue." Makarov announced after a moment with no further movement from either wizard. "The winner of the first round is Elicia Taylor of Team Steel Threads."