"Phew!"
Jose Porla let out a long breath. He accepted reality, he could no longer have any reservations. If he did not go all out now, he might truly be defeated head-on by two juniors today.
"Buzz buzz buzz!"
Having made up his mind and no longer caring about the guild hall or Oak Town, Jose Porla held his hands cupped at his sides and began to gather power.
Terrifying magic power began to accumulate within his hands, his posture like he was about to unleash a Kamehameha wave.
Dark magic gathered. The mere pressure it generated was enough to frighten people. The ground around Jose Porla continuously rumbled and split apart. The sky darkened as if it were about to press down upon the earth.
"This guy…"
Makarov, who had been watching from the side to hold the line, narrowed his eyes. Jose Porla's actions made him unable to resist stepping in to take over the match.
He believed Moen and Laxus might not be able to withstand this move. Jose Porla was clearly no longer holding anything back.
Makarov was extremely satisfied with Moen and Laxus's performance. Although Jose Porla was obviously not in peak condition, he was still, after all, a veteran powerhouse. Even if he could only exert seventy or eighty percent of his strength, he was still one of the strongest on the continent.
For Moen and Laxus, at merely this age, to fight Jose Porla to this extent was already dazzling enough to earn them the title of "Fairy Tail's Twin Prodigies"!
"Moen! Get out of the way! Let me settle this with him!"
Makarov wanted to take over, but Laxus clearly had no intention of giving up just like that. Bare-chested, lightning bursting across his body, his eyes burning with fierce battle intent, he too began to gather magic power in the face of Jose Porla's ultimate move.
Holding his hands cupped before his chest, Laxus condensed all the magic power in his body. An extreme radiance began to take shape within his hands.
"Fairy Law! Activate!"
The proud Laxus did not hesitate in the slightest. He directly used his strongest magic, the "Fairy Law" he had only learned not long ago!
Fairy Law is one of Fairy Tail's Three Great Super Magics. Makarov clearly valued Laxus greatly to have taught him this magic.
Of course, Laxus had no confidence whether this move could defeat Jose Porla. After all, this was also his first time using it. That was why he told Moen to quickly move aside and stop entangling himself, lest he directly face Jose Porla's explosive attack.
"That brat!"
Seeing Laxus use "Fairy Law," Makarov immediately blew his beard and glared in anger. He had clearly instructed Laxus that this magic must not be used lightly.
At the same time, Makarov was somewhat astonished. He had evidently not expected Laxus to already be capable of using this magic.
He had only verbally explained a simplified version to Laxus, yet this boy had already mastered how to use it so quickly!
Above the sky, a golden magic circle pierced through the darkness, illuminating the heavens. Dazzling light descended, enveloping everything around.
"Boom!!!"
Jose Porla's face twisted fiercely as he hurled the terrifying light wave in his hands. A supremely powerful magic shockwave instantly erupted outward in all directions.
That horrifying impact directly lifted the ground itself. Phantom Lord's guild hall bore the brunt first, and under the assault of the magic shockwave it was blown into scattered ruins.
"Boom!!!"
Laxus's "Fairy Law" also descended. Blinding light burst forth and struck directly onto Jose Porla.
Super Magic was indeed Super Magic. With a single flash of Fairy Law's light, enemies within its range had nowhere to escape. Even if Jose Porla could teleport, he could not evade this move.
"Ahhhh!!!"
Struck by "Fairy Law," Jose Porla concentrated his magic power to resist, yet he was still completely suppressed by this terrifying Super Magic.
"Zheng!"
A sharp sound of strings rang out. Moen plucked his lyre. Starlight flowed, weaving into a great net of magic power that moved to intercept Jose Porla's shockwave. Although the people of Oak Town did not particularly welcome them, Moen would not stand by and watch Jose Porla destroy this city.
If that terrifying dark shockwave were not stopped, completely annihilating Oak Town would be no difficult task.
The "Fairy Law" released by Laxus, however, was different. Though it appeared equally overwhelming, Fairy Law had only one target, Jose Porla. This move would attack only those whom the caster regarded as enemies in their heart.
"Boom!!!"
Moen plucked the strings. The magic net he drew open collided head-on with Jose Porla's dark magic shockwave.
This time, Moen stood in front of Laxus. Otherwise, Laxus, whose magic power was nearly exhausted would also have been struck directly by the shockwave.
Under Jose Porla's immense magic impact, Moen's net of strings trembled on the verge of collapse. He connected to the star charts, frantically channeling magic power, doing his utmost to maintain the net while also trying to expand its protective area as much as possible.
"Rumble rumble!"
Phantom Lord's guild hall had already completely collapsed. A large number of buildings throughout Oak Town were destroyed by the terrifying dark magic shockwave. Only the portion resisted by Moen's magic net was protected. He had done his best.
When a Wizard Saint unleashed his fury, the destructive power was indeed astonishing. For them, destroying a city was effortless.
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
The dark magic shockwave surged continuously, slamming against the magic net like ocean waves, one after another, until the shockwave finally subsided. Moen felt as if his fingers were about to break.
To keep the magic net from being torn apart by the dark magic, Moen continuously sustained String Requiem. His magic power was nearly burned dry, relying entirely on stellar magic to replenish it. Fortunately, in the end he successfully took Jose Porla's hate-filled strike head-on, protecting Laxus and the town behind him.
String Requiem was clearly an offensive technique, yet Moen had developed a defensive use for it. It was truly an unconventional approach.
However, this move was indeed less effective for defense than for offense. When attacking, he only needed to concentrate magic power on the strings to enhance lethality. When defending, he had to fill the entire net with magic power so that not even a drop could slip through, causing the consumption of magic power to multiply directly.
The immense drain nearly overwhelmed even Moen's proud reserves of magic power. This made him urgently want to obtain a professional defensive technique—one capable of defending against large-scale attacks.
His Cloth could only protect himself. If he wanted to protect others and resist an enemy's large-area attack, he truly had little means.
In fact, aside from mages who specialized in defensive magic circles, most mages were not skilled in this kind of large-scale defensive magic.
Makarov was no exception. Although he was also proficient in defensive magic and its strength was extremely high—even attacks capable of destroying cities or islands could not break it—the protective range of his defensive magic might not even be larger than Moen's net of strings.
The defensive magic practiced by mages was mostly single-target, at most covering the immediate surrounding area.
But in this situation, Makarov had not stood by idly.
The old man spared no magic power, continuously releasing his defensive magic to block the evil magic. One small defensive magic circle after another was forcefully raised by him, working together with Moen to protect the town behind them.
As the magic subsided, the sound of the lyre and the explosions gradually faded. The battle was over. Moen and Laxus had consumed enormous amounts of magic power, nearly exhausting it completely, but at least they were still standing.
On the other side, Jose Porla, struck by "Fairy Law," had already collapsed. The power of Laxus's Fairy Law was naturally inferior to Makarov's, but for Jose Porla—whose magic power had already been greatly depleted and who could not fully exert his strength to begin with—this move was sufficient to defeat him.
Jose Porla knelt on the ground, smoke seeming to rise from his body. Behind him, to his left and right, everything had become ruins. More than half of Oak Town had been destroyed. Only the side blocked by Moen's magic net and Makarov's defensive magic circles had been preserved.
"Jose Porla is finished."
Looking at everything before him, Makarov let out a sigh.
Within the urban area of Oak Town alone, there had to be tens of thousands of residents. With that single attack, who knew how many had been affected by Jose Porla's magic? That strike had truly been a loss of reason.
If he and Moen had not acted together to protect this half of the town, the crazed Jose Porla might have harmed even more people.
"How are you? You alright, Laxus?"
Holding the lyre, Moen walked over to Laxus and extended his hand toward Laxus, who had collapsed to the ground from exhaustion.
"Thanks, Moen."
Grasping Moen's hand, Laxus stood up again. He thanked Moen. If Moen had not blocked Jose Porla's attack in front of him, his outcome likely would not have been any better than Jose Porla's.
Having used Fairy Law with his full strength, he had no magic power left to block that attack. In order to bring down Jose Porla, he had poured everything into offense and had not considered defense at all.
Although part of the reason was his own competitive nature, in a certain sense, it was also a kind of trust—a trust in Moen and in old man Makarov.
At the time, Laxus had not consciously realized this, nor had he thought about it, but in his heart he believed Moen and the old man would definitely act and help him block Jose Porla's attack.
In fact, Laxus had thought it would be the old man who would step in. Before making his move, he had told Moen to retreat, never imagining that Moen himself could block the attack. The old man's intervention, in his mind, was only to protect the town.
This was no easier than using Fairy Law to bring down Jose Porla—after all, it had been Jose Porla's rage-filled strike.
"No need to thank me. We worked well together, didn't we? You handled the offense, I handled the defense. Even a Wizard Saint couldn't withstand the two of us."
Moen said with a smile, extending his right fist toward Laxus.
"Thud."
A smile also appeared on Laxus's face as he bumped fists with Moen.
"But what I want is to defeat him on my own."
Laxus's gaze burned brightly. Although he had been the one to bring down Jose Porla in the end, in this battle it was hard to say whose contribution had been greater, his or Moen's.
In Laxus's view, Moen clearly also had the ability to defeat Jose Porla—after all, he had already done so once before. So this time, Moen had mainly been cooperating with him in battle. The opportunity for him to defeat Jose Porla this time had been yielded to him by Moen.
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