Gray saw Mira's new form and swallowed. Even half-finished, her Halphas state looked wrong in a way that made instincts flare.
'Is this the form that obliterated multiple islands?' Gray felt cold sweat forming on his back.
Mira didn't wait for his commentary.
She fired a darkness blast straight at him.
'Ice-make: Absolute Wall'
Gray erected multiple walls, but the moment they made contact, his walls cracked down the middle and burst into shards.
"…Great," Gray muttered, diving towards his right.
She sent two more. He dodged both.
Then she was beside him.
Gray barely twisted out of the way before her claw grazed his shoulder, cutting fabric and drawing a stinging line of blood. She wasn't just faster — her acceleration spikes were sharper than anything she'd shown earlier.
'She's too fast for my perception. Before I could freeze her, she always disappears.' Gray frowned.
He tried a counter-freeze beneath her feet. She jumped clear easily, kicking a wave of darkness at him mid-air. The attack caught him on the side and sent him skidding across the ground.
Cold air helped dull the sting, but not by much.
"Still standing?" Mira asked.
Gray wiped his mouth. "Unfortunately."
The next few minutes were a blur of motion. Every time Gray tried to create distance, Mira closed it. Every time he tried to freeze her, she deflected enough of it to slip through. She landed hit after hit — nothing crippling, but enough to rattle his bones and force his breathing tight.
Eventually, she slowed.
Not from mercy.
From the decision.
"Alright," she said. "Enough warm-up. I am getting bored."
She dropped low, muscles tensing for a final charge.
Gray exhaled once.
He'd been waiting for this exact moment.
Mira disappeared just as he shoved both palms to the ground. The ice that burst outward wasn't a wave — it was an eruption. A dome. A coffin. A full-powered Absolute freeze that emptied almost everything he had left.
Mira saw it too late.
The frost swallowed her entirely, rising higher, harder, thicker than anything he'd cast earlier.
When the dome sealed shut, Gray's knees nearly buckled. His breaths came white and uneven. The world spun a little.
He stared at the frozen structure and let out the longest exhale of his life.
"Finally… damn you're annoying…"
He let himself relax. His shoulders dropped. His magic was spent.
'I didn't think I would defeat Mira like this. I thought she was at the same level as Erza. Guess not.'
Gray felt giddy at his victory. At least, until the dome cracked.
A sliver at first. Then a spiderweb.
Then the entire front blew outward as darkness tore through it.
Mira stood in the debris — battered, scraped, bleeding at the knuckles and forehead, breathing like she'd sprinted miles. Her transformation faded from her skin as she shifted back to her normal form. Her expression wasn't angry.
Just tired. And faintly impressed.
Gray raised both hands. "I'm done. Seriously. That's all I've got."
Mira stepped forward and punched him in the face.
Not hard enough to break anything — but definitely hard enough to drop him. Gray hit the dirt and went limp.
She rubbed her fist, annoyed. "That's for freezing my leg. Idiot."
"…You were stronger than I expected." She muttered to herself.
She looked in the direction where Kazu and Gildarts had gone. The ambient ethernano in the air had gone flat. Whatever fight was happening over there was already over.
Mira clicked her tongue and sighed. "Figures. He technically completed his objective. So, he won."
***
Lisanna had switched forms three more times. Nothing helped. Every time she lunged, Levy sidestepped. Every time she tried to fly, something invisible tugged at her ankle or arm. The battlefield felt wrong, like the ground itself had turned against her.
Finally, Levy placed her hand against a tree trunk and spoke quietly.
"All the scripts I placed earlier? You're standing inside them."
Lisanna blinked. "…I am?"
Levy activated them.
The circles on the ground lit up faintly — not bright, but unmistakable. Thin script-lines wrapped around Lisanna like threads, looping from her wrists to her ankles, tightening just enough to hold her still.
Lisanna tried to pull free. Nothing budged.
"What— Levy! Hey! This is cheating!"
"No," Levy said. "This is strategy."
Lisanna struggled again. The bindings didn't loosen. If anything, they tightened a little.
"Okay, this is actually unfair," she complained.
"Mm."
Levy lifted her palm. Multiple sleep scripts flickered into existence around Lisanna's head.
"Wait— Levy—! Don't you dare—!"
"Sorry," Levy said softly. "But I'm ending this."
The scripts closed in and popped one by one, releasing soft pulses.
Lisanna's eyes dropped immediately. She slumped forward, caught by the binding spells still holding her upright.
Levy exhaled, lowering her shoulders.
She turned to her right, and her heart skipped a beat.
Mira was standing at arm's length, staring at her.
Levy didn't hear her arrive. She didn't feel her magic. Mira just stood there, calm, scratched up, expression unreadable.
"…You're done already?" Mira asked, glancing at Lisanna's sleeping form.
Levy swallowed. "Y-Yes."
"Mm. You did well." Mira tilted her head slightly. "Better than I expected, honestly."
Levy's heartbeat spiked. Compliments from Mira were rarer than solar eclipses.
Mira stepped closer.
Levy's breath hitched—
—and Mira chopped her cleanly on the back of the neck.
Levy dropped instantly.
Mira caught her before she hit the ground and set her down gently beside Lisanna.
"Tch. I hope the guild members take them away quickly. I would be pissed if I didn't find the grave."
***
The forest shook again.
A deep, rolling boom rippled through the treetops, shaking loose dust and a few panicked birds. Somewhere far beyond the hills, Gildarts and Kazu were still exchanging blows strong enough to make the air itself flinch.
Cana Alberona didn't spare a glance in that direction.
She took a long swig from her bottle, wiped her mouth with her wrist, and looked across the clearing at Macao and Wakaba.
"You two ready yet? I'm getting thirsty."
Macao sighed. "You've been drinking this whole time."
"Yeah," Wakaba muttered. "At this point, the alcohol is fighting harder than she is."
Cana snorted. She casually flicked a glowing card into the air. It hovered over her shoulder like a smug guardian.
Macao raised his hands, purple fire gathering. Wakaba's fingertips exhaled pink smoke that curled in little spirals.
The two veterans exchanged a look—an unspoken agreement.
Wakaba whispered, "She's underestimating us."
"Good," Macao said. "Let's keep it that way."
Cana stretched her neck, beer bottle dangling from her left hand. "Alright, old men. Come teach me a lesson. I'll drink politely while you try."
She snapped her fingers.
Five cards shot forward like bullets.
Wakaba immediately puffed a cloud of dense pink smoke that swallowed the cards whole.
They detonated inside the smoke with small pops, shaking the leaves—but Wakaba's barrier held.
Macao charged through the haze, fire coating his arms.
Cana flicked another card—not an attack, but a translucent card that spun in front of her.
The purple flames slammed into the barrier. Energy rippled across its surface like water disturbed by a stone.
Cana didn't even look impressed. She took another sip.
"That's all you got?"
Macao gritted his teeth. "She's using Kazu's barrier magic. I need more firepower."
Wakaba appeared behind Cana in a swirl of smoke. His smoke arm solidified into a blunt hammer, swinging toward Cana's head.
Cana ducked lazily.
Still drinking.
The smoke hammer whooshed over her hair and smashed into a tree, cracking it in half.
Cana whistled. "You trying to kill me or compensate for something?"
Wakaba sputtered. "CAN YOU TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY FOR TWO SECONDS?!"
"Nope."
She kicked backwards without looking.
Her heel connected with Wakaba's ribs—enhanced by a suddenly glowing card circling her ankle.
"Enhancement Magic: Foot Drive" She made up the name on the spot.
Wakaba went flying into a bush.
Macao sighed. "We are too old for this."
Cana pointed her bottle at him. "Then retire. I'll run the guild."
"You're thirteen."
"Exactly. Best time to run it."
Another quake rolled across the forest—louder this time, like a mountain groaning.
Cana didn't blink.
"Come on, old men. Show some of your triumph cards."
This time, Macao and Wakaba didn't rush recklessly.
They split.
A formation.
Wakaba went wide, filling the clearing with drifting ribbons of smoke. Pink trails slid through the air like mischievous serpents—thin enough to hide tricks inside.
Macao stayed grounded, raising compressed purple fire in small controlled bursts—each shot forcing Cana to adjust her footing.
Not powerful but precise.
Multiple barrier cards floated beside her, taking multiple hits.
Wakaba whispered through the smoke, "She's cocky. She'll dodge on instinct. Herd her."
Macao nodded. "Right."
Cana flipped two cards at once—sending a fan of ice shards scattering outward.
The smoke swallowed them...then gave them back.
Wakaba stopped the ice inside his smoke—then shot them back in a shockwave.
Cana blinked."Oh. Clever."
She raised a barrier.
Ice rattled against it like hail.
At the same moment, Macao surged from the other side—fire sweeping low, forcing Cana to leap back.
This time, they weren't trying to overpower her.
They were corralling her.
Pushing her into the densest part of Wakaba's smoke maze.
Cana landed before looking around.
"…Huh."
She realised she couldn't see them.
Smoke was everywhere, along with occasional flickering fire.
Her beer bottle dripped on the leaves.
"Alright," she muttered. "You two are actually trying now."
"We always try," Wakaba said, his voice coming from a random direction.
"We're just not stupid enough to do it drunk," Macao added.
The smoke thickened.
Cana's eyes narrowed.
"…This isn't normal smoke."
"Correct. You would have known this already if you spent some time in intel gathering."
The smoke suddenly solidified around her ankles.
Like sticky tar.
Cana stumbled.
"Oh hell no—"
Macao burst from the smoke in a sprint.
"Fire Body: Blitz"
A spiralling punch of purple fire launched straight toward her stomach.
Cana lifted her card hand—
But her limbs were stuck.
***
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