Cana grimaced.
"Okay. Annoying."
A card beneath her sleeves shone.
"Enhancement Magic: Burst Vein"
Strength flooded her muscles. She ripped her legs free—tearing through the smoke—and dodged at the last second.
Macao's fire punch carved a crater into the ground.
Wakaba shouted, "Don't let her breathe! Press her!"
Smoke tendrils whipped toward Cana's arms—trying to bind her movements.
She flipped a card backwards.
'Ice-magic: Shatter Bloom'
A cold shockwave expanded around her, freezing the smoke tendrils before they could grab her.
Wakaba coughed. "HEY! That's cheating!"
"You started it."
Cana raised two cards—ready to blitz them.
But Macao and Wakaba suddenly retreated.
Back into the smoke.
"Running?" Cana laughed. "That's new."
Cana lowered her cards a little."Seriously, what's your play—"
Something touched her wrist.
A thread of smoke.
Her eyes widened. 'When did it—'
Then it constricted.
Her card hand jerked upward.
"…You—"
From the haze, Wakaba's voice echoed, "You rely too much on your right hand. That deck is your entire offence."
Macao added, "So we're taking it away."
Four pink smoke ropes shot from different angles, twisting around Cana's right arm like snakes—locking it in place mid-air, before one of the tendril grabbed the deck and threw it towards Wakaba.
Cana blinked.
"…Okay. That's actually impressive."
Wakaba smirked from the shadows. "We've been doing this longer than you've been alive."
Cana tugged. The smoke ropes held.
Macao stepped from the haze with fire swirling around his fist.
"Checkmate."
Cana muttered, "Huh. You guys really don't want to retire."
She relaxed her left hand—the one holding the beer bottle.
CRACK
The bottle cracked against the ground, revealing a card, which next instant glowed blue.
Wakaba froze. "Wait—"
The temperature suddenly dropped by multiple degrees, solidifying all the smoke around it even before the card activated fully.
Macao swore. "CANA—That's—!"
Cana's grin sharpened."No more fooling around."
The card disappeared into pale blue.
"Limited stock I got from Gray," she said. "So count yourselves lucky."
"Absolute Freeze!"
The world exploded in cold.
A tidal wave of ice shot out in front of her—in form of a sharp focused beam. Anything in its line would've frozen down to marrow.
Wakaba yanked Macao backwards. "MOVE!"
They weren't fast enough.
The ice grazed the ground where they'd stood—flash-freezing the dirt, the grass, the roots—everything instantly crystallised.
A whole tree froze solid. Then shattered. Into glitter.
Silence returned.
Cana exhaled. Frost left her lips.
The smoke ropes around her arm cracked apart, frozen brittle.
She flexed her hand free.
Wakaba and Macao stood 10 meters away, sweating bullets. Some parts of their body had frost on them, and the cold quickly spreadly to other parts of the body.
Wakaba whispered, "She saved the trump card in her beer bottle…"
Macao groaned, "…She really is Gildarts' kid."
Cana stretched her shoulders."That was fun. You two are actually better than I thought."
She walked a few steps before lifting her card deck, which Wakaba had dropped before. A barrier had automatically covered it, so she instantly got rid of the ice covering it.
"Are we done?" Wakaba wheezed.
"For the day?" Macao begged, purple flame covering his body as he melted the ice. He didn't want to continue the fight, afraid that there were more such cards left.
Cana shrugged. "Sure."
Both collapsed on the grass.
Cana walked over.
Wakaba stared up at her. "You… you could've killed us."
Cana smirked. "Nah. I aimed it. Mostly."
Macao glared. "Mostly?!"
Another distant quake shook the forest—this time Gray and Mira were fighting.
Cana glanced toward the horizon.
"…It would be troublesome if I came across either of them. So, I will leave."
She started walking.
Macao called out, "Wait—Cana—why did you even want to spar with us today?" She could have easily avoided them.
Cana didn't stop. She just lifted her bottle.
"Training," she said. "I just wanted to measure myself against other candidates."
"And we count as other candidates?"
She glanced back with a lazy smile.
"You're the most suitable. Others are too strong."
Cana pulled out another beer bottle as another boom split the sky.
"Let's have a drink later today." She grinned and walked off toward the distant chaos, humming as if nothing unusual had happened.
Macao flopped onto his back. "I'm going to need a week to recover."
Wakaba groaned, "A week? I need a new spine."
***
"So... nobody passed round 2 other than us?" Kazu looked at others with a raised brow.
Kazu's question hung in the air. The group looked like a lineup after a storm.
Gray leaned against a tree, breath shallow, sweat sliding off his jaw. His knees kept threatening to give out, and he was pretending they weren't. He won't give Natsu the chance to annoy him.
A few steps away, Mira stood with her arms crossed, shoulders rising and falling in long, steady breaths. Dirt streaked her cheek, and one sleeve was torn clean through, but she held herself upright—more annoyance than exhaustion.
Cana matched her posture, bottle dangling from her fingers, though the way she kept rolling her wrist suggested she'd been affected by the battle more than she wanted to make it seem.
Macao and Wakaba looked almost casual by comparison. Their coats were singed and rumpled, and Wakaba was still slapping ice off his pant leg, but neither was swaying or struggling to stay conscious.
Levy and Lisanna stood near them, clothes scuffed, leaves stuck in their hair, breathing a little harder than normal—more like they'd gone through a rough training drill, not a life-or-death duel.
Standing among them, the contrast was obvious even without saying a word.
"You guys are so weak." Natsu shook his head, as if he was really disappointed.
Whoosh
Next instant, an ice-shard passed near his right cheek, a magical card at his left and a purple beam above his head, singeing his pink hair.
"Were you saying something? I didn't hear it." Mira was the one who asked the question. Cana and Gray looked unbothered, as if they had nothing to do with the situation.
"Nope. Must have been the wind." Natsu whistled, looking into the distance.
"I thought you would definitely make it. Guess, your Fortune cards aren't that invincible." Kazu walked towards Cana.
Cana took another swing. "Hmph. If not for it giving too hard clues, I wouldn't have encountered the mini-boss."
"Mini-boss...?" Kazu glanced at Mira, who frowned.
His eyes widened. "No way. You two fought...? And Mira failed the exam?"
The white-haired girl's expression soured even further while Cana's expression lightened up.
"Hehe. That's what she gets for underestimating me. She even had a number advantage, yet she wasn't able to defeat lil me." She didn't shy away from taunting Mira.
Just as Mira was going to erupt, Makarov intervened. "Alright. You guys go to the spectator stand. Natsu, you too. Seeing how Kazu is the only person, we are directly going to do round 4."
"Aww man. I really wanted to cook an S-rank crab. Shame." Natsu's shoulder dropped.
Kazu patted him. "If possible, I will try to get its body. Maybe we can eat it."
Natsu instantly brightened. "That would be awesome. All the best!" With that, the pink head left. Others also left after wishing Kazu luck.
With that, Kazu followed Makarov to the final location.
***
"Damn, I can't believe this is happening." Though nobody said it, the excitement in the stands was palpable. Everyone was looking at the projection intently, waiting for the final trial to start.
Just last year, the guild had gained an S-rank, and now, it was about to happen again.
"Nobody's going to gamble for this round?" Cana questioned.
Gray shook his head. "People gamble when they don't know what's going to happen. Everyone knows the result of this round."
"Tch. There goes my chance to make some money for booze." She clicked her tongue, taking a swig from her bottle.
Gray rolled his eyes, but didn't decide to comment on her this. Kazu had finally reached the location.
All noise ceased as everyone intently looked at the screen.
***
"This is so unfair. I was given not only the wrong direction, but also a large distance from the beast. Kazu is being spoon-fed literally." Laxus complained.
They were standing on shore, with a large crab at a distance, glaring at them, or more specifically at Laxus. The latter was given the job to track the crab and make sure that it stays at the surface from the beginning of the exam.
"Life is unfair, kid," Gildarts smirked.
"Well, so I need to subdue it? Is killing allowed?" Kazu looked at Makarov.
"Yes, it's allowed. The mission was extermination one. It had already caused a few casualties." Makarov passed him the mission paper, which Kazu briefly skimmed through.
"Seeing Laxus's complaint, I will make the time limit 15 minutes, which starts now!" Makarov suddenly started the exams. However, contrary to his expectations, Kazu wasn't startled.
He slowly gave him the mission paper back before turning his gaze towards the crab, which was around 500 meters away from him.
A barrier appeared beneath him, before it lifted Kazu in the air. Kazu closed the distance between them before he stopped at a small distance away from it and stared at it. The beast stared back
The only reason it hasn't moved or started walking is because of the aura of the three individuals behind Kazu. It was reasonable for him to be cautious when such a large amount of Ethernano was being flared.
'Its defence is pretty good even among S-rank beasts. With his current moves, it would be pretty difficult for him to complete within 10 minutes unless he brings out a new move. From what Gramps was saying, he learned a new defensive spell.'
Laxus was curious about how Kazu would pass the trial. It has been more than a year since they sparred, so Laxus was in the dark about his progress.
Kazu exhaled a breath. 'It has been 13 years. 13 years since I reincarnated.' Kazu couldn't help but feel emotional. So much has happened in the last 13 years. He couldn't believe that he had already reached one of the major summits of this world.
Faces of his previous parents flashed through his mind.
'Thank you for giving me birth. I wouldn't have become who I am today without that. Also, thanks, mom. If you hadn't come in that dream, I wouldn't have become aware of Emotional amplification until later.'
Kazu had already forgiven his previous life's parents. He had come to terms with their actions and himself.
This life's family flashed through his mind.
'I am sorry that I wasn't able to save you. Thank you for showing me what it means to love somebody.' Kazu's breath paused for a moment.
He started recalling his journey since he joined Fairy Tail.
A magic circle slowly started forming underneath the water, unknown to the crab.
Kazu had invested countless gruelling hours, training day and night, to reach this level of Ethernano manipulation. Multiple spars with his guildmates—both old and new had become subjects of his experimentation, becoming part of that growth.
Suddenly, a large amount of Ethernano left Kazu's body, rushing at the magic circle. The Crab flinched at the suddenity. However, the magic circle was already formed. It was helplessly immobilised, locked in its place.
Anne's face flashed in his mind.
Several missions had taught him things he didn't think he knew he was missing. He possessed fighting experience that experts living for decades don't possess.
Kazu turned his head back, glancing at the magic circle in front of Makarov, through which all the guild members were watching him.
His gaze shifted to a tree branch far within the island, towards a branch where Mavis was sitting. She waved at him. Kazu slightly nodded.
He then shifted his attention back to Makarov.
"Sorry, everyone. This magic circle takes a while to cast. The wait is finally over. As an apology, I will leave a scene that nobody is going to forget."
Multiple magic circles appeared on the water before instantly crawling up the crab's massive body. Due to the previous 'lock' still unbroken, it wasn't able to do anything.
Be it the three present on the shore or the people at the stand, everyone looked at the scene with bated breath. Their instincts told them that if they blinked, they would miss it.
Kazu stretched his right palm towards the crab.
'Yui...Brother has finally become the wizard of your fairy tales.' A smile blossomed on Kazu's face at that thought.
He clenched his fist.
"Three Pillar Gods: Crush"
All the invisible barriers surrounding the crab's body started contracting, squeezing the behemoth's body.
For a few seconds, nothing changed outwardly. However, suddenly, a crunching sound was heard, followed by the entire body contracting until it was turned into a fist-sized pulp.
Just like the S-rank beast was gone. Obliterated in seconds.
For a few moments, nobody said anything. They were too shocked to say it.
Gildarts's eyebrows were raised.
Laxus blinked.
Mavis almost fell from the branch she was sitting on.
Makarov was the first one to break out of his stupor. "This marks the end of the trials. Kazu had passed all of them and is now appointed as an S-rank mage of Fairy Tail."
Thus, x779 ended with Kazu officially becoming an S-rank mage.
End of Volume 2: What does it mean to be a Wizard of a Fairy Tale?
***
A/n:
Desire here.
How was the finale?
After 5 years of serious training and 105 chapters, Kazu is finally S-rank.
As promised, Volume 2 was double the size of Volume 1. Do let me know your thoughts about this volume. Which parts do you still remember? The ones you liked? The ones you didn't like?
Every option acts as feedback to me, so feel free to let your thoughts be known.
I did promise grand things for this Volume when Volume 1 ended, but ultimately I failed to match those expectations. Life was too busy, and I failed to prioritise my writing growth. I am ashamed to see you all like this...
This time... Volume 3 would definitely be way better. It would be more impactful. This is kind of a note to my future self, but I hope that by the end of Volume 3, there will be a drastic skill difference between us.
As for you guys, what should you expect from Volume 3? Well, I won't spoil much, but the first scene from the Prologue will be present in this volume.
That's all. Have a nice day.