In that moment, a cold realization washed over Erza: Kael hadn't been exaggerating.
"To those who don't know the sword, his movements are a blur. To those who do, he is an insurmountable peak—a summit that disappears into the clouds."
Erza had truly believed that six months of hellish training had narrowed the gap between them. She was wrong. She hadn't just miscalculated the distance; she had failed to realize they weren't even climbing the same mountain. Kael remained as unfathomable as ever, a force of nature disguised as a swordsman.
"I lost… Thank you for the lesson."
Erza wasn't blind. She knew that with Kael's speed, he could have ended the duel in a heartbeat. Instead, he had meticulously showcased every form from start to finish—not to defeat her, but to teach her. It was a masterclass disguised as a battle.
"I have to know… how many times did you actually strike me?"
Kael paused, looking at her for a second. "Hm… four hundred and ten."
"Four hundred and ten?!"
Erza's heart hammered against her ribs. She had been hit eighty-one times and hadn't felt a single shadow of an impact. What she didn't know was that Kael was downplaying it. To be precise, he had struck her exactly eight hundred and ten times.
There was an old maxim among masters of the blade:
"Every technique has a counter, but speed is absolute."
Kael's swordsmanship wasn't just precise; it was a temporal anomaly. Much like the legendary Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who once carved through nearly two thousand fragments of a fleeing enemy in a single breath, Kael operated on a level of speed that rendered armor and shields irrelevant.
"My style consists of thirteen forms," Kael explained calmly. "The Thirteenth Form isn't a new move; it's the art of weaving the first twelve into an unbroken, infinite loop."
"A loop… a continuous cycle of attacks…" Erza whispered, her eyes trembling with inspiration.
"Exactly. If you master the flow of the first twelve, the thirteenth will reveal itself to you, adapting perfectly to your own rhythm."
Erza looked at him with newfound reverence. Around them, the guild finally broke their stunned silence, erupting into a roar of cheers.
"That was insane!" "Kael is a monster!" "Manly... so manly!!"
Natsu and Gray stood in the back, expressions grim. They had no idea that what they had just witnessed was merely the surface. Kael's true lethality lay in his magic-infused slashes—strikes capable of shattering the reinforced scales of a dragon.
The celebration raged on until the early hours of the morning. It wasn't until 1 a.m. that the guild members finally began to disperse, reluctantly heading home after cleaning up the mess.
Kael slept until the sun was high in the sky. When he finally woke at noon, he checked his system panel out of habit—no changes—and let out a long sigh. Eventually, hunger won out, and he made his way to the guild hall.
The atmosphere was as lively as ever, with the air still buzzing with talk of last night's duel.
"Mira! I'm starving—bring me everything!" Kael called out as he slumped into a chair at the bar.
"Coming right up!" Mira replied with her signature smile, already preparing a tray of his favorite dishes.
"Erza! Fight me!!"
Suddenly, Natsu erupted, jumping onto a table and igniting his fists. He had been itching for a fight since watching the duel, and now that Erza was rested, he couldn't hold back his competitive fire.
Gray groaned, rubbing his temples. "Hey, flame-brain! Do you have a death wish?"
"Don't be a fool, Natsu!" Elfman added. "That's Erza! Just because she lost to Kael doesn't mean she won't flatten you!"
Erza, calmly sipping her tea, didn't even look up. "No. I'm tired."
"Too bad! Here I come!"
Natsu ignored her, charging forward with a roar. Erza sighed, set her tea down, and in a blur of light, a massive hammer materialized in her hand.
BOOM!
Natsu was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing through the hall and embedding himself into the far wall.
"And it's over!" Happy chirped, waving a paw.
The guild erupted in laughter at the one-hit knockout, but the mirth was cut short when Makarov's expression suddenly shifted. The Master's eyes narrowed, his posture turning rigid.
"Master? What is it?"
"Nothing… just a sudden wave of drowsiness. It's him."
Suddenly, a heavy, oppressive magic washed over the room. "What... why am I so sleepy?" "I can't... keep my eyes open..."
Even Kael felt it—a subtle, numbing weight pressing down on his consciousness. He tensed his muscles, resisting the spell for a few seconds longer than the others, but the magic was pervasive. His eyelids grew heavy, and he eventually slumped onto the bar, drifting into a deep sleep.
Moments later, a figure draped in layered black cloth and masks walked into the silent hall. He moved like a ghost toward the request board, pulled down a high-tier mission worth 1,000,000 Jewels, and showed it to Makarov.
"I'm leaving."
"Undo the sleep magic!" Makarov commanded.
The figure—Mystogan—paused at the door. "Five, four, three, two, one..."
As the countdown ended, his form vanished into thin air. SWISH! The entire guild jerked awake simultaneously, gasping for air as if waking from a nightmare.
"That feeling… was that Mystogan?" "That bastard! His sleep magic is as annoying as ever."
Lucy looked around, bewildered. "Mystogan? Another one?"
"He's one of Fairy Tail's strongest," Gray explained, still rubbing his eyes. "one of Fairy Tail's S-Class mages. Nobody has ever seen his face; he puts everyone to sleep whenever he visits. Only the Master knows what he really looks like."
"That's beyond weird," Lucy muttered.
"Hmph... I know what he looks like."
An arrogant, electric voice rang out from the second-floor balcony. Everyone looked up to see a young man with spiky blond hair and leopard-print accents leaning against the railing. He radiated a crushing aura of superiority.
"Laxus!!" "You're actually here?"
Gray gritted his teeth, glancing at Lucy. "And there's the other contender for the title of the strongest."
Laxus took the cigar from his mouth, looking down at the guild with a smirk of pure disdain. "Mystogan is just shy. Don't go digging into things that don't concern you."
Natsu's ears twitched. Forgetting his bruise from Erza, he leaped back onto the table and pointed a flaming finger at the balcony.
"Laxus! Get down here and fight me!"