Hard Fight

Inari looked at Erza in despair, as he thought that she wouldn't be able to pass. The bar was too high, what with Gildarts being so strong. Erza was gloomy for a moment, before she grew firm, her resolve pushing her forward no matter what. Gildarts saw this and smiled, pleased that she had the will to be a strong Fairy Tail wizard. Inari, on the other hand, decided to put away all his misgivings. Not because he wasn't afraid, but because he wanted to help Erza. After 4 years, he still hadn't gotten the courage to confess to her, but, on the bright side, she didn't know how he felt.

Resolving themselves to an almost impossible battle, Inari and Erza shot forwards, unsheathing their swords. Erza used her magic to requip one of her most powerful armors, the 'Tenrin no Yoroi' (Heavens Wheel Armor) with over 50 swords following her. Inari drew his trusty Wakizashi and activated his magic, cloaking himself in fire and lightning.

"I'll distract him while you deal the damage!" Inari

"Alright, good luck. Watch out for his magic, don't get caught." Erza

Inari nodded. As they reached Gildarts, who was still relaxed as if they weren't fighting, Inari slashed forwards, a purple lightning bolt racing towards Gildarts. As it reached him, the bolt seemed to crack, dissipating into nothing as if it didn't exist. Unperturbed, Inari slashed 3 more times, stacking 3 bolts and amplifying their damage, at this point Gildarts noticed the power in the attack, and was forced to use his hand to dissipate it.

With his hand stretched forwards, he 'revealed' an opening for Erza, who used her sword magic 'Blumenblatt' to bombard him with swords. Unfortunately, this had no effect other than making him move his hand upwards a bit to use 'Crash' on all the swords flying towards him. Inari took this chance to coat his sword in his magic and attempt a few direct slashes on Gildarts' open back. Unfortunately, his attack was foiled by Gildarts releasing some of his power in a practically visible state, blowing him away.

"Come now guys, you have to try harder than that!" Gildarts

Gildarts started laughing while standing in between the two. They looked at each other, and decided to use one of their plans formed by working together. With her armor, Erza rose into the air, while Inari started channeling all available bolts into his Wakizashi. After 10 bolts, the blade was screaming and seemed as if it would vibrate into dust. Hearing this, Gildarts couldn't help but be weary, since the power radiating from the blade was enough to be a threat.

In the air, Erza requipped into her strongest armor, the 'Kureha no Yoroi' (Black Wing Armor), before using her strongest attack, 'Gessun' (Moon Flash), towards Gildarts. At the same time, Inari released all his lightning bolts in an area around Gildarts, while those on his blade went directly for the S-Class mage.

Faced with a 2-prong attack, with all escape routes covered, Gildarts started laughing, feeling some pressure. Releasing his magical powers, he managed to, by use of pressure alone, break all the magic used against him. Not finished, he used both hands to fling out a blast of crash magic to either opponent. Inari, knowing it was useless, blocked with his sword, ending up with a shattered, blade-less, hilt, and flew into the cliff side. Erza was better off, as she immediately requipped he Tenrin no Yoroi and blocked with almost 100 swords. After the clash, only about 5 remained, the rest shards on the ground.

"Damn, you couldn't go easy on us?!" Inari

Inari coughed as he pulled himself out of the cliff. Erza worriedly looked at him, and seeing a bit of blood around his mouth, wanted to call of the exam. Inari shook his head, knowing what she was thinking.

"Inari, we should end this, it's just an exam, we could always try again!" Erza

"No, we should have the resolve to see it through. Even if we can't win, we should try as hard as possible before we quit. I'm sure that winning isn't the condition to pass this stage." Inari

Erza thought for a moment, while Gildarts secretly smiled. Inari just thought that there was no way in hell a little pain would make him ruin Erza's shot in the exams.

"Even if that's true, kid, you two haven't shown nearly enough to pass!" Gildarts

Gildarts goaded them into attacking again. This time, Inari was the long range support, while Erza went in close with her Kureha no Yoroi. She pressured Gildarts while he attempted to break her sword and armor, occasionally blocking lightning bolts of varying intensity.

"Erza, give me 10 seconds, I'm charging a big one!!!" Inari

Erza gave the affirmative while Inari charged. With his magic activated, every second he could create up to 10 lightning bolts. So, if he took a second to condense them into 1, he would get 9 new bolts the next second. Concentrating, he started condensing bolts between both palms. after 7 seconds though, he heard a cry and a bang, followed by a black streak flashing past him. Without even confirming, he immediately unleashed the bolt condensed by 73 bolts upon Gildarts and rushed towards where Erza landed.

When he found Erza, he saw that her sword was destroyed and one wing of her armor was damaged. The worst thing was the amount of blood spilling from her mouth, and her pale, almost waxy, face. Immediately rage clouded Inari's mind, and he didn't even notice standing up and facing Gildarts. the killing intent in the air was almost solid, and Gildarts was shocked that such a young man could contain such killing intent.

"HOW ... DARE ... YOU!!! YOU WILL PAY!!!" Inari

As Inari yelled in rage, the faint growl of a fox could be heard. As the seconds passed, the growl grew to a roar, when suddenly the sky flashed, and a lightning bolt struck before Inari's feet. The sonic boom blew all non-anchored items away, yet Inari and Erza seemed to not even have noticed it. the strangest thing was that the lightning was suspended before Inari. Suddenly, red flames ignited at the bottom of the lightning bolt, burning upwards . Where the flame passed, it was as if the lightning was forged, becoming the blade of a purple-silver katana. On the hilt, there was a a 9-tailed fox motif, while the tsukamaki was formed of a deep red surrounding purple diamonds.

Inari grabbed the hilt, and as he lifted it, there was a cry, as if in joy, from a fox. Holding it high above his head, the perpetual flames that came with his magic was absorbed into the blade, while the lightning was absorbed into the diamonds on the hilt.

"Well, now. This should be interesting." Gildarts