309. First Game

Soon after the Sabertooth team came out, the team that got 1st place finally comes out. The crowd and the 7th place Fairy Tail team are surprised to see the team that comes out.

The commentator, Chapati Lola then introduces the 1st place team. "Ooh, what a big surprise this is. The 1st place in the preliminary round is Fairy Tail team B!"

"Fairy Tail team B, the one that got the 1st place in preliminary. It is what everyone will call a dream team. Freed Justine, Cana Alberona, Laxus Dreyar, Mirajane Cooper, and the youngest Wizard Saint, Ben Cooper. It's a team composed of Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages, truly Fairy Tail's strongest team," comments Chapati excitedly.

The 5 members of Fairy Tail team B are smiling widely. Cana stands in the middle front, on her left are Freed and Laxus, while on her right are Mira & Ben. All of them are S-Class Mages, which make it Fairy Tail's strongest team.

Freed and Cana have become S-Class in these 4 years. Cana became one first 2 years ago after being trained by Gildarts since they returned from Tenrou Island. While Freed become one last year after failing in the previous years. He was trained by Ben after losing to Cana, so his Letter Magic has improved significantly, and he succeeded in last year's exam.

"WHAT?! TEAM B? ISN'T THAT TEAM MADE OUT OF MONSTERS? IT SHOULD BE CALLED FAIRY TAIL MONSTER TEAM," shouts Natsu who gets very surprised.

"Won't they win immediately with that setup?" comments Lucy with wide eyes.

Gajeel and Gray are also surprised, but they are too speechless to say anything. Erza is surprised too, but she suddenly becomes depressed. "A team of S-Classes? Why did they leave me out? Are they not seeing me as a friend? Or maybe they think that I'm just a burden?"

"Fufufu, it's not like that, Erza. It's just that among all S-Class Mages in our guild, only you know and can handle these guys very well," says Mira who approaches her while pointing at Natsu & co.

Mira calms Erza while Natsu & co are complaining to Ben because he didn't tell them that the S-Class will participate as a team. They don't even know that a guild can send 2 teams to participate.

"Then I guess you need to read more, this is a new rule that they made for this year's event. Also, we didn't tell you so that you'd do your best in the preliminary," says Ben while smirking.

Natsu & co don't believe him because Cana can't hide her giggles. They immediately know that Ben just wanted to mess around with them. Ben also knows their suspicion, so he defends himself.

"FYI, it's not my idea, it's Cana's idea," says Ben.

Cana finally can't hold her laugh and she laughs out loud while looking at Natsu & co's frustrated faces. They want to lash out, but Ben makes them behave with a mere clap. Other than Erza, only Ben can make these guys behave.

"Look, Ben can handle them, so why was it me who get left out?" asks Erza dejectedly.

"Well, it's because Master wanted to put 2 Dragon Slayers in each team. We have 5 Dragon Slayers, but Ben is an anomaly, so we put Wendy as your reserve," says Mira.

"Is it to anticipate Sabertooth's Twin Dragons?" asks Erza.

"Maybe," says Mira.

Erza sighs and stops complaining, it has been done, after all. Now they can only focus on winning this tournament. It's time to show the world that they shouldn't mess with Fairy Tail.

While the Fairy Tail teams talk, the commentator is asking whether having 2 teams give Fairy Tail an unfair advantage. But then, Yajima who joins the commentator says that the rule allows a guild to send 2 teams. So if Fairy Tail can get their 2 teams into this round, then they deserve such privilege.

After that, the commentator tells everyone about the tournament's program. There will be 2 programs each day, starting with an event and followed by battles. Shortly after that, the first game starts, and it's a game called Hidden.

There's no clear explanation about the game, so each team needs to send a member without really knowing what they'll face. Although it is quite clear from the event name that this will be a kind of Hide & Seek game.

Fairy Tail A sends Gray, Fairy Tail B sends Cana, Mermaid Heel sends Beth, Blue Pegasus sends Eve, Lamia Scale sends Lyon, Quatro Cerberus sends Jager, while Sabertooth sends Rufus. Ah, Scarmiglione sends a girl named Dora. It's not that important though because this guild only passes the preliminary by tailing Fairy Tail A, not using their own strength, so they aren't really strong.

All 8 participants enter the arena and suddenly, many buildings start to appear. A city is summoned inside the arena, it is truly an impressive feat. Although Ben realizes that it's a kind of space magic combined with illusion magic.

Though the illusion is very good that it is close to reality. But it's still far from the level of Illusion Magic that Mavis or Roubaul reached. Even so, it is enough for this tournament, and it still can fool the majority of Mages.

Soon afterward, the organizer finally explains the game and its rules. It is truly a variation of the Hide & Seek game with a lot of changes. The basic is still the same though, all participants need to find their competitors and attack them to gain points.

However, it won't be that easy because suddenly clones of each participant appear. The clones are there to confuse the participants. And if they attack a clone or get attacked, they will lose points. So it will depend on whether they can find their real competitors or not.

All participants have different reactions from calm, panic, or even don't care. Cana is among those who don't care at all. She just keeps drinking her alcohol from its bottle while walking around the fake city.

The Hidden game finally starts and the participants start to move using different strategies. There is a time limit of 30 minutes, so they all need to be fast. Some hides, some move to find the others, while someone just keeps drinking alcohol.

"Eh? It has started?" asks the drunk Cana.

"Uhm, what did Ben say before? Ah, right," says Cana before taking out 7 cards on each hand.

Cana inserts her magic power into the cards before merging the 14 cards into 7 cards that float in front of her. "Detect and chase my enemies, Homing Missiles!"

She chants that before throwing the cards to the sky. The cards stay still in the air for a moment before they fly away in different directions. But a card doesn't move at all and Cana knows the reason.

"Sigh, as I thought, it won't chase Gray because I don't consider him as an enemy," says Cana before drinking hee alcohol again.

The 6 cards are flying toward the Mages from other Guilds. Cana's cards have detected their magic power which is obviously different from the clones. But just like what Cana has said, no card chases Gray because this spell can only target those she considers as enemies.

Everyone who gets targeted sees the card that comes toward them. The cards fly fast, so they reflexively get away to evade the cards. However, these are homing cards, so they keep chasing the Mages who tried to run away.

Then, all the chased Mages do the same thing, they attack the cards using their magic. Their magic hits the cards and then the cards explode. They all scoff at it, but then they widen their eyes when their bodies suddenly get electrocuted.

Only Rufus from Sabertooth realizes that a lightning bullet was shot from the exploding card. The bullets were small and they move very fast. The explosion of the cards was distracting them from seeing the lightning bullets. Even so, he isn't fast enough to avoid the lightning bullet.

"W-w-w-what has just happened?! 6 participants suddenly get electrocuted after destroying Cana Alberona's cards," comments Chapati Lola.

"She must've hidden a lightning spell under her cards. The spell must be very fast too because everyone gets electrocuted right after the explosion," says Yajima.

Everyone is surprised to see Cana has gained 6 points just a mere minute after the game started.

Ben smirks and says, "The game has truly started now."

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