S-Class Promotion Exam; Part 5

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

December, x779.

Sitting around one of the long tables in Fairy Tail's guild hall, Cana, Laki, Alzack, Levy, Jet, Droy, Gray, Ultear, Erza, and Natsu discussed the possible outcomes for the S-Class promotion Exam. Meanwhile, Elfman and Lisanna sat at an adjacent table, listening fervently to the ongoing conversation while glancing at their sister, Mirajane, who pretended as if she were not interested in the conversation but was also listening closely, from time to time.

"Why are the two of you looking at me like that?" Mirajane asked with annoyance in her tone.

"Big Sis, why don't you like us to hang out with them?" Lisanna asked, pointing at the table with Alfonzo and Elicia's friends.

"Because they are part of Erza's faction." Mirajane replied with a huff.

"But aren't Alfonzo and Elicia the leaders of that group?" Elfman said softly. "Calling them Erza's faction is a bit…"

"Yeah! Besides, we would get stronger faster if we trained with them in the mornings." Lisanna added with a pout.

"Plus, we're all part of the same guild." Elfman continued. "Shouldn't we all get along?"

With her siblings bombarding her with perfectly reasonable questions and retorts, Mirajane eventually snapped, having nothing to say in response.

"Just be quiet!" Mirajane barked. "I'm your older sister, so you should just listen to me!"

Immediately after shouting at Elfman and Lisanna, Mirajane felt terrible. And when she saw Elfman lower his head in silence and Lisanna's eyes start brimming with tears, she felt even worse.

'*Sigh* What am I doing?' Mirajane thought to herself. 'I don't even have a reason to not like Erza. I'm just jealous that Alfonzo acknowledges her strength. And I want him to acknowledge me, too. But now I'm making my siblings sad. Somehow, I blame Alfonzo for this.'

Meanwhile, Mirajane's outburst drew the rest of the guild's attention. No one had ever seen her be so harsh with her siblings. So, it came as quite the surprise.

Realizing just how many eyes were on her, Mirajane stood up from her seat. Then, she walked around the table and toward the guild hall's front doors.

"Fine… Do whatever you want." Mirajane said as she walked around the table. Then, in a low voice, she continued as she walked past Elfman and Lisanna. "I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I'm sorry."

With that, Mirajane left the guild without looking back. Meanwhile, Elfman and Lisanna looked at her in surprise.

"Did she just…?" Elfman asked, not believing that Mirajane would relent like that.

"She did!" Lisanna said happily as she got up and sprinted toward Natsu, plopping down next to him with a smile on her face.

Earth Land, Ishgar, Tenrou Island.

While the conversation between the Straus siblings was going on at the guild, Elicia had just failed her sneak attack on Gildarts. Then, she and Alfonzo prepared themselves for one of, if not, the hardest fights they would face as wizards thus far.

"Lici, Let's go!" Alfonzo said, dashing towards Gildarts while Elicia pulled herself upward and concealed herself among the leaves.

"You're pretty reckless, Alfonzo." Gildarts said as he watched Alfonzo approach. "Choosing to fight me head on isn't the smartest choice."

"We'll see about that, Uncle Gildarts." Alfonzo said with a grin.

Immediately, the corners of Gildarts' mouth twitched.

"Don't call me uncle, I'm not that old!" Gildarts shouted, throwing a right straight, imbued with his magic, at the incoming Alfonzo.

Using the Eskrima stick in his left hand to deflect the incoming punch to his right, Alfonzo followed up by dropping to his knees and sliding the rest of the way toward Gildarts. Then, after using the momentum of his parry to turn his body sideways, Alfonzo changed the Eskrima sticks into a pair of hooks. While sliding past Gildarts, he used them to pull Gildarts' right leg.

"What the…!?" Gildarts exclaimed as he lost his balance.

Usually such a straightforward, simple strategy would never work on someone of Gildarts' caliber. However, after seeing that Alfonzo's weapon was not destroyed upon contact with his fist, Gildarts was shocked and a bit slow to react.

Not allowing himself to miss the opportunity an unbalanced Gildarts presented, Alfonzo killed his forward momentum by jamming his left foot into the ground just as he passed. Then, he did a couple of things simultaneously.

First, he turned the hooks into shackles that fastened around Gildarts' right leg. Second, He stood up explosively and sent a kick into Gildarts' back, unbalancing him even more. And third, he made chains, with spiked ends, extending from the two, newly made, shackles before throwing them, as hard as he could at a pair of nearby trees.

At the same time, Elicia fell from above, somersaulting through the air, bringing her right leg down on Gildarts' back.

*Boom!*

Due to Elicia's kick, Gildarts was slammed into the ground, kicking up a dust cloud. An instant later, Elicia shot out of the dust cloud and landed next to Alfonzo, who had taken some distance after his attack.

"Good work, Lici." Alfonzo said, combing his fingers through Elicia's hair.

"Hehe." Elicia giggled at the compliment and the display of affection.

"Yeah, that was pretty good." Gildarts said from the cloud.

A moment later, the dust cloud was dispersed by a powerful swing of Gildarts' arm. Immediately, Alfonzo and Elicia took their fighting stances, ready to continue the fight.

"But I hope you didn't think that would be enough to take me down." Gildarts said with a grin.

"Of course not." Alfonzo replied with a grin of his own. "Even together, we know we're not on your level yet, Gildarts. But we sure as shit ain't giving up until we've gone all out."

"What he said." Elicia added with a nod. "Minus the curse word."

While Gildarts laughed at Elicia's reply, Alfonzo could only shake his head with a wry smile on his face. Then, while Gildarts was still lost in his laughter, Alfonzo dashed forward once again.

Expecting such a move, Gildarts was ready to receive Alfonzo's incoming attack. So, when Alfonzo threw a punch, intending to hit Gildarts in the ribs with his fist that was covered in a metal wrapping, Gildarts flared his magic power, trying to destroy the shackles on his right leg with his [Crash Magic]. However, he was once again caught off guard when the shackles remained unharmed.

"Huh? This again?" Gildarts questioned as Alfonzo's fist drew near.

Instead of stepping back, as he originally intended, Gildarts deflected Alfonzo's fist with his right hand. Then, he landed a powerful kick on the boy's abdomen, sending him flying backward. Unfortunately for Gildarts, Alfonzo slapped another pair of shackles around his left leg, as well.

While Alfonzo flew away from Gildarts, with a pair of chains that extended from the new shackles on Gildarts' left leg, Elicia slid under Gildarts' outstretched leg with a devilish grin on her face.

Seeing that grin, Gildarts' had a flashback of the most devastating attack he had ever received. And considering that Elicia was the culprit for that attack, as well, Gildarts instincts took over.

'Like hell I'm letting this little demon hit me in the balls again.' Gildarts thought to himself in a panic.

With that thought, Gildarts' hands shot down to cover his crotch.

When Elicia saw Gildarts' hands, her grin grew into a wide smile. Then, she, Like Alfonzo had done before, stuck her left foot into he ground, killing her forward momentum. Following that, she stood up and threw a high kick at Gildarts' chin.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Thunk!* x 2

The moment Elicia's kick landed; three or four sounds rang out in succession. First, the sound of Elicia's foot snapping Gildarts' head back. Second, the sound of Alfonzo slamming back first into a tree. And the third and fourth sounds were made when Alfonzo dug the spiked ends of the chains in his hands into the tree he slammed into.

*Smack!*

With his head still tilted back, Gildarts' flung one of his hands at Elicia before she could retreat. Lucky for her, she was able to get her arms up before Gildarts' hand could land on her face.

However, the force behind the backhand strike was so great that Elicia's arms were forced back, causing her to hit herself in the chin with her own arms. On top of that, she was sent flying before she slammed into the ground, rolling a few times before the momentum died.

"Holy fucking shit!" Alfonzo groaned as he picked himself up from the ground, using the tree as support. "That really fucking hurts. I think he managed to crack a rib or two with that kick. Lici, you alright?"

"No!" Elicia whined in response as she pushed herself of the ground. "My arms hurt, my face hurts, my neck hurts, I'm hot, and I'm hungry! I wanna go home!"

Hearing Elicia's complaints, Alfonzo could only smile wryly once again. He understood that everything Elicia just said was absolutely true. But he also understood that she was not ready to give up yet. A fact that was made evident by the way she watched Gildarts as she slowly stood to her feet.

"I gotta say, you kids really are impressive." Gildarts said as he turned his head from side to side. "And what's up with these shackles, why can't I use my magic? Come to think of it, my magic stopped working when you parried my punch, too."

With that, Gildarts looked down at the two pairs of shackles that were attached to his legs. Then, he finally saw them, the uncountable number of sigils that were inscribed on them.

"So, you made anti-magic shackles, huh?" Gildarts said, the praise evident in his tone. Then, he looked up and gazed at Elicia. "Then, there's you. You wrapped so many of your threads around me that it was hard to move. Lucky for me, you didn't know exactly how strong I was physically. Otherwise, I really might have lost this fight."

Like Gildarts said, as soon as Alfonzo slapped the first pair of anti-magic shackles on Gildarts' leg, Elicia began wrapping her threads around Gildarts' limbs and torso, in great numbers. She even managed to slip one around his neck.

However, as soon as he began moving, a lot of them snapped, even the one around his neck. The good thing, however, was that they slowed down his attacks just enough that neither Alfonzo nor Elicia was taken out in one attack.

"Yeah, you're super strong." Elicia said with a pout.

"We don't' have time to talk, Lici." Alfonzo said, dashing forward again. "His magic will only be sealed until my magic power in the shackles run out. We're on a time limit, here."

Snapping back to her senses, Elicia shot her threads past Gildarts and catapulted herself toward him.

"And that's where you miscalculated, Kid." Gildarts said with a grin. "You probably got the idea of using cuffs or something that dispelled magic from the stories I told about your mom, right?"

Instead of answering Gildarts' question, Alfonzo pulled his right arm back. Then, the wraps on his arms started moving, combining into one long wrap that started coiling around itself. Eventually, it took the shape of a large drill that extended forward from Alfonzo's right hand.

"[Metal Magic: Giga Drill Break]!" Alfonzo shouted as he drew near to Gildarts.

With Alfonzo's loud chant, the drill on his arm began to rotate at high speed as he thrust his right arm forward. However, Alfonzo felt that something was wrong when Gildarts only response was to raise his left hand toward the incoming drill.

"The only reason Bianca's [Dispel Magic] worked on me was because she had as much magic power as I do." Gildarts said, his grin growing into a bright smile. An instant later, he flared his magic power strongly as he continued. "And you're still far away from that level, Kiddo."

With Gildarts releasing a much greater amount of his magic power, The first thing that happened was the shackles on his legs crumbled to dust. Then, he caught Alfonzo's drill with is left hand. It, too, crumbled to dust. A moment later, Gildarts reached up with his right hand, catching Elicia by the foot. He then followed up by swinging Elicia like a club and slamming her into Alfonzo before releasing her.

*Bang!*

Alfonzo and Elicia were then sent flying away from Gildarts. Slamming into the ground a moment later, they both rolled for a while before coming to a stop. When they did, it was clear to see that they had both fallen unconscious.

Meanwhile, standing in a tree overlooking the battlefield, Makarov and Ur looked on with impressed gazes.

"*Sigh* Those kids were only six when they came to the guild." Makarov said, a nostalgic glint in his eyes. "To think in only eight years, they would have grown so much."

"Yeah, for a couple of kids, they're really strong." Ur said with a nod. "Were Bianca, Orlando, and Gildarts that strong at fourteen?"

"Not at all." Makarov replied while shaking his head. "If I remember correctly, they weren't even candidates for S-Class until they were seventeen or eighteen. Similar to Laxus."

"I see." Ur said with an understanding nod. "Then, those kids really are special."

"Indeed." Makarov said, nodding as well. Then, he reached into his cloak, pulling out a signal flare tube as he continued. "Anyway, with this, all the examinee's have been incapacitated. Take Gildarts and gather everyone up so we can give those who need it, some medical attention."

"Understood." Ur replied with a nod.

"After that, I want to hear from you, Gildarts, and Laxus about who you think is suitable to become S-Class." Makarov continued, holding the flare tube up toward the sky. "After that, we'll spend a night here and head back in the morning. But for now, the S-Class Promotion Exam is over."

As Makarov's words fell, he pulled the trigger on the signal flare, sending a bright blue flare into the air, officially bringing the x779 S-Class Promotion Exam to an end.