Fighting Spirit

Admiring the female version of himself, Grim nodded repeatedly whilst Rebecca and her siblings stared in awe.

"So pretty..."

Even the other commoners around them were being drawn in by the female version of him.

It was to the point that a crowd was starting to gather. It honestly made Grim wonder if Grey knew charm magic or not. But what was really strange was the fact that he could take a casual look at the female version of himself and continue on like it was nothing. While he admired it, he couldn't be said to be enchanted like the others. Maybe it was because he was basically just looking at himself.

Seeing everyone enthralled by Grey, Grim took this as an opportunity to continue exploring the festival before the stars were awarded to the squads.

Removing the giant bear from around his neck, Grim placed it next to Rebecca's little brother. While he had no problem showing it off in front of the other kid from earlier, Grim remembered that Marco's birthday came around not to long ago. And since he missed it, he thought why not give him this oversized bear that was drawing way too much attention to himself.

And with that, Grim quietly left the area.

---

"Hey Grim!! Its starting! Get over here!!"

Hearing somebody call his name for the second time today, Grim turned his head to see a very energetic Asta bouncing around a stall with captain Yami and a couple of other Black Bull members present.

Ignoring Vanessa who was passed out on the stall counter with someone who looked to be the Blue Rose's captain, Grim made his way over to join the rest. But before he could arrive, the sight of the wizard king appearing on stage sent an uproar throughout the entire area as every other captain besides Yami and Charlotte made their way onto stage.

"ITS THE WIZARD KING!!"

"OH MY GOD!! IT CAPTAIN VANGENCE!!"

"CAPTAIN RILL IS SO ADORABLE!!"

"I LOVE YOU CAPTAIN DOROTHY!!"

Listening to the crowds cheers, Grim set his sight onto the Captains as he felt his battle intent start to rise.

'Finally, I can see all the captains gathered together once again.'

'Wait a second... That isn't Fuegoleon.'

Looking at a ginger haired woman decked out in the Crimson Lion robes, Grim felt a ferocious aura emanating from her.

As if feeling his gaze, the ginger haired woman turned her head in his direction and grinned.

*ROAR!!*

Feeling as if he was being started down by a towering lion, Grim felt the corners of his lips start to rise as his [Breath of the Beast] aura burst out of his body releasing a beastly aura.

Sensing his battle intent, the woman's eyes started shining as the rest of the captains and Julius started taking notice of what was going on.

Looking in Grim's direction, the usually calm expression on Nozel's face faltered for a second as a rising sense of annoyance started swelling in him. If he knew that Grim had forced his younger sister to kneel before him and caused his brother to piss himself in front of a large crowd of the kingdom's citizens and shaming the house of Silva before proceeding to rob the two of them, his expression probably wouldn't be as restrained as it currently was. It was just to bad that Grim's eyes were focused solely on the orange haired woman.

Sensing that things were about to get out of hand, Julius cleared his throat before calling for everyone's attention and revealing the results of the star awarding festival.

"In first we have the Golden Dawn!" He yelled.

"HELL YEAH!!" A couple of citizens shouted.

"With an unbelievable amount of 125 stars, the Golden Dawn have broken their previous record of 96 stars and have grasped first place once again!"

"Who else but them."

"As expected."

While the crowd was cheering, Julius started talking and everyone naturally quietened down.

"While the Golden Dawn has shown incredible effort this year, lets move onto the member who contributed the most towards star acquisition. The hopeful newcomer accompanied by the wind spirit sylph, YUNO!!"

Taking a step forward, Yuno drew the attention of the entire audience as several girls including

Charmy started fangirling.

"Congratulations Yuno!" Mimosa and Klaus congratulated amongst the noise.

'Yuno?' For the first time since the award ceremony started, Grim finally looked away from the tigress.

Compared to the last time he saw him, the current Yuno exuded an even more powerful aura.

'He's grown stronger.'

While he couldn't measure just how strong he had become, Grim couldn't help but wonder if Yuno was even his opponent any longer. Not to toot his own horn or anything, but with his current battle experience and his current level of mana control, he found it hard to believe anyone in the younger generation would be his match. He might have considered Asta if he was able to tap into that power that he had used during the Witches Forrest battle, it was just to bad that he couldn't. And while Luck had become stronger after visiting the dungeon with Magna when they went searching for a cure for Asta's arms, the amount of strength he had acquired wasn't enough to rouse Grim's fighting spirit. But even so, he couldn't imagine that Yuno had become strong enough to fight that controlled version of Asta let alone himself. And after experiencing the full power of the Salamander (A grown one at that), he doubted that the immature state of the wind spirit would be a great amount of help in an actual battle.

Carrying on with the awards, Julius called out the name of second place.

"With 101 stars, second place goes to the Black Bulls!!"

---

Listening to the crowd's suspicious mummers, Grim couldn't help but grin as his squad mates focused on what they were doing instead of the wizard king.

Calling for everyone's attention, the wizard king quickly explained the situation.

"I know that it may be a little strange that the Black Bulls are second place this year after previously garnering negative stars, but throughout these past 6 months the Black Bulls have displayed incredible growth and climbed all the way to second place at once. But the most impressive amongst them was their newcomer- hang on a second, their captain's not even up here. Hey black bulls!" He shouted in Grim and Asta's direction.

"Come up and receive your reward!!"

"Heh, sounds like they're calling for you Asta." Grim smiled and looked over at his gray haired friend.

"Me?" Asta said in surprise.

"Who else."

"No, no, no." He waved his hand in front of his face. "The wizard king was obviously looking at you. And besides, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't even be here."

"What?"

"In our first mission to that village, you let me take care of the leader and took on his underlings even though you were more than capable of beating him yourself. And you managed to defeat Mars after he hurt Noelle and helped defend the kingdom after the eye midnight sun attacked the capital."

'You did that as well though...'

"He's right Grim." Noelle stepped up and said. "You also helped put an end to that Baro guy who kidnapped the kids from the orphanage."

"Asta was there as well... Why do you guys want me to get on the stage so much?"

Waking up from her drunken nap, Vanessa chimed in for some reason.

"Don't forget that you *burp* also defeated a high ranking member of both the diamond kingdom and the eye of the midnight sun when we went to the Witches Forest."

"Yeah! You also got the witch queen to fix my arms!" Asta said waving them. "You got me into the black bulls and gave me the opportunity to continue to strive towards my dream. If you think your not worthy of not accepting the award then I'm definitely not."

Turning to face the others, Grim saw all of them nodding their heads in agreement with Asta.

'*Sigh* I didn't even say anything about not being worthy... I just don't want to go up there because I'm 90% sure that I'll be recognized by the magic knights of the squads I demolished not to long ago... That being said, this could turn into an interesting outcome.'

"Alright." He nodded while looking at the ginger woman on the stage who was staring at him.

"YEAH!!" The black bulls cheered.

"Atta boy!" Yami nodded before slapping him on the back.