Chapter 699 - 699: Round of 16 (Part II)

Seeing Raizel and Gildarts standing opposite each other in the arena, Cana immediately found herself torn.

"Damn it... I don't even know who I'm supposed to cheer for!"

Raizel had plenty of ways to end the match quickly, especially if he simply relied on superior speed.

But he chose the more straightforward approach.

He activated [Take Over: Gankoomon X.]

And then he and Gildarts settled things the old-fashioned way—with their fists.

The fight became a brutal exchange at close range.

Neither man bothered much with defense.

Every punch landed cleanly, and if Raizel hit Gildarts once, Gildarts made damn sure to return the favor with a kick or another punch of his own.

As the exchange continued, Zeref noticed something unusual.

"His punching power and Magic Power are still increasing."

The longer Gildarts fought Raizel, the stronger he seemed to become.

His Magic Power climbed steadily, and every blow carried more force than the one before it, as though battle itself were feeding his momentum.

Their close-range contest grew increasingly fierce.

Gildarts displayed the full extent of his hand-to-hand ability, never allowing Raizel to strike him without answering in kind.

Eventually, Gildarts took one step back with his right foot.

"One last punch, Raizel!"

White light gathered around his fist.

Instead of spreading outward, every bit of power compressed into a single point.

Then Gildarts threw the strongest punch he could muster.

"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Black Heaven."

Raizel gathered his own Magic Power into his right fist.

And rather than evade Gildarts's attack, he took it head-on.

At the exact same moment, Gankoomon X's fist shot upward.

"Ultimate Sengi Tengyouken!"

It was a crushing uppercut that condensed all of Gankoomon X's power into a single fist, an attack designed to ignore defense and land with overwhelming certainty.

The two blows connected almost simultaneously.

The force behind them tore through each other.

Gankoomon X's flaming fist became the image of a roaring lion as it passed through Gildarts's body, while Gildarts's Crash Magic pierced through Gankoomon X and continued onward.

Behind Raizel, an entire section of the arena wall shattered into countless tiny cubes.

A clear fist mark appeared across Gankoomon X's chest.

But Gildarts had taken the uppercut directly beneath the chin.

His body went rigid for an instant.

Then he crashed to the ground.

The magical cameras immediately confirmed that he had lost consciousness.

Ur raised her flag.

"The winner—Raizel Bael!"

That match settled something the Fairy Tail members had quietly debated for quite some time.

The title of Fairy Tail's strongest Mage had officially changed hands.

And to the members of Fairy Tail, that title carried far more weight than something like the Spriggan 12 or the Ten Wizard Saints ever could.

...

August's match against Kagura contained considerably less suspense.

Though August did something rather unexpected.

Instead of standing at a distance and bombarding Kagura with Magic, he activated his combat enhancement and transformed his staff into a long spear.

Then he challenged her in close combat.

Kagura did not underestimate him.

Rather than wielding both Archenemy and Astron from the beginning, she chose to concentrate on the swordsmanship she was most proficient with and attacked first.

She never even managed to properly close the distance.

August stopped her approach with a straight spear thrust, immediately followed by a feinting point, a turning sweep at her legs, and then a crushing overhead strike.

Kagura was forced entirely onto the defensive.

The lesson August gave her that day was simple: Reach matters.

After blocking Kagura's downward slash with the shaft of his spear, August pressed her weapon down and immediately unleashed a rapid series of straight thrusts.

Then came a sweeping strike.

Then an upward cut.

Kagura had fought opponents armed with spears and staffs before.

Renn of the Cross Knights, for example, was an accomplished spearman.

But no one using a long weapon had ever placed her under pressure like this.

August's spear moved so smoothly that his defense seemed impenetrable.

Eventually, Kagura was forced to draw Astron as well, yet even with both weapons in hand she could do little more than defend.

August suddenly shook the spear.

The single spearhead blurred into dozens.

Kagura could not tell which one was real.

The true spear struck her wrists from one side, then the other, each impact landing precisely against the base of her palms.

Her grip loosened.

Archenemy and Astron fell to the ground at the same time.

August withdrew the spear and transformed it back into his staff without attacking again.

Kagura looked at her fallen weapons calmly.

"I surrender."

August offered her a brief piece of advice.

"You wield both a sword and a blade. It would be worthwhile to study techniques specifically designed for dual weapons against long-reach opponents."

Most of Kagura's training came from fighting Erza and her three sword spirits.

Erza usually relied on magical swords, while the three spirits either fought in close quarters or used flames.

As a result, Kagura had relatively little experience against skilled users of long weapons.

Spears did possess weaknesses at close and intermediate range.

With sufficiently dense dual-weapon pressure, it was entirely possible to break inside the weapon's effective reach.

Unfortunately, August's enhanced combat ability was simply too overwhelming.

Through his Magic, he had studied and assimilated numerous schools of spear technique.

There were lifelong spearmen who might not have matched him.

...

Misaki versus Mira became a clash between Blue Dimension and the sea of flames produced by Mira's Flame Demon Take Over.

Misaki dragged Mira into Blue Dimension immediately and seized the advantage.

But Mira could still use Curses inside the altered space.

She invoked Kyôka's Curse and stripped away Misaki's vision, hearing, and sense of smell.

At the same time, Mira continuously released the full power of her Flame Demon form.

The blue world began to burn.

Raging flames spread across Blue Dimension until the entire space became a sea of fire.

While Misaki was briefly deprived of three of her senses, Mira closed the distance and struck her with a single punch.

Then she amplified Misaki's sense of pain.

In a strange way, the two women possessed abilities with remarkably similar implications.

Inside Blue Dimension, one second outside could become an hour within.

If Misaki landed even one successful attack there, the victim could effectively experience an hour's worth of punishment before returning to normal time.

Mira's sensory enhancement worked from the opposite direction.

She could amplify pain so drastically that even a gentle breeze against the skin could feel like being scraped with a blade.

Misaki had clearly never experienced anything like it.

Mira's punch itself was hardly forceful.

Yet the moment it landed, Misaki's face twisted violently from the amplified agony.

She lost the ability to continue fighting almost immediately.

Mira advanced.

...

Zeref versus Erza was similarly straightforward.

Zeref had no intention of holding back.

He did occasionally enjoy a proper fight himself.

He opened with a dense barrage of powerful Dark Magic, forcing Erza to bring out the Adamantine Armor.

But Zeref did not bother trying to break through The Unbreakable Wall of Sighs.

Instead, he teleported straight through the barrier.

He appeared behind Erza.

A Dark Explosion sphere detonated against her back before she could react.

The blast scorched the Adamantine Armor black and immediately knocked Erza unconscious.

The Unbreakable Wall of Sighs was a fully enclosed defensive formation.

When August designed it, he had accounted not only for attacks from behind but even attacks coming from beneath the ground.

Unfortunately...

Zeref possessed the ability to forcibly bypass the formation itself.

That was not a flaw in the barrier.

Zeref was simply too powerful!

...

Of all the matches in the Round of 16, Laxus versus Mercphobia was one of the fights Raizel and the others had been most eager to see.

Mercphobia once again revealed his true form and flooded the arena until it became an enormous sea.

But unlike Kirin, Laxus did not simply find himself helpless against the water.

He unleashed his lightning at full power.

Storm clouds gathered above the arena.

Rain poured down.

Thunder shook the sky while violent winds swept across the battlefield.

Then two bolts of lightning descended at once.

One gold.

One crimson.

The golden lightning belonged to Elexion, the Lightning Dragon King.

The crimson lightning came from the power flowing through Laxus's own blood.

Both spread wildly through the ocean.

In moments, the entire body of water was filled with interwoven arcs of gold and red.

The lightning was so violent that even Mercphobia hesitated to dive beneath the surface.

Laxus seized the opening.

Dragon Force erupted across his body.

He burst out of the water, his right fist wrapped in both golden and crimson lightning as he launched himself straight toward the Water Dragon God.