𝙉𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙁𝙏 // 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙭 𝙤𝙘

ＴＷＥＮＴＹ．

Day Four of the Grand Magic Games came around as quick as it left.

The contest section of the day was called Naval Battle - a giant sphere of water was summoned into the midst of the audience.

Every team was to choose one member to participate in the activity, and if their member left the sphere they would be out. The one left in the water at the end would be the winner.

But there was a catch — when two people were remaining in the sphere, the five minute rule set in place. This meant that, for a period of five minutes, the one who gets knocked out of the sphere places last.

Lamia Scale chose their God Slayer, Chelia. Blue Pegasus chose their reservist, Jenny (in place of Eve). Mermaid Heel chose Risley — a recurring theme was the members chosen were all women. Perhaps to win the hearts of the audience?

Naturally, Fairy Tail B chose Juvia as their contestant. Sabertooth chose none other but the woman Fuyumi had nearly faced off against the previous night — Minerva.

And her team, Fairy Tail A, chose Lucy.

Immediately, Lucy summoned Aquarius and she faced off against Juvia, which seemed illogical.

Jenny took the opportunity to remove Quatro Puppy's member from the sphere, leaving it an all-female battle.

Aquarius then vanished, leaving Lucy open to Juvia's attacks. The blonde, fortunately, summoned her Spirits Aries and Virgo to come to her rescue.

And just in the nick of time, too, as Juvia summoned up a fresh new attack and sent Chelia, Risley and Jenny all out of the sphere. But after seeing Gray's shocked reaction to her attack, she floated out of the sphere in pure disbelief, leaving only Minerva and Lucy.

Fuyumi's eyes widened and she glanced at Natsu, who was focused on the fight. Her eyes quickly turned to Sabertooth's designated area in the stands, where Sting only smirked down into the sphere. She clenched her fists with a growl.

It didn't take long for Minerva to start obliterating Lucy, even going as far to take her keys, rendering her helpless to the Territory Mage's attacks. Every time Lucy started careening towards the edge, Minerva simply teleported her back in to toy with her more.

The next time Fuyumi, alongside the rest of her team, took a look at Sabertooth, they were all turned to Fairy Tail with vicious smirks.

All of a sudden, the referee gave an order to call the match, with Minerva as the winner. Natsu leapt the balcony and sprinted to her as she fell. The only thing Fuyumi really registered was the hearty laugh Sting gave, overjoyed with Sabertooth's win.

Fuyumi, Gray and Erza swiftly trailed Natsu, the Ice Mage leaping to catch Lucy.

"Why do you look at me that way?" Minerva elegantly floated down from the water, "I simply followed the rules of the match... frankly, I believe you should thank me. I allowed you to attain second place... even with this worthless trash woman of yours."

Natsu growled and made to swing for Minerva, when suddenly the rest of Sabertooth's team - excluding Rogue - leapt in front of her to her defence. Erza put an arm in front of Natsu to prevent him from going any further.

"Woah! Both teams look like they're a hair's width from an all-out battle!"

"You may be the strongest, or Fiore's best. I neither know, nor care," Erza spoke, "however, I will say this one thing. You have taken the single guild you mustn't anger... and made it your enemy."

Lucy was admitted to the infirmary after the incident with Sabertooth.

Juvia and Mirajane burst in, both shouting for their guildmate.

"It's you guys," Gray observed as the entirety of Fairy Tail B entered.
"We may be on different teams, but we're still in the same guild," Cana said.

"Wendy got to her in time. Her life is not in danger," Porlyusica said softly.
"No... it was Chelia's first aid that did all the work," Wendy replied bashfully.
"I am relieved to hear there will be no scars," Erza added in.

"Sorry, everyone..." Lucy croaked, "I got beat again..."
"What're you saying? You scored second, eight points!" Gray smiled gently.
"Yes... well done," Erza nodded.

"My... keys," Lucy groaned. Rue plodded up to the bed, gripping the pouch between her paws.
"They're right here," she chirped, placing them delicately into Lucy's hands. The blonde hugged them close to her chest and then drifted into slumber once again.

"It looks like she went back to sleep," Fuyumi hummed, frowning.
"Those guys get on my nerves somehow," Cana said of Sabertooth.
"Sabertooth..." Gray growled out.
"I don't like 'em," Gajeel snarled.

"Everybody..." Fuyumi started, thought she was interrupted by the master.

"So we have both Team A and Team B gathered here..." he spoke, his voice carrying authority, "I don't know if this is good news or bad news... we have received orders from the backers of the Games to combine A and B into one team."

"What?" Natsu irked.
"A combined team?" Laxus questioned.
"But why?" Fuyumi tilted her head.

"With Raven Tail disqualified and only seven teams left, the odd number is causing problems scheduling the battle section, so they've told us to combine both teams into one five-wizard team," Makarov explained.

"What's gonna happen to our points?" Rue squeaked.
"I hear they're giving the new team the lower point total," the guild master turned his eyes to the Exceed, "in other words, Team A's thirty-five points."
"That's pretty unfair!" Happy exclaimed.

"However, if it is the backer's decision, we can do nothing but accept it..." Erza sighed.
"If you think about it, we can combine into an even stronger team," Fuyumi reasoned, garnering hums of agreement throughout the infirmary.

"But... even if we cut down to five wizards, all we have left are the tag battles, right?" Gray said.
"No... tomorrow may be a day off, but after that is the final day's battle which includes all five members," Porlyusica poked in, "so you should consider your members carefully."

"I'm gonna avenge what they did to Lucy!" Natsu's eyes flickered across Fuyumi's as he snarled out his words, "they laughed at my friend! I don't ever forgive something like that!"

Fuyumi bit her lip, feeling guilty all of a sudden. It wasn't that her relations with Sting had been what was putting Lucy in danger, or made her a target of Sabertooth, but she couldn't help but feel totally horrendous about her midnight meetings with the White Dragon Slayer after what his guild had done to hers.

.·:*¨¨* ≈☆≈ *¨¨*:·.

"The work of combining the Fairy Tail teams into one is over! So now we can commence the battles for the fourth day!"

The Ice Dragon Slayer felt a pit growing in her stomach as the match-up card was announced. Two members of Fairy Tail would be facing off against two of Sabertooth's.

She thought back to what Sting had said to her last night, about how he had a gut feeling he would get to fight Natsu.

'If that's the case, then surely... Sting would always be paired with Rogue,' she thought, 'so... who would that leave Natsu paired with? Laxus, perhaps?'

She pondered the idea for a minute or two, before deciding that, no, Laxus had already been in a battle. Which would leave...

Gajeel. Probably.

Two Dragon Slayers versus two Dragon Slayers, of course.

The Ice Dragon Slayer could only watch down into the arena at the form of her old friend, Sting.

If he and Rogue faced Natsu and Gajeel like she thought, Sabertooth would falter.