Outsiders (Fairy Tail - Gruvia, Gale)

14. Water

"Welcome to Day Four!"

The Phantom Lord members arrived at their balcony and sat on the chairs until they announced the first event.

"Our first event will test the competitors' strength as well as their abilities to overcome not only the strength of their opponents, but the power of water too! Welcome to Naval Battle!"

"Looks like is your lucky day," said Gajeel to Juvia. She smirked.

"Yeah, looks like it," she said, then stood up to leave.

"Water? How in the hell is that fair?!" came a voice from the audience. Juvia knew they were talking about her. As she left the balcony and made her way down to the stadium for the first time, she was greeted by a fearsome silence as everybody watched her enter the stadium.

She t'sked, then followed the rest of the competitors towards the dome of water.

Inside the dome, the other competitors were staring at her. She raised an eyebrow. The countdown started counting from ten.

The minute the gong sounded, all of the competitors turned their attention to Juvia.

But Juvia just laughed, then disappeared in the water.

Erza was the first to notice what she was doing. "You can't hide in the water forever!"

She reequipped, and sent long, sharp swords flying around the dome, hitting Ren from Blue Pegasus, who fell out of the dome.

"Ah, man. That's embarrassing. Didn't stand a chance with Erza in there."

In the dome, Yukino summoned her Pisces spirits, who swam around and hit another competitor, Mermaid Heel's Beth, out of the dome before she could use any magic.

Yuka from Lamia Scale used his wave magic to his advantage, and created waves which kept Pisces away and unable to hit him. He threw some waves towards Erza, but she barely moved, staying balanced and calm in the water. Pisces was still swimming around, until Erza managed to strike one of them, and they disappeared.

Then Juvia reemerged. "Unfortunately my magic is based solely around water, and here I have an unlimited supply." Then she lifted her arms and huge waves emerged behind her, so strong that Erza and Yukino both fell to the side of the dome.

Yukino summoned her spirit Libra, and asked her to change Juvia's field of gravity, but Juvia vanished into the water again.

Libra changed Yuka's field of gravity, cancelling out his wave magic, and pushing him right to the cusp of the dome. Libra tipped her scales once more and Yuka fell out of the dome. The whole dome had now been flipped and the players had moved positions. Only three remained.

While she was busy with Yuka, Juvia reemerged right behind Yukino, and with one harsh kick, Yukino fell out of the dome, calling out in pain.

"That was unnecessary!" Sting growled. "They're playing dirty!"

Only Juvia and Erza were left in the dome.

"Hello again, Titania," Juvia smirked. Erza stared at her in anger.

Erza reequipped into a sea-based armour, then started to cut through the water.

"I see. You have an armour that helps you fight water. How cute," Juvia grinned, then threw her arms in the air. "Water slicer!" she yelled, and sharp ripples of water flew towards her. Erza cut through most of the attacks, and moved closer towards Juvia. But Juvia's attacks were stronger, and she created more sharp ripples, which became impossible for Erza to slice through fast enough. Juvia grinned, then moved her arm in a slicing motion, creating an enormous wave which pushed Erza back. She stopped herself right by the edge of the dome. Panting, Erza looked up at Juvia in anger, but then gasped when she heard a crack, and looked down at her armour, which Juvia had managed to crack. The audience erupted into loud shocked muttering.

"Hah! Well, well. Look at that. Juvia broke one of her armours," said Totomaru excitedly.

Erza reequipped again into a simple outfit, holding a katana. She pushed through towards Juvia again, then tried to attack her, but Juvia wasn't there. She emerged again, this time behind Erza. Half of her body was still in the form of water.

"When given the proper amount of force, water is powerful enough to rip through steel," said Juvia. "But you figured that out, didn't you? Hence your aren't wearing any armour. Very clever Titania!" then the water rose around her into huge waves. Juvia had full control to move the water, and since they were in a dome full of it, she only had to nod her head for the water to move the sword out of Erza's hand. Then, as Erza tried to grab the sword again, she screamed in pain as Juvia stretched her arm out and started creating patches of boiling water around her.

Juvia then formed a magic circle on top of Erza and the whole of the water around her body turned to boiling temperature. Steam was coming out of the dome and the audience started screaming at the sight of their beloved Erza in pain. 

"You can't move now," said Juvia, then sighed. "It's a shame, really, I had so many more spells I wanted to use on you. Oh well. I better not leave you here for too long," she added, looking at Erza writhing in pain.

"Water nebula!" Juvia yelled, then Erza was flung from the water dome.

Only Juvia stood left standing in the dome, having barely raised a finger, without a single scratch on her body. None of the audience were applauding. Juvia just smirked, jumped out of the dome and then disappeared back to the balcony.

"And Juvia from Phantom Lord wins," said the commentator.

"Erza! Are you okay?" Natsu and Lucy ran towards her. Erza was lying on the ground, but didn't feel any pain anymore. She stood up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why am I not burnt?"

Then she noticed her body was covered in a layer of freezing cold water which was soothing and cancelling out the burnt skin.

"What?" she started, looking up at Wendy thinking it was her. But she wasn't looking at Erza, but talking to Makarov.

"Who's doing this?" Erza asked, holding up her arm.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Gray? No. That's water magic," she said, then her and Natsu looked over to the exit where Juvia had disappeared, and looked at each-other, confused.

When Juvia emerged on the Phantom Lord balcony, everyone congratulated her. She just frowned and sat down next to Gajeel, and away from the view so nobody could see her.

"I got lucky," she started.

"Sure. I know for a fact that you barely used half of your magic."

"Yeah. Well, I didn't have to. It was a dome of water."

"Fair enough."

The commentator cleared his throat as the stadium floor was set up for the next round.

"Alright, now it's time for the two versus twos! Unlike the one vs ones, your team are now allowed to choose whoever they want to compete! First round, Blue Pegasus versus Mermaid Heel."

As the first competitors got ready, Juvia quickly realised who her and Gajeel would be fighting. "Alright, I'll use a bit more magic power now," said Juvia. "Because we'll be up against Fairy Tail."