Outsiders (Fairy Tail - Gruvia, Gale)

11. Threat

"Okay folks! Time for Mermaid Heel's Araña to take the first round!"

The green-haired girl waved at the audience, then posed to take a shot at the MPF.  

The numbers 275 came up on the finder. 

"Is that a good score?" she asked Mato the mascot standing next to the finder. He shrugged his shoulders. The audience clapped anyway.

"A respectable score! That would certainly put her in a high rank in the magic army!" the commentator started. "Next is Lucy from Fairy Tail." 

"Okay," Lucy said to herself, then took a deep breath, walked up to the finder and threw all of her might at it with her whip. 

The score on the finder read 410 points. She looked up at Erza, who nodded.

"It isn't that high, but it's definitely good" she said to Natsu. 

"I guess she isn't allowed to use one of her spirits to do it for her."

"No. It's a good score, but, look who still has to come," she said, nodded her head towards Jura and Sting.  

"Next is Hibiki from Blue Pegasus!"

His score read 170, to which he embarrassingly walked away and joined the rest in the back. Knowing who was still to come, he prepared himself for being at the bottom of the leaderboard.

"Sting from Sabertooth is next!"

Sting smiled at Yukino and Rogue in the balcony before he closed his eyes and his body went white. 

"Shadow Drive," he muttered, before attacking the power finder with all the strength he could muster, making the whole audience shake.

"Wow! Look at that! Sting's score is 5265!"

The Sabertooth guild and the audience were cheering loudly. Gajeel narrowed his eyes. 

"Wish I was down there now. I want to know how strong I am."

"He's probably about the same strength as the other dragon slayer from Sabertooth, so you're stronger than him," is all Juvia said, to which Gajeel grinned. 

Then, Jura walked forward. 

He closed his eyes, put his fists together and yelled "Iron Rock Fuji!" 

The stadium rattled even more than it did with Sting, as though it were an earthquake. 

"Jesus," Totomaru said, grabbing onto the wall as he fell backwards. 

The dirt cleared and revealed a whopping score of 9150.

"Well well well! What a score that is! There's no wonder he's the fourth highest member of the Ten Wizards Saints!"

"What?" Juvia gasped. "I didn't know he was that strong."

Aria stood behind Jura waiting, without showing any emotion. 

"And finally, Aria of Phantom Lord. I know this will be a hard act to follow but -"

The commentator stopped talking as Aria removed his blindfold, which he wears to restrain his overwhelmingly strong magical powers.  

"The airspace of death, Zero," he muttered, and an enormous burst of shining airwaves shot through his palms.

The stadium started to rumble again, this time with torrential winds. 

When the wind eased and everybody looked up at the score, audible gasps and muttering filled the stadium. Everything was silent for a second before Gajeel cackled loudly. 

"Look at how shocked they are."

Aria's score was 9150, exactly the same as Jura's.

"Well would you look at that! The two wizard saints are tied at first place!"

Totomaru punched the air. "Yes Aria! He's leagues ahead of the game!"

Aria bowed to the mascot, then put his blindfold back on. Everybody was watching him. 

"Is that a mistake? Surely Jura's score just hasn't left the finder yet!" Shelia said. 

"No, look," said Lyon, pointing at the magic finder. "They always clear the finder after every participant. It wasn't a glitch. That's his score."

The scores came up on the lacrima. Phantom Lord and Lamia Scale both tied, and received 6 points. 

In the crowd of Fairy Tail members, Makarov narrowed his eyes. 

Wendy asked, "Wait, master? So he uses Air Magic like I do?"

"That's right. Airspace magic. But while your magic is for healing, his is for quite the opposite. If he knows the spell of Zero, then he must know Metsu too, and if so, we're in a lot of trouble. That spell completely drains your magic power. And the more magic you have, the more damage it'll cost. We cannot let him use it on one of ours."

Aria was already leaving the stadium as the guild watched him in fear. 

"Well, I didn't know he was that strong," Natsu started. 

"Yes," Erza said. "And we haven't even seen him in a fight."

As the floor was cleared and everybody started to calm down, the commentators moved on to the next event. 

"And so after a truly exciting morning unlike no other, we move on to the fights."

The line ups were announced for the afternoons matches, and the public had decided to pit Aria against Mermaid Heel's Kagura. When she heard the announcement, Kagura clutched her sword and nodded bravely, although a crack of fear could be seen in her eyes after seeing just how powerful he was. 

Lyon smirked at the Phantom Lord balcony.

"Why aren't they picking Juvia? She hasn't done anything yet."

"Why are you so obsessed with her, Lyon? Leave it out. Everybody wants to see the big guy again. I'm sure you'll get to see her down there really soon," said Shelia.  

As Aria emerged on the balcony again, he was greeted to congratulations by his teammates. 

"Fair to say they were not expecting that," said Gajeel. Aria smiled and nodded at them. 

Juvia smiled at him, but then turned nervously to look at the stadium. If people weren't looking at them before, they were definitely looking at them now. Their guild was becoming more and more exposed, all of their secrets were being uncovered. She dreaded going down there, but at least she wouldn't be doing anything today. She sat next to Gajeel on the chairs. 

"So I heard from a few people in town this morning that tomorrow there are pair matches," Lily said. "And we get to choose who we want to compete."

Gajeel grinned at Juvia, who frowned. 

"I suppose it's my turn, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah. You and me, Juve," he smirked. 

Juvia smiled at Gajeel's nickname for her, which he adopted the first time they met. "Okay. I will."