Chapter 664: Candidates for Naval Battle
The second day of the Great Demon Fighting Martial Arts Show.
Competitive Event: Naval Battle!
"Naval battle..."
"Does anyone among us have the ability to fight at sea?"
In the Fairy Tail camp, Makarov frowned and thought hard. As the president of the guild, he had the obligation to select the most suitable candidate from the remaining five to participate in today's competition.
"But time is running out!"
Kira glanced at the countdown on the crystal screen in the venue. Each guild still had thirteen minutes to choose their players.
"Erza has armor for water combat, and Mira also has a demon form for water combat, so let one of them go."
"That's what I thought."
Makarov nodded and continued, "Erza and Mira are equally strong, so we can send either one to the battlefield. However, the strength of the other guilds cannot be underestimated. If possible, I would like to wait for the other guilds to select their candidates before sending the one ."
After thinking about it, they felt that what Makarov said made sense.
"Just let me go!"
Before Kira began to analyze the possible candidates from other guilds, Erza volunteered.
"Should Erza go first? Why?"
"Because Mira had already performed the fighting mode yesterday, I was more inclined to let her go..."
The players selected for the fighting mode are randomly selected, and the only thing that can be confirmed is that there will be no duplication. In other words, it is impossible to select Mira to fight again. And if Erza is unlucky enough to be selected to fight after participating in the competitive mode, she will undoubtedly suffer a loss.
But Erza also has her own reasons: "The other guilds are very strong, especially the Twelve Shields. They are too strong. We may not be able to win all the battles. And the candidates for the competitive mode cannot be repeated. If I lose in the fighting mode first, I will lose the opportunity to participate in the competitive mode."
This seems to make sense, but...
Everyone stared at Erza in amazement, surprised that she would say something like "I might lose".
"Hey~ It's rare to see you so lacking in confidence..."
"I'm just preparing for the worst!"
Erza looked at the arena expressionlessly and sighed silently.
She was actually very helpless in her heart, but there was nothing she could do. The magic of the Twelve Shields was too buggy. If she met Brandish in the fighting mode later, it would be fine, as she already had a way to deal with it. But if she faced Dimalia, she might not even be able to react and would be stripped naked by the other party in public.
It is indeed necessary to always pay attention to defeat during military combat before thinking about victory.
So Makarov thought about it and decided on the person who would play.
"Alright then! Let Erza take the stage!"
The battlefield of the naval battle was an artificial lake, which was built on the original playing field. Its area was about three-fifths of the bluestone playing field, which was quite large.
The lake is about five meters deep, with hundreds of round stone pillars inserted in it. The distribution of these stone pillars is irregular, and their sizes, lengths, and thicknesses are also different.
"Today's competition is 'Sea Battle'. The rules are as follows: Eight contestants need to fight on the lake. If anyone falls into the water, they lose. The final winner can get 5 points, which means that the contestant's score will become 10 points!"
The announcer got a new wig today, but his suit, tie and loud voice remained largely unchanged.
Next to him were still the former senator Yajima and the mysterious Pumpkin Man. The three of them were communicating and commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of the eight wizards participating in today's naval battle.
"Fairy Tail sent out the famous wizard Erza Shukalet, and she looks very confident!"
"The Emperor's Shield was sent out by Inbel, who fought in the battle yesterday. We already know that he is an ice wizard. This kind of magic is indeed useful for fighting on water!"
As a former councillor, Yajima was quick-witted and quickly thought of what might happen next: "They are planning to freeze the lake and then fight on the ice. Wouldn't that be considered a foul?"
The announcer replied, "The rules only say 'if you fall into the water, you lose.' I think it should be fine if you stand on the ice."
"Then if we freeze the lake completely, won't the game never end?"
"Well... I think the contestants have a way to deal with it. If this situation really happens, the organizers will probably intervene."
The two turned their gazes towards the mysterious Pumpkin Man beside them, waiting for the 'mascot' of the tournament to speak.
"Ah! Well..."
The mysterious pumpkin man hesitated for two seconds and said, "The organizers had originally considered the possibility of the ice wizard freezing the lake, so they made some preparations, Pumpkin~"
"However, judging from Inbel's performance yesterday, we have no doubt that he can easily freeze the entire lake. This is beyond our expectations. The previous preparations may not be useful, Pumpkin~"
"So if the situation of 'cannot fall into the water' occurs, then the winner will be decided by original strength, Pumpkin~"
After the Pumpkin Man’s supplement, the judges and the audience understood the more complete rules of the competition.
"Witch's Sin has sent out the same wizard Urrutia who participated in the fight yesterday and is familiar with ice magic. So, today's competition might turn into a battle on ice!"
"Oh my~ I know a little bit about Urrutia's magic, the lost magic 'Arc of Time'. If she plays, it's possible that she can end the game in one go!"
Hearing Yajima on the judges' panel exposing his past like an old fox with a smile, and making everyone's attention focus on him, Urrutia, who had just stepped onto the field, immediately frowned: "This old guy, is he still grudge against me for destroying the Council and causing him to lose his job..."
Other contestants: “…”
You deserved it! You had nothing better to do than destroy the building and caused someone to lose his job. Now you know it’s not good to offend the old man!
Ivan, who had worked in the Council for a period of time, chuckled: "Come to think of it, I heard that Yajimasan had to lie in bed for a long time before he recovered because the Council collapsed..."
Urrutia was now more certain of his guess. He looked at the old man on the stage and said with gritted teeth: "Tsk... This old man is really seeking revenge!"
Ivan was naturally the candidate sent by the Blue Pegasus. As a user of snow magic, he possessed abilities most relevant to the Naval Battle project.
The one sent out by 'Crow's Tail' is Narubudinku, the short and fat man who targeted Gray in the 'Hidden' project in the original plot. His magic 'Rolling Needle Blast' has nothing to do with water attributes and does not seem to be suitable for the 'Sea Battle' competition at all, so everyone guessed that they should have given up this competition.
But Kira changed his mind and realized that this guy's skills were still pretty good. If he adopted the smelly tactic of destroying the stone pillars, it would be enough to disgust all the players.
The 'Four Headed Hounds' sent out an unknown extra who was not very strong, and Kira didn't even remember his name.
The one sent out by 'The Heart of the Dragon' was Siduo, one of the twin girls. Kira had never seen her in the Dragon Slayer Research Institute before, so she should be a new member who joined in the past two years. And judging from the nature of her magic, this girl is also a second-generation Dragon Slayer, but it is unknown what her attributes are.
"Didn't Silver say that they didn't have the Dragon Slayer Crystal? That was a lie!"
Just as he was complaining, the announcer's excited voice sounded again: "Unbelievable! Unbelievable!! The one sent by 'Snake Princess Scale' turned out to be their trump card, the wizard who bears the name of 'Holy Ten', Jura Regis!!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Jola walked up with a round bald head. I don’t know what shampoo he used, but his head was shining at the moment.
"Ohhh it's Jura!!"
“It’s me!!”
"Jura actually appeared on the second day?!"
From the cheers at the scene, it can be seen that Jura is very popular in the Kingdom of Fiore.
Since the Emperor's Shield was established only three months ago and only two members have appeared in the competition so far, the audience is not familiar with this guild.
In their eyes, the three guilds that could win the championship in the end would be the three guilds that have the "Ten Holy Wizards", namely "Snake Princess Scale" where Jura is, "Witch's Sin" led by Jellal, and "Fairy Tail" where Kira is.
Nowadays, everyone in the magic world basically knows that the "Witch's Sin" is composed of the main forces of the former "Six Demon Generals" and "Devil's Heart", and the audience has judged that they are extraordinary. Even if Jellal cannot fight because he is the guild leader, the strength of the others is much stronger than the wizards of ordinary guilds.
However, they knew that both guilds were destroyed by Fairy Tail.
Therefore, in their minds, the strength ranking of these three guilds is: Fairy Tail > Witch's Sin > Snake Princess Scale.
But when it comes to popularity, even considering the royal family's face, the 'Witch's Sin', which evolved from a dark guild, is still very low in the hearts of the public, far inferior to the 'Snake Princess's Scale', an old light guild.
Seeing Jola appear on the stage, the seven contestants were all stunned. No one expected that Jola would appear in such an obviously incompatible event.
Logically speaking , the character who best fits the "naval battle" in "Scales of the Snake Princess" should be Leon who uses ice magic. Unfortunately, he was eliminated by Inbel yesterday.
"Is it because the guild's second member, Leon, was defeated, so you can't wait to restore morale today?"
When Inbel spoke, the transparent glasses on his face reflected the light just like Jola's bald head.
As the Archon of the Albares Empire, he has collected a lot of information during his time in the Kingdom of Fiore. In addition to the 'Heart of the Dragon', which is also a new guild, and the 'Tail of the Raven', which has just returned to the Guild of Light, he has different degrees of understanding of the other guilds.
"I can't help it. The nagging old lady in our house was really angry yesterday."
Although he knew that he would not have a geographical advantage in the next match, Jura's face was still full of confidence. This was the courage of the 'Ten Holy Wizards'.
This kind of aura made several contestants who were about to participate in the competition feel a certain amount of pressure - except for Inbel.
At the Fairy Tail camp, Kira looked at Jura who was full of confidence on the field and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"The last time I saw Jura, he didn't seem to have such a big beard, right?"
"It's unbelievable that the beard grows so fast, but the hair follicles on the head are smooth!"
