Chapter 681 - 681: Christmas Battle

Snow continued drifting through the night sky, yet inside the arena, brilliant lights made it almost as bright as day.

Raizel and the others had already taken their seats in the stands.

Mavis and Selene were especially eager to watch and immediately claimed seats in the center of the fourth row.

With August maintaining the arena, Gildarts no longer needed to worry about his exceedingly destructive Crash Magic causing too much damage.

Which meant he could fight seriously.

Gildarts's expression turned stern.

"I'm going all out. Make sure you're ready for that."

Natsu raised his right hand, flames burning around his fingers.

"Now I'm fired up!"

Ur took her place on the elevated referee's platform.

"I'll be refereeing this match—"

She raised the flag in her hand, then snapped it downward.

"Begin!"

Selene and Mavis watched with obvious interest, while Wendy and Lucy had somehow acquired a pile of cheering sticks and were happily handing them out to everyone.

Raizel stared at the pair Wendy had just given him.

"The problem is, this is Natsu versus Gildarts. Who am I supposed to cheer for? I don't particularly want to cheer for either of them."

"Cheer for Natsu, I guess. He's the underdog."

Laxus lazily waved his cheering sticks with a completely dead expression.

"Go~ Natsu~."

Raizel's mouth twitched.

"Natsu's truly blessed to have your passionate support."

Wendy and Lucy quickly demonstrated the correct answer.

A moment later, Raizel and Laxus reluctantly waved their cheering sticks together.

"GO!!! GILDARTS! NATSU! BOTH OF YOU DO YOUR BEST!"

Snowflakes settled slowly across Natsu's shoulders.

His eyes burned with fighting spirit.

"I'm coming, Gildarts!"

Flames wrapped around both of Natsu's arms as he rushed forward at astonishing speed, swinging them behind his body while Magic Power gathered in his palms.

In an instant, the distance between them vanished.

Natsu's right fist shot toward Gildarts like a cannonball.

"Your fighting style is still as reckless and straightforward as ever."

Gildarts merely shifted slightly to the side.

Brilliant white light gathered around his right fist, and he drove it straight into Natsu's exposed chest.

Both Gildarts and Raizel had told Natsu countless times that going all-out with every single attack was a terrible habit.

Throwing his entire body into every blow left him unable to stop or adjust if the opponent avoided it.

Natsu never listened.

He had always relied heavily on instinct and natural talent.

The annoying part was that his battle instincts were good enough to let him get away with it most of the time.

Natsu's eyes widened as he looked down at Gildarts's fist. He hurriedly crossed both arms in front of himself and bent his knees to brace.

Gildarts stepped forward.

Then punched.

Faced with the terrifying momentum behind that fist, Natsu had no room to dodge.

BOOM—!

Despite crossing his arms and lowering his center of gravity, Natsu was sent flying like a ball.

He crossed more than a hundred meters before smashing into the arena wall.

The force behind Gildarts's punch was powerful enough to shake the entire structure.

Bricks cracked and collapsed around Natsu, burying him beneath a pile of rubble.

"That punch was incredible..." Kiria murmured.

She knew how strong Natsu was. Seeing such an enormous difference between the two fighters was enough to leave even her impressed.

Laxus shook his head.

"Gildarts held back. Otherwise, it would already be over."

Raizel rested one arm against the back of the seat in front of him and watched with interest.

"He probably wants to see how much Natsu has improved. Especially if Natsu can bring out the power of those three types of dragon flame and his demonic fire."

Gildarts withdrew his Magic Power and folded his arms across his chest.

He stood calmly in place, looking down at Natsu as the younger man slowly forced himself out of the rubble.

"This is the improvement you were boasting about, Natsu?"

His gaze sharpened.

"If so, I'm disappointed."

In his normal state, Natsu was currently around the lower end of Fairy Tail's S-Class level.

And that standard was based on people like Mira and Erza, who were constantly getting stronger themselves.

Gildarts, meanwhile, remained one of Fairy Tail's undisputed ceilings.

Natsu forced himself upright despite the pain, determination blazing in his eyes.

Raizel was already screaming internally.

'If this weren't a protagonist protected by plot armor, that would've been the end right there.'

To Natsu, Gildarts merely standing in front of him felt like facing an enormous mountain—immovable and impossible to cross.

But Natsu had climbed over plenty of mountains before.

And he could still become stronger.

His fighting spirit reignited.

Natsu settled into a combat stance as flames suddenly engulfed his entire body.

The hot wind lifted his white dragon-scale scarf, while scale-like markings began spreading across his face.

Raizel immediately became more interested.

"That's rare. He actually managed to enter Dragon Force while fighting another guild member."

Natsu clenched both fists and raised his arms toward the sky.

BOOM!

Flames erupted beneath his feet.

A towering pillar of fire shot upward and illuminated the night.

Somewhere in Magnolia, a resident looked out of his window.

"Why is it so bright this late at night?"

He glanced toward the source.

"Fairy Tail's direction?"

He closed the curtains again.

"Never mind."

Kiria stared at Natsu as though she had just seen a ghost.

"How did his presence suddenly increase that much?!"

The towering column of flame gradually faded.

Scarlet dragon scales now covered parts of Natsu's face and body.

His white scarf fluttered violently in the heated air, while his eyes seemed to burn with actual fire.

Gildarts paused at the transformation.

Then the corner of his mouth rose.

"That's a much better look in your eyes."

He shifted his stance.

"Now this fight might actually be worth having."

This time, Gildarts moved first.

He rushed toward Natsu with white light covering one arm.

Natsu answered fist with fist.

Their knuckles slammed together at the center of the arena, and both men poured more strength into the clash.

In the end, Natsu was still driven several meters backward, kicking up a trail of dust.

He dropped low and planted both hands against the ground before finally stopping himself.

Gildarts grinned.

"You're not the only one who's improved, Natsu. I haven't exactly been sitting around doing nothing."

Gildarts had lost an arm and suffered serious injuries because of Acnologia, which had temporarily reduced his combat ability.

But afterward, he had deliberately trained until he fully adapted to his prosthetic arm.

He had never stopped working on his Magic Power or close-combat skills either.

Natsu inhaled deeply.

His stomach expanded as he drew in an enormous breath.

"FIRE DRAGON KING'S ROAR!!!"

The roar tore across the ground as it surged toward Gildarts.

Kiria could feel the scorching heat even from the stands.

"Isn't this getting a little excessive?! This is still supposed to be a sparring match, right?!"

Erza answered with complete seriousness.

"Our guild always gives everything we have during a spar."

Mira smiled with narrowed eyes.

"Mhm. No mercy whatsoever."

Facing the terrifying Fire Dragon King's Roar, Gildarts merely stood where he was and raised his right arm.

"Crash."

It was as though an invisible wall appeared one meter in front of him.

The enormous torrent of flame stopped dead.

Then it shattered.

Natsu's Fire Dragon King's Roar broke apart into countless tiny cubes of fire that scattered harmlessly through the air.

Gildarts charged forward through the falling fragments.

His prosthetic arm suddenly gleamed with a dark metallic light.

"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Absolute Heaven!"

One of his newer techniques.

The brilliantly illuminated arena suddenly became flooded with black and crimson.

The edges of the battlefield turned red, while Natsu and Gildarts themselves became little more than black silhouettes within the strange light.

Then Gildarts flashed past Natsu.

The two had already exchanged positions.

They stood with their backs toward one another.

Natsu's body went rigid as he slowly turned his head.

Thud.

Natsu collapsed to the ground.

Lucy covered her mouth.

"Natsu..."

Happy simply spread his paws.

"Against Gildarts, getting this far was already pretty good."