Chapter 290

Chapter 290: Chapter 290

Not everyone followed Erza when she led the reinforcements away.

There were still nearly two hundred defeated or surrendered Grimoire Heart members scattered around the battlefield, and someone had to remain behind to restrain them and keep the situation under control.

Cana and Levy, neither of whom cared much about earning S-Class promotion in the first place, stayed at the camp.

Envy and Sloth also remained behind as support, while Mest—still operating under the belief that he was a Magic Council spy infiltrating Fairy Tail—had even less reason to rush into the next battle.

Most of them weren’t particularly worried. Makarov had clearly known about the invasion in advance and had built the entire exam around countering it.

If the Master had gone that far, then surely their chances of victory were already excellent.

That confidence weakened considerably when Erza’s group reached the beach where Laxus had been fighting.

Laxus was in trouble.

And it wasn’t because he had been fighting alone.

Mira was already there, along with several of Marshall’s Apostles, yet Laxus was still breathing heavily and looked noticeably battered.

On the other side of the battlefield, Bluenote Stinger was furiously pursuing Gluttony, veins bulging across his forehead.

"You damned brat! If you weren’t constantly interfering, I would’ve finished this boring fight ages ago! Die!"

Gluttony’s Anti-Gravity Curse directly interfered with Bluenote’s Gravity Magic.

She couldn’t completely cancel his power, but she weakened his control enough that he could only bring out around half of his normal effectiveness, which was driving him nearly insane with frustration.

Bluenote had never expected Fairy Tail to possess another gravity user, much less one who appeared to be barely over ten years old.

Her level of mastery was clearly far beyond what any ordinary child should possess, so Bluenote had quickly concluded that she wasn’t normal and started treating her as a genuine threat.

Before Mira arrived, Wrath had spent most of the battle carrying Gluttony around while Gluttony suppressed Bluenote’s gravity field.

Laxus attacked whenever the two Apostles created an opening, while Pride interfered from long range.

That awkward little formation was the only reason they had managed to keep the much stronger Bluenote occupied long enough for Mira to reinforce them.

Even Mira’s arrival hadn’t immediately solved the problem.

Bluenote possessed roughly 530,000 Magic Power, putting him in the same general class as Jose Porla.

Marshall had joked that the number sounded like Frieza’s Power Level before immediately correcting himself, but the comparison still illustrated the point: Bluenote was not someone who could be casually overwhelmed by a few strong Mages.

Laxus had initially believed otherwise.

His reasoning had been rather simple.

Marshall had once led a group against Jose and defeated a Wizard Saint.

If Marshall could do it, then Laxus naturally believed he could manage the same thing.

Actually trying it had been a rude awakening.

Bluenote had more than twice his Magic Power.

Even with the man’s Gravity Magic heavily disrupted by Gluttony, Laxus still couldn’t find an easy way to overpower him, and that did absolutely nothing to improve his mood.

Bluenote finally saw what looked like a chance to eliminate Gluttony with one carefully prepared strike, only for both Gluttony and Wrath to vanish at the last possible moment.

His eyes narrowed.

’Spatial Magic?’

Before he could react further, Erza’s voice rang across the battlefield.

"Mira! We’re here!"

Bluenote turned and felt his scalp go numb.

Fairy Tail’s main combatants were all arriving at once.

That could only mean one thing.

’The Seven Kin lost?’

For a moment, he genuinely refused to believe it.

Then the attacks began.

"Heaven’s Wheel—Blumenblatt!"

"Fire Dragon’s Roar!"

"Iron Dragon’s Roar!"

"Zero-Style Blade!"

"Regulus Impact!"

"Dark écriture!"

More than a dozen spells and attacks came at Bluenote simultaneously.

His face changed completely.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?!"

From his perspective, this was shameless beyond belief.

There were more than a dozen of them attacking one person at the same time!

Bluenote exploded with Magic Power.

"YOU BASTARDS! FLY ALL OF YOU!"

A massive gravitational shockwave erupted outward and violently deflected the incoming attacks.

For one brief instant, however, all of his attention was focused on defending himself.

Laxus seized the opening.

His body dissolved into lightning and reappeared directly behind Bluenote.

"Got you."

Lightning gathered around his arm.

"Lightning Dragon’s Elbow!"

The blow slammed into Bluenote’s back and sent blood spraying from his mouth as he crashed forward.

The rest of Fairy Tail immediately saw their chance.

Nobody had the slightest intention of allowing him to recover.

"Hit him again!"

"Don’t let him stand up!"

"Keep going!"

"This is the power of Fairy Tail’s bonds!"

That last declaration was so shameless that Bluenote almost vomited blood from anger before the next wave of Magic even reached him.

"Damn you! You call this fighting?! You’re just bullying me because you have more people!"

Another spell detonated against his defenses.

"If you’ve got any guts, fight me one-on-one!"

Nobody paid him the slightest attention.

Bluenote gradually realized the situation was hopeless and tried to retreat, only to discover that Gluttony had returned and locked down the surrounding space with gravity.

He couldn’t move.

His expression changed.

"Wait! Once Master Hades finishes his battle, he’ll kill every last one of you!"

Another attack hit him.

"Stop!"

Then another.

"I surrender!"

The bombardment continued.

"STOP HITTING ME!"

By the end, even his pride had vanished.

"Master... Hades... help..."

After an excessive amount of magical overkill, Bluenote’s shouting gradually stopped.

When Erza finally signaled everyone to hold their attacks, Grimoire Heart’s terrifying Vice Master had been reduced to a scorched body lying in the center of a crater, barely breathing.

Someone stared at him.

"That’s it?"

Another person laughed.

"Hahaha! Grimoire Heart’s Vice Master wasn’t so impressive after all!"

"That’s what happens when you mess with Fairy Tail!"

"Who’s next?!"

Laxus stood to the side and watched them celebrate with a deeply embarrassed expression.

He really didn’t want outsiders thinking he belonged to the same group of idiots.

Still, the fight had taught him something.

Now he finally understood how Marshall had managed to bring down Jose.

A Wizard Saint could be monstrously powerful, but if a dozen strong Mages turned him into a stationary target and attacked from every direction, sheer numbers eventually became overwhelming.

Bluenote’s real problem was that he had excellent stats but not enough unusual mechanics.

Once Gluttony directly interfered with his Gravity Magic, his main advantage became much harder to exploit.

Laxus quietly filed the lesson away.

’So raw Magic Power isn’t enough. I need more techniques that change the rules of a fight.’

Then he looked at the others.

"All right, stop celebrating. You’re embarrassing yourselves. This isn’t even the real battlefield. The Master’s side is the important one."

He pointed toward the distant airship.

"Rest first. If we rush over there exhausted, we’ll just become baggage."

After several consecutive battles, most of them had indeed burned through a significant portion of their Magic Power.

Natsu, naturally, seemed to have missed that problem entirely.

"Huh? You mean Gramps and Gildarts still haven’t beaten Grimoire Heart’s Master?"

He rolled his shoulders enthusiastically.

"I don’t need to rest! I feel like I’ve got endless energy right now. I’m going ahead!"

Then he stopped.

"Wait. Where are they?"

Laxus pointed toward the distant sky. "See that airship over the sea? The old man and Gildarts are fighting around there."

Natsu’s expression changed instantly.

"What?! That means I have to ride something?!"

He looked around desperately.

"I’m going to find Tiny Wendy and get another buff first!"

Then he ran off.

Gray dropped onto the ground and sat there recovering his Magic Power, watching Natsu’s back with a trace of envy.

"How does that fire idiot have so much energy left?"

"Probably because he’s an idiot," someone answered. "Idiots always have too much energy."

Gray had no good argument against that.

After a moment, he frowned.

"Still... something this big is happening and Marshall hasn’t shown up? That doesn’t sound like him."

"His Apostles are already here," someone pointed out. "They’ve helped plenty."

Erza was instructing Gajeel to forge an iron cage around the unconscious Bluenote when she heard them.

"Marshall will come. It simply isn’t time yet."

Once Gajeel finished sealing Bluenote inside the cage, Erza turned to the rest of the group.

"I should explain the next stage of the plan now. When we board Grimoire Heart’s airship, some of us will need to keep Hades occupied while another group searches for the enemy’s true Heart."

Several people looked confused.

Erza continued, "Hades possesses an external magical organ inside the airship. It continuously supplies him with Magic Power. As long as that Heart remains intact, defeating him will be extremely difficult, so someone needs to infiltrate the ship and destroy it while the rest of us keep him busy."

She looked over the group.

"Who wants that assignment?"

For a moment, nobody answered.

Then someone slowly said, "Wait... we actually have a detailed plan?"

Another person looked equally surprised. "Isn’t this a little excessive? It’s only a Dark Guild."

Erza’s expression remained completely serious.

"The Master of Grimoire Heart—Hades—is also Fairy Tail’s Second Guild Master."

Everyone froze.

A second later, the entire group shouted at once.

"WHAT?!"