Chapter 397: The Sniper in the Sky

"An archer?!"

The entire arena stared in stunned silence as Meredy stepped forward from the Heavenly Blue ranks. She held a large, elegantly curved longbow in her hands, completely shattering the expectations of everyone watching.

They had all been deeply curious about this new guild that had violently dethroned Sabertooth. So when their very first representative stepped up to the plate wielding a bow—a remarkably rare primary weapon for a mage—the murmurs began to ripple through the stands.

"That bow..." Rufus Lore, the representative for Sabertooth, stared at Meredy’s weapon with narrowed eyes. "I have no memory of a weapon forged like that. Is it composed entirely of Light Magic?"

Did the Heavenly Blue mage specialize in Light Magic?

The number of Light Magic users on the continent was incredibly low. The most famous one was currently standing right next to Rufus—Sting, the White Dragon Slayer. If she was a Light user, she was going to be an incredibly troublesome opponent.

"Light magic, huh?" Sting grinned, a predatory glint flashing in his eyes.

"What are you getting so excited about?" Rogue muttered from the side. "Rufus is going to win regardless."

"Isn’t it obvious?" Sting chuckled, cracking his knuckles. "I’m curious about the bow. I want to know what her magic tastes like."

As a White Dragon Slayer, Sting could consume light to replenish his magical reserves and boost his power. The thought of eating the light from that glowing bow made his mouth water.

"If her only trick is Light Magic, it is ultimately futile," Rufus sighed, tipping his wide-brimmed hat. "According to my memory, I have memorized eighty-seven specific counters to light-based assaults."

Rufus tried to catch Meredy’s attention with a challenging smirk, but she completely ignored him. She was far too busy talking to Finn inside her own mind.

Within her mental landscape—which Finn had inexplicably designed to look exactly like the high-tech cockpit of a mecha—Meredy stared at the massive monitors displaying her physical body holding the bow.

"OOHHHH!! THIS IS SO COOL!" Meredy cheered internally.

"Right?" Finn replied smoothly, adjusting a few holographic dials in the cockpit.

"Can you actually shoot a bow?" Meredy asked, suddenly curious.

"I can use most weapons perfectly," Finn noted calmly. Even if he hadn’t naturally mastered it, his Manager could instantly download the muscle memory for perfect marksmanship into whatever body he was currently piloting. Besides, a glowing bow was the absolute perfect weapon to completely conceal Meredy’s true identity as a Sensory Link mage.

Up in the Fairy Tail stands, Erza narrowed her eyes at the masked archer. "That isn’t her, is it?" Erza wondered. She suspected Heavenly Blue was comprised of the Crime Sorciere fugitives Finn had blackmailed into serving him. But an archer? That didn’t fit Meredy’s profile at all.

Mirajane, Cana, and Lisanna also stared at the masked girl, equally stumped. None of them could possibly imagine that beneath the disguise, Meredy—the former Grimoire Heart terrorist—was standing right in front of them.

"Be careful around her, Gray," Erza warned the ice mage as he prepared to step down to the arena floor. "Anyone wearing that uniform is not an opponent you can take lightly."

"It doesn’t matter who she is," Gray smirked, cracking his knuckles. "I’m going to win."

Fairy Tail needed a victory. Gray knew that if they didn’t sweep the tournament and secure the 30-million Jewel prize pool, their entire guild would be at the mercy of Finn Hoen. And frankly, relying on that man for anything left a very bad taste in Gray’s mouth.

"We are ready to begin!"

"What kind of game will we see in this first event, ’Hidden’?!" Chapati Lola roared into the microphone, instantly bringing the crowd back to a fever pitch.

"Yajima-san, are there any competitors we should be keeping a close eye on?" Chapati asked.

"Hmm... the statistical favorite is likely Rufus-kun from Sabertooth, but personally, my eyes will be on Gray-kun from Fairy Tail," Yajima noted sagely.

"Oh? What about the newcomer, Meredy from Heavenly Blue?" Chapati prompted.

(Finn had been far too lazy to assign his team fake aliases. He just registered them under their real names. Even if someone connected the dots, he didn’t care. By the time this tournament ended, the royal family’s incompetence was going to reduce the entire capital to ruins anyway.)

"To be completely honest, I know absolutely nothing about her," Yajima admitted. "But based on Heavenly Blue’s preliminary performance, she is undoubtedly powerful. Still, I have a strong feeling Gray-kun is going to surprise us."

"I see! What about you, Jenny-san?"

"I’ll be watching my guild’s Eve-kun, of course!" Jenny winked at the camera. "He might look gentle, but he’s incredibly tough when it counts!"

As the commentators filled the airtime, the eight selected participants gathered in the center of the arena around the Pumpkin mascot.

Finn, firmly strapped into the pilot’s seat of Meredy’s consciousness, ignored the mascot entirely. He also completely tuned out the petty squabble breaking out between Raven Tail and Fairy Tail B regarding the fairness of having two Fairy Tail teams in the tournament.

"How many points do you want me to get?" Finn asked Meredy casually.

"You are insanely confident, aren’t you?" Meredy sweatdropped. But strangely, she didn’t doubt his ability at all. "Can you... make sure Juvia takes second place?"

"Juvia?" Finn accessed Meredy’s physical eyes to locate the beautiful, blue-haired water mage. "Ah. You two are close."

"Yup!"

"And the rest of them?"

"Just beat them up. I don’t care about the rest," Meredy huffed. She especially didn’t care about Gray. Gray was a walking trauma magnet who constantly caused problems for Ultear, and he also possessed a highly disturbing habit of stripping naked in public.

"If you seduce Juvia, what are your chances?" Meredy suddenly asked, a mischievous glint in her spectral eye.

"...Can we please focus on the game?" Finn sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in the cockpit.

"Fine. But you have to tell me which Fairy Tail girl you slept with last night!"

"OPEN THE FIELD!"

Fortunately for Finn, the mascot’s booming voice saved him from answering.

Suddenly, millions of holographic pixels materialized across the massive arena floor. In a matter of seconds, the pixels solidified, constructing a sprawling, realistic miniature city right in front of the crowd’s eyes. As the city formed, the eight participants were instantly teleported to random locations within the sprawling urban maze.

"Ah! It’s a massive game of hide-and-seek!" Meredy realized as she found herself standing in a quiet, holographic alleyway.

"It’s a bit more complicated than that," Finn noted, listening to the rules.

"The rules for ’Hidden’ are incredibly simple!" Pumpkin cheered. "Everyone is ’it,’ and everyone is hiding!"

"...What?"

"Contestants must locate their opponents somewhere in the city and attack them using any magic they like! Regardless of how much damage is dealt, every single successful hit earns the attacker one point!"

Just as the rules were established, thousands of identical, holographic clones of the eight participants suddenly materialized, flooding the streets of the miniature city.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" the crowd gasped.

"To make things interesting, we’ve populated the city with perfect copies of all eight participants!" Pumpkin laughed. "If a player mistakenly attacks a clone instead of the real mage, they will instantly lose one point! Now! Fade into the silence!"

GOOOOOONG!

The massive bell echoed through the stadium, signaling the start of the event.

"LET HIDDEN BEGIN!!"

"Well, those clones aren’t exactly perfect," Finn observed critically, looking at the dozens of Meredy clones running past their alleyway.

"They look pretty convincing to me," Meredy argued. "In the heat of battle, relying entirely on eyesight, they’re definitely going to fool people."

"Maybe. But to me, they’re completely useless," Finn replied smoothly.

He immediately activated the Manager. While the clones might have looked visually identical, they lacked thermal signatures, their micro-expressions were entirely rigid, and their movement patterns were distinctly monotonous. Switching Meredy’s physical eyes to a magical thermal overlay, Finn instantly mapped the exact, genuine biological signatures of the other seven participants hidden across the sprawling city.

"So, what are we going to do?" Meredy asked, sitting back in her spectral chair.

"I’ll show you."

Standing in the alleyway, ’Meredy’ calmly raised her glowing bow. She drew the string back, channeling a massive, blinding concentration of magical energy into a single arrow of pure light.

The sheer density of the magical flare instantly gave away her position. Every participant in the city immediately locked onto her location, rushing to intercept her.

But they were too late.

Finn released the string, firing the arrow directly into the sky above the city.

Swoooosh!

The arrow of light rocketed toward the highest tower in the holographic city. Just as it reached the apex, the single arrow detonated, violently splintering into hundreds of guided, homing bolts of light that rained down upon the city like a localized meteor shower.

BOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

"Eh?"

Five of the participants barely had time to look up before a precision-guided bolt of light smashed directly into their chests.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Ping!

A stunned silence fell over the entire stadium as the massive scoreboard updated. In less than ten seconds, the zero next to Heavenly Blue’s name vanished, instantly replaced by a massive, glowing 6.