Face Your Fears (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Enigma's Magic

{LEXI'S POV}
"And let me guess." Fae speculates. "You pick fights with that dragon girl because she's... thick-skinned, for lack of a better word. Not easy to injure."

Avery grits her teeth. Her nose twitches.

Everyone looks at Nashi. Aunt Levy asks, "Nashi, when you and Avery fight, have you ever bled?"

"No!" Nashi yelps, shaking her head. "I mean, we never fight with the intention to hurt each other. It's all in good faith, to test our strength. It's not like I actually dislike Avery, y'know?"

Down on the field, Avery crinkles her brow in concentration. Then she runs straight at Fae, who opens her arms as if for a big hug.

"Try it! I dare you! Make me bleed, iron girl!"

Avery shows no signs of slowing down. Without warning, she baseball slides past Fae and into one of the two remaining entrances to the maze.

As the hedge surrounds her, she looks back at Fae and says, "You're mental."

Fae is livid. She shapes the earth into a giant fist and pounds on the blocked path, but the hedge doesn't budge. Fae has no other choice but to enter the last remaining path and start the maze.

The race begins. The maze is laced with boobytraps and dead ends galore. It almost seems to me like the maze is actively trying to outwit and trap them.

The only ones having any luck are Whistle and Enigma. The spiders (Nashi refuses to look at them) lead Whistle through the maze with ease. Based on the way she's talking to them, they're helping her solve the riddles to deactivate traps.

As for Enigma... well, I don't really know what she's doing. She's just walking though the maze, but she hasn't hit any traps yet and, unlike with the others, it almost seems like the maze is actively helping her. Giving her the straightest path possible.

Chapati is equally confused. I think Yajima-san has an idea, but he hasn't voiced it aloud yet.

Avery is doing well. She's currently in third place, despite having a late start.

At every intersection, she pauses and puts her hand on the ground, closing her eyes. After a few seconds, she opens her eyes and chooses the path that leads her closer to the exit.

It dawns on me that Avery's probably using veins of metal under the surface like a compass, so she always has her directional bearings, no matter how many twists and turns she takes. Clever.

Fae Marty is in a childish fit of rage. She stalks through the maze, slamming everything that moves with fists of earth. Brute forcing her way through.

Lionel and Rum are hopelessly lost in maze's riddles. They each run into Fae, who ignores them instead of fighting. She doesn't care about the boys. It's obvious that Fae is aiming solely for Avery.

Rum and Lionel end up running into each other next. In a surprise twist, they actually team up since neither is very good at puzzles.

Enigma reaches the exit first. The crowd roars with approval. However, she doesn't walk through to secure Sabertooth the victory 5 points.

To the shock of Chapati and the audience, Enigma waves her hands and chants something under her breath. Her body looks out of focus for a second, then she spins on her heel and walks away, back into the maze that appears to bend to her will.

"Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-What's this?!" Chapati gasps in astonishment. "Enigma found the entrance, but she just turned around and left! Does the Sabertooth mage have some secret strategy?"

Whistle finds the exit next. She's clearly much more eager to leave than Enigma. Nobody has left the maze and no one's been beaten, so 5 points puts her in first place for now. Mermaid Heel is bound to score highly regardless with this score.

Whistle kneels to thank the maze spiders, which suddenly hiss in terror and scatter. She's put on guard, warily searching the empty pathways for whatever scared her little friends.

Deeper in the maze, Enigma (who's just been going around in circles) runs into an incensed Fae Marty. The latter screams in blind rage and the earth rises around her hands. She thrusts her palms forward, knocking the living daylights out of Enigma. Or she would've, except Enigma's body looks staticky and vanishes, leaving Fae surprised and alone.

I gasp. The lacrima filming the fight for the giant screen whirls for a second, trying to find Enigma. It focuses on Whistle, who is backing slowly towards the exit, eyes searching the hedge pathways.

The air behind her looks out of focus. I realize what Enigma did too late. The older girl reappears behind Whistle. Even up here, I clearly hear, "Overload."

How loud must it be for Whistle if I can hear Enigma from the guild box, without dragon slayer ears? Whistle faints, eyes rolling back into her head. She hits the ground without a twitch of defiance.

"Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-What's this?! Enigma was in a confrontation with Fae, only to teleport behind Whistle and knock her out, right in front of the exit! That's a point for Sabertooth I never saw coming!" Chapati's commentary mirrors the confusion of the crowd, who're going berserk from shock, awe, and desire to see a proper fight.

Millianna shouts angrily, one foot on the railing. Her other guildmates have to hold her back from jumping into the ring to check on her daughter.

"It's not that she teleported." Yajima-san's expert eyes diagnose. "It's that she never left the exit. Everything we saw Enigma do after that was fake. A magic clone, drawing our attention as the real Enigma camouflaged herself to become near invisible along the hedge wall. One of many talents possessed by phantasm mages."

"I'll be!" Chapati exclaims. "Enigma is a phantasm mage, user of the same illusion magic that was used to create this entire maze!"

"That means she can see through the maze's illusions and even hijack them." Yajima-san agrees.

An insane advantage. Borderline unfair. Enigma fades into the background, not bothering to send out a magic clone since she already used up her element of surprise and Chapati just broadcasted what her magic is to the entirety of Domus Flau.

Avery is third to arrive at the exit. She doesn't even bother trying to leave, instead running up to Whistle with a concerned cry.

Avery crouches and shakes Whistle's shoulder, rousing her to semi-consciousness. The animal mage mutters something, probably a warning given how Avery tenses and looks around for Enigma.

Fae Marty bursts through the hedge at this time. She clearly has it out for Avery, so is it a coincidence that they only meet here at the exit?

Avery jumps away from Whistle, the camouflaged hunter now the least of her concerns. Fae roars and slams her palms into the ground, making dirt ripple like water and sending a earthen tidal wave at Avery and the half-conscious Mermaid Heel mage.