Face Your Fears (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Battle Of The Crybabies

{LEXI'S POV}
That was perhaps one of the most chaotic matches I have ever witnessed, and the day is only half over.

The first fight is Nero Cheney of Sabertooth against Banez of Quatro Cerberus. Nero is able to jump from shadow to shadow, practically teleporting just like his little sister Diana was in yesterday's fight.

Banez is able to move at the speed of sound thanks to his supersonic magic and magic-powered rollerblades. He uses kicks as his primary attack choice, whereas Nero uses a sheathed sword.

It's a fast-paced battle, only lasting five minutes and nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye.

Both boys manage to get a couple decent hits in, but Banez is outmatched and ends up tiring first. Like a cheetah, his magic sacrifices stamina for incredible speed. Nero finishes the fight with a shadow jump and an uppercut, knocking Banez out cold.

The next battle is Tear of Mermaid Heel versus Lionel of Lamia Scale. Water and ice. The battle begins, but neither Lionel nor Tear makes the first move. They just... stand there. It's awkwardly silent.

"Wha-Wha-What's this?" Chapati asks in a much more subdued commentary than usual. "Lionel, Tear, you can begin the fight at any time!"

Then Tear hiccups and begins to sniffle. A sniffle leads into a sob, a sob leads into a wail, and soon Tear is full on bawling in the middle of the arena.

Lionel waves his arms around frantically, trying to sooth Tear and find the source of her crying.

At first, I think the battle might be called off, until I notice the Mermaid Heel members looking smug in their box. Whistle catches my eye and winks.

Tear's tears flow down her cheeks into ever-growing puddles—if Lionel doesn't notice them soon, he'll be swept away in a whirlpool. Ah, I get it. Chapati said earlier that Tear is a flood mage. Crying must be related to the source of her power.

"Please don't cry!" Lionel begs. Is it just me or do his eyes look a little puffy and red?

"Oh boy." Storm chuckles under his breath. "Tear is in for a nasty surprise."

"What?" Clearly he knows something I don't.

"Lionel's freeze magic is different from my maker magic. He doesn't create ice in different shapes. His magic simply freezes everything around him. I remember Uncle Lyon complaining because it kept activating when he was a baby and destroying stuff."

"As a baby? What activates it?" I ask it.

"Strong emotion. Do you remember Lionel's mum? She's in the same guild as Uncle Jellal."

I think hard for a second. Then it dawns on me. Emotions. "Oh! I didn't realize Aunt Meredy was that close with Uncle Lyon."

Or that Lionel was her kid. He looks exactly like his dad, although his silver hair does have a pinkish tint now that I look carefully.

"They're not together anymore." Storm looks sad. "Anyways, Aunt Meredy used her maguilty sense magic while she was pregnant, which subsequently affected Lionel's magic. He's incredibly sensitive to the emotions of those around him and his magic gets more powerful the stronger his emotions are."

I'm finally catching on. "Like sadness."

Storm nods. "Tears only make Lionel stronger."

Lionel begins to hiccup and sniffle as well. The ground at his feet begins to freeze, and the air itself shimmers white around him.

"S-S-Stop crying!" Lionel whimpers. I don't think he's talking to Tear anymore.

"Waaaaaah!" Tear cries, flooding the arena.

"Waaaaaaaah!" Lionel cries, freezing the area around him in jagged ice spikes.

One of these ice spikes grazes Tear's cheek, which startles her and makes her cry harder in pain. She's quite impressive. Several mages could be swept away by a torrent of water that massive.

Tear cries to power up her flood magic, which makes Lionel cry and powers up his freeze magic. This makes Tear cry harder, in a ridiculous positive feedback loop. Yesterday was a battle of the beauties, today is the battle of the crybabies.

The water and ice filling the arena rises closer to the audience, and I see security mages running around setting up more barriers to protect the spectators.

I feel my heart rate rise along with the flood, and swallow back bile. It's okay when the magic is down there, not aimed at me. Now that it's getting closer...

I almost step back, but Reiki's hand finds mine and he squeezes comfortingly. My panic eases.

The air in the arena is so cold that I can see my own breath, despite being quite far away from the action. Lionel slowly freezes all of the water that Tear creates. He's creating an ice skating rink.

Eventually, Lionel's magic grows so strong that Tear's tears freeze as soon as they fall, effectively blocking off her flood magic. She stops crying and sniffles, rubbing her snotty nose.

Lionel, sensing the stabilization of Tear's emotions, quickly reigns in his own. He wipes his eyes frantically and takes deep calming breaths.

The battle isn't won yet. Lionel carefully freezes the air around Tear, trapping her into an inescapable bubble of ice. "Ice dome."

As soon as he's declared the victor, the ice dome shatters and Lionel slides over checks on Tear. She looks around the arena, now covered in twenty feet of solid ice, and tears well up in her eyes.

"I lost!" Tear bawls, inexplicably hugging Lionel.

She sets him off again so Lionel starts bawling too, hugging Tear back. "I'm sorry!"

There's a delay between the second and third match while they melt the ice and drain the arena, which is just fine by me. I've been dreading this.

Because the final match of the day is Opal Moody of Blue Pegasus versus Lexi Dreyar of Fairy Tail.