Face Your Fears (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Pandemonium

{REIKI'S POV}
We're a little early today. The six of us stand together, facing the staircase up to the mystery building that houses the fourth event. I still have a lot of bottled up frustration from yesterday, and seeing Nero with that girl made it all bubble over.

I stand in front of him, glowering and wishing the nineteen year old wasn't a full head taller than me. "You bastard. You knew."

Before Nero can speak, Diana shoves me back. "Hey! Don't be rude to Nii-sama!"

I fix my glare on her for a second only because she draws my attention. I don't mean to scare the younger girl, but Diana flinches anyway. Nero immediately stands between me and his sister. Diana clings to his shirt and hides behind him.

So he'll accept my anger without complaint but won't let me direct it at his little sister? At least Nero is a decent big sibling, unlike that girl.

"Hey." Emilia Blendy steps between us and shoves. She's quite strong. "Back off. This is supposed to a fun competition in good faith, right?"

Rum places a hand on my shoulder. I take a deep breath. I'm too irritated. I have to calm down.

"Sorry." I smile weakly at Diana. "You didn't deserve that outburst."

Diana is still holding Nero's shirt, but she steps around him and grins at me. "S'okay. I have grouchy days too. Besides you dislike that bit—brother thief. That makes you and I allies!"

Nero sighs.

Admittedly, my foul mood isn't all because of that girl. The seventh seal is steadily being whittled away as we speak. Nothing can stop the snake now.

I clench my fist, then relax it. The mood between the six of us lightens and we chat for a minute.

Mato-kun's voice shuts us all up. "Welcome to the fourth day event-kabo! You all loved it during the Grand Magic Games many years ago, so we decided to bring it back to the Storybook Games-kabo! The event that shocked us all, Pandemonium-kabo!"

Chapati takes over to describe the fourth day's special event. There are 100 monsters in the giant purple colosseum in the center of the arena; 1 S-class, 4 A-class, 10 B-class, 35 C-class, and 50 D-class. Even the D-class monsters are very strong, and the power level goes up exponentially with each class. The S-class monster is roughly equivalent to the ten wizard saints, like our former guild master. Yeesh.

We're going to draw from a cup of numbered sticks, and that determines the order we enter the colosseum. We'll enter one by one and we'll be able to choose how many we fight at once.

The monsters will be released randomly, and if you're defeated then you lose all the points you've gathered till that point. We'll keep going one after another until all 100 monsters are defeated or all our magic power runs out and we can no longer fight.

Mato-kun walks out into the arena, carrying a cup with six sticks in it. The crowd roars approval. He raises it and we all grab one. Simultaneously, we pull out a stick and read the number on the bottom.

I have 1.

Gianna has 2.

Rum has 3.

Diana has 4.

Emilia has 5.

Nero has 6.

That means I'm first. I'm not even going to give the others a chance. I walk to the bottom of the steps and declare, "I'll face all 100 monsters!"

The crowd goes nuts with approval, my guild being the loudest goofballs of them all. Mom is standing on the railing waving her arms, with Dad and Lexi holding her legs, looking panicked—oh hey, Dad's in the guild box today, rather than sitting in the stands with Aunt Meredy like he has been.

"A-A-Are you sure-kabo?" Mato-kun asks me worriedly. "You may exhaust yourself and not receive any points-kabo!"

I nod confidently. I'm comfortable fighting monsters. I do it every day, taking subjugation quests almost exclusively since I was a little kid. Besides, there's only one monster that I fear and I don't think he's stupid enough to break free in a place like this for exactly the reason I told Lexi yesterday.

Only Lexi and I may be able to kill him, but the snake isn't untouchable. In fact, I dare him to try any funny business in a place like this. Mom and Dad would shear his scales.

I walk up the steps and the doors open. I walk inside the colosseum of 100 monsters and the doors slam shut behind me, separating me from the rest. The colosseum plunges into darkness.

A fight in the dark, eh?

I summon my sunlight swords and torches flicker on, lighting the area and making me feel like an idiot.

I have succeeded in making myself a shining beacon though. Dozens of pairs of eyes turn towards me from the shadows, reflecting off the dazzling gleam emanating from my twin swords. The colosseum is much bigger on the inside.

A couple of D-class monsters lumber forward, to test my strength no doubt. I have to preserve my magic power if I want to stand a chance against all 100.

I crouch and jump up, right as four fists pulverize the ground were I just stood. I leap onto the back of one, slit it's throat, and use it's death throes to launch myself at the other one.

I fly past it, roll into a kneel, and the D-class monster's head hits the ground beside me.

There's a flash of snowy white in my left peripheral vision so I look up, but it's gone. A blast of fire from one of the A-class monsters draws my attention as I instinctively dodge. It's surrounded by an army of C- and D-class monsters.

I make the executive decision to run. As much as I want to dive in and start hacking away, I would probably have to switch between blades to fight so many at once and it would drain a lot of magic.

This seal on most of my magic power is irritating. If I could requip armor and weapons as smoothly as Mom can, this would go much quicker.

As it is, I have to resort to hit and run tactics. I switch from my sunlight swords to my void swords and run up. I want the high ground.

A D-class monster tries to block my way. I sidestep its fist and dart between its legs, slicing them off. I spin and kick the bellowing monster off the stairs. It's still by the time it hits the ground.

Three D-class down. The hairs on the back of my neck rise and I duck as another fist tries to cave in the back of my skull. A second A-class beast runs onto the platform directly in front of me and I'm only saved by luck, being just out of range of its fire breath. I can't help it—I grin.

This isn't going to be easy, is it?