Fairy Tail: Sun Eater - Part 2

270. Against Gildarts Again

Ben & Gildarts decide to spar after having an arm-wrestling match. They go to an empty land quite far from Magnolia to avoid damaging anything in the town. A battle of 2 high-level Mages like them is very destructive, after all.

Coincidentally, when they go to the empty land, Blue Pegasus & Lamia Scale Mages arrived. The news of the Tenrou team's return has spread so the 2 allied guilds decided to visit Fairy Tail. They come together using Blue Pegasus's airship, Christina.

The ones who come are the usual people, Master Bob, Ooba Babasaama, Jura, Team Lyon, and Team Ichiya. But, there are mew faces as well. A little girl around Wendy's age named Sherria Blendy who is Sherry's cousin in the Lamia Scale group and a blonde girl named Jenny Realight in Blue Pegasus's group.

When they hear that Ben & Gildarts will spar, the 2 guilds' Mages decided to watch. They all want to see the battle of Fairy Tail's Wizard Saint against Fairy Tail's Ace. Gildarts was famous for being incredibly strong, after all, so they all are curious.

They arrive on the empty land after walking for a few minutes. Both Gildarts & Ben get into their positions while the 3 Guild Masters, Jura, & Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages stand in front of the others to protect them from stray spells or other damages.

"Who do you think will win?" asks Gray.

"I don't know. Both of them are ridiculously strong, after all," says Gajeel.

"What do you mean you don't know? Gildarts will obviously win," says Natsu confidently.

"But he lost in the arm wrestling match," says Elfman.

"Th-that's... A real battle is different from a contest of strength," says Natsu stubbornly.

Carla smirks when she hears that, "You are underestimating Ben too much. As someone who has grown while seeing him, I can assure you that he will win. I heard that he lost in their spar before, but that's because Ben didn't have enough power. Now he has higher power than Gildarts, so he will surely win."

"Heh, we'll see then. That old man has more experience, so the result hasn't been set yet," says Cana, defending her father.

Everyone watches Ben & Gildarts seriously because the result of this spar will decide the Ace of their guild. The boys are also more focused now. They always chase after Gildarts and wanted to surpass him, after all.

If Ben wins this match, then he will be their new goal. Chasing after Gildarts is difficult enough so it will be even more difficult to chase after Ben if he can defeat Gildarts. But they are also excited by this battle because they want to see Gildarts & Ben use their full power.

Both of them start the match after everyone else gets quite far. They rush at each other and coat their fists with their magic. Gildarts's fist glows brightly white while Ben's fist glows golden bright as he uses his Sun Dragon Slayer's solar power.

They meet in the middle and send punches at each other. A booming sound and strong shockwave get created by their clash. The shockwave is very strong that it will push the audience if not for the high-rank Mages in the front blocking the shockwave.

They are already amazed by the first clash and get even more amazed by the next ones. Ben & Gildarts have a close combat fight with their bodies coated by their magic. Strong shockwaves keep appearing as they exchange moves.

With his current power, Ben doesn't need to be very wary of Gildarts's magic. He has enough power to prevent Gildarts's magic from crushing him or his magic. In these 3 years, Ben also has learned many types of magic including Crush Magic, although he just learned the theories, and never used them.

By learning them, Ben now knows the method to counter them. Close combat using concentrated magic power is the best way to face Crush Magic. Concentrating magic power will make the attack power increase a lot.

In the end, all clashes of magic spells will be decided by their attack power. The one with higher attack power will surely win. It applies to all kinds of magic and spells.

By concentrating his magic power on his attacks, Ben can increase his attack power without wasting too much magic power. He will need a lot more magic power to get the same attack power if he uses long-range spells because his magic power will spread.

Their battle continues as they move around to attack their opponent from other angles. The strong clashes of their battle destroy their surroundings. The ground cracks, the trees break, the grasses get uprooted, and the air turns turbulent because of the shockwaves.

Their match seems to be even but slowly, Gildarts's original hand starts to get burnt, and his prosthetic hand starts to melt. Even the audience is sweating buckets because the air gets very hot.

Ben's magic is very hot that it raises the temperature around him to a high degree. The vegetations around them also start to die and burnt by the heat. If not for the S-Classes' magic protection, the Mages' clothes will also be burnt or melted.

Gildarts feel even worse than the audience though. He gets in contact with the source of the heat directly. His clothes even start to burn so he throws some of them and only keeps his pants.

Slowly, Gildarts gets pushed by Ben and receive more attacks. Then he destroys the ground to break Ben's footing. But Ben reacts to it very fast by melting the ground, making it into lava.

Now Gildarts is the one in trouble because he can't stand on lava. So he jumps away to get out of the lava zone that keeps spreading. But his move gives Ben a chance to attack him while he is too focused on getting away.

Ben suddenly turns into a streak of light and appears before Gildarts in an instant. It's not even teleportation, but his speed has matched the teleportation spell. Light is the fastest thing in the world, after all, and he can use its potential very well now.

When he gets in front of Gildarts, Ben immediately punches the half-naked man's body. Gildarts can't even defend because he is too fast for Gildarts to react. So Gildarts gets flung to the ground and the impact breaks it, creating a big crater.

Gildarts coughs some blood upon the impact and has a pained expression. Ben descends and crouches beside the fallen Gildarts with his flaming right hand placed a few centimeters in front of Gildarts's face.

"So?" asks Ben while smirking.

Gildarts smiles bitterly as he says, "You win."

Ben grins and dispels his magic before calling Wendy to heal Gildarts. She rushes there and immediately heals Gildarts's injuries. Ben supplies her with his magic power to make the healing process faster.

Soon, all of Gildarts's injuries finally get healed, including internal injuries & burns. Wendy isn't exhausted too even though she spent a lot of magic power because Ben supplied her with a lot of magic power.

Gildarts is talking happily with Ben about their match. He wants to discuss some things with Ben because he wants to improve himself. Losing to Ben isn't shameful and it doesn't destroy his confidence.

It makes him even more passionate to improve himself instead. Gildarts actually found a lot of room for improvement in the previous battle. He found his shortcomings and weaknesses that he didn't know before so he can improve himself by taking care of those problems.

Meanwhile, the ones who have known Gildarts for a long time are still in disbelief. They never thought that Gildarts will actually lose to a 20 y.o Mage. But it also burns the passion in their hearts to improve themselves and chase after Ben.

Ben smiles when he sees their expressions, 'Be strong so that the same tragedy that fallen upon us won't repeat.'
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