Outsiders (Fairy Tail - Gruvia, Gale)

15. Secrets

The two by twos were much more interesting than the one by ones. Firstly, Mermaid Heel fought Blue Pegasus. An anger-fuelled Miliana and Leslie had a hard time against Ichiya and Hibiki, but they won.

"This one's for Kagura!" Miliana screamed, right before she caught Ichiya in a bind and delivered the final blow.

The audience were beyond themselves with excitement for Rufus and Rogue versus Jura and Shelia. Gajeel watched the two carefully. It ended in a draw as Rufus couldn't compete against Shelia's superior god slayer magic, which was a magic so strong he couldn't memorise it due to its dark qualities and the unique power of slayer magic. She was defeated by Rogue, however, and the two Sabertooth members started fighting Jura, who was much stronger than the two, using cunning and whit to outsmart Rufus, and strength to overwhelm Rogue, but they didn't give up, and quickly figured out that they couldn't beat Jura, but stall him. The fight was deemed a draw when the bell sounded to signal that time was up.

Jura smiled.

"Well done, you two. That was fun," then the competitors left.

"You ready?" Gajeel turned to Juvia as they stood by the entrance to the stadium. "It's Natsu and that Gray kid."

"That'll be fun. Fire and ice versus water and steel."

"I'll take Salamander. Water will be too easy on fire, surely."

"Fair enough. Although I have a feeling this Salamander is stronger than Totomaru."

"Still. You take the ice guy."

"Gladly."

The two smiled at eachother, then fist-bumped, before leaving.

"Drip drip drop," muttered Juvia, as the two emerged on the stadium floor.

Gray and Natsu were stood staring at the two of them as they walked towards them and stood face-to-face.

There was a silence as they stared eachother down. The bell sounded for them to start and Natsu ran straight towards Gajeel.

"Black Steel Gajeel. I've been waiting for this!" Natsu yelled, and the two started battling a one-by-one.

Juvia raised an eyebrow, then looked at Gray. He was staring at her angrily. She gave him a dead, bored, expression, before Gray put his hands together and yelled: "Ice Geyser!" Huge shards of ice were being formed, moving towards Juvia. She jumped and dodged them, then send a shot of water at Gray. Gray raised his arm at the water and froze it.

"I see," said Juvia, "I thought that was the case. Seems this will be more interesting than I thought."

"Just so you know, I really don't like hitting girls, but if my guild depends on it, I won't hold back. Plus the way you hurt Erza this morning has made me angry."

"How cute," said Juvia, landing on her feet gracefully. Puddles had started forming on the ground, so she stopped the rain, then shot a powerful blast of boiling water at Gray, who was pushed back. He couldn't freeze the attack. While he was busy trying to freeze it, Juvia had disappeared into the puddle, then emerged again right under Gray's nose, and yelled "Water Nebula!" as he was shot back and hit the wall. Juvia smirked, walking over.

"I expected better. I've heard so much about you, Gray Fullbuster. Water lock!" As Gray was just about to stand up he got trapped in the water lock, but he managed to freeze it and shatter it, then ran towards her. She moved her arm in a whip motion and hard slices of water hit him.

Meanwhile, Gajeel had turned his arm and his leg into iron and he and Natsu were in the middle of a fist fight. None of Natsu's flames were penetrating Gajeel's steel limbs, and Gajeel was faster and better at hand-to-hand combat.