In the arena, Alex and Jura stand across each other with big grins on their faces. It has been a long time since they fought, so they've been waiting for this. Both of them want to know how strong the other has become.
"I hope you didn't just laze about when I was away, Jura."
"That should be my line, Alex. Unlike you, I wasn't trapped in a crystal for years, so I could train freely and took difficult jobs to polish my skills. You better be ready because I'm on a completely different level than the last time you fought me."
"I sure hope that's true."
Jura was one of the few people outside the Guild that knew Alex was trapped inside a crystal before. Makarov told him because he was Alex's good friend and was one of the few people outside their Guild who truly felt devastated about Alex's death.
After Fairy Tail found Alex's crystalized body, they told a few people outside of the Guild like Ur, Ultear, Lyon, Layla, Master Bob, Ichiya, and Jura. Alex has many friends outside their Guild, but only a few are his real good friends.
Surprisingly, he is close with Ichiya. He knows that while Ichiya has strange behaviors, that guy is a good man. Alex even finds Ichiya's antiques to be funny sometimes. Ichiya might act and sound like perverts, but he never truly sexually harasses any women, though he irritates them almost all the time.
Anyway, Alex and Jura just stand on their positions, staring at each other without doing anything else. Yet the audience feels chill down their spines and the Mages are silent because they can feel the oppressing aura from the 2 fighters.
All of them are anticipating the battle so much that many people even hold their breaths. Silence fills the stadium for a moment. Only the sound of wind blowing is heard and no one dares to make a move until Mato the referee starts the match.
"Match start!"
As soon as the match starts, Alex instantly transforms into his mini Shukaku form. He plans to play in Jura's specialty, Earth Magic. Jura doesn't feel insulted or thinks that Alex is looking down on him and actually feels happy instead because now they can see whose Earth Magic is stronger.
Jura clasps his palms and his massive amount of magic power flares up. "ROCK MOUNTAIN!"
A gigantic rock knight with full armor emerges from the ground and when it's fully formed, Jura is inside its stomach, leaving only a small gap for him to look outside. It's just the upper body, but it's already half the stadium's height.
"A giant rock knight, huh? That's cool. Then I should make a knight's mortal enemy, a monster." Alex grins and slams his big hands onto the ground.
A giant Shukaku made of sand the same size as Jura's rock knight appears behind Alex, complete with the marks, and it's also just the upper half like Jura's rock knight. Of course, this is just a kind of golem that he can control, not the real Shukaku even though it looks real.
The 2 giants suddenly raise their right arms and then throw a punch at each other at the same time. Their punches hit each other, creating a very powerful shock that shakes the entire stadium and can be felt even from the outskirts of the Capital City.
It's such a powerful clash, yet both golems don't seem to get any damage. The normal people are surprised because Alex's golem is made of sand, which should be weaker than rocks, but it's not damaged at all.
Luckily, old man Yajima as a commentator seems to understand their confusion. So he explains that while the strength and durability of the elements matter, the Mages' skills and power also greatly affect the spell's power.
"Besides, sand, if compressed strong enough can be as hard as rocks. But it needs very skilled Mages to do that, just like Alex-boy."
Then, something that surprises not only the normal people, but also the Mages happen. Both golems suddenly start throwing fast punches at each other. They are so fast that they look like blurs even for most Mages there.
"ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA!" Alex can't help but shout like Jotaro using Star Platinum, except that his Stand is a sand golem he made himself.
Unfortunately, people ignore that and are more focused on the golems' attack speed. They are amazed by how these 2 giant golems that must be very heavy because they are made of sand and rocks can throw very fast punches like those.
Even more shocking, both Alex and Jura can counter every punch their opponent throws. It's really amazing considering they aren't punching with their own hands, but controlling their golems which can't be controlled as easily as their own body parts.
Then after going like that for a while, both giant golems' arms crack and get destroyed when punching each other, stopping the continuous tremor that shakes the whole stadium and making the organizer worry that it will collapse.
Alex and Jura just grin widely before they dispel the golems. Then they start using their Earth Magic to fight. Jura creates a giant arm that can extend to punch Alex, but a Shukaku hand appears in front of Alex to catch it.
Alex shoots a pair of giant sand spears at Jura from behind the giant Shukaku hand, but Jura blocks them with some big rock pillars. Jura then creates another fist that grows from the blocked fist to punch Alex that hides behind Shukaku's giant sand hand from the left side.
It forces Alex to jump away while erecting a sand wall to block the rock fist. Alex grins as he lands and extends both of his arms forward. Then suddenly, a lot of sand rises from the ground, creating a sand tsunami that moves toward Jura.
Alex slams the sand tsunami at Jura with a very strong force that shakes the stadium again. But just a moment later, a rock hand suddenly comes out of the sand. It opens its fist, revealing Jura that's unharmed inside it.
Jura grins as he lifts a lot of big rock pieces from under the sand. They float around Jura before they start spreading and flying toward Alex. The flying boulders are coming toward Alex from all sides, so he can't just defend one side.
Alex runs on all 4 because now he is in Mini Shukaku form, so his body is in the form of a fat raccoon, not a bipedal humanoid. He runs toward Jura without minding the incoming boulders. But every time a boulder almost hits him, a sand wall appears to stop it.
The sand walls are thick because Jura's thrown boulders are very strong. Alex made them thick and sturdy enough, but the boulders actually manage to crack the sand walls although they can't break through them.
"As troublesome as ever, that Absolut Defense of yours." Jura exclaims as he creates another giant rock fist to punch Alex from above.
People think it will break through Alex's sand defense. It does break the sand dome that Alex created. But to their surprise, when the dust is cleared, they see Alex stop the giant rock fist with his own hands.
"You break the sand shield. But don't forget. My body is also my defense." Alex grins as sand starts to wrap the giant rock fist. Then using the sand that wraps it, Alex controls the giant fist to punch Jura who lost control over it.
It forces Jura to get away while quickly breaks the giant rock fist so Alex can't control it anymore. But Alex uses that moment to get closer to Jura and he manages to close the distance very quickly.
Jura knows what Alex wants, so he quickly uses his new spell that Alex has never seen. The ground beneath Jura suddenly breaks apart and the rocks are slamming at his body, covering his whole body with hard rocks.
Alex is confused, until the rocks suddenly change shapes. They are forming a full-body rock armor that looks just like the previous giant rock knight. The eyes of every man of culture in the stadium, including Alex are sparkling as if they see the most awesome thing in their whole life.
Well, some uncultured men like Jiemma can't see this spell's coolness while almost all the women doesn't understand why the men are excited. If only Jura's armor design is more futuristic and robotic, the excitement will be out of control.
"DAMN, MAN! THAT'S AN AWESOME SPELL. WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF CREATING SOMETHING LIKE THAT?" Alex is really awed by Jura's spell. He even swears he'll recreate that technique and makes his version of cool armor. He will even find a way to color the armor.
"I can teach you the principle later in exchange for one of your spell's methods. But for now, let's focus on this match. You want close combat, don't you? Then come! I'll show you my version of Absolute Defense." Jura grins as he taunts Alex with his right hand.
"Deal!" Alex also grins as he gets ready to start the fistfight.
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Ch. 229. The New Strongest