Elfman and Bacchus stand across each other in the arena. With Bacchus still having the same personality as in the series, he ends up talking about the same thing and proposes the same bet he made in the series, to get Mira and Lisanna if he wins.
".... Man, if you have a suicide tendency, don't take me with you. I won't stop you if you want to kill yourself, but I don't want to join you. My life is very important to me and I love it so much, so I won't waste it just to entertain you."
Elfman doesn't even get angry like in the series. He gets scared instead when Bacchus has some ideas about his sisters. If he accepts the bet, he's sure Alex will kill him before even killing Bacchus, that's why he said Bacchus is suicidal.
Bacchus who doesn't understand it thinks that Elfman is chickening and afraid of him. So he laughs mockingly at the terrified Elfman even though he isn't the reason Elfman is terrified, it's Alex and Mira who would kill him.
Elfman suddenly sees the leaderboard and gets an idea. "Hey, instead of that, why don't we make a more interesting bet?"
"Huh? What's more interesting than pretty women?" Bacchus seems interested now, making Elfman feel relieved.
"If I win, you change your team's name to Quatro Puppy until the end of this tournament. Equally, if you win, we will change our team's name to whatever you want. Won't it be more fun?" Elfman really hopes Bacchus will accept this and forget the previous bet offer.
"Oh? That sure sounds more interesting. I can get women whenever I want, but this is a very rare chance. Alright, I accept. Then if I win, your team's name will be Fairy Fart." Bacchus agrees, making Elfman very relieved. Though Makarov doesn't look good when hearing the proposed name.
"Deal. Now get ready to lose, puppy." Elfman gets into his fighting position.
The referee starts the match and Bacchus immediately charges at Elfman. He is very fast and already reaches Elfman in a flash. Bacchus sends his fast and strong palm attack, hitting Elfman, or so he thought.
To his surprise, Elfman who has transformed into a werewolf catches his palm. Elfman becomes smaller when transforming into a werewolf. The werewolf's strength is not the highest, but it's the fastest and most agile among all his forms.
Elfman didn't know Bacchus's abilities. But he chose the correct transformation from the beginning which helps him handle Bacchus's speed. In truth, Elfman always chose the Werewolf as his first transformation in most situations.
Alex was the one who taught him to transform into a Werewolf when he doesn't know his opponent's abilities. It's because with the Werewolf's agility, he can dodge their attacks even if they are surprisingly fast.
Werewolf is the most agile among all werebeasts that live on Ishgar. They aren't the fastest, but the most agile and have the best reflexes. Their great reflexes and agility help them dodge high-speed attacks, that's why Alex helped Elfman capture a Werewolf back then because they were rare and hard to capture.
If he can dodge his opponents' attacks, he can observe them to check their abilities. Then he can decide the best Beast form to defeat them. Usually, it will take a while for him to observe and decide, but Elfman understands Bacchus's abilities immediately just from the 1st attack.
"I see, fast and strong physical attacks. Looking from the way you wear your gears, it seems like you mainly use your palms to attack, just like this. Against your type, this form is already the best." Elfman decides to keep using his Werewolf form because it's the most sufficient to face Bacchus's speed and power.
"Heh, you analyze my abilities this quickly? It seems you aren't just a muscle head despite your appearance." Bacchus gets more excited before sending a flurry of fast and strong palm attacks.
His attacks are so fast they look like blurs even for most Mages. Only a handful of high-level Mages can see his attacks, and even fewer who can see them clearly. He is an S-Class for a reason and he proves it now.
Surprisingly for the audience, Elfman is dodging and parrying Bacchus's fast attacks. Sometimes, he barely can dodge them and get scratched, but Bacchus never lands a clean hit on Elfman even after attacking as fast as he can.
Although he looks like he can handle these fast attacks, Elfman actually has a hard time against Bacchus's barrage of attacks. These attacks aren't just fast, but also unpredictable. Bacchus doesn't have any attack pattern and he also moves around a lot.
Thankfully, the speed is manageable for Elfman because he is used to facing much faster attacks. He often trains with Alex whose attacks are much faster than Bacchus. Even his sister can move faster and he trains with her almost every day.
So while Elfman can't really move as fast as Bacchus, he can see all of Bacchus's attacks and react to all of them. That's why he can dodge all of them even though he gets scratched quite often.
Elfman dodges and parries Bacchus's very fast attacks while waiting patiently for a chance to strike back. He quickly gets used to Bacchus's fast attacks and starts parrying them more than just dodging.
Bacchus moves around to attack from different angles, but Elfman can keep following him. Then after a while, Elfman even manages to slip his attacks every once in a while between Bacchus's attacks.
Even his Guild Mates are surprised by Elfman's counter attacks. They are surprised to see how fast Elfman can move and how calm he is. He is grinning excitedly as usual, but his demeanor is unusually calm.
"Is that really the Elfman we know? He might look very excited as usual, but he is very calm. He is usually reckless, so this doesn't look like him." Erza is surprised and so is everyone else who nods, but Mira just giggles when hearing it.
"Fufufu, this is not unusual, you know. He might be like that in the Guild when brawling with you guys. But he's always like this in real battles. Well, he wasn't like this back then. He changed after Alex disappeared. Alex always told him to be calm and composed in battles. He didn't take it seriously before, but he started following that advice when we thought that Alex died." Mira explains while smiling.
Elfman always thought of Alex as his real older brother since a long time ago. So the news of Alex's death 7 years ago was a really big blow to him. He felt pathetic for always being protected, so he trained harder since then.
Well, it wasn't just him who trained harder after Alex's "death", but everyone in Fairy Tail. Almost all of them thought that Alex died because they were weak. If they were strong, they could help Alex, after all.
That's why now they have become much stronger than their old self. Elfman is no different and he is surely much stronger than himself in the series around this time. He might now be an S-Class yet in Fairy Tail, but he has more than enough power to be an S-Class in other Guilds.
"Hey, don't you think he gets faster?" Natsu starts to lose sight of Elfman's attacks.
"He is faster and keeps getting faster." Laxus looks surprised, but Mira isn't.
Alex is also not surprised. "Took you long enough to do it."
Both Alex and Mira know Elfman can be faster than Bacchus at his current level. He just doesn't realize it yet and is unable to use it consciously. But the pressure from Bacchus forced him to break his limits so he forced himself to move faster.
Elfman now can parry all of Bacchus's attacks and slip more and more attacks onto Bacchus's body. At first, Bacchus can dodge Elfman's attacks, but as Elfman gets faster, it becomes more and more difficult to dodge while attacking.
The role reverses as Elfman becomes the attacker and Bacchus the defender. Elfman dominates the fight quickly and not long after he takes over the fight, he ends it.
"This is the end! A Man's decisive blow!"
Elfman jumps forward at a very high speed, slashing his right claws at Bacchus's body and moves past him. He finishes the match in the same fashion as his older sister and Bacchus falls on his knees, unable to endure that attack and faints.
The match is over. Elfman wins and it's a real victory, unlike in the series when he just endures the one-sided attacks from Bacchus until his opponents tire himself out. Now, he is the one who ends the battle with his own attack and stands tall as the winner.
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Ch. 234. 4th Guild Master