"I agree with Mister Yajima," Lahar said, nodding calmly from the VIP seats.
He had never met Rowan Mercer in person, but the Magic Council's internal reports had made a strong impression. The intelligence assessment on the cat-shaped mage rated him alarmingly high, possibly brushing against Saint-class standards. With that level of power, eliminating a mechanical magic beast would hardly be a challenge.
"It seems both of our guests still have great faith in Fairy Tail," the host said smoothly. "Let's hope they live up to that expectation and advance to the main competition."
With that, the ninth preliminary match was officially announced.
Inside the steel enclosure, Alzack stared at the mechanical gorilla as it rose to its full height, gears grinding ominously.
"Rowan," he said carefully, "maybe we should handle this one. You can save your strength."
The stronger guilds had all done the same thing. They conserved their best cards in the preliminaries, avoiding unnecessary exposure before the real matches began.
Fairy Tail's ranking would ultimately depend on Rowan. The four of them were support at best. If they could push themselves and take down the beast together, Rowan could enter the main rounds on equal footing with the other top competitors, without revealing too much.
Rowan shook his head.
"There's no need," he said lightly. "Real strength doesn't hide from attention. I'll take care of it. You four save yourselves for tomorrow's individual matches."
As he spoke, the mechanical gorilla charged.
Rowan calmly reached into his storage space, flicked out a silver coin, and snapped it upward with his claw.
Being targeted never worried him.
He wasn't the kind of mage who specialized in a single trick. Elemental magic, close combat, physical reinforcement, soul-based techniques, psychic abilities, he had touched nearly all of it. When strength was equal, preparation mattered. When strength wasn't, preparation was meaningless.
Water could extinguish fire, but heat intense enough would boil the sea dry.
None of the competitors here gave him the same pressure he'd felt facing truly dangerous foes. Dragging the fight out just to look cautious would only exhaust his team and dull the victory.
Rowan wanted dominance. Clean. Absolute. From start to finish.
"Railgun."
An explosion of electricity erupted from his body. A surge of energy far beyond ordinary magic snapped into the coin, which vanished in a flash of blue-white light.
The impact came an instant later.
The mechanical gorilla collapsed mid-charge, its massive body crashing to the floor. A hole wider than a man's torso burned straight through its chest.
Silence.
Then—
"S-s-s-one shot?!"
Laki and the others hadn't even processed Rowan's words before the battle ended. They stared at the fallen machine, mouths half-open.
They knew Rowan was strong. He had defeated Laxus. That alone placed him at the top of Fairy Tail. But to destroy a mechanical beast that had crushed entire teams with a single casual attack?
And to do it so effortlessly?
It felt unreal.
"All right," Rowan said, hopping back onto Laki's shoulder. "Let's get ready for the main event."
He closed his eyes again, his attention drifting back to his ongoing work on Fairy Sphere. Compared to that, the Grand Magic Games barely registered as a challenge. The preliminaries least of all.
The moment the steel chamber opened, the audience still hadn't fully reacted.
Even the strongest guilds so far had taken time to defeat their opponents. Fairy Tail, on the other hand, had sent out a single cat and ended the fight in one move.
The contrast hit like a thunderclap.
Most of the spectators were ordinary people. They knew magic existed, knew Fairy Tail by reputation, by rumors of collateral damage and glossy magazine covers featuring Mirajane. Very few had ever heard of Rowan Mercer.
Watching a small, quiet cat erase a towering mechanical monster in an instant shattered every expectation they had.
The arena exploded.
"Fairy Tail!"
"Fairy Tail!"
"The cat!"
"The cat!"
Thunderous applause and cheers rolled through Domus Flau. In a single moment, Rowan Mercer stepped into the spotlight of the entire Kingdom.
"So that's Fairy Tail's strongest," Jura murmured, hands pressed together, eyes thoughtful. "Even Jellal acknowledged him as a rival. Taking first place won't be easy this year."
Members of Blue Pegasus exchanged looks of realization.
"So he's the cat Lucy always talks about," one of them muttered. During their battle against the Six Demon Generals, Lucy had once said that if Rowan had been present, the ambush never would've succeeded.
Across the arena, other guilds were already reassessing priorities. The list of threats had grown. Fairy Tail's cat was now firmly on it.
Not everyone was impressed.
"How pathetic," a loud voice scoffed. "One flashy move against trash, and everyone loses their minds."
Heads turned.
The speaker was a broad, white-haired old man, his body corded with muscle. A dark guild emblem was etched into his forehead, prayer beads hanging around his neck. He looked down on the arena with open contempt.
"Omega," he said coldly, "handle it alone when the time comes. Show them what real lightning looks like. Let the Kingdom remember who truly stands at the top."
A shirtless man in a tiger-skin skirt grinned fiercely beside him.
"Leave it to me," Omega replied. "I'll show them the strongest lightning magic there is."
Whispers spread immediately.
"Sabertooth? Never heard of them."
"They were nobodies until recently," someone explained. "Then five mages joined all at once. Every one of them supposedly Saint-class."
As Rowan and his team returned to their place, the atmosphere in the arena had shifted.
Fairy Tail was no longer an afterthought.
They were a target.
...
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