The next day, inside the Fairy Tail guild.
Lucy looked at Natsu and the others with a tearful expression.
"How could you leave me behind all by myself?"
Erza said apologetically, "Sorry, Lucy. We forgot you'd only just joined. Whenever we run into the Magic Council, we usually don't want to deal with them, so we just run away."
"This was good experience for you too. Now you'll know what to do next time."
(╥╯﹏╰╥) "I never want to go through something like that again."
After being caught, Lucy had been lectured for half the day, then locked up overnight before being released.
Gray spoke up. "Lucy, you've become famous—the Iron Woman who tore Curse Song apart with her bare hands."
"I'd rather not have that kind of reputation!"
Just then, the unusually quiet Natsu suddenly spoke.
"Erza, duel me!"
Natsu's shout froze the entire guild.
Everyone stared at Natsu in disbelief.
Gray said, "Hey, hey. Did you forget to take your medicine this morning? Don't forget that Erza beat the hell out of you just half a year ago."
"Tch, I'm not the same person I was half a year ago. This time, I'm confident."
Erza looked at Natsu with a pleased expression.
"Looks like you've grown a lot over the past six months. Let me see how much you've improved!"
"Yeah! I'm fired up!"
The scene shifted.
Everyone from the guild came outside.
"Place your bets, place your bets! Natsu versus Erza!"
"Erza, 1 to 1.1! Natsu, 1 to 10!"
Seeing such an outrageous ratio, Lucy gained a new understanding of Fairy Tail's power rankings.
After glancing between the two odds, Happy immediately chose Erza.
"You heartless cat!"
"Don't say that, Lucy. I need to survive too."
Lucy sighed. "Sigh, the Strongest Team is actually going to duel."
The moment Lucy said that, Gray looked at her in confusion.
"Huh? Strongest Team? What's that?"
Lucy hurriedly said, "You, Natsu, Erza, Ye Yang—you're the strongest people in the guild, aren't you?"
Gray asked in confusion, "I wish. But Natsu and I aren't even in the first tier."
"There are countless people about as strong as us. There are even a few stronger than Erza. Which bastard told you that?"
Lucy pointed behind her at Mirajane. Gray turned to look and found Mirajane nearly in tears.
"Boohoo, I just thought the few of you might be really strong when working together, that's all. Boohoo X﹏X."
Elfman immediately shouted, "Gray, you're done for! How dare you make my sister angry? My boss is going to kill you."
"Speaking of the strongest, Erza is undoubtedly the strongest female mage. And the strongest male mage must be my boss! He's a real man!!"
"If we're talking about the second tier, I can rank up there too."
Lucy looked at Ye Yang with a puzzled expression.
"He's the strongest?"
The scene from the day of Lullaby suddenly surfaced in Lucy's mind. That world-destroying strike still made her heart tremble.
"Looks like I still don't understand the guild very well."
Meanwhile, Natsu and Erza had already begun their duel.
"Requip: Flame Emperor Armor."
When everyone saw Erza use even this armor, they knew she was truly serious.
Natsu looked even more excited. "Oooh! Now I can really cut loose!"
Natsu gathered flames beneath his feet.
"Dragon's Head of the Fire Dragon!"
Natsu shot toward Erza. Erza shifted aside and directly avoided his attack. At that moment, the flames around Natsu instantly vanished. The instant his feet touched the ground, the flames surged again, and the ground exploded beneath him.
Natsu's speed rose to another level.
"Dragon's Sword Horn: Second Stage!"
Seeing that she could not evade, Erza hurriedly held the Flame Emperor Sword before her. Natsu's powerful strike sent Erza flying.
Erza skidded dozens of meters before stopping, staring at Natsu in shock.
Natsu's attack instantly silenced everyone around them.
"Is that really Natsu? He hasn't been possessed or something, has he? Erza actually got pushed back by Natsu."
Seeing that it had truly worked, Natsu shouted excitedly.
"Hahaha, I've practiced that move for a long time!"
Meanwhile, Gray ran straight over to Ye Yang. "Did you teach that to Natsu?"
Ye Yang looked at Gray in some surprise.
"You could tell?"
"Of course. I've fought Natsu plenty of times. How could he possibly come up with something that smart?"
"Mm, sure enough, you and Natsu are true love."
(〝▼皿▼) "Who's true love with him?!"
"Hahaha, kidding, kidding. I only told Natsu about the properties of fire."
"Extreme heat, and explosions."
"With his current mastery of magic, I'm not expecting extreme heat. But he can make use of the explosive force fire gives him."
"Plus, with his Dragon Slayer physique, the damage from that burst of flames won't hurt him in the slightest."
"As for combat techniques, you guys have secretly watched San Mao and the others train and fight. You've learned quite a bit, haven't you?"
At that, Gray became a little embarrassed. Just as Ye Yang had said, they often went to watch San Mao and Er Gou fight. Since Ye Yang taught them, they were bound to learn plenty from it.
"But I see that Natsu can already control his flames fairly freely. When the first Sword Horn failed just now, he was able to withdraw and condense his magic power in time."
"Then he unleashed an even greater burst of speed in an instant."
"You could say he's made a little progress."
"Looks like it's time for the next step."
Gray immediately understood what Ye Yang meant.
"You mean Natsu's been training with you too?!"
"Yeah. Training three people is training, and training four people is training."
Gray looked at Natsu. "Damn it! That guy! I want to go too!"
Ye Yang spread his hands. "I'll only give you suggestions. You'll have to walk the rest of the path yourselves."
"Thanks!"
Then Ye Yang directly kicked Gray.
"Get out of the way. You're blocking my view."
Just then, as Natsu prepared to charge forward again, a frog wearing clothes arrived with an army.
Clap! Clap!
"Everyone, please stop for a moment. Is Guild Master Makarov here?"
The moment everyone saw that they were from the Magic Council, they began whispering among themselves.
"Why is the Magic Council here?"
"Who knows? Did you get caught doing something bad?"
"How could that be!"
Watching everyone discuss it, Lucy could not help commenting, "Does no one find a frog wearing clothes strange?"
Everyone from Fairy Tail turned to face the Magic Council's people. Makarov also got down from his chair and walked forward.
"May I ask what business the Magic Council has here?"
The frog ignored Makarov, arrogantly raised his head, and began to read aloud.
"I will now announce the Council Hall's notice. During the Eisenwald incident, Fairy Tail successfully prevented the attack. Therefore, the Council Hall hereby commends all members of Fairy Tail."
Upon hearing that they had come to commend them, everyone in the guild wore expressions of utter disbelief.
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