Although a little mishap had occurred along the way, after that terrifying tsunami, the list of eight contenders for the supreme "honor" of being Fairy Tail's strongest mage and for the position of guild master had still been freshly posted.
There was no doubt about it: the names on the list belonged to the eight people who were powerful enough to survive the tsunami and remain safely on the arena afterward!
Perhaps the draw had worked out just right?
Or maybe some old geezer had deliberately rigged it and made some special arrangements?
Either way, some people could tell that something about the list seemed a little off.
After all, the eight contenders were all the strongest S-Class Mages in Fairy Tail—or promising candidates who had a chance of becoming S-Class Mages—and they'd all been assigned to different groups and made it through?
It was quite possible that some old geezer had deliberately put them in different groups to keep them from running into one another in the morning's elimination round. That way, none of them had to face off before the top eight. But regardless, they'd all made it this far on their own strength, advancing through one round after another into the top eight. They deserved to be there, and the other guild members didn't have much to complain about, since they simply weren't as strong.
"Look!"
"The list is up."
"Hmm..."
"I don't think I could beat anyone on there..."
"Haha! Give me a break, Levy. You were one of the first ones eliminated!"
"Hmph! You're not much better, Bisca!"
"!!"
"That's because I ran into that freak, Natsu!"
"I ran into Laxus, didn't I?"
"..."
"All right, you two, quit arguing. You both lost, so what's there to argue about?"
Meanwhile, the guild members gathered around