Thank you everyone for 9.1k+ reads and 330+ votes! It really means a lot and helps me push myself to finish this book! ☺️

Also, lots of thanks to amethyst_shine! They've shouted me out and helped me gain tons of new readers, so thank you so much!

And quick note (!) this chapter kind of sucks lol. I didn't know how I wanted the fight to play out. Some of this chapter is just sucky jokes lmao my humor has changed in a bad way DRASTICALLY over quarantine, and I'm unfortunately putting that into this chapter. I'm sorry 😂

Also, by now it should be kind of obvious that I don't proof read anything I post, so for the next few days, I'll be editing the first few chapters of the book!

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Previously:

"W-What...?" Gray stammered as his shadow stood in front of him, the scene of Luca and Rufus behind the shadow figure.

He couldn't believe his eyes. When he first fought Rufus, it took him a lot of strength, magic, and willpower to defeat him, but here was the Phantom Wraith slayer, defeating the memory maker with one spell.

This just got a lot more difficult.

Now:

Gray dug his foot into the ground, ready to pounce, but as soon as his feet left the ground, his own shadow knocked him down.

"Oh crap, I forgot my uhh... shadow was there," Gray thought to himself as he rolled to the side, avoiding the shadow figure that tried striking again. "Even though it was right in front of me..."

As Gray rolled on the ground then planted his feet into the ground, standing up, he thought that the shadow looked a little more... ghostly that before.

He wasn't sure if that was the right way to put it, but he could've sworn the shadow looked a little more transparent than when it originally crawled out if the ground.

Pushing the thoughts aside, the ice devil slayer figured that he should focus on the wizard who cast the spell, rather than fight his own shadow.

Luca's shadow then ran over to Gray and his shadow to join the fight, making it harder for Gray to get to Luca.

"Man, screw this," Gray mumbled in his thoughts before casting a spell. "Ice Devil's Zeroth Long Sword!"

In one swift motion, Gray swung an ethereal sword as he created it between his separating hands. To his surprise, the sword passed through the shadows with ease as their form momentarily deformed then reformed into its figure again.

Both shadows raised their fists, preparing to throw a punch. As a reflex, Gray held his sword upward to block. This time, instead of the shadows passing through the sword, he had actually successfully blocked the attack.

The Phantom Wraith saw the look in Gray's eyes when realization had entered the ice maker's mind. Luca knew very well that Gray had cooked up a plan to get passed his summoned shadows, but instead of doing anything about it, he was interested in seeing what the Ice Devil slayer would do.

Keeping his ice sword in his right hand, he motioned for the shadows to give it their best shot with his left hand, provoking them to attack.

The shadow figures seemed to take the bait as they lunged towards the ice demon and his killer ice sword. Raising their fists to attack, the shadows looked more solid and opaque than before - when they looked ghostly.

The shadows grew closer as Gray raised his ethereal sword in right hand. The moment they were in within a decent range, Gray slashed his sword to the side, striking both shadows with one attack.

As Gray slid his sword effortlessly through the shadows, they hissed in pain as they slowly started disappearing while being slashed in half horizontally.

With the shadows fading into nothing, Gray made eye contact with the only other person who stood in the dimly lit cave.

"I guess it's time for me to kick your ass," Gray remarked as he slightly bent his knees, getting into a battle stance, keeping his ethereal ice sword vanished in his right hand.

Luca simply said nothing, though did respond by getting ready to fight as he held a battle stance, his fists clenched and prepared to strike.

A slight irk mark appears in Gray's forehead from not receiving a response from his opponent. "He did some talking earlier. Is he already done talking for the day?" Gray wondered jokingly while serious expressions were still displayed on both of the wizards' faces.

No one moved nor said a word. Both paid close attention to the other, though one opponent was a little more observant and experienced when it came to finding his opponent's weakness - and to many's dismay, it's not the ice demon.

Gray was definitely observant when he tried, as he's - since the beginning - known of his guild rival's feelings towards the girl he also has feelings for. But he wasn't as perceptive as Luca.

Gray didn't notice the other 3 contestants he'd have to compete against for the girl of his dreams.

He also failed to notice the Phantom Wraith slayer slightly waving his finger like a wand as if he was casting a spell - which he was.

Being an advanced Phantom Wraith slayer, he had been mute for a few years, so inevitably, he had to learn how to cast spells without outright saying it. It's helped him catch his enemies by surprise.

"Phantom Wraith Slayer's Phantom Arrow," Luca thought, casting a spell while he slightly motioned his finger to the side. Following his finger, an arrow appeared from the dark corner of the cave, shooting towards Gray.

Though Luca had silently summoned the arrow and casted the spell, the arrow piercing through the air and flying towards Gray made a fairly loud whistling-like sound. The sound made it to the ice demon's ears in time as he quickly turned and slashed through the arrow before it made contact with his flesh.

With the ice devil slayer turned away from him, Luca took the chance the launch forward. Being as stealthy and sneaky as a wraith slayer is, it was easy for Luca's fist to punch Gray.

Gray groaned from the sudden pain inflicted on his body as he was launched into the stone cave wall. With his shirt being thrown off since... well, since the beginning - before he even made it to the cave - bruises and dirt were spread throughout Gray's upper body.

As he landed on his feet after having a face full of stone wall, Gray's ethereal sword dissipated and disappeared into thin air. He then pivoted himself to face Luca before jumping and pushing himself off the cave wall, lunging towards the Phantom Wraith.

Soaring through the air, Gray pulled back his fist as prepared to punch the living daylights out of his opponent. At the last moment, seconds before he could even make contact, Luca swiftly stepped to the side as he kneed Gray in the stomach then roundhouse kicking him to the wall, not even flinching when Gray was centimeters away from punching his face.

"What the hell?" Gray thought as he started picking himself off the ground. "This guy's crazy fast."

Hopping onto his feet and turning towards the opposing slayer, Gray took a deep breath as he readied to cast a spell. "Ice Devil's Rage!"

Of course, Luca had noticed when Gray puffed his chest out slightly to take a breath, so the Phantom Wraith slayer was prepared to dodge. Luca had dodged almost effortlessly with his perception and quick reflexes, barely having a scratch on his body.

"This guy knows what I'm doing before I even do it," Gray noticed, mentally taking notes as he tried coming up with a plan to get around Luca's insane observation skills. "I need to be unpredictable..."

The ice demon let out a soft sigh, realizing what he might have to do. "As much as I hate it, I might have to think like Natsu... which means I need to not think at all."

With those final thoughts, Gray ran towards the Phantom Wraith slayer as he created 2 ice swords from the palms of his hands without a word being spoken.

The first strike had failed as Luca dodged swiftly and ran behind the ice demon, but Gray quickly turned around and kept striking without an actual plan.

As Gray kept striking the air around him and Luca, Luca continued to dodge with swift and easy movements. Though, as he dodged he couldn't find a proper weak spot on Gray's body as Gray had been moving around too much for Luca to focus on finding a weak spot due to him having to focus on dodging.

While Luca had been focusing on the sword movements rather than the actual swords themselves, he hadn't noticed when Gray was gradually extending the blade of ice.

Heck, Gray hadn't even noticed it himself. He was honestly too frustrated at the fact that he hadn't landed an attack yet, so he subconsciously started exerting more of his ice magic into the sword, extending the blade slowly.

Luca darted around Gray, only frustrating the ice devil slayer even more. Luca didn't even strike while he dodged as Gray was moving too fast for Luca to try and land an attack.

Well, that was until Luca just figured he'd sweep his foot under Gray, knocking Gray into the air and off the ground.

The Phantom Wraith had thought that his opponent would've crashed onto the ground easy peasy, but Gray had other ideas.

While Gray was knocked into the air and slowly started descending down, he swung his swords around like he had done previously. With Luca standing still and thinking about that, Gray had successfully struck both of Luca's legs.

Then Gray face planted as he was too focused on attacking.

The Meraki Parastin Wizard hissed from the pain he felt from his legs as small drops of blood trickled down. He collapsed on his knees with Gray next to him, his face full of dirt.

"CAMFT DUDGE WIF UR LEFGS HERFT, NAHW CAMN OO?" Gray asked triumphantly while his face was still pressed against the dirt ground.

"Hm?" Luca hummed, silently groaning as he pushed himself up from his knees and onto his feet.

Gray pushed his head out of the dirt before repeating his sentence. "I said, can't dodge with your legs hurt, now can you?"

Luca shrugged indifferently then returned to a battle stance, showing that he was still good to fight.

The Fairy Tail mage grinned, following by getting into his own battle stance while his ice swords disappeared into mist.

With only a few moments of deafening silence following behind the movement, both wizards then suddenly launched towards each other, pushing themselves off the dirt ground.

Their fists collided, their knuckles clashing against their opponent's. Though, it seemed like it would've hurt for their bones to hit head on at such speed, they continued to throw punches and try striking the other so that their guild would come out on top.

For one competitor, it was about helping their guilding to stay on top and stay #1. For the other... well, he honestly didn't really care about what glory would be brought to him if his guild was #1, but it was what his guild wanted. It was what his friends wanted, so he played along.

To be honest, the Phantom Wraith slayer wanted nothing to do with the Grand Magic Games. It was just simple entertainment for people who couldn't use magic themselves, so they watched people with the gift of magic fight and hurt other people with that ability. He was originally just going to take a mission while the games occurred, but his friends requested for him to join the team. After all, he's one of the top wizards in his guild.

Pulling his fist back, Luca knocked the air right out of Gray, almost causing Gray's eyes to just pop out of his face. Using his momentum, Luca roundhouse kicked Gray on the side of his torso. Of course, with Luca's currently hurt leg, it was a little more painful than he thought it'd be.

Not letting the opposing mage to win, Gray pushed the aching and sore feeling he felt and barraged Luca with ice cold punches. It wasn't that he did it on purpose. He was just simply frustrated.

With each punch, Luca shivered from the coldness. Though the Meraki Parastin mage managed to dodge a few, Gray's attacks landed more often than not.

Gray managed to punch every weak spot he could think of. The face, stomach, chest, neck. Heck, he even thought of punching his no-no square, but he figured no one should go through that pain.

The barrage seemed endless as Luca just wouldn't fall. He blocked and dodged, and even attacked a few times, but the pain from his legs and the stinging cold feeling from Gray's punches went against him. Luca was even starting to get fatigued from having to block, dodge, and attack while being punched with cold fists.

The ice cold attacks wore Gray out more than it hurt Luca though. The defense of the Phantom Wraith seemed impossible to break through... until it wasn't.

There was one spot Gray had accidentally punched when Luca attempt to dodge. It was a weird weak point, and quite honestly, if Gray hadn't accidentally hit that point, this battle probably would've lasted hours.

It was his armpit.

Yes, his left armpit.

(Lmao, i didn't know what to do. It was going to the be inside of his elbow, but I tried punching the inside of my elbow to see if it hurt a lot or not, and it kind of did hurt. Like, I don't know if I'm being a little weakling or what, but that hurt 😂 so i changed it to armpit)

Gray didn't understand why or how, but at the hard punch on that certain spot, Luca suddenly stopped functioning. No, Luca was not a robot or an android, or anything of the sort. It was just simply a sensitive spot for Luca to get punched.

Holding under his left arm, he groaned and collapsed onto his knees.

"Uhhh... you okay man?" Gray asked his opponent, who looked down at his left arm with a painful expression.

He simply nodded, seeing no use for words before he removed his hand from his armpit.

Gray looked in horror as he saw his opponent's hand covered with the familiar thick red liquid.

Before Luca could say that he was still good to battle, his form started fading, indicating that he's being teleported to his guild's balcony. Gray was confused, as was everyone else who watched, as to why he was being teleported back.

He wasn't defeated, nor did he surrender, but instead, it was his guild master who surrendered for him. A beautiful old woman who looked too young to be 80 called for the wizard to be brought back, for she was the only one who knew of his secret and past. Not even his friends knew.

"I'm gonna get bugged with questions once I get back," Luca sighed as he moved his right hand back under his arm. "Good game."

"I... uh, you too...?" Gray replied, not really knowing what to say as Luca continued to slowly fade away. "Didn't really seem fair though..."

"Then do me a favor," Luca stated, inwardly smirking as he shrugged, ignoring the pain he felt from his left arm. Gray simply nodded, but looked at his opponent with a little suspicion. "Tell her how you feel before the other 4 do."

Gray looked absolutely baffled as he looked at Luca's figure completely disappearing and returning to his guild's balcony.

"...Huh?"