A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Named supporting characters: These are the minor members of the guilds who can participate in the Grand Magic Games.

Mid-level members of the Fairy Tail guild: Represented by the Thunder God Clan;

Top figures in each guild: such as Leon, Kagura, and Pascal;

S-Class Mage: Saberbite Tiger's five main combat forces, six demons, and seven familiars are among the stronger ones;

Saint Ten: Nine Ghost Gates

The top ten Saints: None, Hades, and Hades are in the same tier.

Shield level: twelve shields, no further explanation needed;

The Twin Pillars: Irene and the Magic King;

Ceiling: Black Dragon and Jelf.

At first, Kira thought Jellal's strength was 6.5, which was mid-tier among the Ten Wizard Saints; Erza's strength was 6, barely at the entry level of the Ten Wizard Saints; and Mystogan's strength was 5, only at the S-rank level. But now it seems that he should have underestimated him. His combat power index is at least Ten Wizard Saints!

As for Kira, he positions himself at 7.5 to 8, which means he's somewhere between the top of the Ten Wizard Saints and the Shield level.

This wasn't because he overestimated the strength of the Shield-class members. You have to understand that although the Twelve Shields are all geniuses, they have seven more years of training time than the main Fairy Tail crew, so their talent is actually about the same, or even far inferior.

In fact, Brandish, the youngest of the Twelve Shields, is about the same age as Lucy now, and Kira estimates that her strength is at most 6.

If Fairy Tail's main force hadn't been sealed for 7 years, then 8 years later, a single guild would have been more than capable of taking on the Imperial Twelve Shields. They might even have been able to take down more than one of them, like Lucy in the Tartaros arc, where she showed the potential to open the third gate. With another 7 years of training, opening the fourth gate wouldn't be too much to ask, right?

On the stage, Mystogan, whose combat power was reassessed to be above 6, unleashed his ultimate attack on Erza, immobilizing her and rendering her unable to move. This "Miroku" move struck her precisely!

The black beam of light fell down, like a black hole that devours everything, sucking away all the energy of the people trapped inside!

This isn't like Phantom Lannister draining Aria's magic power; Miroku only depletes the mage's magic power, physical strength, and mental energy. They can recover after resting, but the affected person will be unable to continue fighting for a short period of time.

"This magic is..."

Erza's eyes widened as she felt her magic and strength rapidly draining away. An indescribable and overwhelming fatigue washed over her, and for the first time, she realized how weak her will was.

In less than three seconds, Erza lost all her strength. Her legs buckled, and she was about to fall uncontrollably. In her haste, she shoved the bone club in her hand into the ground and braced herself against it with both hands to barely maintain her balance, but she still inevitably collapsed to the ground.

"I never knew you possessed such magic; I was so careless!" Her eyelids drooped weakly, overcome with drowsiness, Erza sighed as she watched the approaching figure. "I never imagined that a day would come for us..."

Mystogan put away his magic wand, looked up at the sky, thought for a moment, and said, "This is a rare opportunity, so let me indulge myself a little!"

"Ha...I lost!"

Amidst shock and shouts, Mystogan politely helped Erza up from the ground and off the stage.

Dispel, holding the microphone, exclaimed repeatedly, "My God! What am I seeing?! The undefeated 'Fairy Queen' Erza has finally met her match! The ultimate victor of this match is that mysterious man, and his name is—Mystogan!!!"

"Ooooooo!!!"

"You're really impressive, Mystogan! I could tell you were no ordinary person just by your outfit!"

"Men wearing capes are definitely super handsome!!"

"No!! No way!! Erza lost or something..."

"Erza actually lost? This is the first time, isn't it?"

As Kira watched Mystogan silently walk towards the advancement zone and finally sit down next to him, his eyes gleamed: "This is quite unexpected, Mystogan!"

"..."

Mister Gang: Why do I suddenly have this inexplicable feeling of unease...?

Chapter 170 The Top Eight are decided

Ten minutes later, the game resumed.

It was as if all the exciting parts of the day had already been shown at the beginning, and the following battles were not very interesting.

In the fourth match, Philid vs. Abagarin, an internal battle among the Thunder Gods, Philid's word magic was on full display. Abagarin's fairy magic was caught in his spell trap before she could even use it. The two stopped short of each other and the battle ended in less than ten minutes.

Freed won, but he wasn't happy because he didn't see Laxus: "The first day without Laxus, I miss him..."

In the fifth match, Bisca faced off against Natsu. Bisca's strength was no match for Natsu. Even when she used Kira's Super Cannon, her explosive attack was completely ineffective against Natsu, who could eat fire. Her bullets couldn't even catch a glimpse of Natsu's shadow, and she was KO'd by Natsu with a single punch.

After the match, Alzak angrily came to settle scores with Natsu, but was also punched away by Natsu, who hadn't had enough of beating him yet. After returning, he lay down with Bisca tenderly.

In the sixth match, Biguslo vs. Marcus, and in the seventh match, Mira vs. Wakaba, both were one-sided victories, with Marcus and Wakaba having no chance to fight back.

Although Crocodile, who uses sand magic, and Gaara are very strong in Kira's novels, and Smoker, who uses smoke magic, are not weak either, even if these two tried their best, they could not reach that level of strength and were defeated in less than 10 minutes. In the end, the victories were achieved by Biggleslow and Mira respectively.

In the final battle, Elfman faced off against Rocky. One was a brute who had focused all his attribute points on strength, while the other had allocated his points evenly to strength, speed, defense, intelligence, and charisma. It can be said that these two were the representatives of the extreme strength build and the balanced build, respectively.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! A real man should give it his all to get into the top eight!"

Elfman roared, activating his Beast King powers. His entire body swelled to three or four times its original size, with every muscle, hair, skin, horns, and bone containing immense energy, greatly enhancing his offensive and defensive skills.

Rocky's Lion King power surged, radiating brilliant light. He threw a punch, which scattered into countless starlight that flew towards Elfman. Each ray of light was a serious punch from him. Countless serious punches struck Elfman, making a series of thuds.

He lost face to Bisca yesterday, and today he's going to get his revenge on Elfman!

Starlight scattered, smoke but no damage. The skill-based Rocky was clearly at a disadvantage against the power-based Elfman. Every attack was either blocked or broken up, and it had no effect as expected!

"What a rude man!" Loki adjusted his glasses, then looked up at Elfman's massive frame. "Lion Star Impact!"

The golden lion was majestic and awe-inspiring, roaring with a voice like thunder falling from the heavens, its four legs galloping as fast as a whirlwind sweeping across the land.

As a Celestial Spirit who had lived for an unknown amount of time, Loki, having regained his strength, was far beyond Elfman's ability to defeat. Soon, Loki secured victory with the power of his Golden Lion.

Thus, the top eight have been determined: Kira, Gray, Mystogan, Freed, Natsu, Biggleslow, Mira, and Loki. Compared to the previous round, their strength is significantly lower.

After the match, the Fairy Tail members regrouped at the guild tavern, reminiscing about the past few days' matches and eagerly anticipating the upcoming semi-finals, finals, and finals.

The older Marcao downed a glass of wine and said drunkenly, "If you ask me, apart from the guild master and Gildarts, several S-class mages should be on the list of the top eight in the guild. Yesterday and today's two matches directly eliminated Laxus and Erza. It seems that this competition mechanism still needs improvement!"

Across from him, his old friend Wakaba, who was smoking and drinking, continued, "Besides those two, there are five more S-class players, which leaves only three spots. Who do you think will end up being those three?"

"Hmm...it should be Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel, right?"

"Hard to say! Kana has gotten a lot stronger lately too! Today she was evenly matched with Gray!"

"Judging from this, Elfman seems to be falling behind. He was actually defeated by Rocky today..."

Hearing this, Elfman, who was standing to the side, was displeased: "A real man should avenge his defeat! Rocky, let's fight again!"

Rocky sat in his chair, rubbing his slightly red wrists, which were a bit sore from fighting these past two days. He remained unmoved by Elfman's declaration of war: "No!"

Gray joined in the conversation: "Actually, Fred is also very good, but he wasn't in good form today and his performance wasn't exciting enough."

Cana, hugging the barrel, said, "Hehehe... because Laxus didn't make it to the quarterfinals! And he's the culprit! Look over there! He's been silently crying by himself since yesterday, and he won't listen to anyone!"

Gray looked back and, sure enough, Philid was sitting alone in the corner, emanating a thick, gloomy aura from within half a meter of him.

Kira listened silently to their conversation, glanced at Fred, and then turned his gaze to Mystogan, who was not far from him; he was also alone.

He was still wearing the same robe that enveloped him completely, sitting quietly by the window gazing at the moon. Five magic wands leaned against the wall beside him, within easy reach. He didn't have the dejected air of Philid; instead, he had the feeling of a melancholy prince.

"I have to say, he's got a knack for looking cool!"

Kira commented, then turned to Erza beside him: "Hey, how does it feel to be defeated by Mystogan?"

Erza's eye twitched slightly, but her expression remained unchanged: "It's nothing, I was just not good enough. I'll get my revenge next time!"

As she spoke, the way she scooped the strawberry pudding from her hands became slightly heavier.

"Well... this spoon is innocent... never mind!"

Kira was about to say more when Erza broke the iron spoon.

They talk a good game, but their actions speak louder than words—it's clear they're not going to give up! But that's understandable; who would have thought Mistgang had so many tricks up his sleeve?

Kira couldn't help but find it amusing to see Erza's increasingly fierce gaze.

Are you making fun of me?

"No...no..."

Meanwhile, Natsu, who had successfully advanced to the quarterfinals, kept showing off in front of Gajeel: "Hey, who's this guy quietly eating iron here?"

Happy, standing beside him, chimed in, "It's Gajeel!"

"Oh! It's Gajeel... By the way, Gajeel, I made it into the quarterfinals! How strange, why isn't your name on the list?"

"That's because Gajeel didn't make it to the semi-finals~"

"What?!" Natsu feigned surprise. "No wonder I didn't see you compete today. So Gajeel, you didn't pass the preliminary rounds?"

After the performance, he began to laugh triumphantly: "How pathetic... Wahahahaha..."

Lucy looked at the two of them silently: "Are you children?"

Natsu's taunt was effective. Gajeel, still furious, stood up and grabbed Natsu's clothes: "You bastard, do you want to fight?"

Natsu completely ignored Gajeel's behavior, instead continuing to make faces and taunt him: "Come on, come on, who's afraid of you? You didn't even pass the preliminaries..."

Thump thump thump... slap slap slap... boom boom boom... puff puff puff...

The two men were locked in a fierce and brutal fight, their blows landing squarely on the ground.

"So what if you made it to the quarterfinals? What are you so smug about?"

"I'm just smug, I'm just better than you! If you don't like it, come at me!"

Perhaps it was their bickering that provoked Erza, who slammed her right hand on the table, stood up, and shouted, "Shut up! You two better behave yourselves!"

The two pretended not to hear, so Erza rolled up her sleeves and joined the battle.

Kira silently turned his head away: "Two idiots, insisting on arguing in front of Erza. Being a punching bag at this time is just asking for trouble..."

Kira looked around. Every guild member was there, even Dispel and the guild leader were drinking. Only one person was missing: "Speaking of which, I haven't seen Laxus all day. What's he up to?"

Chapter 171 Where did Laxus go?

I didn't go to ask Philid, of course. If he knew, would he still be sitting here?

Kira then turned and walked towards Biggleslow, only to find him preparing for his battle with Natsu the next day—well, he was eating and drinking well to replenish his energy.

Kira asked Biggleslow about Laxus's whereabouts, but Biggleslow didn't know either, leaving Kira puzzled: "This guy doesn't even want his subordinates anymore. Could it be that he couldn't take the blow and ran off to a place where no one could find him to secretly wipe away his tears?"