A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

"Hahaha...this looks so interesting!"

"Damn it! I didn't get to participate in such a fun activity, how annoying!!"

The conversation among the people around him reminded Laxus of his past, when he had repeatedly lost to Kira since childhood, and his gaze toward Kira became filled with more fighting spirit and provocation.

My strength is vastly different now, and I'll take this opportunity to redeem myself and get back at Kira! Prepare for my revenge!

Then Laxus saw Kira slowly turn his head, his dead fish eyes drooping, and give him a "?" in return.

"Is there a problem?"

That bastard!!!

Laxus's fist hardened instantly!

But he knew this wasn't the time to lose his temper, so he forcibly suppressed his anger and continued to listen to the rest of the rules.

"The captains choose in the following order: the captain with the lowest individual score chooses one person first, then the captain with the highest individual score chooses two people, and then the captain with the lowest score chooses two people again, and so on, until the captain with the highest score has chosen the last person."

"Another rule is that the total scores of each team should be as equal as possible."

"Since the total score is now 245 points, if we try to keep them as equal as possible, that is, one team gets 125 points and the other team gets 120 points. If we subtract the scores of the two captains, the team's total score is 95 points."

Once these two rules were announced, everyone knew that this was a competition to judge the 'strength' and 'score' of 20 mages. Kira and Laxus's task now was to select teammates who were strong but had low scores.

Soon, at the host's announcement, the 22 mages returned to the arena.

Kira and Laxus need to select their respective team members at this time, so that they have enough time to arrange their lineups and also to keep the audience looking forward to the next day's game.

Kira glanced at the scoreboard above his head and muttered to himself, "Judging from this, Sawyer should be the least cost-effective, right? And the most cost-effective should be Jura, Natsu, Larcade, and Agil..."

"Hey, hey, hey... what's with that tone of yours, like you're buying vegetables at a market?!"

"Huh? Is there a problem?"

Kira glanced at Sawyer, who had sidled up to him and was roaring defiantly, then turned his head slightly to look at the group of 'The Emperor's Shield'.

These people are all highly skilled; if we can bring them over, the battle should go more smoothly.

However, members of your own guild are also very important, because the mages in your own guild have special abilities; they might be able to defeat someone stronger than themselves through sheer willpower.

Meanwhile, the top players from other guilds, such as Ultear and Jura, are also very good mages, no worse than their own guildmates.

Finally, there are those with average or even poor strength, and those who are disliked by everyone and unwanted by Kira and Laxus—the 'Raven's Tail'.

Brea is one thing, she's not Ivan's confidante and doesn't hate Fairy Tail, but Narubudinku is different. Not only does he have a bad personality, but he also dislikes Fairy Tail. Keeping him around is a waste!

So now... what should I choose?

Chapter 710 Selecting Team Members

In the arena, 22 mages stood together, along with the host, Mysterious Pumpkin Sauce.

Kira and Laxus stood in the middle, their eyes locked, as if sparks of intense electricity were flying through the air.

"What are those two doing?" asked Sido, an innocent girl from the 'Heart of the Dragon'.

"This is an extremely dangerous contest of magic, and also a test of willpower and endurance!"

Someone whispered nonsense in the girl's ear with a straight face, pointed at the two people facing off, and said, "See? When magic is powerful enough, you can be like them, exchanging hundreds or thousands of blows just with your eyes..."

The girl glanced at Ultear, who was pressed against her ear, rolled her eyes speechlessly, and complained, "Sister, I'm not a child anymore. I don't believe in plots that only happen in stories."

Another girl, Cora, chimed in, "That's right, that's right... There's no such thing as mental combat using magic in this world! You've been reading too many fantasy novels, haven't you?"

Urudia chuckled sheepishly, thinking to himself: These days, little girls aren't cute at all! My Melty is much easier to fool!

The two girls, one in black and one in white, exchanged a glance, their eyes conveying a message: Strange, I clearly heard that she is Nadiasan's true form, so why are their personalities so different?

Mysterious Pumpkin Sauce, with its short legs, came between Kira and Laxus: "Now you need to select your team members. I will record your choices and relay them to everyone, Pumpkin~"

"By the way, tomorrow's competition consists of three one-on-one matches and four two-on-two matches, for a total of seven matches. The team that wins four or more matches will be invited to a grand banquet hosted by the Fiore royal family tomorrow night."

"What?! A grand banquet hosted by the royal family?!"

Upon hearing Pumpkin Sauce's words, the mages, who had previously been somewhat indifferent to the competition, instantly perked up, their eyes shining and mouths watering.

Kira confirmed again, "You just said the team was invited, which means that even if an individual loses, as long as the team wins, they can still attend the banquet?"

“That’s right~” Pumpkin Sauce danced around, looking quite pleased with herself.

"In that case, we have no choice but to win..."

Kira sighed and looked around at the pack of wolf-like creatures. "You know what to do to get a piece of the royal feast, right?"

"Hmm... I definitely have to give it my all!"

"Pick me! Pick me!! I'm willing to follow you, Kira!!"

"That's right, with Kira around, it's like winning the game outright!!"

"No, but given the current situation, it's not our place to choose, is it?"

"Oh right!" The mages suddenly realized, followed by a wave of regret. "Only the captain gets to choose the team members, not the other way around!"

Pumpkin Sauce was pleased with the mages' reaction.

As a king who loves magic but has no magical talent of his own, he is very fond of the profession of mage. In addition, his 'Eclipse Project', which he secretly plans, requires a lot of magic power. Therefore, the more and longer these mages fight, the happier he is.

"So, are you two ready? If so, shall we start choosing our teammates now?"

"can!"

Let's begin!

Kira and Laxus nodded.

"Let's start by selecting Laxus-san, who has the lowest individual score. Please select one of your teammates first!" Pumpkin Sauce made a 'please' gesture, then took out a pen and paper to start taking notes.

"Jura!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Laxus first chose the highly renowned 'Snake Scale' ace, Jura, who was ranked among the 'Ten Wizard Saints'.

The audience smiled and nodded repeatedly, believing that they would have made the same choice if they were in Laxus's position.

Pumpkin Sauce nodded, lightly ticked Jura's name on the scoreboard, and then looked at Kira: "Well then, Kira-san, please choose your two team members!"

Kira smiled slightly, completely unconcerned about Laxus taking Jura away: "I choose Demaria and Larcade, the 'Shield of the Emperor'!"

Timalia and Lakad?

Pumpkin Sauce blinked her bewildered eyes, leaving the audience equally puzzled.

So far, they haven't been able to understand or even see Timaria's fighting style. In the competitive mode 'Hunting', she fired dozens of shots at Brian in an instant, only to be instantly killed by Kira. In the subsequent two-player battle, she also instantly killed Hibiki and Ivan of 'Blue Pegasus'. It can be said that she hasn't shown much of her strength at all.

But compared to Larcade, Timalia has already shown enough.

Keep in mind that Larcade has never actually played a match, so his abilities and the magic he uses are completely unknown. Is someone like that really worth Kira bringing into the team at this time?

Is it a bold gamble? Or do they already know the truth all along?

Everyone couldn't help but feel suspicious, even Larcade didn't know why Kira would choose him.

Among those present, only a few people familiar with Kira, such as Erza, Laxus, and Ultear, knew the reason why Kira did this; it must be because he had relevant information about the other party.

In fact, Kira had already provided information about the Twelve Shields before they went to the Western Continent, but he didn't go into detail about Larcade at the time.

After hearing Kira's choice, Laxus paused for a moment, then selected two more powerful teammates: "Erza, Mira!"

The guild's two female demons grew up together, so their strength and teamwork go without saying.

"Good eye!" Erza and Mira both gave Laxus a thumbs up.

"The next two... Ultear, Natsu!"

Perhaps due to Kira's influence, Ultear is no longer the support character who was infinitely weakened in the manga, but a genuine powerhouse with enough strength to serve as one of the 'Ten Wizard Saints'.

According to Gray, every time Ultear uses Ice Shape magic, one can vaguely see Ultear's charm in her.

"I knew it would be like this... But we shouldn't lose out on you. Even if we lose in the end, you'll probably treat us to a big meal, right?"

Kira's expression changed. He felt that Ultear's smile was sinister, extremely sinister, so he immediately waved his hand and stopped him, saying, "Don't say things that are detrimental to morale!"

After defeating Ultear, Killer turned his attention to Natsu. Compared to the two weakest remaining shields of the Twelve Shields—one ice and one sand—Natsu is undoubtedly stronger now. Unless he encounters a bug-type magic, basically no one can defeat him!

After all, he's the protagonist of the original manga, so he certainly has that much strength.

Upon hearing his name called, Natsu's fighting spirit soared: "Becoming Erza and Laxus's opponents?? Oh my god!! I'm fired up!!!"

"Imber, Agil!"

Sure enough, after Kira defeated Natsu, Laxus set his sights on the last two shields. He wasn't stupid; he could tell that these two were much stronger than the rest of the weaklings.

With the powerful mages all taken, it's time to choose from the mid-level mages. This time it's Kira's turn to choose first, and he naturally takes the two strongest ones.

"Richard, Kana!"

As one of the former 'Oracles of Seiya', Richard's strength is definitely not weak. You should know that he was able to hold his own against Jura for a short period of time.

Earth magic is similar to Jura's rock magic; if his magic power weren't slightly lacking, he could have easily entered the ranks of the Ten Saints.

As for Kana, although there was a suspicion that she was just picking up a bargain at the time, her S-rank title is genuine. Now, she has broken free from the constraints of the past and created new cards, further enhancing her strength.

As a witness to the birth of the 'Kana Card', Kira knows best what her current strength is like.

"You only chose me now, huh? You two better remember this!" Kana forced a smile, suppressing her anger.

I'm an S-rank mage in the guild! Why did I end up being chosen 11th? Do you really think I'm that weak? I'll show you tomorrow!

Thinking of this, Kana unconsciously touched her right forearm. No one noticed that a black magic pattern was completely hidden inside the long sleeve of her white open-chest shirt.

Kira was utterly speechless at this guy's overreaction: "Idiot! Being called late in roll call already means you're not good enough. Getting angry at a time like this only makes you more embarrassing..."

After this selection, Laxus hesitated for a moment because he was not familiar with the remaining people at all, and their scores were all 10 points, so there were basically no good parameters to consider.

Without Kira's perception and intelligence, choosing a slightly stronger one from a group of weaklings is not an easy task.

"Those two little girls!"

After some deliberation, Laxus pointed to Sylvanas and Kolai at the 'Heart of the Dragon'.

Laxus is a straight man, so he definitely wouldn't remember their names. He chose these two only because they were second-generation Dragon Slayers like him, and they were also of the White and Shadow attributes, which he was more familiar with.

This familiarity naturally came from Stinger and Rogue, who had recently joined the guild.