A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Laxus knew that the two boys who joined the guild at the centennial celebration had a tacit understanding far beyond ordinary people, and their attribute combinations were also very strong, and they could even cast combination magic; and the two girls in front of him were twins, so their tacit understanding should be even higher, and putting them in a two-on-two situation should be quite effective.

"Twins... Laxus, you're pretty good at this..."

Kira chuckled mischievously a few times, then continued naming two more people: "Pakas! And...Makara!"

The reason for choosing Pakas is simple: that guy has some reputation, and that reputation comes from his decent physical skills. He's at least an Elfman, so he's still usable.

As for Magara, the Star Dragon Slayer Mage, his Star Power is slightly stronger than the rest.

At this point, Kira's teammates have a total score of 75 points, while Laxus's teammates have a score of 60 points.

At this point, five of the 20 mages remained: Sawyer with 20 points, Yuuka, Narubudinku, and Brea with 10 points, and Toby with 5 points.

Kira is missing two teammates, and Laxus is missing three teammates.

To keep the total score of both teams the same, the five players should be allocated as follows: Laxus gets Sawyer, Toby, and a mage with 10 points, while Kira gets two other mages with 10 points each. This way, the total score of the players on both teams will be 95 points.

Now it's Laxus's turn to choose first, so he can prioritize choosing one of the three 10-point mages as the strongest one.

"That guy it is!"

Unsurprisingly, Laxus chose Yuuka with the "Snake Scale" skin. His Wave Magic is quite unique, and his performance in the past two days of matches has been remarkable.

Kira had no choice but to accept the two remaining mages from the 'Raven's Tail'.

With this, the team selection process is officially complete, and the lineups for the two teams are as follows:

Team 1: Kira, Larcade, Timalia, Urutia, Natsu, Richard, Kana, Pakas, Macala, Brea, Narubudinku

Team Two: Laxus, Jura, Erza, Mira, Impel, Agil, Stowe, Corai, Yuka, Sawyer, Toby

"So……"

"Three one-on-one matches and four two-on-two matches—how should we combine these lineups?"

Chapter 711 Meeting

On the evening of July 4th, Kira and Laxus each led their squad members to a meeting place.

"What are your thoughts on tomorrow's match?"

Inside the tavern, Kira had barely finished speaking when Natsu's voice rang out: "I want a one-on-one fight!!"

Singles... Do you think this is tennis? How about I give you singles number three?

Kira thought to himself, then said calmly, "I don't think anyone but Gray and Lucy can work with you."

"Nonsense!" Natsu immediately retorted, crossing his arms and snorting, "There's Happy, Erza, and Wendy too!"

Ultear rested her chin on her hand, leaning against the table, and said speechlessly, "Anyway, it's just your team. Besides them, you can't even coordinate with the other members of your guild, like Cana..."

Of the ten team members, she was the most familiar with the Fairy Tail guild, and therefore knew that the mages of this guild were a bunch of lawless and reckless people.

Kira remained noncommittal to Natsu's suggestion, instead turning to the others: "Anyone else want to fight one-on-one or two-on-two? Just say the word! I'm always very open-minded!"

Larcade was clasping his hands together, muttering something, seemingly in prayer; Timalia was flirting with a young waitress, chuckling softly; Cana and Pacas were drinking heavily, the two drunkards thoroughly enjoying themselves; Richard sat smiling, chatting and laughing with Macala; Brea and Narubudinku had been sitting together since they entered, perhaps because they knew their guild was at odds with Fairy Tail, they didn't act too aggressively, just remaining silent.

"Whatever."

"You decide what to do."

"You're the captain, so you can make the decision."

Upon hearing Kira's words, the mages shook their heads repeatedly, their attitude perfunctory, seemingly lacking any ambition.

"Seriously? Can't you guys be a little more serious?"

Kira, looking exasperated, slammed his fist on the table to bring the others back to their attention. "Didn't you guys want to go out for a big meal?"

"But... can't we just go for it by brute force?" Kana said, drunkenly, holding up her wine glass.

"That's right! There's no point in discussing it here. When the fight starts tomorrow, those who can win will win, and those who can't win will win no matter what!"

Timalia released the waitress's hand and echoed, "Anyway, no matter who my opponent is, I can take them down in an instant!"

You two big-breasted, brainless bastards!

"If discussions were truly useless, then there would be no such thing as military strategy or tactics in this world!"

Timaria simply shrugged indifferently at Kira's rebuttal: "Well, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not Imber; I don't have the brains to devise strategies."

Kira then turned his gaze to the remaining people one by one...

“Kira, you know about our ‘Sin of the Witch’ guild. Jellal and Eric are always the ones doing the thinking in the guild, and I just follow orders!”

Forget it, Richard's just a nice guy, you can't count on him.

"Kira, you know us 'Four-Headed Hounds,' our favorite thing is to go all out, our only special skills are a loud voice, a high alcohol tolerance, and plenty of manly spirit! WILD FOUR!!!"

Hey, hey, hey... this isn't the only one! You clearly mentioned three points! —Although they're all useless skills...

“Kira, you know about us ‘Heart of the Dragons.’ We’re all orphans, we haven’t received any formal education, and we’re unfamiliar with these things…”

That's a semi-serious answer... but who isn't an orphan at some point?!

"If we knew the opponent's formation and lineup, wouldn't we be able to better counter their strategy?"

Hmm? Finally, someone who understands!

Kira looked over at the sound and saw that it was Brea who was speaking. He nodded silently, thinking to himself: As expected of someone from the Dark Guild, her cunning and treachery are far beyond what these idiots in front of him can match!

"Tell me more about it?"

"It's still early. We can send someone to infiltrate their side and find out their order of appearance. Wouldn't that make choosing tomorrow's match much easier?"

"That makes sense, but who should we send?"

……

Meanwhile, in another tavern, Laxus was also having a meeting with his newly assembled squad.

Unlike Kira's team, this team has many intelligent people, such as Erza, Imber, and Jura, and even Laxus himself is not just a brute.

"Four 2v2 matches require a total of eight players. If it's a team-based game, the teammates need to have good chemistry. So..."

"So the two of us are one of the pairs, right?"

The speakers were none other than the twin sisters, Sido and Corayi. It was obvious to everyone that it was a foregone conclusion that these two would team up for a doubles match.

"That's right!"

Laxus nodded. "As for the three one-on-one matches, Jurasan and I will play two of them to maximize our chances of winning. Do you have any suggestions for the remaining match?"

Compared to the need for tacit understanding in a duo, in a singles match, all you need to do is be strong enough. In Laxus's opinion, the two strongest people here are himself and Jura, so he directly designated two singles matches.

As for the final one-on-one battle, if we choose based on strength, it would be one of Inbell, Agil, Erza, and Mira.

However, Laxus only knew that the Twelve Shields were very strong, comparable to the Wizarding Ten, but he was unsure whether they were stronger or weaker than Erza and Mira, so he did not make any rash judgments.

Imber, who was a consul in the Alvarez Empire and was considered to be of high intelligence, immediately understood Laxus's thoughts. He glanced at Agil, then at Erza and Mira, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Whether in terms of magic or personality, Agil and I are not good at team battles."

"In comparison, the two members of 'Fairy Tail' have a much better teamwork than the others present, and their strength is also very strong. If the two of them could team up for a duel, their chances of winning would be very high."

"Then let me or Agil go into the one-on-one battle, that will maximize our chances of winning."

Years of political work have given Inber a unique temperament. When analyzing the selection of players, he looks like a strategist commanding a battlefield, and he appears very shrewd and calculating.

"Teaming up with Mira? That sounds like a really interesting idea..."

Erza and Mira have faced each other as rivals far more often than as teammates in a year, and now, with Inbell's suggestion, they've also started to consider it.

Beside her, Mira nodded with a smile, clearly having no objection to the decision.

Seeing the two's reactions, Inbell seized the opportunity and planned, "In the opposing team, Captain Kira's strength is unfathomable. I'm not trying to be arrogant, but based on the information I've gathered so far, it's impossible for any one of us to defeat him."

"Then there's Timalia. Her magic is too unique. We have no way to counter 'Time Seal,' and we have no chance of winning against her."

"Finally, there's Larcade. He's an extremely powerful figure in our guild, even stronger than Timalia. His magic and melee combat are unmatched by ordinary people, so defeating him won't be easy."

"These three are the biggest obstacle to our victory!"

After Imber finished speaking, the previously noisy atmosphere suddenly became quiet.

Kira is strong, they know that; Demalia is strong, they also know that; but before this, they had always thought that these two should be compared to their own Laxus and Jura in the opposing team.

But now, Larcade has suddenly appeared, claiming that his strength is no less than that of Timalia. This has undoubtedly reduced their calculated chances of winning by dozens of points.

Erza frowned slightly, the images of all the members of Kira's team flashing through her mind. After a moment of thought, she asked, "Larkade... is that the white-haired monk?"

"it's him!"

Imber nodded, but did not reveal that Larcade was also a demon created by Zeref. There were too many people present, and it wouldn't be a good thing to say it.

Just then, Agil suddenly interrupted, making a couple of offbeat jokes: "Don't let Larcade's appearance fool you, his magic is quite interesting!"

interesting??

Everyone was stunned: Really?

Chapter 712 Kira's Deployment

"Three singles: Laxus, Jura, and Agil."

"The four doubles pairs are most likely Erza and Mira, Stud and Corai, Inbell and Sawyer, and Yuka and Toby."

Inside the tavern, Kira, holding a pen and paper, spread out his writing and drawing on the table. Based on his information, he circled or linked 11 names, making a prediction about the characters who would appear in the seven battles.

Ultear and the other mages gathered around him, forming a circle around the table, quietly watching Kira show off.

How did you know the opponent's playing role?

"Experience and intuition!"

Kira slammed the draft paper on the table and said firmly, "Tomorrow's match is a best-of-seven series. To win, we need to concentrate our strongest mages in four matches and our weaker mages in the other three."

"Based on my understanding of their personalities, Laxus and Jura are the two strongest, and they will definitely choose to fight one-on-one. Imber and Agil's magic attributes are incompatible, and their teamwork is not as good as Erza and Mira's combination, so one of them will definitely participate in the one-on-one battle, and the other will participate in the two-on-one battle."

At this point, everyone imagined the scene of the other party using magic—countless suspended weapons, all kinds of armor, a sandstorm raging across the sky, a white world of ice and snow…

"In comparison, Imber's magic is more effective in two-player battles, and his magic control is better than Agil's, which ensures that his teammates are not harmed. Therefore, I think he will participate in two-player battles."