—Recap—
When he left, the Sabertooth wizards were left to talk.
"Orga, from the remainder of the games, you will take my place," Sorella stated, startling him.
"Are you serious?" Orga was confused. He looked down at Sorella to observe any damages she may of sustained, but there was none. "Why?" He questioned her.
"Differences of opinion; besides, don't you want an excuse to show off your black lightning?" She replied plainly, and while he didn't understand her reasoning fully, he was not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth.
"Very well, I call first dibs in the games tomorrow! I swear I'll make those Fairy punks pay for what they did to us!" Orga smirked determinedly.
"Your black lightning shall make their very souls tremble," Rufus approved.
"Indeed, we shall respond accordingly to their act of disrespect. Although, I admit disturbances like this is what makes the events interesting. And since Yukino is no longer with us, I shall fill in her spot." Minerva coyly responded.
"Now as for our injured men..." Minerva pursed her lips, once she heard the groans of men.
~ ~ ~ ~
Sorella observed her surroundings. There were many men on the ground who were unconscious and beaten, the she sighed heavily.
While she disliked the fact that they were all complicit in their Guild Master's actions, there would be certainly a lot of questions as to why they were all bruised and burnt up tomorrow.
Everyone in Sabertooth wanted to keep this intrusion as private as possible.
"As our medic witch is not here, I will go around and heal the injured," Sorella stated and she went around to heal as many wizards as she could.
Not only did Sorella's offensive magic strengthen over the past three months, but so did her healing powers.
Months ago she remembered feeling exhausted after just healing all of Freja's injuries, now she could heal easily without so much as breaking a sweat.
It was practically thanks to Sting and Rogue that her stamina for healing had improved. Especially because of how many times Sting and Rogue had beat each other up, she'd was practically healing them all time because they practically begged her too.
The first wizard she healed was Dobengal, he was the closest to her in distance. "Serenity waves," Sorella let waves of light resonate out of her, she kneeled down to help him up into a sitting position. He groaned in pain, but let her assist him. "I really... failed there.." he coughed as she leant him against a column.
She shook her head. "You'll be fine," she reassured him. "He was focused on the Master, that wasn't on you."
When Dobengal was okay, she moved on to a few others.
"Where are your injuries?" She asked a group of five, and they each showed her where their burns were.
"Lux sanitatem."
When they were healed, she moved on.
"I don't need gAH— help!" A particularly stubborn wizard tried to deny and she rolled her eyes.
"Suit yourself then," she was going to move on.
"W-Wait, I change my mind," the wizard groaned when he struggled to get up.
I thought so.
This would be a long night, Sorella gathered, as she healed the man.
When Sorella was finally done, the men were relatively fine. The only thing left that was damaged were their prides, and Sorella couldn't do anything much about that.
She was finally exhausted and her bed was calling for her.
Dragging her feet, she made it up the stairs and was half way down the hall when she heard footsteps behind her.
"Sorella," she heard his voice and she rolled her eyes.
"Not now, Sting. I'm tired," she yawned, irritated to have been stopped from sleeping.
"Sorella we need to talk," yet Sting still insisted. Sorella closed her eyes in annoyance.
"Can this not wait until tomorrow?" She groaned.
"I'd rather we not go to sleep mad at one another," Sting replied, and she turned around to see him standing a few feet behind her, arms crossed; he was concerned.
"Are you sure that what you're about to say next won't further anger me?" She demanded.
"Yes... Hopefully," He replied confidently, until he paused and re-corrected himself.
"Very well, let's hear it," she conceded and he shook his head.
"Not here, I don't want anyone to hear us," Sting replied.
She bit her lip. "Follow me then," she gestured, leading the way to her room and he followed behind her silently.
Sorella sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for him to speak.
"Out with it," her patience was little at this time of night.
"I don't have anything against Yukino personally," he stated and Sorella inhaled deeply, but she decided to hear him out.
"She was nice, she was polite and soft spoken, but she's different than the rest of us," Sting said, and this was the second time today that Sorella wondered where he was going with this.
"You'd agree that even though she was powerful... With the way Sabertooth is run, she was soon to have shortcomings," he continued.
"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" Sorella cocked a brow.
"What I'm telling you is my perspective, how you chose to react is up to you," he replied and Sorella shut her mouth.
"I'm just saying that Sabertooth is run brutally. In order to be the very best, you have to be willing to be ruthless. Yukino is not ruthless, you know that. She will face her opponents and see them as equals. She thanked our guild master even though he made her strip for bringing shame to our guild's name. I don't see her as a weak person, but Sabertooth isn't for her," Sting voiced out his opinion, and Sorella hated how he was making sense.
"This was still her home, she wanted to be here," Sorella protested.
"Maybe, but our Master decided otherwise," he responded. "Go ahead, scream at me for something that's not up to me," he said when she fell silent. He was expecting the worst insults to come out of her mouth, but she didn't have much else to say.
"...I hate him. he made my best friend homeless,"
Sorella's fists tightened on her lap and she was holding back tears.
"He's a piece of shit," she cursed.
"He's the worst person to ever live on Earthland," Sorella whispered, glaring at the floor.
It was then, Sorella felt his hands wrap around hers and he un-balled her fists.
She was further surprised when he pulled her head into his body.
One hand was in her hair, the other hand was on her upper back; Sorella's head was underneath his chest.
"...Sting?" She muttered against his body.
"I know, I'm sorry," he murmured back, and Sorella's eyes widened.
"W-What?" She stammered.
"It's not a secret that he's strict, or that he commands respect out of fear, but unless the guild master changes, nothing will," Sting replied.
Sorella let out tears she hadn't let fall in a while, and Sting let her without saying so much of a word.
It felt like an eternity that Sting had held her in his embrace, she had grabbed his vest and pulled on it. She didn't know what else to do with her hands.
It was a weird way to hug, so Sting sat next to her on the bed and pulled her against him. Her head was leaning on his shoulder.
"...I don't know if I want to apologize for yelling at you in the hall a few hours ago, I'm not ready too," Sorella whispered. Sting remained silent.
"But, I guess I can take back calling you shallow," she thoughtfully added.
"...But not arrogant and prideful?" Sting dared to chaff, and he felt her head shake.
"I can't take back what's true," she replied, and this time there was no undertone of hostility in her voice.
"I guess I'll take what I can get," he sighed.
"Good," Sorella replied.
And then they remained silent again.
"Hey, I know you said you didn't want to be in the games anymore, but are you sure?" Sting questioned her after a long while.
"I'm sure. But I'll watch on the side and support our guild," Sorella replied.
He looked at her, she felt his body move so she glanced back up to him. "You can still sit with us at the team balcony, Orga did and he wasn't part of the team yet," he reminded her.
"I'm not sure if I'd want to be in the same proximity as M'lady Minerva for long, but I'll think about it," Sorella responded truthfully.
"I won't force you, if you don't want to," said Sting.
"...Let's talk about something else," Sorella said.
"Like what?" He asked her.
"I don't know... What's your favourite colour?" She randomly decided and he looked at her with confusion.
He laughed.
"What? Why that of all things?" Sting asked her.
She groaned; "That was the first thing that came to mind," she rolled her eyes and expected Sting to make fun of her more, but that wasn't the case. "It's yellow," he answered, and that made Sorella take her head off his shoulder to look at him strangely.
He wouldn't admit it to her, but he already missed the feeling.
"Yellow?" She questioned, brows furrowed. "Yeah, why?" He asked.
"You mean it's not blue? The same blue you're practically always clad in?" Sorella questioned.
"Nah, I always preferred yellow. I just happen to look good in blue," Sting responded playfully and Sorella stifled a laugh. "I mean, it's true," he shrugged. "You'd have to agree that I just wouldn't look as good in yellow than I do in blue."
Sorella observed him, trying to imagine his clothing in yellow instead and she had to agree.
"Yeah, it would wash you out," Sorella confirmed.
"Exactly," he let out a prideful smile.
"What's yours?" He suddenly questioned, and Sorella hummed.
"It's red, like scarlet roses."
Sorella and Sting continued to talk about nothing for a long period of time, until she yawned and he realized the time. "It's getting late, I should go," Sting said, and for some reason, Sorella grabbed his wrist as he got up. "Sting."
Sting turned around to look at her questionably.
"Yeah?"
There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but there was also hesitation inside her.
How would he even react if she managed to utter the words 'Please stay?'
Sorella shook her head, she let go of his wrist and looked away with a blush.
"Nothing, good night," Sorella uttered.
She felt him grab her chin gently, like he did on the beach all those months back, and he tilted her head up to look at him.
He kissed her quickly and then pulled away before she had time to react.
"Good night, Sorella," Sting said, leaving her room and she was rendered speechless.
"Welcome folks, to day three of the Grand Magic Games! This puts us in the half way point!" Chapati greeted. "How are we ever going to top the dramatic fights in the last few days?" Yajima questioned. "I think I'll be on my best behavior today, as our special guest of is Martial Lahar from the Magic Council." Chapati added.
"It's good to see you Lahar, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Yajima turned to face his previous college.
"It has. Thank you for having me here," the Council man replied gratefully.
"And now, today's competition is going to be an exciting one to kick off the rest of the games, and it's called Pandemonium!"
Each team quickly picked their member to compete in Pandemonium.
Sorella, despite giving up her position to Orga, was sitting up in the Sabertooth representative balcony with the rest.
She had taken Sting's invitation, and the others hadn't minded anyways. After all, Sorella was there since day one, so for her presence to disappear would have left an odd feeling.
She was sat sideways on the ledge of the balcony again, something she got into a habit of doing, and turned to Orga, "I guess you're up," she gestured, and he smirked.
"Damn right! I want to give them all a taste of my black lightning that no one will ever forget," Orga hand balled up in a fist.
"Try not to get ahead of yourself, we don't even know what this game is about." Minerva warned him, but the matching smirk on her face was clear.
Minerva was on the other side of the balcony; while she didn't oppose Sorella still being there, they opted to stand as far away from one another as physically possible.
Or rather, Sorella tried to. Minerva didn't seem to care.
Rufus chuckled at Orga's determination.
"All of the competitors have been selected! From Sabertooth, we have Orga! From Lamia Scale, Jura! Blue Pegasus chose Hibiki! In team Raven Tail, Obra! Representing Mermaid Heel is Milianna! From the Quatro Puppy team is Novali! From Fairy Tail Team A isErza! And finally, Fairy Tail Team B, Cana!"
The crowd cheered for all the representatives when they gathered on the field.
As Sorella waited for the opening game to take place, she felt it before she saw it. There was a huge amount of magical energy gathering inside of the arena. Then suddenly, a giant purple magic circle appeared in the sky and out grew an upside castle.
"Before you stands a castle filled with vicious monsters! That's Pandemonium!" Mato exclaimed to the contestants who all looked up in awe.
"Holy crap..." Cana said, craning her head way up to try and see the top.
"I take it we're supposed to battle with these monsters?" Jura assumed. "Yes! You are correct sir!" Mato quickly confirmed Jura's suspicions; the crowd started to freak out.
"100 terrifying beasts are lurking within the castle walls! But don't panic everyone! There's no danger of them escaping and attacking the crowd! They're magical projections that we created solely for the purpose of this game!" Mato reassured everyone eagerly. Mato continued on the explain that each monster had a range of difficulty, all of which were ranked from D-class monster, all the way to the S-Rank beast.
Mato went on to show a sample of a D-class monster in the lacrima screen that popped up in front of the castle.
The silver monster had spikes all over its back and was walking around on four legs. The crowd began to panic even more as the monster jumped and broke a column.
"The Pandemonium castle is filled to the brim with these vile creatures, and many more awaits you!" Mato was excited.
Sorella observed the castle with intent, it looked way bigger on the inside than it did from the outside; she wondered how Orga would fair against these monsters, he would be able to handle them well.
Lector and Frosch were cheering enthusiastically for Orga, they always had fate in Sabertooth's members.
Until they fail.
"Remember to keep this in mind! Every class of monsters are two times stronger than the monsters ranked beneath them. So if you think that the D-class monster was strong, you'll definitely lose your minds S-ranked beast when it comes along! In fact, I'm not even sure how well a Wizard Saint could fare against one of them!" Mato explained, hyping up the strength of each beast.
"You will all get turns in picking how many monsters you wish to fight in every round, we like to call this; 'Competitor's right to challenge'. Take this as an example, if you say that you would like to fight three monsters, Pandemonium will randomly generate three beasts that you'll have to defeat in order to gain your points and move on to the next round. The next competitor will then repeat the process and so on and so on. The game will then end when everyone has either ran out of magic or all the monsters in Pandemonium have been defeated!"
"So there's some math involved?" Milianna asked the pumpkin man.
"Yes, to some extent. After the first round, it would be wise to pick your numbers carefully, and it would also be wise to remember that the monsters are randomly generated. So you could very well get any mix of classes together whether you decide to test your skills again five monsters or one. There's also a chance that you could get the S-Rank beast as well." Mato continued to explain.
"So that means that we'll have to strategize and use our heads in order to avoid battling the S-rank guys in there," Hibiki stated.
"He just told us that the monsters in there are going to be chosen at random, so how the hell can you use some kind of strategy?" Orga asked the Blue Pegasus mage, judging Hibiki's thought process.
Hibiki turned to look up at Orga with a smug expression.
"You can't, but I certainly can. I know all about probability. And my archive magic will come in handy," he gloated proudly.
Mato began to explain the point system.
A point would be rewarded for every beast that the competitor defeats.
The only catch was that the challenger could not leave the castle until all the monsters were defeated. If they got knocked out though, they would keep all their previous points. However, they would be out of the game and wouldn't receive any points for that round.
In order to decide what order that they would go in, the Mato had them draw straws.
Erza was the first challenger, Milianna was second, Nobary was third, Hibiki was fourth, Obra was fifth, Olga was sixth, Jura was seventh and Cana was eighth.
Erza and Milianna...
I didn't know that Milianna escaped too, but I'm glad she's doing better now.
What came of the others though?
Sorella kept her gaze trained on both wizards silently.
"So that little fairy is going first, huh?" Minerva chuckled under her breath; she was also interested in Erza it seemed.
"Very Interesting, I had mistakenly assumed that victory in the game was ultimately on the luck of our draws," Erza said, as she examined the lot she pulled out.
"It's far more than that! You'd have to consider pacing, your own opponents strength, the likelihood of getting a really nasty monster..! The list goes on and on as this is a far more complex game..." Mato began to explain but Erza cur him off with a chuckle.
"No... In fact, this is no longer a game." Erza denied, as she began to walk towards the castle's entrance.
"Inside this castle, wait one-hundred monsters," Erza looked up towards the entrance, a determined expression was on her face.
"I chose to fight all of them!" she announced.
= = =