Chapter 444: Provoking the Mermaid

How?!

That single, bewildered question echoed in the minds of everyone watching in the arena. In the blink of an eye, the predator destined to cut down everything in her path had become the helpless prey, frozen with the wickedly sharp point of a rapier resting directly against her throat.

Sorano, who just moments ago exuded no martial aura and seemed entirely out of her depth, suddenly radiated a chilling, razor-sharp pressure that made the audience hold their breath.

"What kind of swordplay is that?" Gajeel muttered, utterly dumbfounded. Even as someone who routinely manipulated iron into various weapons, the sheer grace and impossible physics of Sorano’s counter left him entirely at a loss. She had taken a devastating, unblockable strike and woven it into a direct checkmate.

Instinctively, the Fairy Tail mages turned toward Erza, their resident weapon specialist.

"...I don’t know," Erza admitted, her eyes narrowed in deep concentration.

"...what?"

"To me, a sword is defined by whoever is sharpest, strongest, and holds the biggest heart," Erza explained quietly. "Sharpness to cut through any obstacle. Strength to overcome any force. And an unshakable will to overpower the opponent without ever giving up."

That aggressive, forward-moving spirit was the foundation of Erza’s style. Yet Sorano’s technique defied all of that. She hadn’t relied on the piercing sharpness of her rapier to block, nor had she attempted to match Kagura’s overwhelming strength. Most importantly, she didn’t exude that fierce, dominating spirit designed to make an enemy submit.

Instead, her presence was completely still, like the glassy surface of a deep, undisturbed lake.

"Water..."

Everyone blinked, turning toward Juvia in surprise.

"I-I mean, it is like a river," Juvia stammered, feeling suddenly self-conscious. She knew nothing about actual swordplay, but she recognized the fundamental principle of the movement. "It’s as if... she isn’t trying to fight against the force at all. Instead, she just weaves around it, letting Kagura’s violent current flow past her, before rushing in like a raging river to smash the stone left behind."

"....."

Fairy Tail stared at her in silence, processing the profound analogy.

"That might be wrong, though..." Juvia backtracked instantly, showing a terribly awkward expression.

"No, you are exactly right," Erza breathed, thoroughly fascinated. "It is my first time seeing a sword art like this..." To witness a sword style that refused to fight the current, but instead blended with the enemy’s force to strike at the perfect opening, was completely eye-opening.

I need to ask Finn about this later, Erza thought with a resolute sigh.

Had Finn known what Erza was thinking, he would have found it unnecessary. In his eyes, Erza’s pragmatic swordplay was already excellent. Her style might seem brutish to a master—simply overpowering her enemies with heavy strikes—but it was incredibly adaptable. If one armor failed, she swapped it out for another. If one weapon shattered, she found a different angle. To Finn, the essence of combat wasn’t about philosophical sharpness or technique; as long as the enemy went down and the wielder survived, the sword had done its job perfectly.

Down in the arena, the tension was thick enough to cut. With the rapier resting against her skin, Kagura broke the silence, her voice dangerously sharp.

"Why?"

"Hmm? Be a little clearer when you ask a question, would you?" Sorano tilted her head, knowing exactly what Kagura meant, but intentionally forcing her to say it out loud.

"Why didn’t you defeat me immediately?"

"Because I’m not such a cruel woman, obviously."

"Ha?"

"I want to let you use absolutely everything you have," Sorano purred, suddenly adopting the tone of a spoiled, utterly obnoxious noblewoman. "That way, when you inevitably lose, you won’t be able to whine and make excuses like, ’Oh, but I wasn’t using one hundred percent! If I had gone all out, I would have totally won~!’ Something like that."

"..."

The entire stadium sweatdropped. No one could ever imagine the stoic, fiercely disciplined Kagura Mikazuchi whining like a petulant child!

For the unique demographic of fans who worshipped Kagura’s icy, unbothered demeanor, this blatant disrespect was blasphemy. But the provocation worked perfectly. Kagura’s eyes grew cold.

"I really am too kind, right~?" Sorano teased, flashing a wicked smile that screamed anything but kindness. She was just an outright bully!

"You will deeply regret giving me a chance to counterattack," Kagura stated. The sentence was short, but the sheer gravity in her tone promised absolute destruction.

"Oh, how terrifying~!" Sorano giggled, leaning into the provocation even further. "Make me regret it, then!"

Kagura didn’t hesitate. She instantly channeled her Gravity Magic, violently lightening her own body while drastically multiplying the weight of her sheathed blade. The result was a devastating, earth-shattering kinetic strike aimed directly at Sorano to completely crush her into the bedrock!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

While the fierce duel between the swordswomen escalated, Meredy was putting on a masterpiece of a performance on the other side of the arena.

She danced through the chaotic barrage of magic unleashed by Milianna, Risley, Beth, and Arana without a single scratch. "You’re all doing great, but it’s a hundred years too early for you to defeat me, okay~?"

Moving like an ethereal elf from ancient legends, Meredy slipped through the devastating spells by paper-thin margins. With the flawless grace of a prima ballerina, she vaulted over an explosion and landed lightly on the very edge of the arena’s boundary wall, right in front of the cheering audience.

Her evasion was beautiful, but her counterattack was as terrifying as a nuclear warhead.

Leaping high into the air, she elegantly drew back the string of her magical bow. A brilliantly glowing arrow materialized.

"Goodbye."

Twack!

The moment the bowstring snapped forward, the single arrow instantly multiplied, darkening the sky before raining down as hundreds of lethal, tracking blue energy bolts.

"Ah..." Beth shuddered, her eyes widening in pure horror as her nightmare from the first day repeated itself. The overwhelming dread of that inescapable barrage paralyzed her. She knew from brutal experience just how much those arrows hurt.

"So... what exactly should we do?" Milianna whimpered, looking up at the apocalyptic rain of blue light descending upon them.

"Er... Arana?" Risley asked, the chubby mage sweating bullets.

Arana simply shrugged her shoulders, resigning herself to fate. "Let’s just keep fighting. If we’re going to lose, we might as well preserve our dignity until we get blasted."

"Right!" the other three agreed in unison. Pushing past their limits, the Mermaid Heel squad unleashed every last drop of their magical reserves into the sky, giving their absolute all in a blinding final stand!

BOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!

Their desperate resistance was completely meaningless. The arena was swallowed in a sequence of massive explosions, and when the dust settled, all four Mermaid Heel mages were laid out completely flat.

"Well, that wasn’t much," Meredy giggled.

Completely unbothered by the sheer devastation she had just caused, Meredy casually took a seat on the top of the arena wall, flashing a peace sign and trying to strike the perfect cute pose so she could get some good photos for the daily Sorcerer Weekly.