“You bastard!” Mirajane cursed under her breath and swung her fist, now transformed into a demon claw, down at Gildarts.
As she swung, she roared, “Demon Iron Fist!!” Bang, bang, bang!
Unfazed, Gildarts easily blocked all of Mirajane’s attacks with one hand.
Seizing the instant she let her guard down, he grabbed her ankle and forcefully threw her into the air.
Buzz!
Mirajane had only recently learned Take Over Magic for the demon soul.
Because of that momentary lapse, she dropped out of Demon Soul Take Over in mid-air and returned to her original form.
Fortunately, Igor reacted quickly.
He caught her just before she slammed into the ground, gently held her, and set her down unharmed beside him.
Otherwise, as a human falling from the sky, Mirajane would likely have suffered considerable injuries.
“Thank you, Igor.” Mirajane thanked Igor, then gritted her teeth as she looked at Gildarts, who was calmly playing with children rather than fighting.
“Damn it, Gildarts hasn’t taken a single step since the fight started.” “Really?” Thanks to Mirajane’s remark, Elfman and Lisanna realized that Gildarts had simply stood there, and that had been enough to defeat their seemingly invincible older sister Mirajane.
“All right, your turn next.” After casually defeating Mirajane with a wave of his hand, Gildarts beckoned to Igor, who had come to help, signaling him to attack quickly because he was in a hurry.
“Mirajane, take Elfman and Lisanna and get out of here.” Instead of rushing forward, Igor turned to Mirajane beside him and whispered some instructions.
“Mm.” Mirajane seemed to understand something.
She nodded firmly, raised her fist, and shouted, “Igor, teach that unruly orange-haired bastard a lesson!” “Use Bomb Punch for me!” “…” Hearing this, Igor’s eyes twitched slightly.
The opponent is Gildarts.
Even fighting at full strength, they can’t win.
But Igor smiled at Mirajane and said, “Anyway, I’ll do my best.” “Mm.” Mirajane nodded lightly.
If Igor said so, then he could definitely do it.
Mirajane did not know how Igor would defeat an opponent stronger than himself, but she believed in him unconditionally.
“Elfman, Lisanna, hurry and hide.” So Mirajane, together with Elfman and Lisanna, who had still been planning to watch the show, quickly fled to a distant place, hid, and took shelter.
After confirming that all three Strauss Siblings were hidden, Igor took a deep breath, assumed a combat stance toward Gildarts, and in the blink of an eye transformed into his “Bomb Demon” form.
“Ohh?” Gildarts had been standing there with half-closed eyes, looking bored and killing time.
When he saw Igor instantly transform into a “demon” with a torpedo-like head covered in explosives, his pupils trembled, and he said with a laugh, “Looks like things are getting interesting.” “BOOM!!” Transformed into a “demon,” Igor charged in front of Gildarts like a black lightning bolt, like a cheetah that had spotted an antelope on the African savanna.
His fist turned into an explosive and smashed into Gildarts’ face.
“So fast!” Not far away, hidden in the forest, Mirajane cried out in shock when she saw Igor moving at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.
“Was Igor really holding back when he fought me?” “Powerful, but the movements are too slow.” In contrast to the shocked Mirajane, Gildarts maintained the composure befitting the strongest Wizard on the continent.
He caught Igor’s attack with one hand and calmly commented on the power of Igor’s punch.
Even Gildarts himself did not seem to notice that his mindset had gradually shifted from casually playing with children to that of an examiner for the “S-Class Wizard” exam.
Yes — Gildarts recognized Igor’s strength and tacitly acknowledged him as a candidate who could participate in Fairy Tail Guild’s S-Class Wizard exam.
“It’s going to explode.” When Igor smiled, the fist Gildarts was holding in one hand suddenly emitted a dazzling light.
Fierce flames and heat boiled up inside it.
“BOOM!” The next instant, accompanied by an ear-splitting roar, flames powerful enough to blow away a church covered several thousand square meters, engulfed Gildarts, and blasted away the forest behind him.
“Crush!” For the first time, Gildarts used magic he knew.
The fiercely burning flames instantly shattered into tiny flames in his hand.
“Worthy of the highest-level destruction magic ‘Crush.’ Its power is truly overwhelming.” Seizing the opportunity, Igor backflipped to close the distance with Gildarts while loudly praising Gildarts’ unparalleled destructive power that crushed magic.
“Haha!” “Igor, in terms of destructive power alone, you already surpass many ‘S-Class’ Wizards from various Wizard Guilds.” “If this were Fairy Tail Guild’s ‘S-Class Wizard Exam,’ I might even let you pass~.” Gildarts smiled as he praised Igor’s formidable strength.
“This is no time for jokes — fight with everything you’ve got!” A little ways off, Mirajane seemed fed up with Igor and Gildarts complimenting each other.
She really wanted to see their true strength, so she swung her small fists repeatedly and loudly goaded them.
‘Even if Mirajane said that, I can’t act freely.’ Igor sighed softly.
The Bomb Demon was still powerful in terms of destructive force, and he did not have the courage to attack recklessly.
“Hey, Igor~.” “Don’t look down on me, brat!” “Just like that girl over there said — attack with everything you’ve got!” Gildarts also encouraged Igor.
“I’m sorry, but if I fight at full strength, half the village will be destroyed without a trace!” Igor deeply apologized to Gildarts, fearing that his bombs might threaten the safety of the others.
Villagers: “Aren’t you afraid of being blown up?” “Don’t worry.” Hearing Igor’s words, Gildarts became even more interested in Igor’s strength and said with a smile, “No matter how powerful the attack, I’ll stop it.” “If you put it that way, I have no choice.” Reassured by Gildarts’ guarantee, Igor immediately threw hundreds of bombs, surrounding Gildarts.
“Petty tricks!” Gildarts did not move an inch.
He lightly touched the air with his fingertip, and the surrounding atmosphere — even space itself — shattered into pieces.
The explosives turned into dust indistinguishable to the naked eye.
Even after the explosives were shattered, Igor did not panic.
On the contrary, he smiled faintly and threw a spark toward the scattered gunpowder.
“BOOM!” The next instant, a huge tongue of flame swallowed Gildarts whole.
A terrifying fire dragon shot straight into the sky, reaching a height of more than a hundred meters.
“That’s useless!” Gildarts still relied on his specialty and completely erased the building-swallowing flames with Crush magic.
“This can’t be real, right?
Completely unharmed?” Seeing Gildarts remain unharmed even against this level of magic, Mirajane nearby felt the strength of a top-level Wizard for the first time.
“Huh?” But after Gildarts crushed the raging flames, he was shocked to notice that Igor, who should have been standing in front of him, had disappeared.
“Yare yare, where did you hide?
I can’t find you!” Gildarts stopped, looked around as if he could not find any trace of Igor at all, then suddenly looked up at the sky and laughed.
“Just kidding.” In the air, Igor used his previous attacks on Gildarts… a flame dragon stretching hundreds of meters rose into the azure sky… At this moment, his lower body transformed into a dazzling bullet, and he unleashed the strongest technique he could currently use, turning himself into a bomb.
“Heheh!” “Perfect timing!” Seeing this, Gildarts narrowed his eyes slightly.
Then, chuckling, he pressed his palm against the ground, shattering the earth at his feet to cushion the impact of Igor’s full-power attack.
“BOOM!” Just then, Igor landed on Gildarts’ head and whispered, “Explode!” “BOOM!!” This was the strongest technique Igor could currently master.
It was called FOAB — Father of All Bombs.
With the strengthening of the “magical power” and “magic barrier particles” inside Igor’s body, its power had reached a terrifying level comparable to dozens of tons of TNT.
It was an attack powerful enough to destroy a small village.
But before the flames could fully spread, Gildarts had already reached toward the sky.
In an instant, the flames spreading together with Igor were covered by a magic lattice that crushed his entire body.
“Huh?” Igor stared blankly at the checkered pattern on his body for a moment.
“…” Gildarts was also surprised when he saw the lines carved into Igor’s body.
“BOOM!!” In an instant, the fireball that had originally been enough to destroy the village vanished.
Gildarts’ destruction magic completely crushed everything, including the flames and Igor.
“Damn it.” “I got a little serious.” When faced with Igor’s “Father of All Bombs” technique, Gildarts could not resist the temptation.
He accidentally put in too much force and ended up throwing Igor into the destruction range as well.
In reality, Gildarts had already done his best to restrain his power.
If he had thrown an ordinary punch, let alone against Igor… An entire town spanning several square kilometers, as well as the mountains and rivers within a radius of dozens of kilometers, would have been instantly shattered into sand and gravel.