"Ah, these two…"
Makarov stood rooted to the spot, shaking his head as he gazed at the half of the mountain that had been utterly destroyed by their battle. He had asked the other members of the guild to take Laxus back to the guild.
Fortunately, it was here. If it had been in front of the guild like last time, the entire town might have been demolished by them.
"Ahem, that last strike was good, Old Man." Phoenix cleared his throat, a look of satisfaction on his face as he consoled, "It's been a long time since I've been this active. This battle was quite enjoyable. So, from now on, you don't have to worry about me fighting anyone else at full power."
"You're saying you went all out just now?"
Makarov looked at Phoenix with a disdainful expression. What thick skin.
"Ah haha, it's pretty close anyway. I've already acknowledged Laxus's strength. From now on, he's a qualified S-Class Mage."
"S-Class… huh?"
Makarov still seemed a bit uneasy. After all, once Laxus became S-Class, given his habits, he would surely take on high-difficulty missions where he could lose his life with a single mistake. How could Makarov be at ease?
"Haha, don't worry, Old Man. I'll go with him on the first two missions."
"You?"
Makarov's face instantly turned green.
"Absolutely not you! Definitely not!!"
"Eh, why is that?"
Phoenix asked, clearly confused.
"You're still asking me why?" Makarov was fuming. "Don't tell me you've forgotten all about your habit of running up tabs everywhere and not paying them back! You never consider the location when doing missions, whether it's a town or a city, you get carried away when you get excited. I've been scolded by the Council countless times because of you!!"
"What does that matter? At least Fairy Tail's reputation has spread. We're famous now, you know."
"Nonsense!! I'd say infamous is closer to the truth!"
"Yo, Mavis, are you done sleeping?"
Phoenix completely ignored Makarov's complaints and turned to Mavis, which infuriated Makarov.
"Hmm, almost. I need to go back and get some more sleep."
Finding that things were settled here, Mavis didn't want to stay any longer.
After seeing Mavis off, Phoenix waved to Erza.
"Let's go, we're changing locations now."
"Are you really okay, Master?"
Erza ran to Phoenix's side and asked worriedly.
"Hehe, I'm full of energy!! This kind of battle is just a warm-up. For those few years, Natsu and I were constantly fighting Igneel, and those battles were much more brutal than this."
"I see."
Erza suddenly understood. Though what exactly she understood, Erza herself probably didn't know.
Finding another secluded corner, Phoenix unreservedly explained his understanding of swordsmanship to Erza. Unlike Kagura, who was too young at the time and needed to explore many things herself (Phoenix didn't want his teachings to influence her too deeply), Erza was different. Her swordsmanship had already taken shape, and Phoenix was merely providing a reference.
After explaining swordsmanship, Phoenix demonstrated the most basic attacks and defenses. Erza proved to be a swordsmanship prodigy, fully grasping everything with just one look and replicating it perfectly. Seeing this, Phoenix had to change his plan and immediately taught Erza the sword techniques Lightspeed, Shrinking Earth, and Flash, which he had intended to teach her the next day.
Once the basics of swordsmanship are mastered, the rest is practical combat and arduous training.
Compared to self-training, practical combat is the most crucial step, as the ultimate purpose of practicing swordsmanship is to fight to gain or protect something.
If practicing swordsmanship were merely for self-cultivation and not for practical combat, then Phoenix would not waste a single moment.
Phoenix had always believed that flashy but impractical sword techniques were merely for show and grandstanding. What a Magic Swordsman needed was swordsmanship that could cut down all enemies.
However, overly pure killing swordsmanship did not align with Fairy Tail's code of conduct, and Mavis also did not want Phoenix to become a hellish Asura.
To avoid worrying Mavis, Phoenix was extremely strict with Erza's practical combat requirements. If he couldn't be an indestructible sharp blade himself, then he would block every single attack directed at him without fail.
Besides the first day when Phoenix taught Erza the basics of swordsmanship and three sword techniques, for the remaining two nights, Phoenix put Erza through what could only be described as brutal practical combat.
When the three days of instruction ended, Erza was quickly sent by Makarov to recuperate with an old woman named Porlyusica, who lived in seclusion in the forest. The two nights of practical combat had almost completely drained Erza of all her energy, which greatly pained Makarov. He even yelled and cursed at Phoenix at the top of his lungs, but Phoenix let it go in one ear and out the other, not taking it to heart at all. Seeing this, Makarov could only sigh helplessly, no longer trusting Phoenix's teaching abilities.
"Phew, three days of instruction are over. Now it's time for serious business."
Phoenix hadn't forgotten his original intention. To fulfill Grandeeney's promise, Phoenix had to find Wendy as soon as possible. Therefore, as soon as the three days ended, Phoenix didn't even wait for Erza to wake up before going to the second floor and accepting an S-Class demon subjugation mission. Mavis naturally went along. Natsu also really wanted to go, but Phoenix left him behind, citing his low strength, which greatly disheartened Natsu, and he secretly trained hard in practical combat. Needless to say, Natsu's practical combat surely involved fighting Gray.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was early spring of the following year.
After three years of dormancy, the name of Phoenix once again entered the public eye over the past six months, especially his astonishing completion rate for S-Class missions. Almost no S-Class missions taken by Phoenix had failed.
And some exceptions were merely because he chose to abandon them midway for the ridiculous reason of not wanting to do them.
However, of course, along with the growing fame of Phoenix, came his deplorable habit of running up tabs for meals, accommodation, transportation, and purchases.
It could be said that every restaurant, hotel, and shop that Phoenix noticed during his missions was greatly troubled. Although they could eventually go to Fairy Tail to collect their money, for those far away, traveling to Fairy Tail inevitably incurred transportation, accommodation, and food expenses, which they couldn't recover.
Because of this, they wouldn't go to collect debts once or twice. Instead, when Phoenix passed through their town again on a mission, the owners of these hotels, restaurants, and shops would enthusiastically invite Phoenix to dine, stay, or buy things. No matter what, to reduce costs for the next debt collection, it was better to let him owe more.
"Ha, another S-Class demon subjugation mission. Recently, why do I feel like demons are becoming less and less valuable?"
In the guild, Phoenix took an S-Class mission handed to him by Mavis, looked at its contents, and couldn't help but grumble.
S-Class Mission: Exterminate the demon plaguing the church.
"There are many kinds of demons. Demons created by Zeref and naturally occurring demons have fundamental differences. One type is originally a tool for slaughter, while the other is just a low-level monster that harms villages and towns. This mission is just to drive away the demon plaguing the church, so it should be the latter, very simple."
Mavis, sitting on the second-floor railing, swung her legs and said lightly.
"Simple, huh…"
Phoenix's brow furrowed slightly.
"I'll just switch to another one. This mission will probably be completed very quickly."
"Ha, that's just for you. If it were someone else, they might even be wiped out."
Laxus, who had also received S-Class recognition last year after fighting Phoenix, was also sitting on the second floor. Hearing Phoenix's disgruntled complaint, Laxus couldn't help but chuckle. This was fortunate that it was Phoenix; Laxus admired strength, and only the strong could earn his respect. If it were anyone else, Laxus probably wouldn't even bother to acknowledge them.
"Just choose this one, Fini-chan. Something interesting might happen."
"You always say that."
Phoenix shook his head helplessly, simultaneously storing the mission in his magic space, signifying that he had truly accepted the mission.