Minerva lunged forward, her right hand glowing with a swirling, multicolored orb of light. She swept it horizontally across Cana's path.
Cana raised an arm to block, but she didn't expect the orb to suddenly expand, ballooning to over a person's height, and then detonate with a violent burst.
The shockwave blasted her off her feet.
Cana grunted as she was flung twenty or thirty meters back. She hit the ground hard, rolled repeatedly, and quickly twisted into a squatting landing to get her balance back.
Her capri pants were torn open at the knees, thin streaks of blood showing through. Bruises mottled her shoulders and elbows, and her long hair, mussed and dirty, hung around her in disarray.
But Cana didn't look angry.
"It looks like… this isn't someone I can beat easily."
Minerva gave a soft, satisfied laugh.
"You also seem capable of giving this young lady some entertainment."
Cana drew two cards and sprinted forward, flinging them outward, one to her left, one to her right, as she closed the distance.
Minerva neutralized the incoming cards with effortless gestures, all while keeping quiet track of where the non-explosive cards embedded themselves.
Just as Cana was about to get within reach, Minerva flicked her wrist.
A semi-transparent sphere, over twice Cana's height, dropped around her like a cage.
"So heavy…! My body feels like it's filled with lead," Cana staggered, her steps slowing as her knees bent under the sudden weight.
But after a quick adjustment, she clenched her teeth and pushed forward again.
"As long as I get out of this space, I'll be fine!"
"That's correct. However," Minerva turned her palm.
The sphere surrounding Cana slowly shifted colors, darkening into a deep red, before erupting with a deafening boom.
BOOM!
The explosion tore up the arena floor, flames roaring skyward.
"Ngh!" Cana burst out of the fire, pant legs shredded, singed hair flying behind her. Two golden cards dissolved from her left hand into tiny motes of light.
Her defensive spells, Wall of Power and World's Guardian, had been completely consumed.
"How about this?" Cana lunged forward and drove her fist straight at Minerva.
"Crush!"
Minerva instantly conjured a colorful orb to defend, but the moment it touched Cana's fist, it shattered from the inside out, fragments bursting like glass under the sharpest blade.
Minerva herself was struck directly.
"Ah—!"
She flew backward, crashing onto the ground. Her white shawl tore apart, the hem of her qipao ripped open, and her long white gloves were scraped and punctured by the rough landing.
At that exact moment, far away, a certain uncle watching the broadcast burst into hearty laughter, unknowingly stomping down hard enough to crack the ground beneath him like a spiderweb.
People around him shrieked and crouched, thinking it was an earthquake.
But the match wasn't over.
Minerva vanished again, merging into that warped, prismatic space.
Cana took two careful steps forward, eyes sharp as she read the surroundings.
Minerva appeared exactly two steps behind her.
Cana smirked, spinning around and pointing downward.
"Summoning Lightning of Fate!"
But nothing happened.
The card she had planted in advance was floating inside a small, multicolored orb of Minerva's magic, completely sealed off.
Minerva extended her right hand.
The orb in her palm elongated into a ribbon-like band of light that lashed forward, wrapping around Cana's ankle.
With a flick of Minerva's arm, Cana was yanked off her feet and swung through the air like a hooked fish, her body slamming brutally into the arena wall.
The wall split apart, chunks of stone raining down as Cana collapsed onto the ground among the rubble.
She staggered to her feet, panting.
"Your magic has… way too many functions."
Minerva smiled thinly.
"Your resilience is somewhat surprising."
"I should say the same to you."
Cana pulled another full handful of cards from her bag, keeping her guard up while her mind raced for a countermeasure.
The woman across from her was a true all-rounder, offense, defense, mobility. Almost no openings.
In fact… her versatility and tactical adaptability might even surpass Cana's.
Just what kind of magic was this, anyway?
The two clashed again, cycling through every method they had, long-range bombardments, close-quarters scrambles, trap setups.
Whenever an opening appeared, they unleashed high-powered explosions or crushing spells like the ones from earlier.
The once-flat arena had been completely torn apart by their battle. Their clothes were shredded, and both bodies were covered in cuts and bruises.
But overall, Cana had taken more damage.
Minerva's spatial magic was simply too efficient.
Across the entire arena, no matter where Cana dodged, near or far, it felt as though she was always within Minerva's attack range.
After nearly twenty minutes of fierce combat, Cana was clutching her left arm, and even Minerva no longer looked composed.
The two stood facing each other at a distance of about twenty meters, both breathing heavily.
After a brief standoff, Cana seemed to come to a realization.She suddenly dashed forward.
Minerva shot a quick glance at Jiemma in the audience, then stood her ground and casually fired at the approaching Cana.
"Crush!"
Judging the distance to be perfect, Cana slammed her fist into the ground.
With a deep hum and a flash of white light, the ground within several dozen meters fractured into countless slabs of earth and stone.
But this time, Cana intentionally shattered the terrain unevenly.Chunks of rock clattered and rolled toward the center of the impact zone.
Minerva lost her footing and fell into the newly formed crater along with the tumbling stones.
As she fell, she noticed numerous untriggered cards mixed among the rubble, rolling toward the center as well, and instantly understood Cana's plan.
So, as she tumbled, she purposefully slapped a card beneath her hand:
The Death God card.
"Ice Pillar of the Death God!"
The trap activated perfectly, freezing Minerva inside a towering crystalline pillar.
Cana leapt across the rubble and drove her fist straight into the ice.
The pillar shattered.
Minerva cried out and was blasted backward, collapsing onto the ground with her eyes closed.
Pumpkin Man inspected her condition, then raised his voice:
"The match is decided! Fairy Tail Team A, Cana wins!"
Cana blinked, slightly confused.
But since the referee had declared it, she simply lifted her right fist with a grin, accepting the roar of cheers and applause from the audience.
Rhodes glanced toward the fallen Minerva with a puzzled expression.
"An actress?"
A few other sharp-eyed spectators shared the same confusion. They had expected Minerva's collapse to be part of some final trick. But she had simply lost, just like that.
Minerva was carried away by the medical team, while Cana headed straight toward Team B to meet Wendy.
Meanwhile, the commentators were already reviewing the highlights and recapping the three days of competition.
Chapati: "With today's results, Fairy Tail Team B has climbed to 56 points, and Team A has 42 points. Incredibly, Dragon's Treasure sits in third with only 24 points, what a sight!"
Lahar: "In fact, Fairy Tail still hasn't sent out Mr. Gildarts. If he were participating..."
Chapati cut in: "It should be said: they truly deserve the title of Fiore's former number one guild. With this mountain-sized lead, first place seems almost guaranteed!"
Lahar: "You can't say that yet. The upcoming events might not favor Fairy Tail. Other teams still have a chance."
Yajima: "Hmm… let's keep watching."
As the commentators continued their discussion, contestants and spectators began filing out in an orderly manner. The construction crews, once again, were called in to work overtime repairing the arena.
Jiemma, Sabertooth's guild master, whose team had dropped to second-to-last place, remained seated in the audience, face dark and unmoving.