"Match start!"
Lucy immediately raised a key.
"Open! Gate of Lion-Loke!"
It was rare for her to summon Loke right at the beginning, but Natsu immediately grumbled:
"I told you, I'm taking both of them! Lucy, just watch."
"But...!"
"Understood."
Before Lucy could even respond, Loke scooped her up and retreated to a safe distance.
"HEY! Why are you listening to him without hesitation?!"
Lucy nearly deflated. Why did her Celestial Spirit always obey other people more than her?
When Rhode was around, he listened to Rhode. When Rhode wasn't around, he listened to Natsu.
Whose Celestial Spirit was he supposed to be?!
Next time she was summoning Taurus for sure!
Punnish cracked his knuckles.
"Cocky brat… We aren't the same as before!"
Hyunckelpa slammed a fist into his chest plate."Brother, let's show him our New Heaven and Earth Annihilation Style!"
"Got it!"
Punnish leapt, stepped onto his armored brother's shoulder, and launched himself high into the sky, straight into the blinding sun.
Hyunckelpa, fully armored, charged in at ground level.
"So it's still the same old trick."
Natsu's battle instincts were sharp. He instantly recalled their teamwork style.
The so-called "Heaven and Earth Annihilation" was basically a feint:one distracts from above, the other strikes from below, just with excellent coordination.
Natsu looked upward toward Punnish silhouette. The sun stung his eyes.
Meanwhile Hyunckelpa had already reached him.
"If you look up at the sky, the attack comes from the ground."
Natsu casually finished the sentence and caught the incoming heavy punch.
The massive, gauntleted fist froze midair, unable to move as Natsu tightened his grip.
"Hmph. Not that simple."
Hyunckelpa sneered.
A chilling aura burst from his gauntlet, ice instantly spread across Natsu's arm.
"I–Ice magic?!" Lucy gasped.
"He didn't have that when they fought us previously!"
Hyunckelpa snorted.
"Why would I show my full hand early? That is a mercenary's experience. Learn it well! And then..."
The second half of his sentence came from above:
Punnish dove from the sky and swung his massive frying pan at Natsu's skull.
"When you're trapped by the earth, the strike from the heavens follows!
New Heaven and Earth Annihilation Style!"
Lucy whipped out her whip.
"Loke!"
"Don't worry," Loke said calmly.
"That ice can't compare to Gray's."
Indeed.
The ice imprisoning Natsu evaporated instantly, turning into pure white steam.
Natsu caught Punnish's descending frying pan with one hand.Both the man and the pan were about to be engulfed in roaring flames.
"It's useless! Did you forget? My pan absorbs flames!" Punnish twisted the handle, siphoning the flames off Natsu.
"And when you focus too much on 'heaven..."
Hyunckelpa's second gauntlet hit Natsu's chest like a cannon.
"You forget the 'earth'!"
A violent burst of wind blasted out from Hyunckelpa's gauntlet.Natsu skidded backward several meters before stopping, brushing ash from his vest.
He grinned.
"That armor of yours looks fun."
"Hmph! We'll see if you're still smiling once you lose!"
The brothers, confident, repeated their old formation. Punnish leaping skyward again and again, Hyunckelpa charging from the front.
Natsu didn't even look up.
He inhaled deeply.
"Fire Dragon's ROAR!!"
A torrent of blazing flame erupted, swallowing Hyunckelpa whole.The arena floor blackened instantly, and the heat rolled all the way into the stands.
"It's useless! Why do you think I wear this heavy armor?! Even the strongest..."
His boasting abruptly cut off.
Then;
"TOO HOT! TOO HOT! What kind of fire is this?! Why is the best heat-insulating metal...BROTHER!!"
"What?!"
Punnish, still mid-air, flipped in a panic and dove straight down, swinging his frying pan to shield Hyunckelpa from Natsu's blazing Roar.
"This heat… it's way beyond seven years ago!"
He quickly realized the frying pan was far too small. Flames surged like a tidal wave.
He twisted the handle, expanding the weapon until it became a gigantic metal disk, almost like a massive serving platter, covering his towering brother entirely and absorbing the incoming inferno.
Behind him, Hyunckelpa collapsed, rolling desperately across the floor.
His supposedly heat-resistant armor… was burning.
Even the "fireproof metal" plating was catching fire, while other parts were beginning to melt.
And Natsu, knowing full well the frying pan absorbed flames, had absolutely no intention of stopping.
Instead, he ramped up his output even further.
"Take it! Take it all!"
The flames intensified, pouring into the pan like a raging waterfall.
Punnish was drenched in sweat, the handle shaking under his grip.
Then, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his palm.
"?!"
He gasped and looked down. Black smoke curled upward.
The heat had passed through the handle and scorched him.
"What the hell?!" he yelped, dropping the frying pan with a loud clang.
"How can a flame-absorbing tool...?!"
But it didn't end there.
The moment the pan hit the ground, it softened, sagged, and finally collapsed into a pool of molten metal, bubbling and glowing red in a newly charred crater.
Natsu opened his arms wide, flames blasting off him like a pair of blazing wings.
He grinned like someone having the time of his life.
"Let me remind you, Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!!"
A massive wave of burning heat burst forward like twin flame cyclones.
The Punnish brothers were swallowed whole.
They were launched into the air, set ablaze, and then slammed back onto the ground, rolling, smoking, and charred.
Hyunckelpa's heavy armor was already beyond saving.
Even Punnish's lighter armor wasn't spared; both were smoking, blackened, and sizzling.
The two lay twitching, mumbling faintly:
"D–demon… Fire Demon…"
"Damn it, defeated by the same move again."
Their guildmates collectively slapped their foreheads.
"What is wrong with those two?! Who keeps telling them to fight head-on?!"
In the Dragon's Treasure section, the Guild Master shot to his feet, furious, then sat back down, hands shaking, utterly exhausted.
Pumpkin Man raised his hand.
"Winners-Fairy Tail Team A: Natsu and Lucy!"
Natsu threw both arms up, laughing triumphantly. Immediately, all the large screens zoomed in on his goofy grinning face.
Lucy sighed with both hands up.
"In the end, he really did beat them alone, again."
Loke crossed his arms.
"That's Natsu for you. Honestly, I feel like his firepower keeps getting stronger. I can feel the heat from all the way over here. Lucy, better be careful, one day he might just burn your clothes right off~"
Lucy glared.
"No matter how reckless he is, he wouldn't do something that horrible!"
"Also, go back already!"
"Understood. Today's date was wonderful, Lucy. I look forward to the ne..."
"It wasn't a date!!"