"Rowan! Rowan! Rowan!"
The moment Mirajane finished speaking, the island erupted. Fairy Tail's mages shouted Rowan's name in unison, their voices rolling across the lake. In their hearts, the choice was already made. Rowan had joined less than a year ago, yet he stood firmly at the center of the guild.
"Laxus! Laxus! Laxus!"
Freed, newly awake, screamed himself hoarse alongside Bickslow and Evergreen, forcing their voices through the tide of cheers. The effort was almost pitiful. Seeing how desperate the three of them were, some of the guild members instinctively lowered their own voices out of courtesy.
Laxus listened, eyes narrowing, then let out a short breath.
"Looks like you're the favorite," he said, a flicker of disappointment flashing across his face before hard resolve took its place. "Doesn't matter. Once I beat you, they'll know who the strongest really is. Strength decides everything."
"Then beat me first," Rowan replied calmly.
There was no point in arguing. This was always going to end in a fight. Deep down, Rowan didn't entirely disagree with Laxus either. In any world, ideals meant nothing without the power to uphold them. The difference was that Rowan wasn't blind to where raw strength should stop.
"Here I come!"
Laxus pointed skyward. "Lightning Call!"
A bolt of lightning tore down from the clouds, slamming straight toward Rowan. Electricity wrapped around Rowan's body as he casually lifted a paw and redirected the strike to his right, the thunder crashing harmlessly into the stone.
At the same time, a coin flicked from his claws.
"Railgun."
Propelled by a burst of electromagnetic force, the coin screamed forward faster than sound. Laxus inhaled sharply. The lightning wrapped around the projectile vanished into him, swallowed cleanly. He caught the half-melted coin in his hand an instant later.
The opening exchange ended there.
Rowan had his answer. Laxus could consume lightning just like Natsu.
Laxus had his as well. Rowan's control over electricity was refined, deliberate, and dangerous.
"So lightning's off the table," Rowan decided instantly.
Railguns, thunder giants, lightning storms. All of it would only feed Laxus. At best, he could interfere with Laxus's control to weaken incoming attacks.
Fortunately, lightning was only one page in Rowan's spellbook.
Across from him, Laxus shifted tactics just as quickly.
"Lightning Body."
He abandoned long-range attacks, drawing every spark of power inward. Lightning crawled across his skin, his muscles swelling under the reinforcement as he prepared for close combat. Against elemental manipulators, ranged attacks were inefficient. Up close, raw force decided the outcome.
"Thunder Strike!"
Laxus became a streak of light, fist driving toward Rowan.
Rowan's wand flicked.
"Impedimenta."
A green-blue flash rippled through the air. Laxus's charge stuttered. His lightning form collapsed, speed bleeding away as if time itself had thickened around him.
The spell wasn't a physical barrier. It was temporal interference, a slowing of the opponent's personal flow. Rowan had only recently grasped its true nature, discovering it wasn't about obstacles at all, but time.
Before Laxus could compensate, Rowan moved again.
"Disillusionment."
His form vanished completely.
Rowan had no intention of trading blows. Freed had been safe to crush in close quarters. Laxus was not. There was risk there, and Rowan had no reason to accept it.
He was a mage.
A ranged one.
Invisible, Rowan repositioned calmly, wand already humming with restrained power. Under Dumbledore's guidance, his mastery of wand magic had grown sharper than ever. And unlike the mages of this world, his reserves weren't something that ran dry.
Time was on his side.
If strength didn't vastly surpass his own, then distance and patience would decide the fight.
From Laxus's perspective, the world had suddenly become hostile.
"Since when do you know invisibility magic?" he muttered, lightning flaring as he halted and raised his guard, eyes scanning the empty air.
For the first time since stepping onto the arena, Laxus felt it.
Pressure.
Not from force.
From control.