Sting felt disbelief as he gazed at the dragon being beaten down by the Fairy Tail member known as Elfman, who somehow or another had turned into a beast that seemed to have dragon-like features within it.
"Manly men will not let you dragons harm their friends!" Elfman shouted as one of his claws pierced straight through the dragon's head, killing it instantly.
Sting's eyes widened as he watched the dragon that had beaten him just moments before being taken out by a single strike from a Fairy Tail member who was not even the strongest person in that guild.
Just a few hours ago….
Sting had watched the people being evacuated from the capital of Fiore from a distance along with his guild members.
Well, there was one person missing from among them.
Yukino was supposed to be in charge of mapping out the pathways towards the end of the first match since Minerva was absent and on a quest.
Even though the entire reason Sabretooth was third in the rankings was because the Fairy Tail members were way stronger than any other guild, Jiemma couldn't swallow the reality of the matter and instead blamed Yukino for the entire debacle, humiliated her, and kicked her out of the guild.
And just a few hours later, Princess Hisui called upon every guild that came for the Grand Magic Games and revealed that a thousand dragons would appear within moments in the capital.
It was unbelievable, but the fact that the kingdom had started the evacuation of the city showed how serious they were about the calamity they were about to face.
Sting had the confidence to kill dragons as he had done it to his own parent. Even though his father had not fought against him and had asked Sting to kill him, Sting had the confidence that he would be able to kill at least dozens of dragons that would appear.
'It's time to show the strength of the Twin Dragons of Sabretooth,' he said to himself as he prepared to face the dragons.
But things began going wrong one by one.
Within a few hours, the Sabretooth guild members realised something.
Their guild master had disappeared.
For a moment, there was a small panic as everyone thought that he had faced some kind of dangerous monster. But within a few hours of investigation, they managed to arrive at an unbelievable conclusion.
Jiemma had abandoned the entire guild and run away.
It was a heavy blow to every single member of the guild.
But they didn't have the time to get their emotions in order. The dragons began appearing from the centre of the royal palace.
One of the dragons shouted that the strongest humans in the world were currently in this region. So they had decided to eradicate every single human there before moving on to the rest of the world.
"Rogue, this is what we were waiting for, isn't it? It's time for us Dragon Slayers to finally earn our moniker for real," Sting shouted, to which Rogue nodded and began the battle.
Which ended in complete catastrophe.
The dragons seemed to be immune to any magic that was not Dragon Slayer Magic, and Dragon Slayer Magic was not strong enough to put a dent into the large number of dragons that appeared.
Sting and Rogue's attacks were effective. There was no denying that, but they only managed to kill a few dragons before they ran out of energy.
Sting looked upon the dragon that had beaten him after a short battle.
'Why?' he asked himself.
'Why am I so weak even after all this time?'
'Didn't I promise Weisslogia that I would become strong when I killed him?'
'Didn't I tell myself that the dragon Karna battled that day could have been defeated by a Dragon Slayer?'
'He fought the strongest dragon and survived after leaving a permanent scar on it, while I was not even able to defeat a dozen weak dragons.'
Tears welled up in his eyes.
'What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so weak?'
He thought to himself as he watched the dragon's claw moving to land the strike that would kill him.
But the next moment—
"Manly men will not let you dragons harm their friends!" Elfman shouted as one of his claws pierced straight through the dragon's head, killing it instantly.
Sting watched with wide eyes as the dragon that had easily defeated him earlier died from a single strike from Elfman.
LIGHTNING DRAGON KING HEAVEN STRIKE!!!
A shout came from the distance. Sting looked in that direction and saw the biggest bolt of lightning he had ever seen in his life fall on a dozen dragons, erasing them completely.
DRAGON SLAYER SECRET ART: LIGHTNING FIRE DRAGON'S LIGHT OF DAMNATION!!!
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared. The dragons who were directly hit by the flash shattered into different pieces without even a drop of blood left in their bodies. The heat from the light had burned up the blood within those dragons.
'That's Laxus with the lightning... and Natsu... was the gap between us really that high?' Sting was in disbelief as he looked at both those attacks.
"Damn show-offs. They're lucky my main attacks are close-combat ones," Elfman grumbled and then turned to Sting.
"Man, you did well. We will handle the rest," Elfman said as he patted his shoulder. "You should go get those wounds checked up. We set up a medical department near the eastern taverns."
But as Elfman turned around, Sting suddenly asked him a question.
"How do you do it? How are you so strong?"
Surprised by the question, Elfman turned around and saw Sting's condition. He was shaking because of exhaustion and fear. Elfman recognised the look on the kid's face. It was the same expression he had when he was young and was not strong enough to protect his sisters from harm.
"Tell me something, kid. Why do you want to be strong?" Elfman asked.
"To be the strongest in the world," Sting replied.
"Haha, not a bad aim. Having an ambition like that is not bad at all.
But that's the difference between the two of us. Unlike you, who wants to be strong just for the sake of being strong, I want to be strong to protect the people I care about." Elfman then made a fist and looked straight at it. "I have to be strong so that I can stand in front of my loved ones and protect them from harm.
I am ready to die for them just as they are ready to die to protect me. But if I die, who will protect them after that?
That is why I need to be strong to survive.
I need to be strong to face any challenge.
I need to be the strongest to protect my family.
That is why I am strong."
Elfman then began to move to face the dragons. He knew that he was one of the few wizards who had the ability to stop this calamity, so he could not waste any more time. But before he left, he decided to give the boy a bit more information.
"Every member of my guild has the same drive to be strong. To protect the people they love. That is why Fairy Tail is the strongest guild in Fiore."
Elfman then vanished and slaughtered another dragon within seconds before moving on to the next one.
Sting watched as Elfman began mowing through the dragons and killing them easily. He then remembered what they had done to their guild member a few hours ago. He then remembered how their master had run away.
'What were we doing until now?'
A/N - Hope you like it.