"It's already over."
Goldmine let out a long sigh.
He no longer had any interest in watching the remaining matches.
Although the final "winning team" had not yet been decided, the final winning guild had already been determined.
It was Fairy Tail.
At the moment, the top two places on the points board were occupied by Fairy Tail Team A and Fairy Tail Team B.
The difference between the two teams was only eight points.
And in the upcoming battle phase, Fairy Tail Team A and Fairy Tail Team B would face each other in a match worth ten points.
If Fairy Tail Team B won, they would overtake Team A and become the final winning team.
As for the other teams, none of them had any chance of first place anymore.
They could not even fight for second place.
The team in third was already far behind the top two, with no hope of catching up. All they could do was compete for third place.
The current third-place team was Blue Pegasus.
Led by Hibiki Lates and Ichiya, Blue Pegasus had truly brought out its elites this time.
They were firmly suppressing Lamia Scale, which was led by Iron Rock Jura Neekis.
Those two teams formed the second tier and were competing for third place. It was still uncertain who would come out ahead.
Fairy Tail Teams C and D had fallen slightly behind in this phase.
Together with Mermaid Heel, they formed the third tier.
The three teams chased one another closely, ranked fifth, sixth, and seventh, and their final positions had not yet been decided.
As for Quatro Cerberus, they were truly in a category of their own.
They sat firmly in eighth place, with no possibility of moving up even one spot.
So there was a reason Guild Master Goldmine had been sighing the whole time. It was understandable that he did not want to keep watching the remaining matches.
In truth, he had stopped wanting to watch long ago. Continuing to watch would only make him feel worse.
But the other Guild Masters and the audience were different.
With the competition so intense, they naturally watched with exceptional focus.
They had reached the final round, yet the points rankings still had not been locked in. That was genuinely exciting and thrilling.
Normally, with this kind of points-based system, if the difference in strength was too great, it was easy for the result to lose suspense very early.
But this time, only Quatro Cerberus had locked in its place early.
Every other team was still fighting for points. In this final round, the rankings could still change.
Even a shift of one place meant a completely different reputation.
The final boss team, first place, and second place were all Fairy Tail. Without question, Fairy Tail was this year's number-one guild.
No one could deny that.
But if the other teams could secure third place, they could become this year's second-ranked guild.
After all, the top three teams were all Fairy Tail teams, and those three represented the same guild.
Thinking about it that way, there was nothing wrong with calling third place the second-best guild.
Right now, Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale were fighting for the title of the guild ranked just below Fairy Tail.
Losing to Fairy Tail was nothing shameful.
It was still better than dropping further down.
Second place, after all, meant being a guild second only to Fairy Tail!
"Goldmine, why don't you just rename Quatro Cerberus to Quatro Puppies? Standing together with our guilds, you're really out of place."
Ooba Babasaama delivered a sharp jab from the side.
The words stabbed so deeply that the corner of Goldmine's mouth twitched, yet he could not find an angle to refute her.
"We just had worse luck than you."
Goldmine held it in for a long time before finally forcing out that sentence.
There was no helping it.
Quatro Cerberus had truly been unlucky.
Every time, they ran into powerful opponents. They had not won a single battle match, and even their captain Bacchus had lost, defeated by Elfman of Fairy Tail.
The others had not gained a single point from battle either.
The only reason their score was not still sitting at zero was because they had managed to earn a few points in the competition events.
But the gap between them and the other teams was far too large to catch up.
They had locked in eighth place early.
"Lack of strength is lack of strength. Don't blame luck! If you were strong enough, you could defeat any opponent you encountered."
Ooba Babasaama showed him no mercy and kept nagging away. Goldmine rolled his eyes and simply stopped paying attention to her, letting her talk to herself.
"Team A should still win."
Leaning on the railing of the viewing platform, Marco gave his judgment.
Makarov, standing on the railing beside him, shared the same opinion.
"Juvia is stronger than Lisanna."
The battle that would ultimately decide the result of the tournament was Juvia against Lisanna.
Anyone familiar with the two would have no hesitation judging who was stronger.
Juvia was absolutely far stronger than Lisanna.
Fairy Tail Team B was also helpless about this.
They had placed Lisanna last because they had originally planned to build a large lead in the earlier rounds, so Lisanna would not have to bear too much pressure.
But things had not gone as planned.
Although they had fought with everything they had, they still failed to surpass Fairy Tail Team A and take first place.
In the end, they had handed their final chance to turn the tables to Lisanna.
It could be called losing both the wife and the soldiers.
With this result, it might actually have been better to let Lisanna fight earlier.
If she had lost early, they would not have had to struggle now.
Instead, they had left this faint, uncertain hope in Lisanna's hands.
...
Everyone knew this match would be extremely difficult to win, but Lisanna herself still had to endure enormous pressure.
"Relax, Lisanna. You don't need to carry any burden. Just do your best. The problem was with my strategy. Besides, this was something we all discussed from the beginning."
Seeing Lisanna's serious expression, Freed spoke to ease her pressure.
This had indeed been the strategy they all agreed on from the start.
Now that it had turned out this way, naturally Lisanna could not be blamed.
Moreover, Lisanna's strength was not exactly weak. It was just that her final-round opponent was far too powerful.
Against Juvia, no one on their team could confidently say they would win.
After all, Juvia was a genius too, a true "Rain Woman."
After being brought back by Marco and growing up in Fairy Tail from childhood, Juvia had naturally followed Marco's footsteps all along.
She also worked extremely hard in her daily training.
Her strength far surpassed what it would have been in the original timeline.
Fairy Tail Team B naturally did not expect Lisanna, who was not especially suited for direct combat, to win.
"I..."
Lisanna's expression looked very troubled.
After all, if she could win, Team B would take first place and gain the right to challenge the final boss team.
"Don't be like that, Lisanna. You scored plenty of points for the team during the competition events too. Without your hard work, we wouldn't have our current score, and we wouldn't even have this chance to turn things around."
Seeing that Lisanna was still under heavy pressure, Evergreen could not help speaking.
They had all seen Lisanna's efforts.
This girl was not dead weight.
Her versatile Animal Soul Take Over Magic had shone brightly in the competition events and earned many points for the team.
The Grand Magic Games were never purely about direct battles. Otherwise, there would be no competition events.
Mages whose battle ability was not especially strong could still display their abilities very well during the competition segments.
"I'll do my best!"
With everyone's encouragement and reassurance, Lisanna let go of her burden and bravely stepped into the arena to face Juvia.
"Ooooooh!!!"
A duel between two beautiful girls naturally drew a wave of cheers.
The two girls had completely different styles.
Juvia was cool, elegant, and graceful, like an icy princess.
Lisanna was lively and gentle, like the sweet girl next door.
"I'm sorry, Lisanna. Juvia has to win."
Looking at Lisanna, Juvia spoke first.
"Battle begin!"
Before Lisanna could reply, King Toma had already announced the start of the match.
"Water Cyclone!"
Juvia swept her hand, and a terrifying current formed in an instant before roaring toward Lisanna.
Controlling water and creating water were far too simple for Juvia.
After all, she was a woman whose bad mood could make even the heavens weep.
And if she entered a state of anger, all of her water magic would turn into boiling water.
Against Lisanna, Juvia naturally was not angry.
She also would not use techniques with excessively lethal force against her.
Water was both soft and hard.
Its destructive power was no joke.
Buzz!
Facing the terrifying current sweeping toward her, Lisanna directly transformed into a fish and began swimming along with the surging water.
"I knew it."
Juvia smiled slightly.
Everything was under control.
Buzz!!!
The Water Cyclone shot into the sky, spinning at incredible speed.
Lisanna, caught inside, completely lost control of her own body and was spun until she became dizzy.
"She fell for it! Once she entered the water, wasn't she leaving herself completely at Juvia's mercy?"
Watching Lisanna's choice, Marco sighed.
The little girl still lacked combat experience.
After all, she had spent the past few years working as Fairy Tail's poster girl.
Even when she did take jobs, they were usually around Magnolia.
She naturally could not compare to Juvia, who had far more battle experience.
---------
Read 50 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator