A New Life in Fairy Tail

She was also covered in numerous injuries; after all, the traps in the forest were simply too numerous to avoid completely.

Stepping out of the forest, Erza looked up at the end of the road in the distance—the finish line—and breathed a sigh of relief. The forest had been filled with all sorts of traps, and a single moment of carelessness could have resulted in serious injury. Because of her own mistakes, several of her armors had been badly damaged and would be unusable for the rest of the exam.

With no time to feel sorry for her armor, Erza took a deep breath and gathered her spirits. There was still one last stretch of road to cross.

She carefully observed the path ahead and keenly sensed that there were no traps. At first, she didn’t quite believe it, having been made paranoid by all the traps in the forest. Moreover, the path wasn’t marked, so she would only know what was there once she stepped on it. After observing carefully again and confirming that she couldn’t see any traps, she didn’t hesitate any longer. This was a speed trial; every second counted. Since she couldn’t find any problems, she would trust her own judgment.

”Requip: Flight Armor!”

She had swapped out of her Flight Armor when she first encountered the traps, so it hadn’t been damaged. Now, she equipped it again, intending to charge to the finish line in one go. She pushed off the ground with all her might and shot forward.

At that moment, Sorano and Mirajane burst out of the forest at almost the same time.

Both of them were covered in injuries. Sorano was in slightly better shape; the versatility of her Angel Magic had allowed her to deal with the traps more freely, so she had fewer injuries than Mirajane. Mirajane had fared much worse. Her Take Over magic, which allowed her to receive a demon, was undoubtedly powerful, but it was much less suited for dealing with a variety of different situations. Even when she had tried to brute-force her way through Noah’s traps, she had found it difficult. Noah had anticipated this when setting them up and had taken precautions. After trying two or three times and finding she couldn’t break through, Mirajane had no choice but to proceed slowly and try to avoid them. Denied the path of brute force, when she did fall into a trap, she could only rely on her speed to dodge or her own strength to power through.

As a result, the Mirajane who emerged from the forest had more injuries than Sorano, and her magic and stamina were more severely depleted.

They both looked up and saw Erza already far ahead, with only half the distance to the finish line remaining. Mirajane’s expression was tense; Erza was almost at the end. But she too had been made paranoid by the traps and carefully scanned the road ahead, only to find that there were none. Seeing Erza get even further ahead, she didn’t look any longer. With a beat of her wings, she flew up and gave chase. She decided that even if there were traps, with such a short distance left, she would just push through.

Sorano, on the other hand, carefully observed the road. When she saw no traps, she cautiously sent out a few small angels to test the path. Seeing that nothing was triggered, she finally summoned her flying angel and flew quickly towards the finish line.

After Sorano had set off, Lyon emerged from the forest. Thanks to the versatility of his Ice-Make magic, although he didn’t have the variety of options that Erza and Sorano had, his speed was not slow. However, his magic and stamina were also severely depleted, and he had numerous injuries. Seeing the three girls already ahead, he didn’t rush after them. He calmed down, observed the path, and only gave chase after confirming there were no traps.

The last one out was Simon. His strength was a little less than Mirajane’s, he was slower, and his magic was not as varied as the other three’s. So he could only slowly dodge the traps, and when he couldn’t, he had to take the hit. That was why he was the last to emerge. After observing that the road ahead was clear, he began to walk towards the finish line at a steady pace. It was too late to catch up to the others now; it was better to conserve his energy.

Erza was in the lead, with Mirajane chasing from far behind. Mirajane was faster than Erza and was slowly closing the distance, but it was too late. The gap between them was just too large.

Erza was the first to cross the finish line.

”Erza is in first place!” Noah announced loudly.

The guild members, who had been stunned by the participants’ performance in the forest, finally came to their senses and burst into applause.

Immediately after, Mirajane crossed the finish line, with Sorano right behind her.

”Mirajane is in second place, Sorano is third!”

After Lyon had skated across the finish line, there was a short wait before Simon walked across.

”Lyon is fourth, and Simon is fifth! The first trial is now over!”

Noah announced the end of the exam, then said to the five obviously exhausted participants, ”Rest for now. The second trial will be held in the afternoon.”

Hearing this, the five of them breathed a sigh of relief. Their clothes were soaked with sweat, and while they hadn’t noticed during the exam, now that they could rest, they felt extremely uncomfortable. They were also all injured. The five of them took out the recovery potions Noah had made from their personal storage spaces and drank them. A cool feeling spread from their stomachs throughout their bodies. Their fatigue was greatly relieved, and their injuries began to gradually heal.

Seeing them injured, Wendy had wanted to go and heal them with her magic, but Noah stopped her.

”Your magic power isn’t enough to completely heal all five of them. And besides, they’ve already taken my potions and are starting to recover. They’ll be more or less fine by the afternoon. This is also a kind of test for them. Out in the real world, you won’t always have a healing wizard to help you.”

Hearing Noah’s words, Wendy could only look at the five of them with teary eyes, but she didn’t mention healing them again.

Natsu ran up to them excitedly. ”You all fought so well! I want to try too!” He then rushed over to Noah. ”Noah, I want to give it a try!”

Gray, Freed, and the others’ eyes also lit up. They also wanted to go in and test their skills, to see the gap between themselves and the S-Class candidates.

Noah thought for a moment. It didn’t seem like a problem. Since the course would be scrapped afterward anyway, it would be good to let them try.

”Alright. But I’ll need to repair it first. You all can go and start making lunch.”

Hearing that he could try the racecourse, Natsu immediately ran excitedly to the campsite to help cook. Gray first went to check on his senior, Lyon, and helped him bandage his wounds. Seeing that his injuries were already starting to heal, he then went to the camp to help.

~~~

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