A New Life in Fairy Tail

”Seeing Gajeel get beaten down like this... if you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was weak,” Lucy remarked, watching Noah fight off both Gajeel and Natsu with effortless grace. In fact, it was more like Noah was suppressing them both simultaneously.

Noah casually blocked or deflected every punch Natsu and Gajeel threw at him, while simultaneously landing heavy, solid counter-punches on both of them.

Every time Noah’s fist connected, their faces twisted in pain. It was clear the force behind his blows was far from light.

”Haha, that’s just because Brother Noah is so incredibly strong. It makes his opponents look weak in comparison,” Wendy-kun giggled.

”Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Lucy agreed, watching the three-way brawl.

Using Noah as the baseline, Gajeel naturally seemed like a non-threat. He couldn’t even counterattack; he was just getting battered.

”Well, Noah is a monster. Aside from that other monster old man in the guild, I don’t think there are many people left who can seriously fight him,” Carla commented from the side.

”Monster old man? Who are you talking about, Carla?” Lucy asked curiously.

”I know! It’s Uncle Gildarts!” Wendy-kun smiled.

”Gildarts? I feel like I’ve heard that name from the other members. Is he one of the guild’s S-Class mages?” Lucy tried to recall the times she had heard the name mentioned in passing.

”Yes! Uncle Gildarts is an S-Class mage,” Wendy-kun nodded.

”Uncle Gildarts’s strength is just as terrifying as Brother Noah’s. They are completely in a league of their own, far surpassing everyone else in the guild,” Meredy-kun added.

”Yeah! The scene when Uncle Gildarts and Brother Noah fought was absolutely incredible!” Yukino-kun chimed in, her eyes sparkling as she recalled the memory of their legendary spar.

”Mhm! Mhm! They were both so amazing!” Wendy-kun and Meredy-kun nodded vigorously, strongly agreeing with Yukino-kun.

”You can’t just call that ’amazing’. The scale of that fight was downright terrifying,” Carla sighed, correcting them.

”What scene? What happened? Tell me! I want to know!” Lucy’s curiosity was completely piqued by the girls’ excitement.

”I know this one! They fought out on the ocean!” Happy raised a paw eagerly.

”Fought on the ocean? How do you fight on the ocean?” Lucy was confused.

She had the Aquarius Gate Key and could summon Aquarius to fight in the water, but Lucy herself couldn’t fight on the ocean’s surface, and Aquarius certainly wouldn’t carry her around to do so. In fact, Aquarius would probably just wash her away along with the enemy.

Just thinking about the times Aquarius had mercilessly swept her away with a tidal wave made Lucy’s face pale slightly.

”Noah just froze a section of the ocean with a radius of several kilometers. That way, they could fight on top of it,” Happy stated matter-of-factly.

”Huh? Wait, what did you say?” Lucy paused, wondering if she had misheard. She looked at Happy seriously. ”Can you repeat that?”

”Noah froze a section of the ocean with a radius of several kilometers to create a stage for his fight with Gildarts,” Happy repeated slowly.

Lucy still doubted her own ears. ”Happy, did you mess up your units of measurement? You said several kilometers? Didn’t you mean several tens of meters?”

”He didn’t mess it up, Lucy-nee. It was really several kilometers. And Brother Noah did it so easily, too! It didn’t look like it cost him any effort at all,” Wendy-kun corrected her earnestly.

”Seriously?!” Lucy turned to Meredy-kun, Yukino-kun, and Carla to confirm. All three nodded firmly, assuring her she hadn’t misheard.

”So, now do you understand why I call Noah a monster? He froze several kilometers of ocean in the blink of an eye without breaking a sweat,” Carla said, pausing for effect before continuing. ”And Gildarts was able to fight that Noah to a complete standstill. They fought until they had completely exhausted their physical stamina and magic power, shattering the frozen ocean entirely in the process. Since Gildarts can fight Noah to a draw, you can see why I call him a monster too, right?”

”He’s that powerful?!” Lucy covered her mouth in shock. This was the first time she truly comprehended the sheer scale of Noah’s power.

When she saw him effortlessly beat down Jose, the Master of Phantom Lord, she knew Noah was strong. But now she realized her understanding had been severely lacking. Noah’s strength was vastly beyond anything she had imagined.

No wonder the entire guild placed such absolute, unwavering faith in him.

”Of course. When those two fought, it felt like watching two natural disasters collide. We couldn’t even get close to watch; we had to observe from far away,” Carla explained.

”The wind on the ocean during that fight was like a hurricane. It literally never stopped,” Happy added.

”Mhm! We were watching from far away, but the gale-force winds and rain were so strong we could barely even open our eyes!” Yukino-kun said, growing increasingly excited as she recounted the memory.

”Brother Noah’s Light Magic was so incredible! I want to become just as strong as him!” Meredy-kun’s eyes shone with pure adoration. ”It’s a pity Brother Noah rarely fights like that anymore. We haven’t seen a massive spectacle from him in years.”

”Wasn’t the fight against Master Jose of Phantom Lord a massive spectacle? That giant magical mech was completely obliterated, and the surrounding environment was devastated,” Lucy asked, genuinely confused.

”Of course not, Lucy-nee. We were just talking about him freezing several kilometers of ocean,” Wendy-kun pointed out.

”Ah, right. Fair point,” Lucy nodded thoughtfully.

Comparing a magical mech that was a few hundred meters tall to freezing a multi-kilometer stretch of the ocean... the frozen ocean was undeniably vastly more spectacular and terrifying.

”Furthermore, that fight between Noah and Gildarts happened several years ago. They had that kind of power years ago. They haven’t just been standing still since then. I know for a fact that Noah is significantly stronger now than he was back then. We don’t get to see him go all out anymore simply because there is almost no one left who can force him to use his full power,” Carla reasoned.

”Several years ago?!” Lucy gasped. She had assumed this legendary fight happened shortly before she joined the guild.

She knew Noah’s age; he had just turned twenty. That meant he had the power to freeze kilometers of ocean when he was still a teenager. No wonder Carla called him a monster.

At Noah’s age, magic power, physical strength, and combat experience were usually growing at their absolute fastest. A few years of growth would result in an earth-shattering difference in power.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom the true depths of Noah’s current strength.

Lucy drastically readjusted her estimation of Noah’s power upward.

If an enemy possessed that kind of monstrous strength, she would be paralyzed with fear. But knowing that this person was her comrade, a member of her own guild, filled her heart with an unparalleled sense of safety and security.

No wonder everyone in the guild felt so safe when Noah was around.

Thinking about this, she remembered another question.

”By the way, you guys keep mentioning Gildarts, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him?” Lucy asked.

She had met almost everyone in the guild by now, including all the famous S-Class mages. But she had never seen this ”monster old man” who was supposedly equal to Noah.

”Uncle Gildarts took on a request and left. He’s been away from the guild for a really long time,” Wendy-kun explained.

”Mhm. It’s been almost three years since Uncle Gildarts left. He took that request and left right after his spar with Brother Noah,” Meredy-kun calculated the time.

”A single request that’s taken almost three years?! What kind of request is that? If Gildarts is as strong as you say, how could a mission take him that long?” Lucy was astounded.

If Gildarts was truly a monster on par with Noah from three years ago, what kind of job could possibly stall him for three years?

”That request is...”

Wendy-kun was about to answer when she noticed the sudden shift in the guild’s brawl. The entire guild was now uniting to gang up on Noah.

”Wow, is Brother Noah going to be okay?” Wendy-kun looked at the massive pile-up with genuine concern.

”He should be fine, right? Didn’t you just spend the last ten minutes explaining how ridiculously strong he is?” Lucy was also drawn to the escalating fight, pushing her questions about Gildarts to the back of her mind for now.

”But Brother Noah won’t use his real power when fighting our guildmates,” Wendy-kun fretted.

”You don’t need to worry about him. There’s no way he’ll get hurt in a friendly brawl like this,” Carla assured Wendy-kun. She had absolute confidence that Noah could handle a bar fight without breaking a sweat.

”Haha, so that’s why they’re all attacking him. They’re so jealous!” Lucy laughed, having overheard Macao’s furious rant about Noah’s beach vacation.

”Of course they are. Ultear, Mirajane, Erza, and Sorano are all top-tier beauties. They have looks, strength, and status, yet they all chose Noah. It’s only natural the other guys would be burning with envy,” Carla noted dryly.

”But there are reasons for that. Brother Noah helped Ultear-nee and the others so much in the past,” Wendy-kun defended him.

”I know. If it weren’t for Noah, Ultear and the others wouldn’t be as happy and carefree as they are now,” Carla nodded in agreement.

Compliance Checklist Completed

~~~

Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!

https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn