This year's exam format is surprisingly almost the same as when Alex did the exam and became an S-Class. Makarov says that it's because none of that year's candidates are joining this year's exam, so they can use the same trials.
Mira and Cana are chosen as this year's candidates, and surprisingly Mest too. He hasn't been sent to infiltrate the Magic Council yet, so he is still in the Guild. Every time Alex sees Mest, he always wonders if he will also forget about Mest when the guy erases the whole Guild's memories about him even with all his knowledge about the main story.
Well, it doesn't matter for now. Currently, he has a job to do as an exam examiner, so he just needs to focus on it. His 1st job as an examiner is explaining the next trial to the candidates who manage to cross the sea from the ship that stops in the middle of the sea and get on the island.
In his exam year, this is Gildarts' job. He explains the next trial which is to climb the Great Tenrou Tree while carrying heavy backpacks that have different weights.
Mest is the smartest of them and he quickly understands the trial. He teleports and picks the lightest backpack right after Alex starts the trial. Alex leaves the site and Mest quickly takes the lightest backpack before going to climb the tree.
Cana also quickly runs to take a backpack, but Mira can move faster than her after transforming into her Satan Soul form. Mira takes a backpack and quickly flies away. But Cana surprisingly is nonchalant about it.
She is so nonchalant because she doesn't care about the weight of the backpack she gets. Even if she gets the heaviest one, it won't be a problem for her. After all, she can store the backpack in her Magic Card, so the weight won't affect her.
The candidates behind her are speechless by what they just see. They are slow, so they need to use the heavier backpacks that are left after Mest, Mira, and Cana took the lighter ones. Now they need to climb the tree with heavy backpacks.
Mest climbs the tree quite easily because he just needs to teleport to good spots that he can find with his eyes. Mira has an even easier time because she just needs to fly. The backpack doesn't slow her down at all.
Meanwhile, Cana just sits on a flying expanded card and flies up the tree. The only ones who really climb the tree are the other 4 candidates. They already get the heavier backpacks and climb the tree normally.
Of course, they also use their magic, but it doesn't help them as much as those 3. Also, they don't have as much magic power as Cana and Mira, so they need to save their magic power and can't use their magic all the time.
Laxus is guarding the upper part of the Great Tenrou Tree. Mest teleports to avoid the lighting, Mira dodges and sometimes counters the lightning with Satan Soul's Darkness Magic, while Cana is catching those lightning bolts with her cards so she can use them later.
Only those 3 manage to pass the round while the others fail to reach the top of the tree in an hour. So those 3 will do the next trial tomorrow and unlike Alex's exam year, the failed candidates are sent back home immediately.
The next trial is to find flags of different colors that are spread all over the island. Mest gets blue, Mira gets red, and Cana gets yellow. There is no clue of their whereabouts, so the 3 of them need to look for 10 flags all over the island.
They have 8 hours to find the flags and surprisingly all of them find all 10 flags they need to find. With the 3 of them passing the trial, they decide to change the next trial which is supposed to be duels.
It's still a fighting trial, but instead of fighting each other, they will fight an examiner. The examiner that's tasked to be their opponent in this trial is Alex. He will fight the 3 of them one by one and the other examiners will decide if the candidates pass or not after seeing their battles.
The 1st one to do the trial is Mest. Alex transforms into Mini Saiken to fight Mest. When the battle starts, Mest teleports right beside Alex. He punches and kicks Alex, but Saiken's slimy skin deflects all of his attacks.
Alex catches him with a tail, but Mest can escape by teleporting. Mest realizes that he can't attack Alex normally, so he teleports Alex to the coast. But at his current level, it uses a lot of his magic power to teleport someone else to a far location.
He thinks he has won because it will take a long time for Alex to return. But then, a water beam suddenly cuts through the forest and hits Mest. He realizes it too late and because of his low magic power, he can't teleport to avoid it and gets hit.
The judges don't announce the result of their judgment and wait until everyone fights. Alex returns soon to see Mest being treated by Erza. The way she puts bandages on him seems to be more painful than when Alex's attack hits him though.
Next is the battle of Take Over Mages, it's Mira's turn to fight Alex. Mira immediately transforms into Sitri form, her current strongest Satan Soul form. She knows she needs to be serious from the beginning because her opponent is Alex.
Meanwhile, Alex transforms into humanoid Chomei form. He now looks like a humanoid beetle with 6 wings and a tail. People from earth will say that he looks like a Kamen Rider with wings and a tail now.
Alex chooses to be Chomei because she's the only Tailed Beast that can fly. It gives him equal ground with Mira who can fly too. Though unlike when she flies using wings in her normal Satan Soul form, she needs to use Fire Magic to fly in Sitri form by using the fire on her feet like jets.
Flying opponents are also rare, so this will make them able to see how Mira handles a flying opponent. What the examiners want to see is the candidates' abilities to handle difficult battles.
Their battle starts and Mira charges at Alex at a very high speed. She sends a fire punch at him, but he easily blocks it with his palm. They have a close combat with Mira's punches and kicks being covered with very hot fire.
Alex stays defensive and blocks all of Mira's fast and strong attacks. He doesn't even get pushed back even though Mira's attacks are so powerful that they break the ground around them from the indirect impacts.
Mira also shoots magic spells with fire and darkness elements at Alex. But he breaks them easily with Chomei's Wind Release that's much stronger than Shukaku's Wind Release because she specializes in it.
After fighting for some minutes, Alex thinks that they've seen enough. So he catches Mira's right leg when she kicks him and he slams her down to the ground. He points his tail at her neck after slamming her down, ending the fight easily.
The last one to fight is Cana. Alex transforms into the Humanoid Gyuki form to fight her. Cana was his teammate until last year, so she knows most of his abilities. But he has just unsealed Gyuki this year, so his abilities are the least known of all the Tailed Beasts.
Though well, Gyuki's main power is his physical power. But his physical power is the strongest among the Tailed Beasts, so the enhancement that Alex gets by transforming into Gyuki is also very high.
Still, as he plans, Cana is confused and wary of his transformation. After all, she doesn't know what abilities Alex has in this form. So she throws some basic attack cards to test Alex's abilities as Gyuki.
Alex simply deflects her magic cards with his tails before they hit him. Even though they are basic attacks, they are still strong. But they still can only leave some scratches on Gyuki's tentacle tails.
Cana then tries to use 5 basic elemental attacks, but none of them show any significant damage to Alex's tails that he uses to block those attacks. It gives Cana a headache because there's no element that has an advantage over Alex's defense.
So she just starts using her strong spells to cause more damage because all the elements have equal results. But she keeps her distance from Alex while attacking because she can tell from Alex's form and movements that he is better at close combat.
Besides, she also knows that Alex is very good at close combat from her experience as his teammate for a few years. So engaging him in close combat is simply stupid.
Cana also has another big problem. While she knows Alex's skills more than anyone here, it's also true the other way around. Alex knows a lot of her abilities because they were teammates for a few years.
Though she has some new tricks that he doesn't know because she has been independent for more than a year. She throws some cards, but they stop and float around Alex.
Then suddenly, barriers appear between the cards and connect them with each other. They form a prism barrier that traps Alex inside. Then suddenly, 5 different elemental balls appear on the barrier wall.
The elemental balls burst and release powerful elemental rampage inside the prism barrier. Being contained in a small space enhances the power of the spells. The impact is so powerful that the surroundings shake a little.
But when the smoke disappears, Alex shows up, protected by his tails that are wrapped around his body. Surprisingly, his tails are burnt and damaged badly. But then he cuts off his damaged tails and new fresh tails grow to replace them.
Alex punches the barrier and destroys it easily much to Cana's surprise. Then he flashes forward and sends a punch at Cana's face. He stops right in front of her face and Cana can't react to it at all because he is very fast even without using his Lightning Mode.
"Alright, that's enough. Let's wrap this up and announce who will continue to the next round."
Makarov stops the battle because it's already clear that Alex wins it again. So he stops it and announces who passes this trial. Mira and Cana pass while Mest fails, so they will go to the next round of trial.
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Thank you for reading this story. Please support by clicking like or vote if you like this story. It is much appreciated.
Read ahead up to +50 chapters in my patreon page, patreon.com/GrimFairy
Ch. 136. Back to Fight