The next trial is the last trial and it's the same trial as Alex's last trial during his S-Class exam. Both Mira and Cana need to pass through 3 examiners in a long cave. They will pass if they manage to exit the cave.
Because there are 2 of them, they need to do the trial one by one. But because Cana is participating, Gildarts isn't allowed to examine her trial. The examiners for Cana will be Erza, Laxus, and Makarov. Mira will be examined by Alex, Gildarts, and Makarov.
Makarov will examine both finalists because he's the only one who can promote them to S-Class. So he needs to be the last person who tests whether they are worthy to be promoted to S-Class or not.
Mira goes first and the first person she needs to pass is Alex. She feels that it's unfair because she has just lost to Alex yesterday and needs to fight him again now. But the purpose of this trial isn't defeating the examiner, it's to pass them and exit the cave.
Mira might be hot-headed now, but she is not stupid and she understands what she needs to do quickly. Besides, she knows that the examiners must have limitations. Or else, it won't be fair for her to face Alex and Gildarts while Cana faces Erza and Laxus as the S-Classes have different levels of power.
So she knows she doesn't need to defeat the examiners or it will be impossible to defeat 2 S-Classes and a Wizard Saint alone. Now she needs to think of a way to pass the examiners without fighting too much, especially when facing Alex because she will still need to face Gildarts and Makarov.
Her strategy is to attack Alex and slip away when he's distracted. But of course, Alex has predicted that she will have that strategy because it's the basic strategy for this trial. What he doesn't know is how she will do it.
Makarov gives Alex a limitation. He can only use Shukaku and can't move from his spot. So he can only use Shukaku's long-range spells to disrupt Mira. Also, he isn't allowed to go all out and only uses his power at the same level as Mira to make it fair for her.
Because of that limitation, when Mira arrives in the location that he guards, he is already in his mini Shukaku form. He sits on the ground like the human-sized fat sand raccoon he is.
Mira transforms into her normal Satan Soul form that has the best mobility. She doesn't need power now, but speed and agility to pass through Alex's guard as quickly as possible.
She quickly sends a rain of darkness magic projectiles toward Alex. The projectiles fly really fast, but all of them are blocked by Alex's sand walls. With the sand walls blocking Alex's sight, Mira tries to escape by flying on his left side.
But suddenly, long sand spears are shooting out of the ground, attacking Mira and forcing her to dodge them. The sand spears keep coming at Mira no matter where she goes. They are also very fast, so Mira needs to move as fast as she can to dodge them.
Alex can make them faster, but he reduces his speed to match Mira's level. Thanks to that, even if his attacks are very fast, Mira can still dodge them and finally escape from Alex's guarded location after a while.
It's very tiring for her, but at least she manages to escape from Alex and continues the trial. The problem is, the next examiner is Gildarts whose trial should be more difficult because this trial is designed to get harder.
Well, at least Gildarts also has limitations, which is he can't use his magic. He can only use physical attacks at Mira's level at that. Still, his great skills and experience are not something that Mira can beat.
She really struggles to escape from him and is forced to keep fighting him. In the end, she fights him until she is very exhausted. Then unexpectedly, Gildarts lets her pass.
Like with Natsu, he deems that she has the quality to be an S-Class. He only wants to confirm it through a battle. If Alex also fought him in his exam, then he would pass too.
But Gildarts actually failed to stop Alex and so far, only Alex manages to pass Gildarts's trial without being let go by Gildarts. He fooled and moved past Gildarts who couldn't stop him. It's the only time it ever happened since Gildarts became an examiner.
Anyway, Mira rests a bit before going to Makarov's place to recover some of her energy. Then she faces Makarov and it goes the same as with Gildarts. Makarov allows her to pass after she shows her abilities to him and is deemed worthy to be an S-Class.
But there's still Cana left to take this trial. If Cana also passes, then this will be the first time they get 2 candidates who get promoted to S-Classes at the same exam. Either that, or they will need to make a new trial to only promote 1 person as usual.
Cana starts her trial and her first opponent is Erza who guards the place that Alex guarded before. Erza's limitation is that she can only use 1 type of armor and weapon set. But she isn't told to hold back because her base power is similar to Cana and Mira, so there's no need for her to hold back and she's someone who can't hold back anyway.
Too bad for Erza, even if she doesn't need to hold back and won't hold back, she just can't do much because Cana outsmart her. When Erza charges to attack her, Cana throws a card that releases oil right at Erza's feet.
Erza jumps to dodge it, but Cana throws another oil card on where Erza will land. She doesn't use armor that can make her fly and she still doesn't have such armor. So she can only land on the oil puddle and of course, she slips.
The oil makes Erza keep slipping and can't do anything to stop Cana who just walks off nonchalantly while whistling, leaving Erza who keeps falling pitifully every time she tries to get up.
Alex who watches it while hiding inside the wall can only sigh at the sight before he comes out to help her. He never thought Cana would use such a smart but devious strategy to pass Erza. Now it makes him curious how she'll face Laxus.
Cana has prepared a strategy to face Laxus that's just as devious. At first, she fights Laxus normally, using her magic cards to send different elemental attacks like when she fought Alex yesterday.
But then, she starts using Lightning Magic Spells that look very similar to Laxus's spells. Well, they are his spells. Those spells are the ones he used to stop her on the tree climbing trial. She captured them with her cards and now she uses them on him, which really mocks Laxus.
He gets angry, but before he can do anything, a card suddenly sticks on his back without his realization because he is distracted by his own spells that are used against him that makes him mad.
Then suddenly, Laxus disappears, being sucked into the magic card that sticks on his back. He shouts angrily and tries to get out with force, but he can't break free no matter what he does. Cana teases him while playing with the card before dropping his card on the ground and leaving the area.
Alex and Erza who arrive shortly afterward are speechless when they find Laxus who's trapped in a card. Of course, Alex doesn't miss the chance to tease and mock Laxus. He takes the card and plays around with it as they go to Makarov's location.
Laxus is shouting angrily at him, telling Alex to get him out of the card. But it's just too funny, so there's no way Alex will get him out of there. Breaking the card to free Laxus is easy, but there might not be another chance this can happen again, so Alex just enjoys the moment of Laxus suffering.
Meanwhile, Cana is facing Makarov already. She doesn't use naughty tricks like before and just fights Makarov seriously while trying to find openings to escape from Makarov. After all, she respects Makarov and there's no way she'll use her naughty tricks on him in this serious exam.
The fight is really intense, but then Makarov suddenly stops the battle because he sees something suddenly glows on Cana's right arm. He quickly checks and asks her about it. Her answer really shocks him and then he decides to let Cana pass.
"You let her pass just like that?" Alex shows up after hiding behind a wall with Erza and the trapped Laxus.
"Yeah, how can I not? She already has the qualification of an S-Class, be it power or intelligence. Of course, she still has some shortcomings and is still weaker than Mira in combat. However, her potential is real and someone very important acknowledges that potential."
"Someone important? There's someone whose position can even affect your decision as a Guild Master? Who is it?" Alex acts oblivious.
"The 1st Master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermilion."
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
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. 137. Grimoire Heart