"Hey! New guy!"
A sharp voice, like a blade quenched in ice, sliced cleanly through the noisy hum of the banquet hall.
The cheerful chatter between Hoshino Arashi and Mirajane, Cana, and the others came to an abrupt halt. He turned his head toward the voice, gaze cutting through the crowd of raised glasses and laughter, locking precisely onto its source.
It was a black-haired boy—bare-chested, revealing sharply defined muscles, wearing only a pair of pants. His eyes burned with unrestrained fighting spirit, like a lone wolf ready to pounce on its prey.
For an instant, the raucous hall froze.
The veteran guild members all paused mid-drink, smirking as if savoring the start of a good show, their eyes flicking between the two young men.
Mirajane's gentle smile stiffened slightly. She sighed and rubbed her smooth forehead, looking as if she already had a headache coming on.
"So, you're Hoshino Arashi, huh?"
The black-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest and walked forward with steady, heavy steps, each one carrying palpable pressure. He stopped before Arashi's table, towering over him, his gaze sharp and challenging.
"My name's Gray. Gray Fullbuster."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly through the entire hall.
"Gildarts said you're a monster. I'm curious—what kind of 'monster' could make that old man call you one?"
He grinned, flashing white teeth, and the battle lust in his eyes was nearly tangible.
"Come on, fight me!"
A challenge.
Naked, unrestrained, unmistakable.
The atmosphere in the hall shifted immediately. The festive cheer in the air was swiftly replaced by something much more volatile—gunpowder and tension.
Arashi's gaze swept over Gray's face, which screamed I'm not happy, then shifted to the circle of guildmates watching eagerly for trouble, before finally settling back on his glass of juice, still faintly cool.
He shook his head slowly, voice calm and level.
"Sorry. Today's my first day joining the guild."
"I don't want to fight my comrades at my own welcome party."
His refusal was polite—reasonable, even.
But to Gray, those words twisted instantly into something completely different.
Contempt.
It was outright condescension!
"What?!"
Gray's pupils contracted sharply, a rush of fury blasting up from his chest.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!"
He leapt back a step, knees bending into a stance that every mage in the guild recognized—battle-ready. The temperature around him began to drop at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Don't look down on me!"
"In Fairy Tail, fists are the most direct—and fastest—form of greeting! You didn't know that?!"
"Enough talk! Take this!"
Before his words had even finished echoing, an icy-blue surge of magic erupted beneath his feet!
The biting chill spread outward in waves, coating tables and chairs in a thin layer of frost as the temperature plummeted.
Gray's hands flashed through the air, weaving a complex series of sigils, his magic wrenching moisture straight from the air—freezing it with audible cracks.
"Ice-Make: Axe!!!"
With a roar, a massive double-bladed battle axe made entirely of dense, solid ice materialized above his head!
The axe was enormous—wide as a door, gleaming like crystal, its edges glowing with a dangerous light. A faint, bone-deep chill radiated from it, so sharp it seemed to freeze the air itself.
"Whoa! Gray's opening with that move?!"
"This is gonna be good!"
The surrounding members shouted with glee, quickly stepping back to clear a wide space.
The giant axe fell, howling through the air with lethal momentum, cleaving straight down toward the still-seated Arashi!
The blow carried the power to split a wall in two.
And yet—facing this thunderous strike, Hoshino Arashi didn't even move.
He sat there quietly.
As though what was descending toward him wasn't a weapon of death, but a harmless feather.
Slowly, he lifted his gaze.
Those black eyes—deep as the starry sky—looked calmly, silently at Gray, whose face was twisted with effort and fierce pride as he unleashed his spell.
That one glance.
There was no light of magic, no surge of energy.
And yet, an unseen, formless force—vast, immense, suffocating in its sheer magnitude—descended upon the hall.
Time itself seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, its throat crushed in an instant.
Gray's expression froze.
His body—mid-swing, both hands locked above his head—simply stopped.
He could feel it: the magic flowing from his fingertips had suddenly gone dry, cut off at the source like a river dammed midstream.
Above him, the enormous axe—mere inches from Arashi's head—lost its glow. The magic within it collapsed with a faint, brittle sound.
Crack.
The unbreakable construct shattered, its icy core splintering apart.
Before everyone's stunned eyes, the weapon dissolved into countless glimmering ice crystals, falling gently like snowflakes.
Some of them drifted down onto Arashi's shoulder—melting quietly upon contact.
"Wha… what?!"
Gray's mind went blank, overtaken by pure, primal terror.
His body—!
He couldn't move his body at all!
He could feel his brain screaming Move! Move! yet his muscles, bones, even the magic flowing through his veins—everything was locked, pinned under an invisible mountain, far too heavy to resist.
He couldn't move a finger. He couldn't even blink.
All he could do was stare helplessly, trapped in his own body, frozen mid-attack like a statue.
What the hell kind of magic was this?!
No—!
This wasn't magic!
From the very beginning, there hadn't been a single trace of magical energy coming from him!
The sheer, incomprehensible mastery of whatever power Arashi had just displayed—something beyond the understanding of ordinary mages—plunged the entire guild into silence once again.
Moments ago, the hall had been roaring with laughter, people shouting and cheering. Now, every single person stood frozen, wide-eyed and mute as though their throats had been cut.
A cup slipped from someone's hand, shattering on the floor.
Ale spilled, running freely across the wooden boards.
Dozens of throats swallowed audibly, the sound painfully loud in the heavy quiet.
Without drawing a weapon.
No—this wasn't just "without drawing a weapon."
This man hadn't even lifted a finger.
A single glance.
Just one look—and an A-Class mage like Gray Fullbuster had been turned into a motionless, powerless statue!
This was…
The true power of the newcomer—the "monster" that even Gildarts, the strongest of Fairy Tail's S-Class mages, had acknowledged.
(End of Chapter)
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