Chapter 49
"Noah Onii-san!"
With the battle moments away from beginning, Lisanna who is the most concerned with Noah's welfare yelled.
"Be careful, you hear me!"
Noah nodded slightly. He turned his attention back towards a relaxed Gildarts, he lifted his legs slowly and then stomped it down with great force.
Fwoosh
Following a very loud thud, Noah turned into a blurry figure as he rushed Gildarts.
"Impressive speed!"
Gildarts commended him. He clenched his hand into a fist before lifting it up, a faint sheen appeared on his arm.
The black shadow stopped just in front of Gildarts and Noah slashed the arming sword straight down with great force and no mercy at Gildarts' arm.
clang
And yet the result was a sound metal making contact with a metallic surface.
"Impressive strength as well!"
Blocking his attack with just an arm, Gildarts trembled slightly while grinning at a very surprised looking Noah who got sent back a step. He didn't counter attack, he merely shook his arm at him.
"This isn't possible right?"
In the crowd, Mira, Lisanna, Erza and the others can't believe what they are seeing.
"He blocked it with just his arm?"
Noah stared at the arm he is swinging around, his extraordinary senses told him that his arm was covered in a layer of magic power.
Honestly, the magic power covering it isn't that ridiculous. At the very most, it was just a move to enhance his hardness. If it were another person and the person used the same amount of magic power to enhance his defenses, his arm would have been chopped off if they blocked Noah's attack just like that. Even so, Gildarts managed to pull it off with that amount of magic power. It would have looked impossible to other people but Noah noticed something off. Gildarts didn't simply use his magic power for enhancing the hardness of his arm.
Noah could feel the magic power covering his arm, it was like pressurized water being forced together into a clump.
That's the real secret of how Gildarts managed to block his attack.
An average person surrounded their hand with magic power as if they were soaking it in water.
If the assailant were to attack, the magic power would have acted like a cushion of water and mitigated the power and speed of the attack.
Gildarts did more than just coating his arm in magic power. He compressed them into a such a concentrated state that if it was water, the water turned into ice. The result being the ability to block Noah's attack like ice instead of just lessening the impact like water.
This is a method Noah had never seen before, his eyes shined as he realized the principle behind it.
So, magic power could be used in this manner as well huh?
After that moment of enlightment, he glanced at his arming sword and a bright idea flashed.
Now if Gildarts could condense his magic power to drastically enhance the hardness of his arm, what would happen if he used the same method on his sword, would the arming sword not experience a veritable increase in sharpness as well?
Arriving at that thought, Noah decided to test it out. He channeled the magic power within him into the arming sword on his hand, more specifically, onto the blade. And then, with the godly manipulation of mana he had trained for 2 whole years, he adjusted the concentration of magic power and condensed the magic power on the blade so much so that the magic power was even thinner than the blade itself.
Gildarts is surprised by what he is seeing.
Without giving him any chance of talking, Noah dashed out again and he shot out like a bullet from a barrel towards Gildarts. His arming sword sliced the air along its path and made shrill noise as he slashed Gildarts.
"—-!"
Gildarts steeled himself and blocked again with compressed magic power coating his hand.
Twang—-!
Like a bell being smashed, the sound echoed in the area.
Gildarts who looked pretty laid back before this happened got sent back by the collision and the noise. His eyes reflected how astounded he is by Noah's performance.
"Gildarts retreated!"
Shouted the Fairy Tail magicians.
A teen that looked like he's about 13, forcing back the strongest S class magician in Fairy Tail?
A part of the reason is because Gildarts was careless, he never expected Noah to be able to manipulate magic power in such a manner. But people who aren't familiar wouldn't know, it's to be expected that they found it surprising.
Mira, Lisanna and the gang looked very happy, naturally. Meanwhile, the one who caused this scene seemed to have lost himself within his calculations, his pupils shrank.
"Thinner … gotta get sharper…"
Following that, the magic power on his blade stirred and got even thinner and subsequently sharper as well.
Noah even got it to vibrate and it made motions like a grinding chainsaw.
"Hmph—!"
When he hmph-ed, the arming sword turned blurry as he waltzed out in brilliant display of sword glints.
Having his vision blinded by the rays of light, Gildarts quivered and crossed his arms into x shape to block the oncoming attacks.
Clang clang clang clang clang-!
The series of attacks fell on those muscular arms of his, as if slashing at metal wall or something, the sound of bells being smashed could be heard repeating over and over.
"It can become thinner.. even more sharper…"
His eyes steeled up even more and the arming sword danced even more vibrantly as the magic power coating on the blade condensed further and the grinding motions sped up, needless to say the blade turned sharper and sharper.
Under these circumstances, Noah might just be able to split a house in half with his sword.
Gildarts is defending against the swords of light assaulting his arm, the attacks only managed to leave traces of white lines on his skin without even damaging it in the slightest.
"What an amazing fellow…"
Still crossing his arms in front of him, Gildarts lifted his head and stared straight at Noah, penetrating through those series of attacks. The corner of his lips crept up.
"However, if this is all you got then it's not enough!"
Gildarts swung his arms.
Bam—!
The swords of lights got blown apart like a flimsy spiderweb meeting a strong gale.
Noah who saw an opening after that counter attack was delighted instead of being shocked.
"Now!"
His gargantuan magic power burst out and went to his arming sword.
Hum….
The arming sword shined radiantly.
Shiiinnnggg
The blade hummed and a sword beam reminiscent of a meteor shot out. It had a speed like a meteor as well seeing as it already arrived in front of Gildarts.
He grimaced and tensed up, finally showing a bit of seriousness since the beginning of this duel.
"Too naive!"
He lowered his body slightly before receiving the meteor sword beam with one of his hands. He heavily gripped it while churning his giant magical reserve.
Booom
Under everyone's eyes, the effulgent sword beam got shattered under the force of his grip like some puny dough into tiny pieces.
Then, Gildarts struck a fist out. In the shrinking pupils of Noah, he saw the fist coming straight for him.