Fairy Tail: Capturing the Demon Mirajane at the Start.

"Rule Three: This duel between us is primarily for friendly sparring, so killing-level magic is prohibited..."

Igor stood not far from Mirajane, repeating the duel rules to him.

"OK OK."

"This is such a hassle."

"I can recite the rules by heart, so may we begin the duel?"

Mirajane looked at Igor with some impatience. She always felt that Igor was too indecisive and overly cautious in his actions.

"Ok."

"In that case, let the duel begin..."

Igor smiled slightly, unperturbed by Mirajane's impatience, and quietly announced the start of the duel between him and Mirajane.

"take over……"

The instant Igor finished speaking, Mirajane and Igor shouted "Receive" almost simultaneously.

The next second, as a dazzling magic circle rose above Mirajane and Igor, a demon with long hair reaching the sky, limbs covered in black scales, and demonic wings unfurled behind him, and a bomber wearing a battle skirt made of bombs and whose head was transformed into a torpedo, appeared before Elfman and Lisanna.

"call out!!"

After Mirajane transformed into a 'demon', her wings fluttered slightly, and she charged towards Igor amidst a burst of air.

"Strike first, strike hard!"

Mirajane, adhering to the principle that "the first to strike wins and the last to strike suffers," planned to take advantage of his high mobility to launch an initial attack.

"clever."

Even as a member of the 'Cult of Boasting God', Igor never forgot to praise Mirajane's combat wisdom during the battle.

But praise aside, battle is battle...

Igor couldn't afford to lose so easily, so in front of Mirajane, he turned his toes into bombs, blasting a large crater in the ground in front of them and sending dozens of square meters of soil into the sky, blocking Mirajane's view.

"what?"

After being enveloped by tons of yellow sand, Mirajane's pupils twitched slightly. Her eyes flickered constantly as she observed the movements in all directions. With her vision obscured, she dared not make any rash moves.

"boom!!"

Only when Mirajane heard a noise did she suddenly swing her fist, breaking through the earthen barrier on her right, and shout, "Found you!"

"Oh!"

However, when Mirajane punched open the earthen curtain, what came into view was an explosive device with a fuse slowly burning.

"Oh no, we've been tricked."

Mirajane was shocked. She tried to turn around to defend herself, but it was too late. The moment she turned around, she was met with Igor's explosive fist.

"boom!"

Another ear-piercing roar followed, and a massive shockwave blasted the earthen curtain apart. Accompanied by a violent gust of air, Mirajane exited the Demon Soul reception state and was sent flying backward. She landed precisely on the mound of earth that Ig had prepared in advance, and thus was unharmed.

As for Igor, after the shockwave gradually dissipated, he also withdrew from the demon's receiving posture. With a carefully crafted look of helplessness on his face, he muttered to himself, "Oh dear, my magic is all used up! It seems I've lost."

After saying that, Igor walked to the mound of earth, bowed gracefully to the collapsed Mirajane, and extended his hand with a smile on his face: "It seems we're even this time."

"Igor, you are indeed very strong."

"But as you said, failure is the mother of success, and I will strive to become stronger."

Mirajane shyly took the hand that Igor offered, knowing that Igor was giving her a way out; his talk of running out of magic was just polite talk.

"Haha."

With that laugh, Igor pulled Mirajane up from the ground.

"Clap clap clap!"

"Mira and Igor, you two are really amazing."

After Igor and Mirajane's battle ended, applause from Elfman and Lisana immediately filled the villa.

Although, due to the earth curtain, Elfman and Lisana, the two little ones, did not see clearly the battle between Igor and Mirajane...

But the huge crater left by Igor and Mirajane's battle still opened the eyes of Elfman and Lisana.

"Hahaha~"

"So-so, so-so~"

Igor smiled, his expression revealing humility.

"Humph."

"Of course I'm great, after all, I'm your older sister."

In contrast to the humble Igor, Mirajane proudly admitted to his formidable strength.

As the eldest sister in the Strauss family, Mirajane bears the responsibility of raising her younger siblings. She must appear fearless and strong in order to support them.

"Clap! Clap! Clap..."

Just as Igor and Mirajane finished their battle and their stomachs were rumbling with hunger, preparing to go back inside for a hearty meal, an unexpected round of applause rang out in the courtyard outside the Strauss family villa.

"Ok?"

When Igor heard the applause, his expression changed immediately.

Since the person who came could appear behind him without him noticing, he must be a master among masters.

"Who?!"

Therefore, Igor instinctively shielded Mirajane behind him and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

What came into Igor's view was a middle-aged man with short, orange-red hair, wearing a tattered cloak, and with a scraggly beard and unkempt appearance.

"Haha."

The middle-aged man with his short, orange-red hair combed back couldn't help but laugh as he looked at Igor's serious demeanor. "I originally came to this village to deal with the so-called 'demon' invasion, but instead of seeing the demon, I discovered two exceptionally talented little devils."

"Hey kids! Have you ever heard of the Fairy Tail guild?"

The middle-aged man, exuding an overwhelmingly powerful aura and with an unkempt appearance, asked Igor and Mirajane with a smile.

"Fairy Tail? Never heard of it..."

Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisana looked at the uncle in front of them with blank expressions and told him the truth.

"Uh."

The middle-aged man looked somewhat embarrassed and then turned to look at the silent Igor.

"call."

When Igor saw who it was, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, and the unease and irritation that had been rising in his heart instantly vanished.

"Oh? You know me?"

The middle-aged man with short orange-red hair raised an eyebrow slightly after noticing the change in Igor's expression.

"Ah."

"As long as you're from the Kingdom of Fiore, there's probably no one who doesn't know Gildarts, the strongest scumbag mage on the continent of Ishgar, right?"

Igor solemnly announced the name of the person who had come.

Yes, the unkempt, orange-haired middle-aged man in front of you is none other than Gildarts, the strongest mage in Fairy Tail.

"Yes, yes, yes."

"I am the most scumbag mage on the continent of Ishgard..."

When Gildarts heard the first part of Igor's words, he was still smiling smugly, but when he heard the word 'scum,' his expression changed drastically: "Yeah, right! I'm not scum."

Chapter 8 The formidable Gildarts!

"You wretched brat, who told you I'm a scumbag archmage?!"

Gildarts frowned. Igor's first impression of him was very bad, extremely bad.

He's practically on par with that brat Gray.

"Everyone knows this."

Igor smiled. Did I even need to hear that?

Every mage on the continent of Ishgar knows Gildarts's reputation as a scumbag.

If Gildarts had just toned it down a little, he probably would have been selected as one of the Ten Wizard Saints by the Magic Council long ago.

It's likely that the continent of Ishgar is no longer ruled by four Heavenly Kings, but by five.

"Ok."

I'm not going to argue with you.

Upon hearing this, Gildarts rolled his eyes slightly. He tried to refute Igor, but suddenly realized he seemed to have no room for rebuttal. So he took a deep breath and silently chanted, "A magnanimous person doesn't hold grudges against a petty person! A magnanimous person doesn't hold grudges against a petty person..."

"Ok."