Chapter 13: Gildarts vs Katakuri
Shortly after, Gildarts followed by the rest arrived in another large clearing flanked by trees on every side.
"Stay here." Gildarts spoke lightly to Erza and Freed who looked on curiously.
Katakuri gave a recurring squeeze of Erza's hands before following Gildarts out toward the middle of the clearing.
"Brat! You better keep a hand!" Makarov yelled at the departing figures of Katakuri and Gildarts who gave a perfunctory wave in response.
Standing a few meters apart, Katakuri gave Gildarts a serious glare as his eyes shimmered in a crimson luster.
Gildarts in return gave a somewhat stern retort as his eyes slightly narrowed tensing his face.
A fog of dust slowly rolled on the plane hurrying quickly in the wind.
"I hope you don't disappoint me, boy! Show me all you have!" Gildarts yelled out breaking the palpable silence between the two.
Reaching into his body Katakuri pulled out a three-pronged trident gripping it firmly in his hands with a solemn look.
Continuing the stare-down Katakuri remained fearless as he got ready to begin.
"I'm coming." A solemn apathetic voice rang out beckoning the start of the bout.
"Kagami Mochi" Katakuri's stern voice chimed out
At a speed barely visible to the eyes the surroundings turned soft and began to roll up like a great tidal wave towards Gildarts who light punched out his fist.
Katakuri's entire body tensed up as his eyes flashed crimson like never seen before.
CRASH!
A large explosion sounded off as Katakuri dashed backward, his arm began to expand preparing to strike.
The original tidal wave of dough shattered turning into small cube-like shapes rebounding back towards Katakuri.
Looking through the dust, Katakuri began to warp his body to avoid the rubble blasting towards him as his fist condensed with armament Haki before the previous expansion burst out in flames propelling his fist at high speeds towards a figure in the debris.
Without wasting a moment, an extremely large doughnut-like shape appeared in the air, covered in spikes it began to shine a metallic blue.
"KURI MOCHI!" Katakuri blared out as the spikes began to fire off into the debris, trailing behind the flaming fist.
BOOM!
The first blow shattered as the debris blew out clearing the view as Katakuri rushed towards Gildarts.
"Kaku Mochi!"
"Kuzo Mochi!"
Katakuri's voice rang out in succession as his arms compressed in a cube formation before being covered in Haki.
Furthermore, behind his back, several doughnut-like shapes appeared in thin air before stretching out to create fists enveloped with Haki.
"Not bad." Gildarts quipped lightly with a hearty smile stretching out his hand to shatter the oncoming spikes.
Rushing, trident in hand, Katakuri's eyes glowed crimson as he prepared for hand-to-hand combat.
9 fists rushed violently towards Gildarts from his back as several other giant doughnuts appeared behind him.
"Mochi Ginchaku"
"Hahaha! It's really great!" Gildarts spoke heartily with admiration.
"But it's not enough!" This phrase caused Katakuri's entire face to tense as he frantically kicked the ground sending him flying back a few meters.
Panting, in a cold sweat, Katakuri stared ahead solemnly, his foresight alarming him to the danger.
"Crash" A light voice sounded out absently.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Katakuri dashed further back as the entire surroundings began to collapse and cubify as rubble shot out in every direction.
"FREED! BARRIER!" Makarov yelled over the gushing wind and deafening crack of explosions.
Erza stared on worriedly as the entire environment began to collapse and a thick cloud of dust covered everyone's sight.
"Is this really the power a human can have?" Erza muttered in a daze whilst looking around nervously.
"I told this bastard to leave a hand!" Makarov spoke downtrodden as he stared ahead.
Meanwhile, Katakuri's body began to rapidly warp to avoid more incoming debris, keeping his eyes ahead toward an illusory figure.
"Hahaha! You have great control over your magic and excellent reflexes, in a couple of years I may have to hand over the title of strongest!" Gildart's lively carefree voice yelled out somewhere in the dust.
Katakuri turned grim-faced as the dust began to settle revealing the muscular figure of Gildarts, lightly covered in dust surrounded by a massive gaping chasm.
"Let's see what your hand-to-hand is like." with a carefree voice Gildarts leaped from the pit, a few feet in front of the stern-faced Katakuri whose brow was covered in a thick sweat.
Giving a slight nod due to his waning magical power, Katakuri threw his trident rapidly toward Gildarts before charging forward resolutely.
Gildarts in turn also charged forward, his knuckles at the ready and with a thrilled smile on his face.
Ducking down left to avoid, the trident fired over shaving off some hair at the side of his head.
Throwing a quick punch towards Katakuri's gut the scrap began.
Katakuri began warping his body to barely avoid the fast blows, his face in extreme concentration as a flurry of well-placed shots left him struggling to counter.
Throwing a right hook towards Gildarts to attempt to gain some breathing room led to a clash of the two fists however, Katakuri's fist warped around his and continued towards his face which leaned back evading but also taking the momentum out of his punch causing it to fall short.
The two continued trading blows none of which could successfully land on the other until Katakuri's brow was ladened with sweat.
"Remarkable skills young man! In that case, I'm going to go a bit faster, let me see your limit!" Gildart's spirited voice rang out as his flurry of blows began to become faster completely overwhelming Katakuri.
Katakuri's body warped unnaturally to avoid some of the attacks but a well-placed extremely fast shot by Gildarts managed to land on his side causing Katakuri to stagger.
Out of concentration, tired, Katakuri began to get hit more and more by the quick successive blows unable to mount a suitable counterattack and being put in crisis mode, desperately trying to dodge and find a good opportunity to counter.
CRACK!
A brutal feint followed by a body shot put Katakuri on his knees, completely overwhelmed by the sheer speed, Ferocity, and skill at which Gildarts was fighting.
"All right that's enough." Putting a hand out to help him up, a soft voice came out of the gruff S-ranked magician.
"You did good, I do not doubt in the future you will be the first in Fairy Tail" Gildarts put a hand on Katakuri's shoulder with a warm smile as he began to walk back to Makarov.
"He passed!" A perfunctory voice sounded out as Gildarts walked toward Makarov and the others.
"Congratulations! I hope you have understood the gap between S-class and know that the road of magic is never-ending!" Raising his fists into the air Makarov yelled out.
"Brother Katakuri! Are you alright!" A red blur zoomed across toward Katakuri before hugging him like a Koala.
"Fine." Katakuri's voice spoke out tenderly as he began to play with Erza's silky red hair causing her to blush slightly.
"Hmph making me worry" With a slight pout and a smile on her face Erza took Katakuri's hand as they followed Makarov back to the guild, back toward home.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Cainmiddy
Cainmiddy Alright, after this we are going to do a little time skip of about 2 years to do Erza's S class exam I'll probably do a slice of life chapter before the actual exam though to spread out the action a little bit. After that another quick time skip and we're on the main plot *Woohoo!*
Stay tuned, thanks for the support!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone