"Thud!"
Natsu, who had "lost his color", lay powerlessly on the ground.
Although his body was still on the ground, his soul seemed to be slowly floating up, looking like it was about to ascend to heaven.
The expression on Natsu's face revealed a hint of despair.
"He was defeated so easily!."
Cana hugged Little White and couldn't help but sigh.
Poor Natsu, this was already the second time today he had been beaten to the ground.
What was he thinking?
However, this time, Natsu quickly got up from the ground.
He grimaced and twisted like a maggot, as if his whole body was uncomfortable.
The pain made his face contort.
Erza stood there with her hands on her hips, looking pretty.
She didn't even draw her sword and directly knocked Natsu down with her fists, making Natsu seem very weak.
But that wasn't the case.
Although Natsu was repeatedly beaten down by Marco and Erza, Natsu's strength was actually very good and not that bad.
In the end, it was just that Marco and Erza's were too abnormal.
After joining the Fairy Tail guild, Natsu realized what it meant that "there are always people better than you".
He had been dealing with animals in the wild before, but as soon as he entered human society, he immediately encountered a harsh reality check.
"Do you want to continue?"
Erza brushed her hair back behind her ear and asked Natsu.
No matter how long it took, she would keep him company to the end.
"Alright, alright, Erza, let's stop here."
Looking at Natsu who was biting his lip tightly and in too much pain to speak, Marco waved his hand at Erza with a smile.
"Natsu still has to study writing later."
Marco patted Natsu's shoulder, finding an excuse for him, but his words made Natsu's face look even worse.
"A-actually I can still keep going!"
Natsu shrank his head and raised his hand, saying softly.
Compared to getting beaten up, he hated studying more.
Those things that looked like ghost scribbles gave him a headache just by looking at them.
"Oh? Are you sure?"
Marco's smile remained unchanged as he squinted at Natsu.
The hand on Natsu's shoulder slowly applied pressure and Natsu's face contorted again.
"I'm sorry! Marco-san, I'll study hard!"
Natsu shouted through gritted teeth.
He finally gave in, realizing that learning to write was indeed necessary, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to understand the job requests on the bulletin board.
"That's more like it. Time is tight, don't waste it. Don't forget, after finishing your studies, you still have meditation training."
Marco smiled and let go of Natsu, patting him on the shoulder, then directly dragged him away by the back of his collar.
"Erza! Just you wait! I'll defeat you sooner or later!"
As Marco dragged him away, Natsu waved his fist at Erza and threw out some tough words.
This guy really never learned his lesson, still daring to provoke Erza.
It seemed he still hadn't been beaten into submission yet.
"Alright, I'll be waiting for you to challenge me again."
Erza responded calmly to Natsu's words, just nodding and replying, not seeming to care much.
Gray, on the other hand, looked very moved.
Seeing Natsu's unwilling expression, Gray clenched his fists, then jumped out and pointed at Erza.
"Erza! I want to challenge you too!"
Although he looked pathetic, Gray finally mustered up the courage.
He would challenge Erza again, not hoping to defeat her, but at least not to be worse than that Natsu guy!
"..."
Seeing Gray jump out to challenge Erza, Cana was very surprised.
Why challenge her when you clearly can't win?
Do they like getting beaten up?
Cana couldn't understand Natsu and Gray's behavior at all.
And, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but with Natsu's appearance, even Gray seemed to have become abnormal.
Cana's feeling was completely correct.
Natsu's appearance had indeed fully aroused Gray's competitive spirit.
Before Natsu came, Gray was in a middle position in the Fairy Tail guild, unable to beat Marco and Laxus above him, but easily able to defeat Jet and Troy below him.
So his competitive spirit was naturally hard to provoke.
But Natsu's appearance gave Gray an evenly matched opponent.
Add to that their clashing personalities and they were now completely at odds, determined to settle who was superior.
Now, if you wanted to motivate the two of them, the method was very simple.
"Natsu, learning to write isn't difficult. Even Gray can easily master it. You don't want him to mock you for being an idiot, dont you?"
In the study room, seeing Natsu scratching his head and looking miserable as soon as he started studying, Marco decisively brought out his trump card.
"NEVER!"
Sure enough, a trump card is a trump card.
As soon as Marco finished speaking, Natsu was fired up, literally fired up.
His head started smoking and his whole body perked up.
"Whatever that guy can do, I can definitely do too!"
Natsu shouted, then started writing frantically.
Those ghost scribbles that had made him dizzy before no longer bothered him so much now.
In order not to be mocked by that smelly guy, he had to learn to write quickly!
Natsu acted almost entirely on instinct, completely fitting the definition of a "single brain cell".
So there was no need to think of any complicated ways to deal with him.
"Pfft~"
Seeing Natsu writing furiously, the blue-haired girl beside Marco laughed with her eyes curved.
"Levy, I'll leave it to you. Keep an eye on Natsu and don't let him slack off."
Marco turned to the blue-haired little girl Levy beside him.
Levy was two years younger than him and a year younger than Natsu, only ten years old this year.
She was a bit shorter, looking cute and petite.
Marco patted her head and smiled as he instructed.
"Okay, Marco, I'll supervise Natsu."
Levy's big eyes narrowed slightly, seeming to enjoy Marco's head pat.
She nodded obediently and replied seriously.
Levy was a literary girl, very good at literature.
Despite her young age, she had already started learning several ancient languages.
This little girl's dormitory was basically full of books everywhere.
"Sleeping with books as pillows" was a daily routine for her.
In order to read books, Levy had spent a fortune to buy a pair of "Wind Reading Glasses", which was a magic tool similar to Laxus's "Sound Pot".
It could speed-read books at up to 32 times the normal speed.
Marco felt at ease letting Levy watch over Natsu's studies.
She might even be more qualified than him, able to make these dry subjects more interesting.
Although he had handed over the task of supervising Natsu to Levy, Marco didn't go far.
He just went to the side to sit cross-legged and began today's meditation training.
Meditation required a lot of concentration, so he couldn't spare attention to guide Natsu.
Having Levy volunteer to help saved him a lot of trouble.