Fairy Tail, Volume 7 by Hiro Mashima

The Shadow Guild, Phantom, has picked a fight with the Fairy Tail Guild. At first, the Guildmaster wasn't too concerned, but when the Shadow Guild hurt members of Fairy Tail, all bets were off and even though the Guildmaster had been determined to avoid war between Guilds, it was the hurting of those under his care that he truly couldn't stomach.

But the Shadow Guild isn't doing this on their own. Even though their Guildmaster of the Shadow Guild, Jose, wants to battle with Makarov, the leader of Fairy Tale, he is also interested in Lucy. Lucy has presented herself to others as someone of no particular note, except for the fact that she can do celestial magic, she is actually the daughter of the head of the Heartfilia Konzern, a business group with lots of money and connections.

And it was her father, the head of the Heartfilia Konzern, who put a price on his own daughter's head. But not as dead- he wants lucy alive and returned to him. Unfortunately, having kidnapped Lucy from her house, Jose isn't very solicitous of Lucy's health. He wants to marry her himself for her money and connections. Now, bereft of her keys and imprisoned at the top of the Shadow Guild Guildhouse, Lucy has to find a way to escape, even as the rest of the guild are fighting their opposite numbers in the Shadow Guild. And their Guildmaster, the one who might be able to skew the odds in their favor, has taken Makorov out early in the fight.

Natsu, Gray, Elfman, Mira and Canna must inflitrate the Shadow Guild and rescue Lucy while facing off with Phantom's Elite Four magicians. But even as Phantom turns their own guild into a magic using Mech, and one of the opposing Magicians falls for Gray can they rescue Lucy and win before the mecha-guild finishes the ultimate magic spell it is scribing in the air?

Right from the frying pan into the fire. Natsu and Lucy, who expected to be chastised by Makorov for taking the S-level quest, have escaped punishment-for the moment at least, since Makorov is injured and recuperating. But Lucy has been kidnapped- at least it hasn't dimmed her spunkiness.

I liked the introduction of the Phantom Guild, and the magicians, although most of them seem like merely a bunch of unrelated quirks loosely tied together to make characters, even more so than the mages from Fairy Tail. Matsu the Fire Mage is hot-tempered (and shown with Red Hair), which are all tropes for Fire, and now there is a female water mage who falls for Gray, but he's more concerned with rescuing Lucy, which annoys that mage beyond all else.

This is still a good series, and this is a good book which I enjoyed, even if it wasn't as much as the cursed island saga. But it was nice seeing the other mages in Fairy Tail. I just wonder why so many mages join other guilds when Fairy Tail is supposedly the best. And why are so many mages at Fairy Tail so under-powered? Questions I hope will be answered with more than "Because otherwise, none of the stories would be interesting." Recommended.