(A/N)

Sorry for missing another week. It's just been really hard to motivate myself to write recently.

Not to mention the fact that as long as Zinnia's right around the sins in a more canon-oriented part (like right now), I have to keep looking at the manga to see what happens and what's said, so that takes forever. Hopefully in the next chapter, I'll be able to pull her away from the sins a little bit so that it's easier to write and it's not just rereading the story you guys already know.

The chapter's a bit longer than normal, in an attempt to get out of the part that's just Zinnia watching matches and making small talk. Not very exciting, I know, sorry.

"Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The final match of Vaizel's Fighting Festival! This year we had an incredible lineup of fighters, and now we'll have the decisive battle to see who stands at the very top!"

My ears rang from the cheers that erupted after the announcer's words. I attempted to cover my ears, but that didn't help in the slightest, so I gave it up.

"Oh."

"That's us."

Diane and Meliodas spoke at once. Meliodas gave Diane a thumbs up before continuing. "The sacred treasure's as good as ours already, so let's get this final round over with fast."

Diane stretched up to climb onto the raised stone that made up the ring. "My heart's ready to be KO'd by you, Captain." She smiled. "Just kidding!" She paused before fully entering the stage. "Oh! Almost forgot! I need someone to take care of Elizabeth for me." The giantess stepped back off the platform.

"Oh, I could-"

"Leave her to me." Hawk cut me off. I hadn't even noticed he was there - he must have approached during the cheering. "And I'll put something on her. Give me that ribbon, and Elizabeth, lift your arms."

The shrunken girl did as she was told, and the pig made a few swift movements, wrapping the ribbon around her. Within second, the princess was wearing what appeared to be a beautiful little strapless dress with a bow in the back. She was then placed on Hawk's snout. "Thank you, Hawk-chan!" Elizabeth called.

"Wow! What's with that random skill?" Harlequin asked from beside me.

"Woah… That's so pretty!" I smiled. "It looks so good on you, Elizabeth! I wish you could make a full sized version for me, Hawk-chan."

Hawk looked at me for a second, then looked away, but I caught his smile before he hid it.

"Now for the long-awaited bout! Meliodaf versus Matrona!" The announcer called. I had to say, his weirdly high-pitched voice really grated on my nerves.

At this point, the two sins were completely ragged. Their clothes were in shreds, and scratches covered their bodies - particularly Meliodas'.

"Hey Harlequin-sama, what do you think will happen?" I asked the fairy next to me. "I think that either they'll end it quickly with barely hitting each other just to get it over with. Either that, or it'll be an all-out fight like between Meliodas and Ban-san."

"That doesn't leave much for me to choose from, does it?" He frowned. "It'll probably be the first of those two, though - a quick match."

"Ehhh~ I don't know about that~" Ban, on the other side of Harlequin, contributed.

"What makes you think that?" I looked back to the contenders, who were talking about what they should do, when three girls on the other side of Ban started cheering for Meliodas. They were acting like they knew him and were saying some… interesting… things. Things that were definitely ticking Diane off.

"Gotta make the climax exciting~" Ban smiled grandly, revealing his fangs. He then stepped over to the girls and started pouring coins into their hands from a pouch that looked suspiciously like the one Hawk had been using to collect payment for ale earlier. "That was some great acting, girls."

"Let the fight begin!"

"Cheater!" Within the split second of the bout starting, Diane's exclamation rang through the air, and she had punched Meliodas' head through the ground, further worsening the cracked state of the boulder.

"Is this stage… going to hold until the fight is over?" Harlequin murmured worriedly, and I couldn't help but to silently agree with the question.

Meanwhile, Ban just laughed. "Now this is how a fight should be~!" After a bit of struggling, the dragon sin managed to pull his head free of the earth, and Ban continued. "You really made Diane mad now, so you better take her seriously! Or you're dead~"

"Hey! Shh!" The other fairy hissed.

Meliodas looked our way, giving Ban an unamused glare. He said something - presumably to himself - but the crowd was so loud that it was impossible to make out almost anything that was said on stage. Just as he looked back at his opponent, the shrunken giant swung a fist at him, causing him to just barely dodge it.

"Whoa, looks like they're getting serious now," I said as the two started exchanging blows back and forth. Soon the entire arena was rumbling and shaking from the blows of the fight.

"So who do you think's going to win?" Harlequin asked no one in particular.

"I don't care who," Hawk responded, a dazed, shrunken Elizabeth atop him, "I just want to get out of here alive!"

"I think Meliodas-san will win," was my response. I hadn't even looked away from the fight to answer, as I might miss something if I did.

"Wasn't that your guess with his fight with Ban?"

"Well I was right, wasn't I?" I smiled at the Fairy King's question.

"Hey! You bet against me?" Ban exclaimed playfully.

I focused my attention on the arena, pretending not to hear the fox sin's remark.

Not that it would have been very hard to not focus on it; Meliodas had almost been knocked out of the ring, right in front of us. Many more punches were through, with Meliodas jumping at Diane, but being hit back to the ground. After a few moments, something strange began to happen: Diane seemed to grow. Only a little bit, but it was enough to make here power grow stronger. Well, at first it was only a little bit, but she gradually grew to the point to where she was nearly twice the height of what she had been a moment ago, and and the clothes she was wearing - Elizabeth clothes - started to rip to shreds from the strain, to where only a small portion of them remained.

"Well, there goes your outfit, Elizabeth," I told the princess. "Though I guess that Meliodas-san probably has a spare or two lying around, considering that he had the one for me."

Apparently Meliodas said something, because Diane's shout of "SHUT UUUUP!" could easily be heard over the crowd. "I've had enough! I'll never forgive you!" She punched him into the ground again. Only this time, she must have forced him into an open space, as a moment later, Meliodas popped his head out of the hole again and said something to her. She tried to strike him again, but he ducked under the ground, reappearing a little ways away.

"What's this?! Meliodaf's come up with a clever scheme! He's moving around the stage using the cracks in the ground to keep Matrona guessing!" The announcer called as Meliodas appeared and disappeared from various holes in the ground, just narrowly missing Diane's descending fist or swinging leg each time.

Glancing around, I realized that the mood of the crowd had changed. Many people were frowning, and shouts of "Boooo!" echoed around the arena. Men - mostly the larger, burly, ones were raising their fists in the air and shouting complaints.

"Hey! Knock it off with the comedy routine!"

"Yeah! Fight more seriously!"

I could practically feel the spittle flying from the enraged patrons' words.

Meliodas and Diane froze suddenly, perking up.

"Wow, the crowd really isn't liking this, is it…" I sweatdropped. I thought it was pretty funny, personally. Terrifying, but funny.

"Sheesh! What a noisy drove of pigs!" Hawk's voice was audible over the crowd. "They can't help it if it's their nature to joke around all the time!"

"H… Hawk-chan!" Elizabeth gasped from her perch on top of the pig.

"By the way, Elizabeth, is it me, or have you grown bigger?" Hawk added in a calmer tone.

"I was actually just thinking the same thing," I put in.

"N-now that you mention it!" Elizabeth looked at her hands, trying to judge their size, probably.

"Fine. The comedy routine's over." Meliodas' serious tone snapped us out of our conversation. I looked back to the stage to find him standing completely still, eyes cold.

"M-Meliodas-sama…" Elizabeth's voice came from beside me, but I couldn't bother to look her way. What was going on?

"What a bunch of idiots," the dragon sin continued. "If you'd enjoyed the act a bit more, you could've lived that much longer. Onto the main event. We're taking Vaizel and everything it's got for ourselves."

The crowd was quiet. Murmurs rumbled through the area.

"What's that kid saying?"

"Is he pulling our leg?"

And louder, from the announcer: "Meliodaf's acting strange!"

But Meliodas was insistent. "Take a good look at this mark, you scum!" He indicated the dragon tattoo on his shoulder, which had been revealed from his sleeve tearing off during the fights. "My true identity is the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Dragon Sin of Wrath, Meliodas!"

One man spoke up from the crowd. He looked terrified, but he spoke his denial. "Ha… ha ha… What's he talking about?! He doesn't look anything like the wanted posters! The kid's just messing with us! R… right, guys?"

But others argued.

"I've seen that mark on other wanted posters."

"And that superhuman fight… means he really could be…"

"Then… Oh! Look at Matrona's thigh!"

"That's the Serpent Sin of Envy's sign!"

Suddenly Ban stepped onto the stage, making his way to his captains side. He was shortly followed by Harlequin, who was in his human form.

"B-Ban-san? Harlequin-sama? What are you guys doing? Guys?" I called after them. I tried not to be too loud, though, as I didn't want to draw attention to myself. But they didn't respond.

"Hey! That Baan guy's got the same scar as the guy on the wanted posters!"

"And look! That mark on his side…"

"And… And Old Fart! No mistake about it! He's just like his wanted poster!"

"W- where did he come from?!"

Meliodas finally spoke again once the group was gathered. "We've taken a liking to this town. I'm feeling generous, so I'll give you a chance. You have one minute to get out of Vaizel. Because if you don't, the Seven Deadly Sins are going to massacre you all!"

All four of the sins upon the stage stood together facing the crowd. They looked absolutely serious, bloodlust filling their expressions (though I couldn't take Harlequin's seriously while he was in his human form. It just looked ridiculous!).

"A… all four of them… What happened all of a sudden?" Elizabeth murmured beside me.

"Whoa, whoa! What's gotten into them?!" Hawk echoed Elizabeth's confusion.

"I-I don't know." I was just as confused as they were. "They don't seem like they would…"

I froze. There was something coming. Something… slightly familiar? Whatever it was, it was coming fast - very fast. What was it? Was this why the group was acting so strange? They must have sensed it quite a while before me.

"Get the hell out of here!" the dragon sin shouted at the top of his lungs, his wrath showing in every bit of how he held himself.

People were screaming and shouting, but had yet to flee. One voice could be heard above the others. "Hey! What's that in the sky?!"

The words were immediately followed by an explosion in the distance. A giant ball of fire was falling toward the arena and everyone on it. Before I could even react in any way, Meliodas jumped up towards the flames.

"Full Counter!" He sliced the fireball, which was as large as, if not larger than, the boulder that the arena stood on, with the tiny broken blade that was his sword. Amazingly, the giant attack disappeared in an instant.

"Whoa…" I murmured. I had never seen him do that before, even during the fights of the festival.

The blonde landed lightly among his comrades, who were all glaring in the direction that the attack had come from. "Crap. They're already here."

The crowd on the rock began cheering, but not for Meliodas. "Holy Knights! They've come to save us!"

I looked up, following the gazes of the crowd, to see two flying creatures floating in the air, shaped kind of like very toothy manta rays. But that wasn't what they were looking at. Atop the two creatures stood three people. And one of those people I recognized as the half-dead lady from Necropolis.

"Well, crap," I quietly repeated Meliodas' sentiment before adding to myself, "I don't know if I can fight…"