Howzer and Diane walk onto the platform, their faces holding serious expressions. They stand on opposite sides of the ring, staring each other down.

"I know you can do it Matrona!" Fat King shouts, sticking his thumb up. Y/N puts her fingers in her mouth and lets out a loud whistle, giving King a slight fright.

"Beat that guy's ass!" She shouts. 

"Diane! Try to not do anything crazy okay?" Elizabeth shouts. Diane turns around to face them, giving them a closed eye smile. Meliodas then lifts the cloth that covers Elizabeth to show her bare backside. She blushes and freezes, letting out a surprised whine. Diane's happy smile quickly turns to an annoyed one.

"Meliodaf!" She shouts. Y/N slaps Meliodas on the back of his head and gently grabs Elizabeth out of his hold, holding her close. She steps to the side and closer to King.

"I gave you one chance and you blew it," Y/N says. She her other hand to cover Elizabeth from Meliodas, growling slightly. 

Up on top of the mountain, Hawk trots down slowly with the silver-haired sin laid over him- earning many glances from the villagers.

"Crap, I got sloppy. And I wanted to fight the lieutenant." Ban says, eyes closed. His feet and arms drag along the floor. "I can't believe I forgot about that ace the captain has up his sleeve. The hell was that anyway?"

"Forget that right now, you've got two feet so why don't you use them?!" Hawk says, annoyed that he's being used as a ride. "You know you should be lucky Y/N didn't come up and get you! She would have probably thrown you back down there."

"Come on, don't be a meanie and say stuff like that~" Ban whines. 

"What are you a spoiled brat or something?" Hawk asks. 

"There's a bit downside to physical hunts, you see my body gets heavy after I use it," Ban explains all the while sneakily pinching the bag of coins that was attached to Hawk's neck. Hawk then stops and sniffs the air. The two look down at the fight festival.

"Hmm, that smell?" He says.

"Scraps, huh?" Ban questions. 

"It's not scraps!" Hawk replies. "A storm coming..."

Back at the festival, Howzer and Diane remain standing opposite each other with glares. The crows around them cheering and yelling.

"First match of the semi-finals begin!" Love Helm announces. No one makes a move towards each other and instead, Howzer moves his head to look away and points to his chest. Diane looks confused until she looks down and sees the middle bottom of the uniform is unbuttoned and showing her breasts. "Isn't Howzer a gentlemen everybody?! He just pointed out to Matrona that one of her buttons came loose" The whole crowd begins booing at him. "It sounds to me the crowd isn't too happy about that!"

"Tch, pervs," Y/N says. She looks to Meliodas. "It seems your radiating perviness all around you." Meliodas smiles at her.

"Nope. I'm not even looking at Diane's boobies." He then looks down at Elizabeth and smiles, causing her to blush. Y/N puts her hand back up to cover Elizabeth from Meliodas again, snapping her neck back to the match. 

"Quit looking or I'll throw you back to the tavern." She says. 

"How am I supposed to fight if I have to keep looking away from her," Howzer says, flustered.

"Could Howzer be pure of heart with a face like that?" Love Helm questions, causing Howzer to click his tongue and look away still flustered. 

"Whatever, I usually have this much showing anyway," Diane mutters while doing up the button.  The gongs ring and Diane instantly gets into fight mode, her arms in the air (Like she just doesn't care). Howzer does the same and he makes the first move.

He runs forward with his arms up, his fist then creating a tornado around it. Diane gasps with widened eyes and quickly jumps back before Howzer creates a small tornado where she was standing.

"Rising Tornado!" He says. Diane looks up at the tornado, still surprised.

"Woah. If that hits me full force there won't be anything left!" Howzer smirks and turns to face her, dispersing his small tornado.

"Wow! I'm glad you get what your up against! But-" He jumps forward and creates another tornado in her spot, luckily she dodges again. The two jump around the platform, Diane narrowly dodging Howzer's tornado punches. "Just lie back and leave everything to my magic hands. I promise it won't hurt. I'm gonna make you feel like your flying~"

From the side-lines, the sins and Elizabeth watch with open mouths at the fight. The crowd around them is also the same.

"How the hell does he do that?" Y/N questions, a small blush across her cheeks. Although King sees her blush and gets slightly jealous of the man fighting, he can't help but feel amazed and slightly disgusted.

"That guy's amazing." Meliodas says "Everything he says is sexual." Howzer quickly collapses onto his knees at him hearing Meliodas and turns to face them.

"N-No it's not!" Howzer says, his face flustered. Diane frowns and wraps her arms around her chest.

"R-Really?" She says.

"You've got it all wrong!" Howzer turns back to Diane. "I'm just trying to get this over with because I don't like hurting girls, no matter how tuff they are!" The two return to their previous motions, Diane dodging Howzer's tornado punches.

"I still don't know if he's a gentleman or just plain dumb," Y/N mutters. "But he does know how to use his words." King rolls his eyes, slightly pouting. 

"I think he's just an idiot. All he's doing is the same thing." King mumbles back, hugging his pillow. 

"Look at that! Matron is still on the defensive!" Love Helm announces

"I've got no choice," Howzer says, seemingly hesitant on his next decision. "I wish I didn't have to back a woman into a corner like this." He throws two criss-cross punches, creating two small tornados on either side of Diane.

"Tornados have both cornered Matrona's right and left! There's no more space behind her, she's been corner!" Love Helm shouts. Meliodas tells his upper body forwards and looks past Y/N to King.

"You were saying?" He says. King and Y/N, Elizabeth in her hand, look at Diane. King holds an angry and worried expression while Y/N remains somewhat calm yet his jaw seems clenched.

"Not good!" King says.

"She's got this," Y/N says, her expression changing to that of a proud smile. Howzer begins running towards her, smirking.

"Whether you jump up or dive down my tornados will cut into the ground or jump into the sky." Diane puts her hands up to her chest, closed eyes and screaming. "Looks like this is checkmate!" Howzer goes to uppercut only for Diane's hand to slap down on his fist, causing the tornado to disperse both in his fist and around her. The crowd gasps and Howzer holds a surprised look "Impossible. You said there'd be nothing left if my tornados hit you with full force" He's suddenly backhanded by Diane, whose top is destroyed showing a large amount of stomach and her under breasts, and he falls to the ground.

"I meant that I didn't want to ruin these clothes that I borrowed, jerk!" She says, frowning.

"This is getting interesting," Howzer says, standing back up. "Been a long time since I've been able to bring it!" He crosses his hands, creating a stronger tornado. "You better run if you don't wanna die." He snaps his arms out to create a whirlpool looking tornado... Whirl Shock!" He pushes the whirling tornado to Diane, hitting her straight on- causing her to scream.

"Diane! No!" King shouts. Y/N's smile slightly drops.

"I must have misunderstood the guy, damn." The dust clears and Diane stands shocked, her hair messy. 

"Didn't expect that." She says.

"It ain't over yet!" Howzer shouts and slams his hands into the ground, creating an even larger tornado that begins filling the entire platform.

"What the heck is going on!" Love Helm shouts and jumps off the platform. "I'm out of here!"

"What do you think of the most powerful storm I can make!" Howzer shouts. The sins and Elizabeth look at the large cyclone, Y/N having to cover Elizabeth to that she doesn't get blown away.

"This is amazing! I can't even see inside it!" Meliodas says.

"I don't think I've seen such power for a new holy knight," Y/N says.

"I think Diane's in big trouble," King says.

"If one of her feet leaves the ground it's all over," Ban says, who is now reunited with the group but still laid on Hawk's back.

"I bet if I was up there, I'd take it," Hawk says.

"You'd be slices of bacon in a matter of 2 seconds," Y/N says.

"It's time to fly!" Howzer shouts. Diane struggles to keep on her feet and flies up all while screaming. She then stops and glares at Howzer, who gasps up at her.

"Heavy metal!" Diane says and her entire body turns into metal and she quickly falls back onto the ground, landing onto Howzer's stomach and creating a large crack into the mountain and the floor below. Love Helm shakily gets back onto the platform.

"W-What happened?" He asks. Everyone looks on the platform to see Howzer holding his stomach while laying on the ground and Diane hovering over him uninjured. "Looks like Howzer's out cold! The winner for the first round of the semi-finals is Matrona." The crowd begins cheering as she makes her way over to Howzer and sits him up.

"H-Hey, are you okay?" She asks.

"My ass got kicked is all." He says, his voice slightly horse. 

"Guess I kinda lost it and fought for real, sorry," She says. He turns to look up at her, smiling.

"I got one of the Eight Deadly Sins to go all out against me. It's an honour." He says. Diane becomes shocked.

"W-What are you talking about? I'm just a normal girl who's passing through town." Howzer lets out a chuckle.

"You're not fooling anyone." Y/N smiles at the two.

"Aww~ Seems like they're getting along just fine." 

"Yep, romance in the air," Meliodas replies all the while stroking Elizabeth's head, who he had managed to get back from Y/N. King glares at Diane and Howzer's little moment. 

"Hey, Diane! You get away from that guy right this minute!" He shouts. (Once again, protective in the sibling way.) 

"Come on King leave her be," Y/N says wrapping an arm around his shoulder and bringing him into her side. "She's allowed to love you know." King blushes but nods.

"I-I know, but out of everyone why him! He's a holy knight who's trying to kill us. And not to mention they were in the middle of a fight!." Y/N chuckles.

"You'd be surprised how many people fell in love during fights and wars." She says. Meliodas overhears and keeps up his smile but his eyes show hurt, looking down at Elizabeth. Y/N notices and pats his head, but doesn't look his way. He looks up to her and his eyes light up before he looks back to the platform, letting the girl pat his head.

"Oh, Meliodas. Yes, the past can hurt. But from the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it." Y/N thinks, moving her head slightly to look at Meliodas. "If you focus on what you left behind, " She looks to Elizabeth, "you'll never see what lies ahead."

【Ａｓｐｅｎ】

11/06/2021

Last Updated: 29/09/2023