66 Pierce the Heavens

The Mole King charged at Meliodas. Despite its looks, it was surprisingly fast as it unleashed a flurry of slashes with its massive claws. Meliodas drew his sword and met the mole's slashes with his own. The two of them continued their exchange of flurries briefly before the Mole King jumped into the air and slammed its large claws into the ground. Meliodas jumped back as the ground where the Mole King sunk its claws into caved in.

The rocks kicked up from the attack suddenly began floating and the Mole King was standing up right behind them.

"Crusher Barrage!" The Mole King yelled as the rocks launched rapidly towards Meliodas.

'Huh...reminds me of Diane's move…' Meliodas thought to himself. Meliodas looked fiercely at the Mole King as he got into a stance before swinging his blade.

"Full Counter!"

The rocks that were rushing at Meliodas suddenly bounced back as Meliodas swung his sword and accelerated even faster towards the Mole King. The Mole King stood dumbfounded as the rocks collided with him with greater force than he had launched them, resulting in an explosion of dust and debris.

Meliodas watched the smoke cloud, trying to sense if the Mole King was taken down by the attack.

"Hyaahh!" A faint scream was heard in the distance. Meliodas turned around and looked across the field. Wendy had tripped and dropped their hostage mole. The mole that was in her grasp was freed and quickly burrowed into the ground as several other mole surrounded Wendy. Meliodas sheathed his sword and began running towards Wendy, remembering she couldn't use offensive magic.

"Wendy! Try to remember what Natsu does! Take a deep breath in and exhale with all of your magic!" Meliodas yelled from across the field.

Wendy heard Meliodas' words and quickly stood up with a fierce look in her eyes. The shy little girl vanished in that moment as she took a deep breath in.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!"

Wendy exhaled and blew out with all of her might. The moles stopped approaching her and looked at each other awkwardly as all Wendy did was let out a harmless cough.

"I-it didn't work?" Wendy said to herself in disbelief. Her confidence faded and she grew nervous again as she saw the moles start to approach her once more. Tears began to form in her eyes as the moles got closer.

Wendy closed her eyes in fear as she prepared herself to get attacked by moles. She put her arms out in front of her, preparing for the worst. Several seconds passed as Wendy braced herself, yet nothing happened. She opened her eyes slowly, wondering what had happened.

"Kyaaaaah!" Wendy suddenly screamed as she saw Meliodas's face right in front of her. She nearly fell backwards again but managed to hold herself up this time.

"Oh good, you're alright." Meliodas commented before turning around. Wendy looked around and saw all of the moles were unconscious on the ground. 'He did all of that?!'

The Mole King bursted out from underneath the ground. He was heavily bruised with blood running down his head. Several more moles with him this time as he came out of the ground.

"You may have bested The Mole King last time, but now, The Mole King will defeat you, with the help of the ELITE mole squadron!"

Meliodas shook his head and prepared himself. The Mole King and his moles were not very threatening to begin with, and if he had been by himself, he could have finished the mission already. Meliodas glanced back at Wendy who was still cowering in fear.

"Attack!" The Mole King yelled as he charged in at Meliodas with half a dozen other moles behind him.

Meliodas put his arms up to defend as the mole king and his henchmen unleashed a flurry of slashes with their claws at Meliodas. Meliodas continued taking the assault head on for several long moments.

Wendy watched in shock as Meliodas continued taking the full force of their attacks. 'Meliodas could easily have beaten them...so why is he-'

In between slashes, Meliodas managed to grab the body of the Mole King and threw him hard at the other moles. The other moles were knocked out as the Mole King's body was launched into them at great force. The Mole King quickly recovered from the throw and looked fiercely at Meliodas as he stood back up.

"The Mole King demands you tell me your name, blond child." The Mole King asked.

"Meliodas. What's your name?" Meliodas asked.

"The Mole King."

Meliodas shook his head as he laughed inside. 'I should have expected as much…'

The Mole King suddenly leaped high into the air above Meliodas and Wendy. The two of them looked up and saw the Mole King clasping its claws together in front of it.

"No longer, will us moles have to remain underground! This is the Mole King's ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE!"

As the Mole King began to slowly fall, he started to spin. His spinning became faster and faster as he continued to gain speed in the air.

"Giga...Mole..."

Meliodas put a hand on his sword, prepared to cut the Mole to pieces, but took his hand off as he remembered this was Wendy's mission. Instead, he placed his hands out in front of him as he prepared to stop the Mole King with his bare hands.

"BREAAKKKKERRRRR!!!!!" The Mole King yelled as he collided with Meliodas's hands. Meliodas grunted as the Mole King's claws began to dig into him. Blood began to drip down his arms as the flesh in his hands was shredded.

"M-Meliodas what are you doing?!" Wendy yelled.

"HAAAHHHH!" Meliodas yelled as he gripped down harder on the mole. The mole's rotation began to slow down until coming to a halt moments later. Meliodas held the Mole King's claws in his hands as he locked eyes with him.

"This human child...STOPPED MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE??!!" The Mole King exclaimed.

Wendy looked in horror at Meliodas's shredded hands. There was a pool of blood where blood was dripping from Meliodas's elbows.

"Meliodas...why...why did you-" Wendy closed her eyes as tears began streaming down her face. She opened her eyes as she felt a hand pat her head twice.

"There there." Meliodas said reassuringly. A drop of blood dripped onto Wendy's face from Meliodas's hand. Wendy looked at Meliodas's other hand, and saw he was firmly gripping the Mole King's arms in place, rendering him unable to move.

"Wendy, what's the one thing you should be focusing on right now?" Meliodas asked.

"T-the mission…" Wendy said, wiping the tears away from her face. Meliodas nodded and continued.

"Yup. If I remember, you initially wanted to do this mission on your own. So it's your responsibility now to finish the job. There won't always be someone to bail you out, whether it's me or Carla. So I'm going to need you to change your outlook on yourself. Have some confidence in yourself...otherwise..." Meliodas's smile turned serious. "You won't be able to protect those you care about. You may not believe in yourself that you can do it..."

"But I believe in you Wendy!" Meliodas added, smiling again.

"Now then..." Meliodas turned around and faced the Mole King, who was wincing in pain from Meliodas's grip.

"Let me go human!" The Mole King cried out in pain as Meliodas' grip tightened.

"Well well well, it's about time we finished our mission here."

The Mole King looked nervously at Meliodas. 'T-this is bad...very bad….what is this kid...no this MONSTER going to do?!'

"Wendy, I'm leaving this to you!" Meliodas shouted as he threw the Mole King into the air.

Wendy nodded and stood up from the ground. Meliodas stepped out of the way and looked at her. There he saw the expression of a shy little girl was gone as fierce determination was written all over her face. Wendy took a deep breath in.

"Sky Dragon's…"

The Mole King felt Wendy's magical power begin to rise. Still in the air, he began to panic as he flailed his limbs around.

"Roar!"

A fierce torrent of winds was blown out of Wendy's mouth in the shape of a large tornado. The fierce winds hit the Mole King in the air, sending him flying further into the air as it damaged him.

"AAAHHH!" The Mole King screamed before falling to the ground with a thud, his head buried in the dirt. The Mole King pulled his head out of the ground and looked up at Meliodas and Wendy, his black glasses shattered, along with his confidence.

"Y-you are no kids...you are MONSTERS! The Mole King will never set foot above ground again!" The Mole King yelled as he scurried back underneath the ground.

"I-I did it…" Wendy said quietly to herself. Meliodas walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yup, you did!" Meliodas said cheerfully. Wendy glanced at Meliodas's hand and saw it was completely fine, not the bloody mess like earlier.

"Your hands…"

"Oh. Don't worry about using your magic to heal them. I did it myself." Meliodas grinned. "Now come on, let's head back and get your reward, it's getting late."