Rescue Operation

The next morning, Meliodas, Lyon, and Yuka sat down around a large table in the town hall. The three of them were covered in bandages. As they sat there, Meliodas twirled a pen in his hand as Yuka held a hand mirror up to his face, feeling the place where his eyebrow once was.

"Yuka, it's gonna grow back." Lyon said as he shook his head. Sherry was just captured and Yuka was worried about his eyebrow.

"Here I can fix it." Meliodas offered as he got up from his seat and walked over to Yuka. Yuka looked at Meliodas, confused at how he was going to fix it.

"You got like hair regrowth magic or something?"

"No but I have something just as good. Just close your eyes."

Seeing as Yuka had no choice, he closed his eyes and waited for Meliodas to do his thing. He felt a cold, wet sensation over where he had lost his eyebrow. Lyon watched and facepalmed at what Meliodas was doing.

"Okay done. You can open your eyes."

Yuka opened his eyes and looked into the mirror. There he saw a poorly drawn eyebrow filled in over the missing part.

"AAAHHH! What the hell is this?!" Yuka exclaimed as he looked at himself in the mirror. "It looks even worse! It's not the right shape or properly filled in!"

As Yuka panicked over his eyebrow, the Mayor walked in with several council members. Meliodas sat back down as one of the councilmen began speaking.

"We successfully interrogated Jin, the one of Ogre's henchmen that Meliodas defeated last night. Because of this, we were able to locate the general area of Ogre's base of operations." The councilman pulled out a lacrima that began to glow brightly. From the light, a map of the area materialized.

"This area here is the location where we think his base of operations is. However, we are not able to pinpoint an exact location based on the mental state of said interogee. So we will form a search party to find him. Any questions?" The councilman asked. The room remained silent. "Very well we will depart immediately." The councilman picked up the lacrima and walked out with his men and the mayor, leaving Meliodas and the two Lamia Scale members alone.

"Meliodas, what did Ogre tell you yesterday?" Lyon asked, remembering what Ogre asked Meliodas to do.

"He gave me direct coordinates to meet him." Meliodas responded. Lyon and Yuka's eyes widened upon hearing this. "Although he told me to go there alone or else he'll kill Sherry."

"Dammit…" Lyon slammed his fist on the table.

"He probably wants another go with you after what happened yesterday." Yuka added in.

"Then I guess I'll go there on my own!" Meliodas said as he got up from his seat. He looked at Lyon and Yuka who had solemn expressions on their faces at not being able to save their friend.

"But I'll need you guys to help me." Meliodas added in. Lyon and Yuka looked up at Meliodas and nodded.

"I'll need you guys to rescue Sherry while I distract Ogre. I feel as though he'll be playing dirty and might do something to Sherry if I gain the upper hand against him. So after I draw his attention, you guys sneak in and get Sherry out. Once you do, I'll finish him off. Easy right?"

"Will it really be that easy though?" Yuka asked.

"Of course not. But no matter what happens, our top priority is getting Sherry back." Lyon answered.

"Well now that we're all in agreement, let's go!" Meliodas said as he left the room, with Lyon and Yuka right behind him.

Half an hour later, Meliodas and the group arrived at what appeared to be Ogre's base. It was a large, rundown shack surrounded by dense forest. Meliodas, Lyon, and Yuka hid in the bushes as they went over the plan one more time.

"I'll go in first, then when Ogre is distracted, you go and get Sherry."

Lyon and Yuka both nodded and Meliodas stepped out of the brush. He approached the eerie looking building and walked inside.

It was dark inside the building, with parts of it only lit up by the light that shined in through the missing parts of the roof. The floors creaked as Meliodas walked on them. Meliodas continued walking through a long corridor until he reached a door. Meliodas opened the door and it opened out into a large room. The room was fairly bright, as there was a large hole in the roof where light was shining through. Standing in the light, was Ogre's large figure. Behind him, in the corner of the room, he could see Sherry, tied up and chained to the floor. At the other corner of the room, was a strange orb mounted on a pedestal.

"Good. You came alone." Ogre said.

"I did. Now let Sherry go." Meliodas said.

"Nope...that won't do at all." Ogre replied as he raised his right hand and extended it towards Sherry. Gold dust began forming around her, transforming into spikes that surrounded her. Sherry squirmed in her restraints as the spikes got closer to her face.

"Do anything to me and I'll kill her. You're just going to sit there while I beat the shit out of you, got it?" Ogre said as he walked up to Meliodas. Meliodas nodded and looked fiercely at Ogre. Ogre's body began to grow and his skin turned red.

"The way you looked at me earlier...I can't stand it!" Ogre yelled as he raised his arm. A golden gauntlet appeared over his right hand as he punched Meliodas in the gut. Meliodas took the punch as he coughed up a small amount of blood.

"HAHAHAHAHA! This is the difference between you and I!" Ogre yelled as he kept punching Meliodas.

---

Lyon and Yuka waited just outside the entrance of the shack. They remained quiet as they waited patiently for a sign to go in. The silence around them faded as they heard the sound of Ogre yelling and punching.

"Meliodas has him distracted. Now's our chance." Lyon whispered. He gestured to Yuka to follow him as they went around to the back of the shack. There, they found a small hole in the wall just big enough for them to fit through.

"I'll go in first. In case someone is waiting for us at the other side, I can block their magic." Yuka said. Lyon nodded and waited for Yuka to crawl in. After a few moments, Lyon followed.

From where they were, they were barely visible. They were in the same room as Meliodas and Ogre, but behind them, and hiding in the shadows. Lyon and Yuka saw Sherry, tied up with golden spikes floating above her.

"So he's using Sherry as a hostage…" Lyon commented.

"I'll deal with this." Yuka said as he snuck his way over to Sherry. Sherry turned her head as she could hear someone approaching her. She saw Yuka and Lyon and her worried eyes were filled with relief.

"Let's get you out of here." Yuka dispelled the golden spikes floating around her as Lyon froze the cuffs, breaking her out.

"HAHAHA!" Ogre laughed as he punched Meliodas over and over. Blood was splattered on the floor around them as Meliodas kept taking the beating. Ogre let out an evil grin and raised his right hand up, unaware that Yuka had dispelled his magic.

"Gold make: Cleaver!" A large axe made of gold formed in his hand and he cut down through Meliodas's right arm. Blood profusely gushed out and Meliodas fell to the ground, taking a knee.

"Unlike that guy's eyebrow's LET ME EVEN THIS OUT!" Ogre laughed loudly as he raised the cleaver up in the air and looked back down at Meliodas who was glaring at him silently. 'The hell?! I just cut this kid's arm off. He's not crying or begging for his life?!'

"Meliodas! Sherry's free now!" Yuka yelled from across the room. Ogre's eyes widened as he turned his head and saw Lyon and Yuka standing next to Sherry who was freed from her restraints.

"Yuka! Get rid of Ogre's cleaver. I'll go patch up Meliodas's arm with my ice!" Lyon yelled as he and Yuka started running towards Ogre. Ogre's confident sneer turned into a frown as he looked angrily at Lyon and Yuka who were running towards him. Both Yuka and Lyon suddenly stopped in their tracks however, as Ogre felt a dark sensation behind him.

"M-master Doryu?!" Ogre turned around quickly, his angry expression turning into fear as what he saw was not Doryu. There he saw Meliodas, his eyes now turned pitch black and a spiral henna formed over his right eyebrow. Meliodas glared at Ogre, causing Ogre to instinctively take a step back.

Meliodas raised his right shoulder where his arm was cut off. A black stream shot out and attached to Meliodas's dislodged arm on the ground, quickly reattaching it back into place. The wounds and bruises on Meliodas's body began to recede as darkness flowed out from them.

Lyon, Yuka, and Sherry watched in shock at what just happened as Ogre took another step back.

"W-what the hell are you?!" Ogre exclaimed as Meliodas kept releasing a menacing aura.

"You've had your fun, Ogre. But this ends here."

Ogre clenched his fists and grit his teeth. He looked down at Meliodas with a glare as his body began glowing.

"Gold Make: Veil!"

Ogre's red skin turned gold and gleamed in the light of the sun beaming from the hole in the roof.

"When I'm surrounded by gold like this, my body is even harder than the toughest of metals!" Ogre said as he took a step towards Meliodas. Before he had the chance to take another step, Meliodas vanished from his sight, reappearing in front of him. Meliodas clenched his fist tight, his hand clad in darkness, and punched Ogre's golden abs, piercing straight through his body. Ogre watched in disbelief as he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and immediately coughed up a large glob of blood.

Meliodas forcibly pulled his hand out of Ogre's body, causing more blood to gush out of the wound. Ogre took a few steps back and held his stomach before falling to the ground. He looked up and saw Meliodas looking down on him, his dark aura gone and his pitch black eyes had turned a bright emerald green again.

"You're right. That actually hurt slightly.." Meliodas chuckled as stood over the fallen

Ogre.

"Meliodas, are you alright!?" Lyon asked, running towards Meliodas.

Meliodas nodded and replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah, I am fine."

Lyon was still reeling from his earlier shock.

"But I saw your arm get cut off."

"It did. It hurt quite a bit. But we got Sherry back right? Let's go back to the town hall." Meliodas said, putting his hands in his pockets and began walking towards Sherry and Yuka. Lyon tilted his head, still confused but let it go and followed Meliodas.

"Can you stand?" Yuka asked Sherry, who was sitting on the ground.

"No...Ogre did this weird thing where he drained my magic with some orb. My legs are still really wobbly…" Sherry replied as she turned and looked at Lyon who was approaching them. "But with some LOVE, maybe I can get back on my feet."

Lyon shook his head and smiled as he approached Sherry and picked her up.

"Ok let's go back."

'An orb?' Meliodas thought as he remembered seeing an orb at the other corner of the room when he entered. Meliodas looked around the room but it was no longer there. 'Strange…'