The Champion

The crowd silently stared at Meliodas as he walked up to the table. Meliodas handed ten thousand jewels to the announcer and took a seat in front of Lance. The announcer stared awkwardly at Meliodas. As Meliodas sat down at the table, he looked at Lance with a friendly smile.

"Hey look at that blond guy's arm!" A spectator called out. "That's Fairy Tail's mark!"

"Wait you're right! Didn't that giant cat man earlier have it on his back?!" Another crowd member exclaimed.

Lance stared wide eyed at Meliodas as Meliodas placed his right arm on the table. Lance looked towards the announcer with a nervous grin.

"Sorry Goodwin. But I gotta go all out for this one." Lance said. Goodwin sighed but nodded at Lance.

"Well I don't want to be down a hundred thousand jewels... so I suppose."

Lance looked back towards Meliodas with a determined expression on his face. Meliodas looked at Lance with surprise as he felt a dense magic being exerted from Lance's body. Suddenly Lance's body began to grow, his lanky physique becoming quite muscular instead. He grasped firmly onto Meliodas' hand.

"I can tell you're strong and I don't want to lose. So I'll stop suppressing myself from now." Lance said with a wide grin. Meliodas stared at his hand clasping Lance's. Meliodas remembered how he last lost to Ban, despite the major power difference between the two with Meliodas being vastly stronger. Ban's words echoed in his head. 'When you play this, speed and spontaneity matter the most ♫.'

"Ready…" Goodwin said, with nervousness in his voice. 'So Lance decided to blow our cover to reveal his actual strength...he must have sensed this guy must be strong.'

"Go!" Goodwin shouted. Without a chance to even blink, Goodwin fell backwards as Meliodas slammed down Lance's arm through the table and into the ground, shattering the ground with a large crash. Rocks from the ground flew in the air as wood from the table splintered outward. The crowd immediately dispersed and fled the area in a panic.

Lance looked up at Meliodas in shock as he laid sprawled out on the ground, his right hand halfway buried into the solid stone. 'He's not just fast! He's really strong!'

Meliodas shook his head quickly side to side, with bits and pieces of debris flying out from his hair. He looked down at Lance and offered a helping hand. Lance smiled at Meliodas and accepted his offer.

"Wow you're strong. I didn't expect to lose there to be honest." Lance said with a lighthearted tone. "I knew you would be stronger than that black cat man earlier but this surprised me!"

"Well I do have a bit of experience arm wrestling." Meliodas replied with a cheeky smile as he thought briefly about the hundreds of bouts he had with Ban throughout the years. He looked around and saw that him slamming the ground had scared away the crowd. In the distance, he could hear the sound of guards yelling getting closer to them.

"Was that an explosion?!" One of the guards yelled.

"It came from over there! Hurry!" Another shouted.

"We should get out of here. We'll give you the money once we're somewhere safe." Goodwin said. Meliodas nodded and with Lily behind him, they quickly ran into a nearby alleyway.

Meliodas, Lily, Lance, and Goodwin moved to a quieter part of town away from the action. Goodwin pulled out the hundred thousand jewels and held it in his hand. He looked down at it and sighed as he handed Meliodas the money.

"Thanks!" Meliodas said with a grin.

"So what purpose did you guys have for trying to hustle people like that?" Lily asked.

"Oh that? Hahaha!" Lance laughed. "We're not from here you see. We're from the Pergrande Kingdom."

"That far away?" Meliodas asked, recalling having seen a map of Ishgar when he arrived in this world. "That's on the other side of the continent."

"Well...things aren't going well in Pergrande right now…" Goodwin added in a serious tone. "Especially with the Royal Family there. There's some tension between them and a shady group of mages who showed up earlier this year. We felt some bloodshed was about to happen and we wanted nothing to do with it. So we left and wanted to go as far west as possible. Although…"

"We're kinda short on money!" Lance laughed.

"Hence, we came up with this idea to make money. Lance is proficient in transformation magic so he changed his body to look quite fragile while also suppressing his magical presence. We would charge people ten grand for a hundred grand prize. We adjust our prices based on the financial situation of the towns. So far we've made over a million jewels with the few weeks we spent in Fiore." Goodwin said.

"So far I've only lost twice since coming to Fiore." Lance said braggadociously. "Once to you, and once to this drunk guy. He was slurring his words so I didn't get his name but I think it started with a B?"

"Well regardless, you're the second one to beat Lance in arm wrestling. By the way, I never caught either of you two's names." Goodwin said. "I'm Goodwin by the way."

"And as you know, I'm Lance!" Lance said with a cheerful, wide grin.

"I'm Meliodas." Meliodas greeted.

"I'm Pantherlily. You're quite strong Lance." Pantherlily commented.

"Well not as strong as Meliodas there. But that's to be expected. You guys are from Fairy Tail right? Even though we haven't been here a long time, we hear that guild is really strong. Maybe even the strongest in Fiore." Lance said.

"Well then, even with our loss today, we've accrued enough money from the past week here. If we stay any longer, the entire city will recognize us." Goodwin said. His mood suddenly turned serious again as he looked at Meliodas and Lily. "And for you two, here's a friendly tip. I recommend you stay away from Pergrande… Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you both in this short time."

"Likewise!" Meliodas responded.

"How about a rematch if we meet again? Not for any money of course but I won't lose next time!" Lance exclaimed.

"The loser has to buy drinks then." Meliodas said with a grin.

"Drinks? Well the last guy I lost to was pretty wasted when he beat me...is alcohol really the secret to having such insane strength?" Lance questioned with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Lance...you're looking too much into this. Come on let's get going." Goodwin said.

Meliodas waved to Lance and Goodwin as they began walking down the road speaking to each other. Meliodas could barely make out what they were saying as they walked further away.

"So which way should we go, Goodwin? Caelum or find a boat to take us to Alakashita?" Lance asked.