Chapter 146 - 145 Celebration (2)

Exploring the other festival attractions Marcus, Jesnay, and Yrsa, soon came up to a strong man's game where you hit a target with a hammer and try to use enough strength to get the puck to hit the bell at the top.

Yrsa, feeling that this was right up her alley walked up and paid the one silver coin entry fee and which allowed her to claim the three-gold coin prize should she win.

Propping the hammer up over her shoulder, Yrsa swung the hammer down with all he might hitting the target and causing the puck to fly up at an incredibly speed.

However, as it was about to hit the bell it abruptly stopped, and Marcus immediately realized that this game was actually rigged to be impossible.

'Well, I guess I should have expected that even though this is a different world carnival games like this were going to be rigged. Although even that stupid crossbow game was winnable if you hit the cups just right, but I do not think they intended this game to be winnable at all.'

Seeing Yrsa walk back a bit deject Marcus decided that it was time to teach these guys a lesson and walked up and paid the entry fee.

Some people even began snickering at him since his stature was quite small, however, Marcus began chanting and what happened next shut everyone.

Appearing out of the ground a twenty-foot-tall Iron golem shook the ground as it fully formed.

Looking up at his imposingly large iron golem, Marcus handed it the hammer.

With the hammer that would be large for a human, but looked comically small for the iron golem, Marcus gave his construct the order to smash the hammer into the target.

"Wham."

With a loud resounding crash the iron golem slammed the hammer down with incredible force, causing the puck to violently fly up and when it hit the mechanism that was meant to make the game unwinnable, the force behind the golem's strike actually broke it before the puck hit the bell and actually broke it off before flying into the sky.

Everyone around stared dumbfounded by what they had seen, while Marcus with a smug smile even had his golem catch the descending puck so that it did not hit anyone.

Walking up to the stunned men that had been running this attraction Marcus said, "Looks like I won, I would like to collect my winnings."

The men wanted to contest Marcus and say that he had cheated, but when they recognized who he was, their faces went pale, and they obediently handed over the three gold.

Taking the gold, Marcus leaned in so that the three men could hear him and whispered, "Next time make sure your game is fair."

Walking away having put the fear of death in the three men, Marcus joined back up with Jesnay and Yrsa who congratulated him on his victory.

Going about the town they met back up with the other members of the Eternal Queens and decided to stop by some of the food stalls that were spread through the festival area.

Coming back with numerous fired foods and other festival goodies they began eating.

Once they had finished eating, they heard people saying that the sign up for one of the to main events of the celebration was starting, the arm-wrestling competition.

Walking up with the group of people that were making their way over to the location of the arm-wrestling competition.

Getting in line with Yrsa and Bridget, Marcus and the two of them signed up for the arm-wrestling competition confident that one of them would be the winner.

However, pretty much everyone in town who was confident in their strength was signing up since the winning pot was fifty gold, and even Xander and Vincent were participating.

After signing up and handing over the relatively expensive gold coin entry fee, Marcus, Yrsa, and Bridget waited for their turns in the competition.

Soon Bridget and Yrsa had easily defeated their first opponents leaving only Marcus left to finish off his first round.

Within another twenty minutes Marcus was finally called up, along with a large man who was named Duffy and was the owner of the local ironworks.

Duffy looking at Marcus let off a slight chuckle since his opponent was just a small young woman and one of his employees even yelled, "Boss make you shirt explode."

Hearing that Duffy flexed his muscles until the threads in his shirt began to rip and his shirt actually burst open.

Duffy then looked at Marcus with an expression of satisfaction trying to show Marcus that he had no chance.

However, all Marcus could do was laugh since he had never actually expected someone to do something as comical as destroy their shirt using just their muscles.

Duffy seeing Marcus laughing sat down at the table and put his arm with a serious expression replacing his previously one.

Marcus seeing this stifled his laughter, sat across from the man challenging him, and clasped his hand with his opponent's.

The referee then gave the signal to start, and Duffy began pulling with all his might but found that Marcus' arm would not budge.

Struggling using every ounce of strength he had, Duffy tried to push Marcus' hand to the table for a good thirty seconds before Marcus said, "I suppose it is my turn."

Slowly Marcus began adding more strength to his arm pushing Duffy's arm back without any opposition until he tapped it against the table.

Many people looked out in disbelief, they believed that the owner of the ironworks would be one of the top contenders along with the baron's knights, but here, Marcus in the form of a small young girl had won effortlessly.

Standing up the crowd cheered for Marcus while Duffy stood up and congratulated him telling him that he had to be the winner so that he would not lose any more face.

The competition continued to rage on until it was down to only the semifinalists with Marcus vs Yrsa and Xander vs Bridget.

First off was Xander and Bridget, and Xander who after a long struggle, managed to come out the victor just barely overpowering Bridget.

Next up was Marcus vs Yrsa and while Yrsa was quite strong in her own right, Marcus was seven levels higher than her and after a decent struggle won the match.

The finals soon started after giving each contestant a few minutes to rest, and a massive crowd had gathered to watch the clash of the two strongest people in the town.

Locking hands, Marcus and Xander looked at each other resolutely before each pulled with all of their strength.

Right out the gate Marcus began pushing Xander back getting him about three quarters of the way to the edge of the table until Xander got a sudden burst of strength and pushed Marcus back.

Feeling that he was losing ground now that Xander had activated some type of skill, Marcus used his mana body to strength his arm and began taking the lead again.

As the two fought for supremacy Marcus was beginning to lose as Xander used his own mana body which he had been saving as a trump card.

Struggling to beat Xander who had activated two strength enhancing skills, Marcus decided to go all out.

'Embodiment of Darkness.'

As Darkness enveloped his body Marcus felt a massive surge of strength and in an instant, smashed Xander's hand into the table actually shattering the wood and throwing Xander onto the ground.

Swiftly deactivating his unique skill, Marcus checked to make sure that Xander was oaky, but after a quick look Marcus could see that he was fine and extended a hand to help him up.

Xander taking Marcus' hand hopped back up onto his feet and said, "Even with my adrenaline rush and mana body skills, I was still unable to beat you. I do not know what you did at the end, but I have to admit that you are incredibly strong."

The crowd after witnessing the intense match went wild cheering "Irene, Irene" Causing Marcus to blush a bit since he was not used to so much attention.

With his victory in the arm-wrestling competition, Marcus took his winnings of fifty gold and joined back up with the Eternal Queens.

The rest of the day went by quickly as everyone was having fun and soon it was time for the final event, the pie eating competition.

Marcus thought about entering but decided against it since he had already won the arm-wrestling and figured that it would not be sporting for him to win both major events for the celebration.

Marcus and the Eternal Queens sat by and spectated watching the fierce fight as over five dozen men and women competed eating pie after pie.

Surprisingly the one who won was a young girl who could not be more than five feet tall and had a bottomless pit of a stomach.

After eating pie after pie in just a few minutes she still looked as petite as if she had before the event, it was like she had a separate dimension for a stomach.

Marcus almost thinking that she may be a ghost like him appraised her and found that she was actually a half dwarf.

With the end of the pie eating competition the festivities began to wind down, and soon everyone was making their way home with Marcus and the Eternal Queens heading back to the baron's mansion.

Walking into the mansion, Marcus and each member of Eternal Queens found their respective rooms, planning to get a good night's rest so they would be ready to leave in the morning.

However, when Marcus entered his room, he found and unexpected visitor waiting for him seeing Jasper sitting in a chair talking nervously to himself.

Jasper seeing Marcus enter stood up and quickly walked over towards him and said, "Irene, I know we have not known each other for long but I know that you are a kind and compassionate person. You both beautiful and strong and I have grown quite fond of you. Over these few days I feel that we have gotten closer, and I cannot let you go without first asking."

At this point Jasper got down on one knee and held out his hand and said, "Irene Geist will you marry me."