The rock looking monster that was staring down Darkness was staring he down and priming its back feet as if it was some kind of Bull, while Darkness stared it down with nothing other than a lance and a lot of questionable thoughts.

Both of them looked like they were waiting for someone to make the first move, someone to make that move and go off from that.

Now where was I during all of this?

On the sidelines because part of me wanted to smack Darkness in the back of the head for going off on her own to take on a rocky boi…

...but then again, that's probably what she wants from me anyways because hey! Even if I don't do that, she'll enjoy the rejection of not getting a punishment…

Shit, she's got me in a stalemate right now…

Either way, I was out of the way with Megumin on the side, even though I should be y'know, literally right next to Darkness since she can't hit shit, but oddly enough I didn't feel like helping her in that moment.

Oh Tsukiyo, but how could you?!

This is your newly acquired girlfriend we're talking about! You're should be at her side so she doesn't get hurt!

Hahaha! Oh little Billy listen here!

Darkness, my girlfriend, is a slightly taller than me literal fucking brick wall that has a microscoptic percentage of actually getting hurt and sad, that's being compared to her 99.9% chance of getting aroused and enjoy the pain.

By not helping her, I'm probably doing her a favour and probably then some just so she can enjoy herself…

...and myself a little bit on the inside…

...hold on, am I starting to be a Sadist to her?

Ah shit…

I was snapped out of my thought process as I saw the rock monster shout at it and start to charge at her.

But...the charge at her was...pretty slow to be honest.

I mean yeah, if you were to charge at someone you'd go at probably full speed, but at the speed the Barroth was going it was actually pretty slow.

"Here it comes!" Darkness shouted excitedly.

She continued to look at the Barroth excitedly as it somewhat slowly rushed at her with full force.

Unexpectedly though, I was fast enough to drag her out the way for the Barroth to nearly miss us.

The Barroth charge that slowly flew past us went head first into a rock wall as it hit it hard.

"Aw! Tsukiyo! Why'd you do that?" Darkness pouted sadly as she looked at me with a sad expression.

"Oh you know, just out here to ruin your fun. No other reason." I said to her as was acting innocent, "But other than that, we still have to kill this thing. And you're uh….not really suited for killing things…"

"Ugh…I should be offended at that, but I guess I don't really mind that coming from you…" Darkness said as she started to pant a bit, "I guess I'm okay with being called useless by you…"

"Hey now, compared to Aqua, at least you can actually do things sort of normal for the most part." I said as I unsheathed the sword from my back.

"Hey, what do you mean for the most part?" Darkness said as she gave me a small glare.

"Eyes up, it's coming back around for us!" I said ignoring her question.

The Barroth that ran headfirst into a rocky wall was now facing us as it breathed heavily and glared at us.

It began to put its head down as it tried to go full force toward us.

I was just about to sidestep the Barroth once again, but I was pretty surprised to see that instead of it having it run past me, it stopped right in front of me and tried slamming its head on me.

I stepped back and nearly caught pounded from the Barroth as it slammed his head.

I tried to go for an upper slash to see if I do some kind of damage only to find my sword bounce off its body. Same results happened when I also tried to go for a knock-off Stinger move.

"A charging monster with rock hard defenses. I think we might've found your match Darkness." Megumin said from the sidelines.

"I-I'm not rock hard!" Darkness complained.

"But you do have abs though." Megumin added in.

"Wait you have abs?" I asked, actually curious about Darkness' abs.

Darkness covered her stomach in embarrassment, "N-No, I don't!"

The Barroth roared at us once again as it began to violently shake its body from side to side. As it did that, balls of mud and slime was getting everywhere within 10 feet of the Barroth.

Megumin surprisingly got caught in the crossfire as a she got hit in the head with mud.

While it was shaking its body, I wanted to try and get in close to the Barroth and see if there was any spot that I could've stabbed it.

But while I was trying to get closer, the mud that was getting tossed around started to mix in with the sand and make me slip.

I fell back trying to get closer to the Barroth only to slip and be vulnerable.

The Barroth stopped shaking its body and began to charge at me once again.

I somehow struggled more than I thought I would be and nearly got plowed by the Barroth until Darkness used the lance to stop the Barroth.

The Barroth slowed down and stopped right in front of me. It tried to use its mouth to take some bites out of me.

I crawled back from where I was and pulled out my pistol, trying to get some pot shots in.

Two of my shots landed in the tongue of the monster since it was trying to munch at me while the 3rd shot landed on its eye, Making it roar loudly and start to flail its head from side to side trying to hit anything in its way.

I got back on my feet and thanked Darkness as the Barroth flailed around.

What to do now…

Rock hard defenses for its body, charges and uses mud to attack, most attacks bounce off of it.

I'm not really suited to fight this thing either...

"Tsukiyo, I think I have an idea." Darkness said as she took her lance with two hands, "Let me push it back!"

Darkness began to run at the Barroth with her Lance raised up. She, surprisingly, hit the Barroth dead center in its throat and tried to push it back.

The Barroth began to reach its stubby front arms towards Darkness, while I took this opportunity to run up to it and see if there was a place I can slash at.

Since its left eye was shot out, I was able to get really close to it and see its underbody. There was no rocky area under it but it did have some kind of tough skin.

After taking a small moment to see if there was a weakspot, I just said Fuck it and started slashing around the legs to see if I can slow down its movement.

By the time the Barroth knew that I was under it, slashing away at anything that looked weak enough, it began to stomp around and see if it could stomp me.

I got away from its legs and got behind it as stomped around.

While I was behind it, it was strange to see that there wasn't as much rocky plating on its back or nape.

I somehow got the bright idea of jumping on top of the Barroth and running up to its neck to stab it and try killing it like that.

And that's exactly what I did.

I'll admit, this probably wouldn't have been something that I would've done in the first place, especially with how things ended up back in Axel last time, but this thing doesn't have any wings so nothing too bad will happen…

or at least that's what I thought..

The moment the Barroth knew that I was on its back and stabbing its nape, all hell managed to break loose and this turned from a regular hunt into a rodeo show.

With it moving from side to side and actually ramming into the stone pillars, the Barroth was roaring and moving violently to get me off its back.

"Tsukiyo! That looks fun! Can I have a turn?" Megumin shouted from the sidelines.

"I second that!" Darkness added in.

"Sure, but how about some help first!" I shouted as I tried to hold on to the sword that was still lodged in the Barroth.

With that said, Darkness used her Lance to drive the Barroth back and tried to control its rampage by trying to keep it in one place.

Megumin, on the sidelines, somehow got herself one of the slingers and flung rock at the Barroth. It wasn't much but at least it was something from her.

By the time the Barroth seemed to have run out of stamina and stopped shaking itself violently trying to get me off, I dug the sword out of the neck Barroth and jumped in front of its face as I did a downwards stab to it head using the strength of my Devil Bringer to bring down the Barroth to the ground.

The Barroth struggled to get back up as its arms and legs were in an awkward position to try and get up.

Before we knew it, we started to see the side of the Barroth get pelted with some small explosions, bullets, and an oversized beetle hitting it.

"Not bad Tsukiyo!" A voice called out from above.

As all three of us looked up to where the voice called out, we saw Cowboy using his polearm to travel midair, and do a downwards spin into a slam right on top of the Barroth's head.

I wasn't sure if it was just me seeing things, but I could've sworn that I saw a couple of rock chips break and fly off of the Barroth when Cowboy made contact with it.

"See, I knew you could do this! Just had to believe you know?" Cowboy said as he stepped back.

"Fine. I'll accept the positivity this time." I said as I looked away.

"There we go!" Cowboy said happily as he slapped me on the back.

"Hey Alexi! We got it downed for you! Do your thing!" Cowboy shouted.

"Da!" Alexi shouted.

As Alexi put his gun down and split it in half for some reason, he grabbed a sort of large belt mag and loaded it into his giant gun.

"LMG Mounted and Loaded!" He shouted before he pulled the trigger and started to rain literal hellfire onto the Barroth.

Now, I've never heard a machine gun be fired in real life, I'm already used to the sound of the Blue Rose being shot, but this was something else. I was actually feeling very intimidated as Alexi fired his gun into the monster cause the sound of his gun was insane.

The Barrel of his giant gun was running hot red as the bullet shells were continuously falling down near his feet and rolling down the sand.

Strangely enough, I feel like I've heard the Soviet National Anthem going on while Alexi was doing his thing.

"Mag Out!" He shouted as he stepped back and reloaded his LMG.

"So, where's Aqua and Kazuma? I think I got something for them to do." I asked Cowboy.

"Oh those two? They're hiding behind rock pillar not to far behind us." Cowboy said as he looked behind us as waved his arm telling them to get closer.

I looked behind us to see where they were only to find out that they were pretty far away from us.

"Get the hell over here!" I shouted to them.

"Hell no! Do you see that thing?! My short sword is gonna break if I even touch it!" Kazuma shouted.

"I'm a Healing and Water Goddess! I shouldn't even be near Dragons or whatever those things are! Are you out of your mind?! I'm staying here where it's safe!" Aqua also shouted.

~ ~ ~ ~

Do you think my Snatch ability can reach them?

Nope. Not long enough.

(That's what she said *cries*)

Damn.

~ ~ ~ ~

"This thing is weak against Water! If you have Water magic, we could really use some right now!" Cowboy shouted.

"If you guys don't get over here in 10 seconds I'm smashing the Kotatsu and Wine bottles back in the mansion!" I shouted.

"We can always get more! Too bad!" Aqua shouted with a smirk on her face.

"Guy watch out!" Megumin shouted from the sidelines.

The Barroth that was behind us as back up on its feet as it roared at us again.

"Right then, what the plan?" I asked Cowboy.

"Simple; Out maneuver and take advantage. Think you and your girl can take aggro for a moment? I got a small plan in mind." Cowboy said.

"Sure why not. I know the perfect place to target its charge attack…" I said as I sheathed my sword on my back.

"Darkness! Follow me! We're need to drag it away from those 2!" I shouted as I pulled out the Blue Rose and started blasting.

Darkness followed after me and as we positioned ourselves ahead of where Aqua and Kazuma were hiding.

Since the Barroth was more focused on me, mainly because I shot its eye and stabbed it, it was charging hard at me with not much consideration of what it was doing.

I jumped out of the way so it wouldn't ram me, but Darkness on the other hand…

Darkness held her Lance sideways as she began to brace herself for a heavy impact.

Since I wasn't fast enough to tackle her out of the way, Darkness took the Barroth's charge head on and tried to push it back.

Despite having the highest defense out of everyone here, the large amount of momentum following after the Barroth was enough to push Darkness back as far as 10-15 ft. In a sense, they were basically fighting right in front of Aqua and Kazuma.

Aqua and Kazuma fell back hard as they both flailed around trying to get away from the monster.

The Barroth noticed them and roared once again while it was struggling to push Darkness back even further.

Kazuma was able to escape and get away from both Darkness and the Barroth in exchange for pushing Aqua back and leaving her behind.

"Hey, you Ass! Don't leave me behind!" She shouted in fear as she struggled to get up and run away.

I don't really blame him though.

I honestly would've done the same thing if I was in that situation…

Kazuma didn't listen or turn back as Aqua continued to cower in fear. True Leader everyone...

The Barroth Roared once again as it began to push Darkness back further.

"Ahhh! Get Away! 'Sacred Create Water!' " Aqua shouted.

Wait a minute, isn't that-

I wasn't able to finish my thought because my fears were instantly realised as Aqua summon a fucking Tsunami on us. Again!

God why does this only happen to us...

All of us in this small sand hill was easily swept away as the water threw us around like a fuckin toy and separated us in different directions, and yes that included the Barroth that we were supposed to hunt.

Thankfully, I didn't drown. At least I wasn't able to drown because Vergil was able to wake me up. No, it wasn't CPR like I did with Darkness back in Alcanretia, he just summoned Beowolf and decided to axe kicked me in my stomach in full force.

Yeah, it did work on me, and it did make me throw up the tsunami water and my last lunch, but at least I'm not dead…

"Get up. I'm not going to carry you back to the camp." Vergil said coldly as he looked around. It looked like I got swept into some kind of open space underground.

I could still see the sunlight since there was an open hole above us, and it didn't look like that there were actual walls aside from walls of sand falling down from the hole, so I guess the only way out was the exact same way I got swept in. The only way out of this place was through a small entrance ahead of us.

"This doesn't look like a familiar area, and it doesn't look like anyone flooded with you so I'll fight with you for now." Vergil said as he started to head towards the entrance.

"Wow...for once you're being nice." I said as I got up from the san-, well actually the mud as of right now.

"Right…" Vergil said as he dismissed my comment, "Hey, where's your rental?"

I looked at my hands, my sheath, and the space around me.

"Shit…" I said to myself, another lost sword...

"That damned Goddess…Do you have your gun at least?" He asked.

I checked my back holster and found my gun still holstered.

At least I still have that, really can't lose a multi-million eris creation in Bufu fucking Egypt.

I pulled out my pistol and cleaned out most of the mud and grime from inside the barrel and near the trigger and signaled to Vergil that I was ready.

"Alright, let's find out where we are-" Vergil was then interrupted as the ground began to shake violently.

"An Earthquake? No, this is different…" Vergil said to himself as summoned the Yamato and got into a battle stance.

The ground tremors continued as we looked around and soon found some kind of animal under the sand heading towards us from the entrance. While only a small hill formed on top, the shaking began to increase the closer it got to us, so this was something bigger than what we see.

"Don't stay in front when it comes out, stay on the side." Vergil said as he was about to dodge to the side.

When the small hill was now close enough, we were just about to jump to the side up until the hill and tremors stopped right in front of us.

"It stopped?" I said to myself.

I looked from side to side to see if we would probably get ambushed until both me and Vergil started to hear some heavy breathing, footsteps, and the sound of sand getting pushed aside from behind us.

We both jumped back and got ready to fight as we saw a different monster appear from within the falling sand wall.

The first thing to come out of the sand walls wasn't the face of the monster, but it was its horns. It's very own twisted devil-like horns coming from its head.

Is this the monster Cowboy told us about yesterday when we were in the Cafeteria? Diablos?

"Doesn't look like you can get a break now can you, Tsukiyo?" Vergil said as he got on his battle stance.

"Nope, I really can't." I said as I pointed the Blue Rose at the Monster and fired off all 3 shots at its face.

Oh boy...

I've really slacked of this series for 2 actual months…

Welp! My bad guys!

If any of you guys were actually wondering what happened to me, well then you're not so much as in luck as you think, cause even I don't know what the fuck happened.

Ok, well sort of a lie, I do know what happened, but I really don't at the same time.

If I were to sum it up in short, I'd say that I sort of forgot that I had to do this series, but had it burning in the back of my mind for a long time.

That, and I did sort of have some kind of writer's block.

At least, I think I still do have it to an extent, but it's not as bad as back in Thanksgiving where I actually didn't want to write anything at all.

I mean, it was nice not having to do anything and becoming a true deadbeat; Watching anime/YT for 8-9 hours, eating, sleeping, repeat. But man...being a true deadbeat is so nice but sucky at the same time since it means staying in my room for the whole day.

Not really good for my mental health, but hey it's already fucked beyond repair so no harm, no foul.

Now, onto the actual things that you're wondering about (or not), am I still gonna continued this story and the other one?

Yes, I will.

I mean I did take like a 2 month vacation off of it so, it'd probably be a bit logical to try to continue it you know?

Will it be a faster or slower pace than normal?

Hmmmm….

I'm still trying to figure that one out, since I do have to start college soon but I do have most of my days off, so I'll toy with the idea of either swapping over to 1 month uploads or stick with bi-weekly.

Either way, I'll still try to go for quality over quantity regardless of upload schedule, but for the sake of wanting to continue the story, I sadly might have to speed things up for the sake of storytelling.

By the way, I did watch the Konosuba and Bunny Girl Senpai movie, one gave me a lot of inspiration for Vol. 5 while the other one made me sad and rewatch the entire anime series in one day which made me even sadder.

….onto the questions…

Edit: For those very very few wondering, yes I will have a special title for chapter 69, trust me.

Edit 2: Goddamn it, I wanted to upload this on the 30th, but writing took too long. Especially when I had to write 4 chapters.

Edit 3: For fucks sake! Now procastination is fucking me over! Goddamn it!

Edit 4: Sorry for the short chapter, I didn't want to delay this even more, that along with the fact that this was a good cliffhanger to stop on.

Questions:

FruitPunchSamurai-987:

Will there be bosses from DMC5?

Yes there will. I just have to think of a good time and place to put them in.

DoorToLight47:

Seeing that Darkness will be using a shield and lance, will she get new abilities/skills?

This I'm still trying to think it out, since the lance and shield is pretty basic. So aside from Absolute Defense, I want there to be another skill she has to actually be useful.

FireWyrm2:

Will there be a Kazumin pairing?

Nope. Megumin will be paired with the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Yes.

Maverick (Guest):

A question mainly about the party and DMC bosses.

Yes, I'm trying to get the bosses from DMC5, 4, and maybe a bit of 3 into the story. Trust me they will be there. I have a couple of them planned out in the future, and one in this Arc.

Reviews:

-Gen2324:

Shows in text that he said The Great War.

Shows in text that the time frame was 1917 (I think).

Shows in text that it was Trench Warfare.

Says it was WW2

No Offense but holy shit, this has bothered me for the past 2 months.

My Guy! It was WW1! I know that you probably didn't know, but as someone who sort of likes history for the War aspect of it, man did this fucking kill me.

But yeah, Slade is a badass.

-Kensei-1085

One would also think that, that could be a possibility here…

But then again this is the world of Konosuba where nothing makes sense and everything is backwards as hell. But in all seriousness, There will be a time where the party does shine and actually does cool stuff.

-Journey to the End

What he needs is for me to continue writing so he can get better.

-DoortoLight47

I sort of forgot he was an actual Character, I sort of based mine off Slade from Turok 2008.

-Pina (Guest)

There is a lot I want to say, but I can't since it'll be a pretty big spoiler but I will say one thing:

Vol. 7 is where the real shit goes down.

-Kino (Guest)

If you mean people like Donguri or Sakaki or the other Combo Mad guys, then no, you are absolutely high off of Pizza.

Have you seen their stuff man?! How do I write out something like that?!

But…

...I guess it's not impossible to write out my own combo mad….

...but only when the time comes...

-Reeds (Guest)

I want to try and hold off the kiss for someplace special and actually nice. I have an idea where, but it won't be for a while.

-Dude (Guest)

Thanks for enjoying the story, since it's been 2 months, I'm pretty sure you've had more than enough time to read the entire thing (if you haven't given up on it) so if you're reading this, then thanks for reading my story, and I hope you can enjoy the rest of what I upload.

-Shiroyasha Rises

I've been meaning to ask this to someone who always brings this up, but are Darkness pairing really that rare? I mean, I know the community is really strong for Megumin but is it really that rare for a Darkness ship?

Either way, More Blond M Waifu for me.

Happy (super late) New Years Guys!

Here's to a new year with a hopefully consistent upload schedule...