The ground shook violently as the stomps of the Diablos continued to run towards me and Vergil.
Compared to the Barroth that was rushing at me earlier, the Diablos was going at a much faster pace.
Me and Vergil managed to dodge it by stepping aside from it, but instead of continuing to run past us, the Diablos stopped itself and started to throw its tail side to side at us.
I fired off another 3 shots at the Diablo's ass, but just like all my other shots before, they all bounced off.
Instead of turning around and trying to charge at us again, the Diablos started to use its front claws to dig at the ground in front of it and start to disappear into the ground.
The ground started to vibrate a lot as a small molehill started to come towards me at a quick pace.
"Get Down!" Vergil shouted as he got 2 rows of spectral swords ready to fire at the monster.
I jumped out of the way when the Vibrations stopped for a moment only for the Diablos to pop its head out and get out of the sand.
The moment the rest of the Diablos' body was fully shown and vulnerable, Vergil fired off all the swords at it. For a moment you could almost mistake them for blue missile at a distance with how fast and impactful they looked when it hit the Diablos.
I fired off another 3 shots at the Diablos' head, and while I was not expecting to do a lot of damage to it, I was surprised to see that part of its face was slightly fleshier than the Barrot I fought earlier.
2 of my shots bounced off the horns, while one of my shots lodged into its cheek.
While this is a good thing to discover, the fact that the Diablos turned its attention towards me and started to charge at me repeatedly was not good.
It also didn't help that the Diablos was much smarter when it came to charging since whenever I dodged, it would either turn its body around and charge at me again or swing its tail hoping to hit me.
Oddly enough, Vergil was nowhere to be seen as the Diablos continuously charged at me.
"Tsukiyo!" A shout was heard, I looked from side to side and saw that Vergil was running towards me with with his Beowulf Gauntlets out, "Out of the Way!" he shouted.
I didn't have to think too hard to dive out of the way for Vergil to do an Endo flip and kick the Diablos' head hard towards the ground.
The sheer power from Vergil endo kicking the Diablos made the ground shake for a solid 3 seconds while the ground even cracked a bit, making a small crater.
Vergil stepped back from the disorientated Diablos and was winding up for a heavy punch as he began to charge up his attack.
As the Diablos slowly got up definitely hurt from the kick Vergil did, it began to make a weak roar at him as one of its horns was cracked and starting to break off.
Vergil's fist was glowing from a faint yellow to a bright white. He looked like he was about to rush up and punch the monster up until it began to roar at us once again and dig into the ground.
The ground shook as the Diablos dug its hole.
I got up in a panic and began to back away from the Diablos thinking that it would've pulled a surprise attack on either me or Vergil while he was charging up, but to my surprise the molehill that formed ahead of us began to head somewhere else.
Vergil stopped charging his fists and made the gauntlets disappear, "Turning tail, huh?" he said to himself.
"Come on. Let's try to regroup with the others. We need to find you a weapon." He said as he began to head towards the other direction.
"Not gonna go after it?" I asked as I put away my gun.
"There's no need. If an animal fears and acknowledges another's strength, chances are it might run off and not bother them. If that monster knows and fears my strength, it won't mess with us again." Vergil said as he continued to walk.
As we began to follow the water that washed me in this cave, we started to walk uphill and soon see actual daylight.
Me and Vergil looked around the area and hoped to see something that might've looked familiar, but it was no use since most mountains and rocky areas look the same.
"Dammit…" Vergil swore as saw no recognizable landmark, he sighed to himself as stepped out of the cave's mouth and started walking ahead, "Looks like we're gonna have to look around for a bit if we want to find something or someone…"
I was just about to follow him before I saw what looked like a small signal fire.
"Hey, check it out!" I pointed out.
Vergil turned his head to what I saw and warped himself to a higher vantage point on a small hill.
"It's a bit far from where we are, but we can get there regardless. Come, let's go before more monsters start to show up." Vergil said as began to take point and head towards the smoke signal.
While Vergil did say that it was a bit far, I honestly didn't expect for the entire trip there to take about 2 hours, oh, and remember the heat that I told you about? You know, the unbearable heat that makes it feel like the Sun just sat its buttcrack down on this desert? Yeah, that still applies here.
The trip was bumped up to 2 hours because the heat almost made me pass out twice from dehydration.
Note to self, crushed bug juice will always stay as a last resort. Always.
Thankfully, the sun was starting to set slowly so there was definitely a generous amount of shade along the way.
The closer we got to the smoke signal, the more we started to hear some shouting, crying and yelling, mainly from Aqua and Kazuma.
"I said I was sorry already! But this is your fault too! If you didn't leave me for dead, I wouldn't have need to call in my water!" Aqua cried out from a distance. Jesus, you can hear her from this far?!
Vergil sighed to himself as he too heard Aqua complain from a distance. I wasn't sure if it was just me, but it looked like Vergil started to walk a bit slower and sightsee around us more often as we got closer.
"Ok, Ok! Maybe part of this was my fault! But this is still Tsukiyo's fault for bringing us here in the first place!" Kazuma shouted back, "Ugh! This entire thing was a mistake! First the town situation and now this?! Goddamn it!"
"Keep fire lit!" A pretty annoyed voice barked at them.
"S-Sorry!" Both Aqua and Kazuma said as they cowered in fear.
"God, can you two be any louder? We weren't even 50 feet away and we could hear you guys shout…" Vergil commented as he drug his feet over to where Kazuma, Aqua, and Alexi were.
It looked like they had found a spot in a half cave to set up camp and wait for others.
"Hey! Tsukiyo! Ooo, Do I have a bone to pick with-" Kazuma said as he was just about to mouth me off before Vergil grabbed the back of his shirt collar and tossed him back to Aqua.
"Hey! But out of this, I don't care if your a Demon, I have some things that need to be sa-" Kazuma got cut off again as one of Vergil's spectral swords forcefully launched itself near his head, shutting him up completely.
"You. Heavy Gunsman, do you know where are?" Vergil asked.
"Uncharted Territory. Sorry." Alexi said as he took off his helmet and wiped off his sweat, "Cowboy is well tuned with nature. We find him, we find our location."
"And where is Cowboy?" Vergil asked.
"Not here yet. We wait until then." Alexi said as he began to clean off his gun.
"Fine then." Vergil said as he took a spot away from Kazuma and Aqua and began waiting for Cowboy to get here.
"Tsukiyo, is Darkness or Megumin not with you?" Aqua asked.
"No, I ended up alone, I was kinda hoping that they were with you." I said.
"Hmm, that's too bad. I was hoping to see Megumin with you just so Kazuma could shut up." Aqua said as she laid down.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked curiously
"Hey Aqua don't you dare-!" Kazuma said as he began to blush a bit and try to stop her.
"Kazuma was blabbing for 30 minutes straight worrying about Megumin. Saying that she's pretty vulnerable in the wild since she doesn't have any other spells aside from her 'Explosion Magic.'" Aqua said casually while Kazuma began to blush a lot more.
"Oh, what's this? Is a male teammate of mine actually being worried for someone of the opposite gender?" I teased.
"Goddamn it Aqua, why didn't you keep your mouth shut!" Kazuma said as he cursed under his breath.
"Well, don't be too embarrassed about it. I'm pretty worried about both her and Darkness, but as long as they have Cowboy guiding them to the right direction, I don't think we need to worry about them too much." I said as I laid down right next to him.
"Yeah, maybe you're probably right." Kazuma said as he scratched his head embarrassingly.
All 5 of us waited for the last 3 to get here so we could know where to and how to get out, but as an early sunset turned into almost night time, we were starting to get a bit anxious.
"H-hey, it's been a while since we've got here. You think they might've left us behind?" Aqua said as she squirmed around in front of the fire.
Part of me really hoped that that wouldn't be the case, mainly because we have no idea where we are, but also because I know Darkness is really gonna be worried about me by the time we all get back.
As much as I would like to go out and search for them, it'd be pretty useless to do so since, aside from the bonfire, the moon light is the only light source out here.
Alexi sighed as he put on his helmet and strapped his gun onto his back, "Come, let's go find airship. Bring 2 torch for light."
"Just for today, I'll make sure to help out the gunner. After that, you're on your own again." Vergil said as he grabbed the Yamato and started to follow Alexi.
With only 2 torches and the somewhat bright moon, as our only light source we continued deeper and a bit higher into the desert. We've encountered a couple of small monsters on our way back, but other than that we didn't really get anything too bad where the party was in a scramble.
Alexi continued to look up into the night sky as he used the stars as a compass. While this is another world with a completely different universe, the night sky did have its share of similarities with the one back on earth.
As we continued to walk through the desert, it has now gone full night time, so if the moon was behind a tree or a mountain, it would immediately become pitch black.
After a long time of walking, we decided to take a small break.
I looked around us hoping to see anything that looked familiar, but even with a torch in my hand, everything looked the same. I was just about to give up trying to find something that looked familiar before I saw some red circular runes slowly form way off into the distance.
"Hey...Hey guys!" I said loudly to get some attention.
Everyone looked to where I was and saw what I saw.
"That's Megumin's magic! Come on!" Kazuma said as he began to run ahead of us.
"Alexi, We follow those runes, we might just meet up with Cowboy!" I said as I followed after Kazuma.
"Da!" Alexi said as he grabbed his heavy gun and started to run towards the runes.
"Tsukiyo! Wait up! Dammit…." Vergil swore as he was the last to follow us.
All of us in the group sprinted towards the runes in the sky. As we began to get closer and closer to them the symbols started to get bigger and bigger until Megumin, or at least we hope it's Megumin, fired off the explosion magic.
Even though we were still pretty far from the explosion, the power was enough to vibrate and shake the ground as we ran towards it.
The mushroom cloud that emerged from it already looked sizable from a distance and the closer we got to it, the larger the smoke and dust began to cover the area ahead of us.
By the time we got really close to the explosion area, we were starting to have some kind of vision trouble since the smoke and dust began to block our sight. It didn't help that there was also a suffocating kind of heat around the blast area, making it really hard to get close.
"Megumin!" Kazuma and Aqua called out trying to see if they can spot their jihad-loli.
"Cowboy!" Alexi also shouted trying to find his comrade.
All of us were trying to make our way either through or around the explosion crater as we tried to call out the rest of our team.
"Darkness!" I called out.
So far there was no response from either of the names we called out.
"...kiyo!" there was a voice that called my name out from a distance that I thought I heard.
I tried my best to focus my hearing and see if I could tell where the voice came from, but to no luck the dust still made things cloudy around me.
"Darkn-!" I tried to call out once again until the ground began to shake.
While the ground was shaking, I pulled out my revolver and began to look around me.
While Megumin's explosion magic is pretty powerful, I don't think it's powerful enough to cause an earthquake…
I looked all around me and towards the ground to see if any small hills were forming. The ground started to shake more and more around me as there were still no hills forming.
Where the hell is coming from? It feels like it could be right under...
Shit-!
By the time I knew exactly where the shaking was coming from, I almost dove off the cliff trying to get out of the way. It's a good thing that there was a pretty sturdy tree branch for me to hang onto as I nearly shitted myself.
Thanks, bullshit plot device!
As I pulled myself up, I saw a head and body beginning to dig itself out of the ground. The silhouette of a wyvern with devil horns already made me assume that it was a Diablos, but taking a closer look at it, the horns that made it obvious turned out to be just a single horn.
Looks like the same one from earlier trying to get some payback…
All the dust and smoke from the explosion earlier was slowly starting to settle, and after taking a closer look at the Diablos, it seemed to have some scorch marks and slashes on its wings and body.
Ok. Now I get it.
So it wasn't just me that its after then.
While I would've loved to take this monster head on, I would have to sneak around it and head towards the team to fight it since I didn't have a viable weapon to attack it with.
Damn, I really wish that the smoke didn't go away so soon. Would've made sneaking around much easier…
It didn't look like the Diablos had noticed me yet, but I really have to move fast if I want to keep it that way.
There wasn't a lot of cover around for me to sneak around with, I mean this is a desert, but with all the rocks and lingering smoke I think I might be able to pull something off…
I grabbed a handful of rocks and started to load them on my slinger, you know, the one thing that I completely forgot about even though it's attached to my right arm? Yeah, that thing.
I aimed my slinger to a wall near the Diablos and pulled the trigger of my slinger.
The slinger, unexpectedly, malfunctioned as the actual slinger itself stopped halfway and launched the rock right next to the Diablos' feet.
The Diablos' turned its head toward my direction and lowered its head on caution as it headed my direction.
Dammit!
I looked around to see if there was any cover, but since I was on flat-ish sand hill, I couldn't run anywhere, let alone hide myself.
Sigh Dammit! I'm really gonna have to make a stand right here with just a pistol huh?
Fuck it. If I'm gonna be heard by the Diablos, then I might as well make myself heard by everyone!
I pulled out my pistol and aimed where I thought were the Diablos' eyes were at, and when it got close enough I fired off all three shots.
The Diablos staggered back in pain before it roared loudly in the sky.
I used this opportunity while it was roaring to try and get as far away from it as it could.
I'm not sure how far away the rest of the guys are at, but I'm gonna have to buy some time regardless just for them to get here.
Now that the Diablos was done roaring in the sky, it turned around and started to run towards me at full speed.
I was only able to look back for half a second as I barely dodged out of the way from getting rammed.
It was a good thing that I was close to the wall for the Diablos to get its horn stuck in the wall, but even if it was stuck, it did use its tail to thrash around and cause the sand to spread everywhere.
Didn't matter to me though, I was still running away from it!
I tried to look around for some kind of sign of help or something to slow down the Diablos with, but nothing came to mind as I looked.
I fired off 3 shots into the air, just to let someone know I'm here.
The ground started to shake heavily as I continued to run, I looked back once again and saw the hill coming towards me fast.
I was just about to dive out the way of the Diablos popping its head out of the sand until I the sand under me rose up a lot faster than I expected.
Instead of diving its head out of the sand first and digging its body out, the Diablos dove out of the sand in full force as it tried to mow me down.
I, on the other hand, was sent sort of high into the sky when the Diablos dove out of the ground and hit the ground hard.
I guess it was safe to say that my head somehow got hit since I was starting to see double.
I got up slowly but struggled to do so as my head trauma made it hard to stand up straight.
Right now I was already seeing double, but I still pointed my revolver at the Diablos as it slowly made its way towards me.
I shot my gun 3 times slowly as the double vision didn't help my aim. By the sounds of it, I guess all 3 of my shots probably missed or hit a hard scale, either way, I was screwed.
I looked around me and saw nothing and no one that could help me out.
The Diablos stared me down as it saw me in a pretty bad shape.
"What? Like what you see?" I mocked it as I made a dry laugh.
Obviously, I didn't get a response from it since it was a Wyvern, but hey at least it sounded funny.
"Man, do I always get shitted on...thought I'd be used to it by now. But then again, I did wander off on my own..." I said to myself as my vision slowly got better, "Man is Vergil gonna be pissed…" I said as I tried to fire my gun at it again.
I guess my gun wasn't done reloading since it only fired off 2 shots instead of 3.
Both shots hit a hard part of the Diablos' skin and bounced off of its body. It roared loudly and began to charge at me head first.
I tried to stare off the Diablos as hard as I could and wait for the right time to dodge.
"Come on you fake Devil, show me what's so scary about you!" I shouted at it as I braced my body to take it on.
While I should've been paying attention to what was literally right in front of me, I noticed a pair of footsteps running to me behind me.
A faint flash of Blue and Yellow appeared right in front of me as the Diablos impacted something hard, stopping it dead in its track.
"What have I told you time and time again, Tsukiyo. Don't be so reckless to throw your life away…" Vergil said coldly.
"Tsukiyo….Are you okay?" Darkness said as she was struggling to push back the Diablos with the rental sword that I lost.
"Right in the nick of time, thanks guys." I said before Vergil pulled my collar harshly.
"Yeah, just in the nick of time. Especially when this could've been avoided if you hadn't gone on your own." Vergil said as if he was grinding his teeth.
Before he said anything else, Vergil glowed a faint blue as he disappeared back into my arm.
I'll punish you back on the airship. Right now, focus on killing this thing.
Not gonna help?
After what you pulled, figure it out yourself.
Yeah, this one's on me.
"Alright then...let's show you what a real devil looks like!" I said as I clenched my fist and summoned my spectral arm to punch the Diablos straight in the face.
The Wyvern got pushed back pretty far as roared at us in anger.
A couple of gunshots that weren't mine would soon be heard. I saw a couple of small rockets get sent from across the field and get latched onto the wing, they exploded soon after and got the attention of the Diablos.
"Sorry it took a bit long to get here, you guys-" I didn't have a chance to finish my sentence since Darkness interrupted me with a firm and sudden hug.
"I'm so glad you're safe…" Was all she said as she hugged me tight.
"You should be thanking Megumin, her explosion magic was basically a large target for us to go to." I said as I hugged her tightly back.
I broke away from the hug and wiped a couple of her tears away, "What matters right now, is that we're both okay. Come on, don't cry too much, we've still got a Monster to Hunt (Ba-dum, Tsh)"
Darkness wiped away the rest of her tears away on her sleeve, or her wrist at this point since there wasn't a lot of her armour left, "Right, we need to take care of that Dragon first. Let's go."
Me and Darkness started to make our way towards the Diablos as the shots continued.
Across the sand field from us was Alexi as he squatted on a boulder and started shooting down with his gun and with what looks like Kazuma right next to him supplying his shots.
"Wait, how are you going to fight? You don't have a weapon." Darkness said.
"I'll just have to go old-school!" I said as I pointed to my arm and turned my Devil Trigger on.
The Diablos was still preoccupied with Alexi as both me and Darkness snuck behind it.
The Diablos was just about done with tanking the shots as it started to dig in the sand and start to hide its body.
I didn't let it go into the ground as I used my Snatch ability to latch onto its tail and pull it out of the hole.
The wyvern began to struggle and move violently as it tried to break my grip on its tail. Alexi began to rapidly fire his shots onto the back of the Diablos head while Darkness was maining trying to swing at its underbody. She was whiffing it.
"That's the way Tsukiyo!" a voice shouted from above.
I looked up and saw Cowboy somehow soaring through the sky, not exactly flying but airborne, as he was soon above the wyvern's head and saw that about to do some kind of downwards strike with his polearm.
As soon as Cowboy landed the hit on the wyvern, he shot some kind of yellow-ish goo from his polearm and onto the wyvern head. From that, the watermelon sized beetle resting on Cowboys left arm got off and started to attack it.
"Alexi! Clusters!" Cowboy shouted as he brought out his bowie knife and started stabbing the nape.
It looked like Alexi shouted at Megumin for something before she scrambled to get the said object. He loaded something into his gun and pointed his gun up as if he was about to arc something.
But he'd need to wait for his shot a bit longer...
"Can't...hold…!" I grunted as my grip on the tail was getting really low up until the Diablos did a alligator spin and broke out of my hold, shaking off Cowboy and Darkness too.
With that, the Diablos dove right back into the hole it made earlier as the ground began to tremor from the wyvern's movement.
"Oh no you don't!" Cowboy said as he loaded something onto his slinger and shot a small ball towards us.
When the ball hit the ground, it made an ear piercing screech making me and Darkness cover our ears in pain, but also forcing the Diablos out of the ground as well.
The Diablos flailed around as part of its body was exposed and in confusion/shock.
Alexi got down from his rock and followed after the rest of us as we ran towards the wyvern.
With only the upper body exposed, I tensed up my demon arm and started to sprint at the wyvern at full force.
With it still flailing and not under control, I took this opportunity to get in close and go for an attack.
By the time I was close enough to the wyvern to make my spectral arm be effective, I stopped dead in my tracks and positioned my arm downwards for an uppercut.
With as much force as I could muster, I uppercutted the Diablos hard enough to not only drag to out of the hole it popped out of, but also enough to send it flying back a couple of feet.
But it looks like I put a little too much effort into my punch since my Devil Trigger wore off a couple seconds after.
"Alexi, now!" Cowboy shouted as he used his polearm to lift himself and fly towards the Diablos. Strangely enough, while he was in the air, he began to sprinkle some kind of orange dust all over the body of the Wyvern.
Once again, Alexi knelt down and began to arc his gun up as if it was a mortar, only this time he was actually able to fire off his shots without a moment to waste. Just like I guessed, or speculated I think, Alexi fired off his gun and the shell started to act just like a mortar.
The mortar shell flew high into the sky as it started to make the traditional mortar sound as gravity started to pull it back down.
The mortar shell made a direct impact on the stomach and blew up with no problems, but what surprised me was the fact that there were more mini-cluster bombs sprouting from the first explosion, and those mini-clusters made an even bigger explosion than before.
Alexi fired off another 2-3 of these cluster bombs as the rest of us watched the fireworks, while the Diablos was roaring in pain weakly.
"Mag empty!" Alexi shouted as he picked up his gun. So far there didn't seem to be anymore roaring or anything charging at us, so I think we did it.
As the dust and smoke from Alexi's bombs started to settle, we saw that the Diablos was still on its back and not moving.
"Finally…" I said as I sat down tiredly.
"Hold on, we're not done yet." Cowboy said as he took out his bowie knife.
"Please don't tell me it has a second form, I might actually quit if there is." I said tiredly.
"No, it's very rare for a Wyvern to have a second form, but there are different variants of them...but aside from that, there's no second form. We're never done with a hunt until we skin it." Cowboy said as he handed me another knife with a proud smile.
"What?" I said in disbelief, like seriously, I literally used up almost all of my energy and now I have to skin this thing?!
"You guys serious?" I asked.
"Of course we are! Aside from how we make our armour and weapons, hope you like eating Diablos meat!" Cowboy said happily as he pulled me up, "Come on, I'll show you where to cut!"
Holy shit these guys…
"I'm going to grab Megumin and Aqua, I'll be right back." Darkness said as she began to walk the opposite-
Wait a minute, where was Aqua during all of this?
God Dammit that no good trouble causing goddess of ours really needs to-
I started to feel some sudden movements from the ground as the Diablos that I thought was dead, was now moving and had enough strength to swing its tail at us.
Getting caught off guard, Cowboy got hit by its tail and was sent flying in another direction.
"Tsukiyo watch out!" Cowboy shouted as the Diablos started to charge straight at me in full force.
It didn't have to run too far at me since by the time it got close to me, it opened its mouth and tried to completely swallow me whole.
A little bit of emphasis on the words "Tried to."
"TSUKIYO!" Darkness shouted in horror, without hesitation Darkness rushed over to where the Diablos was.
The Diablos tried to swallow me whole, and if I was one second late to prying its mouth open from eating me, then yeah, I probably would've died...again..
"Let him go!" She shouted as she dashed towards me. She made an attempt to give it her all in a horizontal slash while she was aiming for the throat of the wyvern.
By the time she made the split second slash towards the throat, the blade snapped easily when she landed. There was no visible damage on the throat of the wyvern, but the Diablos did roar in immense pain.
Since Darkness always had trash accuracy when it came to using a sword, instead of slicing the Diablos' throat open, its tail got completely severed making the Diablos double over, giving me the chance to escape its mouth.
Alexi finally caught up and shouted, "DIE CYKA!" as he stuck his gun in the wyverns mouth and started to fire the gun almost endlessly.
The wyvern flailed violently as it suffered from the machine gun inside its mouth, but started to lessen and lessen very quickly.
By the time the Diablos stopped moving, for real this time, Alexi took out his gun from inside the mouth where the barrel of the gun steaming and glowing a fiery hot red.
"Now it is dead." Alexi said as he unloaded his gun.
"I don't think...I'm ever gonna get used to this…." I said as I panted from exhaustion.
"You...do you not fear death?" Alexi asked me as he took out a small flask.
"No, I do...Trust me. But...probably not as much….as everyone else…" I said.
"Tsukiyo!" Darkness said as she landed on me while I was still tired.
"Could you have done that a little bit more softer? I'm already tired enough from everything…" I said as Darkness tightly held onto me. Darkness didn't really say anything at all aside from hugging me tighter.
I held her head close and started to rub it, "Sorry for giving you another scare."
Even though I was completely screwed before she and Vergil came to save me…
After everything that happened today, thanks to Cowboy's guidance, we managed to get back to the airship in under an hour.
Aqua healed all of us, and then got scolded for using her magic to almost ruin the mission, well technically she did ruin the quest since we couldn't hunt the Barroth, but we did get a Diablos instead so that was considered a plus.
But it wasn't enough of a plus to get her out of cleaning duty and late dinner again…
"Now what the hell is this?" Slade said as sat down across from me and Darkness, "I send you guys out to take on a low tier monster and you go pick a fight with a mid tier and actually win. Ambition is a good thing, but take it easy you know?"
"Well, we probably would've gotten the Barroth if Aqua didn't use her magic…" I said as I was still a bit bitter from getting flushed into a cave.
"Course you would've, if you can take on a Diablos, you're already set to go on an Investigation with me later on." Slade said.
"An Investigation?" I asked.
"Compared to normal hunts, Investigations are more laid back but time consuming." Slade explained, "All we do is Investigate the general wildlife and see if anything is wrong, the thing is though is that we don't know what kind of monster we might face, if we even get monsters to fight at all.
Right now, we got an Investigation report from one of the fleets on some strange fires starting randomly near an Ancient Forest. Could be an Elder Dragon like from your town, or another kind of species we haven't found yet. Either way, since this fleet is the closest to the Forest, we're gonna take care of it."
"Don't you think we should rest for awhile? We've just come back from our first quest and it ended up almost badly." Darkness said, wow for once she wants to take it easy and not do anything rash, probably because of me though...
"Don't worry, we've got 3 days until we get to the Forest, I'll make sure to get you guys up to snuff by then." Slade said as he reassured us, "Besides, the whole team's going, so if things get bad, you'll have a full team of seasoned veteran's helping out."
"You guys should go get some rest. I'll be training you hard tomorrow." Slade said as he got up and left.
I sighed as I slouched over the table, "You know compared to doing this and taking on the Demon King's Generals, I'd probably want to take on Hans and Beldia, they make fighting look like nothing…"
Darkness didn't really say anything after that, she still had this sad look on her face while looking a bit concerned.
"You alright?" I asked her.
She faced me with a serious but concerned expression, "Can you promise me something?" she asked.
"Of course." I Replied back without hesitation.
"Next time we go out on a hunt, can you please be more careful? After everything that's happened today, I don't think my heart can take another scare like that. Tsukiyo, how can you still go on normally after everything that happened today? Especially after you almost died." She said, almost as if she was pleading me.
'You...do you not fear death?' Alexi's words rang in my head. I think he might be right.
After everythings that's happened, Dying, reincarnating into this world, putting myself through hell for no reason and trying to take on everything by myself, even I don't think my own mental state is ok or normal by any means, but...
"To be honest, even I still don't know how I can go on normally and act like nothing happened. Might be because I've just put myself in too many dangerous situations to the point of being desensitized to it, might be some other reasons…" I said sheepishly as I couldn't give myself an answer, but I did take Darkness' hand and held them tightly,
"But I do promise one thing though, from now on, I'll try not to do anything reckless. I'm sorry that I can't completely promise you my safety, but knowing me, I'll probably do something stupid and almost get myself killed. But what I can guarantee is my life. I can promise you that as long as I can fight, I'll not gonna die anytime soon."
Darkness sighed to herself, "I can't accept that answer but I don't think I'm going to get a better one…"
I held her hands gently and responded in the same tone, "Thanks and Sorry. But if I do break my promise, you can always get Aqua to revive me so you can kick my ass yourself."
Darkness managed to crack a small smile when I said that, "You know I won't do that."
"I wouldn't be offended you know? I probably need someone to kick my ass and put some sense in me!" I said as I began to smile myself.
Anyone but Vergil or Kosuke…
~Even if Tsukiyo took those words in a more light hearted tone, there was someone who didn't see it that way as he eavesdropped on both Tsukiyo and Darkness' conversation.
"Not gonna drop by?" Slade said to Turok as he leaned near the door.
"I'm gonna leave those two to themselves, even I can read the mood." Turok said as he was about to leave.
"Huh, isn't that a miracle…" Slade said as he lit up a cigar, "But doing this isn't gonna change the past, what happened to Kaz was-"
"Yeah, I know." Turok said grimly, "But I'm not gonna break my promise to him."
"Hold on, what's this about a promise?" Slade said as he looked at Turok with a strange look.
Turok didn't say anything when Slade questioned him.
"Slade, remember what the three of us used to talk about when we were just starting out?" Turok said as he looked into the doorway onto Tsukiyo.
Slade followed suit and had realization hit him right in the face, "You've gotta be shitting me…"
Next chapter: Tsukiyo dies from Corona from not wearing gloves when he skinned the Diablos.
