Hey everyone, guess who's back with another chapter, me!
Let me tell you, this one was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I went through three different drafts before finally settling on an idea that seemed to work for me. Add on school and work, and I'm just glad I got it done in the amount of time I did. But enough of those boring details, you came here for a story!
This one takes place just after episode 4 ends.
Disclaimer: I do not own Konosuba.
Chapter: 3
Silence… sweet, blissful silence.
Verdia sighed happily as his headless horse trotted down the path towards the ruined. After placing the death curse on that odd Crusader and challenging the crimson Mage to fight him, Verdia decided to enjoy the moment by teleporting only partway through the forest. Figuring he had plenty of time to relax until that foolish girl came to save her ally.
She'll probably take the rest of the day to gather supplies and possible allies for a massive raid. That's what he figured at least. Considering the girl's lineage – odd the Crimson Demon's may be, they were still known by all for the proficiency in the magic arts – he wouldn't put it past her to come alone. Magic was the only effective means to fight an undead, unless one were to use holy enchantments.
But it would take some very powerful magic to hurt him thanks to the armor his leader had gifted him with.
"No matter," Verdia laughed as the castle came into view. "I find myself excited at facing one who is capable of using Explosion magic at such a young age!"
The girl reminded him of Wiz now that he thought about it. Not in body, definitely not that, but she had spirit, and Verdia knew better than most how far that could take someone.
The first thing he did upon entering the ruined structure was to position his troops throughout the area strategically. A group that would wait just outside the gate itself. A few here and there throughout the underground tunnels in case they tried to sneak in. The occasional patrol through the hallways. And of course, he saved two of his most heavily armored soldiers to guard the doors to the throne room.
Bits of stone littered the area as he entered the room, reminding Verdia of his original reason for heading towards the town. While annoyed, the damage also served to excite the General as Explosion magic was known to have a high skill cost and mana drain. If the girl was able to acquire a skill like that than she must have a whole assortment of advanced skills just waiting to be used!
With a bit of magic, and a wave of his hand – the one not holding his head – Verdia summoned an ornate throne in place of the shattered one. "Much better," the Dullahan sighed, sitting down before activating a simple barrier to protect him in case that girl tried to bombard this room to weaken or kill him before charging in.
All I can do now is wait…
Without a roof, Verdia was able to watch as the sun began to set, bathing the throne room in an eerie twilight setting with one column providing a long shadow that hid him and his throne. If someone walked in right then and there they would only see one red eye staring at them. The General felt a little giddy at how intimidating he must look.
But the moment passed, and the sun sunk below the horizon with stars slowly making themselves known in the dimming sky, until the twilight was replaced with a soft glow as the full moon reached its highest point. It was at this point that Verdia allowed himself to lean back fully. He fell asleep soon after.
"Verdia… oh Verdiaaaaaaaa… He isn't waking up."
"Lazy bastard. I told him not to drink so much last night and does he listen to me? Noooooo, he just goes ahead and chugs the entire bottle of liquor. Do you know how much I spent on that?!"
"To be fair, we were celebrating, it's not everyday someone defeats one of the Demon King's Generals. The reward we earned will last us years if we're smart."
Verdia groaned as the two voices slowly dragged him out of his slumber.
"Oh, would you look at that, sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up his drunken ass."
"Go to hell," the knight muttered, firmly keeping his eyes shut so the sun wouldn't make his headache any worse, "and bring me a bottle of something – I don't care what, so this damn hangover will go away!" he regretted shouting the last bit immediately.
"Oh no, you ain't drinking anything else for the rest of the week, do you know why?" Verdia peeked one eye open to glance at Kyūdō, his party's leader and the best damn archer in this country. "Because in one night – just one – we spent over 10,000 Eris! Over half of that was by you drunkenly shouting that we'd cover the tab for everyone in that guild!"
"We were celebrating!" Verdia snapped, his morning anger temporarily overriding his common sense. The sun light, shouting, and movement from sitting up so quickly proved to be too much.
With a hand covering his mouth, Verdia looked around the area with desperate urgency, his eyes quickly located a bush which he ran over towards to empty his stomach of last night's meal.
"Oh dear…" the young knight heard someone kneel down next to him, and felt mu ch better a moment later. Looking over, he saw Miko – the third and final part of their party – casting a recovery spell on him. "Feeling better?" the Arch-Priest asked her friend, a look of concern taking away none of the beauty from her face.
Heat crept up his neck, and Verdia looked away while mumbling an affirmative to her question. He then heard Kyūdō snicker – probably because the bastard knew how he felt about the woman next to him, Verdia sent a warning glare in his direction, silently telling, and pleading, Kyūdō to not say anything. His leader smirked, turning towards Miko, his green eyes practically glowing with mirth, he threw out a suggestion.
"Hey four eyes, take a closer look, I think our favorite knight is coming down with something."
The Arch-Priest sent a mock glare in Kyūdō's, the nickname once used as an insult had long ago become a term of endearment between the two party members, before doing as suggested by their leader, and leaned just a bit closer towards Verdia.
"Hmm…"
Verdia, for his part, remained perfectly composed on the outside as he allowed his friend to perform a basic examination, although, inwardly, he had to resist the urge to let out a blissful sigh as he felt Miko place a delicate hand on his forehead and wrist. The touch of her skin on his and the feel of her breath were making him crazy. Kyūdō, all-the-while, had a giant grin on his face, making Verdia want to go over there and smack it off with the flat side of his new broadsword.
"He doesn't seem sick," Miko finally concluded, rising to her feet before wiping of some grass of her outfit, "but take it easy for the rest of the day, Verdia. I don't think you've fully recovered from that concussion you received."
He and Kyūdō blinked, both men completely forgetting about that particular injury. Now that Verdia thought about it, this headache did feel different than the normal ones he got during a mean hangover. "Right," he agreed, deciding, if nothing else, it was a good idea to listen to the group's healer.
"Well, now that we got that settled, who wants some breakfast?" Kyūdō asked, already heading back towards the campfire where a large boar was roasting over it. "This bad boy should be ready to eat within the hour."
After a great meal where Verdia consumed most the meat, much to Miko's chagrin, the group of three packed their supplies, and placed everything into their single-horse wagon.
"I'll ride in the wagon." The Arch-Priest offered, wishing to take the time to go over their supplies and finances.
"Then I'll drive the wagon itself." Verdia said, looking towards Kyūdō for confirmation.
Their leader nodded, and mounted the second horse – this one have nothing but a saddle and pouch on it. "So pretty much what we do every time?"
They shared a smile, and with a "Hiyah!" from Verdia to get the wagon moving, continued their journey down a forest trail.
"How's it looking back there, four-eyes?" Kyūdō called out to Miko after a few hours of traveling with the mentioned girl never emerging from the tiny wagon in that time.
Verdia had to hold back his amusement as his friend emerged only to shout that Kyūdō was being "too impatient," before disappearing once more.
"You should know by now that Miko will let us know when everything's been accounted for." Verdia reminded, being rewarded a moment later when the Arch-Priest's arm came out with a fresh apple; which Verdia promptly began eating.
"Where's my apple?!"
The response was instant, and the Knight didn't bother trying to hold back the laughter as the fruit requested practically flew out of the wagon, and crashed into their leader's head. Kyūdō fell off his horse, with bits of apple mush stuck to his face, but his foot got caught preventing him from fully coming off. Because of the sudden action, the horse itself reared, before running faster down the path, Kyūdō's face being dragged along the ground while the man screamed at both the horse to "stop before I use Snipe on you!" and Miko with a "I'm definitely going to use it on you!"
Slowly, Miko's head peaked out, her face a bright tomato red as the situation she just caused continued to escalate to ridiculous levels.
"Shouldn't… shouldn't we go after him?"
Verdia wiped away a tear as he tried to reign in his laughter. "Nah, there's no point, we'd never catch him with the wagon attached."
"What should we do?"
Bless her heart the woman was a saint compared to everyone else in this world. But this presented a rare opportunity to spend some time alone with her. I'm not passing up this opportunity. "We keep on going, enjoying the lovely scenery on the way, and wait until either we hear his screaming or find his unconscious body. I'm fine with the latter, hell, I'd be ecstatic if it were the latter."
Miko came out to sit next to him, gently smacking his arm for the comment. "Don't say that! He's our friend. I hope he'll be ok, I wouldn't have thrown that apple so hard if I knew this would happen."
"Don't be." Verdia nudged her with his shoulder. "Give it a few hours – maybe a day or two – than we'll be laughing about this over a couple drinks and a good meal."
"You really need to watch how much you drink, it's not good for you and it might cause more problems for your concussion. Speaking of which, how does your head feel?"
He took a moment to evaluate. "Pretty good, I have a headache, but it's barely noticeable."
"Good!"
It was a solid half-hour of traveling at a leisure pace, filled with pleasant conversation between the two, before the telltale signs of Kyūdō's screaming and cursing was heard by the duo.
"He sounds angry."
Miko gave a fearful moan at that. She looked back-and-forth between the path and the wagon. Torn between hiding for her leader's anger, and staying to take care of the injuries he surely had.
"Oh relax," Verdia added, seeing how nervous she was. "Yeah, he's angry – probably will be until he gets healed and eats something, but there's no way he'll do anything more than reprimand you for wasting food like that, I'm actually more worried about what he did or will do to the horse for ignoring his orders."
Miko visible relaxed at that. She still looked nervous, but the grateful smile let Verdia know he said the right thing.
"Come on," he said, before whipping the reins so the horse would move a little faster, "let's go check on our fearless leader."
- KONOSUBA! -
"-don't even try to look at me with those innocent eyes of yours! When I say, 'I won't hesitate to ditch you with an army of undead!' you better believe I mean it! Look at my face! Look at it! Remember how awful it looked? Bad, right? I almost wish the injuries weren't healed so you could stare at how much pain you made me suffer through!"
"Kyūdō!" Verdia shouted, thoroughly sick and tired of listening to the man's shouting, ranting, and all-around whining about what transpired earlier that day. "Two hours… two hours you've spent screaming at that poor horse. Just give it a break, sit your ass down, and eat some of this roast Miko was kind enough to make as an apology. At this rate you'll lose your voice if you keep screaming. On second thought, keep on going!"
The archer took several deep breaths, allowing the extra blood to drain from his face, until he was standing there as if he hadn't spent an absurd amount of time yelling at an animal. With a sigh, Kyūdō joined them around the fire. "Bastard," he muttered to Verdia who smirked back at him in response.
"Here you go." Miko held out the food for her friend to take.
He inhaled with his nose, smelling the spices and cooked meat to gauge how it would taste, and almost smiled when he caught the scent of a spice made exclusively in his home town. It reminded him of his mother's cooking and the festivals that were held where he first met Verdia who was hiding behind one of the booths, trying to sneak a peak in the showgirls' tent. Pushing the memories aside, Kyūdō took the food, thanking his friend in the process, before chowing down immediately.
"We'll arrive in the next town in a couple hours." Verdia said after everyone finished eating. The three adventurers sat in a loose circle with a map of the area laid out in-front of them. "That is," and he looked towards Kyūdō with a smirk, "if nothing else happens along the way."
"I'll need to resupply some of my potion ingredients." Miko cut in before an argument could start. "Plus, some materials for new runes. I have this idea of making one that emits a calming field around it."
"You don't say." Both men looked towards in each other in surprise after muttering the same thing while poor Miko merely pulled her scarf over her face to hide the embarrassment she was showing.
"One more thing," Verdia added, pulling their attention back to the map. He placed a finger on the map – further up on the path they were currently travelling on. "One of the guards from the last town warned me that a group of bandits were hiding out around this area and ambushing anyone that looks easy to take. There's a side path we could take to avoid the group entirely," he moved his finger along the new path, until it ended at the gate of the next town, "or… we could continue on and face these bandits."
"Why would we do that?" Miko asked.
Verdia said nothing, and pulled out a rolled-up parchment from his pouch to show them.
Capture Quest
Capture the leader of the elusive Jōhō bandits!
Reward: Alive: 3,000,000 Eris
Dead: 500,000 Eris
Bonus rewarded for every additional member caught
"How much?!" Kyūdō shrieked.
"But… we don't need another high reward." The Arch-Priest reminded them, before focusing her attention on Verdia. "Besides, I don't think you've fully recovered from facing that General earlier this week. We should just go on the side path and allow the guardsmen to take care of it."
"We have enough to live comfortably, but I say we use that money to buy ourselves high-end gear and materials. There's still several more Generals out there, and we struggled to face this one. I want to slaughter the next one we face – to send a message to the Demon King that we're coming for him!"
"As much as I hate to agree with him, Verdia has a point." Kyūdō pulled out his bow and gazed at it with fond but remorseful eyes. "It was only because you enchanted our gear prior to the battle that we stood any chance against… uh… what was his name again?"
"The Undead King."
"Right, right, we barely defeated that thing, and even though Verdia got an awesome new sword out of it, we still have average gear overall. Plus, rumor has it that the Jōhō's leader knows the location of the other Generals which would save us months of following random leads like we did last time. Besides, we've taken on bandit gangs before, this one shouldn't be any different."
"Except for the part where the leader has escaped everyone who tries to bring him in." Verdia contributed, making Kyūdō roll his eyes.
Miko's fingers clenched and unclenched around the fabric of her shirt as she thought it over. She knew – without a doubt in her mind – that her party members could take down anyone when they worked together, so long that there wasn't a special condition to defeat the opponent. They could communicate complex battle plans with merely a second of eye contact then execute said with such ease that she often wondered if those two were secretly telepaths. And the thing that startled her the most, they wouldn't do anything if she said no. Those two respected her opinion far too much to do otherwise.
"Alright," she finally said, seeing the pros far outweighed the cons.
Kyūdō and Verdia smiled, and immediately the three began to plan.
This is so boring. The bandit had to repress the urge to yawn as he sat high in one of the trees that provided a great vantage point to spy on the path for any potential targets. This path in particular was the next route for a convey that would be transporting large amounts of valuables. Word was the local Governor was moving into a new mansion. Probably some undeserving bastard who cheated those goods out of hardworking individuals.
A growl made its way out of the bandit's lips at the thought. Here he was, working his ass off to break the law so the next meal he eats wouldn't come from the garbage, and that damn Governor was probably stuffing himself like a damn pig! It wasn't fair!
He used to have a job working in the mines. Sure, the conditions weren't the best, he had a feeling this was so the company could say some Eris, but it was good, honest work. However, once production began to slow to a halt – the reason being the mine simply had no more ore in it – the company fired everyone there, packed up, and left for a new town to exploit. Jobless, and eventually homeless, he could do nothing else but survive from that point on. He was lucky the Jōhō bandits took him in.
"Hey." A voice quietly called out below him.
"Huh?" Looking down, the bandit saw another member waving him down. "Is my shift over already?"
"Yeah, but if you're enjoying yourself, I'll just say you volunteered to keep watch for a few more hours." The other member turned to leave, but stopped at his hurried response.
"Hang on, I was just lost in thought!" He slid down and gave the other man a dirty look – though, it was a little difficult to tell due to the cloth and headband the bandits wore to cover their faces. "And next time remember to use the stupid bird call. Anyone else would have put an arrow through your skull."
"Right, right, I'll remember… how did it go again?"
"For the love of-" he sighed, before performing the call the best he could, cringing afterwards. "It's supposed to be a bit higher pitch than that, but you'll be fine so long that you follow the tune correctly."
"I think I can manage that, thanks."
"Good," he walked past the other bandit, eager to get back and eat something.
"Hang on, I think you forgot something."
"What could I-?" That was as far as he got before a solid punch knocked him out cold.
"Your shift wasn't over." Kyūdō said, a smirk hidden beneath the mask as he moved the bandit into the bushes. "That's the second piece of information I've gotten from just asking. Now let's see what was next on the list… right! Number of people guarding the perimeter," he looked at the bush, and added a little side note, "minus three if I include the next guy. Wonder how Miko's doing, she should be distracting the main group right now."
"Nature's Beauty!" From both hands came a small, crystal clear stream of water that perfectly poured into the cups balancing atop the heads of two bandits, and from within the cups a beautiful flower sprouted. The crowd of bandits erupted with cheers as Miko – also disguised as a bandit – bowed in gratitude.
"AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!" they chanted.
She gestured for them to calm down, and spoke up once they were quiet. "Alright, for this next one, I will need three more volunteers."
Immediately the group was shouting again with each bandit nearly begging Miko to be a part of her tricks.
"Ok… I pick you, and you behind that gentleman over there…" please hurry up Verdia, party tricks can entertain people for only so long.
Verdia, for his part, felt incredibly uncomfortable wearing the bandit disguise. He was used to having heavy armor protecting almost every part of his body, and the suits these bandits wore offered no protection. Plus, the fabric was really itchy.
The sooner I get this done the sooner I can get out of this thing.
His part of the mission was arguably the most important – Miko saying it was also the most dangerous. The leader stayed in his own private tent, Verdia's job was to go in, capture the leader, and dig up any information that his party or the Guardsmen could use. What made this difficult was the fact he didn't have any piece of his regular gear on. A simple sword was the only thing these bandits seemed to have in terms of close combat, but the Knight was used to fighting with massive broad swords that weighed almost as much as he did.
"Work with what you got." Verdia muttered to himself, mirroring Kyūdō's casual reply when he complained about it earlier. Approaching what he thought was the leader's tent – the only real indicator it was being a bit bigger than the rest of them along with the bandit's symbol marked on it – Verdia pulled out his borrowed sword, prepared to dash in and knock out whoever was inside, only to pause when he saw a note stuck to one of the flaps.
Do no disturb.
"There is no way I'm this lucky…"
Despite saying that, Verdia opened the flap a little more carelessly than he would have, and to his amazement, saw the leader of the Jōhō bandits, revered for being damn near impossible to track let alone catch – sleeping comfortable with a trail of drool hanging off the corner of the man's mouth.
"You. Have got. To be kidding me."
"That's how you captured the entirety of the Jōhō bandits? Including their leader?" The Captain of the Guardsmen asked incredulously, looking towards the mentioned group as her men escorted them onto several prison wagons to be transported. Her eyes fell on the leader just in time to see him shoved into a fortified transport. "That man has eluded us for years, escaped from prison four times, and you just find him when he's asleep?"
Kyūdō shrugged, "I was just as surprised as you were, but I'm not complaining. Made things a whole lot easier for us."
"True… I'm assuming you will want the reward for this bounty, including the bonus once we've calculated that, but how do you want to be paid?"
"Yeah, I got an account set up for my party to use. How about I head back with you to get that taken care of?"
The Captain raised an eyebrow. "You do know it will take a few hours for me to fill out the paperwork for the leader alone, if you come now, I'll have to ask you to stay until the matter is finished."
"That's fine." Kyūdō replied with a sudden twinkle in his eyes. He turned towards his other party members and told them to go into the city without him. Miko and Verdia replied with a questioning "Ok," and said they would meet up with him at the local guild.
Not one to normally involve herself with others personal lives, the Captain was a little surprised to find herself curious about the leader's behavior. "You're not really interested in doing this, are you?"
"Oh hell no." he replied easily. Then, his gaze softened as he watched his friends walk side-by-side towards the city together, and his voice had a fond quality to it when he spoke again. "But those two deserve every bit of happiness they can get."
-KO-NO-SU-BA!-
The undead General awoke from his slumber, feeling refreshed and sentimental after relieving one of his oldest memories. Perhaps I will see them once more when this is all over, the Dullahan wondered, watching as the sun began to rise over the castle. They've had enough time; the attack should happen soon.
In a way, he was right…
"Explosion!"
The attack erupted within the room itself, surprising Verdia as the shockwave – from being so close – was able to shatter his barrier as if it were made of glass, followed closely by a wave of fire that made him yell out in pain as bits of his throne melted onto him and quickly cooled by a follow-up breeze the displaced air created.
Trapped, Verdia quickly ordered his army to ready themselves. "We're about to face an enemy unlike any other!" Perhaps I shouldn't have gone so far…
It took precious minutes for him to break out of the throne, time that was oddly quiet despite the battle that surely was happening right now. However, when nothing else happened over the next hour, Verdia felt horror swell up from his very core. No…
When it became apparent nothing else was going to happen that day, Verdia summoned a new throne, and placed an even stronger barrier around it. This was probably just a test by her part – a way to check my defenses…
Yeah, that made sense, that had to be it. But even as he sat down on the new throne, Verdia couldn't help but worry about what was about to happen next. And he was right to do so.
"Explosion!"
Because the next day proved to be no different as the magic attack crashed into the worn-out structure without any form of follow-up attack.
This continued…
"Explosion!"
Every.
"-plosion!"
Single.
"-osion!"
Day.
"-ion!"
The intense heat turned some of the stone around his feet into molten slag that then acted like small rivers as it flowed through the numerous cracks around the area. Behind him, the last remaining wall collapsed, being unable to support itself after so many repeated shockwaves wore out its foundation. Verdia, meanwhile, ideally waited inside his barrier with his head on one of the armrests while a hand tapped a rhythmic tune along the helmet.
He waited a few more minutes before he dropped the barrier, taking some time afterwards to stretch his undead body.
One more day until my death curse finishes off that Crusader. Considering the way things were going however… Verdia closed his eyes as an act of respect. Why anyone would allow an upstanding knight die in such an undignified way is beyond me. He moved his head upward towards the clouds. I hope you find yourself in a better place, foolish Crusader.
I can't help but feel like I was transported to a video game world that was meant to be played by children, but with the difficulty raised to the absolute limit. Or was it meant to be played by adults with the lowest difficulty?
The though ran through Kazuma's head as he watched Darkness – who was completely slathered with slime at this point –once again get swallowed by a giant toad. She then began spouting out some nonsense about the creature being too strong for them to take on – did she just throw her sword away? – before disappearing completely into the toad's mouth. Kazuma sighed, taking his sweet time to approach the monster as it tried to swallow the masochist Crusader.
Tried being the key word.
Because as the young Adventurer had found out during the first couple toads, Darkness – with her armor on – was apparently too large and heavy for the toads to properly eat, meaning, they started to choke while trying to eat Darkness whole.
3…2… and…
With one final gasp, the giant toad collapsed a couple feet in-front of where Kazuma had just moved to with Darkness sliding out of its mouth soon after; a look of complete bliss plastered on her face. The Adventurer let out another sigh.
I honestly don't know who to feel bad for. The toads who die from choking on Darkness or the person who's going to have to clean her armor. "That's the sixth one that's died trying to eat you. Ready to go back yet?"
"Of course not!" The woman replied. "These monsters are terrorizing the people and farmers who live around this area! It is my duty as a Crusader to eliminate these monsters, no matter how much slime they cover me in!"
His eye twitched. "Huh uh," Kazuma looked towards another hill where he saw a bright blue toad resting there with its head pointing in their direction. "OI!" He called out, immediately getting the creature's attention. "There's a Crusader here just lying around, ready to be eaten!"
With little care, because he knew how tough the woman was, Kazuma placed his foot along Darkness' side, and with some effort, nudged her enough so she began rolling down the hill towards the creature.
"S-s-so cruel!" Darkness said that with a smile that inwardly made Kazuma shudder.
Yeah, I definitely feel bad for that toad. I really can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather be hanging out with Aqua at this point. At least she isn't crazy enough to run towards something dangerous.
Cackling madly, Aqua ran back towards the Beginners town with Megumin who was currently gripping the former Goddess' shoulders tightly so she didn't fall off.
"Fantastic, absolutely fantastic!" Aqua gushed with a mad glint in her eyes. "That'll show that undead what happens when you take away all the good quests!"
Megumin found herself warily watching her friend. There was no denying how amazing it felt to unleash herself on something so large, but it just didn't feel the same without Kazuma there to watch.
The Adventurer shuddered, feeling like something very wrong just happened, and he was unwillingly a part of it. He shrugged it off and looked back down at his card, checking which skills that were currently available for him to learn while also looking more into what skills he could upgrade. One of these days I'm seriously going to pay Chris for teaching me this stuff.
Then a stray thought passed through his head.
I've never used steal on the toads before.
What could he steal from them anyway?
"Only one way to find out." Kazuma stashed his card away, and picked the closest toad – which was at least two hills away from him – to test his idea on. "Here we go! Steal!"
There was the usual blinding flash of light the skill always produced, followed immediately by something heavy plopping onto his outstretched palm, so heavy that he immediately needed his second hand to hold it. Not only was it heavy, it was slimy too. Why did it feel like it was pulsing?
"What am I even holding?!" Kazuma yelled, watching as the greenish ball seemed to wiggle around without him doing anything. Then, a big eye opened, and stared right at him.
Till the end of his days, Kazuma would deny that what came out of his mouth that day was a high-pitched shriek.
"Is this a tadpole? Did I just steal a toad egg?!" his rambling questions would have continued had the ground beneath his feet remained calm, but a near earthshattering quake left him tumbling forward onto his hands and knees. When he looked towards the source, all the color his face drained. The toad he had used Steal on was charging towards him with a look of vengeance plastered on its face.
Kazuma screamed, and ran as fast as he could in the other direction. "I'm sorry!" the adventurer, ducked when the creature's tongue shot out, attempting to latch onto him or cause major damage at the very least. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Ok, let's think this through.
He screamed again after having to jump over the tongue.
Okay, I have no attack that can eliminate them, Megumin is who knows where, Aqua isn't here to act as bait, and the only thing Darkness can do is choke them with her own body. That's it! Where the hell is she?
"Kazuma!"
I am eternally grateful for having such high luck, because there walking just a short distance away from him was Darkness, a solid layer of slime covering her entire body. The Crusader seemed to be looking for him if the way she was wandering around was any indicator. She smiled when he came into view.
"Oh there you are. We should head back into town, I'm sure Aqua and… Megumin are… Kazuma?"
He must have been quite the sight with his face displaying both fear and relief, but that didn't matter to him. Kazuma, in a feat of pure adrenaline fueled strength, grabbed Darkness as soon as he reached her, and threw her at the incoming toad without any hesitation.
"I'M SORRY!" Kazuma yelled, and whether it was to Darkness for doing what he did or to the toad for condemning it to a Darkness related death, not even he knew.
And that's a wrap. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun I had writing about Verdia's life when he was alive. One of the nice things about the show providing pretty much no backstory allows me to put in whatever I want, and it felt great to do that. Verdia is probably one of my favorite characters despite the fact we hardly see him throughout the series.
Moving on.
I'm sure some of you noticed this, but I purposefully didn't go that in-depth describing alive Verdia and his two party members, because I believe in the concept of 'less is more' meaning I provide a few basic features - sometimes that's eye or hair color, could be a unique feature on their body, even a few special articles of clothing - while allowing my audience to fill in the missing pieces themselves. I've read stories where the author writes this absolutely massive paragraph describing a characters looks, and I've found myself both getting bored as the description keeps going on and forgetting the looks almost as soon as I've finished the chapter.
Anyway, that's my explanation for that if any of you were curious, but as always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll see you next time, and have a wonderful day!