Chaos had descended on Lorm. Anak had arrived with his army of controlled monsters, leading an invasion on the city. While Kazuma, Lily, Dale, and the other adventurers of the city were present, it was still a daunting task to take on the horde of monsters.
The two forces had met, weapons clashing. Kazuma was not exactly at the front lines, but he wasn't far from it either.
Kazuma and Dale were dealing with a minotaur while Lily was behind them, providing support. The minotaur wielded some kind of a battle axe, swinging it down with a might force, leaving craters where the two dodged.
"Dale! I need you to block an attack while I attack!" Kazuma said to Dale.
"You got it!"
Just as the next swing came, Dale reinforced himself to withstand the force of the attack, allowing Kazuma to get in close and leave a big slice on the monsters side, forcing it to stagger. With the distraction, Dale was able to swiftly stab his sword into the monster's neck, killing it on the spot.
"Nice one!" Kazuma said.
"Thanks! This sword is a perfect fit, thanks you guys!" Dale said, turning to Lily to show his appreciation.
"You can thank us later once we get out of this mess." Kazuma said as he sheathed his sword before taking out his bow.
He notched a few arrows and with his skill, sniped a few shots through the heads of some monsters. Thanks to not only his increase in level, as well as his high luck, some of the arrows even went through some skulls and into the next monster.
"These monsters just don't end!" Dale said as he deflected a few goblins before slicing their heads off in one clean swipe.
Just as they were fighting, so were many other adventurers. The ones that were more up at the front were dealing with much more intense and stronger monsters, leaving a bunch of lower monsters for the rest to handle.
It wasn't a completely smooth fight however, as the medical tents were nearly filled up, priests and other mages working their best to heal the injured.
"Kazuma! Behind you!" Lily cried out.
Kazuma spun around to see a giant goblin standing before him, club ready to strike. He dodged the attack before shooting an arrow into the monster's eye. As it faltered from the hit, Kazuma swapped to his sword before stabbing it in the chest, killing it on the spot.
As the body fell however, another giant was right behind it, club already making it's way down.
"Crap-!" Kazuma blocked the attack with his sword, but the impact knocked him off his feet, tumbling to the others.
"Kazuma! Lily, heal him while I deal with this one!" Dale ordered Lily before he charged at the giant.
Lily kneeled down beside Kazuma before she started healing his injuries.
"Are you alright Kazuma?" She asked.
"Yeah... I'm fine, but there's way too many monsters."
"This is terrible... Just how powerful of a mage must the leader be to control this many monsters?" Lily asked outloud as she looked at the mass of monsters that were being controlled.
"From what I know, he's a Crimson Demon, and they're apparently really strong mages. So I guess it isn't far fetched that this guy would be so tough." Kazuma said before he stood up once his injuries were healed.
Dale had dealt the finishing blow on the giant, letting the body fall to the ground.
"Kazuma, are you alright?" He asked him.
"I'm good now, but we need to get back into the fight."
Just as he said that, a pair of gremlins had popped out of the crowd, baring their sharp teeth out as the were ready to take a bite out of Kazuma. Luckily he noticed them and with a quick slash, both fell to the ground.
"We need to move up, these monsters aren't too difficult so we can leave them to the others. We should assist the ones more up front who are dealing with the more tough monsters." Kazuma said.
"You wanna take on the big leagues? When did you get so confident?" Dale asked with a smirk.
"We took on a dragon before. With the three of us we can work together to fend off these monsters as much as we can. Are you with me on this?" Kazuma asked, raising a fist.
Lily smiled before she raised her fist, bumping it with his.
"I told you we'd be right by you. Right Dale?"
"You got that right, if you wanna take down some big baddies then we'll help you." Dale said as he raised his fist to bump with theirs.
"You guys are the best, now let's go on a hunt!" Kazuma shouted, to which the other two cheered.
Kazuma and Dale started running towards the front lines, Lily right behind the two.
Where they were before was only occupied by weaker monsters, the closer they got to the front lines, the more intense the fight got.
"On your left Kazuma!" Dale warned.
He quickly turned his head to notice a battle axe being swung towards him. He narrowly dodged the attack before seeing the source of the strike. Another minotaur stood before him, but unlike the regular ones, this one was more beefed up, with much larger muscles and a bigger axe to boot.
"Looks like we got our first customer! Dale, we follow the plan like the last one." Kazuma said.
"Roger that!"
Dale stood in front of Kazuma, shield up and ready.
He reinforced his defense as the minotaur swung it's axe, but this time the strike managed to stun Dale in place from the sheer power of the monster.
Kazuma used the opportunity to strike with his sword, but the attack barely made a scratch.
"It's skin is so tough! How the hell are we supposed to get through that?!"
"I don't know, but we better come up with something because I can't last forever against this thing." Dale said as he managed to move back.
"It's gotta have a weak spot, any ideas?" Kazuma asked.
"What about it's eyes? Maybe if you shoot it in the eyes you might deal some damage to it!" Lily suggested.
"Good idea, but it's gonna need to be locked in place. Dale, can you help me with that?"
"You got it! But you better not miss!"
"Heh, I'll have you know I'm quite the lucky guy!" Kazuma said as he swapped to his bow.
The minotaur let out a mighty roar before charging at Dale. Using "Hold", he was able to stun the monster in place for just a few moments, which was enough for Kazuma.
"Do it Kazuma!"
"You got it! 'Snipe!'" Kazuma shot two arrows, each one curving around Dale'a head before impaling the monster's eyes, killing it.
"That was way too close Kazuma!" Dale shouted with slight panic from having both arrows nearly impale themselves in his head instead of the monster's.
"I said it would be fine!"
Before anymore could be said, they noticed that a group of undead soldiers fixated their focus onto the three.
"Dammit, I bet he's not happy that we're still surviving all this." Kazuma muttered, looking up at the dragon that hovered over the battlefield, Anak sitting atop the monster like it was his pet.
"Kazuma, I need you to help me here, I'm out of stamina, so I'm gonna need to fall back." Dale said as he struggled to stay awake.
"Crap... Alright, Lily use some offensive magic to fend those things off, if you have any fire spells that would be handy. We need to bring Dale to the recovery tents."
"I'll cover you, just get him to safety!"
As Kazuma helped Dale up, slinging one of Dale's arms over his shoulder, and slowly started retreating, Lily turned towards the enemy and started casting.
She started with a few fireballs which took down the initial bunch it hit, while spreading to nearby undead. A few fireballs weren't enough to take down the army, so she had to keep using the spell, yet no matter how much she attacked it seemed like there would be more.
"This is bad... I can't take on this many at once!" She said as she had to start moving back to keep her distance.
"What can I do?!" Lily turned around to see Kazuma and Dale were still right behind her, still having more ground to cover.
As she looked at the two, she found her resolve. Turning back to the enemy, she decided to bring out a different spell.
"Fire Spear!"
With the spell cast, a bunch of fire, taking shape in the form of thin rods, started to manifest around her. With a wave of her staff the fire spears shot forward, piercing through the undead's bodies, while setting any target that it hit ablaze.
Anak started noticing that his efforts were not working, so he had to double his efforts on focusing on the three.
"MINIONS, FOCUS YOUR AIM ON THOSE THREE THERE!" Anak shouted.
The monsters responded, many who weren't in the middle of combat turned their heads towards the three before running over.
Lily stayed close with Kazuma and Dale as she was now forced to double cast "Fire Spear", which was draining her mana even faster.
Even though she was able to fend off the horde for a bit, her mana had finally run out, and she had collapsed.
"Lily! Crap, her mana must have run out!" Kazuma slowly went over to Lily and helped her up, slinging one of her arms over his shoulder.
It was becoming more difficult for Kazuma to flee as he had the weight of both his party members, and he didn't have a partially high strength stat like Dale did.
As he slowly walked towards the medical tents, he saw that more monsters were already getting close to him, he wouldn't be able to make it in time.
"Dammit... Is this how we're going out? Just when I found new friends, we're gonna die because of that asshole?" Kazuma grunted in frustration.
Once the monsters got close enough, they made the leap to kill the group.
"Stay away from them!" A female voice shouted out.
"Take this you bastards!" A male voice shouted.
The monsters were intercepted, before being knocked back by two people.
"Wait... John, Jean?!" Kazuma said, completely baffled to see the two smiths out in the battlefield.
"That's right boy!" John said with a laugh.
"What are you guys doing here?! Aren't you guys blacksmiths?" Kazuma.
"Don't think that just because I'm a blacksmith I can't fight! If you want to know how to make the best swords, you gotta know how to use em too!" Jean said with a smirk, John nodding in affirmation.
"We happened to bump into each other when we saw you lugging those two on your shoulders. Thought we'd help you out!" John explained.
"You guys... Thank you! I just need to get them to the tents and then I'll be good!"
"You got it! We'll hold them off, just get them to safety!" Jean said as she readied her sword, John readying his as well.
"Thank you!" Kazuma said as he went to deliver the two.
"Now then, how about a little fun, between us smiths eh?" John asked.
"Oh? What do you have in mind?"
"Let's see who has the better weapon, most kills wins."
"Oh you're on!" Jean said, before the both of them charged at the monsters that tried to get Kazuma.
Meanwhile, Kazuma finally managed to drop off Lily and Dale at the tent where he was told that it would take a bit for them to get them ready for fighting again as they had a lot of people to tend to.
From the tent, he looked over the battlefield, seeing the many adventurers fighting the monsters.
'This isn't gonna stop any time soon, is it?' Kazuma thought to himself before looking up at Anak who still stood atop his dragon.
'He's so keen on killing me, does that mean he wants to fight me? Can I even take him on?'
He looked to his teammates beside him, he felt a sense of need to protect them.
'I need to do it, for them, for this city.' Kazuma said with new resolve.
As he moved to leave, he felt something grab his sleeve. He looked down to see Lily who was barely able to move enough to grab him. She gave him a kind of worried look. He smiled at her before putting a hand over hers, which got her to let go.
Kazuma left the tent and walked into the raging battlefield, his focus soley on Anak. It wasn't until halfway through that Anak noticed Kazuma walking towards him.
He lowered his dragon enough so that he could speak to Kazuma. As he descended, the fighting seemed to have slowed down to a halt, everyone looking at the dragon descending.
"Kazuma! What a pleasure to see you again. To what do I owe you the pleasure of speaking to you?" Anak asked him.
"Why are you attacking?! Why did you bring these monsters?! Is it because of me?" Kazuma asked.
"You? Oh, you really think all this is just for you? This was planned all along, long before you came into the picture. You just happened to become a big target after the stunt you pulled. Speaking of which, it's perfect that you're here by yourself. I've been wanting a target to try out this dragon on, and now that you're here, I have one!" The dragon let out a breath in affirmation.
The dragon began collecting fire in it's mouth, preparing for an attack.
"This is the end Kazuma! The end of your insufferable existence!"
Kazuma could only stand in fear of the incoming attack. He didn't have a plan, no way to escape. He just stared at the impending doom.
"GOODBYE KAZUMA-" Just as Anak was about to annihilate Kazuma, he was interrupted by another voice who screamed out a spell.
"EXPLOSION!" A voice cried out.
A ring of magic appeared in the sky, then a few more underneath, before a pillar of light began to appear over Anak. Kazuma realizing what was coming quickly sprinted as fast as he could to get away.
Anak raised a barrier over himself and the dragon, blocking the brunt of the explosion, but it was shattered from the sheer force.
Kazuma and anyone else who was nearby managed to get out of the range of the explosion, though Kazuma was blown off his feet and fell when the explosion went off.
"What the hell? Who just sets off a spell like that?! Wait... I know someone crazy enough to do that!" Kazuma looked up and saw right in front of him, Megumin standing with her trademark pose, with Wiz right behind her to provide mana so she doesn't fall onto the ground. Right behind the two were Aqua and Darkness.
"Wait... You guys..." Kazuma failed to find the words as he was completely shocked to see his former party, and Wiz, right there.
"Hello Kazuma." Megumin simply said with a smile.
-Earlier-
The group of girls stayed the night at a village nearby the border after they managed to traverse through. No doubt they were questioned due to the forest being dangerous, as well as the immense magic that was displayed when they fought the bandits. It did take some time, but they were let through and were pointed to the current village they were at to stay for the night.
Once morning came and everyone was rested, they decided to go around asking if anyone knew Kazuma. Sadly after an hour of asking, they never found any leads.
"No one here has seen him... But he had to have come through here!" Megumin said.
"Perhaps he didn't stop over at this village and went elsewhere. Being near the border would cause a higher risk of being spotted." Darkness suggested.
"Ugh... Kazuma where did you go?!" Aqua cried out in frustration.
"Um..." A little girl made a sound, catching the attention of the four.
"Oh! Hello! Who might you be?" Wiz asked as she lowered down to be nearly on the same height as the girl.
"My name is Lena!" The girl exclaimed.
"Hello Lena, is there something you needed from us?" Wiz asked.
"Do you know Kazu-nii?" The girl asked.
"Yes! Do you know him?" Megumin said, raising the photo of Kazuma.
"It's Kazu-nii!" The girl said.
"Do you happen to know where he is?"
"Mmmm, I dunno... But I can ask my sister!" Lena said before running off.
After some time she returned with another girl, more in her late teens, who they presumed was Lena's sister.
"Hello! I'm Sae, Lena here told me that you were looking for Kazuma." Sae introduced herself.
"Yes! We're searching for him, and we were hoping someone in this village knew about him. Do you happen to know where he is?" Darkness said.
"I do have an idea, but why do you need to know?" Sae asked cautiously.
"We're... former acquaintances of Kazuma. I'm Darkness, and these three with me are Megumin, Aqua, and were hoping to reunite with him after all this time, so please, if you know anything about his whereabouts, can you please tell us?" Darkness pleaded.
Sae could tell she was being sincere, so she let out a sigh before responding.
"We met Kazuma out in a forest. We were being chased by monsters before he saved us. He's staying in the city of Lorm, further from here. We also live there but we just happened to be here to visit an old friend. I guess you were really lucky." Sae said.
"Lorm! That's where we need to go now! Thank you Sae!" Megumin said as the girls stood up, ready to get to Lorm as soon as possible.
They finally had another lead to follow his tracks, now they just needed to find him.
The four got a carriage to take them from the village to Lorm. As the city came closer into view, an anxious feeling loomed over the group. Just what would they do once they saw Kazuma again?
They had arrived in the western gate, from there they departed the carriage and stepped into the city.
"Look at this place! It's so cool!" Aqua exclaimed as she took in the sights of the new city.
"This place is definitely remarkable, but we can admire the city later. First, we have an objective. Find Kazuma." Darkness said, getting the others to nod.
"What if we asked the guards? Excuse me!" Megumin called out to the guard near the entrance.
"Hello! Welcome to Lorm travelers! How may I be of assistance?" The guard asked.
"We're looking for a friend of ours, do you know him?" Megumin asked as she showed the photo of him.
"Sorry, but I don't know him. If he's an adventurer then you can try at the Guild. You can find it at the eastern section of the city, just go straight down the road and you'll find it. It's kinda hard to miss."
"Thank you for the advice!" Megumin said.
"You're welcome!"
"So I guess we start at the guild then?" Aqua asked
"Seems like the best course of action." Darkness said.
As they walked over to the Guild, they couldn't help but soak in the sights of the city. It was a new place for all of them, but of course they focused on getting to their objective as soon as possible.
With a few more pointers from some other civilians and adventurers, they found themselves at the Guild's building.
The size of the building definitely was a bit smaller than the one back at home, but, that could be chalked up to the fact that it was just another building that was crammed in between all the other ones, rather than having such a huge spot all to itself.
When they entered they were suprised to see the difference in layout between Axel's and Lorm's buildings. They saw the counter where a woman was sat as she talked with another adventurer. They waited for a bit before the conversation was finished, allowing them to speak with her.
"Welcome, I can't seem to recall you four so I can assume you are new?"
"Yes, we just arrived in Lorm today." Darkness said.
"Well is there anything I can help you with?"
"We're looking for a friend of ours who came here a while ago. His name is Satou Kazuma." Darkness said as she pulled out the picture of him to show.
"He was here some time ago. He reported some things he discovered on his last quest before he left with his friend."
"So he was here!" The girls lit up with excitement.
"You talking about Kazuma?" One adventurer from the side asked.
"He was here with that girl earlier, Lily right?" Another one said.
"If ya want to find them you should try at her place, southern area, small pink house, but with a pretty big door.
"Didn't he break the old door? I remember people talked about how he just bursted through the door and broke it into several pieces."
"He did, but then she took his pay to get a new one!" The adventurers laughed.
"Thank you for the information" Darkness said, giving a slight bow before they all left.
"This is it guys! We know where Kazuma is!" Aqua cheered as the group walked towards their new destination.
"I'm actually quite anxious, it's certainly one thing to have planned all this to see him again, but it's another to actually see him. What kind of reaction would he have upon seeing us?" Darkness said, bringing up the crucial point again.
The other two stood in silence at that. Now that they were finally in Lorm, on their way to where Kazuma apparently lives, the time has come for them to accept whatever feelings Kazuma may have for them, whether be it joy, or hatred.
"I'm scared... What if he says he hates us?
"C-come one girls! We're almost there! We came all this way to see him, you can't lose heart now!" Wiz said, trying to motivate the girls again.
The three looked at each other before nodding, knowing that it was too late to back down at this point. They came this far, so they may as well see it to the end.
It took the group a bit to find their way to the house. Being unfamiliar with the location resulted in them getting lost a few times. After asking directions from a few people, they eventually found themselves standing outside of the described house.
"This is it... are you all ready?" Darkness asked as she prepared herself to knock on the door.
The other three nodded before Darkness turned around, raising her fist to knock. She gave the door a few loud knocks before waiting a moment. There was no response so they knocked again, but still got no response.
"Maybe they're not home?" Megumin said.
"Ehhh?! But where could they be then?!" Aqua cried out.
"The woman at the guild did say that they came by to report something, so perhaps they're still out."
"But what do we do now?!" Aqua asked.
"... We could go eat?" Megumin suggested.
"..."
"Yummy! This place makes some real good food!" Aqua said.
The group ended up going to a restaurant to kill time before trying again to find Kazuma.
"So this is the place that Kazuma ran to. I must admit, it does seem to be a nice place." Darkness said as she saw a pair of children running by.
"It does have an air of peace to it. Axel is a city for beginning adventurers, so it's more common to see adventurers around rather than regular citizens." Wiz said.
"Do you think Kazuma would want to stay here? Would he even want to go back to Axel?" Megumin asked sadly.
"Megumin..." Darkness said softly, putting a hand on Megumin's.
"We talked about this. Whether Kazuma chooses to come back or stay here is something he has the right to choose. If he decides to stay here so be it."
"But... I really miss him... This was the first party where I was accepted into despite my explosion magic being both my strongest skill, as well as the biggest weakness for me. I know we're doing fine with us three, but it's not the same without Kazuma!"
The other three gave her a sad look. Darkness and Aqua understood what she was saying. Even to them they missed Kauzma. Home was just not the same without him around.
"Megumin... We-" Darkness was about to speak, but she was cut off when all of a sudden a voice was heard throughout the city.
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS OF LORM. A MASS WAVE OF MONSTERS IS MAKINGS ITS WAY TO THE CITY FROM THE WEST. ALL COMBAT CAPABLE ADVENTURERS HEAD TO THE WESTERN GATE AND PREPARE, NON COMBATANTS PLEASE PREPARE FOR EVACUATIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"
The four stood up immediately after the announcement was made.
"What's going on?!" Megumin said as she looked around. Everyone was running around like crazy, whether it's adventurers running to the west gate, or citizens running to their homes before evacuating.
"This sounds like trouble, what do you think we should do?" Aqua asked.
It was something needed a bit of decision making to do. On the one hand, they aren't from this city, or kingdom. They were simply there to find a friend, nothing else.
But on the other hand...
"We are adventurers. That means we fight against monsters, no matter when and where." Darkness said, drawing her sword.
"That's right! I'm gonna give those monsters a taste of my magic!" Megumin said, raising her staff.
"And maybe while we fight we might run into Kazuma!" Aqua said excitingly.
"Then I guess we made a decision!" Wiz said.
"We fight!" They all exclaimed before making their way with the crowds to the western gate.
As they moved with the crowd, they couldn't spot Kazuma anywhere. They didn't see any sign of him even once they reached the western gate, standing out in the field with all the adventurers.
"So many people, just what exactly are we going up against..." Wiz said worryingly. While she was definitely the most powerful of the group, it still worried her for the lives of the people.
"They said it was a wave of monsters, but just how many are there?" Darkness questioned.
Before they could think any more of it, a guard shouted at the top of his lungs.
"THEY'RE COMING! PREPARE YOURSELVES!"
They all directed their focus towards the hills. Very faintly they could see figures appear over, thought it was still too far for anyone else without the proper skills to see. What shocked them the most was the appearance of a dragon, flying over the supposed army of monsters.
All of a sudden, the monsters reacted to something before slowly moving faster towards the city.
"Here they come girls, prepare yourself!" Darkness said as she took a stance.
It wasn't long until the monsters and adventurers clashed.
Aqua mainly stood at the back, ready to provide buffs and heals where necessary. Megumin and Wiz were fighting together to cover each other. Despite how powerful Wiz and even Megumin are, this large amount of monsters needed them to cover each other's backs. Darkness meanwhile was at the front of the group, slaying monsters and tanking attacks that dared to get near them.
"Just how many monsters are there?!" Megumin cried out as she launched a fireball at an incoming goblin.
"There must be thousands of monsters, but why are they here?" Darkness said, blocking the attacks of a group of gremlins before striking down each one of them.
"Maybe this is a Devil King general attack?" Aqua asked.
"No, this isn't normal. Monsters that are under the general's command are monsters with a form of human intelligence, with the exception of Beldia who summons undead for him to command, and another who creates small clay monsters." Wiz explained
Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, a masked demon sneezed. "My my, moi must be coming down with a cold. How unusual for a demon of my being to be coming down with such an asinine illness."
"These monsters are just lower level monsters, meant to just roam about. But something is commanding them."
"Controlling them?" Darkness asked.
"Yes, there is a form of magic that allows one to control monsters. It's usually indicated by a marking on the back of the monster's neck or head."
"I see. One moment."
Darkness stepped forward. Once a goblin jumped to attack her, she caught it by the neck before turning to the group.
"Do you mean something like this?" Darkness asked as she pointed at the marking on the back of the monster's neck, painted on in red.
"Yes, then these monsters are under someone's control. And I think we might know who it is." Wiz said, pointing at the marking, the mark of a red eye with a scar.
"It's them! Those crazy people we ran into in the forest!" Aqua cried out, pointing at the mark.
"Yes, it's them. I suppose the master is the leader of those bandits. As a crimson demon he would no doubt have the mana and knowledge to pull something like this off."
"That bastard, tarnishing the name of the crimson demons. I'll make him pay!" Megumin said as she set off a "Burst" at a crowd of monsters.
As the battle continued on, the girls were doing fine. Whatever injuries any of them had incurred Aqua was able to heal, with the exception of Wiz who could not be healed by Aqua's holy magic.
As she healed them, one of the guild workers noticed that Aqua was healing her team.
"Excuse me!" Said the worker.
"Huh? Oh! It's the lady that worked at the guild!" Aqua said.
"Yes, I recognized you from earlier. Tell me, are you able to use healing magic?" She asked.
"Of course! I am second to none when it comes to healing!" Aqua boasted.
"Then can you please help us? We have a lot of people that need healing but our mages can't keep up."
Aqua turned back to others who seemed to agree with what she was saying.
"You should go and heal them. We'll escort you over." Darkness said.
"Thank you so much!"
The group made their way over to the tents where many injured adventurers were resting. Many mages were running around to heal as many as they could, but some had already drained their mana reserves.
"Leave this to me!" Aqua said before she started going around healing everyone with ease. Even those that were near death were healed up in no time. She even resurrected the few fallen adventurers, shocking everyone at the sight.
As she healed the next bunch of adventurers, one in particular grabbed her wrist with what little strength they had.
A blonde mage in pink robes, beside a brown haired knight.
"Hey! What's wrong?" Aqua asked.
"P-please... Help him..." She muttered.
"Don't worry! I'll heal the both of you in no time!" Aqua said.
"N-not Dale... K-Kazuma..." She said before she let go, passing out.
"H-Hey! What did you say?!" Aqua cried out as she quickly healed the mage, but she was still out.
"Aqua, what happened?" Darkness asked.
"She just said to help Kazuma! He must be here!" This got their attention.
"So he is in this fight, but where exactly is he?" Megumin asked.
Their thoughts were interrupted by the murmurs of the other adventurers.
"What's going on?" Darkness asked.
"Look! The dragon is descending!" Wiz said, pointing at the dragon that was slowly lowering itself.
"But why is it descending? Is it going to attack?!" Aqua asked, scared of the dragon unleashing some attack on them.
"Everyone stopped fighting, but someone is approaching the dragon. Darkness said, noticing a lone adventurer still moving.
"What fool would try to take a dragon head on?!" Megumin asked, shocked that anyone would even try.
They all did their best to see what idiot would approach a dragon on their own. They were shocked to see that the idiot was none other than Kazuma himself, the man that they had been searching for all this time.
"There he is!" Aqua cheered.
"We finally found him!" Megumin said, joining Aqua in her cheers.
"Yes, but just what exactly is he doing, going up to the dragon." Darkness asked.
"There seems to be another person on the dragon." Wiz said as she focused more on the dragon.
It was difficult, but they managed to make out the form of Anak standing on top of the dragon. He seemed to be talking with Kazuma.
"So it was that bastard who's behind all this!" Megumin growled.
"But what is he doing, talking to Kazuma?" Darkness asked.
"They did say that they had a problem with Kazuma." Wiz said.
They didn't have much time to speculate as the dragon seemed to have begun preparing a fire attack.
"It's going to attack! Kazuma can't survive against something like that, we need to do something!" Aqua cried out.
"What can we do from here though?" Darkness said.
"I have an idea. Wiz, I need some mana. I'm gonna save Kazuma and give that bastard a bit of payback with an explosion!" Megumin said.
Wiz smiled at the idea and nodded before using drain touch to transfer some mana to Megumin.
"We came all this way just to find Kazuma. We spent so much time getting stronger and improving ourselves to make up for our stupidity in the past. I will not let that be all for naught!" Megumin cried out before she begun casting her ultimate spell.
"Feel my pain and fury! EXPLOSION!"
A ring of magic appeared in the sky, then a few more underneath, before a pillar of light began to appear over the dragon.
Kazuma seemed to have noticed what was going on and ran. He ,and anyone else who was nearby, managed to get out of the range of the explosion, though Kazuma was blown off his feet and fell when the explosion went off.
"What the hell? Who just sets off a spell like that?! Wait... I know someone crazy enough to do that!" Kazuma looked up and saw the girls standing in front of him.
"Wait... You guys..." Kazuma said, shocked to see them here of all places.
"Hello Kazuma." Megumin simply said with a smile.
