Guardian: Hello, so-

Loby: *pushed Guardian aside* We meet again, my dear readers. This time, you are strongly advised to read Continued Explosions, or you may face the doom of being spoiled. Muahahahaha!

Guardian: *whacks Loby in the head with a paper fan* Hey, what are you doing here! Also, what do you mean by "We meet again"? You just met them the first time, so stop screwing around!

Iris: *Looks at Loby* Eh? Why are you here?

Loby: Don't ask me that!

Yunyun: *flailing her arms and pouts* This is outrageous, this is unfair! How come Loby is hogging all the spotlight?

Guardian: Erm, calm-

Karu: Fight me, Magic Swordmaster!

Chris: Hey, you guys, stop. The readers are watching us...

Guardian: *ignoring the ruckus made by the others* Anyway, if you have read Continued Explosions, please enjoy the following chapter: Forming a Real Party with Acquaintances!

Guardian: *turns to his party members* Argh shut up! Time to work!

I headed towards Iris' bedroom after healing the injured.

"Hey Iris, are you there?" I asked gently as I knocked on her bedroom door.

"Onii-chan." A familiar voice called as I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Aaaaah!" I screamed as I thought it was a ghost or something like that.

"Onii-chan, it's me!" Iris said as she smiled mischievously.

"Oh." I facepalmed myself as Iris giggled to herself.

"Please enter." Iris opened the door like a gentleman.

"No, no, no. That's what I should be doing. After you." I held the other door as well.

A few minutes later...

"Just get in already, Onii-chan!" Iris said with slight irritation.

"Like I said, ladies first!" I replied with the same tone.

"Geez (Mou)! Onii-chan is really a kid!"

"You are one to talk!"

We had a staring contest as we tried to get the other to enter the bedroom first.

"Argh, fine. we will get in the same time on the count of three!" I said in exasperation.

"Fine with me!"

"Ok, are you ready?" I said calmly as I started to regain my composure.

"Ready." Iris replied as she nodded.

"One, two, three..."

And we did enter the bedroom at the same time.

Iris sat on her bed while I closed the bedroom doors.

"So, are we going to call the others?" I asked.

Iris nodded.

"Zulu to everyone. Can anyone hear me?"

"Charlie copy." Chris' voice rang through the device I was holding.

"Lima copy as well." Loby's voice echoed.

"Ok, remember the guy who just tried to hunt me down? His name is Karu and he seemed formidable. Should we let him join our party?"

"Well, if you, who just almost got taken down by him is fine with it, then so do I." Chris said through her device.

"Same." Loby agreed as well.

"Alright then, that's it for now. Dismissed!" I spoke through my device.

I turned to Iris.

"Are you really ok with that, Onii-chan?" Iris asked with concern.

"Don't worry about it." I replied gently. "It will be fine, I promise."

"Pinky promise?" Iris extended her pinky at me.

"Pinky promise." I gave a smile as I did the same.

"I am heading out to take on some quests. Are you coming?" I asked Iris.

"Nah, I have lessons from Rain later on, so I can't come." Iris declined with a slightly downed expression.

15 minutes later...

"Well, it has been quite a while since I took on quests alon-"

"Light of Saber!" A voice chanted.

I looked towards the direction where the magic was cast.

A young girl with mid length dark brown hair and red eyes was standing there. She wore a quite revealing outfit that didn't fit her age that much, namely a low-cut blouse and ultra-short pink miniskirt.

Seriously? It's true that she had a nice body, but was it really necessary to show off like that?

"Hmm?" That girl looked towards my direction.

'Thank God she didn't see m-"

"Light of Saber!"

I ducked the magic spell.

"Come out, I know you are here." She said as she looked around, trying to search me.

"Inferno!"

"Shield change, Pegasus to Dragon!" I muttered as a blue Absorb Shield appeared on my right bracer.

"What?!" The girl yelped in shock as I absorbed her magic spell.

Without saying anything, I pulled my sword out and pointed towards her.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"M- my name is Yunyun! The one who will be the Chief of the Crimson Demons!" Yunyun proclaimed as she strike a chuunibyou pose.

'Is she the Roaring Thunder the adventurers kept talking about?' I thought. 'She seems pretty strong.'

"You seemed pretty strong just now. Hey, are you interested in joining my party?" I asked. "I mean, my party could use your strength."

"Is that true (honto desuka)?" Yunyun asked in excitement as her eyes glowed. "Yes!"

"But first... Fight me." I said calmly.

Yunyun's expression turned from an excited one to a slightly serious expression.

"I may hurt you... Is that ok?"

"Please go hard on me." I insisted.

"By the way, you..."

"Hm...?"

"haven't introduce yourself." Yunyun continued.

"Oh right. I am Guardian, the Magic Swordmaster." I replied. "Nice to meet you." I added quickly with a smile.

"At any rate... En garde!" I lunged at Yunyun as I channeled my mana into the sword.

"Light of Saber!" Yunyun chanted once again as a large beam of light falling onto me like a sword.

I blocked Yunyun's Light of Saber with my sword, the magic spell dissipated after I slashed upwards.

"That's... Impossible (Sonna Bakana)!" Yunyun expressed in shock as I disabled her skill once more.

"If that's the case... Cursed Lightning!" Yunyun unleashed a purple bolt of lightning as she cast her magic spell.

"Light Absorb Shield!" I summoned the milky Absorb Shield and absorbed her Cursed Lightning.

"Sacred Thunderbolt!" I unleashed a network of light beams towards Yunyun.

Well, since I absorbed two Advanced Magic spells, I gained a lot of mana as a result. And as you may have expected, I cut about thirty trees cleanly like a samurai.

Yunyun was stunned by the scene in front of her, probably because she didn't expect I could cut the trees with such precision.

"Hey, how about we end this with the next skill?" I asked Yunyun.

"Uh, ok..." Yunyun answered as she looked down a little, as if she started to lose her confidence.

"Ready... Go!"

"Cursed Lightning!" Yunyun chanted as she released the purple bolt of lightning once again.

'I will focus my attack at one point this time!'

"Sacred Thunderbolt!" I shouted the skill name as I cast my magic, by which a white bolt of lightning shot out of my left hand.

The two magic spells clashed head on, and neither spell could overpower the other.

'As expected of the Crimson Demons...' I thought as I frowned slightly.

I guess Yunyun had a similar thought as mine, since she did the same.

Just when I was a bit lost in thought, Yunyun seemed to give in her all to defeat me, since the Cursed Lightning became slightly more powerful.

I then increased the power of the Sacred Thunderbolt in response.

And so, our skills dissipated all of a sudden, then we ended up lying on the ground as we exhausted our mana after a few minutes.

"Changing packs, Pegasus to Phoenix!" I used the Fire Core's mana supply pack to help me up.

I walked towards Yunyun and looked down at her.

"No way (Uso)..." Yunyun looked up with tears in her eyes. "Did I just lose...?"

I looked down and remained silent as I put on a straight face.

"No, this isn't true...!"

"I didn't say you failed, you know. Don't jump to conclusions that fast." I said in a soft voice as I sheathed my sword.

"Then...!"

"That's right, you have passed the test. Welcome aboard, Yunyun." I extended my hand towards Yunyun and helped her up.

"Thank you, Guardian-san!"

'Looks like we are all set.'

"Alright Yunyun, meet me in the Adventurers' Guild tomorrow. I would like to introduce my party members to you later." I said with a smile as I gave her a thumbs up.

"See you tomorrow." I said without looking back before I left the scene.

The next day, at the Adventurers' Guild...

"Good morning, Guardian-san, Iris-san!" The guild receptionist waved at us.

"Good morning. Do you happen to see an orange haired guy or a dark brown haired girl waiting around?" I asked the guild receptionist after I greeted her.

"That girl is over there." She pointed at Yunyun.

"Thanks." I thanked the guild receptionist before calling her over.

"Good morning, Yunyun. Do you have breakfast yet?" I asked in a friendly demeanor.

"Eh? Urm, well..." Yunyun stuttered as her stomach rumbled.

Iris and I looked at her with a blank stare.

"Well... That means you haven't." Iris sighed.

"Come on, let's have breakfast." I added as I signaled her to sit with us.

"Now, we will have our breakfast while we wait for the others." I said as I ordered breakfast for Iris and myself. "So, what are you going to eat? It's my treat."

"Um (Ano)... Guardian-san... Is this okay with you?" Yunyun asked shyly.

"It's OK! Onii-chan has a certain amount of cash, so it's fine."

Five minutes later...

Chris, Loby and Karu arrived at the Adventurers' Guild.

"Thanks for wait-"

"Ehh?!" Loby yelped in shock as he pointed at Yunyun with a shocked expression on his face.

Of course, Yunyun did the same as well, which involves gasping, pointing at Loby with the same expression.

And somehow they managed to create an isekai version of the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme.

"Are you two siblings?" I asked.

"Of course not!" X2

"Hey, Karu, welcome to the club." I said as I welcomed him to my party.

"Yeah... thanks." Karu said in a blank tone.

Then I turned to the rest of my party.

"It seems like everyone is here." I said with a small smile on my face.

"Welcome to the party, Yunyun and Karu. I will introduce my party members from here on." I greeted them once again.

"This is Chris the Thief." I introduced Chris as she waved at them. "She is a thief with amazing agility and intelligence."

Then I turned to Loby.

"This is-"

"My name is Loby! The strongest Archwizard there is in the Crimson Demons! And the one who controls Explosion magic and fire magic!" Loby interrupted me with an introduction of his own.

"I won't say he is the strongest Archwizard there is, but he is indeed a heavy hitter and versatile enough to use different spells to fight, albeit he always use Explosion due to unknown reasons."

Ignoring Loby who was currently making a fuss, I turned to Iris with a smile after Loby finished his introduction.

"This is Iris (Irisu). She is a student of mine, an adventurer with great potential." I introduced Iris with a warm smile.

"Onii-chan..." Iris couldn't help but smile gently at my introduction.

"And I am Guardian, the Magic Swordmaster." I introduced myself with a confident smile. "And I don't know why, but I am the leader of the party." I scratched my head in confusion as I continued. The other three, namely Iris, Loby and Chris nodded.

"Anyway, take these." I continued as I handed a pendant to Yunyun and a badge to Karu.

"These are communicating devices when we work separately during quests or for calling back up in case of emergencies. Each one of us has our own codename in the communications. Loby will be called Lima, Iris will be called India, Chris would be Charlie, and I would be Zulu." I explained.

"For you two, Yunyun will be called Yankee while Karu will be called Kilo." I continued as I looked at my party members. "Any questions?"

They all shook their heads in response.

"Nice." I said as I gave them a thumbs up. "How about we take a quest to know each other better?"

A few minutes later...

"Let's take out some strong monsters today. Let me see how strong you guys are." I said calmly as we are on our way to the quest.

ROAR!

"Well, I'm going first." I said as I called on the dragon as it landed right in front of us.

I closed my eyes and concentrated as an arc of white swords appeared above me.

"Slash through (Kirisake)... Sacred Sword Storm!" I said and extended my left hand as the swords flew towards the dragon and impaled it.

I panted a little as the swords disappeared.

"Onii-chan, you're amazing (sugoi)!" Iris complimented me with a smile as she gave me a thumbs up.

I smiled at her as I returned the thumbs up.

"Before we go... Let me grab some of its parts first!" I drew my sword and cut up the dragon.

A few minutes later...

"Great! Now we have food for days!" I said as I nodded in satisfaction as I stuffed the last bit of dragon meat into the bag.

"Iris, take this." I tossed her the Fire Core.

"You guys go ahead first. I will be right back."

In our Operational Base...

"Ok, and we are done!" I put the last bit of the dragon meat in the Food Storage Room. "Let's see..."

"Core Teleport!" I chanted the skill as I teleported next to Iris.

"So, where are we at?" I asked Iris.

"Chris, Loby, Yunyun and Karu have defeat different monsters. And I still haven't defeat one yet..."

"Well don't worry Iris, good things always comes to those who wait." I replied as I gave her a headpat. "But if things get out of hand, I will take over, ok?" I whispered.

"I understood (wakarimashita), Onii-chan."

After nine minutes of walking towards the quest site...

"Here we are! Don't hold back, Iris!"

"Yes (Hai)!" Iris let out a dazzling smile as she extended her right hand.

"Sacred Lightning Blare!" Iris chanted as a large white lightning bolt appeared and destroyed the dragon.

Everyone looked at Iris with their jaws dropped, except me.

'Shit, she is too OP... But she is level 60, so it's probably normal, right...?' I thought as I maintained my nonchalant expression.

'I knew it. She is the Princess.' Karu thought to himself.

"Um (Ano), Guardian-san-"

"Kya! Save me!" A high pitched shouted.

I signaled my party members to follow me.

We headed towards to where the voice was.

We saw a few boys trying to do some nasty stuff (I am sure you know what I meant) to the young girl.

"What are you doing? Please stop!" The young girl kept backing away from them as she asked in a horrified tone.

The boys didn't stop insulting her with profanities as they approached her.

I sprinted towards the boys on impulse, and I jumped when there was a few meters left between us.

"Onii-chan!" Iris cried as she failed to stop me.

"Fk off!" I yelled as I dropkicked one of them in the face.

"So, what happened?" I turned to the girl as I pulled my sword out.

"Help me! I don't know why but they kept coercing me into being their-" She said as she trembled in fear.

"Hey you! This girl is our property!"

I looked back at them, and sure enough, they looked like thugs or something like slave dealers.

Why do I always have to deal this kind of shit?

"Onii-chan...?" Iris tried to call me, but I gave no response, since I was too pissed to respond.

I channeled some mana into my sword and lunged at them.

Before I could kill them all, a dagger came out of nowhere, which turned out to be Chris, so I couldn't decapitate those atrocious bastards.

"Calm down, Guardian. No one is perfect." Chris tried to persuade me not to kill those men.

"Oh right, I should at least make them sterile before they die." I said after moving Chris aside using a Judo throw.

I spun my sword and tried to remove their vital spots before killing them off.

"They were bad, but they don't deserve death, so I won't let you kill them!" Chris dashed in front of the man and blocked my sword.

"Hm?" I took a closer look at one of them and saw a purple pendant.

'Oh, I see now. She is trying to protect that degenerate follower of hers.'

"It is true they committed a crime, they don't deserve to die just because of that!"

"How can you tell?" I asked and her expression stiffens.

"Who cares?!"

"Let me tell you: believing in a cult does NOT mean that person can do anything he wants. Now step aside before I hurt you." I warned sternly with a solemn expression.

Chris stood still as if she was saying she wouldn't budge.

"Fine." I sighed in resignation as I thrust my sword into the ground.

"Holy Repulsion!" I shouted the skill name as I released the light magic and shattered the ground those boys were standing.

At that moment, I felt like something took over me as I started to lost my sanity in that instant, since I went all out with the mana supply pack.

"Perish!" I roared as I continued channeling my mana in the sword and they disappeared after the magic ended, probably because the powerful magic hit them really hard.

I stared at the crater with an empty look in my eyes. My thoughts were conflicting with each other.

Thanks to that, neither could I think straight, nor could I process what happened a few seconds ago, or where the boys went.

"How could you?! What is wrong with you?!" Chris roared with tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

'So that's the true power of the Magic Swordmaster... I've got to write that down...' Karu thought as he made a mental note.

I ignored Chris as I breathed heavily and turned to the girl.

"It's okay, you are fine now." I left as I sheathed my sword before she could say anything, mostly because I was afraid of she blaming me of killing them.

I then turned my attention to my party members, by which they looked at me as if they were looking at a monster, except for Chris and Iris, by which the former had an angry look in her eyes, while the latter had a look of sadness... and concern?

"That's it for today. Dismissed." I turned around as I walked away quietly, leaving them dumbfounded at the scene.

"Onii-chan!" Iris called me with concern as she ran after me.

'It doesn't took long for the entire party to break apart, does it?' I left as I thought to myself.

Meanwhile...

"Well done, my champion." The black silhouette said as it looked at the crystal ball and laughed to himself.

Back at the scene...

"Well, I got some business to do, so I will see you guys in a second." Karu said as he left the group a few minutes after Iris and I left.

Yunyun was consoling Chris over the death of the boys, while Loby took the girl back to her home, as far as I heard.

In the Demon King's Castle...

"My lord, this is the report regarding the Magic Swordmaster and the Princess." The guy who looked extremely similar to one of my party members handed the scroll to the Demon King.

"That was unexpected." The Demon King said.

"Isn't that right?" He said. "That immense power of his posed a threat to your army, my lord."

"That's not what I meant." The Demon King interjected. "How could he kill people like that? That was not something I would expect from him."

"My lord," Beldia the Dullahan said. "Should I go test his strength?"

"No, a Demon King General would attract too much attention." The man said.

"How about me?" A black robed man appeared. "I am not a Demon King General, after all."

"Very well." The Demon King replied. "You go test his strength."

Then the Demon King turned onto the man.

"You have done a great job. With their strengths analysed, our chance to win the war will be higher!" The Demon King complimented the man.

"Thank you, my lord!"

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed the story!

As always, positive critiques are appreciated!

Also, I am going to stop writing Iris with the different pronunciations, since I thought it was a drag doing that. So please remember Iris will be pronounced as "Ai-ri-su" when they were in the palace or alone.