Disclaimer : KonoSuba is owned by Akatsuki Natsume, I don't own anything about it and only using it as a material of my fanfic.
-o-
Chapter 4 : Flammenwerfer
After the whole fiasco of people finding my Luger's bullet inside their meal ended with no culprit found, it resolved rather peacefully by the guild staff with merely replacing those adventurer's meal with the new one.
I felt guilty for that, but I don't want to get beaten to an inch of my life for stating the truth.
That said, right now I'm at the stable and next to me is a sleeping Aqua.
She stinks. For the obvious reason of drinking too much alcohol and partying like crazy.
"Waitress~ Beer one more!~"
Oh yeah, she didn't bother to change into her pajamas and dropped into the haystack+sheet bed before sleeping like a log and snoring out loud.
Enough of her and now since I've skipped my training for about three times, it's a must for me to do this tonight.
Looking at my adventurer card, I was rather surprised positively as my level went from a single digit of 5 now turned to the double digit of 11. I heard newer adventurer leveled up pretty quick, but I didn't think it'd be this quick. But then again, we fought against something that could kill a newbie adventurer like us, so that must've counted.
Despite that much of a level up, most of my stat only gain a slight boost.
If I am to make a comparison(grudgingly) with my party member, it'd be something like:
Megumin : Strength(D-), Agility(D), Speed(D), Vitality(D), Intelligence(B), Magic Power(S), and Luck(C)
Aqua : Strength(A), Agility(A), Speed(A), Vitality(B), Intelligence(E-), Magic Power(A+), and Luck(F-)
Darkness : Strength(A), Agility(A), Speed(A), Vitality(S), Intelligence(C), Magic Power(C), and Luck(D)
Me : Strength(D), Agility(C), Speed(C), Vitality(D), Intelligence(A), Magic Power(C+), and Luck(SS)(Flavor-ficken-text only)
Seriously, stat-wise, I'm barely above Megumin who's the only job is to cast a spell once and be done with it. Meanwhile, there's those two with the amazing physical stat on the board but both are totally hopeless as one of them couldn't hit jack shit and the other would either recklessly charge or taunt or simply want nothing to do with the enemy which would end up in me cleaning her mess up.
The only stat I dwarfed them all is Luck and even then, it's just a flavor text rather than actual representation. I wonder why it's SS instead of SSS? Could it be to represent what I am the most? Let's hope it's that and not that kind of SS.
Alright, let's stop wallowing myself inside the pit of sorrow and despair for looking at my pitiable stats.
Now it's time to train my exclusive magic.
"Creation!"
With my outstretched right hand holding my Gewehr 98, I followed the three steps of creation.
As the light slowly starting to coalescence into my rifle, it begins to form a shape.
Concentrating on the object I'm creating, the bright light lasts for few seconds before fading away.
When it's completely gone, the Gewehr 98 in my outstretched hand now sports a fresh new Warner & Swasey Model 1913 Prismatic Musket Scope that was broken during my our fiasco with those bandits.
Though, this isn't the end of my training.
Knowing the importance of superior firepower from the fact that if I don't have my Gewehr 98 during the whole debacle with those damn Rookie Killer, I could be in afterlife right now, I decided to amp up my game.
Putting down my repaired rifle on the floor, I outstretch my right arm again and concentrate.
"Creation!"
This time, what I create isn't a weapon as I don't want to risk mana depletion.
When the light faded out, I take a look at the small thing I'm holding in my right hand.
It's a bullet.
More specifically, K-bullet, a 7.92×57mm (8×57mm IS) armor-piercing bullet.
Unloading my Gewehr 98, I load the K-bullet inside my empty rifle and found no problem in loading it.
It might be quite too much for me to use the K-bullet, but considering many monsters that lurk inside this world, this is a necessary measure to prevent myself from being embraced by the death earlier than I should. Not to mention that those Rookie Killers weren't exactly that high in the monster's hierarchy, so it should really speak something about this world's monster to boot.
Next!
As fixing my rifle and making a powerful bullet didn't take too much toll on me, I decided to create more stuff.
Outstretching my right arm again, I imagine the next item.
"Creation!"
With the same fanfare, light and all, another item popped up in my outstretched hand.
This time, it's a short wooden stick. With a pin at the bottom part. And a grenade head at the top part.
Yes, it's a Stielhandgranate or simply a stick grenade, potato masher, whatever you can call it due to it's unique shape.
The model I made is the 24 ones since I would rather use a newer model than the older one- Okay, although I saw Karabiner 98 and yet still using Gewehr 98, that was due to preference and those are very similar to the point of nothing much changed or improved so my point still stands.
The decision of making a grenade stems from today, in more detail, the cabbage shenanigans.
Dealing with a large mass of enemy with an anti-personnel weapon isn't effective nor efficient at all and Megumin(despite her craziness to cast her spell nearby me) proves that sometimes having a powerful area attack is a good thing.
And if I encounter a monster too strong for my liking, there's this one option of simply stuffing this down its orifice and let this potato masher mashes its insides.
Still, I don't feel any tiredness or fatigue after doing these all.
I was almost tempted to start creating a sub-machine gun again, but decided against it and hold it until level 15 rather than to risk something bad that might happen.
Let's see what kind of stuff I've already made.
Firearms. Check.
Bullets. Check.
Grenade. Check.
Sleeping Bag. Check.
Binocular. Check.
Well, what else should I make?
After thinking for a while and having nothing comes to my mind, I opted to sleep until I saw my hung up tracksuit jacket torn in many places due to being hit by Megumin's Explosion shockwave.
Ah, I think I'll create that.
"Creation!"
-o-
The Next Morning.
Waking up from my slumber, I noticed that I woke up quite late as there's no Aqua as far as I can see.
Well, she's probably eating or doing whatsoever in the adventurer guild while waiting for me.
With that in mind, I made up my sleeping bag before leaving for a bath.
Sparing the details of me taking a bath, I went to the adventurer guild in high spirit due to the fact that I'm going to claim a huge sum of money from yesterday's quest. Though, I wonder what should I spend it on besides for food? While living in the stable isn't luxurious or enjoyable, turns out I easily adapted to living there rather quickly(probably thanks to the sleeping bag), so, our living place isn't a problem. Or should I try living in an inn? I don't know.
Thinking about that while walking to the adventurer's guild, I didn't realize that I'm already in front of its door.
Opening the door, I was greeted by a sight that I would rather not see at all.
Hugging a staff in her hand, Megumin moans while muttering 'Irresistible' over and over again.
"Hey Kazuma, you're rather late- Wait, what's with that outfit?" Darkness called over.
Yeah, my latest creation is this, a military uniform.
To be specific, Germany's WWI Era uniform which consisted of a gray tunic, gray trousers, a brass and silver belt buckle, ankle boots, and gray overcoat. Though I removed the decorations like iron cross and another embroideries, turning it into a plain gray military uniform.
Puffing up my chest, I smirked before explaining the uniform to her while neglecting several things related to my previous world.
"I see, but that outfit for a soldier is really lightly- no, not having armor at all, is it fine?"
"Don't worry, you know how I fight, right? I don't need heavy armor in most case. By the way, talking about armor, where's your armor?"
"Ah, it's currently in repair."
"That so?" I muttered while inspecting her.
She looks thinner when she wore that armor of hers.
Looking at her current state wearing a black tight skirt and tank top with leather boots, she looks more like a swordswoman than a crusader.
With great figure and not too thin body, she's simply a sexy woman, but-
"Are you trying to undress me with that stare of yours?" She said excitedly.
-yup, there's that.
"By the way, what the heck is wrong with that girl? She's looking like you right now." I pointed at Megumin who is still doing that disgusting thing, trying to steer off the topic.
"H-H-How savage... As expected from Kazuma. You won't show any mercy, huh?" With rough breathing and flushed face, I pretty much knew her rotten personality is rearing its head out.
Give me back my apology, you rotten woman.
Seriously, give back my high spirit from earlier.
"Hey, you Explosion loving maniac! What the hell are you doing!?" I yelled at Megumin who is starting to hump the staff.
"Oh? I didn't see you coming, Kazuma. And what stupid question are you saying?"
Wow. Amazing, a man wearing a full set of gray military uniform with several weapons on his person coming to a building that is not a military installment to not getting any notice... Show some surprise damn it, even that unrepentant pervert was pretty surprised.
Releasing the staff from her embrace, she outstretches her right arm which held the staff.
"Behold! This staff contains manatite crystal which brims with magical power! With this staff, my Explosion spell's potential going to rise into the new heights!"
"Hee~ is that so?" I muttered uninterestedly.
"WHAT!?"
A loud voice of surprise came from the guild counter with the culprit none other than our hetaregami.
Looking at her way, I saw her grabbing the collar of the poor counter staff-san.
"Why is there only 100,000 Eris! You know how many cabbage I caught? It's about two hundred! TWO HUNDRED!"
"Erm, this is hard to say…"
"What!"
"What Aqua-san turned in was mostly lettuce, so..."
"Why was lettuce mixed in there!"
"Even if you ask me that, I don't know!"
From their conversation, there seemed to be a problem with the bounty.
"Hey Darkness, how the heck lettuce could be among those cabbages swarm?"
"Well, I don't know very much, but I heard they're very rare and they have a very low redemption rate compared to the cabbage."
"Hee~"
While chatting with Darkness, that hetaregami with her hands behind her back and that obviously forced smile asked.
"Kazuma-san~, how much money you got from yesterday's quest?"
"Around a million."
"HA!?" x3
Yup, that huge sum of money was gained through the cabbage quest. Actually, that was because in yesterday's quest, I gained quite a lot of them from shooting those that came toward Darkness and that's really many of them. Despite being destroyed and in a tattered state, those cabbages I turned actually are all high grade and yield a lot of exp which is why 1 million Eris. Though, this makes me wonder why lady Luck works like this?
"Kazuma-sama~ I've been thinking for a while, but, don't you know that you're, um, cool, and those outfit of yours is lam- I mean good on you."
She was about to say lame, wasn't she?
"If you only force yourself to praise me, then don't. Besides, I don't want to share my reward."
Hearing my blunt reply, she dropped all pretense of praising me and pounces on me.
"Hey, let me go, you hetaregami!"
Struggling against her grip, I tried my best to make her release her grip on me.
Damn it, why does this useless goddess' strength show up only for something like this!?
"UWAHHHHH! Kazuma, please lend me money! I owe 250,000 Eris for treating everyone last night! Please lend me some money or something bad will happen to me!"
This goddess...
"Then so be it. Let this experience teach you how to not do something idiotic anymore!"
Hearing my reply, she suddenly released my collar that she grabbed before.
Looking at her, I saw that she looked down as her bangs covering her eyes.
"Are~? Is that so? Although I might end up as a sex slave for my debt... Even if my pure body being tainted... Don't feel guilty for it, Kazuma. This is my fault after all." She murmured audibly while slowly dragging herself away.
Don't try to guilt trip me, you hetaregami, you brought this upon yourself.
Or so I want to retort, but-
'What a bad guy.'
'Yeah, how could someone let a girl that young to be a sex slave if he can help it?'
'Uwah, I'm glad that I'm not in the same party as his.'
That kind of people murmured out loud as they please.
Do they even know about her circumstances? I think not as they keep saying whatever they want.
Still, this wouldn't faze me if I wasn't a beginner adventurer.
But the rumor that might sprout from this misunderstanding since most people or things or even this world are idiots-
"FINE, FINE! I'll lend you some money, but don't expect me to do this next time!"
Turning back to me, her bang-covered-face suddenly not so covered anymore and a very annoying smile plastered upon her face.
"I knew it, Kazuma is really kind!"
Tsk, while I have no use for too much money, I surely don't want to spend it for paying my acquaintance's loan.
-o-
After lending Aqua 150,000 Eris and having a breakfast, I decided to look for a quest in order to disperse my ruined mood.
Let's see what's on the board.
- Kill a Black Fang, an advanced level monster that always comes in a pack.
- Kill 10 goblin deep in the mountain range. Warning: Rookie Killer may appear.
- Kill 50 Demonic Treants at the outskirt of the town.
- An adventurer with high resistance to poison and magic, I want to test my magic potion. KYAHAHAHAHA.
What the heck with all these quests? Especially that last one, is that even eligible to be put on the quest board? Anyway, I knew that this town is as far from the demon king army as everyone knows, but still... For the supposed town of beginner to host only high-level quest or absurd one is kinda stupid, right?
So, I asked the guild staff-san and her reply:
"Sorry, but this is because one of the demon king army's boss had moved into the nearby castle. Because of this, weaker monsters decided to hide while stronger ones appearing left and right. So, until a backup from the capital come, we can't do anything but to offer this kind of quests. I'm truly sorry about this."
"No, don't worry it. By the way, how long does it take for the backup to come?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not even sure. The capital is busy with many demons attacking them almost every day, so we won't know for sure when they'll come."
Ah, seriously? Why now of all times?
With that information, I discussed it with my party and:
"Let's charge the castle! Don't worry, if we're in a pinch, you can abandon me! To be ravished by one of the-(Alright, let's tune out of her)"
"Since I'm out of money, killing one of the demon king's top brass should rake in a good amount of fortune!"
"Kazuma, Kazuma, let's do it! The sealed power within me is acting up and demands a sacrifice! I can't hold it much longer unless we unleash it to one of the demonic king army's boss today!"
PAK
I facepalm.
Wow, my party could really synchronize only at the weird thing, aren't they?
"I know that our goal is to defeat the demon king, but let me ask you, what's your level?"
"I'm 10."
"I'm 15."
So, Megumin is slightly below me, Darkness is higher than me, and Aqua- Wait a second.
"Hey Aqua, what's your level?"
"Are~? What could you possibly be talking about?"
Innocently smiling, she told me that.
This is fishy.
"Your level, don't play dumb. Give me your adventurer card, I'll see it for myself if you don't want to tell me."
"Uh-um, ehehehe-"
While still innocently smiling, that smile was accompanied by sweating. If I guess it, it might be a cold sweat.
Snatching her adventurer card, I could only sneak a glance at it as Aqua took it back as quick as I snatched it. But I already saw the dreaded number.
It's 4.
4 is a number of death in myth from Japan and China since the pronunciation of it is the same with death: si/shi.
Due to this, when several myth-believer architects in both countries builds a building with floors, they won't list a number four in the building and opted to skip it to 5 immediately.
4 is also bad because a certain film about an intergalactic bounty hunter sent to earth to kill several aliens brother failed to do so and die when facing the fourth despite being successful on the third and previous two.
And four is bad for us because that means Aqua is the lowest leveled member of our party.
All factor above proves that-
"Aqua, you're useless."
"W-What?"
"Not contributing to fight. Check.
Messing things up in the fight. Check.
Owing money due to your own act. Check.
Troubling others with your own action. Check.
The only thing you're useful in is being a healer. Seriously, without that, there's nothing worthy of you at all. Not to mention that those negative sides amounts are as much as your level."
"UWAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Putting her face down onto the table, she cried from my truth-filled statement.
"Hey Kazuma, your words are too strong, if you don't hold back and say everything out, most girls will cry okay!"
"Yes. If you accumulate too much stress- I could take Aqua's place and endure your scolding, so lecture me all you want, don't hold back. As a crusader, suffering for others is a merit."
The two of them looked at Aqua who was crying on the table. Knowing that she was the center of attention, Aqua would peek at me through her fingers from time to time, which irked me.
Then, Megumin suddenly explains.
"Don't you know Kazuma? Most Priests are always few levels behind their ally due to a hard time of leveling, you know? Most of their skill are either support or healing and they can't fight on the front lines without risking theirs and their party's life for doing a reckless thing. The only way for Priest to be able to join the combat is when they fought against the undead race who are easier to kill by priest's healing magic than by normal way of destroying their body."
"Is that so?"
There's that kind of system in several RPGs I played where the healing magic of a priest is an attack magic if cast to undead and vice-versa, so that works here as well, eh.
"Umu, so let us take on that demon king army's boss! OUCH!"
I smacked her head for that.
"Don't be crazy, our party's average level barely reach 10. At least wait until we hit 20 or higher, I don't want to die young." I replied while massaging my temple to ease my headache due to Megumin's antic.
Hmm... Even with that knowledge, if there's no such quest to improve this hetaregami's level so in a proxy, improve her intellect as well, it's useless. And stop sneaking a glance, you crocodile teared goddess.
While thinking about it, Darkness dragged me back to reality from my musing by showing me a quest paper from the board.
-Kill 50 Demonic Treants at the outskirt of the town-
Description: These pesky monsters are starting to appear in a rather large group in the outskirt nearby this town's cemetery, please eliminate them before victims could fall.
"Darkness, if you aren't a masochist, I'd hit you very hard right now. Are you out of your mind for giving us this mission?"
"Guh, but-"
Treants, simply put, they're either a tree or monster who can attack and moves slowly or not moving at all.
In this world, it's the variant that is a monster and could move slowly, also their attack range is particularly pathetic. But when they die or if their pathetically slow attack connects, you're gonna be in for a lot of pain as their heavy body crashing down on you or their 'hands' which were covered by sharp branches could turn you into either a Belgian pancake or Swiss cheese.
If you add the word 'demonic' to it, the only thing that comes to mind is a stronger, scarier version of it.
"Wait a second, Kazuma, while the demonic treants sound dangerous, compared to normal ones, they're not that dangerous." Megumin explained while rubbing the sore spot in her head where I hit her before.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, they're actually dead trees or treants that were possessed by a vengeful spirit of a dead adventurer or monster who died in the forest. Because of their rotten and decaying state, their physical body is a hollow tree with fragile branches. As long as you don't have your guard down, it'd be a walk in a park. It's also an undead if I may add." She added.
"Still, Darkness' armor is still in reparation, right? Those branches should hurt if they hit and I think they will remembering Darkness' personality."
"That's cruel. But don't worry, even without my armor, I have a full set of defensive skills. Because of that, I dare say that I am harder than an Adamantoise. And it feels better without armor when I get hit."
Let's just ignore her last sentence for now.
"Hey Aqua, you heard them right? Time to prove your competence and quit shedding crocodile's tear."
Shaking her shoulder, her hands that covered her face loosely released and shown us- a sleeping hetaregami.
Wow, just wow.
-o-
So, this is the place?
Currently, we are in a town's outskirt that faces the forest.
Using my binocular, I tried to spot any of these so called Demonic Treants. Apparently, their appearance when not moving couldn't be distinguished with old, gray trees.
Either due to luck or their really bad way of camouflage, their surroundings were filled with lush green trees which pretty much gave away their position as the quest description told us that there are no very old trees nearby the location or gray ones.
After confirming all their position, I put away the binocular and starts the briefing about our tactics.
"Alright, there's actually around a hundred of those monsters. My plan is that Darkness will attract their attention and focused on her while Aqua cast her area healing spell. Meanwhile, I will do the support fire if any of them slip through Darkness' guard and Megumin will be our emergency support if there are too many demonic treants coming for us to handle. Any objection?"
"Hey Kazuma, why don't I cast Explosion right away to complete this quest faster?"
"Idiot, for who do you think we do think this quest for? Anyone else got a non-stupid complaint?"
With no one saying anything about it, we proceed to do the quest.
First of all, Darkness charges forward and activate her aggro skill to attract their attention.
As her skill took effect, several demonic treants decided to uproot themselves from their (pathetic)camouflage and slowly walk toward Darkness.
Soon enough, she began to engage them.
"Aqua, your turn."
With that simple command, she stood behind Darkness and begins her chant.
"-And thus, be banished from this world! 'Turn Undead'!" Finishing her chant, a circle of light slowly spread from below her legs into those treants and-
They simply turned into a dust of woods.
So that's the effect of casting a holy magic against the undead opponent, eh?
But it wasn't over as many demonic treants are coming. Though, from then onward, it ended in the same pattern without me or Megumin being needed. Well, except that one time I tried out my K-bullet which gave me a satisfying result as the poor demonic treant that became my target practice turned into a pile of splinters.
Well, that is good. At least now we know how to get an easy level grinding quest for Aqua, I guess.
From there on, our quest ended without much trouble and Aqua gained several levels up, so the end result is good~ Or so I wished.
"Shit! This is so stupid!" I yelled while shooting down a demonic treant that came running from my left side.
Yes, they can run.
Apparently, my party is smart enough to not tell me that they could camouflage themselves as a lush green tree, call for reinforcement, and despite being far more fragile than their living counterpart, this creepy menace could enter a frenzy state where their fragile body gets even more fragile for a speed boost in movement and attack speed which result in our current situation: being surrounded by these things that turn out to be much more than a hundred in number.
While one shot from my rifle is enough to destroy them, their overwhelming number is nothing to scoff at. At this rate, we might get overwhelmed by these monsters.
"What should we do, Kazuma!?" Megumin asked while lying on the ground.
Yeah, she already cast her spell in trying to open a way for retreat, but those things just blocked it immediately afterward via their friggin reinforcement from deep in the forest. The same thing happened when I used my M24 Stielhandgranate.
"Guh, for them to be this smart, there must be someone controlling them." Darkness muttered while grimac- scratch it, she enjoys the pain.
Aqua who keep casting her 'Turn Undead' appears to be fine. Physically.
With that demonic treants' creepy appearance and as many of them slowly slipping through Darkness' guard, it's pretty obvious how scared she was.
Now what should I do?
Explosive won't work.
Aqua's Turn Undead only have a small AoE.
Wait a second.
How about fire?
"Hey Megumin, are these demonic treants weak to fire?" I asked while shooting another demonic treants coming our way.
"What kind of stupid question are you asking in this kind of time? Of course, they are, it's even more effective to use against them due to their hollow and dry dead body."
Then a stroke of inspiration came to my mind.
"Darkness! Aqua! Hold on for a bit without my support, I'll soon destroy them all!"
"AHHHHHHHH! Be quick, Kazuma! 'Turn Undead'!"
"Guh! Ah! Take as much time as you need! I won't fall until then, even if your plan is to leave me alone!"
Ignoring the latter's statement, I threw down my Gewehr 98 and outstretch my right arm forward.
"Are you trying to cast something, Kazuma?"
"Yeah, just wait for a bit, Megumin. 'Creation'!"
Following the three steps, I tried to create that.
Never I'd imagine that I'll use something like that this fast.
But well, I don't think creating that would cost too much mana as its design and how it works is rather simpler than a firearm.
"Haaaaa!"
A bright light erupted from my outstretched hand.
When it fades away, I tried to hold back a shit-eating grin from plastering all over my face to no avail.
-o-
Third Person View
As Kazuma does his thing, Darkness and Aqua tried their best in following that order.
While not even one attack could connect to their target, Darkness succeeded to hold them back until Aqua cast her 'Turn Undead'.
Not knowing what their friend planning and yet trusting him, they keep doing the same thing over and over again.
"Aqua, do you have a magic to grant resistance against fire or heat?" Suddenly came Kazuma's question from behind.
Without turning back, she replied:
"Of course, for what?"
"Cast it on everyone now!" He commanded.
Following that order, she closed her eyes and begins her chant.
"'Water Goddess' Bless!'"
Shouting the name of her spell, every one of her party member including her was surrounded by a thin membrane of whitish light around their body.
"Good! Now Darkness, get back and carry Megumin! Leave this to me!"
"Kazuma, what are you planning? You can't possi-"
Her sentence was cut short as she saw a weird person behind her who stood nearby Megumin who lays on the ground.
-o-
Return to Kazuma's POV
"Kazuma, what are you planning? You can't possi-" Her sentence cut short before finishing as she saw what I am wearing.
Wearing a flame-retardant suit with a gas mask while sporting a two annular tank containing 12 liters of fuel connected to a flexible pipe with a steel grip and pipe with a nozzle at the end. I stand ready to burn those pesky monsters. Simply said, I became a flametrooper.
If what I'm fighting is a normal soldier from my world, using this weapon would be tantamount to suicide due to its short range and only last for a maximum of three minutes, unlike some games that portray it as having an infinite fuel. I'd be riddled with bullets by the time I reached the enemy's range.
But this isn't my world, so screw it. Even if its range is short(30 m) compared to guns, if compared to my enemy who could only attack at the melee range, it's pretty much one-sided.
"Quickly retreat and ask question later."
Following that order, she and Aqua retreat with her carrying Megumin on her back.
With them out of my way, I faced the incoming demonic treants.
Pointing the nozzle to their way, I pressed the trigger of my Wechselapparat M1917, allowing the pressurized flammable liquid to flow and pass over the igniter and out of the nozzle, spouting what makes this weapon named a flamethrower:
FWOOOOOSH
Flames.
Just like Megumin said, their hollow and dry body are weak to fire as it only took several seconds for them to turn from a menacing creature into a cinder block.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Burn! Burn! Burn!" I laughed maniacally while pushing forward, not feeling the heat from the blaze thanks to my suit and Aqua's buff.
"Kazuma?" Megumin called out hesitatingly.
It's pretty amusing seeing those assholes trying to overwhelm us with their numbers for it to turn into disadvantages as being too close to each other caused the flame to spread among themselves.
Idiots.
When their numbers had dwindled into barely a hundred, they finally realized that the tables have turned and decided to retreat.
Sadly for them, their fastest running speed is just like normal human's and when they got too far-
Letting go the trigger, I pulled out the pin of my incendiary grenade and throw it as far as I can to their retreating direction.
Obviously, it caused a fiery ground that blocks their retreating path.
When they tried to circle around the fire, I threw another incendiary grenade over and over again until their path being barricaded by a huge fiery field, forcing those poor enough who didn't already pass the area where I threw it into two sadistic choice: Charge through it anyway and die in a fire or try to kill the incoming me and risk being killed anyway.
Pretty much a quarter of them decided to run through the fiery ground which caused a slower death as their legs(roots) slowly being burned until they completely charred.
Meanwhile, the rest of them which is also the majority of them decided to attack.
Brave, but foolish attempt as I still have about one and a half minute fuel's worth.
"MUDA! MUDA! MUDA!"
"Kazuma, I think that's enough..." Darkness murmured.
I won't explain how one-sided the battle ended, but in the end, none of those demonic treants remained, either they already escaped or die by our hands.
Standing above charred remains of those demonic treants, I feel the euphoric feeling of triumph.
"Hey, Kazuma!" Megumin yelled at me, snapping me out of my stupor.
"What?"
"Look around you!"
"Huh? WHAT!?"
Yup, I'm an idiot.
I forgot that our battle took place in the forest nearby the town and thanks to my flamethrower and incendiary grenades, I just created a forest fire.
Shit.
To Be Continued...
-o-
OMAKE(Non-canon, Makes no sense, and For Pure Crack)(Written on 24 December 2016): Weihnachten in Der Stadt(Christmas in The Town)
"Hey, Kazuma." Aqua called out to me.
"What is it, Aqua? And don't call me Kazuma." I replied to her while taking out my red aviator goggles.
"Huh!? Just because you're wearing that kind of outfit doesn't make you that person!" Saying that, she pointed at my current attire.
Wearing a fighter pilot uniform that was colored red with white trimmings and a Santa hat. Basically, I'm dressing like a Santa but not exactly Santa.
Because-
"It does and you have to call me Santa Clauzuma." I declared dramatically while donning my goggles.
"You've got to be kidding me."
While she muttered that, I outstretch my right arm.
"'Creation'!"
A German's Bomber Aircraft, Gotha G. IV painted in mostly red but with the crosses painted white appeared in front of me. Aqua who saw this could only drop her jaw in surprise.
Before hopping up to the pilot seat, I checked the plane to make sure the flight wouldn't be my last one. When it's done, next I removed around 250kg demolition bomb contained inside by willing it to disappear. Then, I replaced them with boxes wrapped up in ribbons; a present I'll deliver as a Santa Clauzuma on this occasion.
After that, I hopped up into the pilot seat before starting the engine.
With the loud noise of rotor spinning, Aqua finally snapped out of her stupor and pointing at my direction in exasperation.
"HO! HO! HO!" I laughed heartily as my plane picked up it's speed in the runway.
"KAZUMAAAAAAA!" She yelled as I took off.
On the air, my Santa hat waving around as the strong wind billowed about.
Looking at the direction in front of me, I can see the town of Axel from here.
Oh?
I didn't notice it earlier, but it's starting to snow, huh? Let's do this!
Few minutes of flying later, I'm soon entering the airspace of Axel. With that, I turned on my radio, connect it to a big megaphone, and plays the Jingle Bells song.
Pretty obvious that everyone woke up due to the noise.
Be it getting out of their house or looking through their windows, they saw a foreign object flying in the sky that lets out loud noises.
'Look! It's a bird!'
'No, it's a dragon!'
'No, that must be-'
"HO! HO! HO! Merry Christmas everybody!" I yelled out in deep tone while pressing the button to drop the gift.
As I flew around town, boxes wrapped in beautiful ribbons slowly falling down(due to small parachute attached to each of them) from the bomb compartment in my plane.
When it's done, I flew above the town's square and yelled out:
"So long everybody, I'll see you in the next Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!"
With that, I leave Axel and headed for the final place for the present.
And that place is-
The demon king army's boss' castle.
"'Creation'!" As I shouted that, 250kg demolition bomb reappeared inside its compartment of my plane.
Flying above the castle, I switched the music from Jingle Bells into Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries.
Hearing the loud noise, several watch-undead-men shoots their arrows at me to no avail.
Then-
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa's gonna punish the bad Ho's!"
With that, I dropped the 250kg worth of demolition bomb directly above the castle, blowing it up to smithereens.
Making a U-Turn back home, I smiled to myself at the job well done.
Once again, Santa Clauzuma saved the Christmas.
Meanwhile...
"Ugh, why does that weird red flying thing gave me a book of 'How To Be Useful For Your Party, Wizard Ver.'?" Megumin complained after opening her gift.
"I'm the same here, why is that thing gave me 'How To Quit Being A Masochist'?" Darkness joined.
Aqua who stood nearby them could only sweatdrop.
Omake End.
-o-
A/N:
Okay, first of all, Frohe Weihnachten! a.k.a Merry Christmas! I wrote this chapter right at the night before Christmas(in my place). Alright, for the chapter, it means flametrooper and those who knew it might already know the foreshadowing of what will happen in this chapter. For this chapter, I take the another break from canon and include treants, yeah, treants. I wonder why there's plant girl in the KonoSuba but no treants as far as the current chapter goes, so yeah, I'll add it since it's a monster from fantasy world anyway. For the wackiness of Kazuma wielding flamethrower, who wouldn't get that rush when turning the table back at their opponent? As for the Omake, like the description, it's not canon, wacky, and purely for crack as I metaphorically pull that out of my ass since it's going to be Christmas soon. For why I'm capable of updating this quick, it's because I'm free for these two weeks and might give a fast update, but past that and it's going to be the standard 1 or 2 weeks per chapter. Alright, now for the terms:
- Ficken: F*cking
- The SS that Kazuma talking about is Schutzstaffel(Protection Squad), a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) in Nazi Germany. It began with a small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall-Protection) made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–45), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From 1929 until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of surveillance and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe.
- K-bullet is a 7.92×57mm (8×57mm IS) armor-piercing bullet with a tool steel core designed to be fired from a standard Mauser rifle. It was used by the German infantry against the first British tanks in World War I and on the Panzerkampfwagen I. On average the K bullet has a one out of three chance to penetrate armor 12–13 mm thick at a range of up to 100 meters.
- Model 24 Stielhandgranate was the standard hand grenade of the German Army from World War I until the end of World War II. The very distinctive appearance led to it being called a "stick grenade", or a "potato masher" in British Army slang, and is today one of the most easily recognized infantry weapons of the 20th century.
- Hetaregami: Hetare(Useless, Retard) + Megami(Goddess), pretty sure you know what does this mean.
- The film reference Kazuma made is from the 'I Am Number Four' a sci-fi film about a guy turns out to be alien being chased around by intergalactic bounty hunter. Not exactly popular, but fits with his current situation for referencing this.
- Wechselapparat M1917, it was a lightweight modified version of the M.16. Since 1916, the German flamethrower troops upgraded increasingly to the so-called "Wex", a one-man flamethrower of the next generation with an eye-catching annular tank holding twelve liters of fire oil. In the middle of the ring sat a spherical compressed air tank, with its contents the M.16. could be used either in ten flame surges to a max of 30 meters range or fire three bursts up to 100 meters. The ignition of the flame jet was carried out automatically with a small gas Wex saw effective use in 1917/18 and was the basis for a number of flamethrowers including the Model 40 German flamethrower and the British No. 2 Portable Flamethrower in World War II. After the first World War, the Germans were supposed to destroy all their flamethrowers but the most were used by German Freikorps. Some of the Wex were used in Finland in the 1920s. It was also the first man-portable flamethrower created in the history, adding another one original weapon from Germany.
- Muda: Useless, MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! is a reference for the battle cry of Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series.
Review Response:
- ArmantusCumPinnae: One day, my freund, one day... And yeah, Germans do make great uniforms. Even their infamous SS uniform became some sort of outfit for 'plays' if you know what I mean.
- RedSS: Yeah, Gun-Ota is good, I recommend it.
- FateBurn: Danke, mein freund.
- XxPokemonMasterxX: Yep, he is a glass cannon, he won't wear any armor at all in combat. Most of the times.
- Judgment of the Arbiter: Danke, I hope you like this one at least as much as the last chapter or even better(Omake).
That is all, goodbye! And again, please rate & review, I feel kind of lonely when nobody drops a review on me. Plus, it'd be beneficial for me and you readers as I can improve from your review while you have less to complain about the story. Also thanks for those who follow and faves my story, I'll try my best to write this story to yours and my satisfaction.
P.S. Again to the Germanic reader out there, please correct my words or terms about German if I'm wrong since I'm still learning about your language. Tschüss und Frohe Weihnachten!