"Ex-pa-losion, Ex-pa-losion, la la la."
"Ex-pa-losion, Ex-pa-losion, la la la."
Two weirdos can be seen skipping through the snow filled roads, hand in hand as they kept singing their made-up song.
"Umm… Aqua, what are they doing?" asked Darkness as she peeked out from behind a tree on the side of the road.
"I don't know, but we have to stay cautious, it could be contagious…"
"And here I thought I would catch Kazuma being a pervert… sigh."
"Reality is often disappointing, Darkness.
Back to our weirdos…
Kazuma was really starting to question the material used in the making of the abandoned castle.
It had been almost 4 months since we started casting explosions on it.
Its upper levels were all but gone at this point, towers that stood tall at its sides were just molten slabs of rocks now.
Though its lower levels were somehow still holding strong-
"Explosion!"
Nevermind what I just said, the lower levels seemed to have finally collapsed on itself.
"Hey, what are you waiting for? Pick me up already!" Megumin shouted as she lay there on the ground.
I was feeling lazy so I decided to just transfer some mana into her with Drain Touch.
Megumin looked quite confused at my actions as she openly gawked at me.
"Let's go, I told Darkness and Aqua to pick an easy quest for us," I said as I started to walk back towards the city.
Megumin just stood there for a while before she plopped back down.
"Megumin?" I asked once I turned around.
"Nope, I'm not walking, come here and carry me," she said as she layed in the snowy ground.
"Oh come on, Megumin! What's gotten into you, come on, stand up or you will catch a cold."
"Don't wanna."
"Are you serious right now?!"
"Just come and pick me up, Kazuma."
"Not doing it, you're obviously fine, so get up and let's get going already."
"Fine then! If that's how it's going to be, then I'll tell Darkness about the time you tried to look under my clothes."
"Wait, you were awake- I mean, what're you talking about? That never happened," I said as my face broke into panic.
"What do you think she would say, Kazuma, 'Oh, I knew he was a pervert, but to prey on innocent helpless maidens'. I might even tell her about this in the guild so her declaration would spread-"
"Okay, I get it! I get it! The Drain Touch didn't work properly so you're obviously still tired! Don't worry, I'll carry you back!" I quickly said as I bolted to her and picked her up and placed her in the usual position.
Megumin just smirked at me in triumph, smugness was literally oozing from her.
I carried her back to the city gates, where she finally decided to have mercy on me and decided to walk on her own.
It was an oddly cheerful Aqua and a smiling Darkness that greeted us once we reached the guild.
Hunting Snow Sprites.
Palm-sized white balls that just floated around the place.
They said defeating one of these things would bring spring half a day closer, so the people who couldn't wait for spring to come put up this huge bounty.
That was the quest they had picked up.
Megumin gave me her usual puppy dog look.
Ever since I learned Drain Touch, Megumin would fire her daily explosion in the morning and then ask me to refill her magic with Aqua's.
She was overjoyed when she realized that she can cast explosion more than once per day with this neat little trick.
And she had been exploiting it to her heart's content.
So seeing her give me that look, I knew what she was asking for.
But after carrying her here, I really didn't want to do it.
Seeing me immune to her actions, Megumin sighed and looked toward Darkness.
"I wanted to talk to you about something Darkness, are you perhaps free?"
Hearing that, alarm bells rang off in my head and I quickly grabbed Aqua from the back of her neck and transferred magic into Megumin.
It was a good thing we were in the corner of the guild, because I had forgotten that the skill I just used in public belonged to lichs…
'What's with the bottles and net?' I thought as Aqua rejoined our group at the field where our quest was.
It was almost a half day's walk away from Axel.
Aqua, for some reason, was carrying bottles and a net used for catching insects.
Seeing my look, Aqua explained.
"I want to catch them. Think Kazuma, if I put one of them together with a beverage in a box, I'd be able to drink ice-cold Neroid at any time! It'll be like a fridge! What do you think? I'm smart, right?"
Not gonna lie, that was actually smart, and it really made me question if this was Aqua or not.
We then started to hunt down the poor Snow Sprites who were just minding their own business.
"They float around leisurely if you leave them alone, but they dodge agilely if you attack them," I said as one of the Snow Sprites dodged a snipe from my axe.
But the bounty for each one was 100,000 eris after all, so such difficulties were to be expected.
After taking down 10 Snow Sprites, I took a deep breath.
One million eris, just like that.
It really made me question why more people weren't doing this…
I didn't dwell too deep in thought 'cause well, it's more money for us.
"I caught a fourth one! Look, Kazuma! What a harvest!" Aqua was having the time of her life chasing Snow Sprites like a kid.
Funny how the oldest member of our group acted like the youngest.
Speaking of the youngest…
"Explosion!"
The cold dry air trembled, and with a roar, the brown earth in the center of the snow-white plains exploded, forming a crater.
Megumin laid still on the snowy ground after exhausting her mana, displaying her adventurer's card proudly.
"Eight! I took out 8! And I raised a level!" came her muffled voice.
Good job, but I feel you would've looked much cooler if you hadn't said that while half buried in the snow.
Then I caught something on my Enemy Detection.
It was as if the sun had just decided to show up on the darkest of nights.
"Umm… Aqua, why do I hear boss music?" I asked Lady Aqua.
"..."
Megumin, who was just boasting about her victory, was now playing dead.
I really didn't need to ask what it was, because its pure white heavy shogunate period armour and that killing intent as it took a heavy step towards us meant that it was highly dangerous.
"It's the master of the Snow Sprites, and the symbol of winter itself… the Winter Shogun."
Master of snow sprites…
We had been hunting his people…
That's why more people didn't take this quest!
"Megumin! Why didn't you tell me this would happen?!" I asked Megumin as I thought she would've notified me.
"Darkness told me that you already knew," Megumin said as she continued to play dead.
I cast my accusatory look at Darkness.
"Aqua told me you knew," she said as she blushed at my look.
Girl… this is not the time to get turned on.
I looked at Aqua who was now kneeling.
"I thought you already knew! You lived in Japan in the past. When you were young, you must've heard this name during this season in the weather reports and news, right?"
"Why are you kneeling, I mean, you do need to apologize, but kneeling to me is a bit much."
"What are you talking about? I'm kneeling to the Winter Shogun! The Winter Shogun is a merciful being, if you apologize properly, it'll let us go!"
I continued to stand still, confused as a goddess knelt before a spirit.
"Prostrate! Prostrate yourself, quick! Everyone, throw your weapons away! Apologize! Hurry up Kazuma, apologize!"
While Aqua and I were busy with our banter, the Winter Shogun lifted his sword that shined under the sun and slashed toward the nearest target.
That target was Darkness.
"Ugh!?"
Darkness went to block with her greatsword, but with a crisp crack, the greatsword broke apart like glass.
Seeing the Shogun going for a follow-up attack, I used dash and jumped in between Darkness and the Winter Shogun.
My axe connected with the Shogun's sword, and I felt the bones in my hand rattle as the ground below me cracked.
Even with a strength stat of 291, I felt my knees almost buckle from just a follow-up strike.
But the good news was that my axe held strong.
The Winter Shogun really did ignore the prostrating Aqua.
And Megumin was playing dead so perfectly that I thought she might be asleep.
Seeing as the Shogun now just had his eyes on me, I sighed.
"Darkness, you and Aqua take Megumin away while he's busy with me. I'll try to flee once you guys are gone."
I really wouldn't have done this a few months ago, but it was somehow different now…
Darkness seemed to hesitate a little, but then saw the merit in my words.
She dragged Megumin away with Aqua as Megumin kept shouting something which I didn't hear as I was playing a game of cat and mouse with the Shogun.
Even when I did throw my axe away, the Shogun still kept his attacks going which was strange.
And I knew if I were to try and block another strike from his sword, then I would surely break a few bones in my arm.
So I kept dodging around him, barely saving myself from his strikes.
I had upgraded auto-dodge and dash a few days ago.
It was good that I had done so because I dodged a slash that would have freed my head from my body due to the auto-dodge skill.
And dash now gave me an extra 150% boost in speed which was coming in handy now.
But even with this upgrade, I was still at a similar speed to the Shogun.
But at last, the Shogun caught me with one of his attacks as the pommel of his sword hit me in the chest and sent me soaring through the air.
I landed into the crater that Megumin's explosion had created with a sickening thud.
I don't know what, but something was definitely broken.
I gently dragged myself to the corner of the crater and tried to sit upright.
As I did so, I saw that the Winter Shogun was now walking into the crater to finish me off…
Crunch!
Suddenly, the Shogun stopped and looked down.
There were some eggs that were sticking out of the ground.
They were bright blue in colour.
They'd barely survived Megumin's explosion, only to be crushed under the Winter Shogun's feet.
The Shogun, from the looks of it, simply shrugged and then went back to his previous job.
Killing me…
I tried to parry his next strike, but it was for naught as he cut my right arm off.
My axe landed next to me with my hand still attached to it.
ROOOAAAAARRRR!
A roar, louder than anything I'd ever heard in my life, cracked the air like thunder.
A dark, humongous shadow loomed over us both.
Even the Winter Shogun was looking wary of this new challenger.
I looked up to see what had come…
It was a fucking dragon!
Its size was larger than the one I'd faced before by one and a half.
It was white in colour with bright blue scales in between.
Wait…
I looked back towards the broken eggs and connected the dots…
Oh…
The Winter Shogun dun goofed up.
Go white dragon! Go! Dracarys this bitch!
The dragon swooped down towards the Winter Shogun and caught him in its jaws as the Shogun tried to attack it.
The Shogun punched the dragon on its snout and the dragon released him onto the ground.
I tried to drag myself out of the crater but found it very hard.
The sound of thunder being unleashed and the ground churning kept blasting across the plains.
After a few minutes of work under the constant noise of battle, I finally managed to climb out of the crater.
There was a loud thud as something came crashing down.
The ground shook and I wobbled a little and looked towards it.
The dragon was laying next to the Shogun's feet with several of its scales missing.
The ground around it was covered in red.
It was breathing very slowly as the Shogun stood above it, ready to finish it off…
But at that moment, something came over me.
I knew if the dragon died, so will I.
And I didn't want to die.
So, I pulled out my adventurers card and got a skill which had been lying there for a while.
Its name was arrow…
It basically accelerated one's body at super high speed in one direction at the cost of 100 mana.
It didn't allow one to maneuver so I hadn't gotten it yet.
I put points into it and summoned my axe into my left hand just as the Shogun brought its weapon down.
I was on him in an instant!
I used all the strength I had and brought my axe down on the Winter Shogun's head.
It wasn't enough…
The axe only made a small dent into his helmet.
I was waiting for the Shogun to end me when the dragon caught the distracted Shogun in its jaws and yanked him upwards.
The Shogun flew through the air as the dragon took in a deep breath and let loose a roar of lightning from its mouth.
The roar was more like a pillar of light that went into the sky, parting the clouds where it met them.
It would be able to be seen and reported from Axel and other neighboring cities.
After what felt like an eternity, the dragon stopped.
The Shogun was gone…
I slid down to the ground as exhaustion from using that last skill seemed to have finally caught up to me.
The dragon lay there watching me, but it was too injured to deal with some nuisance like me…
I lay there for a while getting soaked in dragon blood when I heard some shouts of my name.
I looked toward the voices and saw it was my party.
"Kazuma!"
Megumin had recovered from mana exhaustion as she was running ahead of both Aqua and Darkness.
Ah, this must be like those moments in anime…
Getting hugged by the girl you like after a life and death situation-
I felt a punch connect with my stomach as spit flew from my mouth.
Then another, and then another…
Megumin went full Mohammad Ali on me.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" she kept shrieking with various profanities mixed in between each punch.
Finally, after a while she stopped and hugged me.
Although it seemed Megumin didn't care, Aqua and Darkness were standing a solid 20 meters away from us because of the dragon behind me.
Seeing that the dragon was taking its last breaths, they relaxed and approached us.
Aqua went to heal my wounds and ordered Darkness to get my right arm from the crater so she can reattach it.
Darkness came back with my arm and…
"Look what I found," Darkness proudly said as she presented us with a still intact dragon egg.
"Good job Darkness! If we sell it then we'll make more than enough money to get out of our debt!" Aqua shouted with dollar signs in her eyes.
Are they really dumb enough to talk about selling a dragon egg in front of its parent?
I looked back towards the dragon and saw that it was not making any moves to stop us, but its eyes were basically pleading for me to not sell its child to an unknown fate…
I sighed as I rubbed my temple with my reattached right hand.
It would be so easy to just sell it, to finally get out of this pesky debt.
I saw that Megumin had also seen the dragon's pleading look and was now looking at me, awaiting my decision.
"Aqua, can you please pass that egg to me?" I asked Aqua.
Once I had the egg secured in my hands, I turned around and told the dragon that I will take care of it.
I don't know if it understood me or not, but it looked more peaceful as it took its last breath.