When we reached the main gate, there were many adventurers gathered there already. And that guy was at the main gate which all the novice adventurers kept a distance away from. That's right, it was that demon army boss, Dullahan.
And he looks pissed off.
Unlike the last time, he brought a whole gang of monsters with it.
It was a group of knight wearing tattered armor.
The cracks in their armors and helmets were semi-visible. If you looked closely, they probably didn't have a proper meal for quite a while. You might even catch a glimpse of their rotten body which would leave psychological trauma.
With just a glance, it was clear the armored knights were undead.
"Why did you not come to my castle?! You are inhumane!!!"
"Big words coming from an undead!" I retorted.
"And do you not even care about…" his voice faltered the moment he saw Darkness standing proudly beside us. "H-huh!?"
Like I thought, the look on his face was PRICELESS! "Oi, Aqua, looks like he didn't expect you to break his spell so easily!" I exclaimed.
"Why? It had been a week since Darkness was cursed but she is still alive, that shocked it right? That Dullahan definitely thought we would head to the castle to break the curse and was waiting for us in vain huh? It didn't even know I broke the curse in no time after it left right? Pu he he! This is too funny! Super~ funny!"
Everyone else started to laugh along with us. Looks like Aqua is much better than I expected at cracking the ice. "So, how long have you been waiting for us? Verdia san? Did you perhaps clean up the castle? Or send your minion of evil to prepare a buffet?" I cackled with mad glee.
"E-Enough!! If I get serious, I could kill all the adventurers in town and massacre the townsfolk. Don't think I will keep letting you off! I am of the undead and will never know fatigue. You bunch of rookies won't be able to hurt me!"
"Show him Aqua."
"Leave it to me!" A staff materialized in her grip. "Turn Undead!"
Even though it saw Aqua casting a spell, the Dullahan wasn't scared and didn't plan to dodge. As expected of a boss of the demon army, seemed like he was really confident. The gentle light which came out of Aqua closed in on the Dullahan…!
"You think the boss of the demon king army wouldn't be prepared to fight priests? Too bad. Including me, all the undead knights in this band had received the protection of the demon king. We have very high resistance against holy spell ahhhhhhhh–!"
Oh my gosh he's so pathetic! (Well no actually, I'm just putting up a brave front to keep the morale of other adventurers high because Verdia might just scare all adventurers to the point of no resistance. Thus, my plan on using Aqua's holy spell to at least hurt him.)
I laughed a little at that. "What was that Verdia? Did you just scream like a little girl?"
Another round of laughter followed my question.
"Hmmp, hmmhmm… Wait for me to finish. I am Verdia, one of the boss of the demon king army, Dullahan Verdia! With this armor that was enchanted by the demon king and my own powers, 'Turn Undead' from a normal priest won't work on me!… It shouldn't work at all…"
Thanks for telling me that, now I know I just have to push my divine magic enhanced sword all up your face.
"… Never mind. Because our diviner was raging on about a strong light descending near this town, so I came here to investigate… In the beginning, I thought it was too much of a hassle and considered destroying the entire town…"
Ah shit, that must be Aqua… Or me, but probably Aqua…
"Hmmp, you are not worthy enough for me to do it personally… Go, my brothers! Let them know what hell taste like!"
Some of the adventurers took a step back in fear, but I just pointed at Verdia and said. "Ah! That guy was definitely scared because Aqua's spell was unexpectedly effective! He is planning to use his minions to attack us while he escapes by himself to somewhere safe!"
"Boo!! Verdia's coward!"
"Dullahan Verdia? More like, run away Verdia!"
"Coward, Coward, Coward,"
The crowd behind me chanted.
Seriously, publicly shaming someone has never felt this good. I mean, to be honest, I'm starting to feel bad at him. He's really just a guy doing his job.
"That that that's not it! This was my plan from the very beginning! The boss of the demon king army are not weaklings who escape on their own! You wouldn't fight the boss at the very start, of course you would need to defeat the underlings first, that's the tradition since ancient time…"
The crowds kept throwing insults at him and it seems Verdia is losing his patience.
A dangerous glint came from Verdia's helmet. "Agh! You insolent weaklings! You want death so much!? Then I shall curse you with that, in one weeks time…" a dangerous aura appeared around him. "You will ALL DIE!!!"
"Aqua!!"
The goddess jumped in front of everyone else. "Sacred Break Spell!!!" she yelled before shooting out a white beam of light from her staff.
The light clashes against Verdia's death magic. It went on briefly until Aqua's spell struck him head on, canceling the curse.
"Sacred turn undead–!"
"Yaaahhhh–!"
Verdia rolled around in pain, only fueling the crowd's jeering for him and cheering for Aqua. Though, his minions of dead are coming towards us, that might pose a problem.
I turned towards my personal nuke.
Or not.
"Megumin, ready your spell, Darkness, Aqua, we're charging head on!"
"What?!" Aqua exclaimed. "Isn't this Darkness's job?!"
"Cuz the Undead's coming after you, obviously, come on!" I grabbed her hand and ran straight towards the demon king general. I didn't even flinch at the sight of the skeleton army in front of me, already practicing this move several times before.
When we're a feet away from the nearest undead, Darkness leap forward and crouched down. We then jumped on to her shoulders. "Hyaaa!!" Darkness pushed us up to the air with all her might.
I cast some high mana wind breath to push up higher into the sky and right above the demon king general. We landed right behind Verdia who's still recovering from Aqua's attack before getting the absolute fuck away from them.
"Megumin!!!"
A powerful explosion that shook the earth followed our cries. A gigantic ball of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the battlefield and destroyed everything within one hundred meter radius.
Soon enough, all that's left is one hundred meter diameter crater and one smoking undead standing inside it.
We quickly returned to the crowds with many adventurers cheering for us.
"You go Explosion Loli!"
"Darkness sama, so cool!"
"You fucking teach him a lesson, Kazuma!!!"
"Go Aqua! Show him who's the boss!"
Goddamn I could get used to this…
I turned around and saw Verdia clacking in glee instead of pain. "Fu hahaha! Interesting! That's interesting! To think my minions would be wiped out in a novice town like this! Alright, I will keep my promise!"
The undead raised its sword towards me. "You, I will take care of you personally!"
"Oh really now?" I scoffed at him. "Didn't you say it yourself? Here, in your own words," I then purposely pitched my voice to make it even more insulting. "You wouldn't fight the boss at the very start, of course you would need to defeat the underlings first, that's the tradition since ancient time…"
"FINE! I'LL WIPE THEM OUT, THEN I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Verdia yelled, obviously more pissed than he's ever been.
A man stepped up from the crowds. In his hand is a large great sword, the cursed sword gram. It is none other than Mitsurugi Kyoya, one of the most powerful warrior of all time. "I'm counting on you, Mitsurugi san!"
Mitsurugi nodded confidently. "Thank you for this opportunity, Kazuma san," he said before charging straight at Verdia.
When they clashed, the ground cracks beneath them. Every swing of their swords created a shockwave that could be heard from the other side of the city. It is a melee battle that seemingly only exist in the realm of legends.
"Not bad," Verdia took a step back and throw his helmet into the sky.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on. That giant eye illusion in the sky must be increasing the dullahan's senses and giving him the upper hands. Close scrapes becoming even more frequent on Mitsurugi's side and I'm starting to worry.
"Darkness!"
The crusader wasted no time coming in to block a strike from the Dullahan. I on the other hand went straight to Aqua. "Oi, Aqua, are you sure your spell doesn't work on him?"
"N-no, usually the Sacred Turn Undead is more than enough to kill even the strongest undead but…"
"Okay, he did say he has enchanted armor, so…" I raised my hand and silently cast steal, but no luck. "Dammit, okay, he's invulnerable against fire and wind, judging by Megumin's explosion. That only leaves water, since earth is more physical than elemental."
With that, I charged a heck ton of mana into my palm and aimed it straight at the Dullahan. Then, I passed it through the water magic pattern, turning the blast of mana into a deadly pressurized water.
The Dullahan managed to dodge at the last moment but that tells me everything I need to know. I looked up at his face floating in the sky and took aim. "Drink up, buttercup!" okay, that was very cringey, I promise I will never say that again.
A blast of water appeared from my hand. It soars through the air and the Dullahan's head dropped just in time to nick the edge of the water. "What is this cowardly tactic!? Fight me like a man!" he exclaimed towards me.
I brandished my sword and channeled divine magic on it. It glows brightly even during the day and I can imagine the look of awe everyone is giving me right now. "You want me to fight like a man?" I chuckled a little. "Come and get it!"
Both Mitsurugi and Darkness took a step back as I charged in towards the Dullahan. But the moment we clashed sword, I throw myself to the side and shoot out a blast of water with my free hand. It hits the mark, that is, the Dullahan's head in its hand.
However, before I could follow up with my trademark move, The Dullahan throw its head on to the sky. I quickly made as much distance I can from the floating head, forcing the Dullahan to retrieve it so he can pursue me.
"Stop running away, coward!" he yelled.
I ignored and weighed my option. I don't know if the water works, but it only hits his head. So I should start aiming for the head. And I should really stop trying to fight a sword master in a sword fight. I'm not a sword master dammit. I'm just an adventurer.
"Okay then Dullahan, I'll stop running away," I took a deep breath to prepare myself. "So how about it? Let's have a duel, if I win, you dead. If you win, I die," I told him.
"Tch, we'll see about that," The Dullahan raised his head and throw it to the sky.
'I'm counting on you, Eris sama,' I thought to myself before pumping my sword full of mana. "PURIFICATION SNIPE!!!" I yelled before throwing my sword like a freaking boomerang.
The glowing sword formed a pure white glowing disc that travels through the air. It hits the Durandal right in the head and just sliced through it. The head was then melted away by the holy light before exploding into a shower of light.
The Dullahan's body dropped on to the ground and it also vanished from existence, leaving behind the Dullahan's sword as the spoils of war.
"HE FUCKING DID IT!!!" a voice yelled from the crowds.
"Fantastic Dreamer has defeated one of the Demon King General!!!"
"Kazuma! Kazuma! Kazuma!!"
A certain blue haired goddess charged at me. She tackled me in a bear hug in excitement. "We did it Kazuma!!!"
"Yes we did!"
"You killed a demon king general!"
"Yes I did, just like I promised, right?"
Aqua hugged me tighter. "Thank you so much, Kazuma kun. You've break the curse."
Whoa, looks like defeating Verdia gave me a massive relationship points with Aqua huh? Oh, and the curse!
I looked at my adventurer card and found it glowing a little. When it dies down, I found myself staring at a bunch of large numbers…
"I'm level thirty three?" I whispered in disbelief. The whopping one hundred a fifty skill points tells me that it's not a mistake. Then I checked on my curses and found that one of them has been relocated. The puny genes has disappeared, replaced by…
'Hero's Blood - 200% bonus exp for every enemy killed.'
Ah, Verdia must've worth a heck ton of exp huh?
"To our hero! And Fantastic Dreamer!!!" a rough pair of hands grabbed me by the waist and I found myself being picked up by the crowds. "Kazuma! Kazuma! Kazuma!!"
Aqua, Megumin, Kyoya, Darkness (much to her embarrassment), and I were paraded across the city. The townsfolk sang praises about us as we made our way to the guild. I simply laughed and cheered along with them, enjoying the moment.
---
The Guild's door burst open and we all marched into the building. All the beautiful waitress had lined up in front of us and welcomed us with open arms.
The crowds lowered us down in the middle of the building. We then walked on to a bunch of tables repurposed as a stage. The pretty guild secretary, Luna I think was her name, walked towards us a proud smile on her face.
"Fantastic Dreamer and Mitsurugi Kyoya, you have all done your part in defeating the demon lord general Verdia! Is there anything you wanted to say?"
I raised my hand and the guild went silent. "Sorry, I didn't write a speech, so I'll just hang it up on the bulletin board for you guys to read tomorrow, for now, all I gotta say is," I grinned and cackled madly. "Drinks on the house boys! Bottoms up cuz we're getting wasted tonight!!!"
"WOOOH!!!"
I jumped on to the ground and chugged on the nearest beer.
A few minutes through the celebration, bunch of guys came to me. "Kazuma! Do that trick again!"
The what?
"Steal!"
The female adventures started casting murderous glare at the male adventurers for giving me the idea. But you know what? It's celebration time!
"Beware girls, you can run but you can't hide!!!" I wiggled my fingers as the screams of the girls around me joins the cheers of the guys.
"Steal! Steal! Steal!"
"STEAL!!!!" I grabbed a soft fabric and before holding it up in the air. "PINK STRIPES!!!"
"YOSH!! JACKPOT!!!"
"Nooo!!!" some poor girl exclaimed from her table while holding on to her nether region.
"STEAL! Ooh! Innocent white!"
"OH YEAH!!!"
"P-please give it back!"
Then I turned towards Luna, the prettiest girl working in the guild. "N-no, Kazuma san, don't! no! Kazuma NO!!!!"
"STEAL!!!"
I felt something metallic around my hand. I thought I've zonked out but then I realized that it's a clasp that supports her gigantic breast. With it gone, her tops fell off and…
"NOOOO!!!!"
The roar of the audience was deafening. Cat whistle and amazed yell came from the sudden flash. I know that Karma will kick me in the ass later, but…
"STEAL!!!"