I gazed upon the vast and endless clearing ahead of us. The Crimson Demon Village should be located near the mountains in the distance. So all we gotta do is to trek through this landscape, and hopefully, nothing too exciting will happen.
After last night and the dream, Megumin and Aqua have cheered up considerably well. If anything, they seem to have gotten even closer with Liz than before. Aqua and Megumin held each of Liz's hands as they skipped through the clearing singing the explosion song.
"Explosion~ Explosion~ La, la, la~."
"Explosion~ Explosion~ La, la, la~."
It's irritating, to be honest. Darkness thought of that song as some sort of a torture play. Elena kept telling them to shut up, while Yunyun and I just did our best to ignore them.
"Ne, Liza chan, can you grow wings just like in the dream?" Aqua asked to our relief.
Liza nodded in response. "Well of course, however, I do not wish to damage this exquisite uniform of mine."
"We can make a small slit for your wing," Megumin said.
"You underestimated my glorious wingspan Okaa sama, it will be troubling if I cannot take off or put on this clothing."
"Come on, what's with this hyper realistic obstacle?" Megumin turned towards me. "Kazuma, think of something,"
I glanced at them, put a little bit of thought, before finally nodding.
"Strip her naked," I blocked a God Blow and dodged an explosive staff swipe, before holding up my hands in surrender. "Joking, joking, I mean we can modify her clothes to fit our needs, come here Liz,"
Liz walked toward me, and I turned her around. Her red ceremonial uniform is plain at the back, so I can add anything I want here. "I'm thinking of adding two cuts, from the top, all the way down," I traced two lines that'll cut the uniform into three flaps.
"Then, we'll add straps here and here and make the uniform at both side just a little bit wider, so when we locked the straps, it'll cover her up nicely and give room for her wings," I gestured at where I think we should add the straps. "This way, Liz can easily take out her wings and we can easily lock back her uniform."
Megumin and Aqua nodded at that.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Aqua said.
"The design doesn't sound too bad," Megumin said.
"As long as it looks awesome, then it's okay," Liz said.
Aqua took a pair of scissors out of nowhere and walked towards Liz. "Okay, stay still Liz, I'm going to pretty up your costume!"
Liz's face reddens a little. "Right now?"
"Don't worry, a simple modification like that is a child's play to a goddess like me," Aqua replied. "Now stay still,"
Liz looked visibly relieved after hearing the last one. "Okay…" she muttered before letting Aqua cut off the back of her uniform.
I tried to see exactly how she pulled it off. I mean, we have no straps or any extra fabric to speak of. Still, she somehow made them without sacrificing the integrity of the dress. Like, it just happens to be just enough for the design.
After a few minutes, the dress is ready. Liz tried to look behind her back before giving up.
"So, I just spread my wings then?"
Aqua opened the strap, and the flaps extended, revealing her smooth backside.
"Yep, you can open it now,"
A pair of dark red and black wings burst out of Liz's back. Each wing is around one and a half of Liz's own arm length. The wings then folded itself and tucked in nicely behind Liz's back.
Aqua closed the straps again, moved the wings around a little, before giving us a thumbs up. It's fully secure, the uniform still looks formally badass, and the wings fit comfortably, right?
"How does it feel Liz?"
Liz smiled, and her wings flapped around a little. "It accommodates perfectly to my needs," she then turned towards Aqua. "Once again, you've shown me your greatness, goddess sama! Please accept my humble gratitude."
"Tis, but a trivial matter my champion," Aqua replied.
"Forget that! Come on Liz, try flying! Spread out your wings, be awesome!!!"
Liz grinned at that and spread her wings. "As you wish, Okaa sama!" she crouched down on the ground and jumped high into the air. Then she spread her wings and began gliding around the plains. "Hahaha! Whether it's the land or the sky, I, Emperor Queen Elizabeth shall rule them all!!!"
Down below, Megumin jumped up and down in excitement. "Yes! That's it! That's the stuff! Now do the airstrike!!!"
Do the what?
"A demonstration to my greatness? Well of course!" A bunch of magic circles formed all around her, and everyone else stopped in their tracks. "Chain Explosion!!!"
Like a freaking world war two bomber, the girl shoots out explosion spells like it's going out of style. The ground around us shook as she reshaped the plains with her might. She and Megumin laughed in glee at the destruction, ignoring Darkness, who's yelling bloody murder at her to come down here.
…
"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?!?"
Megumin and Liz sat down on the ground. A bump is visible on their heads, courtesy of a particular, responsible Crusader.
"But Liz's the one who did it!"
"By Okaa sama's demand!"
"It doesn't matter who done it!" Darkness pinched the bridge of her nose, and took a deep breath. "Listen, I don't mind if you two would play around like that, if anything, I'm happy to see you both get along so well. But throwing out spells like that will attract too much attention. Not to mention someone might get hurt."
I simply chuckled at their banter and motioned everyone to continue as they argue. Darkness is now telling Megumin the responsibility of raising a child and telling Liz the responsibility of using powers.
"And you, Kazuma!"
"Yes, I'm Kazuma,"
"Aren't you supposed to be the wisest person here?" Darkness asked, not noticing the other two blowing raspberries at me. "You should at least stop them before they do something as stupid as blowing up this entire plains."
I turned towards the two. "Guys, what she said."
"Got it, Kazuma,"
"I understand Otou sama,"
I gave them all a thumb up, ignoring the exasperated sigh from our Crusader.
With that, we continue our adventure a little bit less noisily. Megumin, Liz, and Aqua are still talking endlessly to each other about some stuff. Darkness has joined Elena and Yunyun in the quite front. As for me, I'm just rechecking the presents.
Let's see… A dozen boxes of Alcanretia cuisines. A bunch of fruits and vegetable seeds, an advanced water filter, a few plain-looking accessories from Alcanretia, and a metric fuck ton of rice.
"Monster, over there!"
We all stopped in our tracks and turned towards where Liz is pointing. A sizeable humanoid figure stood a distance away from us. It doesn't seem to notice us yet, so we can probably sneak around it. But where's the fun in that?
"I don't know what that is but I'm meaning to find out," I turned to Yunyun. "Yunyun, come with me, you're getting good at spying and sneaking around right?"
"Okay, I'll teleport you back here if anything happens," Yunyun said before we both turn invisible. I also cast an extra 'Hide' spell on Yunyun and myself. To make us even more invisible to the enemy. Then we sneaked up towards the monster.
Apparently, it's an Orc. Those giant pig-like creatures who are usually the UB in every fantasy doujin out there. However, there's something odd about this orc, mainly that it has some horrible yet discernible feminine feature.
Okay, this is a female orc. If the female is anything like the male, then it's me who is in trouble.
We quickly retreated back to our party and let go of the invisibility spell.
"It's a female Orc," Yunyun said before I could say anything. "There's an entire tribe of them neighboring our village. They're harmless to female adventurers but…" she turned towards me with a concerned look on her face. "Kazuma, you mind if I cast invisibility on you?"
"You sure we can't take them all on? I mean," I gestured at Megumin and Liz, who looked all but eager to massacre some monsters.
Yunyun sighed a little. "We can, but these are one of the last Orc tribe that has ever existed. Since the male Orcs are extinct, if we wipe these out, they will go extinct for real!"
"Male Orcs are extinct?"
"Yes," Megumin said. "They're hunted as sports by almost all male adventurers. Now, only the female orcs remains. The females can and will impregnate themselves with any males of any species."
"Huh…" well, this is a dilemma. I mean, should we spare these orcs? It'll be extremely dangerous to the male adventurers who ventured into this area. But exterminating an entire species to extinction can't be good, right?
I turned to the second most intelligent person in the group. "What do you think Liz, should bring them all to extinction?"
Liz tilted her head. "Why shouldn't we?"
"It's one thing to kill a monster, it's another to drive them to extinction,"
"Why don't we just spare one or two?"
That's… that's a good point, actually…
I raised my fist to the sky. "Yosh everyone! It's a free for all grinding game!"
"Yosh!" everyone but Elena exclaimed in excitement. The latter just rolled her eyes and lay down on the ground, saying that she rather photosynthesize.
With that, I went to work. I walked towards the lone female orc, and it noticed me. It tried pouncing on me, but I quickly dodged and punched it right in the face.
The orc was knocked back a few feet back, rubbing its face in pain.
"Call your friends, if you can beat us, I'm all yours,"
Just like that, the orc fled from the scene, and I braced myself. I turned back to everyone else who's looking at me like I'm crazy.
"Okay, how many are we expecting? A dozen? A hundred?"
"At least a hundred," Yunyun replied. "Are you sure about this Kazuma?"
"Don't worry, I have a back up plan,"
"Is it teleportation?" Megumin asked.
"Yes it's teleportation,"
Ranks upon ranks of Orcs appeared in front of us. Hundreds of orcs shot me with their lustful gaze. I couldn't help but gulp a little and put a hand on Aqua's shoulder.
"What is it KazumaAAA!" she yelled a little when I started sucking her magic out of fear of my life. "That's enough Kazuma! I want to punch you but this isn't the time! Kazumaa!"
I let go of her, and the orcs start closing in. "Okay, okay, this is fine, these are just orcs with powerful genes," I took a deep breath and looked at everyone else. They all looked at me with a blank and slightly uncertain look on their face.
"Ano… can you stay behind me?" Megumin said while stepping forward. "Seeing your legs shaking like that, I don't think you're up for this,"
I looked down at my traitorous legs. "I'm not scared! Goddammit," I stepped forward and cast wind curtain on myself. A column of air began swirling around me, and I kept pushing it. It kept going until I have a hurricane of some sort surrounding me.
Everyone was forced to take a step back.
"Watch! My ultimate spell combo!" I exclaimed before walking forward, fearlessly towards the orc. "FIRE TORNADO!!!"
Just like that, I'm standing in the eye of a fire tornado. The flame swirls around me as fast as a hurricane. Anything without any sort of heat resistance would burn to ashes before they can get to me.
"What is it? Too hot for you!?"
It wasn't just me. Megumin, Liz, and Yunyun have also joined in the fun. Explosions rang out across the clearing. The symphony of flesh and bones crushed by a powerful force filled the plains. All sorts of spells were yelled out like a war cry.
"Inferno!!!"
"Explosion!!!"
"Light of Saber!!!"
After almost half an hour of the massacre, only one orc remains. I let go of my skill, and everyone else surrounded me at a ready.
"Scram, don't disturb anymore adventurer. Start a new beginning with your sons and daughters, got it?"
The orc nodded before scrambling away into the distance.
With that out of the way, I gave everyone else a thumb up.
"Perfect Victory!"
They all returned the gesture and smiled.
"Perfect Victory!"