Faster than Beldia could reach us, several adventurers moved to defend us, surrounding him with weapons in hand.

Beldia took in the situation and then, head in one hand and blade in the other, shrugged easily.

“Hmm? I’m most interested in them, but... Heh-heh. | see. Should one of you perchance topple me, no doubt there will be a significant reward to be had. Very well! You adventurers dream of getting rich quick? Well, come and earn it!”

The adventurers surrounding him grew excited at the Dullahan’s mention of a quick buck.

One guy, a warrior if | had to guess, called out to those around him: “I don’t care how strong he is, he ain’t got eyes in the back of his head! Circle up, everyone, and we’ll all hit him at once!”

Welp. What a death flag.

“Hey!” | shouted to the cannon fodder. “This is the Demon King’s general we’re talking about here! You think he’Il fall for a trick like that?”

Even as | spoke, | started to raise my own sword to help them...

..and stopped. Think! I’m pretty much the weakest possible character. If | took a swing at him, what would happen?

The important thing now was to get Megumin somewhere safe... And then what?

Megumin was out of MP. Aqua’s magic wasn’t doing the trick. Maybe the best plan would be for all of us to just run like hell.

As | was having that thought, the warrior was moving to attack Beldia in earnest.

“| don’t have to kill him! | just have to buy us some time! The town’s ace must have heard the urgent announcement—he'll be coming! If we can hold out till he gets here, that’ll be it—general of the Demon King or no! Come on, everyone, he must have a blind spot! Let’s come from everywhere at once!”

Faced with the bellowing warrior, Beldia took his head in his hand and... tossed it into the air?

The town’s ace? Who could that be? Presumably some famous, powerful adventurer...

Beldia’s head floated above the fray, drifting until it faced straight down toward the ground.

| saw it and froze.

So did everyone else—everyone watching seemed to have realized at the same time.

“Stop! Stay ba—” We called out, tried to stop the nameless adventurers.

Beldia answered the oncoming circle of fighters as if he could see everywhere at once.

“Huh?” | heard an adventurer gasp as he was cut down. | wondered who he was.

Having stopped all his attackers, Beldia changed his grip on his sword from one hand to two...

..and in the blink of an eye, he cut down all the adventurers who’d come at him.

People who'd been alive seconds before were suddenly gone, blank-eyed and limp.

It was outrageous. It was unbearable. It was a reminder that this world was all too real.

The sound of men crumpling.

Beldia listened gleefully, then raised one hand. Its outstretched palm caught his head neatly.

It seemed as if he’d hardly broken a sweat murdering an entire crowd of adventurers.

“Who’s next?” he said easily. The remaining adventurers quailed at the words. But one girl’s voice rang out:

“Y-you big bully! Just wait till Mitsurugi gets here! He’ll take you out in one hit!”

....What?

My heart almost stopped.

Mitsurugi? The guy whose magic sword l’d taken and then sold? That Mitsurugi?

“Right!” another voice cried. “Just hold on! When that boy and his magic blade get here, not even the Demon King’s general will be able to—”

“Beldia, was it? We may be a starter town, but we’ve got a few powerful

|”

friends of our own Oh crap. Oh crap.

The only person in this town besides Mitsurugi who had a chance against Beldia was Aqua, and she was ignoring the Dullahan completely. For some reason, she was scurrying from one of the fallen adventurers to the next, placing her hands on the bodies.

Maybe she was doing what a goddess does, trying to offer them a prayer on their way into the afterlife.

Beldia stood lazily, observing his handiwork. Heavily armored adventurers lay dead at his feet, and now no one would challenge him...

“Oh-ho? Do you seek to be my next victim?” Beldia held his head in his left hand, his great sword in his right.

He held the head out on his palm to inspect Darkness, who’d moved to cover Megumin and me.

With the two of us behind her and her sword at the ready, Darkness was not the weird pervert who caused me so much trouble. She was a Crusader | would be proud to be seen with anywhere.

Beldia had seen just how powerful Aqua and Megumin were. He probably assumed Darkness had something up her sleeve, too.

He stood across from her, not moving.

Darkness’s white armor shone in the sunlight, in stark contrast to Beldia’s pitch-black plate.

The adventurers who’d attacked him earlier had all been armored, too. But the Demon King’s general had cut through their armor like paper. Darkness prided herself on being tougher than anyone—but would it be enough to withstand his attacks?

Darkness seemed to understand that | was fighting with myself about whether to stop her—she said bravely to me: “Don’t worry, Kazuma. | can take a hit better than anyone. And skills affect weapons and armor as well. No denying Beldia has an excellent sword. But a sword alone isn’t enough to cut through armor the way he did. It looks to me like Beldia’s specialized in attack

|”

Skills. So we'll just have to see which is better. His attack...or my defense Actually, she seemed unusually prepared to attack, herself.

“Give it up! It’s not just attack—he has serious Evasion, too. Did you see how he dodged all those opponents? You can’t hit a target that’s standing still! What are you gonna do?”

Darkness’s gaze didn’t waver from Beldia as | spoke.

“As a Paladin...as one whose vocation is to protect...there is one thing on which | will never bend. Let me do this.”

| had no idea what she was talking about—but | guess even Darkness had her own reason to keep fighting.

As | stood there, silent, Darkness hefted her great sword and lunged at Beldia.

“Oh-ho! A feisty one! | was once a Knight—what better opponent could | have

|”

than a Paladin? Have at you, then!” And Beldia prepared to meet her.

He looked at the huge blade Darkness held and dropped into a low, evasive stance, as if afraid to take a blow from her sword.

Darkness leaned in with the blade as if she was going to slam into him with her entire body weight...

..and rammed her sword into the ground a few centimeters from Beldia. Maybe she’d misjudged the distance?

“...Huh?” Beldia said flatly.

He stared in surprise at Darkness. All the other adventurers in the square wore the same expression.

...Geez! Can’t she even hit someone standing still?!

She might have been my party member, but | mean—gosh. I’d heard of amateurs who swung their swords so recklessly, they ended up chopping off their own foot. But this?

Darkness, for her part, didn’t seem the least bit chagrined, but simply took a step forward and reset her stance, holding out the sword to one side.

Her cheeks were the tiniest bit red, betraying a hint of embarrassment at missing her mark after all that buildup.

Maybe she had the right angle—because Beldia settled even deeper into his stance, ready to evade.

“Such a disappointment. Enough... Now...,” he said, sounding almost bored. Then he casually let loose a single strike at Darkness, down and across from shoulder to hip.

“Now, then...who’s...next? What?”

No doubt he assumed he’d taken her out. But Beldia’s sword simply dragged along Darkness’s armor. The only results were a scratch and an earsplitting noise.

Darkness stepped back, putting some distance between them.

|”

“Aww, man! M-my brand-new armor...!” She groaned as she looked at the

huge gouge, then glared at Beldia.

It was a deep cut, but not deep enough to reach Darkness underneath the armor.

In other words...

“Wh-what are you?! You take my blow and are not cloven... That armor must be a master’s work. And yet...even if it was, still... Your Arch-priest, your explosive Arch-wizard... The lot of you are...”

While Beldia was busy muttering to himself, | slipped in among the other adventurers. | passed Megumin to one of them, then turned and shouted: “Darkness! You can withstand his attacks! I’m coming—leave the offense to me!”

Darkness nodded, not looking away from Beldia. “All right. But | have a request—help me get one blow against this monster!”

| shouted back that | understood. Then | turned to the nearby adventurers. “All spell-casters!”

My words seemed to bring everyone back to themselves. Everyone who knew any spells began furiously preparing their magic. Everyone who didn’t started looking for something they could help with.

We were in a fight with one of the Demon King’s generals, here.

A major enemy had shown up at our doorstep. There was no reason we should let him go home unscathed.

But Beldia had planted his sword in the ground and was pointing his empty right hand at one chanting spell-caster after another.

“In one week’s time! All of you! Shall die!!”

He placed his death curse on all the mages at once. And one by one, cowed by the realization that they were going to die, each of them stopped chanting.

Other spell-casters who’d been preparing to get in on the fight took one look at their cursed colleagues and quietly refrained from casting any spells.

Stinking Dullahan! That was a dirty trick!

“Now, how about a real test?”

As Beldia shouted, he flung his head up in the air again.

...| wonder if we could get an archer to shoot down that head?

| was still working my way through that thought when Beldia grabbed his sword with both hands and charged at Darkness.

His helmet was looking down at the ground, just like the last time. It must have let him see the entire battlefield—air reconnaissance, so to speak.

It eliminated his blind spots, made it easy to guess where his opponents would dodge.

From behind me, Megumin gave an anguished cry.

|”

“K-Kazuma! Darkness is...! | looked around the square. Almost every adventurer in town was there.

Some of them | knew. There was the person who'd taught me the weaknesses of some monsters.

One girl had drawn a bow but was holding back the shot, afraid she might hit Darkness instead of Beldia. She was the one who'd introduced me to Neroid.

The older guy who’d teased me at the Guild Hall for not drinking alcohol. He held a spear and was trying to circle around behind Beldia.

If Darkness fell, Beldia really might kill all these people. Just on a whim.

Darkness... Darkness herself seemed to know it. She’d turned the flat of her huge blade outward, toward the oncoming foe. She stood without moving, like a shield.

Hit me, her stance seemed to say. Except on my head. I’m not wearing a helmet.

“| like the lively ones!” Beldia cried. “How about this, then?!” He grasped his sword in both hands and unleashed blow after blow, more than any mortal could have made.

One, two, three, four...!

Soon it was ten strikes, then more. Each one made a grating sound of metal on metal and left a mark on Darkness’s armor.

Any one of those strikes would have cut down an average adventurer. But Darkness weathered them all without flinching.

A few strands of her golden hair, caught by the blade, danced into the air.

Beldia let up for a moment to catch his head as it came tumbling back out of the sky. He made an appreciative noise at Darkness’s durability, then gave a one-handed swing of his sword.

The magic-users stood, watching Darkness endure. They were pale from shock...

.. but as if finally resolved, they began to chant again.

| felt something warm dribble down my cheek. | wiped at it with my hand. It was...

“Darkness, you’re hurt! Stand down—you’ve done enough! We'll all scatter, come up with a new plan!”

| could see blood dripping from her cheeks, from the gouges in her armor. In spite of my urging, though, she didn’t back down.

“A Crusader will never abandon her place when there are lives at stake!” she said. “That alone is absolute. A-and—!”

She sure knew how to talk a good game. Her cheeks grew redder and redder as she tried to play it up, too...

“A-and this Dullahan kn-knows what he’s doing! He’s planning to chip away at my armor until there’s only one piece left—he’s going to humiliate me by leaving me here—not even totally exposed—he’ll leave me just covered enough to inflame the imaginations of all and sundry...!”

“Say what?”

Beldia froze for an instant at Darkness’s outrageous suggestion. As | quietly started to prepare some magic, | also began to abuse our resident pervert. | guess a degenerate leopard couldn’t change its spots, even at a time like this.

“Hey, ever heard of choosing a time and place more carefully? You're the perviest perv who ever perved!”

Darkness began to tremble a little at my words.

“Erk...! K-Kazuma! Speak for yourself! | have my hands full here being beaten up in public by a Dullahan! If you start abusing me, too...! A-are you and this

|”

Dullahan secretly in league together? “Whaaat?!” “As if, you perv! Create Water!”

At my shout, water appeared over the combatants’ heads. It came down as fast as if I'd emptied a bucket over them.

Darkness was soaked from head to toe. And Beldia...Beldia was trying  desperately to avoid the water. Ase What’s he so worried about?

Darkness, dripping, turned red and muttered, “An ambush... N-not bad, Kazuma, not bad at all. But you really should learn to pick your moment...”

“Th-this isn’t some sick game, you nut! It’s this! Freeze!”

| intoned some basic magic to freeze water. By itself, it didn’t do much. But on wet ground...

Beldia gave a start. “Oh-ho! You’ve frozen my feet as a little obstacle, have you? | see you think Evasion is my only strength. How wrong you are!”

| jumped toward the ice-legged Dullahan, ready to deploy my real skill.

That’s right. The one I’d used on Mitsurugi. My most powerful weapon!

“| just needed to slow you down! I'll have your sword now, Dullahan—Steal!”

| slammed into him with my skill, my random-item-grabbing Steal ability.

Spells and skills were ubiquitous in this world. They drew on MP, which everyone had, rather than HP.

Aqua once told me that there used to be lots of people on Earth, too, who could use magic. We’d just forgotten how.

And by using more MP, you could increase the power of your skills or spells, as well as their success rate.

l’d managed to literally freeze Beldia in place. | had him right where | wanted him, a sitting duck for my ultimate ability...!

“Not bad, boy. No doubt you were quite sure it would work. But | am the Demon King’s general. Remember the difference in our levels. If you were more powerful or | less, | might have been in trouble. But as it is...”

...My skill had had no effect on Beldia at all. He pointed at me.

..Well, this was no good. | guess | should’ve known Steal wouldn’t work on

one of the Demon King’s own generals. Before Beldia could curse me, though, there was a shout. “Hands off my friend!”

Darkness had none of her usual cool; her anger was obvious. As she shouted, she threw aside her huge sword, a weapon she couldn’t hit anything with anyway, and launched herself at Beldia in a massive body slam.

Beldia might have been stuck to the ground, but he still dodged her easily, and with time to spare, he adjusted his grip on his sword.

Darkness had thrown away her sword to try that body blow. She had nothing to defend herself with. Before | knew it, | was shouting.

“Thieves, help me! Maybe it’s a one-in-ten-thousand chance, but if even one of us can get that sword away from him, we win! Everyone who can use Steal,

|”

come with me

Maybe there was someone out there with a higher level or better Luck than mine.

Thieves appeared at my side one after another, silently, thanks to their Ambush skills.

“Steal!” we exclaimed together. But none of our attempts did anything.

Beldia didn’t even seem to notice us. Instead, he was taking a stance, facing the defenseless Darkness... And then he tossed his head up in the air again.

“Oh, no!” A collective groan went up from the gathered adventurers.

We all knew the head in the air was the prelude to his crushing two-handed rain of blows.

“Ark...”

Darkness gave a small squeak.

No, no, no, no, no! What was | supposed to do?! | didn’t have any special abilities. No hidden talents.

There was nothing | could show off or be proud of. And certainly no skills that would help us now.

All | had was better-than-average Luck. And a knowledge of video games built up over a lifetime.

It was all those days I’d spent playing games instead of doing anything productive that had brought me here. I’d been thrilled to find myself in a real fantasy world. Was | going to have to stand by helplessly and watch it all be destroyed?

“Darkness! Kazuma, Darkness is—!” | could hear Megumin shouting from behind me.

Think! Think back to your RPGs. You’re up against a Dullahan. What’s his weakness?

If I'd ever had what you could call a specialty, it was that in PVP matches online, | could immediately pick out which attack or strategy would annoy my Opponent most.

Look at him. Observe him.

...Why did he try to run away from the water | made?

Running water. High Undead and vampires were weak to it. What about Dullahans?

“| have enjoyed this, Crusader! As a former Knight, | am grateful to the Dark Gods and the Demon King that | was able to try myself against you! And now...”

He made to attack her in earnest...

“Create Water!!”

op lee Beldia stopped where he was, coming up short of attacking Darkness.

He didn’t make even a single sword stroke, only caught his head as it came down.

“Kazuma, l... I’m trying to have a serious battle here...”

Darkness was even wetter than before, and she did not look happy about it. Under other circumstances, | might have apologized. Not now.

Instead, | bellowed:

“Waaaaterrrrr!”