When Aqua said flood, she wasn’t kidding. “N-no! Wait!” “Yaaagh! W-waaaterrrr!”

The waves crashed down on not just Beldia, but Darkness and the other adventurers nearby. They reached Megumin and me and even Aqua, fresh off her chant.

“Hrgh! Grg—! I-l’m drowning—!”

“Megumin! Megumiiin! Grab on to me! You'll get washed away!” Everyone was getting caught in the deluge.

The waves crashed down in front of the town gate with a massive spray, then began to run into Axel.

When the water finally receded, the ground was covered with toppled adventurers. And...

“Wh—pfft—what were you fools thinking?! Y-you idiots! You—you foolish idiots!”

.. there was Beldia, unsteadily hefting himself up from the ground. Frankly, | pretty much agreed with him. But now wasn’t the time. This was our chance, our best—

“This is our chance! Our best shot at taking him down! My amazing display of magical prowess has weakened him—! Now go, Kazuma! Finish him off! Quick! Go already!”

Why, that stinking useless...

| made a mental note to Steal her so much, she’d break down crying from shame in front of everybody. But that would come later. For now, | raised my hand toward Beldia...

“Your weapon’s mine, for real this time. Take this!”

“Do your worst! Even in my weakened state, | would hardly succumb to some amateur’s Steal technique!”

As he shouted at me, he lobbed his head into the air one more time, gripping his great sword with both hands and projecting the most intimidating picture he could manage.

He was a general of the Demon King to the last. We’d hit him right in his weak spot, and somehow | was the one whose knees were trembling.

He might have been a general. He was also my target.

“Steal!!”

| put every ounce of strength into my technique.

Instantly, | felt something hard and cold; a solid weight filled my hands.

/ did it! | thought. And of course, thinking that would set off another event flag.

“Ohbh...” The adventurers around me gave a collective despairing moan. | looked at Beldia. He was still holding his sword.

| braced myself for his brutal cut attack...

.. but it never came. He just stood there. sek Silence fell over the befuddled crowd. Then, we heard a voice, small and afraid. “U-uhm...” It was Beldia’s voice. And it was trembling. “Could |... Could | have my head back, please...?” The voice was coming from the weight in my hands.

“Hey, everyone!” | said. “Ever heard of soccer? It’s a game where you move the ball using only your feet!”

| gave Beldia’s head a kick toward the crowd of adventurers. “Yaaargh! H-hey, stop that!”

The tumbling head immediately became nothing more than a toy for the men and women who'd been cowed by it moments before.

“Haaa-ha-ha-ha! | like this game!”

“Hey, over here! Pass it to me!” “Yaaagh! Stoppit! That hurts! Stop!”

The Dullahan’s body, thoroughly blind, stood stupefied with the sword in its hands.

“Hey, Darkness! You said you wanted a shot at him, right?”

| picked up the sword she’d dropped and took it over to where Darkness stood sopping wet, breathing hard and dripping blood from a variety of wounds. She raised the blade and took a stance facing Beldia’s body.

| gestured to Aqua to join us. She came over, still wringing out her Feather Dress.

Darkness raised her sword high—

“This! Is for all those | cared for whom you killed! Only one blow—for them all!”

She brought it down hard. “Graaaaghh!”

| could hear Beldia’s muffled scream from inside the crowd of newly minted soccer players.

Darkness might not be very precise, but she was very strong. Beldia’s black chest plate cracked down the middle.

| recalled Beldia saying something about that armor being specially blessed by the Demon King.

“All right, Aqua. You take care of the rest.” “You got it!”

Beldia’s armor was shattered; the flood had left him weak. Aqua stretched out her hand.

“Sacred Turn Undead!”

ae \” We heard Beldia’s head bellow, over by some adventurer’s foot. This time, it worked.

A white light enveloped Beldia’s body, and gradually the light and the body faded and vanished.

The head went with it, raising a groan from the adventurers, who’d apparently been having fun learning to play soccer.

That was how we got rid of one of the Demon King’s generals. But we never did learn why he’d come to the area...