"W-wait! Aqua, you idiot, stop!!"
Kazuma let out a despairing wail, but it was already too late.
Aqua's Purification Magic did not just cleanse the filth. It completely purified the Freeze effect Kōichi Hayashi had been maintaining with magic, returning it to its original water molecules, then even forcibly evaporated that water into nothing.
The skating rink that had left the One-Punch Bear helpless just moments ago turned back into flat, solid ground with plenty of friction in the blink of an eye.
The One-Punch Bear, which had been comically paddling around a moment earlier, felt solid ground beneath its feet. A brief trace of confusion flickered through its blood-red eyes, then transformed into even deeper rage.
"ROAR!!!"
No longer restrained by a lack of friction, the One-Punch Bear flipped itself up in one violent motion. It let out a roar that shook the forest, every muscle tensing like a restarted heavy tank. Driven mad by the humiliation of being toyed with, it accelerated straight ahead.
And standing at the very front was Kōichi Hayashi, who was still trying to maintain the elegant image of a tactical master despite currently being in a magic power downtime.
"Huh?"
Aqua tilted her head, looked at the giant bear that had stood back up and become even more ferocious, and gave an innocent smile.
"Kōichi, good luck! I cleaned up the battlefield for you, so the rest is up to you guys!"
"Good luck, my ass! You useless blue liability!!"
Kazuma clawed at his head in fury. With the giant bear closing in at high speed, he had lost any chance to aim his bow.
"Oh! The tide has turned!" Princess Iris was not frightened at all. Instead, she clasped her hands in front of her chest, her eyes shining with even greater excitement. "Is this kind of unexpected twist in a desperate situation also a trial Adventurers must overcome? Kōichi-sama looks so cool, standing fearless in the face of danger!"
Kōichi Hayashi felt a vein throb on his forehead. He gripped the hilt of his sword, stared at the blood-filled maw charging right at him, and took a deep breath.
"Kazuma... I'd really love to punch that Goddess right now, but it looks like I have to deal with this first."
Faced with the One-Punch Bear's terrifying charge, which came crashing toward him like a falling meteor, Kōichi Hayashi did not unleash some flashy sword technique and meet it head-on the way Iris had imagined.
Instead, he kicked off the ground, his body moving like a flash of Lightning. In the split second before the giant bear closed in, he made an incredibly smooth sideways shift and slipped right behind Darkness, who was standing there with her arms spread and her face flushed bright red.
Kōichi Hayashi placed both hands on Darkness's shoulders and pushed the absurdly sturdy Crusader to the very front. In a steady voice, and with absolutely no guilt, he shouted,
"Now, Darkness! Unleash that will of yours, strong enough to bear every form of suffering, and become our strongest shield!!"
"Oh, ohhhhhh! Kōichi! Have you finally understood my true worth?!"
Darkness let out a gasp that sounded equal parts pain and ecstasy. She even threw aside the greatsword in her hands and thrust out her silver-armored chest to meet the bear paws powerful enough to shatter stone.
"BOOM!!!"
A heavy impact echoed through the forest, and the force of the shockwave scattered the fallen leaves around them.
The One-Punch Bear's full-power strike, strong enough to instantly kill an ordinary Adventurer, slammed hard into Darkness.
However, the expected scene of blood and gore never happened.
Darkness's feet carved two deep furrows into the ground, and her body bent slightly backward. Yet on her face, which had been shaken into a bit of a mess by the impact, there was now a chilling, almost intoxicated, twisted smile.
"Haa... haa... This... this heavy pressure, as if even my soul is about to be crushed... Give me more! Hit me harder! You useless bear, is that really all the strength you have?!"
For the first time, fear appeared in the One-Punch Bear's blood-red eyes.
The strength it had taken such pride in had slammed into this human woman like an unshakable mountain of flesh. Its own claws were even starting to go numb from the impact.
"You see, Iris." Kōichi Hayashi hid behind Darkness's broad and reliable back, explaining calmly to the little princess, who was already staring in a daze. "This is top-tier Adventurer teamwork. I handle timing and baiting the enemy, while our guard uses her unyielding fighting spirit to exhaust its stamina. This tactic of using softness to overcome hardness is not something amateurs can understand."
"Whoa..." Princess Iris's little face turned bright red, and her eyes filled with unprecedented awe. "A-amazing... She took the full force of a One-Punch Bear's attack with her own body, and she still has such a... such a mission-filled expression! Is this the resolve of a hero?! I-I can feel the radiance of sacrifice!"
Just as Kōichi Hayashi was about to deliver a final, stylish wrap-up, a terrifying heat suddenly filled the air.
The light in the once calm forest began to distort. From the shadows of the nearby trees, an enormous and utterly unreasonable surge of magic power rose into the air. The pressure felt as if it would burn even space itself to ashes, and it made even the enraged One-Punch Bear stop shoving at Darkness. Its fur stood on end as it turned toward the depths of the forest.
"What is that...?" Princess Iris sensed the pure, violent magic power and widened her eyes in surprise.
Along with the sound of an incantation, a tiny figure in a red-and-black robe, wearing an exaggerated eyepatch, slowly stepped out.
At the tip of her staff, red light gathered like a blazing sun. Because she was putting everything she had into it, her chuunibyou tone rang especially high through the forest.
"Blacker than black, darkness of pitch-black, fused with the radiance of crimson... The hour of awakening has come! Law fallen into the abyss of error, reveal your ruined true form!!"
"Hey!! Megumin! Stop right now!" Kazuma shouted in terror. "We haven't retreated to a safe distance yet! You're going to cremate us too!!"
The moment Kōichi Hayashi saw what was happening, he did not hesitate. He scooped up the still-dazed Iris with one arm, grabbed the exhausted Aqua with the other, and shouted to Darkness, who still had not had enough,
"Run!! Run upwind!!"
Megumin completely ignored the chaos around her. The single eye she had open gleamed with a mad red light, the absolute will unique to an Explosion Wizard.
"The ultimate secret art that pierces all things and reduces them to ash! The single spark that travels between illusion and reality! This is the strongest strike humanity can reach!!"
"EXPLOSION!!"
BOOM!!!!!
For an instant, the entire forest lost all sound. Then came a roar loud enough to shatter eardrums. A massive red pillar of light shot into the sky, and waves of explosive flame surged outward from the One-Punch Bear at the center.
The once-mighty giant beast did not even have time to cry out before it was completely reduced to molecules by the explosion, whose power exceeded Lv. 100.
A huge mushroom cloud rose into the air. The ground within a hundred-meter radius had several layers violently shaved away, and the once-dense forest was instantly transformed into a charred black crater.
When the dust and smoke cleared, Kōichi, covered in dirt and ash, crawled out from beneath a pile of fallen leaves. In his arms, he was still tightly protecting Iris, whose face was frozen in shock.
As for our Wizard Megumin, she was currently lying face-down at the edge of the deep crater in an extremely stiff position, with only her fingers barely able to move.
"Phew... I-I got it." Megumin's weak voice came from the ground, carrying a faint satisfaction as if she had avenged some great grudge. "Kazuma... hurry, wipe away the nosebleed running down my face... Today's Explosion Magic was... a perfect 100..."
"So this is... this is what Axel's Adventurers are like?"
Princess Iris stared blankly at the crater in the earth, large enough to rewrite the map, then looked at Megumin, who lay motionless on the ground. Her voice was filled with a yearning she had never felt before.
"That decisiveness to give everything for a single killing blow, no matter the cost... that spirit of taking a powerful foe down with you... This is the true battle that consumes one's very life!!"
Kōichi Hayashi silently sighed and brushed the ash from his hair.
Although things had gotten wildly out of control, at least Her Highness the Princess seemed... to admire them even more now?