Kōichi felt Aqua's cool yet sacred hand settle on his shoulder, and an overwhelming surge of magic, so immense it felt ready to spill over, shot straight up his spine and into his head.
In that instant, Kōichi no longer felt like the penniless Wizard hauling bricks around Axel. He felt like a tyrant wielding the judgment of thunder.
"Aqua, there's too much magic! It's about to burst out!"
Kōichi let out a low shout as blinding blue-white lightning burst from the tip of his staff.
"Then fire it all out! Turn every crawling vermin bold enough to covet the Goddess, and money, into charcoal! Holy Enchantment!!"
Aqua screamed at the top of her lungs with her eyes shut tight, pouring out magic with absolutely no restraint.
Taking advantage of the moment, Kōichi drove his staff straight into the crystal-clear Holy Water.
Boom-crack!!
In an instant, the entire sewer tunnel was flooded with blinding light.
Countless arcs of electricity, like giant serpents, spread wildly through the highly conductive Holy Water.
The crocodile grunts that had been swarming Darkness did not even have time to scream before their eyes rolled back, their bodies convulsed, and they floated up to the surface. At once, the air filled with a bizarre smell, like charred seafood mixed with ozone.
And at the very center of it all, Darkness had become the perfect lightning rod.
"Ugh... ohhhhhh!! S-so intense! This feeling of every cell in my body being pierced through and burned... even my soul feels like it's being shocked apart... haaah... Kōichi... m-more... give me a little more..."
Darkness trembled violently in the water, her long golden hair standing on end like a sea urchin's spines. Black smoke kept rising from the gaps in her armor, yet on her face, twisted by both pain and pleasure, was a smile that looked somehow holy and completely broken at the same time.
"Hey! Darkness is going to snap! Stop already!" Kazuma shouted from the edge of a pipe high above, nearly slipping off in panic. "And look at the big one! It's not dead at all!"
Kōichi had no time to check on Darkness. The moment he looked over, his heart sank.
The massive Golden Sewer Crocodile Elite was sparking all over, with some of its scales already blackened and burned away, but its golden eyes had turned blood-red from the agony.
Its golden scales seemed to have some kind of strange magic resistance, diverting most of the lightning into the surrounding water.
Even worse, the electric shock had not killed it. It had only driven it deeper into a frenzy.
With a deafening roar, the beast shuddered violently, tore itself free from paralysis by brute force, and burst from the water like a runaway tank, crackling with leftover sparks as it charged straight at Kōichi, who was still stiff from casting.
"This is bad! It's gone berserk!"
Kōichi hurriedly tried to retreat, but his legs were weak from forcing out too much magic just moments ago.
"Kōichi! Move! It's about to fire!"
Megumin shrieked from above.
The Elite Crocodile suddenly threw its jaws wide open, and a golden light flared deep in its throat.
Countless hardened scales and bits of debris it had swallowed, then reinforced with magic, blasted toward Kōichi like machine-gun fire.
"Help me!!"
Seeing things go south, Aqua's first reaction was to duck straight behind Kōichi and use him as a human shield.
As Kōichi stared at the overwhelming rain of golden projectiles, only one thought flashed through his mind. This 40 million job really was not going to be easy.
Just as that storm of golden bullets was about to turn the magic-drained, helpless Kōichi into a pincushion, a heavy figure smelling of burnt flesh suddenly threw itself between him and the Elite Crocodile like an unshakable mountain.
Clang clang clang!!
Countless hardened scales and chunks of debris slammed into Darkness's Crusader's armor like a rainstorm, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Her armor, already scorched black by the lightning, was now covered in dents, and some of the sharp scales had lodged deep into its gaps.
"Ugh... haah... ahhh... so this is... what it feels like... to have my whole body baptized... by the powerful blessing of a rampaging monster?!"
Darkness braced her shield with everything she had. The force of the impacts drove her backward again and again, her boots scraping across the slick stone floor with a harsh screech. Her face was pale from blood loss and exhaustion, but her eyes burned with a sense of duty so fierce it bordered on madness.
"K-Kōichi... now... while you still can... my body is already close to its limit... but if I can protect my companions by being riddled with holes here... th-then that would be the highest honor a Knight could ask for... ngh! It hurts! This pain... it's wonderful!"
"Darkness! You're such a pervert it's actually moving!"
Watching her trembling back refuse to yield even one step, Kōichi felt a strange heat rise in his chest.
He clenched his teeth and wrung the very last trace of magic from his dried-up body.
"Kazuma! Quit standing there watching and use your [Snipe] to mess with its vision!"
Kōichi shouted toward the pipe overhead.
"Tch, got it! This is a pain, but if we don't get that 40 million, I'll be washing dishes at the guild for the rest of my life!" Kazuma pulled out a crude longbow from who knew where, drew the string back with calm precision, and a sharp glint flashed through his eyes. "Snipe!!"
Whoosh!
The arrow tore through the darkness and, just as the Elite Crocodile opened its mouth to launch a second volley, pierced straight through its bloodshot left eye.
"GRAAAAH!!"
The Elite Crocodile let out a shrill scream, and its attack was cut off instantly.
It thrashed its massive head in a frenzy, and its once-stable balance began to sway violently under the agony.
"Now! Kōichi! Finish it!" Aqua, who had been hiding behind Darkness, immediately jumped back out the moment the danger eased and waved her staff while cheering him on. "Show it your free fury!"
Kōichi stepped forward hard, used Darkness's shoulder for support, and launched himself into the air.
This time, the tip of his staff did not gather lightning. Instead, he compressed all his remaining magic into an intensely concentrated blast of cold.
"If you can resist lightning, then turn into an ice sculpture! Freeze!!"
Kōichi drove his staff precisely into the crocodile's ruined eye socket, the one Kazuma had shot through.
The freezing cold surged through the wound and invaded its brain in an instant.
The giant beast stopped cold. A thick layer of ice crystals spread rapidly from its head over the rest of its body, and in less than two seconds, the once-domineering king of the sewers had been transformed into a gigantic ice sculpture glittering in the Holy Water.
The area fell deathly silent, broken only by Darkness's heavy, satisfied breathing.
Kōichi collapsed beside the frozen crocodile, stared at the enormous beast sealed in ice, and finally let out a long breath.
"We won... that 40 million is ours."
"Yes!! Fine liquor! Premium beef! Aqua-sama is back to life!"
Aqua cheered, leaped into the water, and started doing some bizarre dance around the crocodile ice sculpture.
"Hey, Kōichi." Kazuma jumped down from the pipe and looked at Darkness, who was smoking all over and had passed out with a blissful smile on her face, then turned to Kōichi. "We won, but I can't shake the feeling that there's something seriously wrong with the way our party fights."
Kōichi looked at his soaked clothes, then at Megumin in the distance trying to pry out the crocodile's teeth as trophies, and gave a faint smile.
"In this world, as long as the result is good, the process... can just blow away with the wind."