Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

"How did it go?" Chris asked me when I came up to her.

When I repeated what I was told by Ms. Luna Chris' beamed a smile.

"Ranger is a really great job, congratulations!"

She put her hand up and I looked at it for a few seconds wondering what she was doing. Only after looking at her pouting face I realized she wanted to high-five with me.

I quickly corrected my mistake and then Chris cheerfully added.

"I will teach you some neat utility skills later. For now, we need to move. I asked around and supposedly a party with blue-haired archpriest went hunting for Giant Toads."

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until they return? I don't have any weapons."

"I got a spare dagger with me, it should be enough, and I got that feeling in my gut that we should follow them. Always trust your gut feeling."

My gut was telling me that I wanted a different weapon against that berserker archpriest but I didn't say it.

I took the offered dagger and hoisted it on my belt. It felt weird being allowed to have a weapon inside a city. It felt dangerous.

We exited the guild and went towards the city gate.

I took note of any shops and stalls which sold bows. That seemed like a better weapon for a Ranger than a dagger. I was planning on buying one after I was finally free of those false accusations.

Gate's guard checked our adventurer cards and we were allowed out. It was my first time legally leaving the city but with Chris on my right side I felt quite safe.

"You know where to find those Giant Toads?"

"The quest was posted by someone from the local farm so we are heading there." Chris pointed at the farm standing on the nearby hill.

"Ah, so those toads are destroying the crops and are hard to find so farmers post quests for adventurers to take care of them?" I wondered why farmers had problems with big frogs. Couldn't they just grab some pitchforks and take care of them themselves?

"No, they eat-"

BOOOOOM.

A giant dust cloud formed after the giant explosion disappeared behind the hill.

We looked at each other and started sprinting.

After a while, we saw a big, flaming crater in the ground and three people a couple of dozen meters away from it.

There were also two toads jumping towards them.

Huh? Aren't they kinda big?

I wiped my eyes under the mask and still saw the same sight. You could feel the ground shaking each time Giant Toads got closer and closer to the trio.

They are HUGE! At least twice the size of a human!

We continued running towards them as I shouted.

"How is a dagger enough for those monstrosities?!"

"I never thought it would end up like this! I've heard they had an archpriest and archmage in the party! They should have handled them easily no matter how low level they are!"

As we got closer I managed to spot a familiar figure lying in the grass without moving.

…

The Giant Toad hopped close to the girl, picked her up with its mouth and gulped her down.

"Megumin!" x3

The guy in green… tracksuit... Chris and I shouted at the same time. He looked at us as the second girl screamed.

"KAZUMA HELP ME!"

We were already around 100 meters away from them.

"I will take care of the one that swallowed Megumin! You help that boy! These frogs stop moving when they are swallowing their prey!"

I saw the guy already hacking at the frog that happily was gulping down the blue-haired girl.

As I got near I took out a dagger, sprinted even faster and plunged the dagger into the gargantuan toad's belly. It twitched a little bit but otherwise didn't react. I stabbed it a few more times but I saw it wasn't effective. Swings from the guy were at least scarring wide areas of a frog's body.

I decided to jump on the frog's back and start hacking on the frog's neck area. After a while, this giant amphibian started struggling and even jumping short distances but both I and the tracksuit guy didn't slow down our assault.

I don't know how long have we been attacking it for before it stopped moving.

I totally forgot about Chris!

Realizing that fact I suddenly stood up and saw Chris taking out Megumin out of the already dead frog. So fast! And she did it alone!

I slid down the frogs back feeling tired as hell. I was wet with frog's blood and my sweat and it smelt so horrible I almost puked.

As I was holding down the barf, the guy was already pulling out the crying girl.

"WAAAGHHHH! I hate those stupid frooooggssss! Why a goddess like me have to suffer like this?!"

"You chose this quest yourself!"

The guy rebutted but the girl just kept on wailing her eyes out. It was quite a pitiful sight.

"Hey, thanks for helping us."

"Yeah… I got a business with her so I can't have her dying…" I answered with a line from a game I played in the past. I wasn't good at receiving thanks.

The girl stopped crying and started appraising me with her eyes.

"Just because you saved me once doesn't mean I will give you my body as thanks! As an archpriest of an Axis Church I must remain pure!

Not only was her body the farthest away from being pure because of the toad's body fluids were dripping from her but her mind was completely dirty as well! This girl!

"What do you need her for? She's totally useless- Argh!"

She tackled the guy mid-sentence.

"I will show you how useless I am by killing you and then resurrecting you, you shitty neet!"

"That will be a crime! Ahhh! You smell! Get away from me you crazy- Don't you think I won't fight back just because you are a girl. I will show you how gender equality works!"

"What will you do with your puny stats!? Today I will show you who is boss!"

"H-help! This woman is assaulting me!"

They kept wrestling on the ground so I left them to it and went towards Chris that was trying to bring Megumin towards us.

"Kazuki, are you alright?"

"Yeah, we managed somehow. How did you kill it so fast?"

"I just hit its weak points. Sorry for not telling you about them but it all happened too fast."

I just shrugged in answer not thinking it was Chris' fault at all. I took the second arm and helped her move Megumin towards the duo that kept exchanging fists.

"Hey, I can't move my head to check but I don't remember knowing any person named Kazuki. How do you know me? I heard you shouting my name when I got swallowed." Megumin that kept silent until know asked.

"C-Chris had been talking about you so…"

"Ah, is that so…Anyways, thank you for saving us. We didn't expect the second Giant Toad hiding in the vicinity. It might have been the end for us."

Not knowing what to answer I just nodded my head and kept leading her forward together with Chris.

The two brawlers now were lying in the grass breathing heavily and Chris spoke towards the duo.

"Let's go back to the city before any more Giant Toads show up. By the way, I am Chris, this is Kazuki, and you?"

"I am Satou Kazuma."

"This beautiful Archpriest is named Aqua!"

"Megumin…" The round of introductions ended with the archwizard girl barely giving her name due to her tiredness.

Those names… Seemed like I would have more things to discuss with them than I originally thought.

"Let me piggyback Megumin." Kazuma offered himself almost immediately.

I changed my opinion about him a little bit after this sudden selfless propos-

"Lolicon." Aqua looked at him with a deadpan stare.

"I-I am not a lolicon!"

Give me back my feelings of appreciation!

…

We ended up letting Kazuma take care of Megumin as we journeyed back to the city in case some other monsters showed up.

After a few minutes of walking Aqua said in a tired tone:

"I want a piggyback ride too! Hey, lend me your back!"

"You are perfectly fine! You don't need-" I started but Aqua's w.h.i.n.es cut me out.

"Cmooon, my feet hurt~ You said something about needing me. My body is off-limits but I will see what I can do if you give me a ride~"

This little- Whose fault do you th- Argggh-

I looked at Chris seeking help but she just shrugged helplessly.

Controlling the rage that was building up after dealing with this headache of a girl I lowered myself so she could hop onto my back.

"Yay! Onwards!" She exclaimed as I kept myself from throwing her off of me immediately.

"So, what do you need from this awesome archpriest?"

"This awesome archpriest falsely accused me of s.e.x.u.a.lly assaulting her. I want you to retract that statement."

"Huh?" Aqua gave out a questioning response.

"The day before yesterday I woke up n.a.k.e.d under some bridge and then I tried to find some adventurers that would help me in my situation and then I found you two. You knocked me out and the next thing I knew was that you gave a statement that I s.e.x.u.a.lly assaulted you and the guards wanted to castrate me on the spot so I fled the prison to find you."

"You said what?!" Suddenly Kazuma asked loudly.

Aqua kept silent and unmoving on my back so he continued.

"You told me you admitted to knocking him out and then he was released!"

"If I told the guards the truth I would be imprisoned for the third brawl in that week. I couldn't allow my spotless record to be tainted by getting into prison!"

"Your record was already tainted for those brawls and drinking in public place! You almost made a man lose his son!"

Kazuma looked as if he wanted to start talking to me but I suddenly stopped.

What? She didn't think I assaulted her and said those thinks to skip a night in prison?

"I am sorry, Kazuki-kun. Kazuki-kun... I can feel a grip on my legs getting stronger and stronger… Kazuki-san, can you let me go-"

I unceremoniously dropped Aqua on the ground.

"You."

Aqua looked at me panicked.

"You will come with me to retract your statement. Now."

"But if I do they gonna ask how I tricked the Truth Bell-" Aqua quickly said but I didn't want to hear any of it.

"If you won't, then you gonna enjoy another round in Giant Toads stomach."

Aqua nervously looked around but there were no monsters in the are. The look of impending doom lessened on her face until I used [Imitate]…

To change into a Giant Toad.

The look of confusion on her face changed into that of absolute shock when I used Toad's giant tongue to thrash her around in the air.

"WHAT?" Kazuma exclaimed seeing this bizarre sight.

"WAAAGH!" Aqua kept screaming as she experienced a feeling that even the fastest roller coasters wouldn't be able to imitate.

"OKAY, I WILL DO IT! STOP IT, I AM GONNA THROW UP!"

I shook my tongue for another few seconds which included few horizontal swings and circular ones before putting Aqua on the ground.

After changing back to the human form I noticed Chris trying her hardest not to grin and then adapting the same expression as Kazuma/Megumin duo gaping their mouths at me.