Mount Hakobe - Morning
The cave entrance yawned before him—not a simple den but a massive opening carved into the mountainside by centuries of wind and ice. Yume stood at the threshold, peering into darkness that suggested vast space beyond.
"Swift, final sweep."
Through the falcon's eyes, he saw the truth of it. The entrance tunnel led to an enormous natural basin—an ancient collapsed caldera, its roof open to the sky in places, creating shafts of grey light. The Vulcans had claimed it as their territory, using the cave system as shelter but living in the open space beyond.
Twenty heat signatures clustered in the basin. And at the very back, one nearly twice as hot as the others.
The Alpha.
Yume pulled his consciousness back and summoned two Pandora Orbs. They rippled, reality distorting as they transformed into his twin gunswords.
"Jack, you're up first."
The rabbit-like shikigami—resembling an athletic Cinderace—grinned and bounded forward into the entrance tunnel.
Its form blurred and split.
One became two. Two became four. Four became eight. The multiplication accelerated, rabbits spilling into the tunnel like a living flood. Dozens. Then more. The sound of their feet echoed like thunder as they poured through the passage, numbers still climbing with each split.
The response from within was immediate.
Roars echoed through the tunnel. Heavy footsteps thundered. Twenty massive shapes charged toward the entrance—Vulcans, each one easily eight feet tall, white-furred, gorilla-like builds with disturbingly intelligent eyes.
They saw the swarm of Jack clones flooding toward them and charged to meet the threat.
Perfect.
"Tusk. Break it open."
The elephant shikigami—massive as a house, resembling prehistoric Great Tusk—lowered its head and charged.
The ground shook with each step. Snow erupted in its wake. Tusk hit the tunnel entrance at full momentum, its tusks and bulk smashing through rock and ice like they were paper.
The entire cave structure screamed.
Rock exploded outward. The tunnel collapsed, as Tusk's unstoppable charge tore through the passage and burst into the basin beyond. Daylight flooded in through the massive breach, revealing the true battlefield.
The basin was enormous—easily two hundred meters across, the collapsed caldera creating a natural arena with walls of ice and stone rising on all sides. The roof was partially open, grey sky visible through gaps in the ancient rock. Snow covered the ground, and crude shelters dotted the space where the Vulcans had made their home.
And now, with the entrance demolished, there was room for everything.
The Vulcan line broke on Tusk's impact.
Three beasts were simply trampled, crushed under unstoppable momentum. Two more were caught by sweeping tusks and thrown thirty feet into the basin walls. The formation collapsed into chaos as the swarm of Jack clones flooded through the breach, dozens upon dozens of identical rabbits spreading in every direction.
"Gama, sonic devastation—spread pattern!"
The massive toad emerged through the breach, its bulk fitting through the opening Tusk had created. Its maw opened impossibly wide, throat sac swelling, and it released a sound wave that echoed off the basin walls.
Five Vulcans caught in the cone dropped instantly, blood leaking from their ears, brains hemorrhaged by the sonic assault.
"Storm, you have room. Lightning sweep!"
The corvid shikigami launched through the breach and climbed, spreading its five-meter wings as it rose into the open air above the basin. Electricity crackled between armored feathers, building, condensing.
It dove.
Lightning arced down in a continuous stream, striking the scattered Vulcans below. The beasts screamed, fur smoking, muscles convulsing. The basin's natural acoustics amplified every sound, turning the battlefield into a symphony of chaos.
Half the pack was down in thirty seconds.
The survivors scattered, trying to use the shelters and basin walls for cover. These weren't mindless beasts—they understood they were being slaughtered and adapted, breaking into smaller groups to flank and surround.
Too bad Yume had prepared for exactly that.
"Manda, crowd control. Sky, Sea—hunt the flankers."
The serpent shikigami poured through the breach, ten meters of Seviper-inspired death that moved with liquid grace across the open space. Its toxic scales left venom trails in the snow, and its blade-tipped tail had room to lash freely, catching one Vulcan across the chest. The beast fell convulsing.
Sky and Sea became white and black blurs in the open basin, their wolf pack tactics finally having space to truly shine. A Vulcan tried to circle left—Sky's jaws closed around its arm, crushing bone. Another went right—Sea hamstrung it, bringing it down.
The Jack clones continued their chaotic harassment throughout the basin, appearing and disappearing, making it impossible for the Vulcans to track real threats. Every time one clone was destroyed, it seemed two more split off from another, the multiplication never quite stopping.
Yume walked through the demolished entrance into the basin proper, gunswords tracking, firing when opportunities presented. One shot, one target. Darkness bullets punched through fur and flesh with surgical precision.
The open space made everything flow smoothly—Tusk had room to maneuver, Storm had airspace to work with, Manda could coil and strike without constraint, and his wolves could hunt properly.
A Vulcan charged him directly through the chaos, roaring defiance.
Shadow Shift.He dissolved into darkness, reappearing behind the creature. His gunswords crossed at its throat.
One pull. The beast's head rolled.
Any Vulcans still hiding in the deeper cave systems would have to come through the basin to escape. And in the basin, Yume controlled everything.
Through the smoke and snow and chaos, it came.
The Alpha emerged from a shelter at the basin's far end.
Massive—easily twelve feet tall, shoulders broad as a cart, muscles like iron cables beneath scarred white fur. One eye was missing, the socket a mass of old scar tissue. In its right hand, it carried a war axe that looked tiny in its grip but was easily six feet of steel and wood, clearly taken from some unfortunate hunter.
The Alpha surveyed the basin. Saw its dead and dying pack scattered across the open space. Then fixed its one good eye on Yume across the distance.
It roared—pure rage and challenge—and began to advance.
"Everyone back," Yume said quietly. "This one's mine."
His shikigami withdrew to the basin's edges, forming a perimeter but not interfering.
The Alpha charged across the open ground, axe raised high. Despite its size, it was fast—covering the distance in massive strides, the basin's open space letting it build momentum.
The axe came down in an overhead chop.
Yume wasn't there...
Shadow Shift. He reappeared left, firing three shots center mass.
The Alpha's free hand swept across, backhanding the bullets aside. Thick hide and denser muscle made normal shots ineffective.
Tough. Need to adjust.
The axe came horizontal. Yume ducked under, came up inside the Alpha's guard, drove his gunswords toward its throat—
The Alpha's knee came up, catching him in the ribs. The impact drove air from his lungs and sent him flying backward ten feet. He hit snow hard, rolled, came up gasping.
[HP: 91%]
Strong.
The Alpha pressed forward. The axe came in a flurry—overhead, horizontal, diagonal—each strike delivered with enough force to shatter stone.
Yume gave ground, Batman training taking over. Read the patterns. Find the rhythm.
There—the Alpha telegraphed overhead strikes by raising the axe half a second early. After horizontal sweeps, it took a moment to reset stance.
Openings.
The next overhead came. Yume Shadow Shifted toward it, appearing inside the arc. His gunswords transformed into a single spear. He drove it into the Alpha's shoulder.
The beast roared, but the spear only penetrated inches before hitting bone.
The Alpha grabbed the spear shaft and yanked. The axe came down—
Yume released the spear, called it back, rolled aside. The axe cracked frozen earth where he'd been standing.
He came up, breathing hard, and grinned.
This is fun.
"Shadow Hands!"
Dark tendrils erupted from the Alpha's shadow, wrapping around its legs. The beast snarled and strained—
The Shadow Hands held for three seconds before raw strength tore through them.
Three seconds was enough.
Yume called four more Pandora Orbs. "Umbral Arsenal!"
Shadows flowed into the orbs, transforming them into chains. They lashed out from four angles, wrapping around arms, legs, torso.
The Alpha roared and pulled. One chain snapped. Then another.
Two seconds.
Yume's gunswords reformed, barrels aimed at the Alpha's one good eye.
"Darkness Bullet Storm."
The weapons roared. A continuous stream—twenty, thirty, forty bullets of condensed darkness converging on a single point.
The Alpha's free hand came up to protect its eye—
Yume's real attack came from below.
Shadow Shift. He appeared at the Alpha's feet, remaining Pandora Orbs transforming into a massive blade—a guillotine of solid darkness.
It swept through the Alpha's ankles.
The beast toppled, roar turning to scream as it crashed down. The axe fell from nerveless fingers.
Yume stood over it, breathing hard, gunswords pressed against its throat.
The Alpha stared at him with its one eye. Intelligence there. Understanding. It had fought. It had lost.
It closed its eye, accepting death from a worthy opponent.
Yume pulled the triggers.
[HP: 89%]
[MP: 58%]
Silence fell.
Twenty Vulcans down. The Alpha dead.
"Good work. Return."
His shikigami dissolved into shadows.
He looked down at the Alpha's corpse and felt clean satisfaction. Not bloodlust—just the satisfaction of a challenge met and overcome.
A good hunt.
And he'd won.
***
Mountain Village - Two Hours Later
The village elder's hands shook as he examined the proof—twenty Vulcan heads arranged in neat rows. The Alpha's head sat apart, massive and scarred.
"By the gods..." The old man's voice was barely a whisper. "You did this alone?"
"I had help." Yume gestured vaguely, not elaborating about his shikigami.
"Still..." The elder counted out the reward with trembling fingers. Five hundred thousand jewels in certified notes. Then he pressed an additional pouch into Yume's hands. "Hazard bonus. That Alpha was a demon. My granddaughter can travel the mountain safely now. You've given us peace."
Yume accepted both payment and gratitude with a slight nod. "It's what I came to do."
As he left, he heard the elder's whispered words to his assistant: "The Shadow of Fairy Tail. The rumors don't do him justice."
Outside, Mi materialized at his call. The violet shikigami purred, plasma engines warming up.
But Yume paused. There was a small restaurant nearby, and the smell of cooking food reminded him he'd fought on an empty stomach.
Five minutes later, he sat at a corner table with a bowl of mountain stew—some kind of game meat he didn't recognize, vegetables, thick broth. The owner, an elderly woman, had insisted on serving him personally when she'd heard he'd cleared the Vulcans.
"That's rabbit and winter vegetables," she explained. "Old family recipe. You're doing the guild proud, young man."
Yume thanked her and ate in comfortable silence. The stew was excellent—rich and warming, with herbs he'd never tasted before. He made a mental note of the flavor profile, adding it to his growing collection of culinary experiences.
The Batman template had killed his taste for alcohol, but it had sharpened his appreciation for everything else. Food had become one of his few simple pleasures.
Except beef. He still couldn't stand beef.
Yume finished the last of the broth and set a few coins on the table. She sighed with a small, appreciative smile and swept the payment into her apron.
"Safe travels then, son," she said.
Yume gave a short, respectful nod.
Outside, he climbed onto Mi's back. "Magnolia. Full speed."
The world became a violet blur.
[End of chapter 6]