"Just killing them aimlessly like this isn't a solution…"
Beatrice watched as a section of the Great Rabbit horde was eliminated, only for new individuals to immediately split off and fill the void.
She looked up at Natsuki Subaru and asked,
"Subaru, do you have a plan?"
Pulled from his thoughts by Beatrice's question, Natsuki Subaru replied with a determined gaze:
"Beatrice, I already have an idea."
"What is it?"
Beatrice looked up at Natsuki Subaru with curiosity.
"The most important thing for us to do right now is gather all the Great Rabbits into a single area." Natsuki Subaru paused to organize his thoughts before continuing,
"Look, the Great Rabbits that were active in the forest before, plus the ones that entered the Sanctuary later, should all be gathered in front of this plaza by now. This is our best chance to deal with them all at once."
"But the Great Rabbits can multiply infinitely. Even if we gather them all, killing them bit by bit is meaningless. Their rate of division is just too fast."
Beatrice said with a frown.
"They say it's infinite, but it's not actually without a limit." Natsuki Subaru immediately interjected, his eyes locked on the battlefield, having already sorted out the Great Rabbit's characteristics in his mind.
"I've looked up information on this before, and combining it with your knowledge, the Great Rabbit's multiplication might be fast, but there's a critical value for their total population. They won't increase indefinitely."
"Betty understands, Subaru. You're saying that while their multiplication process might not have a clear time limit, the maximum number they can reach is finite and won't exceed a certain fixed figure, right?"
Beatrice caught on instantly, a glint of light flashing in her blue eyes.
As a Great Spirit familiar with the Great Rabbit's traits, she immediately agreed with this point. In the ancient texts of the Forbidden Library, there were indeed records of similar hive-mind creatures having a population threshold; she just hadn't connected it to the Great Rabbit before.
"Exactly! As long as we wait for the number of Great Rabbits to reach that limit and stop increasing, we can then wipe them all out in one go and solve the problem for good!"
As he spoke, Natsuki Subaru looked at the battlefield again, his gaze sweeping over the dense swarm of Great Rabbits as he quickly estimated their numbers.
The Shadow Soldiers had already cleared out a considerable portion, but the remaining Great Rabbits were still packed tightly together. A rough count put them at nearly several hundred thousand.
This number should be getting close to the Great Rabbit's upper limit.
"But how can we possibly annihilate several hundred thousand Great Rabbits at the same time?" Beatrice looked up at Natsuki Subaru, asking doubtfully,
"Betty's magic can perform large-scale attacks, but I can only eliminate a few thousand at most in one go. That's nowhere near efficient enough."
If they were to use wide-area fire magic to burn down the entire Sanctuary, or use a meteor-like power to obliterate the area, they might be able to cover all the Great Rabbits at once, but the risk was too high.
There were still many innocent people in the Sanctuary, and if even one Great Rabbit hid in a concealed corner and survived, it wouldn't take long for them to multiply back to a massive scale.
If she relied solely on magic to fight a war of attrition, her own mana wouldn't last through many large-scale attacks. It was simply not realistic.
Thinking this, Beatrice looked up at Natsuki Subaru. Seeing that he remained calm and composed, without a hint of panic, she couldn't help but ask:
"Subaru, you look like you've already thought of a specific method, haven't you?"
"Same as always, I'll have to rely on your power to formulate the strategy." Natsuki Subaru said with a smile, the steps already planned out in his mind.
"Just like I said, the first step is to gather all the Great Rabbits. With your magic, Beatrice, we'll encircle them in a closed-off area to ensure not a single one can escape. Then, we'll concentrate all our forces and eliminate every last Great Rabbit inside in a single, decisive strike."
"Betty had thought of a similar method before, but with just the two of us, Subaru, we don't have enough manpower. The defensive perimeter needed to contain hundreds of thousands of Great Rabbits is just too large..." As she said this, Beatrice's gaze fell upon the Shadow Soldiers fighting the Great Rabbits ahead, and she corrected herself in realization.
"I almost forgot, you still have these powerful summons. With them helping to divide and corner the Great Rabbits, this plan is completely feasible!"
"In that case, let's get to it."
Having settled on the plan with Beatrice, Natsuki Subaru immediately took action, quickly issuing commands in his mind to adjust the Shadow Soldiers' tactics.
The front-line shield wall no longer just defended but began to gradually advance. The Shadow Soldiers on the flanks closed in toward the center, slowly herding the scattered Great Rabbit swarms toward the middle of the plaza. The melee knights in the center were responsible for clearing out any Great Rabbits attempting to break through, ensuring none could escape the encirclement.
At the same time, Beatrice began to coordinate her actions.
"E Mīna!"
She chanted the spell again, controlling the purple shards to rapidly shuttle around the outer perimeter of the Shadow Soldiers and the Great Rabbit swarm.
These purple shards didn't directly attack the Great Rabbits. Instead, they first carved a straight path on the ground. Then, countless more purple shards stacked upwards along the edges of the path, eventually forming a purple wall several meters high.
The purple shards interlinked and crisscrossed, forming a perfect rectangular area that neatly enclosed the herding Shadow Soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of restless white Great Rabbits trapped in the middle, sealing them in without a single gap.
"That's our Beatrice! Absolutely brilliant!"
Seeing the purple wall fully formed and the Great Rabbits completely trapped, Natsuki Subaru couldn't help but clap his hands in excitement.
"Don't underestimate Betty!" Beatrice said, placing her hands on her hips and lifting her chin slightly, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Betty is a Great Spirit, you know. A little something like this is no trouble at all."
After all, as a Great Spirit, Beatrice's power was formidable. As long as she had enough mana, her performance would only be more outstanding.
"Yes, yes, our Great Spirit is the most amazing."
Seeing Beatrice's proud little expression, Natsuki Subaru couldn't help but smile.
Ever since she formed a contract with him, this Great Spirit's personality seemed to have become more and more cheerful.
The Beatrice of the past always maintained a certain distance, and her words were often roundabout.
Now, she was so adorably direct even when she was feeling proud.
"So, what's next?"
Beatrice looked at the restless swarm of Great Rabbits within the barrier, then turned to ask Natsuki Subaru.
"Next… just leave it to me."
Saying this, Natsuki Subaru made a grasping motion with his right hand, pulling the Kasaka's Venomed Fang dagger from his System storage.
Immediately after, his figure flickered.
SWISH!
The next moment, Natsuki Subaru appeared inside the rectangular area.
"Squeak squeak squeak—"
Inside the rectangular space constructed of purple shards, the dense mass of white Great Rabbits was churning madly, their sharp incisors constantly gnawing at the inner wall of the barrier, creating a grating sound that set one's teeth on edge.
SWISH!
The cold glint of the Kasaka's Venomed Fang dagger flashed, and more than ten Great Rabbits in the front row were instantly sliced in half at the waist.
The sharp blade cut through their bodies without any resistance, and white blood splattered out, pooling on the snowy ground.
Natsuki Subaru didn't stop, continuing his slaughter.
Every one of his strikes was precise and efficient. The dagger carved sharp arcs through the air, and each swing claimed the lives of dozens of Great Rabbits.
Soon, a small mountain composed of Great Rabbit corpses had piled up in front of him.
Natsuki Subaru had already made up his mind and activated the Shadow Monarch's exclusive skill:
"Shadow Extraction!"
Wisps of black mist suddenly rose from the dead rabbit corpses.
The mist condensed and transformed in mid-air, quickly taking on the exact same form as the Great Rabbits, only they were composed entirely of black shadow, with crimson eyes—they were Shadow Great Rabbits!
[Notification: Shadow Extraction successful]
[Notification: Shadow Extraction successful]
[Notification: Shadow Extraction successful]
System notifications rang out continuously in Natsuki Subaru's mind. As black mist rose from one Great Rabbit corpse after another, more and more Shadow Great Rabbits formed around him.
In just a few seconds, hundreds of pitch-black Shadow Great Rabbits were already lined up neatly by his side.
"Just as I expected, the extraction was a success!"
Natsuki Subaru looked at this new shadow unit with satisfaction, a slight smile playing on his lips. He then immediately issued a command through their mental link,
"Annihilate all the Great Rabbits. Leave none behind!"
The moment the command was given, the Shadow Great Rabbits moved with swiftness.
They were more agile and coordinated than the normal Great Rabbits, pouncing toward the remaining white swarm like streaks of black lightning.
The onlookers outside the barrier reacted differently to this scene.
"W-What's with those black Great Rabbits?" Emilia's amethyst eyes widened in astonishment as she spoke.
"Are they summons, just like the Shadow Soldiers Subaru summoned before? But they look exactly the same as the Great Rabbits!"
"Subaru is extracting shadow creatures from the corpses of the dead Great Rabbits. Even Betty has never seen an ability like this before."
Beatrice said, observing the battlefield with focus.
Beside her, Garfiel's eyes were wide with shock.
"Knight Natsuki Subaru can not only summon an army, but he can also turn enemies into his own forces? What kind of ability is this… It's completely beyond common sense."
At this point, Garfiel took a deep breath, his tone tinged with a sense of helplessness.
"He's just unbelievably strong!"
As the Shield of the Sanctuary, Garfiel had always been confident in his own strength. After being crushed by Natsuki Subaru last time, he had been holding in a stubborn desire to challenge him again once he recovered, to prove himself.
But just now, seeing Natsuki Subaru command thousands of Shadow Soldiers to corner the Great Rabbits, he had already realized the gap between them.
Even in his full beast transformation, going all out, he probably couldn't break through the Shadow Soldiers' defensive line.
Not to mention that knight commander among the summons, Igris. Just sensing his presence from a distance was enough to make him feel immense pressure.
"I used to think I could at least face Knight Natsuki Subaru head-on…
Now it looks like I can't even beat one of his Shadow Soldiers,
let alone the man himself."
Garfiel looked down at his own hands, his voice filled with obvious dejection.
"This kind of gap that I can't even hope to close… it's really frustrating."
Hearing Garfiel's words, Emilia, standing beside him, gently shook her head and offered comfort in a soft tone:
"Garfiel, Subaru is certainly very strong, but you're also constantly improving.
You did everything you could to protect the people in the Sanctuary, and now you're fighting hard against the Great Rabbit. That persistence alone is already amazing."
"That's right. Betty never expected Subaru's ability to be so unique either. But everyone has their own area of expertise. You don't need to get discouraged just because there's a gap between you and someone else," Beatrice added in agreement, before her tone shifted as she looked at Garfiel with blunt honesty.
"Of course, objectively speaking, you really can't compare to Subaru right now."
...
Garfiel looked at the completely unfazed Beatrice beside him, the corner of his mouth twitching fiercely. He was speechless. This Great Spirit was really terrible at comforting people.
Meanwhile.
The battle within the purple barrier had become completely one-sided.
For every white Great Rabbit killed by a Shadow Soldier or Shadow Great Rabbit, Natsuki Subaru's shadow energy would immediately latch onto the corpse.
The dark energy enveloped the body like threads, and in just a few seconds, it would condense into a new Shadow Great Rabbit.
Upon forming, these new Shadow Great Rabbits didn't need additional commands; they automatically joined the battle, pouncing on the remaining white Great Rabbits and causing the shadow legion's scale to continuously expand.
"The Shadow Great Rabbits are even more efficient than I expected."
Natsuki Subaru watched the ever-increasing number of Shadow Great Rabbits and nodded with satisfaction.
This kill-and-convert tactic created a perfect positive feedback loop. The more Great Rabbits killed, the more new forces were added, which in turn sped up the subsequent cleanup, completely eliminating any risk of running out of forces mid-battle.
"Keep up this pace!"
Natsuki Subaru didn't stop moving, weaving nimbly through the rabbit swarm, the Kasaka's Venomed Fang dagger in his hand gleaming with cold light.
A horizontal slash could fell an entire front rank, while a vertical thrust could pierce through two or three stacked Great Rabbits, claiming dozens of lives at once.
While maintaining his high-speed slaughter, he devoted part of his focus to continuously activating the Shadow Extraction skill.
Pitch-black shadow energy spread from under Natsuki Subaru's feet, coiling around the Great Rabbit corpses on the ground like a living thing.
As the shadow energy surged, one corpse after another was gradually converted into a new Shadow Great Rabbit.
These new soldiers joined the battle as soon as they were formed, further compressing the remaining Great Rabbits' space to move.
Visibly, the number of white Great Rabbits was rapidly decreasing. The white that once covered the ground was being replaced by the ever-expanding black.
"At this rate, it won't take long to convert all the Great Rabbits."
Natsuki Subaru estimated in his head, casually swinging his dagger to slice a few Great Rabbits that lunged at him from the side and rear into two pieces.
To him, these Great Rabbits' attack patterns were too simplistic. They only knew how to charge straight ahead or bite, with no tactics to speak of. Aside from their numbers, they posed no threat.
Dealing with them was as simple as processing targets in bulk. The only thing he needed to be careful of was getting bogged down by their numbers, which would affect his conversion efficiency.
Outside the barrier, Beatrice watched the changes on the field intently, her blue eyes filled with amazement:
"The white Great Rabbits' division speed can no longer keep up with the rate they're being killed and converted… Subaru's Shadow Soldiers have long since gained an absolute advantage."
As the once vast white tide of rabbits was visibly being overrun by the black tide of Shadow Great Rabbits,
to the point where even the Great Rabbit's specialty, division, couldn't match the speed of conversion, Beatrice couldn't help but sigh softly.
"What an astonishing ability."
As a Great Spirit who had lived for four hundred years, this was the first time she had seen someone so efficiently resolve the troublesome Great Rabbit crisis by converting enemies into their own forces.
This ability was not only rare but also perfectly countered the Great Rabbit's trait of multiplying the more you kill. It was as if it was made specifically to deal with them.
"That's wonderful… Subaru's plan really worked."
Emilia was also staring intently at the battlefield, her long, silvery-white hair swaying gently in the wind as she spoke happily.
"Unbelievable!"
Garfiel's gaze was fixed on the figure constantly weaving through the barrier, his shock gradually taking over.
The gap between himself and Natsuki Subaru was far more than just the number of summons. This precise control over his ability, this mastery of the battlefield—these were things he was currently far from achieving.
Inside the barrier, Natsuki Subaru's movements remained fluid.
"Shadow Extraction!"
As Natsuki Subaru activated the skill, another batch of pitch-black Shadow Great Rabbits rose from the shadows of the corpses, their crimson eyes flashing with cold light. The moment they landed, they charged toward the nearest white Great Rabbits.
At this moment, Natsuki Subaru's strategy was crystal clear.
Let the Shadow Great Rabbits and the original Shadow Soldiers handle containing and wearing down the white Great Rabbits, compressing them into an even smaller area.
Meanwhile, he would focus on killing and extracting shadows, using his agile movements to weave through the swarm and maximize his conversion efficiency.
Whenever his own mana dropped below half, Natsuki Subaru would immediately buy a mana potion from the system shop and drink it. His mana bar would instantly refill, ensuring that his output of shadow energy was never interrupted and the conversion process never stalled.
After some time, the situation in the Sanctuary's plaza had completely reversed.
Natsuki Subaru's shadow army had grown to several million, their black figures densely covering more than half of the barrier's area.
Meanwhile, the white Great Rabbits' rate of division had slowed noticeably. As their base number continued to dwindle, the energy required for division also seemed unable to keep up with the consumption. Their division speed, which was once every few seconds, gradually slowed to every ten, then dozens of seconds.
Natsuki Subaru took a moment to glance at the system interface. The Shadow Soldier count was still jumping wildly before finally settling on a staggering number:
[Current Shadow Soldier Count: 1,278,342].
During this time, Natsuki Subaru had already emptied over thirty mana potions, and the gold count on his system interface had decreased by nearly thirty thousand.
But this expenditure yielded an extremely significant result!
The white rabbit tide had been completely suppressed by the black shadow tide, without even a chance to fight back.
They were trapped in an ever-shrinking space, able to do nothing but passively endure the attacks of the Shadow Soldiers and Shadow Great Rabbits, utterly powerless.
As time passed, the number of white Great Rabbits continued to drop, each reduction clearly visible:
From the initial dense mass of hundreds of thousands, their numbers slowly fell to five thousand. A short while later, they dropped below one thousand, then quickly down to one hundred, then ten…
Until finally, only a single, solitary one remained in the entire battlefield!
"It ends here! Great Rabbit!"
Natsuki Subaru's eyes narrowed, and the Kasaka's Venomed Fang dagger in his hand accurately pierced the body of the last white Great Rabbit.
______
✅ Until 40 advanced chapters of ALL stories!
✅ Exclusive content and updates!
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 55 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
Claim your 40% OFF spot and unlock everything now:
👻 P - Walnutchan