"Attack," Amura commanded, his voice cold and unwavering.
His shadow stretched across the dirt, and three shadowy foxes tore out of it and lunged forward. The black foxes felt the shift immediately. Their glowing eyes locked onto the new threats, and they charged hard toward Yamada, Laufey, and Amura.
The two sides crashed into each other in a mess of fangs and claws. Amura's shadow beasts cut into the pack with force. The speed of it was frightening. Bodies twisted and tore, biting and dodging, neither side giving ground easily.
With the pack fully focused on the shadows, their guard dropped.
Yamada saw the opening. He ran forward, jumped, and came down with his fist hitting the earth with bone-shattering force. The ground cracked and split outward, sending the black foxes flying into the air. Before any of them could land, Yamada was already moving, driving his fists into them one by one.
Laufey moved the moment they were airborne. She was a silver blur cutting through the air, her katana splitting through the foxes with clean, precise strokes. She jumped from one to the next with no wasted movement, finishing what Yamada had started.
Watching from behind, Killian's jaw dropped. "Wow... She is ridiculously strong."
Zou Shi kept his eyes on the fight and nodded. "Her Arcana might be on the weaker side, but I heard her samurai techniques have been passed down through generations. It is pure skill."
Killian tilted his head. "But she does not even look Japanese?"
"I honestly have no idea about her background," Zou replied, shrugging. "She only joined our group recently. But whoever she is, we are lucky to have her."
The last black fox hit the ground, and the clearing went quiet. The group slowly gathered around Yamada.
"Alright, let us gather their gems first before we keep moving," Yamada instructed, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Let me handle it," Amura said, his tone icy.
With a small gesture, his shadow foxes moved through the bodies, their dark jaws reaching in and pulling out the glowing gems one by one.
They thought they had a moment to breathe. They were wrong.
The air grew heavy. Thick fog rolled in fast, cutting off most of the light. Then the mother fox stepped into the clearing.
She was enormous. Black fur, crackling blue lightning running all over her body. She jumped into the clearing and let out a roar that shook the ground beneath their feet.
The shockwave hit everyone at once. Killian, Laufey, Marie, and Zou Shi were thrown hard into the dirt. Yamada and Amura slammed into nearby tree trunks, and Amura's shadow foxes broke apart on impact and disappeared.
Marie pulled herself to her knees, coughing, her palms already glowing.
"HEAL," she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Warmth washed over all of them and pulled them back to their feet. Marie dropped immediately after, pale and completely spent.
Yamada looked at Zou Shi. "Zou Shi. Guard Marie. We are going to try and fight this thing."
"Understood. Just do not die," Zou Shi grunted, pulling Marie behind a cluster of boulders.
The fog thickened around the battlefield. The giant fox moved slowly through it, lightning flashing off her teeth every time she opened her jaws.
"Spread out," Yamada barked.
He refused to hold back. He charged straight at the colossal beast, his fists glowing with raw kinetic energy. "Hey. Pick on someone your own size." He leaped into the air, aiming a devastating right hook at the monster's snout.
The giant fox simply swatted him out of the air like an insect. Yamada crashed hard into the mud, gasping for breath as his ribs screamed in agony.
Laufey was next. She used Yamada's distraction to move through the mist, coming at the beast's legs low and fast. "Over here, ugly," she said, dragging her blade across its calf. The katana sparked against the hardened fur and barely scratched it.
The fox retaliated, swinging a massive claw down at her. Laufey blocked it, but the crushing force sent her sliding backward across the dirt, her arms entirely numb.
"It is too tough," Laufey yelled, her hands trembling violently from the impact.
Amura ran wide to the right. "Then we hit it harder." He threw a string of explosive daggers at the creature's face, relying purely on speed since his shadows were gone.
The blasts blinded the monster for a split second. Enraged, the fox roared and thrashed wildly. Its massive claws tore up the earth, forcing Yamada to frantically roll away from a fatal stomp. The beast then spun around, gathered a terrifying charge of electricity in its tail, and slammed it into the ground.
"Watch out," Laufey screamed.
The shockwave tore through the earth. Yamada and Laufey jumped clear of the worst of it, but the wave kept going, crashing through the trees straight toward the boulders where Zou Shi and Marie were sheltering.
Zou Shi saw it coming. He threw himself over Marie just before it hit.
"Arghh..."
He coughed, one hand pressed to his ribs, and did not get back up. The sheer concussive force had ravaged his insides, and the pain instantly paralyzed his legs.
Killian had dropped flat on instinct and felt the shockwave pass over him. He looked up and saw Zou Shi on the ground.
"Zou Shi," Killian cried out, crawling over to him in a panic.
"Kil... Killian..." Zou Shi wheezed. His hands were shaking violently as he reached into his jacket. He pulled out a heavy silver pistol and pressed it into Killian's hands. "If... if you cannot use your Arcana... take this."
Back in the fight, the vanguard was falling apart. Yamada, Laufey, and Amura were completely battered. Yamada was bleeding heavily from his forehead. Laufey limped, her grip on her katana slipping, while Amura clutched his bruised ribs. The giant fox loomed over them, gathering itself for a final, lethal strike.
Yamada spotted Killian holding the gun.
"KILLIAN." His voice cut through the thick fog. "We will distract it. When it drops its guard, shoot the weak point right behind its tail."
Killian stared at the pistol. His whole body was shaking in sheer terror. "Y... y... yes," he stammered, his voice barely a squeak.
"Amura, Laufey, keep it busy." Yamada roared and threw himself directly into the beast's path, catching its descending front paws with his bare hands. The weight was unimaginable, forcing him to his knees as the mud swallowed his boots.
Laufey gritted her teeth and vaulted off a nearby tree trunk. "Look out below," she screamed, aiming a desperate slash at the creature's glowing eyes to draw its anger. The fox violently swung its head, missing her by an inch, but the sheer force of the movement knocked Laufey out of the air. She hit the ground hard, her katana flying out of her grasp.
Amura took the opening. He ran in sharp zigzags right under the fox's snapping jaws, acting as the ultimate bait. "Come on, you overgrown rat. Look at me."
The fox snapped at him and missed again. It was completely enraged, its attention locked entirely on the three fighters desperately trying to survive its onslaught. Its back end was completely exposed.
"Now is the time," Amura screamed, his lungs burning. "Shoot it already, damn it."
Killian raised the pistol and aimed at the base of the tail. But he could not stop shaking. The deafening roaring, the blood, the sheer size of the thing terrified him. He was just a normal kid. Nothing in his whole life had come close to this nightmare.
The fox pushed Yamada deeper into the mud, its massive paw beginning to crush his chest.
"Shoot, you little bastard," Amura cursed out of pure desperation.
"Shoot, Killian," Yamada yelled, coughing up blood under the intense weight.
Laufey breathed hard, staring at the ground where her sword lay. She tried to stand, but her bruised legs finally gave out. "Looks like this is the end..." she murmured, closing her eyes in defeat.
That did it.
Killian shut his eyes tight, let out a short scared cry, and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
The shot rang through the trees. His eyes had been closed, but pure survival instinct had guided his hands perfectly. The bullet hit the exact nerve cluster at the base of the spine.
The giant fox froze. A horrible screech tore out of her before her back legs gave out completely, and she went down, entirely paralyzed.
Yamada shoved the heavy paw off his chest, got to his feet with a furious yell, and hit the creature under the jaw with everything he had left. The loud crack of the impact echoed through the clearing.
At the exact same moment, Laufey grabbed her fallen katana, jumped high into the air, and brought the blade straight down through the beast's neck in one clean, final cut.
The monster hit the ground with a heavy, dull thud.
The forest went completely quiet.