*CRACKLE... CRACKLE...*
The roaring sound of burning timber echoed sharply as the hungry tongues of fire devoured the surrounding trees with feral greed. When viewed from the night sky above, the raging inferno formed a massive, glowing ring, trapping a single individual dead in the center.
The figure pursued by the flames was currently about a hundred meters behind the fleeing policeman's earlier position. His movements were incredibly swift, cutting through the dense forest floor like a storm. Whenever a fallen trunk or a dense patch of thorny briars blocked his path, he merely waved his hand with casual indifference.
*BOOM!*
A massive pillar of fire instantly erupted from the soil. The overwhelming, suffocating heat scorched every piece of vegetation in its path to ash within a split second.
Akira, who had been lurking within the darkness, stared up at the soaring fire pillar with a grave expression. 'Something troublesome is about to happen...'
Akira stepped out from the shroud of shadows, revealing his silhouette. He wiped a thin layer of sweat from his forehead caused by the stinging, radiant heat, and locked his gaze straight ahead.
With a single nimble movement, Akira leaped onto a fairly sturdy tree branch. His hand gestured smoothly, materializing the heavy, deep-blue Kula greatsword from his system inventory. Only when his hands firmly wrapped around the hilt of the weapon did a solid sense of security finally flood his chest.
Akira waited in absolute silence atop the branch. Just as two nearby trees shattered into splinters from the impact of an exploding fireball, his opponent finally revealed his form.
It was a young boy. The youth's entire body was enveloped in violently blazing flames. Although his uniform looked somewhat disheveled and stained with thick patches of soot, his eyes remained fiercely sharp and unwavering, locked onto the precise escape route of the policeman from earlier.
*WHOOSH!*
Exploiting the moment the boy’s attention was averted, Akira tightened his grip on the sword hilt. Using the sturdy tree trunk as a launching pad, he propelled himself forward, unleashing a surprise aerial assault.
Akira’s velocity was far too extreme for the boy to dodge. The youth only had enough time to snap his face toward the oncoming threat, his body unable to shift its position in time.
'In!' Akira internally cheered as he saw his target freeze in place.
Exerting the absolute limit of his physical prowess, Akira swung the Kula greatsword down with feral ferocity, aiming straight for the boy's head.
*SWOOSH!*
The heavy blade sliced through the air with a piercing howl. However, the satisfying sensation of tearing flesh never came. Instead, the Kula split through the boy's head as if cutting through a mere illusion, leaving behind nothing but a scattered burst of flying sparks.
"What?!" Akira gasped in pure shock.
Unfortunately, his downward momentum was already impossible to halt. The heavy Kula greatsword, having missed its mark entirely, slammed violently into the concrete-hard earth below.
*BOOM!*
A low-frequency shockwave resonated through the forest as the ground split and shattered, sending a massive plume of dust and dirt billowing into the night air.
*WHACK!*
Suddenly, a pitch-black fist enveloped in a raging wreath of fire tore through the heavy curtain of dust, aiming directly for Akira's face.
Akira’s reflexes kicked in instantly. He spun the sword's alignment, using the flat side of the Kula's heavy blade as a makeshift shield in front of his chest.
*CLANG!*
The heavy impact collided, producing a sharp, deafening metallic ring. An overwhelming surge of blunt force vibrated through the Kula's metal structure, traveling up Akira's arms until his hands felt completely numb and tingly.
'Damn it, his raw power is insane!' Akira cursed the system hundreds of times in his mind, infuriated by the inaccurate threat assessment.
Quickly evaluating the bleak situation, Akira chose to release his grip on the heavy sword, leaping backward with maximum velocity to establish a safe distance.
*THUD!*
The heavy Kula greatsword, now lacking its owner's grip, fell limply onto the dirt.
The boy looked visibly taken aback to see Akira abandon his weapon so casually. He extended his right hand, intending to seize the discarded Kula. But right before his fingers could brush against the hilt, the massive sword suddenly sank into the darkness of the ground, vanishing without a trace.
The boy raised his eyebrows, staring at the earth in astonishment. "Earth manipulation...? No. Is that shadow magic?"
The boy spun around, noting that Akira had already drawn the Kula back out from a different shadow patch, swiftly separating it into a pair of sleeker, dual-wielded blades.
"Tch, so you’re one of his lackeys? You disgusting monsters truly never know when to stop!" Flames erupted fiercely from both of the boy's arms once more.
"A monster? Hey, you crazy arsonist, how dare you call me that! What exactly are you even doing in a place like this?" Akira countered sharply.
*TAP! TAP! TAP!*
Without giving him a chance to converse, the boy flicked his wrists. A rapid barrage of fire projectiles erupted from his fingertips, targeting Akira's frame relentlessly.
"Damn it, that's completely unsportsmanlike! Don't you know you're not supposed to interrupt someone mid-dialogue?" Akira dove to the side with high agility, letting the fire barrage pelt the grass behind him, carving out glowing, charred craters.
*SWOOSH!*
While evading the onslaught, Akira launched a counterattack, hurling one of his blades with full force straight toward his foe.
Seeing the razor-sharp edge tearing toward his chest, the boy's right arm suddenly turned a deep, obsidian black, gleaming with a metallic sheen beneath the shroud of fire.
*CLANG!*
With a sharp, resounding strike, the boy successfully parried Akira's throwing knife, forcing it completely off its original trajectory. The blade spun several times in the air before embedding itself firmly into the soil, not far to the boy's right.
Exploiting the enemy’s brief distraction from parrying the knife, Akira closed the distance from the exposed left flank, launching a flurry of blind-spot slashes.
The boy responded with a lightning-fast pivot.
*DING! DING! DING!*
A rapid succession of metallic clashes echoed through the clearing. Akira’s storm-like onslaught of slashes was completely blocked by the boy's pitch-black, rigid arms.
'Tch, what an annoying piece of armor!' Akira felt a surge of irritation seeing his opponent's arms completely unmarred, yet his hands didn't slow their rhythm for a single second.
The two engaged in a brutal, close-quarters slugfest amidst the raging flames—one relying on a pair of agile, sweeping edges, while the other fought with destructive, fiery fists.
*CLANG!*
Akira's blade struck the boy's left arm heavily once more. However, due to the extreme heat of the surrounding environment, the sweat slicking Akira's palms caused his grip on the hilt to suddenly slip.
"Perfect chance!" The boy instantly seized the opening. His right hand shot forward, locking onto Akira's blade with a crushing grip so it couldn't be retracted. "That's enough!"
The boy hurled his left fist, engulfed in a massive blaze, aiming directly for Akira's cheek.
Sensing a lethal threat approaching, Akira immediately let go of his weapon and dissolved his body into the darkness beneath his feet.
*BOOM!*
Exactly a second after Akira vanished, a massive column of fire erupted violently from the boy's left fist, scorching the empty air where Akira's head had been positioned just moments before.
"Ran away again?!" The boy stared at the captured blade in his right hand, thoroughly annoyed.
"Wrong, behind you!" A sharp chill suddenly pricked the back of his neck.
Akira materialized from the shadow cast by the previously thrown knife embedded in the dirt. He ripped the blade from the ground and launched a blinding thrust straight toward his foe's back.
The boy spun around instantly to face Akira. "It's useless! Ordinary physical attacks can never pierce me!"
Abandonding his defense with absolute confidence, the boy discarded the captured sword in his right hand and drove both of his flaming fists forward simultaneously to crush Akira’s frame.
"ARRGHI!" A sharp, agonizing screech pierced the silence of the forest instead.
The scenario the boy had envisioned never manifested. A dense, deep-blue dark energy flowed violently along the length of Akira’s blade, bypassing his metallic defense with absolute ease.
A long, deep laceration instantly ripped across the boy's abdomen, causing fresh crimson to spill out heavily. The overwhelming agony caused the boy's flaming fists to freeze stiff mid-air.
"I didn't actually want to use this remaining energy since my reserves are running low, but today I'm forced to teach you a little lesson!" Akira roared loudly.
*SHADOW EDGE!*
The dense, pitch-black dark energy completely wrapped around the length of his blade. Locking both hands around the hilt, Akira unleashed a lethal slash aiming straight for his opponent's neck.
*CLANG!*
The boy managed to parry the fatal blow using his arm just in time. However, judging by the heavy trail of blood seeping rapidly from his blackened skin, his metallic defense was clearly pushed to its absolute breaking point.
The two teenagers were now locked in a tense, brute-force deadlock. The boy could feel his life force draining rapidly from the deep wound in his stomach and his bleeding arm. He knew all too well that he couldn't afford to let this stalemate drag on any longer.
Forcing his remaining strength past the excruciating pain in his limbs, the boy shoved Akira’s blade away. His eyes had now completely bloodshot with raw fury.
"Haaah! Die!" the boy shrieked hysterically. Both of his arms were suddenly engulfed in a raging inferno, the temperature skyrocketing to hundreds of degrees Celsius as he drove his ultimate fist straight toward Akira's chest.
'The distance is too close, there's no room to evade!'
Facing his opponent's desperate final assault, Akira had no other options. He completely wrapped both of his palms in dense shadow energy, lunging forward to directly catch and tightly lock onto the boy's twin flaming fists.
The moment their palms collided, the extreme, scorching heat immediately seared through his protective shadow layer. Akira gritted his teeth with immense force to hold back the agonizing pain.
"Damn it!!"
Despite the excruciating, searing pain burning through his palms, Akira refused to loosen his grip. Instead, he locked onto the boy's twin flaming fists to prevent any chance of escape, driving his weight backward to yank the youth forcefully toward his position.
The boy instantly lost his balance due to Akira's sudden, overwhelming pull. His frame stumbled forward, tumbling directly toward the hooded youth.
*BANG!*
A brutal, heavy headbutt landed squarely against the boy's forehead. The sheer force of the impact snapped the youth's head back, forcing him to stumble backward several paces as his vision swirled in a daze.
Akira immediately stabilized his footing. Without wasting a single second, he capitalized on the opening to unleash a powerful spinning wheel kick, striking dead against the side of the boy's already bleeding abdomen.
Caught completely off guard, the boy absorbed the full magnitude of the blunt force. His body was launched away, skidding and rolling over ten meters across the dirt before finally coming to a halt.
"Haaah... haaah... haaah..."
Akira panted heavily, his breath ragged and shallow. Thick beads of cold sweat constantly dripped from his forehead, soaking into the charred earth below.
Oxygen had already become dangerously scarce amidst the raging forest fire. Combined with the high-intensity close-quarters slugfest from earlier, Akira’s remaining physical conditioning had plummeted to barely a fraction of his peak state.
Akira raised both of his palms before his face. His skin had turned a vivid, angry red from extreme thermal burns, and several blisters had already ruptured, seeping fresh crimson.
Even though he had wrapped his hands in a protective layer of shadow energy, the hundreds of degrees of radiant heat had still systematically bypassed his defense to scorch his tissue.
Akira gathered his pair of dual blades from the dirt and began a slow, deliberate march toward the fallen youth.
The boy was slumped limply against the trunk of a massive tree. His right hand was clamped tightly over the bleeding laceration on his abdomen, his eyes glaring up at Akira’s approach with a gaze packed with deep, lingering hatred.
But suddenly—
The boy's expression froze stiff. His gaze snapped straight toward the space behind Akira. "Behind you!"
*BANG!*
The sharp crack of a gunshot violently shattered the forest air. A bullet tore through the smoke like lightning, aiming directly for the back of Akira's skull.
*CLANG!*
Akira pivoted his frame with blinding speed. The edge in his hand sliced the bullet clean into two halves mid-air. Without breaking his momentum, his right hand whipped forward, hurling the blade with full force toward the precise source of the gunfire.
*STAB!*
The sharp sound of a blade embedding deep into dense flesh resonated clearly through the brush.
[ Alert: Mission Objective Has Been Successfully Cleared! Main Reward Distributed. ]
[ Status: Evaluating host performance metrics... ]
[ Evaluation Complete. Assessment Rating: Perfect. Bonus Gacha Ticket x1 Acquired. ]
Akira stood frozen in place as the rows of transparent system text flickered to life right before his eyes. "What?! So that cop from earlier was actually the system's main target?! I... I’ve been fighting the wrong guy this entire time?!"
Akira strode forward, shoving the thick bushes aside. Lying on the dirt was a pitch-black, humanoid creature, a blade protruding directly from the center of its chest. The creature's shapeshifting glamour was rapidly unraveling. Akira stared down at the monster's corpse, lost in deep thought.
A moment later, Akira turned his body around with an incredibly awkward motion, looking back toward the fire-wielding youth who was still slumped helplessly by the tree.
The boy actually let out a weak chuckle upon seeing Akira's bewildered expression.
Once the massive misunderstanding between them was finally cleared up, Akira learned that the youth's name was Natsume Fumiaki. A few months ago, Fumiaki had witnessed his own parents being brutally slaughtered by this exact black creature. Since that horrific day, he had been tirelessly tracking the monster down to avenge his family.
"This specific species possesses the capability to masquerade as its victims after killing them. That’s why it’s virtually impossible to track them down through normal means," Fumiaki explained, his voice growing slightly faint.
Akira extended his hand, helping to support Fumiaki as they walked over to inspect the monster's true form, its police disguise now completely melted away.
Fumiaki stared down at the corpse with a grim look of satisfaction, then turned his gaze toward Akira. "It’s a good thing your throwing strike finished it off. Otherwise, that thing would have kept lurking around in a police uniform to prey on more civilians."
Akira scratched the back of his neck beneath his hood. "Ah... I really owe you an apology. Because of that disguise, I completely mistook you for some dangerous, bloodthirsty arsonist."
"Don't sweat it, just let it go. Before we fought, I also assumed you were one of its monstrous lackeys, so let’s just call it even," Fumiaki said, tapping Akira’s shoulder gently to dissolve the tension.
After storing his blades back into his shadow inventory and ensuring the remaining brush fires in the surrounding forest were completely extinguished, Akira slung Fumiaki's arm over his shoulder, helping him navigate the quiet mountain path.
To keep Fumiaki's mind off the throbbing agony in his abdomen, Akira tried to initiate a casual conversation along the way. "By the way, where on earth did you obtain a supernatural capability that powerful? Those flames of yours were insanely hot."
Hearing the inquiry, Fumiaki paused for a brief moment before offering a wry, bitter smile. "Ah... a few days ago, I accidentally found and ate a mysterious fruit in this forest. It looked incredibly bizarre and tasted absolutely horrifying. Not long after swallowing it, my body suddenly started erupting into flames. When it first happened, I was honestly scared to death. What about you? That shadow manipulation of yours looks pretty creepy too."
"As for me... my capability was taught directly by a legendary 'old man'," Akira replied, referring to the shadow knight Igris bound within his system.
"Eh... having an actual master to guide you must be nice. You're pretty lucky." Fumiaki didn't seem inclined to pry any further into the matter.
The two continued their casual banter to kill time. After trekking for over ten minutes, they finally reached the edge of the main highway at the foot of the mountain. They had to wait in the cold darkness for a considerable amount of time before an empty taxi finally drove past, allowing them to hail it down.
Upon catching sight of Fumiaki’s blood-soaked frame, the taxi driver was scared out of his wits, reflexively slamming his foot toward the gas pedal to flee. However, thanks to the miracle of "financial prowess"—specifically, several large-denomination yen bills thrust directly in front of his face—the driver instantly went mute. Choosing to ask zero questions, he immediately accelerated, chauvinisting the two teenagers toward the nearest private hospital.
After accompanying Fumiaki to receive medical treatment consisting of several stitches along his abdominal laceration, Akira also had the doctor treat and bandage his own blistered palms.
By the time Akira finished handling and settling the entire hospital administrative fees using his debit card, the faint hues of dawn were already creeping over the eastern sky, signaling the arrival of morning.
Due to the severity of his injuries, Fumiaki was forced to undergo inpatient care for a few days. Before parting ways, Akira and Fumiaki exchanged LINE IDs, agreeing that Akira would drop by to visit him sometime soon. Once all affairs were settled, Akira rushed out, heading back toward his apartment before his uncle could wake up.