Silence before the storm.
The basin glowed like a dying sun, magma swirling where land used to be. The air shimmered, thick with heat and the metallic tang of blood. Smoke hung in the sky, painting the horizon crimson.
The four hunters stood on fractured ground, their armor scorched, their breath ragged.
They had fought for what felt like eternity, and yet — the monster still lived.
Vulcarion Basal stood in the center of the molten pit, its body fractured but unbowed. The molten cracks along its armor pulsed like veins, light bleeding through them with each heartbeat. It was alive — furious — awake.
Alder spat blood and steadied his grip on his great sword. "You've got to be kidding me… it's still standing."
Kael reloaded with trembling hands, smoke rising from his light bowgun. "Its endurance is unreal. That last blast nearly flattened the ridge."
Seren staggered forward, her lance dragging against the rock. Her shield was split clean through, glowing faintly from the heat. Still, she raised it again, one last act of defiance. "Then we stand with it."
Hunnt said nothing. He looked at Vulcarion — at the way it moved. Slow, controlled, dangerous. There was intelligence in those molten eyes now. The beast wasn't just surviving. It was adapting.
The ground shook again.
Vulcarion spread its wings wide, embers raining from the sky like blood.
The roar that followed wasn't a cry of rage. It was something else — a challenge.
A test of will.
Hunnt closed his eyes. "Everyone, spread out. This next part isn't power. It's endurance."
Alder smirked, limping into position. "Endurance? That's all I've got left."
Kael took cover behind a melted spire, sweat dripping down his brow. "No promises if I pass out."
Seren's voice was hoarse but firm. "I'll hold the front."
Hunnt raised his gauntlets. "Then I'll open the way."
---
The wyvern moved first.
Vulcarion slammed its wings down, sending molten shards into the sky. Fire rained around them, melting through armor and stone alike.
Kael fired upward, his Observation Haki flaring. Each bullet struck a glowing seam, piercing through layers of molten shell. The impacts didn't kill — but they distracted, forced the monster to recoil.
Alder sprinted forward, his boots melting into the ash. Soru burst beneath his feet — a blur of motion as he closed in. He launched into the air with Geppo, sword igniting in black flame.
The swing came down hard, Armament Haki surging through his arms.
The strike landed — right across Vulcarion's neck vent.
The sound was deafening, a metal scream echoing through the valley.
Cracks spread across the armor, glowing lines like molten scars.
But Vulcarion retaliated instantly — claws slamming into the ground, Ash Pulse detonating point-blank. The explosion sent Alder crashing into the rocks.
Hunnt saw it all — every motion, every vibration, every breath.
Observation Haki turned the world into rhythm and heat. He could feel the monster's next move before it happened.
He dashed through the fire, Soru leaving streaks of light behind him. He reached Alder, dragging him away from another strike.
"You alive?" Hunnt asked.
Alder coughed, chestplate cracked. "Ask me later."
Hunnt placed him down, then turned back toward Vulcarion. The wyvern's chest pulsed, the fissures along its body glowing white-hot. The temperature spiked again, higher than before.
Kael's voice echoed through the smoke. "Hunnt! It's drawing power from the core! You've got maybe a minute before it blows the entire crater!"
Hunnt looked up, his gaze steady. "Then one minute's all I need."
---
He moved.
Each step cracked the ground, each breath burned his lungs. He was out of potions, out of energy, but not out of resolve.
His gauntlets glowed — not from heat, but from within. Armament Haki spread across his arms, the veins of light forming the emblem of the Eternal Wanderer.
He sprinted across the molten ridge — Soru, Geppo, Kami-e — fluid and furious all at once. Vulcarion's tail slammed down like a meteor. Hunnt twisted sideways, sliding under it. The shockwave followed — he countered with Tekkai, body locking into steel. The impact sent him skidding, molten sparks exploding around him, but he never fell.
Then, he struck.
Pulse Drive.
Both fists hit the glowing seam beneath the monster's chest — the fissure where Kael's bullets had landed. The shockwave rippled through the shell, cracking it wider.
Vulcarion screamed — not from pain, but rage. Its entire body flared like a sun.
Hunnt felt his skin burn beneath his armor. His lungs screamed for air.
But then — behind him — he heard them.
Alder's voice, low and fierce. "Move!"
Hunnt jumped back just as Alder came down from above, Great Sword blazing in both hands. The blade split through the fissure, the explosion blinding.
Kael's precision rounds followed, striking each opening with surgical accuracy.
Seren charged in next, slamming her broken shield into the monster's leg, forcing it to kneel.
For a moment, the impossible happened — Vulcarion dropped.
The mountain bowed.
Hunnt's Observation Haki screamed in warning.
He looked up and saw it — the molten glow in Vulcarion's eyes flickering into something darker, deeper. Its heart — the molten furnace within — wasn't fading. It was focusing.
"It's not dying," Hunnt breathed. "It's ascending."
The wyvern let out a low, guttural sound that shook the world. The flames condensed around it, swirling inward instead of outward. The air bent under the heat — the entire volcano was collapsing inward toward this one point.
Kael shouted, "Everyone back! It's going to—"
Hunnt didn't move. He planted his feet, feeling the pulse of the earth. The air vibrated against his skin, the sound of Vulcarion's rage merging with the rhythm of his heartbeat.
And then, something inside him broke open.
The world went silent.
The heat vanished.
Only stillness remained.
The air around Hunnt warped — invisible, but heavy. A pressure like the weight of the sky itself fell over the valley. The flames bent away from him, unable to touch. His gauntlets glowed black, veins of red light spreading outward from his forearms.
Kael froze mid-motion, eyes wide. "That's—"
Alder finished the thought, breathless. "Conqueror's Haki…"
The wyvern paused too, its molten eyes flickering — for the first time, uncertain.
Hunnt raised his right arm, gauntlet glowing like molten iron. The aura around him expanded, black and red waves rippling through the firestorm.
"This ends now," he said, voice quiet but carrying through the roar.
He vanished.
Soru. Geppo. Kami-e. Anchor Step.
Every movement merged into one — speed, strength, and precision.
Hunnt appeared beneath Vulcarion's chest, both fists drawn back. The air cracked around him from the pressure. His Armament and Conqueror's Haki fused, spiraling through his gauntlets like molten lightning.
"Fist Style—"
He struck upward with everything he had.
"—Pulse Drive: Eternal Break!"
The impact was silent — for a heartbeat.
Then the world exploded.
The ground shattered. Magma erupted skyward in pillars of light. The roar that followed drowned out the heavens.
Alder, Kael, and Seren shielded their faces as the shockwave flattened the entire ridge.
When the dust cleared, Vulcarion was on its knees — molten light pouring from its chest, its body fracturing apart. Its eyes dimmed slowly, then faded.
The mountain stilled.
Silence.
Hunnt stood in front of it, his armor cracked, his gauntlets glowing faintly. His knees trembled, but he didn't fall.
Alder approached, resting his sword on his shoulder. "You… you actually did it."
Hunnt didn't answer. He just exhaled and smiled faintly. "We did it."
Behind them, Kael limped forward, half his armor melted, but grinning. "Remind me never to spar with you."
Seren leaned on her broken lance, breath shallow but steady. "You'd lose before you blink."
The four of them looked at the corpse of the fallen wyvern — the Slumbering Furnace, finally silenced.
The volcano was quiet again, save for the whisper of cooling magma. The heat still radiated, but it no longer burned — it simply breathed, fading like the last embers of a forge.
Hunnt turned toward the horizon, the crimson sky dimming above them.
"For those who can't fight," he said softly, "we walk the path unseen."
Kael tilted his head. "The Wanderer's Creed?"
Hunnt nodded. "And it still holds true."
Alder planted his sword in the ground beside him, gazing at the fading monster. "Then I guess we keep walking."
Seren smiled, voice tired but certain. "Together."
As the sun rose over the valley, the four hunters stood in silence — black silhouettes against a world reborn from fire.
The Eternal Wanderers had won.