The moon hangs high above the forest bathing it in its calming light. Hidden amongst the brush is a cave with its entrance blocked by tables. Just outside the entrance a large wolf paces back and forth while looking at the tables with curious eyes. The wolf has shiny black fur which looks beautiful despite the fact it’s connected to a beast that stands a meter tall and two and a half times as long.

The giant beast slaps at the tables with its paw shattering them into innumerable splinters and sawdust. The sound of the tables being slapped into oblivion echoes throughout the cave as it charges in set on making this cave its new home.

With a swipe of its razor sharp claws then last of the tables is annihilated leading the massive wolf to a large open room. Sitting on a table is a violet eyed goblin that seemed to be waiting for the intruder to arrive. The beast tilts its head confusedly when the goblin stands up and begins casually strolling in its direction. It’s unfathomable that a lowly goblin would dare to so much as look in its direction much less maintain its calm and confronting it, yet such a thing is happening right before its eyes.

A low growl is emitted from its snarling mouth as saliva seeps down its jaws and drips on the floor below. When the goblin doesn’t have the slightest reaction to its intimidation it angrily pounces, planning to bite the wretch’s head off with a single snap of its powerful jaws.

The goblin somehow manages to avoid being gnawed to death by circling around the beast’s mouth and moving next to its exposed flank. Before it has a chance to take advantage of the opening it’s greeted by the wolf’s tail whip coming straight for its head. Rolling to the side allows it to just barely slip under the deadly attack while also moving out of its range.

Immediately popping up to his feet he tries to rush down the wolf before it has a chance to turn around. Unfortunately he underestimated the beast’s agility as it spryly spun itself around while falling back slightly before swiping at the incoming goblin with its claws. Refusing to stay on the defensive Jellal jumps over the slashing claws and is greeted by the open mouth of the beast rocketing upwards trying to snatch him out of midair.

With a spinning slash of his saw he manages to repel the wolf’s offensive but is secretly startled when his slash failed to break through the beast’s defense. The upward lunged allowed the wolf to quickly turn around while simultaneously attacking him which kept it in position to retaliate as he was landing.

Unable to recover in time he has no choice but to take the open mouthed charge head on. Using his saw he manages to deflect the wolf’s jaws just enough to avoid it clamping down on his shoulder. Even though he was able to avoid the potentially life threatening bite there was nothing he could do about the wolf’s momentum which caused its shoulder to ram powerfully into his chest.

As blood leaks from the corner of his mouth he stumbles three steps backwards while doing his best to fend off the beast’s vicious follow up. Using his whole body as leverage he once again manages to change the direction of the vice like jaws of the wolf at the cost of leaving him completely exposed to the claws that come toward his back. Continuing his momentum he manages to spin around in time to use the saw to block the claws but to no avail. Without having a proper base he’s unable to hold back the attack as it pushes past his saw and into his unprotected chest.

Blood sprays from the gashes on his chest as he’s rocketed across the room, bouncing along the ground before crashing painfully into a table with his back causing him to spew a bloody mist from his mouth. He staggers as he drags his beaten body off of the broken table, his eyes glowing with a vicious light as he glares hatefully at the enemy which slapped him across the room.

The two rush at each other, both building up momentum to deal a powerful blow to their enemy. The wolf is the first to attack, lunging forward with its mouth open ready to devour its foe alive. Jellal uses a foot first slide to slip underneath the attack. Planting his foot in the ground he pops up while slashing his saw in an arc over his head. The slash lands precisely on the beast’s throat but even with the momentum he had built up it’s unable to deal any real damage.

To prevent its opponent from staying beneath it where it’s unable to properly attack the wolf has no choice but to jump back and put distance between them. However its move was anticipated and it’s unable to put make a gap of any significance.

As the wolf lands there is less than a foot separating the two leaving them face to face. Of course Jellal could have stayed under the wolf but allowed a small gap to form since he’s incapable of injuring the beast even if he was directly underneath it.

Without giving his opponent a chance to react he blows a bloody mist from his mouth. The wolf rears back as it’s left temporarily blinded because of the blood mist. Taking full advantage of the opportunity Jellal swiftly circles to the beast’s side and hops on its back. No matter how it thrashes about it’s unable to throw him off thanks to the death grip his free hand has on its fur.

Just when he thinks he has an advantage the wolf does something that is completely outside his expectations, it sinks into the shadows on the ground. Despite sensing the movement of mana in advance he’s only able to watch as the wolf slips through his grasp and disappears completely.

His rigorous training to sense mana finally shows its worth as he’s able to feel the location and movements of the hidden terror even without being able to see it with his eyes. He keeps his eyes locked on the location where he knows his opponent is skulking about heightening his focus so he won’t miss his chance when it reveals itself.

As he continually increases his focus his eyes begin to glow even brighter than before. Suddenly the surroundings become flooded with various colors intermingling with each other yet remaining separate, individual yet part of a greater whole. Amidst the vibrant world his attention doesn’t shift away from the wolf, in fact the beast which remains hidden to the outside world is blatantly out there for him to see in this new vibrant world.

The wolf leaps from the shadow and tries unsuccessfully to rip its foe apart. Rather than land on solid ground it smoothly sinks into another shadow without setting foot on the tangible earth. Unlike the first time it sunk into the shadows, which was at a slow and steady pace, this time there was no resistance as it maintained the speed and momentum it had gained when passing into the shadow.

Hopping from shadow to shadow it circled around its prey trying to find an angle to strike and catch its foe off guard. It continued circling while occasionally leaping at its prey standing powerlessly in the middle of the room, yet no matter how or where it attacked from it always ended in failure.

Eventually the beast’s impatience got the better of it as it carelessly leaped from the shadows without properly angling itself to land in a suitable shadow leaving itself vulnerable upon landing back on solid ground. Unfortunately for the wolf its opponent noticed the mistake before it had even left the shadows and made sure to keep close to it after avoiding its attack.

Looking over its shoulder as it was landing it could only powerlessly watch as Jellal launched himself onto its defenseless back, tightly gripping the beast’s fur as he saddled himself around its neck. It thrashed about voraciously in a desperate attempt to throw the unwanted pest from its back but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Knowing it wouldn’t be able to get rid of the nuisance so easily it made a b-line for the nearest shadow it could enter. Seizing the chance Jellal inched forward and hooked his saw around the beast’s throat. Gripping the handle in one hand while his offhand tightly held the back of the saw he used all his strength to force the teeth of the saw into the throat of his enemy.

The teeth of the saw grinded away at the wolf’s throat but failed to pierce its formidable defense. Seeing that he couldn’t use the saw to penetrate the beast’s neck he resorted to strangling it to death. In order to prevent it from escaping into the shadows he would jerk about forcing its head all over the place and throwing it off course.

Unfortunately the saw was unable to hold out against such rigors as cracks started forming due to the accumulation of stress on the middle of the saw. With a loud crack the saw broke in two ruining the plan to strangle the wolf to death. By quickly discarding the broken pieces of the saw Jellal managed to latch onto the fur before the beast could throw him off its back.

The vivacious jerking of the wolf caused Jellal to struggle desperately to hang on while trying to concurrently pull a saw out of his belt pouch. His effort payed off as he managed to retrieve a saw before the beast could sink into another shadow.

Without the saw under its neck messing with its movements it was able to easily reach a shadow but as it was about to enter Jellal swung the saw over its head toward its unprotected eyes. Violently shaking its head while closing its eyes it somehow managed to prevent the strike from landing. Regardless of whether the attack landed or not Jellal was happy with the outcome since the wolf wasn’t able to escape into a shadow.

When it stopped shaking its head it tried to double back to the shadow hoping to get the annoyance off its back once and for all. Unfortunately it didn’t even have the time to turn around before the saw was yet again firmly pressed against its throat.

Energetically thrashing about, it hoped to break this saw with brute force the same way it had the last one. Things didn’t go according to plan though as a stiff wind enveloped the back of the weapon reinforcing it. Jellal even forced mana into the saw to strengthen it internally as a second layer of support to ensure it would go the way of the first saw.

The wolf desperately struggled for well over a minute before it finally collapsed heavily to the ground. Even though his enemy had collapsed Jellal refused to let off the pressure as he continued to strangle the beast as it lay motionless on its side.

After a few minutes he reluctantly released his grip on the saw, prying his right arm free from under the motionless body as he jumped back cautiously. Before he had even landed on the ground he managed to pull out another saw so he would be ready if the wolf was still alive.

He stared at his fallen foe intensely as he guardedly circled around it. As he moved he gathered the wind mana in the surroundings to condense formed magic in the form of thousands of tiny wind blades tightly compacted into a brutishly rotating sphere.

Releasing the magic he controlled it so it would go into the open mouth of the downed wolf. Upon entering its mouth he swerved it into its throat before the internal ball exploded propelling the wind blades out furiously tearing through flesh and bone as they left a trail of destruction in their wake. There was no reaction from the beast as the magic tore its insides to shreds causing a large amount of blood to leak out of its open mouth.

Finally convinced of the beast’s death Jellal heaved a sigh of relief before throwing himself powerlessly to the ground. Lying on his back he couldn’t resist his urge to break out into a maniacal laughter after overcoming such a powerful enemy.

Deep in the cave, in the prison area, the captives nervously lay awake in their beds after being woken up by the sounds of intense battle. Jellal’s maniacal laughter echoes through the cave before everything returns to silence. The eerie silence does nothing to help them calm their nerves as they anxiously pray for their own safety.

The most nervous of all the captives isn’t even in a cell. Sitting alone in Jellal’s room Meredith sits on the bed and impatiently stares out at the hallway as the soft sound of footsteps slowly creep closer and closer. Encasing herself in a blanket, her heart sits in her throat as Jellal walks around the corner and enters the room.

Seeing how worried Meredith is he pats her head lightly before diving into bed. After being stressed out over the intruder Meredith has a hard time falling back asleep so Jellal stays up with her to help her relax. When he finally manages to coax her to sleep he crawls under the blankets at the opposite end of the bed to catch some shut eye. Due to the size of the bed the pair of small fries are able to sleep at opposite ends without their feet touching in the middle.

Waking up early the next morning Jellal quietly lets out a yawn as he sits up, stretching his arms high overhead. Being careful not to wake Meredith who’s sleeping like a log he begins to extract the various berries and mushrooms that were deemed dangerous to consume from his belt, setting them on top of the blanket.

He devours them one at a time, each time silently enduring the side effect. After eating one of each he goes back to the first one and starts over. It only takes a few cycles for him to stop feeling the side effects of the plants so he starts eating handfuls of the different berries at the same time.

In a matter of minutes his collection of harmful edibles complete disappeared without a trace. He waits a few minutes to ensure there are no late side effects before pulling out one of the item bags.

Last night Meredith explained to him what she had learned about item bags from her father. The extra space in an item bag isn’t from the bag itself but a gem or special magic stone which is used as a proxy. The biggest issue with this is that the proxy is directly linked to a single user and can only be accessed by that person. If the person dies then the gem will turn to dust permanently sealing the space. Of course it’s possible to use another stone to open a new space, though it will be an entirely different sub space. The most important part of the process is the gem or magic stone since the quality will be what determines how much space is opened up.

‘What’s the point of such a convoluted system? In the end the bag just acts as a tool to use the gems without being used itself, kind of ironic if you think about it. If I could clearly sense the space magic I might be able to find a way to break into the closed spaces, but I would need to waste a gem just to open a new space and even then there’s no guarantee I’d be able to sense it properly..’

After a bit of pondering he decides not to open up a new space in the item bag immediately since he doesn’t want to waste a precious gem for no reason, instead opts to wait since it would be better to figure out which gem is the least valuable and use that one for his research.

Being careful not to wake Meredith he slips out of the room and heads for the prison area to check on the captives. When he looks at the captives in their cells he’s surprised to see that many of them have black circles under their bloodshot eyes.

Ignoring the useless prisoners he lets his not completely incompetent subordinates out of their cells. Compared to the rest of the prisoners they’re in much better condition since they managed to sleep just fine despite the late night disturbance. As usual Evangeline lodges a complaint after being unceremoniously forced to wake up despite it being daytime.

Ignoring the vampire they left the prison area to go to the dining hall. Along the way a certain vampire tried to break off from the group and duck into Jellal’s room to resume her nap. Such an action was to be expected and Jellal stopped her with a chop to the back of the head before dragging her away by the back of her neck. They moved away from his room while the back of her heels dug trenches in the floor as she comically stretched her arms out longingly toward the room which was getting farther away with each step.

Eventually the sulking vampire gave up her plan to take a nap in his bed after being scolded for almost waking up Meredith. With the problem child taken care of, they quickly arrived at the scene of last night’s battle, the dining room.

Since he was worn out after the fight he didn’t bother doing anything with the body, so the giant wolf was left lying in the middle of the room for all to see.

The group was shocked to find out that such a powerful monster had been the one to break in last night, but that wasn’t the thing that surprised them the most. The thing that startled them most was that this particular type of monster, a Shadow Wolf, isn’t supposed to live so close to the edge of the forest. From what they know Shadow Wolves should live deep in the forest in small packs, yet in front of them is a lone wolf near the outer edge of the forest.

Unease began to seep its way into their minds as they thought of the implications of such a monster roaming about the forest’s outer edge. The more disconcerting part was that they had no idea why it came to the outer edge. There is nothing that causes a greater sense of dread than the unknown. Without knowing they could only speculate which only gives rise to greater fear.

Was it forced to leave its home turf? If so, what kind of monster is powerful enough to do that? Why is it alone? Was whatever chased it here able to wipe out its entire pack? What would happen if such a monster came to the outer edge, or worse yet they came to an undefended village or town? Would a city’s guards be able to prevent such a monster from wreaking havoc through a city if it managed to somehow find its way to a highly populated area?

The more they thought about it the more their thoughts focused on the unknown. As they thought of different what if scenarios the dread that had wormed its way into their hearts began to escalate. Without even realizing it their minds had been enraptured by fear of the unknown.