My Overpowered Bunny Girls

The Shepherd’s Bane struck dead center on the vessel’s chest.

For a single, frozen second, absolutely nothing happened. The pale vessel just stood there. But for the first time, its ancient, empty eyes went wide with something Nathan had never expected to see—genuine, unfiltered panic.

Then, the arrow exploded.

It wasn’t a blast of fire or sound. It was a silent, blinding wave of pure silver light. The energy tore straight through the vessel’s chest, throwing the puppet backward so hard it crashed violently into the bone throne.

The Watchers screamed.

It wasn’t a normal sound. It sounded like ripping sheet metal and shattering glass. The magical connection holding them together snapped. The dozen Watchers immediately twisted and collapsed, their white robes melting into piles of dirty ash on the polished floor. The massive hall shook. The living tapestries tore themselves to shreds. The heavy, suffocating shadows burned away.

But Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] was still flashing red.

"Don’t stop!" Nathan yelled, nocking a standard mana arrow. "That was just a puppet! Keep hitting them!"

The party surged forward. Mirko led the charge. She didn’t hesitate—she instantly triggered [Gigantification].

A pillar of jade light swallowed her. When it cleared, Mirko stood twelve feet tall, a towering giant in the pale hall. Her new Bulwark Bracers expanded perfectly to match her size. She raised Dragon’s Fang—now the size of a falling steel beam—and brought it down on a Watcher that was trying to reform.

KRAK! The creature shattered like cheap glass under the flaming blade. "Hmph! This Knight has been waiting to do that!" she roared, her voice booming through the room.

Shiro was right behind her. She triggered [Dragonification], her arms wrapping in thick gold scales as wings of pure fire burst from her back. She launched herself high into the air and dove like a meteor. She slammed a [Tyrant Dragon Fist] into a cluster of recovering Watchers. The golden shockwave blew them completely apart.

Kuro moved through the chaos like a ghost. Her new Veilweave Daggers worked exactly as Vex promised. She slipped behind the Watchers, and her dark blades phased right through their white armor. She didn’t cut their bodies; she sliced directly through their internal mana channels. The monsters just dropped silently to the floor, instantly dead.

Garrett and Red held the absolute center of the room. A Watcher slammed a heavy blow against Garrett’s shoulder, but the new Aegis Pauldrons flashed. The armor ate the kinetic force and immediately pushed a wave of warm, healing energy into Garrett’s muscles. He didn’t even flinch. He swung Volcan, burning the attacker to ash. "Keep pushing!" Garrett roared. "Don’t let them breathe!"

Dillon and Cloudy owned the airspace. Dillon’s Tempest Shroud crackled wildly, feeding off his constant movement. Every time a Watcher got too close, the cloak snapped, blasting them with a blinding jolt of static. The second they were stunned, Dillon’s katana took their heads off.

Elise stood firmly at Nathan’s side. Her Glacial Crown glowed brightly, keeping the Shepherd’s whispering magic totally blocked out of her head. Her mind was crystal clear. She directed her massive Frost Golem to crush the survivors while she fired sharp [Glacial Lances] right through the chaos, pinning targets to the walls.

"The vessel is down," Elise called out, scanning the room. "But the Shepherd’s pressure is still here! The room is still holding the magic!"

Nathan swept his eyes across the hall. The vessel’s body was smoking and broken, but the massive throne of white bone behind it was pulsing with a sick, heavy light.

"The throne is the anchor," Nathan realized aloud. "The chair is holding the door open! Destroy it!"

The team turned their weapons toward the back of the room. But before they could take a step, the shadows violently surged.

The vessel pulled itself up.

Its chest was completely caved in. Its pale face was cracked down the middle like a broken porcelain doll. The bone-white shaft of the Shepherd’s Bane was still deeply lodged in its chest, leaking silver light. But the Shepherd’s raw magic was forcing the broken puppet to stand.

The vessel’s mouth hung open, and a voice echoed out—not from its throat, but from the walls, the floor, and the ceiling all at once.

"Did you really think one arrow could kill me?" the Shepherd’s true voice boomed. "I am not one body. I am every shadow in the dark. I am every fear that has ever haunted your miserable little world. You cannot kill me, rabbit. You can only delay the inevitable."

"Then we’ll just keep delaying you," Nathan said smoothly.

"There is no delay," the vessel hissed. "The Demi-Beasts belong to me. The System will be eaten. And you... you will watch everything you love turn to dirt."

The room’s shadows whipped forward like solid tentacles.

Nathan didn’t back up. He triggered [Nimble Feet], sliding perfectly under a massive shadow-whip. He cast [Multi-Shadow Clones], sending four copies of himself scattering across the room to confuse the magical attacks.

He aimed Moonlight and fired [Death’s Homing Compass]. The silver target burned itself directly onto the center of the bone throne.

"Hit the throne! Now!" Nathan yelled.

The party unloaded everything they had. Mirko brought her massive, flaming sword down on the armrest. CRACK. Shiro’s dragon fire detonated against the backrest. Garrett slammed Volcan into the base. Dillon’s lightning blasted the stone. Elise’s ice spears punched into the bone. Smithy’s dark armor phased him right through a shadow-whip, letting him command his Void Eel to wrap around the throne and squeeze with crushing pressure.

The heavy bone throne began to fracture, spiderweb cracks running up its sides.

The broken vessel screamed, reaching a hand out. "NO! This Court is mine!"

Nathan dashed right past the remaining shadows, closing the distance to the throne. The vessel tried to step in his way, but Nathan didn’t use his bow. He reached out, grabbed the glowing shaft of the Shepherd’s Bane still stuck in the puppet’s chest, and violently ripped it free.

The vessel collapsed into dust.

Nathan spun, gripping the arrow like a dagger, and drove the jagged, glowing arrowhead straight down into the deepest crack of the bone throne.

"Not anymore," Nathan said.

The world went completely white.

When Nathan’s vision finally cleared, his ears were ringing in total silence.

The bone throne was gone, shattered into a million pieces of harmless white dust. The vessel was gone. The Watchers were completely erased. Only his team remained, standing breathing heavily in the ruins of the Pale Court. The polished white stone floor was cracked and ruined, and the heavy, suffocating magical pressure had simply evaporated.

Garrett wiped sweat from his forehead. "Is it... is it over?"

Nathan shook his head slowly. He put Moonlight back over his shoulder. "No. The real Shepherd is still out there somewhere. This was just a puppet and a chair. But we definitely just gave him a black eye."

A sharp crackle came from the small star-pin on Nathan’s collar.

"Cross? Cross, report!" Vex’s raspy voice came through, sounding strained but incredibly loud in the quiet room. "The TCA scanners just went crazy. The mana spikes are dropping fast. Did you actually pull it off?"

"We broke his toys," Nathan replied, tapping the pin. "But the Shepherd is still alive. We just kicked him out of this stronghold."

"I’ll take it," Vex said, letting out a loud breath. "Get out of there. The portal is starting to destabilize on this end. Come home."

Nathan looked at his team. They were covered in dust, battered, and exhausted. Mirko had shrunk back down to her normal height, leaning heavily on her sword. Shiro’s fiery wings had faded away. Kuro was resting against a cracked pillar. But every single one of them was standing.

"Let’s go home," Nathan said.

They turned and walked back across the ruined hall, heading for the grey-green portal waiting outside the gates. The endless white plain felt different now. The freezing cold was gone. It just felt like an empty, broken room.

As they walked, Elise stepped close to Nathan. She didn’t say a word, but she quietly slipped her hand into his. Her fingers were cold, but her grip was tight and firm.

"We didn’t finish it today," she said softly, keeping her eyes on the portal. "But we are getting close."

Nathan squeezed her hand. "Yeah. We are."

They stepped through the glowing light, leaving the ruins of the Pale Court behind them.

But deep in the darkness, far beneath the white dust of the shattered throne, something massive slowly shifted.

The Shepherd had lost a seat of power. He had lost a piece of himself. But he was very far from dead. And now, he was entirely out of patience.