Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

The ground collapsed, and shards of broken rock tumbled around him.

Law hadn't expected the beasts to be packed with explosives… nor had he expected the blast to literally tear open the ground beneath him.

That outcome wasn't solely due to the explosion itself, as it turns out, the area beneath had already been hollow.

Before he could steady himself, Law's back struck solid earth with a heavy thud.

"Luckily, I was able to use my Domain to protect myself in time, and it was also fortunate that there was no space underground. Otherwise, even with the defensive power of Domain, I would have been injured if I had endured such a powerful explosion head-on."

Flat on his back, Law lay still for a moment. Around him, rocks were still falling, crashing down relentlessly.

In his blurred vision, dark silhouettes rained from above, and from even higher up came flaming remains of trees… like a meteor shower crashing toward him.

These fallen rocks and burning tree debris were like torrential downpour, covering the area around Law as the center.

Boom boom boom…

Within moments, the place where Law was was buried under rubble.

The aftershock of the explosion didn't last long, and the surroundings soon became quiet.

Pushing away the stones piled along the edges of his Domain, Law stood up and looked around.

The floor was covered in broken rock and smoldering tree trunks, casting flickering light around the underground cavern.

With the help of the firelight, Law could barely make out his surroundings.

This is an underground cave, surrounded by natural stone pillars, some thick and some thin. Most of them look like apples that have been bitten down, leaving only the core.

A quick glance around showed there were easily over a hundred of these stone pillars within the firelight's reach, all stretching up to the ceiling of the cavern.

Law didn't pay much attention to the stone pillars. Instead, he looked up toward the hole he had fallen through.

It resembled a wellhead, drawing in the light from the surface above.

The fire's reach was limited, and with no solid reference points, Law couldn't estimate just how far underground he was.

If the lighting were better, Law'd see that the cavern ceiling was a dome… curving upward in the center and sloping downward toward the edges.

The collapse had happened precisely at the highest central point, which is also the weakest point of the rock layer.

'How to get out...'

Law lowered his gaze and began observing the surrounding stone pillars. Luckily, the smoldering tree debris gave him just enough visibility to avoid total blindness.

He approached a burning trunk, swung his blade, and easily sliced off a branch to fashion into a makeshift torch.

'The sudden explosion of the creature that was cut in half must have been the work of the enemy. Normally, the enemy would come to the scene of the explosion to check the situation.'

'Which meant…!'

Holding his sword in one hand and the torch in the other, Law glanced up at the opening overhead.

At this height, even if the creatures jumped down directly, there would be no problem.

In addition, the enemy also has flying monsters, so even if all the monsters came down, there would be no need to worry about not being able to get up.

So, if the other party found the collapsed ground, would they send someone down to investigate?

This is one possibility, and another possibility is that the other party has no intention of confirming whether he lived or died.

Without dwelling on it, Law picked a direction at random and headed deeper into the cave.

Stone pillars of varying thickness are scattered irregularly around. Without a light source, walking even a few meters risked walking face-first into one.

Law held the torch high, weaved between the stone pillars for about two hundred meters, and suddenly stopped.

"This is…?"

He brought the torch closer to a pillar roughly the width of a full-grown man's embrace. The orange-yellow flame covered the stone pillar, and under the flame, a strange pattern was revealed.

Looking at the pattern, Law's eyes widened in surprise. It looked more like a child's scribble than an actual carving. But there was no doubt that even if it was just a doodle, it was made by human hands.

There is not much intelligence information about Alcatraz Island, but one thing stood out: Since the island's discovery, there's no signs of human habitation. No ruins or remains had ever been found.

However, the graffiti carved into the stone pillar was clearly the work of human hands.

The ecosystem of Demon Island was extremely diverse. As a confirmed magical domain, it housed many species of magical beasts…. some with intelligence rivaling that of humans. There had been documented cases of such beasts carving patterns into rocks or cliff faces.

However, the reason why Law is sure that the graffiti carved on the stone pillar was created by humans is that the graffiti itself was depicting scenes from human's daily life.

The content of the graffiti is roughly as follows: human figures clad in animal hide loincloths, holding what looked like spears, dancing wildly around a bonfire. Above the fire loomed an enormous, unidentifiable creature, easily a hundred times the size of the human figures.

"Primitive cave art? Or something else?"

Law murmured to himself, and held his torch closer to a few more nearby pillars. He passed more than ten stone pillars in a row, but he did not find any graffiti in the same style.

"Whatever."

Law looked back at the multiple flames about two hundred meters away, which was right below the collapsed opening. He needed to stay farther from the collapsed opening and also keep a distance where he could observe the situation while also preserving the freedom to retreat if needed.

'At least five hundred to a thousand meters was necessary.'

Although he is very intrigued about the origin of this graffiti, Law didn't have the time or luxury to dig deeper into it right now.

He continued weaving through the forest of pillars, advancing deeper into the cave. After another six hundred meters, he stopped again and looked back toward the distant fires.

This was where he'd wait and see how the enemy moved next.

With that decision, he extinguished his torch, and the smoke from the dying flame curled upward, fading into the darkness.

All around him, the stone columns loomed in disarray. If a battle broke out here, the environment would become a massive hazard, as those pillars would be destroyed in droves.

He had no idea if the collapse of enough of them would cause the entire cave system to fall apart.

There is another worst-case scenario, which is that there will be a creature with Night Vision ability in the enemy's camp. If so, that would be a serious problem.

'If things went south, I'd have no choice but to go deeper...'

With that in mind, Law compressed the surrounding air over the torch, then scraped his sword across the ground to spark a new flame. He used the light to retreat a further four hundred meters into the cave before once again extinguishing the torch.

Now, he would silently watch the firelight flickering far behind him, beneath the collapsed opening.

Everything would hinge on whether the enemy came down… or chose to give up.

…

On the surface, Dove and his companions, as well as the remaining creatures, arrived at the explosion site.

The blast had cleared an area about the size of a soccer field. The trees at the edge were still burning with scattered flames, while at the very center, a large hole had formed from the collapse.

Dove and his companions walked to the edge of the hole and looked down. They could see the faint flicker of firelight below, just enough to let them make out the burning remnants of trees and heaps of rubble.

'From the surrounding, it can be confirmed that this hole created by the explosion is the center of the explosion.'

'So, is that bastard with the sword dead or alive?'

At this time, two artificial creatures came over, each carrying a chunk of unidentifiable flesh. It was the remains of the creatures killed in the blast.

Dove only took a glance at them and then looked away.

"Should we check it out?" Hawk asked.

"No need. He's not our main target." Dove said coldly.

At this time, five flying-type artificial creatures descended from the sky and landed beside them.