Wait for it, he thought. The three six-legged big cats advanced with easy confidence, jaws peeled back in snarling grins that showed too many teeth. Their images flickered as they walked - snapping a pace left, then right, then briefly vanishing entirely - like they were showing off.

  Jack didn’t flinch.

  He’d stared down predators before. These just had better tricks. He shifted his grip on the shotgun, then drew his arm back. There was a hiss. A low, eager snarl.

  Jack threw.

  The vial arced through the air in a clean overhand toss, tumbling end over end. The juveniles ignored it completely. It wasn’t aimed at them.

  That was their mistake.

  The vial struck the dirt behind the lead juvenile and burst. Green foam exploded outward, swelling and crawling across the ground like something alive. It wrapped around the creature’s legs in an instant, hardening as it spread. The juvenile thrashed, snarling in sudden confusion - but its limbs wouldn’t come free.

  Jack raised the shotgun and squeezed the first trigger.

  The blast thundered across the village.

  The juvenile’s head vanished in a wet, final spray. The body collapsed straight down, twitching once before going still. Jack was already swinging toward the second target…

  …and it wasn’t there.

  The image snapped backward, reappearing several yards away as the real beast broke for cover. Jack swung the shotgun, aiming for the blur in front of him. The juvenile leaped with a sudden twist, paws skimming the cobblestones. The blast tore a hole through empty air. Too fast. Too clean. Not an illusion - it actually moved. The two juveniles scattered, darting for concealment as their illusions flickered wildly.

  “Dammit,” Jack muttered. He cracked the shotgun open, letting the spent shells drop into his hand.

  “Did you get them?” Eirwen called from the passenger seat, craning forward, unable to see past his back.

  “No.” Jack tossed the casings onto the driver’s seat and slid two fresh shells into place. “The other two were hanging back, letting the leader test us.” He snapped the barrel shut. “Damn things're smarter than they look.”

  Eirwen sucked in a sharp breath. “We were counting on all three being caught in the compound. They’ll be ready for that trick next time.”

  Jack pulled both hammers back with his thumbs. “Then we improvise.” His eyes swept left, then right. He already knew not to trust what he saw. But right now, what he saw was all he had to rely on. Those other lions weren't going to challenge him head on, and he knew it. Especially since they saw he was armed with a weapon that could take them down instantly.

  Then a flicker catches his peripheral vision. Not ahead, but to the side.

  The fence line.

  Two shapes blink in and out, moving almost like water folding over itself. The remaining juveniles had been fanning wide, testing boundaries, and now they’re converging. Fast. Silent. Too fast.

  Jack curses under his breath, “Of course.”

  Before he can pivot fully, one lands on the Charger’s trunk, claws scrabbling across metal. The impact rattles the frame, and Eirwen yelps, grabbing the overhead handle as the claws scrape across the trunk.

  Another juvenile emerges a heartbeat later, leaping from shadow to shadow like a living blur. Jack swung again, aiming at the crouching juvenile - or was it? The image snapped sideways, and for a heartbeat, the dirt beneath it didn’t move. Another outline flickered in the corner of his eye. Which one is real? He fired, and the blast tore through a ghost, leaving the real beast crouched just out of sight, untouched. Jack’s teeth grit. “Fuck!”

  The air tightens, and the world seems to shrink around them. The two juveniles flank the car, forcing Jack to retreat to the Charger’s interior, slamming the car door. Jack puts the keys in the ignition, starting the car, and throws it into gear. Tires screeched as the Echo Lion tumbled off the trunk. In the rearview mirror, Jack watched it go, laughing smugly to himself.

  Eirwen clutches her hat to her head, looking forward. “They're coming after us, you know!”

  “I know!” Jack takes a turn, seeing in his mirrors as the Lions chase after him down the cobblestone street. “I'm just trying to buy some time to think up a plan! They can't get us in a moving vehicle!”

  The beasts draw closer, as one clawed strike slices across a rear tire. The car jerks violently as the rubber pops, throwing Jack and Eirwen forward. The Charger screeches to a halt as Jack curses, slamming the brakes. He raises his shotgun, getting ready to head back out of the car to confront the creatures.

  Jack opens the door, and sweeps his shotgun left and right. At first, he doesn't see anything. All he hears is his slow, steady breath as he scans the darkness. But then, he hears a low growl coming from behind the car. Swinging his shotgun, he sees the snarling maw of one of the echo lions. His finger grazes the trigger, and he hesitates, unsure if what he’s seeing is real. The lion drew closer, and Jack felt the tension. If he fired now and missed, he didn't have time to reload.

  “Not that one!” Eirwen's voice interrupted his thoughts. “To your right! Your right! Shoot in the direction of the fence!”

  Jack looked to his right, seeing a fence line. And he also saw one of the cobblestones in the road move. He snapped the barrel around and blasted. The lion in front of him evaporated. The one he hadn’t seen slammed backward in a spray of mud.

  Jack let out a breath he was holding, and calmly reloaded his shotgun. Eirwen stepped out of the car now that the immediate threat had passed. “How did you know?”

  “I spent decades making potions,” she explained with a smirk. “I've trained my nose to tell exactly what a potion is made of and what it needs in order to be complete purely by scent.” She put a finger up to her nose. “I can smell where something is coming from. My nose always knows, especially if it smells cat breath.”

  Jack looked over to her at her explanation. “Decades? You look like you're in your twenties. Just how old are you?”

  Eirwen harrumphed, folding her arms and turning away. “How rude! You never ask a lady her age!”

  Before Jack could respond, another low growl was heard some distance away.

  The two looked in the direction of the growl, and saw the other juvenile. The expression on the beast was smug, as if daring one of them to run.

  Neither made any sudden moves. Jack leveled his shotgun, aiming at what he saw. “Jack, more to your right,” Eirwen corrected him, her voice steady.

  Jack paused.

  Eirwen gritted her teeth. “Jack, shoot it.”

  “Are you kidding?!” Jack whispered harshly. “With the spread on this thing, I’ll put a pellet through my engine block at this angle! And I can't provoke it!”

  Unwilling to argue further on this, Eirwen reached into her satchel, and took out another vial. This one held a bright orange liquid. "It seems to think you're the greater threat," the witch observed.

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  “Well yeah, I'm the guy with the gun-” Suddenly, Eirwen threw her potion, and when the glass shattered, a huge explosion burst forth, heat and noise startling both him and the lion. Jack saw through the resulting flames that the Echo Lion was caught off guard, and slinked back, already circling for another angle.

  Jack looked at his Charger, and grunted. “Follow me,” he demanded, running towards a farmhouse.

  “Wait, Jack? Where are you going?” Eirwen followed him, unsure of why he was headed towards a villager’s home.

  “I ain't letting this thing wreck my only ride outta here,” he reasoned. “Figured we need a change of scenery for this tussle.”

  Jack led Eirwen to the field behind the farmhouse, its doors boarded and barricaded tight from the inside. He stopped by a scarecrow, fishing a flashlight from the inner pocket of his leather jacket and lashing it onto the figure. “Get behind me,” he said, eyes on the Charger. “If that thing’s comin’, it’s gonna come from my ride first.”

  Eirwen peeked out from behind him. “This field’s muddy, Jack,” she said, frowning. “I won’t be able to smell much over everything else here.”

  “You won’t have to,” Jack replied, keeping his eyes sharp on the surroundings.

  Then he saw it.

  The juvenile. Stepping squarely into the flashlight’s beam, growling like it owned the world, a faint, almost smug curl to its mouth. Jack raised his shotgun - but he wasn’t looking at its face.

  He was watching its paws.

  Suddenly, Jack whipped the shotgun left and fired without hesitation. The creature yelped and sank into the mud, its struggle ending almost as quickly as it had started. Jack grinned, laughing loud. “Ya can’t mask yer footprints, you bastard!”

  Eirwen blinked, her eyes resting on the body laying in the mud. “Incredible… I never thought tracking footprints would be a good way to differentiate between illusion and reality.”

  Jack shook his head, gritting his teeth. “Well, it’s pretty straightforward. If the real one can tear up my car, but the fake one can’t, it stands to reason that the real one leaves footprints and the fake one don’t.”

  A low, resonant growl rolled out from the treeline. Jack and Eirwen turned, eyes narrowing. There it was - the alpha. Massive, its four horns catching the moonlight in brief flashes. Every muscle in its body rippled with controlled power, yet it moved with the patient ease of a predator that knows it’s already won.

  “Oh, right,” Jack muttered. “The alpha.”

  Then the illusions came. A dozen… or maybe more… shimmered into view, all replicas of the same massive beast. Jack barely blinked. “Damn fool’s got a lot more fake ones running around,” he muttered. He tightened his grip on the shotgun, scanning for any subtle differences.

  “Jack, be careful!” Eirwen shouted, her voice taut with concern. “The alpha is much more powerful than the juveniles!”

  Jack waved her off with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “Ain’t nothing to be afraid of! All we have to do is figure out which one’s real, right?”

  The illusions shifted, flickering slightly. Jack ignored them, following the alpha with careful, measured steps - until one of the “alphas” lunged.

  The impact caught him off guard. He screamed as teeth sank into his shoulder, pain exploding along his nerves. “God dammit! My shoulder!” Jack spun, striking the illusion with the butt of his shotgun. The figure vanished, dissolving into nonexistence. He staggered, adrenaline surging. Without thinking, he grabbed Eirwen’s hand, dragging her around the corner of the farmhouse.

  “I don’t get it!” he barked, pressing his free hand against his shoulder. “If that weren't the real one, why’d it hurt?!”

  Eirwen’s eyes were wide, pupils dilated. “I was trying to tell you! I read it in a bestiary once… even though the illusions are fake, the alpha’s will is so strong it can make you believe you’ve been hurt!”

  Jack glared at her. “So… you’re telling me that just ‘cause I think I got hurt… I got hurt?!”

  Exactly,” Eirwen said, her voice sharp. “The fangs never pierced you! The creature’s will imposed the injury upon your mind... and your body, obedient fool that it is, made it real!”

  Jack staggered back, testing the wound, teeth gritted against the pulse of pain. He shook his head violently, trying to shake the disbelief out. “No. That ain't fair. I don’t… I can’t… play that game.”

  He peered around the corner. The alpha and its illusions prowled the open space, muscles coiled, flickering and reappearing like firelight on water. Each step, each distortion, pressed against his nerves, forcing him to second-guess every instinct.

  Jack swallowed hard. “Alright, fine. If you really want to play it that way…”

  He grabbed Eirwen’s hand and pulled her with him, retreating toward the Charger. She clutched her hat with her free hand as she hurried to keep pace. Around them, the illusions closed in, circling lazily, their movements almost mocking in their easy superiority.

  “You’re going to bring out your secret weapon, aren’t you?” Eirwen asked, only a step behind him. “A dwarven staff is powerful, but unless there’s a way to determine which one is the real Alpha-”

  “You let me worry about that, hun.” Jack fished the key fob from his pocket and held down the trunk release. The back of the Charger lifted with a hydraulic hiss.

  “But Jack, you're bleeding!” Eirwen pointed to Jack's shoulder.

  “I ain't got time to bleed,” he replied. “You just get in the car. And stay in it.”

  Eirwen stared at Jack for a moment, before nodding. As she rushed to the passenger side and yanked the door open, Jack reached into the trunk and hauled out a massive, belt-fed machine gun.

  He slung the strap over his shoulders, settling the weight against his torso, the cold metal biting through his shirt. He winced as the strap dug into his bitten shoulder. The weapon looked industrial, almost as if it was made to optimize killing on the battlefield.

  He glared at the circling illusions.

  “They say God loves the infantry.” he muttered, dragging the M240 around and bracing it at his hip. “Hope He’s watching.” He rolled his shoulders under the weight, just like he’d seen a hundred times growing up. The belt of ammunition hung in a heavy arc, glinting faintly. He bared his teeth.

  “Alright, you fucker!” he shouted at the shifting crowd of false alphas. “I got a bullet with yer name on it, and I’m gonna keep firin’ ‘til I find it!”

  His finger pulled the trigger.

  BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-BRAK-

  The M240 roared to life. Not a single thunderclap, but a grinding metallic snarl. Brass spat onto the pavement.

  The recoil hammered through his body in savage pulses as he walked the stream of fire across the road. The pain in his shoulder pulsed through his body with every shot, but Jack merely gritted his teeth, keeping his barrel straight.

  One illusion dissolved.

  Then another.

  And another.

  Each round tore through shimmering bodies, collapsing them in bursts of brilliance that lit the farmhouse walls. Dirt kicked up. Fence posts splintered. The night filled with cordite and thunder.

  Jack didn’t hesitate. The machine gun barked in brutal five-round bursts as he walked the fire across the street, stitching it through every copy of the alpha.

  “Let’s see you flicker through this!”

  More flashes. More dissolving echoes. And somewhere in the chaos, something real moved.

  Eirwen watched from the passenger seat, as the loud repeating thunder of Jack’s weapon boomed out towards the illusory creatures. Flashes lit the area, and with each one another illusion dropped. She leaned over to the driver's seat, her hand resting on the door. Such power… she thought, her eyes wide with awe. I thought he was just another adventurer…is he some sort of thunder God's disciple?

  She watched as the illusions disappeared, one after another, she didn't notice when her hand drifted over a button. As soon as she put her weight on it, all the doors in the car locked shut with a click. The witch looked down at the door in curiosity, her eyes scanning the door through her thick glasses for a moment, before the thunder of Jack's weapon suddenly stopped. Alarmed, she looked back up.

  Jack had started moving forward, seeing that the alpha was down, riddled with holes that looked like they were bleeding profusely into the ground. Jack stopped for a moment, showing hesitation, before he continued closing the distance with the creature on the ground. But something seemed…off, about it. Eirwen narrowed her eyes, inspecting the downed creature from her seat in the car. Then she saw it. The problem wasn't with the creature itself. It was with the blood. It wasn't seeping into the ground, it was just disappearing.

  Jack isn't heading toward the Alpha, she realized. He’s going straight for an illusion. It's a trap!

  Desperately, Eirwen began pushing on the window, hoping it would fall out. Whatever repairs she might need to make, she would do them herself and no charge, she reasoned. But the window simply was too stable. “Jack!” She called out, tapping the window. “Jack, it's a trap!”

  But Jack kept approaching, his strange staff still pointed at the downed illusion. And then she saw behind him. A shift in the stones of the street, a cloud of dust parting unnaturally; the real Alpha was closing in!

  “Jack!” She called again. “It's behind you! Jack, turn around!” She desperately tested the door, gripping the handle to pull it, but it wouldn't open. Terror took over, as she watched the signs of the alpha getting closer, and Jack, unaware of the looming threat, kneeling down to inspect the illusion.

  Jack looked over the body of the Alpha Echo Lion lying on the ground. The real Alpha loomed behind him, jaws wide, ready to crush.

  “Y'all really thought I weren't payin’ attention, huh?”

  Instinct took over. Jack shoved the M240 straight down the Alpha’s throat and pulled the trigger. Flesh, bone, and blood erupted, and the illusory corpse dissolved. The real Alpha wobbled, staggering, before collapsing in a heavy thud.

  Jack took a deep breath, withdrawing the barrel of his gun out of the Alpha's mouth. Inside the car, Eirwen sighed, tilting her hat down as she pressed her forehead to the glass. He’s reckless… brilliant… terrifying she thought. A man who wastes himself like that… A man who fights like he has nothing to preserve… I didn’t think such men existed. She let out a long, shaky breath. Jack exhaled to the night sky, tension slowly bleeding away.

  The night went quiet again.