Chloe finally met the hybrid form of her mother, Fey, and she was an instant fan of it. Naturally, she was quite surprised in the beginning. Still, it immediately made her feel even closer to her because the pink finally saw her true heritage. After all, Fey had conceived her when she was in this form, as she wanted to make sure that Chloe would become a humanoid hybrid after having been a regular human in her previous life.
“Fey!” The moment the mother and daughter duo returned, Steph instantly faced the red-haired girl.
“Yes?”
“I demand a rematch!”
“In what?” She tilted her head.
“In our game of chase!” The dog-girl stared right at her. “Sophia having beaten me is unacceptable! I’m sure you’re still a little rusty after having just transformed, but still!”
“She shot me out of the air 500 meters above the ground!” The blonde raised her voice as she disagreed with Fey being out of shape.
“Okay, very rusty.” Steph corrected herself.
“Thank you.” The red fox smiled at her. “I know you’d understand me.”
“Sure thing~.”
“You two are insane!”
“Hehe.”
“What is all this about?” As Chloe wasn’t there when they talked about it earlier, she was confused about what was going on.
“Fey and Steph came up with a game that increases stamina, tactical thinking, strength, and many other things.” Sophia answered her. “Well, okay, it’s a glorified version of hide and seek, but if you’re overpowered and filled to the brim with magic, even that can become extreme.”
“Yup.” The two in question nodded.
“The most important part is the leaderboard, though.” The blonde’s voice turned smug. “Steph managed to get away from Fey for a little over two hours, and I just beat her record by some solid minutes~."
“Yes, you’ve beaten my standing record against Fey in her absolute prime after she just transformed into her new body and probably barely knows how to move in it yet. By a mere few minutes, as well."
“That’s how it is.” The red-haired girl gave Steph a thumbs up.
"I don't like you two getting along at these times!" Sophia raised her voice.
“Nono, that’s the best part.” Chloe disagreed with her. “If them getting along means you getting teased, well, tough luck."
“Oi!” She glared at the pink fox. “Also, stop with the being rusty part already!” She then focused on the duo again. “There’s just no way Fey was even more agile as a full!”
“I’d love to show you the place we use for our game in Mira’s domain, but it’s currently under construction after the last time.”
“Yes, last time got a little too intense.” Fey awkwardly scratched her cheek while glancing at the dog-girl.
“Under construction is a nice way of describing that massive, multiple-kilometer-wide crater you made in my domain where once a beautiful forest biome was.” Mira slowly shook her head.
“Ah.” They just looked away from her. “We’re sorry.”
“You aren’t.” The overseer didn’t believe them.
“…”
“I feel like I want to see it.” Chloe got curious.
“The crater?” Mira looked at her.
“No, them chasing each other.” She shook her head. “It seems like a fun event to watch. Though, them zooming through a forest probably wouldn’t be the most visible event.”
“Ahh.” Mira nodded.
“Yes.” Steph smiled at the pink fox. “I doubt it would be overly entertaining, at least in the beginning when only running is involved. In a forest, you can’t really see much in the first place, as well.”
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“I think I can help with that.” Mira faced her daughter. “I can make us a little platform above their playground and make their position visible to us with magic. We still won’t be able to see them in person, but we can track their position and watch the progress.”
“Ohh!” Chloe seemed to like the idea. “Feyfey, can we do that?”
"I don't see why not." She couldn't win against the sparkling eyes of her daughter. She then leaned over to Steph and started whispering. “Remember that we can’t go all out when she’s watching us.”
“Absolutely!” She nodded.
“I heard that.” The pink fox shook her head.
“I want to play, too!” Aura's excited-sounding voice joined the conversation. “While you two were gone, the sisters told me about the chase thing, and it sounds like a lot of fun.” She stared at the red-haired girl. “I want to see how long I can elude the master!”
“Oh!” Fey lightly clapped her hands. “Finally, a challenge!”
“Hey!” The sisters in question didn't like that.
“Do you think either of you can beat me?” Full of smug, the female wolf looked at them.
“Yes!” Sophia nodded.
“In a fair match that doesn’t involve any sort of cheating on your part.” She lightly corrected herself. “After all, I know a fair share of your tricks.”
“…” The blonde quickly turned silent.
“I take you on!” Steph was a lot more feisty.
“I like your confidence!” Aura was a fan of the dog-girl.
“I give her five minutes.” Fen shook his head. “At best.”
“The chase starts with a five-minute head start for the one running away.” Fey looked at him.
“I know?” He didn’t understand why she corrected him.
“Make it at least six!” Steph got loud.
“You should know by now that I’m a realist.” He just kept shaking his head.
“You are SOOO not!” She only raised her voice more.
“Yeah, that’s not a convincing argument.” Everyone agreed with her.
“…” Fen made a slight pause. “The best I can do is 5:30.”
“Challenge accepted!” It was enough for the dog-girl. “Let's go!” She energetically raised her arm high in the air. “Fey, afterward, I take you on!”
“I’m looking forward to it~.” Fey smiled at her.
“Mira, how quickly can you prepare the magic and viewing platform you mentioned earlier?”
“It will be done the moment we arrive in my domain.” The overseer gave Steph a thumbs up.
“Perfect!”
“Perfect, indeed.” Sophia nodded a couple of times. “My domain already has sustained enough damage today.”
“You complain too much!” Fey glared at her. “I barely destroyed any of your precious trees during our chase!”
“I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Oh, never mind then.” The red fox shrugged in response.
“So, why did you and Ari light your entire pine forest on fire?” The blonde faced Aura and the jaguar. Naturally, as it happened in her domain, she knew about that already.
“We’re working on a project~.” The female wolf gave her a playful reply.
"For the record, I suggested doing the project in a different place rather than burning down the current forest." Ari tried to save herself.
“For the record, our beloved jaguar came up with the idea of how to burn it down and is responsible for it burning with the intensity it currently is.” Aura was having none of it.
“Ah.”
“Someone had fun today, huh?” Anna smiled at her pyromaniac girlfriend.
“It, uhh… was pretty entertaining.” She couldn’t deny it.
----------------
Afterward, the group went to Mira’s domain, where the overseer transported everyone except Steph and Aura to a floating island hovering over a seemingly never-ending and massively overgrown broadleaf forest.
“Yep, I can’t see a thing.” Chloe got closer to the island’s edge and looked down. “Just trees and green. And green trees.”
“Steph is there, and Aura is over in that area.” The teal fox walked up next to her and pointed at two spots in the forest below them. Immediately after, two red dots appeared roughly a kilometer away from each other. “Only we can see them, so it won’t interfere with their game.”
“Ohh!” She lightly clapped her hands. “That will be so fun seeing them close in on each other!”
“You know,” Sophia joined them at the edge of the island. “The dots are perfect for tracking them, but if this becomes a regular thing, we could attach a camera to each of them so we could watch what they're seeing if we put a TV up here.”
“That would be amazing, too!” Chloe liked that a lot. “We could turn it into a whole tournament to watch!”
“A good tournament needs a solid betting system, too!” Mira was in on the plan. “Anyone, note down your estimated time for the current match, and the closest guess will receive a special prize! The five-minute wait at the start of the chase is not included!”
“What’s the prize?” Sophia raised an eyebrow in interest.
“That’s a secret~.”
“So sly!”
“17 seconds!” Fen was the first to reply.
“I agree that she has no chance, but Steph should hold out a little longer than that.” Fey lightly shook her head. “After all, she managed to get quite a respectable time against me.”
“You have heard that they agreed on no rules, right?" The male wolf stared at her. "She even allowed Aura to use detection magic because the dog wanted to see how fast she is.”
“…” The red fox paused for a second. “Two minutes and 37 seconds.” Her confidence in Steph was short-lived.
“You two are so pessimistic!” Chloe didn't like how they were underselling her girlfriend. “She’ll last at least an hour!”
“I don't know.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “Fey got me in like ten or 15 minutes when she was allowed to use detection magic. “I’ll pick 15 minutes.”
“30 minutes for me!” Anna just picked a number.
“Steph’s way too energetic to be defeated so quickly, so I’ll go with 45 minutes.” Ari had a little more faith in her.
“Alright, I’ll refrain from adding my guess, as I don't want to hurt any feelings." Mira showed anyone a cheeky smile before clapping her hands loudly enough for it to echo through the entire forest, which was obviously amplified by magic. “They had a little longer than five minutes now, but let’s see how this turns out~.”
Instantly after the clap, the forest turned noisy. There was a massive explosion-like sound, and one of the red dots zoomed towards the other at tremendous speed. It was so fast and violent that it parted the entire forest, dug up the ground, and uprooted the trees in the path between the dots. Mere seconds later, the two red dots had overlapped and merged into a single one.
“And that’s my win~.” Fen’s voice was full of smugness as he looked at the path of absolute destruction his girlfriend had created when catching the violet dog in a literal instant.