She awoke as the first traces of morning sunlight penetrated into the burrow that she and her family called home. 2 things had changed since last she had been awake. Firstly, the brother she had gone hunting with had changed, while before his fur was dark red it was now almost completely black. Evidently it had not fallen out, but it seemed to have somehow been dyed during the night

The second thing that had changed was the entire world, or rather how she viewed the entire world. It was as though everything was engulfed in a light, barely noticeable, fluid that she could not actually see or physically feel, but more so just sense. When she looked at her brother she could see a…?

During the automatic status check she’d done as she always did when she looked at living things, she had noticed something, her newly black brother not only had a new color but also a new name, “Kuro”.

This came as a surprise as she had been wondering how exactly things actually got names. It was almost definitely connected in some way with the change of pigment he had undergone, but she was not sure of why that had happened either. When she looked at him with her new view of the world, he was not only dark externally but also internally, almost like his very existence was covered by a cloud of black. After analyzing everything she had observed, she arrived at two conclusions. Kuro’s new appearance has something to do with his proficiency at darkness magic, and that she had finally managed to “unlock” the ability to sense, maybe even use magic!

As each member of the den awoke, one after another they noticed Kuro’s new appearance. Kuro himself seemed just as surprised as all of the others, and when he laid eyes on his sister he seemed to also notice that she was now different than before as well. When the last sleeping member of the den awoke, mother herself, the world seemed to tremble. The magical energy that emanated from her was far greater than that of the surrounding environment or her brother. Mom herself seemed to be just quick shocked by kuro’s new appearance, and when she sensed the magic emanating from her youngest daughter she gave a high pitched bark of excitement and licked her behind the ears.

Even though she could now sense mana, she still had no idea how to actually use it the way that kuro and mother could. Most likely it was something that she would need to learn by feel and experience or during an intense situation.

That however would not be an issue, there would be ample opportunities to hunt and fight in the forest. Today for example, they were going on another hunt in the same groups of three and four as they had the day before, this time mom would be going off on her own as well, it was almost time for winter and they needed all of the food they could get as the opportunity to hunt high quality prey would become sparse in the coming months. They would still try of course, but it was better to be prepared to catch nothing anyway.

After eating a bit more of their winnings from the day prior, the cubs began to play, this not only served to warm their bodies up before they set off, but it was also quite fun. Mother watched their game lovingly, sometimes staring at kuro and her daughter with a curious expression. They ended their game in preparation for their second expedition, their blood pumped fast, both with anticipation and as an after effect from their play, all seven cubs were raring to go.

Her group set off in the same direction that they had yesterday, all three silently agreed that they would go to the same place as before to hunt some more goblins. She privately hoped to fight more this time, for one because she wanted to learn how to use magic, but also because she finally had a true understanding of mom’s abilities. Having felt mother’s power first hand that morning, she felt a new found desire to get stronger, to catch up to or maybe even surpass mother.

They inspected their surroundings cautiously as they moved, checking for bear tracks, markings on the trees, and anything else that might signal danger. When they finally reached the Knave’s territory, they slowed down even more. Even if they could kill goblins quite easily, it was still unwise to make their presence known in enemy territory. After a while the party came upon the area of yesterday’s battle, the corpses that they had left behind were no longer there. In their place was a set of footprints that could not have belonged to a goblin and two long trenches in the ground on either side of them.

She sniffed at the markings, the streaks in the soil smelled like the foes from the day before, and the set of footprints smelled the same but somehow more concentrated. They followed the trail, careful to stay undetected, when eventually they came upon a strange sight. It was a huddle of structures made from sticks logs and grass, several ugly green men could be seen walking around or otherwise keeping themselves occupied oblivious to the three pairs of predatory eyes that watched their movements. 3 out of the 13 knaves they could see stood out, not only in status but also in height. Rather than Goblins they were designated as “Hobgoblins” and their stats were a step above the peon’s they had fought yesterday.

Name

Glat

Species

Knave (HobGoblin) Level 17

Age

13 years

Rank

Fox (411)

Job

Warrior

STR

80

INT

36

AGI

41

END

101

DEF

56

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MAG

11

ADT

65

LCK

21

Two out of the three had stats that exceeded those of Kuro, herself, and her sister’s, though not by much. She began to strategize, they may be stronger numerically; however, thanks to their low intelligence and magic, out maneuvering them would most likely be possible. There were a lot more goblins than last time, so they still had to approach this battle with caution, but thanks to Kuro’s darkness magic, they would be able to take out a good chunk of the small fries before they could do anything in retaliation.

They each communicated their thoughts on how to strike using a language of soft growls and head movements that only another Chamrosh could understand. The plan was set into motion, all three cubs began to bark growl and caw basically being as noisy as they possibly could, which greatly appealed to the bird-like portion of their minds.

Like Clockwork 8 goblins approached to inspect the source of the commotion, and like clockwork all 8 fell dead before they hit the floor, courtesy of Kuro. He sprayed a barrage of dark needles with a swipe of his paw, covering the goblins along with the ground and a couple surrounding trees in a blanket of dark quills. It seems as though his affinity for dark magic had increased alongside the blackness of his fur.

By now every Knave in the village knew that there was an intruder, she counted 14 including the three Hobs. Their response was faster than the trio had anticipated, almost as if they had been expecting an invasion. The hoard charged forward some holding sticks and clubs, a few holding shields, and the hobs carried what looked like thin shiny sticks that glimmered in the sunlight. Undoubtedly these strange weapons were dangerous, she had the distinct impression that being hit even once would lead to a grievous injury. Her sister attempted to head them off, using her considerable strength to simultaneously slice up one goblin and push back two adjacent knaves, the one who was hit by her claws was disemboweled, while the other two were merely knocked off their feet. She went to finish them off, taking advantage of their vulnerability when something sank into the ground right next to her, a straight thin branch with some feathers stuck on to its end.

It would seem that there were a few more goblins than they had first thought, four more with the job title “archer” were positioned further back and fired arrows wherever they spotted the opportunity. Kuro attempted to hit them with magic, but only two out of the four shots hit, they were too far away for him to accurately aim.

While her brother was charging up another shot, one of the hobgoblins tried to blind side him, she sprinted to intercept it but did not make it in time to stop the slash completely. Kuro’s shoulder opened with a spray of blood. The sight of her brother bleeding out gave her a fresh boost of adrenaline, she slashed at the hobgoblin’s calf and thigh, flaying its skin and tearing at its muscle as much as she possibly could. The Hobgoblin gave a great shriek of pain and slashed downwards in a panic, but it was no use; she was seeing the world in slow motion, avoiding the blade so easily that she even managed to take a swipe at the Hob’s wrist before dodging. He dropped his blade no longer able to hold it with his bleeding wrist. Robbed of his ability to hold a blade, the Knave opted to use his fists to better catch the nimble chamrosh. He took a wide swing at her which she ducked flawlessly, springing herself up on the rebound and latching her jaws onto his throat.

It was still not enough, the hobgoblin grabbed her around the waist and slammed her hard onto the forest floor, knocking the wind from her lungs. She scrambled to regain her composure, struggling to get back on her feet, but she was too slow. The Hobgoblin kicked her hard in the stomach, what little air she could reclaim was expelled. She could not move properly to avoid its attacks, she still couldn’t breath and it felt like one of her ribs had cracked.

In that moment she felt it, the feeling that her life was about to end, the desperate feeling that she needed to do something, that she needed to move, that she needed to get stronger. Magic.

Magic is a funny thing. All monsters are born with, yet the knowledge of how to use it does not always come immediately, sometimes it instead waits until it is needed.

Air flooded into her lungs, and she was lifted from the ground and placed back upon her feet. A veil of whirling wind enveloped her body, almost carrying her so that she just barely touched the ground. A blade of sharp wind tore through the air, towards the Hobgoblin, it cut deeply into its neck and shoulder which exploded into a fountain of blood.

Feat Performed:

“Persistence”

Defeat an opponent that is stronger than you.

She briefly wondered what that was, but decided that this was not the time to think about it. She inspected the situation an arrow shot directly towards her but the cloak of wind surrounding her redirected its path. She first checked on Kuro, it seemed that while he was wounded by the Hobgoblin’s sword, it was not deep enough to stop him from continuing to fight, he had dispatched six goblins in the time it had taken her to defeat the hob. Her sister had apparently also managed to defeat a hobgoblin through brute force along with three normal goblins. Her fur had become matted with blood some of which was her own as she had an arrow sticking out of her back.

There was no time to lose, using her new found ability to manipulate wind she waited for the two remaining archers to fire, and then blew their arrows right back at them, injuring one and killing the other. There was still one hobgoblin left and neither of her siblings seemed fit to take care of it. The final hob had seen her battle with its companion and was already making his way over to dispose of the threat. She sent two slashes of wind at it but he merely cut through them with his sword, dispersing the wind-blades before they could do any damage. She glided backwards as though on ice, to maintain safe distance, the feeling of using magic was still new, but she had no choice other than to keep going. She tried something new, instead of sending a blade of condensed wind, she compressed it into a ball and sent it towards the Hobgoblin. His blade cut through this too, causing it to rapidly decompress blowing him back slightly.

This was workable. She fashioned six more orbs of compressed air, launching them towards her disoriented opponent. The knave avoided all of them, he charged forward and screamed a battle cry. This has her chance; she created one more ball behind her back, and allowed the still yelling Hob to get as close as she dared before flinging it right down his throat. It exploded, his neck expanded and his leering yellow eyes went bloodshot. He stumbled, trying desperately to keep standing, but it was no use. The hobgoblin collapsed, he wasn’t breathing, he could not breathe. It was over.

The two remaining goblins, an archer and a warrior scrambled away, they were stupid but knew a lost cause when they saw one. All three fox-birds were too tired to give chase. She ambled over to her injured siblings, licking their wounds, and them returning the favor. She carefully plucked the arrows lodged in her sister’s back out with her mouth. It was a hard fought battle, but its rewards were great. She could finally use magic, and the amount of food that they would be able to bring back was enormous. They limped back to their den. Her brother and sister each carried 2 goblins one draped over their backs and the other dragging along the floor with one leg clutched in their mouths. She used her newfound ability to manipulate the wind to slowly float the rest of the bodies along behind them. She was beginning to get rather tired from prolonged use of her magic, but managed to maintain it all the way back home.

When they arrived, Mother once again stared incredulously at the three of them. She could not believe how much prey they had managed to hunt, and like the doting parent she was, licked in congratulations and treated their wounds using her limited healing magic. The trio briefly greeted their other siblings who had brought back a small boar, they did not even bother to eat, they simply crawled into their nest and passed out on the spot.