-"Are you playing Devil's advocate?"

-"Not at all. I can just look at the humans objectively unlike you. From your memories, I can see why you would want to distance yourself from such a species. Their behaviour isn't logical in the slightest, well at least with the information we have at the moment. Anyway, if we retreat now, they will never see us as equals and more than likely to give chase either now or in the future."

My view of the world tilted along with my head as I thought about it. Eve wasn't saying anything new. I understood all her points because I was thinking them myself. I just knew that taking the easy road now would come back to haunt me.

-"Creatures like this need to learn through consequences. Good or bad, then, even if things turn sourer, they won't be in a hurry to repeat their mistakes."

The armoured man, who I had mentally dubbed 001, shook his head, apparently not agreeing with the fox woman that they should stand down. "System's orders outranks yours by far garrison captain."

The man continued, his words laced with contempt. "Our top priority is to evaluate the threat and, if I deem it necessary ac-"

The wind hissed past my ears, or whatever on my exoskeleton had, as I moved. I felt my lips curl into a snarl.

Not only did they show a blatant disregard for my presence, treating it as if I wasn't there, but they also wanted to evaluate me.

I had come with nothing but gifts, knowledge and the elimination of the Rakorn scouting out their homes, and ensured that every encounter I had, even if I released a little threat here or there, was polite and respectful.

-"See, this is what I was saying."

I didn't understand what was going on between the fox woman and the rest, but I was sick of letting the humans dictate the flow of this conversation. It might sound spoilt, no I definitely was acting spoilt, but I felt like if I let this continue, there would be no going back.

The choices were to kill them all, kill the soldiers and leave the fox woman, or retreat. Eve was against the last and I was against the first. Even so, I knew the middle ground wasn't a good option either.

Though I didn't trust the five humans that I had initially met, what fool would after a five-minute conversation, they didn't set off any warning bells unlike the armoured soldiers spread out before me.

While this was weird, my senses telling me that the fox woman could give all of the soldiers present a run for their money in terms of combat ability, it appeared that the woman didn't have the personality for direct confrontation.

When the soldier snapped on yer, her eyes had gone wide in surprised and stepped away from him.

-"I vote for killing them all but if we don't give a fuck about the repercussions and just want to let the fox woman live because you feel like it, go for option B. Not that you haven't already made your mind up.I swear, it could be so easy if we wanted it to be but no~ we always have to make things hard for ourselves."

Eve's words causing me to smile inwardly.

Even though I was acting on instinct and impulse, and it was evident Eve was against the half-baked plan forming in my mind, I knew she was behind me a hundred percent.

-"Less thinking more action. We are the focus," hissed Eve.

I chuckled, the sound my body made still alien to me, as I looked into the visor slits of 001, finally able to see his eyes and the fear swimming inside of them.

The reason the armoured man had stopped talking, along with the fact that the other, leather-clad woman was now sprawled on her back a couple of meters away while the little fox, still standing but now less than three feet away and staring in terror, was simple.

I had one clawed hand around his armoured throat as I suspended the wannabe super soldier in the air.

Surprisingly, against my expectation, he was incredibly light.

-"Or we are just that strong," said Eve sarcastically, annoyed that I was taking the option with the most risk. -"Not like we have been training our body, absorbing, compacting and enhancing every fibre of muscle, sinew and bone, since we were born."

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"Let me g-" The man reached for the sword at his waist but, as his words were cut off once again by a slight squeeze, he soon abandoned the attempt as the sound of warping metal caused him to shiver in fear.

-"I have to say, my senses have improved quite a bit over the last few days. To be able to tell what he is feeling and his bodies reaction even through metal."

Eve snorted, her irritation fading. -"Al, focus. The approaching soldiers might have stopped, but it's clear they are looking for an opportunity to attack."

I slowly rotated my head, not that I needed to do that to see the area in front of me but more for effect, and noticed that the other armoured soldiers were a lot closer than they had been when I first moved.

Their weapons had been drawn, but it seems like they had stopped when they realised that all I had to do was clench my fist and their leader would die.

I could smell their fear, hear their rapid, shaky breaths as hesitation and doubt wrapped around them like a lover's embrace.

A sense of power washed over me as a song from my past started playing in my mind.

-"And~ It's so easy when your evil~."

-"Al! You are going to be the death of us. This is why everything always fucks up. Get out of your head and deal with the situation at hand. This is exactly what you did when you saw that Rakorn that could control lightning, started singing a song about thunder and lightning before getting our arm blown off. You can piss about with your thoughts later."

Even with Eve's heated words, my smile didn't disappear, my insides squirming in anticipation as my hunter's instincts roared to life as the people in front of me changed from humans, to pray.

-"The fox is in the chicken coop."

-"AL! I. WILL. HURT. YOU~"

-"Love you~."

Eve snorted at my obvious attempt to return her earlier taunt. Even though I had done it to irritate her, the thoughts squirmed uncomfortably and I decided that this kind of joke would not be used again.

My joy was cut short as 001's voice reached my ears. "Let me down this instant, or you will regret-"

"Oh? I will regret it, will I? And what is a weak, pathetic human in a metal shell going to do to make that so?"

Even I was surprised by how venomous my voice sounded.

"As you can see." I ran one of my claws down his chest, the screech of metal at it tore into the metal caused the fox woman nearby to flinch. "This pathetic armour means nothing to me. Your weapons mean nothing to me."

I pulled the man closer to my face as my tail flicked behind me. "Your life means nothing to me."

I heard him swallow.

"So~ Please enlighten me, little snack. How will you make me regret breaking your neck and then slaughtering those loyal to you?"

The man's voice shook, yet it still had an undertone of iron. "I am the envoy of the Human race. Syst-"

Another squeeze, this time my claws cutting into the metal ended his words as his hands shot to my wrist as he started to panic.

"Envoy? No, the little fox is the ambassador for your kind. You are... an annoyance."

A hiss, urging me to claim the kill, came from my head reminded me that the little Rakorn was still there causing me to release a hiss-like sigh. -"Well, that is going to kill the intimidation factor a fair bit. Little lizard using my head as a viewing platform. I couldn't really imagen my form, but I was starting to feel a little stupid. Especially as I didn't really desire to kill the humans so they would undoubtedly remember it."

As if in protest to my thoughts, a cold, crawling feeling started seeping up from the depths of my soul.

It demanded that I slaughter the humans and feast on their flesh. The thoughts of the high-quality meat and the potential skills I might gain caused my mouth to water.

-"Do it~" seethed Eve, her voice rough with bloodlust.

The muscles in my hand started to tighten.

"Please, put him down."

Though I didn't move my head in the slightest, my gaze drifted towards the fox woman, who surprisingly hadn't backed away any further. "If you hurt him, it will be hard to convince others that you are not dangerous. System is watching all of this and will probably put a bounty on your head."

She took a deep breath. "While we standing around fighting, more people are dying. Please, put him down. Consider it a personal favour to me. One I promise to repay."

I had intentionally not pushed the fox woman away, letting her get into my danger zone for a few reasons.

Firstly, I didn't feel she was a threat and she had been the only one that seemed to be taking this seriously. I presented my side to her to see if she would attack when I grabbed 001 but probably the most significant reason was that I was pretty sure that if I had to kill 001, she would be the best hostage and didn't want her too far away.

My head moved towards the woman, her three tails competing to flatten themselves while her ears were almost horizontal with her head.

-"Doesn't hurt that she looks weak and vulnerable but is trying to act tough. What weird tastes we have," said Eve, her voice returning to normal as the desire to kill everything and anyone in the immediate vicinity started to sin back into the depths. -"They made the right choice with the eye candy."

I wanted to shake my head but had to stop myself as it would probably look like I was rejecting her offer. The fox woman had given me a way to de-escalate the situation while saving face.

Eve laughed in my mind. -"Not the typical approach when searching for a mate, especially for a predator but your idea of what is appealing seems to have rubbed off on me somewhat. I approve"

-"Eve."

-"Yes?"

-"Shut up."