“…We can look for a while longer, you know,” Alnea said, peering into the darkness. Without using the senses of his Spirit, all he could see was a vague shadowy figure in the distance, tearing into another advanced phase Oren Beast. But that was enough to make him understand just how strong, and ferocious the Firefox was.
“Cecilia does not have infinite Spirit Power. And what if we run into another peak phase Oren Beast? Can you guarantee that we will be to escape without a fight?”
“…It’s a Firefox. We don’t have any abilities that can counter its ability.”
“Did you have abilities to counter the Twin Tailed Python Tiger?”
“…That was different. It was only because I cut off its leg, that we handled it so easily…”
“…And how exactly did you cut off its leg?”
“…I told you already, I don’t know what happened back then.”
“…In any case, since you can take on the tiger, why can I not take on the Firefox?”
“I took down the tiger because you had my back.”
“And you have mine, don’t you?”
Before Alnea could say anything, Cecilia interrupted between them, saying, “The fox is still eating. It is the best time to catch it off guard.”
“What are we wating for then?” Yuri said with a smile, urging her Aspects to overflow from her body, and wrap her a bluish white hue. “Let us take this beast out.”
“…Fine,” Alnea said, entering his Spirit State to prepare a few Arcanas, and unfurling his senses towards the shadowy figure in the distance. “Just remember to be careful.”
“One…”
What appeared in his senses was a fox, barely a metre and a half tall, and just as long, munching on the charred remains of a Shadow Bear. Blood kept dripping from its jaws, as it kept tearing pieces of the bear from its body, but the fox did not care. The blood matched the colour of its fur anyways. Or it least, it was of the same colour, just of a little darker shade. Its fur, on the other hand, was a little lighter, the red of flames. Only the tips of its tail, and its ears were a little orangish.
“Two…”
In any case, the beast did not care for its looks. At least not until its mating season. And from how strong the fox was, its mating season was probably not that far. Maybe that was why it kept scratching its maws with its paws after every other bite. It surely did look ignorant of its surroundings. An Aspect Beast that could be easily ambushed. It did not even have any abilities that could aid it in detecting its enemies.
“Three!”
And yet, for the fox to live long enough to reach the advanced phase of its Adolescent Stage, it was not so weak that it would be taken down without a fight. The moment that they rushed towards the fox, its ears picked up the sounds of their steps, even as its instinct picked up the danger looming over its head. Not in the mood to eat anymore, the fox picked its head up, and the sniffed the air once, before turning in their direction. Three enemies…
The fox scrunched its nose, as it looked at its enemies. Except for the one wrapped in white light, the other two barely gave it any pressure. And yet they still dared to spread apart… Just to be on the safe side, the fox decided to go all out from the beginning. Wrapping flames around its paws, it rushed towards the weakest of its enemies, the one wrapped in gold, black, and red lights. How could Yuri let the Firefox do as it wished though?
The moment that the Firefox rushed towards Alnea, she launched the two Arcanas that she had prepared for the fight. And before the fox could even take a couple of strides, all the darkness around began to churn, startling it to a halt. In the next moment, a thick cloud of darkness spread out from Yuri’s body, forming a circle with her at its centre. At the same time, a hand materialised within the darkness of the cloud, and stretched out towards the fox.
With all its hair standing on their end, the fox hissed, and hurriedly backed away from the hand. Probably thinking of retreating from the fight altogether. After all, if there was one thing Firefox were good at, it was running. Unfortunately for the fox, the dark hand was even faster, and quickly caught up to it, before pulling it back into the circle of dense, black fog, cutting off its path of retreat. At the same time, the black fog also seemed to be seeping into its body, cutting off its life.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Sensing the danger, the fox hissed once again, and tried to break out of the fog. And if given time, it might even have succeeded. But Neither Yuri, nor Cecilia were prepared to give it so much time. The moment that the fox turned around to ram into the wall of fog, a dozen or so Dark Blades passed through the wall towards it left, and came rushing at its side. They were not too strong, but the fox was never known for its defences. And it was not ready to take any risks. At the very least, it did not wish to be injured for nothing.
Easily dodging the blades that were aimed at its back, the fox turned towards the only enemy that it could meet at the moment. A figure glowing in a bluish white light… with a tad hint of black, and grey beginning to overflow from its chest. Hissing at the strange enemy, the fox swiped its flame clad claws towards it, sending out half a dozen slashes of flames, similar in shape to the Dark Blades it had dodged earlier.
And just as the fox had easily dodged the Dark blades, Yuri too easily dodged the ‘Flame Claws’, letting them land around her. However, her action only made the fox happier. Using the extreme speed provided by its flaming paws, it vanished from its original spot, and appeared next to Yuri in the blink of a moment. Or rather, in the ‘Blink of a Flame’.
‘Flame Blink’, an extremely ridiculous Innate Ability, that gave Oren Beasts the power to not only walk through flames, but to also ‘blink’ to any area with the reach of their flames. Like the flame around Yuri. It was clear that fox had never intended for Yuri to be hit by its claws, and was only laying its trap. Unfortunately for the fox, Yuri was doing the same.
The moment that the fox vanished from her sight, and ‘Blinked’ next to her, she placed her hand on her chest, and gathered all the black, and grey lights into her palms, before thrusting her hand towards her right. Coincidentally, the place where she thrusted her hand also happened to be the place where the fox had blinked at.
It was only natural then, for the fox to be surprised when it found a hand covered in grey, and black lights, just inches away from its face. Before the fox could even understand what was happening, all the lights covering the hand coalesced together to form a round ball, with all the black light concentrated in its centre, before being thrusted directly into its face.
Left with no choice, the fox ‘blinked’ once again to dodge the greyish black ball, and returned to its original position, only to be bombarded with nearly three dozen Blades of Darkness from its right. In the end, the fox was forced to dodge once again. Thankfully for the fox, the barrage of blades had a flaw. There was one place among the array of blades, where their concentration of thin enough for the fox to squeeze its body—
A dark blue arrow, trying to compete with the wall of fog in its darkness, came tearing through the wall from the fox’s left, aiming right for its head. It was only then, that the fox understood why the barrage of blades had such a glaring flaw. It was already in mid air though, and could not change its direction.
It could, of course, ‘blink’ once again. But most of the area where its flames had spread were being bombarded with Dark blades. And the patches of flame which were too far for the blades to reach were being guarded by the enemy in white, which had at some point, condensed a bluish white sword, with black edges, in her hand. And its instincts told the fox that of all the attacks, the sword was the most dangerous of all.
It was also the instinct of the fox, which told it the blades would hurt it more than the arrow. They also told the fox that the arrow seemed to be more dangerous, but it did not have the time to think about what those premonitions meant. It just knew that getting stabbed by one single arrow was much better than being slashed by half a dozen blades. Still, it could not let the arrow pierce its head.
Tilting its body in mid air, the fox managed to avoid the arrow from piercing its head. It stabbed directly into its shoulders, but it was alright. It did not hurt much… Or rather, it did not hurt at all. A feint then, the fox concluded. A thought proven correct by the arrow disintegrating into fog. Fortunately, it was smart enough to avoid the blades. Or it might really have been hurt.
Not bothering to check what happened to the fog that the arrow had decomposed into, the fox regained its balance, and hissed at the enemy in white. There had been only a few times when its ‘Flame Blink’ had been countered so easily. And all those times, the fox had chosen wisely to run away from its enemies. Retreating did not seem to be an option at the moment though…
Narrowing its eyes to imprint its enemy’s figure into its mind, the fox gathered all the flame around itself. And when those wisps of flames proved insufficient, it create even more sprouts of flame, until its entire fur was covered with a ‘Coat of Flames’. An Innate Ability that it had rarely ever used. It was only recently that it had begun gaining a semblance of control over its ‘Coat of Flames’. The ability was still not stable enough to use in fights, but it had no choice left. If only it could kill the white enemy as soon as possible…
While the fox was still planning how to tear its enemy, something in its head clicked, and it lost its control over the flames covering its fur. And just like that, the flames which were supposed to help it defend against the attacks of its enemies, and even burn them to cinders, began burning the fox itself. From its fur to its ears, and tails, nothing was left untouched. Not even its eyes. All that it saw was flames. All it felt was pain. And all that it was—
The fox bit its tongue, and shattered the world of flames it was trapped in, only to be greeted by a sword swinging down on its head. With its heart beating in fear, the fox ‘blinke—
Tendrils of darkness rose from the ground it was standing on, and stabbed into its thighs. Some of them even wrapped themselves around its legs, and waist, binding it to where it was standing. Not by an irresistible force. If it tried, it could get rid of those binding in just a few moments. But the sword coming down on its head did not give it so much time. In the end, it could only do its beast. Opening its mouth, it spit out all the flame that it could, trying to force the enemy in white to dodge. And Yuri did dodge, just not in the way that the fox had imagined.
“Left!” Alnea said, and manipulated the core of her gravity to shift towards her left, allowing her to easily bypass pillar of flames, and bring down her sword, materialised from her Aspects, on the fox’s neck, separating its head, still spewing flames, from the rest of its body.