Chapter 27: Adolescent Earthen Fox

Scarlet refused to back down, but was more than happy to back up. She shuffled away slowly as the much larger adolescent fox paced toward her in an almost mocking manner.

She would have been more panicked, except the feeling she was getting, the energy it was giving off, wasn’t aggressive. It was eager?

She watched it bend its head towards the corpses and realized in that moment the beast was stealing her loot. Impotent anger coursed through her as it ruined the pelts, tearing them to pieces with its teeth. She backed away as she watched, trying to escape without drawing too much attention to herself. With slow cautious movements she reloaded the handgun. She doubted it would be effective, but she couldn’t be picky.

It was pathetic, and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt Maus’s intent through the bond but held him back. They were too weak.

The fox savaged the bodies of who she assumed had been its skulk. The sound was a nauseating combination of tearing flesh and rocks breaking. No wonder her bullets were having trouble penetrating. These things were built for durability.

Scarlet had made it a fair distance by the time the Level 7 found what it was looking for. In the chest cavity of the Level 5, glistening at the center of its ribcage, was a mana shard. Scarlet felt the spike of glee radiate from the fox and had a terrible premonition.

Slipping into the treeline, still entirely too close and too loud, she picked up the pace, doing something she hadn’t dared to, and turning her back on the fox. She hadn’t gone far when she sensed the fox consuming the shard. Mana fluctuated rapidly, and Scarlet had the wherewithal to tuck Maus into her shirt mere moments before a pulse of energy blasted her back. She tumbled to the ground, her hip and tailbone hitting the unforgiving earth in a way she knew would leave damage.

Now wasn’t the time to worry over superficial injuries. All her attention stayed on the fox that had become a beacon in her senses.

She almost didn’t want to inspect it. She did anyway.

Adolescent Earthen Fox, Level 7– Level 8.

She kept the skill active and watched in real time as it leveled from 7 to 8.

“That is not ideal.” she told Maus, who was radiating worry for the first time she could remember.

That’s when the emotions the fox was projecting changed. Whatever else was mixed in, the primary feeling was predatory in the most primal sense. It was exactly what she imagined a superior predator stalking its prey might feel.

On it’s first step, Scarlet had her knives out and ready. By the time it took its second, she launched one.

The first throw was clean. Not enough for a crippling blow, but the blade hit the fox’s snout, drawing blood and causing the beast to flinch.

The second knife sliced across the fox’s flank, drawing sparks as it screeched against the metallic quills that were bristling along its body.

The creature only broke stride for a moment. Long enough to let her get deeper behind tree cover.

It didn’t matter.

The now Level 8 stalked toward them with single minded intensity. It had closed the distance so fast Scarlet knew that there was never any chance of escape.

When there were maybe four meters between them., she raised her gun. It appeared the fox had been watching because it turned its metallic flank towards her and took the shots on its armoured side. At least that caused it to falter.

They ended up playing an absurd game of stop and go. She went to shoot, it would pause and turn. She tried to escape; it would close in. Then cycle would repeat. By the time she was out of bullets, the fox had not only shrunk the distance between them, but now it wasn’t just eager, it was angry.

Scarlet was injured and exhausted. Maus was basically spent. He didn’t have enough mana to blink. Maybe one ravaging bite left. It wouldn’t be enough to put the thing down unless the fox exposed its vitals and stood still. Unlikely.

That didn’t change the fact that she had to do something.

Deciding delusion was the solution, she shuffled backwards as she prepared herself for an all out offensive. Her mind split between paying attention to her surroundings with her new enhanced senses and making sure that she always had her eyes on the fox.

She pulled more throwing knives from storage, but even knowing that they wouldn’t be able to get through the fox’s tough hide she held her ground.

The beast lunged forward in a harrying attack, retreated, then darted in again. It was toying with her as it lunged and nipped in an advance-retreat, darting dance.

Scarlet’s frustration mounted.

The fox wasn’t so much faster than her that she couldn’t see what was going on. In her mind, she knew what was going to happen next. She could calculate exactly when the creature would begin its attack, what part of her body it was aiming for, exactly how she needed to move to avoid it. But her body simply wasn’t responding quickly enough.

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She was getting partial dodges. Pathetic aborted blocks with knives that simply weren’t built to endure being pitted against a creature with skin like stone and a coat made of metal.

The yips turned to snarls and bites. She twisted out of one, barely, the fox’s teeth catching in the thick cloth of her field jacket. The next attack came faster. It took a chunk out of her sleeve and opened an ugly gash in her arm.

She didn’t feel the pain.

What she did feel, and quite clearly, were the fluctuations in the fox’s emotions as it fought. She could sense as its glee spiked and twisted, turning the beast from superior-predator-toying-with-prey to the frenzied bloodlust of a feral creature spotting a wounded target.