“What is going on?”

I uttered the only sentence, the only question, my struggling mind was able to put out.

“I don’t know, Master.”

Monster answered, slightly tilting her head as she leaned over me.

“Who are you?”

It was the second thing I asked, without thinking. I wasn’t capable of any meaningful conversation at that moment.

“I am yours, Master,” the monster replied, calmly, with its voice at odds with its form. It - she, I corrected myself - had some feminine curves despite the fur-covered body standing on her hind legs. Her hands had grasping fingers tipped with sharp claws. Mostly red-ish in colouring, with the yellow highlight of her head and fluffy collar, her hair was almost gleaming, as befitting of the fiery fox motif she had. Her fluffy tail wagged left and right releasing little sparks.

I stared. This situation was ultimately alien to me, all that death, all that fire, it was all like a bad dream I silently prayed to end. It didn’t.

She-monster was however quite comfortable with my gaze and patiently waited, only slightly throwing her red mane around, smiling in the best equivalent of human facial expression the short canine snout could provide.

Her smaller kin, generally looking like the younger, smaller variant of her with different colouration, were however obviously getting bored and wandered around. Two played with the swords they picked up, trying to set the blades’ metal tips ablaze with their powers. They found it obviously amusing as they giggled sillily, others wandered off to the forest where the fires they caused slowly subsided.

A larger one seemed to be content with looking at me, only moving slightly closer. She smelled like burned aromatic wood.

Moments passed. Then something within me finally gave away and forced me to do something.

“Why do you stare at me like that?” I said.

“You created me. I dare say you are the most important person in my life right now,” she replied, in a slightly sultry tone. I still couldn’t get used to the fact that she did have quite a normal, if not even pleasant, human-like voice, but the anthropomorphic canine body. I had a nagging sensation that her voice wasn’t even a sound, and rather this strange feeling reverberating within my brain, her mouth however did move when she spoke though.

The awkward moment was interrupted by her smaller variant.

“For Master!” Mini-monster announced in her annoyingly childish tone and presented me with a pair of boots, only slightly charred on the edges.

Bodies, I realized, they looted the bodies. It was a dire reminder of the events that just transpired.

I suddenly became aware of the gruesome surroundings and all the stench around I somehow ignored it for the short, blissfully dulled moment.

Unable to take any of it anymore, I backpedalled then I jumped on my feet and ran into the woods, ignoring the creatures, burnt vegetation, lashing branches or scorched corpses left in the wake of the monster’s rampage. There were more of them than those whose death I witnessed.

Eventually, I just collapsed on the decaying cobbled road that cut through the forest, unable to move as my foot hurt, bruised from the ordeal of running through the forest, barefoot. I looked around, breathing heavily, and I had no idea where I was, what I should do, and what the hell was going on. My feet were stung and hurt, bleeding from embedded pieces of sharp, tiny rocks, but ironically, it kept me in reality, no matter how insane it was. A subtle reminder this wasn’t a dream.

The forest was silent, tense, for a little while. Perhaps it was afraid, scared of predators stalking around. Or it was just my lack of experience with the wilderness and not being accustomed to waking up in the middle of nowhere. I blame it on the latter. No one could have been prepared for his.

Then a few loud blasts echoed around the woods startling the remaining birds that were too foolish to not flee during the madness that transpired when I woke up here.

It may be too late for them, as a burning bird crashed down to the ground. Then I heard the giggling.

A smaller version of those vulpine devils appeared carrying the half-chewed chicken, or something very similar to it. It rushed for its prey laying scorched and crashed, picked that up and then offered it to me.

“For Master!” It quipped and smiled, its muzzle covered in blood. Or she, they did all have feminine voices after all.

“I’ll … pass,” I said, and shook a little. I was uncomfortable but helpless. She seemed disappointed by my refusal, and I stayed silent. The monster looked at me, and I looked at the monster, she tore a bit of meat from her catch in another weird moment.

I didn’t have to watch the not-quite-fox gnawing on the bird for too long though as her larger, and significantly more talkative version caught up with us momentarily, tagged with two of the smaller ones. One that brought me the boots. The other one now had a helmet on her head, an ancient Asian looking one that didn’t fit, she probably took it as a trophy from her unfortunate victim.

“I…” Was the only thing I managed to say before I had to admit I was sorely lacking in terms of dealing with a fireball throwing and slightly psychotic anthropomorphic foxes. I didn’t think I could run. I didn’t even know where to, and as unnerving the monsters were, they weren’t hostile.

Another explosion came from the forest - they weren’t hostile to me, at least, as they found other targets to vent their fiery aggression on.

“Hm?” The fiery fox regarded me once again, entirely unperturbed by the fact her kin was rampaging somewhere else, and then pointed out the obvious, “You need clothes and boots, Master.”

For a while, I didn’t respond and had to force myself to carry out the dialogue, to bring my mind away from the flashbacks to the violence.

“And you don’t need clothes?” I asked. It was, a stupid question, however, she was probably willing to accommodate it.

“There are no humans around,” she replied, and added playfully, “and I don’t mind you looking at me.”

“I am human.”

All furry monsters, larger and smaller alike, laughed as though it was the most hilarious joke they ever heard.

“That’s lame. You are Master.” Bigger one said, while her lesser kin seconded with screechy “Master! Master!”

In an attempt to normalize this conversation in this absurd situation, and in a desperate attempt to grasp any resemblance of normality in the situation where common sense failed, I decided to direct it elsewhere.

“What’s your name anyway?” I asked, albeit without any real desire to find the answer.

“I don’t have a name yet. You can give me one,” she replied, in utmost seriousness.

“What about Tama?” I suggested mindlessly. I had no reasons for picking it, no justification, no real thought of why, I just said it. It has soon proven to be a mistake, as it triggered those game-like windows to invade my perception.

The first unit was named! Tama, the Purifier Alpha.

Skill “Scorched Earth lvl.7” gained.

The system announced, and immediately a ruby fog erupting from the ground spat two of the smaller variants of the vulpine monsters, very similar to a few of those already in my presence. They seemed all quite happy with their magically increasing numbers.

“I like it, Master.” Newly named Tama praised me.

One of the mini-version jumped at me, which of course made my heart rate spike in the moment of fright. Even if fluffy, those things were ruthless killers, but she obviously just wanted to hug me. I tried to free myself from the embrace, which earned me a “Master.” reply in a more disappointed tone.

Their trail of thoughts was beyond me, but I didn’t try to challenge those as I wouldn’t have a chance alone, in some forest in the middle of nowhere.

I turned my attention to my feet, there were small cuts and bruises that burnt and ached, which would force me to accept the offered boots after all. I, however, hesitated, too aware of the possible risk of infection. I wanted to clear the wound in some way. But there wasn’t any water, let alone anything better to do that at the moment.

“You should make someone heal you, Master,” Tama supplied, helpfully. She crouched and inspected me closely, and it felt as though she was concerned.

I wasn’t sure what she meant - if it was forcing others, or just having the power that simply fixed everything. In the context where summoning monsters as possible, healing magic wasn’t that much of a stretch.

“Heal?” I tried. Of course, it didn’t do anything.

There was another bang that shook the forest, suggesting that more creatures than those immediately next to me were causing trouble somewhere.

“There must be a way to…” Tama said, and she looked slightly up, almost as if she was gazing on the horizon. Two of the smaller kins bolted away almost like they carried out the order.

“Status?”

No reaction.

“Character Screen.”

Nothing.

“Overview.”

This, to my surprise, actually worked. Another, much larger floating window, appeared in front of my eyes in this twisted parody of augmented reality overlay.

The Master Skills Units (Active) Tama, The Purifier Alpha 13 * Purifiers Units (In queue) 1 * Purifier respawn in 0:52:21

I sighed. Aside from the realization that there may be up to a dozen of the giggly monstrosities, it didn't provide any useful information and the absence of any usual game terminology about hit points or statuses served as a dire reminder that my health state wasn’t subject to any game logic as far I was aware. The small infection could lead quite easily to death…I shuddered at the thought.

Only monsters were what that system threw at me, and in the meantime, the menagerie gathered around, now they must be really all twelve of them, in addition to the freshly named Tama.

They dragged in the various items wrapped in what I assumed was once a cloak, presenting the loot collection to me with the joyous “For Master!”

Others brought the dead rabbits they probably hunted using fireballs. And while monsters - ‘Purifiers’ how the mysterious window called them - were fine with consuming the raw, and slightly burned meat, I was disgusted enough to possibly throw up.

In the meantime, Tama combed through the prize of loot and retrieved an archaic-looking bottle gourd canteen left among the various items they gathered, ranging from knit knacks to even the mostly undamaged armour. As she proceeded to clear my dirtied and cut feet with the canteen from the archaic bottle while using straps torn from the looted fabric as improvised bandages, smaller fox-kins fiddled with the found armour to probably play a dress-up with me.

“Why are you so interested in helping me?” I couldn’t help myself but ask.

“You created us. You are the beginning and the end,” she replied, in all due seriousness. It sounded a bit creepy. “We are the part of you and will be recreated through you.”

“Do you remember the moments before the man stabbed you dead?”

“Yes. Why?” She said, and the realization hit me - the respawn mechanic.

“Should you die, would you be recreated again?” I deduced. It explained why one shielded me from arrows with her own body.

“Most likely.” She answered with the close equivalent of a smile. Despite the animalistic vulpine features, she did have a wide variety of expressions seen in humans.

Then, abruptly, the minor ‘Purifiers’ stopped what they were doing and straightened, just as Tama did.

There was a moment of silence, I could see their ears twitching, and while they remained eerily silent, and with the properly animalistic grin, quite insidious, and unsettling. I wanted to speak, but one of the smaller ones clung to me and pointed somewhere towards the other part of the forest with her clawed hand. They sensed something, relatively close, something I wasn’t able to pick up but their seemingly heightened perception would.

Then I heard that too. Voices. Muffled by the woods, barely noticeable, but undeniably there, coming closer, the clingiest one of the ‘Purifiers’ did hold me, even not through restaining fashion and kept tracing the sound of cracking branches and increasingly loud voices.

I stayed silent - let it be fear, shock or just confusion - I didn’t know.

Monsters spread around, with few remaining close. Tama rose, gathering sparkles and smoke forming around her claws. She waited.

A few minutes later, a group of humans, armed with a varying collection of melee weapons, but in dirty attires that screamed the fantasy bandit, fumbled from the woods to the decaying road we were still sitting in. They seemed half-drunk, argued about something in a language I can’t quite place, words forming just the random gibberish. Then they noticed us.

Let it be through senses dulled by alcohol, or serious incompetence, they didn’t expect us there despite how they must have heard all the noise earlier

As their attention turned toward us, one bandit decided to flee while others scrambled for the fight they didn’t see coming.

Tama giggled, and the trail of fire sparkled around her fingers as she sentenced them to die.