Sett felt his eyes twitch. He had only wanted to hide on this island for a few hours. Yet why did he suddenly have to have a life and death fight with an oversized fox? He knew that he had accidentally invaded the other party’s turf, but surely this was overreacting, right?

It simply was not fair.

Sett shook his head. He could not allow his anger about the abnormal and incomprehensible situation to distract him. In a battle to the death, such things could easily cause your death.

With that, Sett finally took a good look at the rather enormous beast that stood before him. In line with his earlier thoughts, it was indeed a fox, but it was also so much more. While it certainly held the bloodline and traits of a fox, it showed many other sides to it as well. Specifically, this was not a mere fox, but a monster.

For one, it was much bigger than the average fox. Its body was almost four meters in length and if it stood upright, it would more than likely stand face to face with Sett. The muscles that grew on its body had followed along with the body proportions, growing to an incredible scale as well. The legs, for example, were rippling with muscles. The huge body and muscles made the fox look a little less lithe than its normal counterpart but in return, it gave it a much fiercer look.

Next was the species of fox. Foxes had been introduced into some of the nature reserves that had cropped up on Gliese Prime some fifty years ago. That said, due to the climate that humanity had initially settled in, they had only introduced red foxes. The sight of the entirely white fur that the fox before him sported was a foreign sight. He could only chalk it up to being a subspecies of the fox that lived in a colder and snowier climate.

Perhaps the additional tails that sprung from its backside was a trait of that subspecies as well?

The most thing about the fox was not the brute strength nor the unknown species but the clear glint of intelligence that laid in its eyes. When Sett had heard his adversary speak from the fog earlier, he had been preparing himself for fighting a human. For some reason, the thought of fighting a beast with human intelligence felt far worse than the former.

Yesterday, he had seen the fearsome wyverns which the dragon knights rode on. Even separated by a wall of metal, they had felt incredibly powerful. Yet, they did not have the intelligent glint. They were merely beasts. Incredibly strong beasts, but still beasts in the end. How much more frightening would the wyvern become if it became as smart as a human. It was a frightening prospective.

A prospective that had come true. Although the fox was much smaller than the wyverns, the sheer power that emanated from the beast before him did not lose out much before the dragon. In some places, it even exceeded it. Adding the intelligence to such a monstrous beast was enough to make one’s skin crawl in fright.

Sett had only been lost in thought for half a second, but the enemy was already upon him. It had been standing still only a moment ago, but it had already crossed almost fifty meters. It had blurred before Sett’s eyes and caused gusts of winds to spread out from its body. It made the speed that Adina and Stella had displayed earlier, which could be considered to be the fastest among mortal sprinters, look like babies crawling towards the parents.

‘Dodge left!’

Without questioning the words that had appeared in his head, Sett flung himself to his left with all his might. Not thinking was what had saved him.

Standing just before the place which he had been only a moment earlier was the white fox monster. Its right arm was extended forward and had just completed a sweeping motion.

Sett felt chills rampage through his body. If he had hesitated for only a moment longer with jumping to the side, he would have been torn into pieces. Hell, if he had jumped to the left instead, he would have met the same fate if not worse.

‘Thanks, Selt.’

Sett inwardly thanked his literal guardian deity. Had it not been for his timely input, Sett would surely have been too late in his actions.

“Interloper!” For some reason, the white fox had suddenly become even more angered. “You, who has braved the dream fog and remained conscious, would feign weakness?! Do not look down on this one and fight me with your full power!”

The white fox was truly incensed, but its anger only fuelled Sett’s despondence. He was not feigning weakness. He really was that weak. He did not even have any idea what the dream fog that the fog spoke of was.

The fox continued its rambling for a few more moments, likely trying to anger Sett to use his non-existent powers.

‘Selt, what do we do?’

‘It is a precarious situation, mine kindred.’ Selt’s words were grave, even more so than usual. ‘Our enemy is far too powerful to fight directly.’

Selt’s words spoke the truth that Sett already knew.

‘Can we flee?’

Sett knew that before such a powerful and hostile beast, the only way out would be to flee from the battle.

‘That would be impossible.’

Selt’s words made Sett’s heart sink. Impossible? He had walked into this place easily enough only a few moments ago, how could the situation have changed that much in the time since the fox revealed itself.

‘Why?’

Sett asked with a trembling voice.

‘This fog is not naturally occurring. It is a grand formation that has been constructed with the island as its base. If I were to guess, in normal cases, the dream fog, as the fox called it, would normally function to help ease the dreams of those affected, but the formation also seems to have a secondary function. That of sealing. The specifics about this formation are complicated, but, in short, our strength would never be enough to break through the seal.’

‘Damnit.’ Sett cured in his mind. ‘Then we can only try to fight our way out.’

‘Indeed.’

‘Tell me what you know.’

Sett knew horribly little of the arcane world. He could only defer to the far more knowledgeable Selt to gain some information.

‘My most optimistic estimates place our foe somewhere around the middle of the third tier of ascendancy, but it likely that it is approaching the pinnacle of the third tier, almost crossing into the fourth.’

This was bad. There was no other way that Sett could phrase it. The enemy before them was stronger than the average captain from the crusader order by a mile. It was likely that even the Grandmaster would have to take the fight very seriously if it came to it.

‘As for its species and mannerisms, I am sadly unfamiliar with it. The only thing that I can recognize is that our foe uses the light element and is significantly connected to the dream attribute.’

The dream attribute? The gears in Sett’s mind ground for a few moments. Was the dream attribute not something that was attached to Selt’s former divine seed?

‘The dream attribute? Can we make use of that?’

Sett instantly tore the connection as if it was the only thing that separated him from life and death.

‘Indeed.’ The words of Selt sent ecstatic shivers through Sett’s brain. ‘Though it will still be beyond dangerous for us to rely on such a small connection, it is our only saving grace. The beast is injured. Not in its physical body, but on its soul and mind. Should we be able to exploit said injury, we will be able to calm its mind enough that it might not be angered towards us anymore.’

Exploit the injury… Sett understood the concept but failed to see how he was going to do it. He barely knew how to attack with a sword, let alone how to attack with his mind.

‘How?’

‘Simple. It is time to put your divine seed to use. It will render it unusable for a time but considering the predicament we are in I believe it is a worthwhile sacrifice.’

Selt began by explaining that Sett would not be able to use the divine seed for a time. Why would he care? Till now, Sett did not even have a use for it. He knew that in theory, it would grant him additional potential, but he had yet to see said potential. Losing out of that potential for a time was definitely worth it if he could save his life.

‘Listen well, for our time is short. Channel your essence into the divine seed. Overload it with essence…’

Selt began to explain the method Sett was meant to use to activate the divine seed. Surprisingly, it was much simpler than he thought. Simply direct all the essence that he had in his body into the seed. Eventually, it would become overloaded from all the energy that it contained, and it would allow him to make use of the dream essence that the divine seed commanded for a time.

The only problem was whether or not Sett would survive till he had succeeded. The fox, while it had been complaining for a time, had become aware that Sett was not paying attention to its words.

The white fox stared at the impudent interloper that had dared to invade its master’s sanctuary. It had thought that the interloper that had arrived at the island would be aggressive and flinging spells left and right as they had done before. Much to its dismay, the one before him had simply dodged once and then stood in a dace, completely ignoring the fox’s pleas for a proper fight.

It became restless and conflicted at the strange sight before it. None had dared to ignore it like that before. Had the interloper given themselves up for death or could it be that they were charging up for an attack?

The fox did not know.

Still, it did not have a choice in the matter. Its master was very ill and it could not allow the interloper to interfere in his matters.

With conviction in its mind, the fox began to approach its enemy with caution. It had attacked with full force earlier, thinking that it was going to be a fair fight, but now it knew that the enemy was likely to be playing dirty.

It surveyed the ground for traps of any kind but found none. Then, it shifted its mind to the air in the surrounding. It looked for any sign of dissonance from the essence that the interloper exuded but found none. Could it be that he really was not trying to sneak attack it?

It felt conflicted with attacking an unarmed person even if they had resolved themselves for death, but it knew that it had no choice. It could not place its master’s life in peril.

“Die, interloper!”

Yelling out loud, mostly to encourage itself, it sent itself flying towards to interloper.

Just before its sharp claws would have skewered the interloper, the interloper opened his eyes and dodged beneath the fox.

The fox growled. It had barely missed with a hair’s breadth. It had thought that the interloper had given himself up for death, but the opposite was true. The interloper still wished to fight.

The fox would give the interloper his wish.

Twisting its body in a rapid motion, completely disregarding the wounds from many years past, it swung its claws at the foolish interloper once again.

Once again, the interloper narrowly dodged. That said, this time it graced the interloper. Blood flowed from a wound in the interloper’s arm. It was not deep, but it had struck many a vein, allowing the blood to flow rapidly.

The interloper grimaced, but still faced the fox with an unyielding and concentrating facial expression.

It attacked again. And again. And again. Each time, the fox would get closer and closer to where it wished to strike. The interloper was getting weaker and weaker by the moment and the many wounds that now littered its body. Sooner or later, they would collapse from blood loss.

The fox had been concerned with the interloper’s disposition earlier, but now with the thrill of the hunt burning in its veins, it completely disregarded those thoughts.

It would come to regret that decision.

Suddenly, when the fox had wished to strike at its enemy for twentieth time, the enemy changed without warning. His eyes turned completely dark, not allowing a single piece of light to escape from them and a dark energy flowed on his left hand.

How? The fox wished to howl in distress. How did the enemy suddenly conjure up such a spell without it knowing it?

Panicking, it desperately tried to backpaddle. To flee from the strange and overwhelming magic that was before its eyes. Sadly, it could not. Its momentum was too great, and it had closed to much of the distance. The interloper's hand reached and breached its skin, sinking deeply into its body.