“Now, first things first. Did you eat the boy?” I ask, maintaining a serious expression even though I know that she hasn’t. Or at least, she probably hasn’t.

“I… How dare you accuse me of such…?!” She has trouble getting the words out as for the first time her queenly poise fails her.

“Is that a yes, or a no?” I ask again.

“No! I didn’t eat the boy, damn you!” She insists.

“Can you prove it?”

She growls low, and I can feel the bloodlust radiating around her.

“Whoa, whoa. Calm your butt down Miss Fluffy.” I say, “Can’t we at least get your name?”

“Names?” She asks, glaring at me, “Fool of a child, names are meaningless. I advise that you shut your mouth and run back to whatever rock they found you under.”

“I would consider your advice, but the run is a bit too far and I’m just not into running.” I reply, “Would you mind letting us take the boy back to his family?”

“I won’t fall for your tricks. I’m the only family that boy has.” She insists, “If you don’t want to fight, then flee.”

“We’re only here for the boy.” Adler says, gritting her teeth, “If you leave the townspeople alone… we can pretend that we never saw you.”

She’s bending more and more. So long as I can do something about her collar, I might just be able to tear her fully away from the welfare officers. It’s not like I need her to lose all her values and ideals, just the dangerous ones.

“You take too much, slaver. I’ll not let one more slip into your hands.” Fluffy growls and lifts her tails high over her head. The nearest, glowing faintly with blue light stirs with magic power, far too much power.

I get the feeling that there’s no more talking her down. Adler is thankfully trying as best as she can to give Fulffy a chance, so for once I can’t blame this on her. I probably shouldn’t have been quite so aggressive myself, but honestly I can’t find my voice in moments like this unless I’m saying something stupid.

“So… we’re doing this?” I ask, “What about the rules? We’re not beasts. No aiming for the face or under the belt?”

The fox and Adler have stopped paying me any attention, instead facing one another with building mana behind their gazes. I suspect they could both cast at any moment, they’re just waiting for the other to make the first move, like cowboys in an old western film.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Eshya says, with an excited smile, “I propose bedroom rules, everything’s acceptable until someone screams stop.”

Adler and Fluffy Butt remain frozen in their stare off, but I feel that they become a little more still as they process Eshya’s words.

“Eshya,” Vii says from a tree above, “I don’t think now’s the right time…”

“Now is always the right time.” She insists, slowly moving around Fluffy Butt’s right side, while I circle her left side.

While Adler seems to be holding the fox’s attention, that doesn’t mean that the rest of us are in the clear. Another of her large black tails is pointed my direction, weaved with a warm brown thread. My mana senses scream at me that there’s a growing power stirring within.

When her tail waves at me, the mana building up into a full spell casting, I leap to the side dodging… nothing.

Where her tail lands, the mana seeps into the earth, drawing from dry dust and dirt from the surface. The dust collects by her side, twisting in the air and slowly solidifying into the form of a fox, much like Fluffy Butt, but half the size.

Dirty Butt, is still easily my size at full height.

The fur of this dirt phantasm is blurred and unclear, the creature itself taking on a liveliness that shouldn’t be possible as the last of the mana leaves the midnight fox’s tail and is absorbed into the construct.

Meanwhile, a tail threaded with cold blue hairs targets Adler, summoning another separate spell. The magic flows out into the air pulling at the moisture all around us, at the same time as Adler’s spell does the same.

The battle over the loose water continues and I can feel as the local humidity drops to near nothing. It’s interesting to watch the water gather in Adler’s hands condensing tighter and tighter as she prepares a strong attack before finally letting it blast.

Fluffy’s water gathers just in time to form a small shard of ice, enough to scatter the high-pressure water cutter. I’d expect ice to melt or get otherwise worn down in the face of that attack, but there’s clearly some special sort of magical fuckery at play here.

The water that sprays from the meeting of magics covers flies all about, covering the sky in rainbows before it feeds back into Fluffy’s spell once more.

Eshya lets out a loud shout as she charges at Fluffy’s other side, clearly targeting her wounded leg while she’s distracted. A tail threaded with dark red, lowers and blasts fire at her, forcing the elf to retreat. I can’t see clearly what’s happening over there, but between the flames and the shouting, I assume Eshya’s being forced back.

I just have to hope that we can split her attention enough to cause her to make a mistake.

As Dirty Butt finds her feet, I tuck away my pipe gun and charge in. Bullets don’t seem like a great weapon against something without real physical form, but my mana drain should be perfect.

Dirty Butt turns to face me, bouncing lightly on her feet and opening her jaws to reveal rows of light brown teeth. Before I get to her, Vii swoops in low and blasts at the figure with blades of wind, Fuffy’s fourth tail is turned towards us, somehow interfering with Vii’s attacks.

Some attacks still make it through, hitting Dirty Butt and causing the edges of the construct to waver and fade. With fast steps I push forwards while it’s distracted, saving a fireball in case I need another distraction. My Skills let me boost my steps and speed to incredible levels, and using that speed, I sprint right at the dust construct.

My shins slam into some invisible barrier, hard. I fall forwards with all my momentum slamming right into the side of the dirt construct.

I expect to pass right through, with the construct either reforming behind me or scattering on the wind that Vii has stirred up. Instead, I slam into the solid side of the construct at full force, crushing the air from my lungs as I clutch at the dusty fur.

The pain in my shins hits me a moment later and I clutch harder, pulling at the creature’s mana out of instinct as I try to find my breath. The faux fox snaps it’s head around to bite at me as it’s mana floods into me, easier to grasp than most anything else I’ve had to fight so far. Even as the teeth of the magical construct try to bite into my shoulder they’re blunted and disintegrated as the mana is pulled out of them.

In seconds, I’ve consumed the construct and feel the bursting power of dozens more units of mana churning inside me. It’s amazing that she was able to create this large of a construct with only a few dozen units of mana. It’s the sort of ability and expertise that I’m in desperate need of.

My legs still hurt, but it’s not the worst pain I’ve had to experience. After confirming that they’re both still there and legging me around, I look up towards the exposed side of Fluffy Butt as she battles the other three. She mustn’t have noticed her Dirty Butt getting destroyed.

Running up and using mana surges through both my legs, I jump high to land on her fluffy back. The fur is a surprising blend of softness and stiffness, fairly mana dense compared to myself.

The fox leaps into the air as I grab tight to her fur, trying to keep on like a cowboy at a rodeo. I slurp down the mana in her fur, not as fast as with her dirt construct but enough so that I know I’m making a dent. I’m lucky she’s not like Freid, I can barely pull the mana from him at all.

Instead, it feels more like the fleshy goo from the ruins under the academy, but soft and warm, not gooey and disgusting. While it did take a while, and I needed others to distract it for me, my mana drain was enough to kill that beast, and it’s more than enough to subdue this fox too, so long as I can hold on.

“Off! Off!” Fluffy Butt cries, her tails whip at me but big and fluffy as they are, it’s actually kind of nice. Though the intense mana density of them does still feel a little rough.

When her panic fades and she rediscovers that she can cast magic through her tails, she blasts me with flecks of ice. I figure it’s my time to leave, and I invest a few dozen mana into a delayed fire blast as a parting gift.

“Parasite! What kind of mana leach are you?!” She cries loudly at me, her burning fur standing on end as she quickly gets it under control.

“Didn’t like it?” I ask, “You could always give up and we can talk things out.”

“I will not.” She declares, limping to the side as Eshya tries to seize the opening.

Adler casts her favourite water magic, and this time the fox is too slow to respond in time. The water cutting through a swath of black fur before the shards of ice generate to scatter it. It seems her powerful magic takes a few moments to commit to, unlike my fireballs. Perhaps it has something to do with efficiency?

My fireballs, even with how much mana I shove in them, don’t hit very hard compared to what others can manage with the same mana.

Watching Fluffy Butt continuing the fight, I see a greater reservation in not simply her movements, but now her magic. She’s not casting as often anymore, and when she does, it’s not as big.

“You should give up!” I say, “We don’t need to fight!”

“Turn and run, slavers.” She growls, somehow dignified even now.

“We’re not slavers!” I say, with a sigh, joining the fight. I cast a fireball here and there waiting for a moment to get close. The flames barely lick at her fur before they’re stifled by tail whips.

I’d rather not use my pipe gun unless I want the target dead, and I’m still hoping that I can get Fluffy on my side at the end of this. I’d really rather not turn her into mana paste and forest fertilizer.

The question is, can I drain enough of her mana to subdue her, or will the mana shock kill her as she tries to fight through it. Honestly, I’m thinking that it’ll likely be the latter. If she’s convinced that we’re going to be collaring her, then I understand that she’d prefer to fight ‘till the end.

“Can you hold her back?” I ask the others. Eshya carefully dodges the blasts of fire that’s summoned when she gets too near, Adler continues to press with her water cutter, aiming for Fluffy Butt’s tails to keep from causing critical injury.

“We’ve got her. Go.” Vii says, slashing out with her wind blades at Fluffy’s face.

I run to the side and around them as the fight intensifies again, so much so, that I’m not sure that any of them even notice where I’m going. Past where the fox was sitting to wait for us, I see a cave surrounded by an old wooden frame, worn and damaged over tremendous time without repair or replacement.

Ducking into the cave and seeing that the supports are just as aged, the weight of the stone above me fills my mind, but I press on. I can’t afford to stop now. The battle outside is too even for it to end well if left as it is.

“Oi! Is someone here!” I call out, “Kid! Shit, forgot his name.”

Or more accurately I never actually paid attention to his name when I was hearing the old man moaning and groaning about his lost kid.

There’s no reply, of course.

“Come on, you hairy shit-kid!” I say, “I’m guessing that that big fox is important to you? She’s about to get killed out there, and you’re going to what? Hide in a dark corner whimpering?”

They’re both fox-like and he’s presumedly not eaten, so it’s not a hard conclusion to come to.

There’s nothing here and while there are wall mounts for some sort of light, there’s nothing on them that I can see. Whether the lights too are aged, to the point of worthlessness, or just turned on with a switch that I missed, I can’t tell.

The cave is surprisingly deep, and the rooms would be cosy if it wasn’t so freaking dark. I don’t have the time to be turning over every degrading cabinet down here, and I’d rather not waste my time while waiting for the fight to settle outside.

“Shit.” I swear under my breath, just a moment before something hits the back of my head. It’s almost like someone just slapped me up the backside of the head, I spin and grab at the stick before a second hit lands on my face.

“There you are.” I say, pulling the stick and the kid with it. He seems to be the size of an eight-year-old, but then again, his kind are shorter than humans so it’s impossible to tell his real age.

He lets go about the same time I do and tries to run, but he limps along on his lame leg and I fly with a mana surge kick. Grabbing him by his fluffy, little arms, I heave him up before he falls to the ground.

I pull his arms around behind him and twist them both, eliciting a pained shout. I haven’t done enough to actually hurt him, so I don’t let go. Instead pressing him from behind, shoving him out and towards the door of this little cave.

I’m sure experts back on Earth would be unhappy with my technique, but I subscribe to the ‘whatever works’ model of thinking and grappling. The kid’s going where I need him to, thus I’m doing great.

“Let me go!” The kid whines trying to fight me but only hurting himself as he struggles.

I grasp him tighter, twisting his arms until he stops. Being supported by a greater mana density makes it easy to manoeuvre him around like steering a particularly stubborn wheelbarrow with a punctured tire.

“You’re my hostage now, kid.” I say, “You think you can get Fluffy Butt to surrender?”

“Fluffy…? No, no! She’s… No, she can’t get caught!” He shouts redoubling his efforts and almost slipping from my grasp as he races out dragging me behind. He mightn’t have much power, but he certainly has spirit.

When we get out into the light, and look over the battlefield, I see that both sides have worn each other down but no lasting victory has been found. Time to change that.

“Hey, Fluffy Butt!” I shout, “We can stop fighting now, I’ve already got what we came here for.”

“You…” She growls, turning to face me and summoning a large blast of fire and ice to throw the others back enough for a chance to come at me.

“Are we done fighting?” I ask her, pushing the kid out to keep him between us.

“I will not let us be collared.” She says harshly.

“Oh, hey. Same. We are, like, so in sync.” I say, “Why is it we’re fighting again? Oh, that’s right, it’s because you don’t listen to people.”

“You won’t collar us?” She asks, clearly suspicious of me.

“Nope,” I reply, and she visibly loses tension.

“Fine… fine…” She shudders, falling to the ground while trying to maintain some little dignity.

“So, peace?” I ask, letting the boy go. Limping on his own bloody leg, he stumbles over to the wounded fox, reverential even now. He stands between us and Fluffy Butt, trying to make a wall out of his body.

“Please, I beg you. I’ll do what you want, just don’t hurt her any more.” He bows low to us.

“Get up kid.” I say, stepping up and reaching down for him. The fox watches me closely snapping out as I get too close. The others raise their weapons at the show of aggression.

“I’m not going to hurt him.” I say, waving her down. “I dragged him out here, didn’t I?”

“You draw mana at touch. Your very presence is dangerous to the young one.” She says, limping up before falling again.

The boy pulls himself to his feet, rushing back to Fluffy Butt’s side and fussing about her.

“Divine Nuala needs mana! She’s dying.” The boy cries out in frustrated terror, “Take some of mine! My arm. That’s it, take my arm!”

The boy is clearly having some sort of panicked fit at the sight of his beloved ‘divine Nuala’ suffering before him.

“Go get some food.” I say to the boy not wanting to see Fluffy Butt dead either, “Anything, just be quick.”

“Food? No, no I must…”

“Now!” I insist, standing over him, “I’ll save her, just go get something she can eat, and quickly!” I pronounce each word slowly and clearly, pushing as much authority as I can into my attitude.

The boy doesn’t complain, sneering at me before limping off with as much speed as he can muster back towards their little degraded home in the cave. Eshya follows, giving us a brief nod to confirm we see what she’s doing.

The old wood surrounding the cave entrance hints at something far grander that has faded away over the passing of many years. At closer look it reminds me of an old, wooden temple. The sort where the people tending to it just stopped caring and the gods died, left, or never existed in the first place.

I rub at the bumps forming on my shins where I hit them during the fight, they hurt pretty bad but I can still walk and now’s not the time to be whining about such things.

Fluffy Butt watches me closely with those deep golden eyes, still shifting with the strange movements of something that resides within. What is with her eyes?

She’s breathing slow, trying to keep herself from losing control as she shivers.

Using my new mana senses I peer into her, seeing the unstable mana flows running through her. It’s as if the mana is trying to go all over and through her at once but there’s not enough of it to go everywhere it’s needed.

“Here.” The boy says as he arrives, throwing a handful of berries at me before rushing back to Fluffy’s side.

“Well, I hope you like these things…” I say, looking at the bright purple berries as I flood them with some of the mana that I appropriated from her.

“What are you doing?” She asks.

“I’m giving you back your mana, open up and get ready for the spice.” I say, throwing the handful of berries into her mouth before they have a chance to leak.

She flinches a moment at the dense mana packed into them, it’s more than I give to the other girls, but they’re not as big or as well-developed mana-wise. Unfortunately, this leaves me with only a little more mana than I had before coming into this fight.

I don’t need her getting any funny ideas about starting this fight up again, so I’m not about to rearm her. It should still be enough mana to get her out of mana shock but I doubt she’ll be fighting again any time soon.

After a few minutes, she stumbles to her feet, still weak and unsteady, but no longer immediately at threat of dying. She stares over at us, her golden eyes glowing.

“So, what are you to do with us?” She asks, unable to hide some shivers as she pulls the young boy closer to her.

“First of all, negotiations.” I declare, “What do I have to do so that you’ll let me pat your fluffy, fluffy fur?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 545 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 24% 24% Muscle 0% 12% Mind 21% 21% Cardiovascular 0% 11% Misc. 0% 10% Efficiency 45% 78%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Grapple

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger