Omen: 2, 8

“So, how are we meant to find this Twilight Fox anyhow?” Adam asked as they continued to trek through the snowy forest.

“It will appear in the night, most likely in front of us as we will be within its domain,” Jurot replied.

“That’s convenient.”

“It is a powerful creature,” Jurot said. “It will test us to see if it can kill one of us, and if it cannot, it will leave as quickly as it appears.”

“So I gotta nuke it? Got it.”

Jurot assumed Adam meant he was going to go all out in the beginning to take it out right away. ‘Newk?’

Sir Landon and the Knights sometimes exchanged a few words between one another, the young Noble sometimes growing bored of the silence. He did not speak to the others, though, leaving them to their own conversations.

Adam could still feel it, the eyes of the Silver Strider, which came from an unseen place. “I don’t like that it can see us and we can’t see it.”

“Leave it to its business, and it will leave us to ours,” Jurot said. 

They continued to journey until the late afternoon, where they set up camp. 

“What are you doing?” Sir Landon asked.

“I was going to summon my tower,” Adam said. “I saved my Mana this morning so I could cast it at least once.”

“We will need your magic against it.”

“I know, but I can spare this,” Adam said. “We won’t need a Third Gate spell to deal with it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Sir Landon stared at the Half Elf, who constantly annoyed him to no end.

Adam smiled. “Have you forgotten how quickly I dispatched your Knight?”

Sir Landon narrowed his eyes, but nodded his head. “Very well. However, if we cannot hunt the Twilight Fox because of you, I will warn the Guild of this matter.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Adam said. “If we fail this, we’ll find something less troublesome to hunt. You’ve seen how good we are.”

“We will see if you are good enough.”

Mana: 18 -> 15
Spell: Adam’s Tower

Adam summoned forth his tower, which emerged from the ground. He had cast it the night before because it seemed safe to do so. Jurot had said that we weren’t within its domain at that time, so he bathed in peace.

“Can I go bathe really quick?” Adam asked. 

“It will not appear until night falls,” Jurot said, nodding his head. “You may go.”

“Sweet!” Adam quickly stripped out of everything, before going to take a dip in the hot water. Going from the cold Nightval to the hot bath was something else. ‘Ah, this is the life.’

Once Adam was done, he kept an eye out to allow Lucy to bathe in peace too, before she was done and the Nobles bathed. 

“Thanks,” Lucy said, feeling much better after a nice hot bath. 

“Any time,” Adam replied. 

She had trusted Adam to keep an eye out, and was sure that if it did somehow appear in the bath, she was strong enough to deal with it for a moment before the rest would come to assist her. 

‘Not that I need their help,’ she thought.

Night eventually fell, and the stars began to twinkle in the distance. Lucy and Adam spent their time staring up at the stars, which Jurot seemed to be concentrated on. The Knights were keeping an eye out around their camp, wary of any Nightval Wolves or other Nightval creatures which would appear. 

“Why didn’t we bring Fred?” Lucy asked. “Then we would have outnumbered the Nobles.”

“I think Fred needs Sir Vonda at the moment,” Adam replied. “He was pretty quiet and kept to himself after the whole thing with the kid and the Chief.”

The stars were so foreign to Adam, who could still feel that the sky was wrong somehow. It was so different from Earth, all the different colours strange objects and phenomena unique to this world, this universe. 

“It has come,” Jurot said, donning his shield and grabbing his axe.

Within moments, the others had shot up, ready for action, grabbing all their gear to fight. 

“Come.” Jurot bolted forward as a blue and purple star fell down from the sky, shooting towards them, though it veered to the side away from them, before an explosion rocked them and the forest. 

Adam stumbled against a tree, before his eyes returned to the side, where a massive area had been cleared from the explosion. “Is that… it?”

In the centre of the explosion was a tiny creature. It was no bigger than a hamster, with fur which was starry like the sky above them and a tail which formed a crescent moon no matter how it moved. The Twilight Fox, which was more like a Twilight Mouse, stared up at them, its pupils in the shape of stars.

Battle Order
D20 + 1 = 4 (3)

“It’s more dangerous than you think!” Jurot replied, gripping his axe tight.

The Twilight Fox, which seemed as harmless as a mouse, disappeared from where it stood. It did not quite disappear, as the darkness blurred across the white snow, giving them just a moment to gather themselves, the Twilight Fox darting from one tree stump to the next, moving as though it were a shadow.

Within the span of a second, it appeared before Lucy. Lucy, who was unarmoured, carried no shield, and had her delicious flesh on display for it.

Lucy, with Destroyer in hand, swung down towards the Twilight Fox, her Destroyer suddenly aflame as she tried to cut the creature in half. However, their eyes met, and Lucy froze, still as a statue.

She hadn’t the chance to fall into her rage, as the Twilight Fox had come upon her so quickly, and her eyes turned glassy as she looked to another time. Her lips formed a small smile, her face gentle as she welcomed the embrace of Mary.

As the Knights darted forward to attack the Twilight Fox, it spun quickly, becoming a wheel, and its tail slashed across Lucy’s front. Its tail had somehow managed to cut through Lucy’s flesh as though the Demon girl was made of paper. 

The snow turned red as Lucy’s blood splattered across it, though a boot stamped across it as the Knights leapt forward into action. 

“Lucy!” Adam shouted, having charged forward. Lucy was still alive, her eyes still unfocused as they remained staring at another time. 

“Come here!” A Knight roared, as the Twilight Fox leapt over Lucy, and darted around. The Knights, with their years of training, managing glancing blows against its tail, which it used to partly deflect the delectable magical steel away. 

It was ghostly quiet as it moved, and save for the sounds of their movement and grunted of effort as they clashed with it, there were no sounds within the forest.

Sir Landon tried to step forward to attack, but understood he was out of his depths, so raised his sword up defensively. However, his actions soon proved to be far more dangerous, as the The Twilight Fox’s eyes fell to him. 

He was the weakest link, it gathered. Lucy hadn’t died to its attacks, which had slain almost everyone it met, meaning she was quite tough. This fellow, on the other hand, was surely someone that would die instantly, and it would be able to drain the Noble’s blood so eagerly. 

Warrior Spirit: 3 -> 2

Attack
D20 + 8 = 19 (11)
D20 + 8 = 28 (20)
Critical hit!
Phantom: 3 -> 2
Mana: 18 -> 15
2D6 + 8D6 + 8D6 + 6 = 81 (4, 4)(2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6)(3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6)
81 damage!

The Twilight Fox continued to bounce about, dodging and weaving through the group with grace, darting towards Sir Landon, wanting to taste his flesh. The Twilight Fox needed only a moment to kill him, and another to sip his blood. 

As it did, however, an axe blurred across its neck, cutting it clean through. Its head dropped down beside the man’s feet, and its body slammed against Sir Landon’s armour, before skidding across the snow and striking a tree beside him. 

Adam, who had spent a moment to focus himself, had swung his axe down ahead of it, towards where it was going to be. The axe had appeared from its blind spot, its greedy eyes glued to Sir Landon, its most precious meal. 

Just like that, as quickly as it had appeared, it had left. 

“Well,” Adam said, staring at the bisected form of the Twilight Fox. “That was easy.”

Even Jurot, who was usually first to move, had not reacted. He had left the matter to Adam, trusting that the Half Elf could kill it, since he had promised to newk it. 

Adam’s eyes snapped to Lucy, who was still within her daze, staring out ahead of her with joy. It was a joy Adam hadn’t seen before, a joy which was not faked to keep herself from being swallowed by the abyss.

“Is she okay?” Adam asked, before Jurot roared behind him, and he turned back, only to watch as something blurred in front of him. It was the shaft of an arrow, which caught his eye. He didn’t blink, instead watching as it shot forward, striking Lucy’s horn, before it exploded with light.

 

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