During The Night:
The his creator’s time training, Apita didn’t waste the opportunity. To hunt, to get even more powerful. His creator’s emotions was his also, when the trauma causing event happened Etta’s emotions of sorrow, grief, fury, and regret flared and overflowed. Infecting also the fox.
What’s more was it wasn’t getting any better soon, his owner’s family was also his family. Hearing every single member of his own family getting slaughtered was nightmare inducing to the fox, added to that Etta’s own overflowing emotions was recipe for a raging apex.
Its fur was no longer mostly orange, now it was a bright shade of crimson-velvet with white accents. The only trace of orange was its eyes. The Canidae was currently bigger than a normal fox, almost being as big as a wolf. Furthermore it was getting bigger and stronger with each dose of mana it ingested.
Its mana sense flared. His eyes became coated with velvet flames as the predator scanned for prey. His steps were fast but somehow very silent, his nostrils searched for any scent trails that would lead it to a feast.
One, two, three, four. Four monsters was spotted by the fox, one two headed wolf scout scouring for a meal to feed its pack, two gigantic rodents with teeth big enough to cut down logs and bodies big enough to crush carriages under its weight, the last one was a larger mana using version of its now-extinct sibling the anaconda, it was a Branacone.
The fox rushed towards the couple of gigantic beavers first. His fur turned bright crimson as it lit on fire, intertwined with black streaks of lightning fueled with nothing but mana, hatred and anger. With every passing second the spirit beast accelerated even further.
“*Thuck*” Blood splashed as flesh was rent asunder, the neck of the first rodent was executed in an instant. Its body caught on fire as deep velvet flames cooked its flesh and boiled its blood. The second one swiped at the murderer with anger, wishing to kill her partner’s executioner.
Unluckily, it was a wish that shall never be fulfilled. With a dodge and a long leap the killer got unto the female’s back. With a single penetrating chomp the fox carved the manabeast’s heart out of its chest, ignoring the thick and sturdy hide. Silently it feasted on the mana inside the cores and flesh.
“*Shck* *Shck* *Ctak*” The forest bore witness to the sound that was sure to trigger any misophonia havers. The sounds of chewing and smell of blood of course didn’t go unnoticed, but it didn’t care. Let the scavengers come, they will be its meal too. Its veins coursed with power, mana strengthening its body.
“AWOOO!” The single two headed Cerberus he saw before called its pack. All the members of the pack coalescing and surrounding Apita’s location. Now he was surrounded by multiple one headed, two headed, and three headed, demon wolves.
Good, more prey to slaughter. “Argh Awooo!” The pack leader gave the signal to attack. Their horns glowed a light similar to the glow of the moon, under the protection of the night they would reign supreme. Well…. Supposed to.
Infused with strength inside their limbs, horns and teeth glowing with mana. The pack attacked. They ran in a pattern, circling their target, making sure that escape was never an option. In waves they struck, some as distractions and others as executioners. It was a strategy that complemented their strength increasing the chances of success.
Apita ducked and weaved to dodge, the Canidae knew he needed an opportune moment to strike. One wrong move and it was game over.
The wolves rushed him again and again. Each time fiercer than the last, their moonlight manalit claws, horns, and teeth cut through even rocks as if it was butter. Apita just waited, patiently and cautiously. The flames on his fur turned into invisible mana, compressing as he studied the situation. Even when invisible the heat was palpable, furthermore it was getting even more scaldingly hot.
Then the moment came, a two headed Cerberus accidentally tripped on its fellow’s tail. Taking his chance he released his compressing fire, the mana exploded outwards in a storm of destructive heat and light. As most of the snow melted, each and every wolf in the vicinity was absolutely annihilated. The others was badly scorched and their eyes blinded, some even permanently.
The fox rushed towards the nearest wolf slashing it dead with a swipe of his claw. The wolves half recovered from the attacked tried to retaliate, sadly the velvet-fur used the dead wolf’s body as a meat shield. Going behind the body and jumping over it he struck again, killing another one. Then he used both the bodies as shields, repeating the hit and shield strategy so he could kill again.
The dance of death and irrevocable defeat recurring over and over and over again. The executor punished any mistakes made on the pack’s behalf. He weaved and crisscrossed his prey and their dead bodies, making it incredibly hard to hit him. His flames acted as whips, spreading fire and the evermoving chaos.
The wolves started to become desperate. With dozens of their kin murdered, this wasn’t a hunt anymore, this was now a personal matter of revenge. Doing something completely out of their nature they threw their mana like moonlight blades, devouring abhorrent amounts of mana.
Still, the fox remained calm. Using the dead bodies to block most of the flying blades and taking some to his body, he retaliated with renewed motivation. Spewing out fireball after firestream in a continuous sequence, he rained death, dominating with even more superior tactics and power.
One after the other the pack’s number count dwindled. From the previous six dozen wolves their total decreased, to three dozen, then to only a dozen, next to a dozen, and finally to only one. A four headed Cerberus, more than double the size of the fox cowered. The pack leader retreated slowly but surely, at least until he hit the mountain wall. It was heavily injured, rivers of blood spewing out, coloring the previously beautiful coat of grey and white fur an ugly crimson.
“*Whimper*” The big one whimpered in pain as its opponent approached, knowing its demise was coming. It growled weakly, not wanting to acknowledge it was beaten by this smaller adversary. Its recognition didn’t matter to this reaper, needless to say why would It need the acknowledgement of a weaker, inferior being.
With a single strong yet swift stroke, the velvet reaper took its life instantly. Already famished from the fight, even after eating to gigantic mana beast-rodents, it consumed every intact beast core and relished every piece of flesh.
Now it needed a dessert.
Remembering about one of its targets he sensed before, he licked his lips, rejoicing the opportunity. Now being as bigger than a normal sized wolf, and so so so much deadlier, he rushed to his dessert. The Branacone, the ambush predator, will be delicious.
His now two tails *before only one* waved behind him as he ran *almost flying* through the forest, towards his far away prey. Its excitement and bloodlust was almost palpable, if not for him suppressing it the entire forest would already know of its location.
As a spirit beast made from a high ranked monster’s beast core he had a maniacal amount of innate talent. Using his power was instinctual, and learning new moves required but a bit of learning and observing.
To boot, the only requirement for it to getting more powerful was the amount and quality of beast cores he ate. Coincidentally, now he had voracious appetite, fuelled by flames of hatred spewing out of his master. ‘Get stronger, get more powerful, get better’ The command crazedly reverberated in his mind each time Etta went back into her sinister flow.
“*KTACK!*” The sturdy tree fell down as the streak of velvet dashed through it. The Branacone that was looping its trunk fell down with a loud *Thud* disturbed from its wait of prey.
“HISSS!” The serpentine monster hissed furiously, its twelve meter body poised up in a stance, ready to strike. With a flick of its tongue a fog spread, a fog created from poison solely made to paralyse any sort of creature that it wanted to eat
When compared to the centipede monster he witnessed before, this oversized snake was nothing, too small to inflict fear. “*BOOGH*” A velvet fireball left trails of black electricity as it moved forward, burning the fog off to leave a path for its origin.
The fox rushed forwards, following his set path. He learned from the wolves before, he infused his skull and jaw with velvet-crimson mana. His head lit aflame with an aura even stronger than the one covering his body. “*BAM!*” With his reinforced skull he rammed the serpent down, the mana released from his skull multiplied the damage done.
“Kraagh!” The Branacone flailed wildly, then it lunged towards the offender. When the fox dodged the attack it spiralled around its smaller counterpart, now preparing to constrict the Canidae to a suffocating demise.
“Grrr..” The fox responded in kind with an aggressive gesture. Its fur turned flame burned even hotter and bigger, an attempt at constricting it was the best thing he could get. Next, he approached the land eel, managing to singe a part of the serpentine.
The serpent *in pain* tried to bite the monstrous fox. A mistake, taking the opportunity he threw a stream of hot fire in its jaws. With his jaws reinforced with crimson mana and a fire breath charging Apita sinked his teeth inside the serpent’s flesh, barely managing to pierce the scales.
Releasing the charged fire breath point blank inside the wound, the giant Branacone’s charred insides were turned even more like charcoal. “*Shiing!*” The fox’s claws dug into the snake’s body, its scales too charred from the inside to protect it.
“*CHOMP!*” And finally, the fox impaled with his jaw the charred snake’s body right before its head. Pulling away from the neck revealed the fox new acquisition, its desert. A respectable sized beast core, colored the color of poison and venom mana, a purple-green hue. With this, he grew bigger and stronger than before.
With the edition of his desert the fox’s famine was saturated, for now. Seeing beautiful rising sun, he rushed back to his master. He could feel the whispers of hatred and rage that fuelled his hunger slowly dissipating as Etta slipped away from her flow.
As he became calmer he began to appreciate the feel of wind, the kiss of sunlight, the calmness of the forest. Running with a brisk pace he headed towards his master, creator. Acknowledging being as big as an entire carriage was going to hinder him when spending time with the troupe, he slowly started transformed into a more manageable form.
His two long and slender tails merged back into one single fluffy warm tail. His body made from mana retreated inwards, making him decrease in size, slowly but surely he turned no bigger than an average mana-wolf. Now he was as tall as Etta was short.
His body was still slender as always, just like how a fox should be, but his fur was now so soft and fluffy that it looked like he was perfect as a pillow. He may looked less threatening than before, in spite of that the living velvet-cloud’s mana density was dangerous, all the mana in his big body before now compressed inside this body.
The night’s worth of hunting was making this ‘bundle of annoyance to Etta’ very sleepy. Hunting was out of his usual behaviour, after all he was the dubbed ‘The Slothful Fox’ by his master since all he would do was sleep and beg for beast cores from Etta. Only when his master’s rage overflowes does this lump of docileness become an apex predator.
Spotting his creator which he treated as a ‘sister’; she was kneeling on the ground tired as a cow made from sore muscles. Yet she seemed wide awake, her eyes bloodshot from the realisation and annoyance that she didn’t get to sleep even a single week, now her internal clock was busted.
He laid down a few paces away from her, snorting in amusement at the girl’s situation. He felt sleepy. “Yaaw— *THUMP!*” The fluffball fox yelped in pain as his *was* gratifying yawn was interrupted by an axe kick to the snout. The interrupter made a satisfying face as she flicked her short brown hair behind her.
Clearly she had gotten revenge for the fox’s amusement.
