A Foxy Encounter

(A/N: Guys I have decided to add a minor change as to how an awakened or a dormant heart will be shown on the scroll. Instead of simply displaying Phase I it will now show up as Phase I(Dormant). Love you guys and thank you for giving my story you time!)

'F*ck, why did I have to be greedy enough even after knowing my curse?' Zephyr grimaced as he saw the black chitin of the creature that was about five feet high, with two big front pedipalps, the size of Zephyr's head, clicking menacingly.

Before the creature even completely appeared from behind the bushes, another rustle sounded in the bushes and a small white fox with three tails slowly limped out, trying to get away from the big scorpion.

The scorpion seemed to be following the fox from the sound of its footsteps crunching on the grass or the smell coming from its bleeding legs.

The scorpion, meanwhile, was a creature that had no eyes. Instead, its head seemed to have only jaws and two small holes on its smooth black chitin that Zephyr presumed were its nose. Its eight legs were made of the same carapace.

It was oozing bloodlust from every inch of its black chitinous body, reflecting the sunlight slipping between the trees.

The scorpion scuttled forward at a speed that seemed impossible for its big size and quickly caught the beautiful white fox in its sinister pedipalps.

The fox flailed, growled, and tried to bite the scorpion's pedipalps, but it was all for naught because its bite didn't even leave a single scratch on the carapace of the scorpion.

The scorpion held still for a few moments, as though telling the fox that it could wait until it tired out. Zephyr, while watching all this, felt the hairs on his neck stand up, knowing something ominous was about to happen.

The scorpion let out two small screeches of glee and stabbed the three-tailed fox with its stinger in its thigh.

No sooner had the stinger sunk into the fox's thigh, the fox let out a squeal and struggled harder. The place where the fox was stung bled for a few seconds, then a black scab quickly materialized over the wound within half a minute.

Zephyr gulped and lightly stepped back in an attempt to slowly get away from the predator. But, as soon as he took his first step back, a light crunch came from beneath his feet where he had crushed a dry leaf.

'F*cking autumn,' Zephyr cursed in his head when he felt himself crushing the leaf, his eyes never leaving the scorpion.

The scorpion, meanwhile, threw the fox aside, making the three-tails slide away after bouncing twice, and it slowly turned its head towards the direction the sound came from, right in the direction of Zephyr.

The scorpion slowly turned its body and advanced towards the spot where Zephyr was hiding. Zephyr felt the color drain from his face and his whole body got goosebumps watching the horrific scene of a five-foot-tall arachnid advancing towards him.

The bloodlust that the scorpion was oozing seemed even more suffocating now that its attention was directed at Zephyr.

The scorpion moved forward a few meters as Zephyr saw his inevitable doom with widened, terrified eyes.

The scorpion suddenly stopped in its path, sniffed the air, and instantly changed its direction towards the tree near which the imp's corpse was lying.

The scorpion quickly scuttled towards the dead imp and reached it in seconds.

The scorpion brought its head towards the body of the imp and sniffed it.

It stayed still for a few seconds and then let out a screech of rage upon finding the prey that made a sound a few moments ago being dead. It lifted its front legs and slammed them on the small body, creating two gaping holes in it, then it picked up the corpse using its two pedipalps and tore its body in two, painting its surroundings blue. It threw the torn imp's corpse in separate directions.

The scorpion let out a screech of satisfaction and scuttled back into the depths of the forest from where it came while chasing the three-tailed fox.

The scorpion walked near the fox, completely ignoring it as though the only thing it wanted to do was sting the fox.

Soon silence engulfed the small clearing, and Zephyr drew in a deep breath and exhaled in relief, just noticing that he had not been breathing since the moment the scorpion had appeared in the clearing.

Zephyr fell on his butt with a crunching of leaves and grass beneath him. His whole body seemed to be shaking, and his legs seemed to have lost all of their strength.

He continued to sit there for a few moments, wiping off the beads of perspiration on his head and holding his legs, trying to stop himself from shaking.

Five minutes later, when he finally felt calm enough, Zephyr got up from the place he was sitting and went towards the sword he had dropped in a hurry near the imp when he rushed to hide in the bush earlier.

"I was foolish enough to drop my only weapon on the ground in a hurry to hide." Zephyr grimaced and picked up the sword from the ground, which seemed to have been slightly chipped on one corner when the scorpion was throwing a tantrum.

"I guess things aren't as easy to manage when you see them in real life compared to the plans we make to ourselves," he muttered to himself.

Zephyr quickly shook the dust off it and sheathed it into the sheath he was carrying on his back. Although the sword was a short sword, it still reached almost the length of his knees when sheathed.

Zephyr then turned towards the direction where the fox was lying on the grass.

Walking carefully towards the fox while gulping and looking at its rising and falling chest, Zephyr was positive that the fox was still alive.

On reaching closer, the fox, whose eyes seemed to be looking at the sky, gazed at him while breathing in a ragged manner. The fox let out a small growl, "kyuuu~," between its harsh breaths while its tongue seemed to be falling out of its mouth from the side.

Zephyr turned away from the fox and started to walk away.

He heard another small growl of "kyuu~" and turned back to see the fox struggling to stand up and failing miserably. The scab on its leg glowed in an unholy dark glow. The fox slowly dragged itself up and stood on its legs.

"I do not know of a way to save you, and I cannot take you back to the village with me either, fox," Zephyr spoke, looking back at the three-tailed creature with pity in his eyes.

He had already heard about the blind scorpion from his father when he had explained to him what kind of attacking methods different creatures of the forests used. The venom from its stingers was enough to kill an awakened high-ranked individual. The worst part was that the death was extremely slow and torturous over the course of an hour, within which the individual often lost his sense of self if he was lucky enough because otherwise, they would feel the pain throughout the duration with only the relief of death at the end.

As for bringing the fox back to his backwater village, it would be useless because there wouldn't be any potion that could heal the fox, let alone the fact that his family couldn't afford food, let alone a potion that cost several thousand or whatever number of illumis.

"Although I can help you relieve the pain you are feeling," Zephyr spoke while taking out his sword.

The fox nodded, showing signs of intelligence, and fell down as another unholy glow shone on the crater-like scab.

Zephyr waited for a few minutes and then looked at the fox, whose condition and suffering seemed to be worsening by the moment.

Zephyr drew in a deep breath and delivered a clean strike from his sword on the fox's neck, who gave him a grateful look before the wisp of life was extinguished from its round red eyes.

Zephyr felt as though he had eaten something rotten. He felt something coming up from his stomach as he turned away from the now passed-away beautiful fox and hurled out the contents of his stomach.

Zephyr was by no means a killer, neither in this life nor in his last life. Zephyr continued to vomit, and then as soon as his stomach felt empty, he grimaced, sat down on the ground, wiped his sword on the grass, and refused to look back at the fox as he gargled some water from the waterskin and rinsed his mouth.

He slowly got up and quickly rushed out of the clearing towards the direction where his village was situated.

Zephyr quickly rushed back to the place where he had come into the forest from, trying his best not to think about the events that had transpired today.

When he reached the clearing, he was too distracted to notice a new trouble waiting for him. But the moment he did, he grimaced with a curse.

"The f*cking day just keeps getting better." Zephyr swore as he saw Grace standing with her arms crossed and glaring at him from a distance, while Ava and Isabella seemed to be sitting on their knees with straightened backs and heads down.