Saki

  I made my way down the street and finally spotted Lyran, he was helping fix the inn from earlier that Jiggle had destroyed.

  I noticed Jiggle had apparently made a beeline to Tama. The path of destruction wasn’t random in the slightest, it was a direct path. That meant Jiggle knew where Tama was and made a point to return to her.

  I began walking to Lyran when the Matriarch stepped in front of me. “We need to talk Saki.” She said with irritation. Her eyes twitched and her ears flattened. Nearby multiple adventurers cowered.

  Like hell I was going to do this myself. I created an illusion of my standing there and turned myself invisible. I made the illusory copy say “Of course! Let's go!” as I turned and fled down a nearby alleyway.

  I waited for Talia and my illusory copy to leave the area before I quickly rushed out and whispered in Lyran’s ear. “Hey!”

  Lyran jumped and looked around and I rolled my eyes. “Calm down!” I whispered as I watched my illusion reach the end of use range. Well, it wasn’t really the end of use. The cost went up exponentially after a certain point and I had to cut her off.

  Talia noticed instantly and I decided I had to be quick. “Meet me outside the west Drestor gate, Don’t tell Talia!” I then turned and ran as fast as I could, but luckily it seemed like Talia couldn’t see me.

  Then she pulled out a small yellow box, she opened the box and a creature came out. I paled at it, it was a demonic wolfhound. A tracker… I ran faster.

  In all fairness, I made it almost to the gate before the hound reached me. It could clearly see me and tackled me to the ground. Luckily, I was pretty sure I was close enough and I knew someone else who was also in a bad mood. So I screamed her name. “TAMA!” Stealth was pointless, even as Talia appeared to grab me. She was too slow.

  To Talia’s credit, she did grab me to prevent me from being blinked away. But that wasn’t the plan, I wasn’t fleeing. I was making Talia regret trying to force a chat.

  Tama appeared just as Talia grabbed my tail. She instantly had to let go as Tama used Serenity to swing. Talia had her hammer out an instant later and their weapons clashed as I crawled away.

  “Void it all Saki!” Talia screamed at me as she kicked Tama backwards, only for Tama to instantly blink behind her and force Talia to turn away from me. The hound tried to attack me but my tail spear decapitated it right as it jumped at me, dying instantly and falling in two pieces.

  Tama, already pissed off, really started getting angry at that “Nya! Saki did nothing wrong! First you make Tama get a cage for Jiggle, then you try to hurt Tama’s best friend!” Tama’s attacks become more frantic and I saw Talia actually be forced to take a step back as Tama’s face went red with rage.

  Everything was going perfectly. Until a real problem entered the scene. Queen Tamaneko’s royal guards joined in and it quickly became seven versus one. Her royal guard were weak yes, but they were extremely obedient and sacrificial.

  They threw themselves at Talia, causing Talia to have to deal with them while fighting Tama. It did not go well and soon Talia was being forced back. I cursed under my breath as I realized I needed a plan and fast.

  Before I could even start a plan, Alissa appeared again and I cringed inwardly. I tried to stop her but I was too slow this time.

  Upon seeing the fight.. or at least parts of it. Alissa dropped her cookie and her smile turned to anger. She opened her mouth and began to say “All Adventurers..” I finally reached her after shifting to combat fox form and covering her mouth with one of my nine tails. That backfired instantly as multiple adventurers saw a Kitsune assaulting the regent.

  “Everyone calm down!” A voice called out, it was Tera and I felt my fur stand on end in terror at what she was going to do.

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  “As captain of the Royal guard of her Majesty, I command all royal guardsmen to retreat to my position at once!” She snapped. All of the royal guard obeyed and stepped back, leaving a weary but grateful Talia, and a still attacking Tama who she was barely holding off.

  The adventurers seemed at a loss of who to fight, good we could use that. I looked over at Tera, who looked back at me. We both nodded and Tera called out “All adventurers are to stand back.

  Royal guard, make sure none enter within fifty feet of the combat.”

  ? The royal guard looked hesitant, but they were obedient and soon there was a circle around Tama and Talia as they fought.

  I felt a sharp pain in one of my tails and looked to see the regent had stabbed me in my tail and was repeatedly doing so to free her mouth. But it was healing faster than she could damage it. Making me wonder if that’s how Tama felt. There was pain, yes, it was sharp. But it was hardly noticeable after a short while.

  I used two more tails to grab her arms and legs, then held her up. Her cheeks went read and she started trying to close her legs.. which is when it hit me she was wearing a dress. I let her close her legs.

  I heard a boom and I turned just in time to see Tama get hit full force in the chest, she went flying outside the city and far into the distance. Knowing her, it wouldn’t take long for her to get back. That being said. Talia turned to face me, rage in her eyes. I panicked and threw the regent at her.

  Talia caught the regent, giving me enough time to turn invisible and start running towards the gate.

  Sadly for me, Talia was part of the hero’s party when she was younger and had her fair share of tricksters. Without a tracker, she went with plan b. She began shooting large cones of fire at the gate to prevent me from leaving.

  The heat would cause my illusory invisibility to flake slightly and she would catch me. I stepped back realizing I was trapped when Tama reappeared, putting out the fire as she did before throwing her dagger at Talia, who caught it.

  Only to immediately drop it and block Serenity while Tama grabbed her dagger in midair as it fell. She blinked behind Talia again, but this time she did something new.

  When Talia swung behind her. Tama ducked instead of blinked and actually managed to stab slightly into Talia. This caused Talia to actually jump forward and twirl around and she did, covering her entire body in molten armor. But the damage was done and she had a small gash over her left thigh.

  Even as I watched the gash closed quickly. But that’s not what mattered, it showed something to everyone present. Queen Tamaneko had successfully damaged an old member of the heroes party by herself.

  “Enough!” Talia roared and everyone took a step back except Tama, who stood unwavering. Talia dropped her hammer to the ground and said “I give up Tama, I don’t want to fight you. This is all pointless.”

  Tama stared at her for a long moment before she slowly put Serenity away and nodded. There was a long moment of silence before Talia, finally catching her breath. Took a deep tired sigh. “You know Tama, you have no idea how much you actually remind me of him. Your Sensei was almost as bad as you.

  One time he..” She trailed off and sighed as she looked over the crowd that had gathered before shaking her head. “Now is not the time, as much as I would love to sit you both down, I can see that’s not going to happen.”

  Talia then looked over at me. I expected rage, frustration, maybe even disappointment. What I saw instead was.. amusement? “Saki, I see you are up to your true nature. You're a clever fox, don’t expect that to work a second time.”

  Then she turned back to Tama and said “Next time Tama, we will find a nice open plain where people aren’t around, and you will understand why even your Sensei feared my strength.” With that she casually lifted her massive enchanted hammer with one hand and turned, before walking off into the crowd towards the guild hall.

  I couldn’t help myself, I fell to my knees. I hadn’t realized just how truly tired I was until that moment. I saw as Tama watched Talia leave before she seemed to relax. She turned to face me and after a second was standing over me, hand held out. “Nya, That was fun!”

  She said with a carefree smile. But her eyes told a different story. I saw worry in them, I saw fear. Tama was fearless in combat, and she clearly took the fight seriously. So I knew fighting Talia wouldn’t have caused that fear.

  I took her hand and she helped me up right as a small fox suddenly jumped into her arms. I rolled my eyes as Usaki licked at Tama’s face and acted cute. It was so demeaning and I felt second hand shame that she was a version of me.

  Then again, I literally tried to avoid Talia, caused a major scene, and basically caused a political disaster. Talia was being generous with what she just did. She could have easily thrown me under in front of everyone and been justified. Instead, she gave me an out. I was very grateful even if I knew the reason why.

  I smiled at Tama and asked “What was going on at the goblin camp?”

  Chapter 107: Manna the Protector