“Oh, Lily-pad, I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“W-what are you—get off me!”
“I was so worried when I saw those chains wrap around you, though it also gave me an idea!”
“I don’t want to hear your idea! Now get! Off! Of! Me!”
“I was thinking about how sexy you looked wrapped up in those chains. There was something innately appealing about seeing you chained to the ground, completely helpless and unable to resist. And that gave me the idea that maybe we could do a little bondage play. What do you think? Are you up for a little BDSM?”
“No! Why would I want to have you tie me up in chains?!”
“The stud might like it.”
Lilian paused for a moment to consider that. Would Kevin like tying her up in chains and having his wicked way with her? She didn’t know, though she couldn’t deny that the idea was appealing, and it conjured some awfully sexy images.
She lay on the bed, her arms and legs chained up and tied to the bedposts. There was a ball gag in her mouth. It kept her from talking and caused drool to leak around the corners of her lips. The cold air from the ceiling fan overhead hit her bare skin, making her already hard nipples feel like they could cut through diamonds.
She was naked.
Straddling her hips was an equally naked Kevin, his defined chest, broad shoulders, and six-pack abs on display. She could feel his erection resting against her stomach. He wore a crooked smirk that she’d never seen on him before. However, she couldn’t deny that he wore it well. He looked sexy as hell, like Gokudera Hayato, only hotter.
“I have to admit, you look absolutely ravishing like this, Lilian. I love seeing you lying helpless before me.” Kevin reached out and grasped her left breast. A thrill of pleasure shot through her as he roughly fondled her tit; the act forced a moan from her mouth, muffled by the ball gag. Kevin saw this and leaned down, nibbling on her ear as he continued playing with her breast, whispering, “I’m going to explore every inch of your body, Lilian. Every nook. Every cranny. I’m going to play with you and make you cum repeatedly, and you won’t be able to do anything but take it. What do you think of that… Lilian?”
“…”
“Hey, Lilian?”
“...”
“Lily-pad?”
“...”
“Would you wake up already?!”
“I think she’s broken.”
“Dammit, listen to me when I’m talking to you!”
“Don’t worry, tsun-loli. I’ve got this. Oh, look. Kevin’s running this way and he doesn’t have his shirt on!”
“What?! Really?!”
Lilian turned about in search of her beloved mate—only to realize that she’d been had when she noticed that Kevin wasn’t anywhere in sight. She tossed her sister a pout, crossing her arms under her chest and puffing up her cheeks, which swelled like a pair of hot air balloons.
“That wasn’t very nice,” she muttered, her cheeks still fat from air.
“Sorry, but I had to get your attention somehow.” Iris’s devious smile told Lilian that her sister wasn’t sorry at all. “Also, your nose is bleeding, just thought I’d let you know. And you’re drooling.”
“Eh?”
Lilian flushed in embarrassment when she realized that her sister was right. The warm feeling of blood trickling down her nose mixed with the coldness of saliva dripping from the corners of her mouth. She quickly wiped the blood and drool off, and then tried to ignore her sister’s grinning face.
“W-whatever. Let’s go wake up Kevin and Lindsay. Then we can get out of here.”
“Oh, no. You three aren’t going anywhere,” a portentous voice echoed across the soccer field.
Lilian felt a thrill of shock run down her spine. There was no way that woman could still be alive! She had been consumed by the Void!
“Celestial Art: Yin-Yang Entrapment.”
Another yin-yang circle appeared underneath her, Christine, and Iris—one that was far bigger than the previous circle. The circle glowed with a brilliant evanescent sheen before light erupted all around them, shooting high into the air, over their heads, and engulfing them to create a cage.
Lilian’s body seized up. She didn’t know what was happening, but it felt like every muscle in her body had stopped working, as if they’d all been frozen solid. Standing beside her, Christine and Iris also struggled to escape the strange confinement.
Fan appeared before them, walking into Lilian’s field of vision. She was completely unharmed. The woman didn’t have so much as a burn, ruffle, or even a smudge on her. She moved to stand in front of Lilian and her friends, and then turned to face them, hands on her hips and a smug expression etched across her face.
“I have to admit, I greatly underestimated you. You have proven to be far, far more trouble than any two-tails has a right to be.” Fan frowned. “I suppose that is why Father did not object when my beloved little brother sought to mate with you. Though he should have known that the daughter of a traitor wasn’t worth the risk, regardless of her talent as a kitsune.”
It required a lot of effort, but Lilian forced her mouth to move. She channeled youki through her jaw and forced herself to speak. “How… how…”
“You are curious to know how I survived that last attack?” Fan’s self-satisfied smirk pissed Lilian off. She wanted to wipe that arrogant look from the woman’s face. “It’s simple. You were never fighting me to begin with. Didn’t you wonder why all my attacks were lacking in power? A kitsune with three tails has twice the amount of power that a kitsune with two tails has, yet all my attacks did the same amount of damage as one of your attacks. Why is that?”
Lilian thought about it. She hadn’t noticed it when they were fighting, but now that Fan mentioned it, she had noticed a distinct lack of damage done by Fan’s attacks. Back when she, Iris, and Kevin fought against Seth Naraka, all of the attacks launched by Seth—except those designed specifically to attack the spirit—had caused massive amounts of property damage. Yet this woman, who was also a three-tails, hadn’t done nearly as much damage with her attacks. It was weird. Why would her attacks not cause as much environmental destruction? Unless…
“You were never fighting me to begin with.”
Her eyes widened. “C… c… clo…”
“Give the girl a metal.” Fan’s mocking applause filled the nearly still atmosphere. “Yes, that is correct. I don’t particular enjoy battles. Fighting is such an inelegant and ugly thing, something that a dog would do. That’s why I created a light clone to play with you. I was hoping it would be able to kill you, so that I wouldn’t have to sully my hands. However, you have proven to be stronger than I anticipated. A disappointment, really, but not totally unexpected. I believe those humans you are so fond of have an old adage: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
Lilian listened as the lolita-clad vixen rambled on. This bimbo must have really enjoyed the sound of her own voice. However, Fan’s continued talking also meant that Lilian had time to think of a way out of this.
She couldn’t move, and her sister and Christine were also frozen, which meant they wouldn’t be moving anytime soon either. If anything, they would have an even harder time than she did, as neither of them had celestial blood flowing through their veins. She was the only one who could break them out of this prison.
Unfortunately, she didn’t know the first thing about this particular technique. Different clans used different techniques, which were based on the principles, theories, and religions of their home country. All of the Shénshèng Clan techniques were inspired by a combination of Buddhism and Taoist teachings. This changed the entire way they used youki. The flow, the way it was woven into their techniques, everything was completely different from the way she used her youki, which was far more unrefined and crude, since she didn’t have anyone to teach her.
“Now, then, Lilian Pnév̱ma.” She was startled out of her thoughts when Fan raised a hand and pointed at her
. “You, your friend, and your sister are going to die for me.”
***
Kiara didn’t know what to think.
There was a general rule about yōkai powers and how they worked. Inu were physically strong and had the ability to turn their youki into a powerful weapon, but they were susceptible to mind attacks and tended to act recklessly. Oni were brute strength personified but incredibly violent and nearly mindless. Yuki-onna possessed powers over ice but were weak against fire and heat. Tengu could fly and control air currents, but they could do little against electric attacks. Kitsune were masters at manipulation and illusions, and they had a versatile range of specialized techniques. That said, they were not physically powerful unless using reinforcement, and that ability had too many limitations to be truly useful…
… Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to be.
“DOOOOGGGG!”
The fox’s enraged battle cry echoed throughout the room as he slammed his fist into her face. The power behind his attack was unbelievable. Kiara could feel her jaw cracking under the assault as she was sent flying backwards, crashing through several walls, which did little to slow her down. It felt like she’d been hit by a speeding bullet train.
After smashing through what had to be six walls, Kiara found herself sailing through the air, staring up at a high ceiling. Thick metal girders and a massive network of rails and pipes, along with several fluorescent bulbs and ceiling fans, stared back at her. Then she found herself falling, crashing into something hard and blowing it to smithereens.
“M-Ms. Kiara!”
The frightened shriek had Kiara turning her head. Her receptionist, Michelle Blanchard, stared at her in horror, eyes wide and mouth agape. She then looked around and realized that she was at the front entrance to her gym. The passing of another second made her realize that what she had slammed into was the front desk, the pieces of which now lay scattered along the ground.
“Michelle,” Kiara began in a controlled, even voice, “could you do me a favor and have everyone currently inside of the gym evacuate?”
“U-um, o-okay,” Michelle said with a hurried nod.
“Thank you.”
As Michelle ran off to begin the evacuation, Kiara stood up and brushed herself off. Then she tilted her head up to observe the hole she had made in her wall. Glaring at the damage done, internally calculating how much this was going to cost to fix, Kiara rushed forward and leapt back up to the floor she had fallen from.
Her foe spotted her the moment she landed in the hall.
“DOOOOGGGG!”
“Is that all this idiot says?” Kiara muttered to herself. Throughout their entire battle, he’d not said anything else. It was like the only thing he could do was yell “dog.”
He came at her again, the kitsune whose name she didn’t even know. Grimacing, she rushed him the same way that he did her. She couldn’t allow him to move past this point, not until the gym was evacuated. She should have had everyone evacuate sooner, but this buffoon of a fox hadn’t let her so much as sound the alarm.
She and the kitsune clashed again. Her fist burned with the red aura of her youki, slamming against the four-tailed avatar of rage. Kiara snarled as he met her attacks head on, literally. Her fist smashed into his head, yet he didn’t budge. He didn’t even flinch, as if he couldn’t feel pain. What’s more, it wasn’t the kitsune giving ground; it was her. Despite putting all of her strength into that attack, she was the one sliding backwards.
Something is wrong here. Something is seriously, seriously wrong.
Kitsune weren’t supposed to be this strong. Even Kotohime couldn’t match her in a contest of strength. That fox was a damn good fighter, but she used finesse, not strength, to defeat her foes. Sure, she also had powerful specialized techniques that could wreak havoc on people, but the person Kiara was fighting hadn’t used a single technique. He was only using physical strength.
Realizing that, for whatever reason, her own strength wasn’t getting the job done, Kiara decided to change tactics. She removed her fist from the kitsune’s head. With her own strength no longer impeding her foe, he shot forward like a missile.
Kiara ducked before he could run over her like a stampede of angry onikuma. She grabbed his shirt as he passed her and, with a grunt of exertion, flipped the fox over her back and slammed him into the ground with all the force she could muster.
The results were catastrophic. The floor underneath them buckled, suddenly and swiftly. Cracks appeared along the floor’s surface as the carpet was ripped apart like paper. Kiara leapt away from the kitsune just in time to avoid falling to ground level as the entire floor collapsed. Her opponent wasn’t so lucky; he fell through the hole, falling fourteen yards down and crashing into the ground below.
“Hmm…”
Kiara looked down the hole to see that her opponent had crashed into several stationary bikes, smashing them beneath his frame. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed how the metal frame from one of the bikes had twisted and punctured straight through the kitsune’s stomach. Despite the blood gushing from the wound, he didn’t seem to notice the injury as he stood to his feet and swayed with a drunken gait.
So, he’s physically strong, but he’s vulnerable to piercing attacks… I see. So that’s how it is.
Grinning, she leapt down the hole and landed several feet from her opponent. “I see what’s going on now. You’re one of those rare kitsune who have the ability to enter a berserker rage. It’s a unique power that grants you incredible physical strength at the cost of taking away your ability to use normal kitsune techniques. However…”
Kiara shifted her stance as the kitsune’s bloodshot eyes locked onto her. She hadn’t believed his eyes could bulge any more than they already were, but she was proven wrong when they suddenly looked ready to burst from their sockets.
“DOOOOGGGG!”
His battle cry tore from his throat, the only thing his enraged mind would allow him to say. He rushed at her, not even bothering to pull out the bike handle that had speared him through his back and stomach. His four tails swatted the remaining bikes around him out of the way as he bull-charged her.
Kiara waited until he was nearly upon her before reacting. She sidestepped his attack, moving left. Then she latched onto his wrist and twisted his arm, using his own momentum to her advantage. The four-tailed kitsune was flung off his feet, tossed into the air, and flipped end over end. Kiara grunted as she exerted more force and slammed him into the ground.
The floor underneath him cratered. A shockwave from where he’d hit reverberated throughout the bike room. Stationary bicycles were sent flying in all directions. Some smashed against the walls, others the ceiling. A few even hit the glass mirror at the front of the room, shattering it with impunity and sending sharp fragments spraying across the interior like water from a fire hydrant.
Kiara let go of the kitsune’s wrist and pulled her hand back toward her head. Blazing red youki covered her hand, straightened into a knife’s edge, which she then thrust forward, piercing the kitsune’s chest. Blood flowed from the wound, gushing out like oil from an abundant mine. The kitsune’s eyes bulged further. His tongue lolled out of his gaping mouth, which had opened in a scream, even though no scream emerged, just a rasping sound that reminded her of a vacuum sucking in nothing. His body twitched and spasmed and jerked for several seconds. She watched with merciless eyes as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp.
She pulled her hand from the wound on his chest. That last attack had pierced her opponent’s heart. Her hand was coated in warm, thick blood.
The coppery scent made her nose wrinkle as she flung the ichor off her hand. As she stood to her full height, Kiara eyed her now dead foe with a thoughtful frown.
“However, all that strength is useless if you’re too enraged to make rational decisions,” Kiara finished her earlier thought. “Hmm… I could be mistaken, but the feel of his youki reminds me of the boya’s mate. That means he�
��s a Celestial Kitsune. Why would a kitsune who I’ve never met be after me?”
It was true that inu and kitsune usually didn’t get along—her relationship with Kotohime and the vixens living with Kevin notwithstanding. Even so, no kitsune would be dumb enough to attack her in the open like this. The only reason she could think of for a kitsune to attack her was…
“Was if I was never the true target, and this person was merely sent to dispose of me before I could potentially interfere with whatever their true objective is. Berserkers like this always have a handler, someone who keeps them on a tight leash. If that is true, then the one who was holding this one’s leash let them loose on me and is likely attacking their true target.”
She rubbed her face. She could already feel the headache coming on.
“And the only people I can see being their target is the kid and his girl. Dammit, boya, you really are a troublesome brat.”
***
The longer the battle continued, the more Kotohime realized that she was in trouble. This man, Li, was simply too powerful. She and her sister had tried everything they could think of to defeat him, yet it all seemed to be for naught. Sword techniques were rendered useless, elemental attacks were impotent, nothing they did could even touch him. Outside of her surprise attack at the beginning, they had yet to so much as scratch him, whereas he’d already inflicted quite a bit of damage to both her and Kirihime.
“Ikken Hisatsu. Sen Suiryoku.”
Kotohime reinforced her arms with youki, increasing the strength of her muscles and the speed at which she could move. Power pumped through her body as she attacked. Her arms became indistinct blurs, her blade mere flashes of light. She attacked the man from every conceivable direction, over and over, uncountable and untraceable. It was almost like she was attacking in several places at once.
None of her swings hit.
Her sword seemed to go straight through Li’s body, as though all she was attacking were his afterimages. It was frustrating. No matter how many times she cut into him, nothing happened. What was going on? Why weren’t her attacks working?
A Fox's Revenge (American Kitsune Book 7) Page 9