A Fox's Revenge

by Brandon Varnell

  “Which way did he go?” Lilian asked.

  “That way.” Berenise pointed toward the south. Lilian frowned. That was near the resort.

  “Thank you.” Lilian nodded at the woman before running in the direction indicated.

  “You’re welcome!” She heard Berenise call out to her.

  Cobblestone soon became dirt. The path she’d been following disappeared. That meant the barrier was still active. It was a good thing the barrier didn’t affect her. Reinforcing her legs, Lilian pushed herself toward the famous Pnév̱ma Resort.

  In many ways, the Pnév̱ma Resort could be likened to a miniature city. It wasn’t large, but it possessed a large number of amenities, such as shops, restaurants, and other attractions, just like one might expect of a city. All the buildings were connected via a series of paved walkways interspersed with plants found in tropical Mediterranean areas. She bypassed all the buildings, eventually reaching the beach.

  Kevin was there.

  “Beloved, there you are.” Lilian walked over to the young man. He stood with his back to her, staring out at the ocean. “You really shouldn’t wander off like that. I doubt anyone from the Shénshèng Clan can get here, but it’s not a good idea to pass through the barrier. You wouldn’t be able to get back through without one of us escorting you.”

  Kevin said nothing. He didn’t even turn around. Lilian frowned as she stopped behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Kevin, are you—”

  Lilian didn’t know what happened. One second she was about to say something, and the next she was nearly swallowing her tongue as her back slammed against the sandy beach. Kevin stared down at her, and for the first time since she’d found him, Lilian saw the look in his eyes.

  They were blank. Dead. The lights were on but no one was home. She recognized that look.

  That’s—

  “A-ah—guagh!”

  Lilian gasped in pain as something powerful slammed into her torso, a foot, she belatedly realized. Her world spun. Sand was kicked up all around her as she tumbled for several feet before landing on her stomach.

  “K-Kevin,” she gasped out as tears sprung to her eyes. “W-why?”

  “It isn’t right to blame him,” a familiar voice said. Lilian gritted her teeth as someone appeared next to Kevin, their form shimmering into existence, wavering like a ghost before solidifying. “After all, he’s not really in control of himself. I’d much rather take the blame for what’s happening here.”

  Lilian rose to her feet, wincing. Kevin’s legs were damnably strong. She knew that from watching him run track, but she hadn’t realized just how strong until he’d kicked her. That blow had rattled her ribs. She held a hand to her bruised torso and glared at her uncle.

  “P-Palladius, why are you doing this?”

  “Are you really asking me that? Can you not guess?” Palladius spread his arms wide. “I wish to see the Pnév̱ma Clan destroyed.”

  “W-what?” Lilian wondered if she sounded as dumbfounded as she felt. “D-destroyed? But why? Why would you want to destroy our clan? They’re family!”

  Sure, she had never gotten along with any of her family members outside of her mom and Iris, but that didn’t mean she wanted them dead. They were still family.

  Palladius spat as if he’d just had something foul shoved into his mouth.

  “Those damn vixens are no family of mine!” The anger in his voice took Lilian aback. “Ever since I gained my second tail, they’ve treated me like I was their slave! Three centuries of servitude and what have I gotten out of it? Nothing! The Pnév̱ma Clan doesn’t care for me! Why should they? I’m just a male, right? The Pnév̱ma Clan is a matriarchal clan by nature. They don’t care about their male members beyond what we can do for them. We’re just pawns and slaves for Delphine and her ilk to use and abuse! People like that don’t deserve to live!”

  Lilian’s heart pounded in her chest like Mjölnir was hitting her ribs. The look Palladius gave her was full of hatred and malice. She felt like he was cutting her skin with nothing but a glance.

  “You know, I really hate you,” Palladius told her, and his words hurt more than she thought they would. “For a time, I thought you and I shared a common bond. Both of us were just pawns to be used and tossed away by the matriarch when it was convenient. I used to think that maybe you would be able to understand me, but I was wrong.”

  Palladius clenched his hands into fists. Blood leaked from between his fingers, dripping onto the sand.

  “When the matriarch began setting up mating arrangements for you, you became defiant. You pranked every kitsune the matriarch sent, putting them through hell. Rather than punish you for your disobedience, Delphine became amused and allowed you to continue, until Jiāoào came along. Then the matriarch had you sent away in order to protect you.”

  “Protect me?” Lilian gawked.

  Had the matriarch truly sent her out of Greece for her own safety? She had always thought that her grandmother had sent her away because she kept causing problems, but what if that wasn’t true? What if her grandmother really had been looking to protect her from Jiāoào?

  “After that, I realized how different you and I are,” Palladius, unaware of her thoughts, continued. “The matriarch would have never done that for me. I would have been mated off to the first person she chose, and if I defied her, she would have banished me from the clan—a fate worse than death, as you well know.”

  Lilian did know. She knew quite a bit about banishing people. After all, her father had been banished from the clan before she’d even gained her second tail, and Daphne had made sure to rub that in at least once or twice a day before she’d been sent to live in the United States.

  “Now then, I believe we have spoken long enough,” Palladius determined. “I merely wanted you to know who to blame for your soon-to-be unfortunate fate.” Palladius turned to Kevin. “Capture your mate for me—oh! And do be sure to roughen her up a bit, if you would.”

  Lilian had scarcely any time to comprehend Palladius’s order before Kevin burst forward. Out of shock, she stumbled back, but that didn’t do much. Her mate was incredibly fleet-footed. He was inside her guard within seconds.

  An asphyxiating pain shot through her chest as an open palm struck her. Her head snapped back when an elbow smacked against her chin. She tumbled, almost falling backwards, before a hand latched around her wrist in an iron grip and pulled her into a powerful knee that caused all the oxygen to leave her lungs.

  With her arms around her waist, Lilian slumped to her knees, trying to suck in that which would not come. The attack combination that Kevin hit her with had been specifically designed to incapacitate. She knew that because it was one of the combinations they had worked on together. Her job would normally be to cast an illusion over Kevin to displace his body, making it seem like he was farther away than he really was. She never expected this combination to be used on her.

  “B-Beloved,” she rasped. “You have to snap out of it. Please, don’t let him use you. You’re stronger than that.”

  Kevin merely blinked. Palladius laughed.

  “Oh, this is such a riot! You really think a lowly human could escape my enchantment? I’m a four-tailed kitsune, girl! My power is beyond the comprehension of some lowly ape. There’s no way someone like him can escape my enchantment. Humans are weak, powerless creatures. They can only rely on technology and are unable to do anything for themselves. That’s why it’s so easy to manipulate and bend them to our will.”

  Lilian ignored Palladius. She ignored everything except Kevin, whom she stared at, pleading with him to come to his senses.

  “Don’t let that man control you, Beloved! You’re stronger than that! I know you are!”

  Kevin still did not say anything. However, while he said nothing, his lips did move. They formed a single word.

  … Run.

  Lilian’s eyes widened seconds before her mate kicked her. She managed to raise her arms, blocking the kick,
and she even managed to reinforce her limbs, but she was still sent sprawling backwards.

  “Gya!”

  She landed on her back, and looked up just in time to see Kevin’s foot flying at her. Lilian rolled. The attack stomped on the ground where she’d been lying on previously. She scrambled to her feet just as Kevin came in to attack again.

  Time seemed to slow down. Lilian saw Kevin moving as if he was wading through molasses. The world around her seemed distorted, like those life-changing moments before death where one’s life flashed before their eyes.

  Only this was different. Rather than seeing her life flashing before her, she saw choices. There were any number of choices that she could make in this moment, any number of infinite possibilities. She could run. She could fight. She could attack Kevin. She could attack Palladius. She could use illusions. A limitless number of possible options were presented to her.

  She chose one of those options.

  Kevin rushed toward her. His lips continued moving, telling her to run. Even now, with his body being controlled, he fought against the enchantment. He fought for her. She would not abandon him.

  He raised a fist, prepared to hit her. Rather than run away or even defend herself, Lilian rushed forward with reinforced speed. She stumbled into him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him before he could attack.

  “You don’t have to let this man control you, Kevin,” Lilian said to the stock-still Kevin. “You’re stronger than this. I know you’re stronger than he is. Your will is stronger, your determination is stronger. You are my mate, and I wouldn’t pick a mate whose will is weaker than someone like that.”

  “Li… Li…”

  “I love you, Kevin. I need you, so you have to come back to me. Please, come back.”

  All at once, the fight went out of Kevin. He collapsed against her like a Z Fighter who’d run out of ki. They both went down. Lilian sat on the ground as Kevin fell against her. She held him to her chest as his breathing, hot and heavy like he’d just run a marathon, hit the bare skin of her bosoms.

  “Lilian…”

  “Shh.” Lilian stroked his hair. “Don’t talk. You’re exhausted from having fought off Palladius’s enchantment.”

  “M’sorry,” Kevin mumbled tiredly. “I let him… use me to… t-to hurt you.”

  “Don’t apologize. There’s no need to. You did nothing wrong.”

  “But I—”

  “I’m so proud of you,” Lilian’s words, whispered against his hair, made Kevin stop talking. “You fought off a four-tailed kitsune’s enchantment. There are many yōkai who can’t accomplish such a feat, yet you did. You were incredible.”

  “Was I Simon the Digger incredible?”

  “Mm… maybe… Shinji Ikari incredible.”

  “That’s a harsh thing to say to your mate.”

  “Haha, okay, how about, um, D incredible?”

  Lilian felt Kevin’s lips curving into a smile against her chest.

  “I suppose that’s fine. There are worse characters to be compared to than a ten thousand- year-old immortal vampire hunter.”

  “W-what is going on here?!”

  It wasn’t until Palladius’s enraged shout sounded across the beach that Lilian remembered there was someone else with them. Lilian’s attention turned from her mate to the fox who had manipulated him. The four-tail’s enraged face had turned a deep red, but she could also sense his bafflement. He clearly couldn’t figure out how Kevin managed to break free of his enchantment.

  I’m certainly not going to tell him.

  “Why aren’t you doing what you’re told?!” Palladius barked at Kevin, who stiffened in her arms. His hands groped against the sand, grabbing onto something and gripping it tightly. “Attack her! Attack her, attack her, attack her, att—bugufu!”

  “Shut up!” Kevin shouted, whirling in Lilian’s arms and throwing a seashell that beamed Palladius upside the head. “You think I’m going to listen to you anymore! Think again, Sparkles!”

  “S-sparkles?!” Palladius growled, his face turning redder than Lilian’s fur. “That does it! I was hoping to amuse myself by watching you beat up Lilian, but since you’re not going to listen, I’ll have to content myself by killing you in front of your mate!”

  ***

  “Tch.”

  Kevin clicked his tongue as he tried to stand up. His legs gave out. He stumbled into Lilian, who helped him rise.

  “You shouldn’t move so quickly,” Lilian whispered. “You’re still experiencing the aftereffects of having been enchanted.”

  “You’re probably right,” Kevin agreed, forcing himself to stand in spite of his own words. “However, I don’t think your uncle’s going to let me just sit around, and I’m not gonna let you fight on your own.”

  He pulled himself from Lilian’s grasp and turned to face Palladius, the man who’d manipulated him, who’d controlled him as though he were a puppet, who’d ordered him to attack his mate. Kevin always considered himself a kind person. He rarely ever allowed himself to hate someone. Over the course of his life, there were only three people that he truly hated: Jiāoào, Seth, and Luna. Now he could add a fourth to that list.

  No one makes me hurt one of my loved ones and gets away with it.

  “You ready?” Kevin asked, not turning to face Lilian. He didn’t need to. He could sense her nodding behind him.

  “Of course I am, Beloved.”

  “I don’t have my guns on me, so we’ll have to use one of the melee formations that we’ve devised.”

  “Right.”

  “Then let’s go. I don’t wanna give this guy an opportunity to attack us.”

  Lilian said nothing. She and Kevin rushed toward Palladius, who seemed surprised by their sudden straightforward assault. He sneered a second later, however, as though their actions amused him instead of baffled him.

  “You think an ape and a two-tails are going to be a match for me? Kitsune Art—”

  “Gomu Gomu no Extension!”

  Palladius was forced to cancel his technique when Lilian’s tails, twisted to look like a pair of drills, shot forward. He jumped back as one of them slammed against the ground he’d been standing on. The other struck the ground several feet away. The dust it kicked up created a smokescreen that kept Palladius from attacking them.

  Lilian hung back and wove her illusion. Kevin used the smokescreen to close the gap between him and their foe. He rushed in, primed and ready to take his enemy down with a strong left hook. Palladius growled and used extension to pierce Kevin through the stomach before he could close the distance—or so Palladius thought.

  “What the—?” Palladius’s eyes widened as his tail went right through Kevin, who dispersed into thousands of light particles. “It was an—”

  He didn’t get to finish his sentence. In that single second, Kevin—the real Kevin—plowed his right fist into Palladius’s face. As he drove his fist forward, Kevin felt the kitsune’s nose break under the brutal attack.

  Behind Kevin, Lilian wrapped her tails around a pair of metal poles meant for volleyball. She pulled herself back, the tails stretching like rubber bands. Then, all at once, she let herself go. Like a paper football, she was launched high above the heads of Kevin and Palladius.

  Knowing that he couldn’t give his enemy time to recover, Kevin grabbed Palladius by his ears, then yanked him down into a brutal knee before the kitsune could think of using reinforcement to weather the assault.

  The four-tails stumbled back. Blood welled up in his nose. He blinked several times as though doing so might help.

  Kevin smiled. It wouldn’t help.

  Barely a second passed before Lilian fell back to the ground, right on top of Palladius.

  “Lilian Kick!”

  Kevin deadpanned as Lilian’s left foot slammed into Palladius like an entire pantheon of angry gods. He could swear he actually saw the four-tail’s face cave in from the attack, almost like he was watching the action in slow motion. Then life sped bac
k up and all he saw was a large cloud of sand spraying everywhere as Palladius’s body was driven into the ground like a meteor striking the earth. Kevin had to raise his arms to his eyes in order to protect his vision.

  “How do you like that, jerk?” The kicked-up sand cleared to reveal Lilian gloating down at her opponent, hands on her hips, and a smug look on her face. “Next time you mess with my mate, I won’t go so easy on you.”

  “Lilian.”

  “Beloved!” Her smiling face lighting up like a beacon at night, Lilian ran up to him. “Did you see that? So what do you think? My attacks were really cool, right?”

  “They were pretty cool,” Kevin admitted slowly. “However, you really should change the name of that first move you did. Seriously, Lilian, didn’t I tell you that we could be sued for copyright if you used that name?”

  “But I like that attack name.” Lilian crossed her arms and huffed. “I got it from the Straw Hat Pirate.”

  “And that is exactly why you should change it,” Kevin told her. “Besides, you never used Japanese words in your technique names before. Why start now?”

  Lilian pouted. “Muu, fine.”

  “Good girl.” Kevin gave Lilian a quick peck before looking at the laid out Palladius. “Hey, Lilian, is it just me, or was that battle really easy?”

  “It’s not just you.” Lilian shook her head. “Don’t you remember? Most kitsune don’t like battles. Kotohime and I weren’t lying when we said that. Only a few kitsune clans actually train their members in combat. The women of our clan all receive some basic training, but none of them are what you would call fighters. Only the more martial clans like the Shénshèng Clan of Bodhisattva, the Great Void Clan of Gitsune, and the Great Earth Clan of Zamlya have combat-oriented kitsune. The rest of us usually have vassals like Kotohime, Kirihime, and Ayane to protect us.”

  “I know that much,” Kevin said. “I just, well, I guess I was expecting him to be a little more powerful.”

  “That’s because you’re so used to sparring against people like Kiara, or fighting against monsters like Seth and that Fan lady,” Lilian informed him. “Of course you’re going to expect yōkai to be more powerful when you use someone like Kiara and Kotohime as examples of how strong yōkai should be. And Palladius is powerful. He has four tails. He’s just not a very good fighter.”