Chapter 228: Tails new Evolution and the Bat Awakens

The flames that were surrounding tails were growing darker and started to have a purplish tinge to them that wasn't there before. It was clear that the evolution process was taking place and it was something that Joshua had seen before in the past when it came to some of Lily's beast companions. Everyone was looking towards where the giant fox stood although they had to back away from the heat that was being generated from the transformation process. Joshua noticed that Thomas looked completely shocked which told Joshua that Tails hadn't evolved before in the past and Nuts most likely hadn't either.

While the evolution process was going on Joshua noticed something odd about the flames that were coming off of the giant fox during it. Outside of the flames changing color to a darker purple that was hard not to notice and gaining an extraordinary heat to them, Joshua also noticed that his aura was reacting to the flames. It was as if the flames were dangerous to his aura in some way which would be the same case for anyone else around. The change was something that only he seemed to notice right now since he could more accurately fill the shift in his aura than anyone else around.

After about a minute or so of the heat and light show the fox seemed to grow larger in size as the heat began to die down. The blinding light started to fade away and they were all able to now see the giant fox in his full glory. There were some very glaring changes that Joshua immediately took notice of when looking at the giant fox that were impossible to miss. Its overall size had gotten it to the point where it was slightly bigger than Momo which was a decent change. He was still several levels below Momo so by the time he caught up in level he would likely be more around the size of Cinder than Momo. He was a more intelligent beast than the ferret so Joshua wasn't surprised that he had more potential.

The next thing Joshua noticed was the change in color of Tails' fur. It was now a much deeper and darker crimson red that looked almost like blood. There were also tuffs of purple fur around his paws and chest that lined the white fur in that area. The change in hair color definitely made him seem far more menacing than he had before. Those changes alone would have been enough, but they all paled in comparison to the fact that the fox now had an extra pair of tails swishing back and forth behind him. The tails had also changed to the deeper crimson color with the tips now having a lining of purple along with the white ends.

Around the tails Joshua could see the purple fire that he knew was dangerous to the touch, but the fox put it out once the transformation process had come to an end. Thomas looked at his beast companion in complete aww, but it was what happened next that caught everyone else off guard.

'Thomas.' A deep rumbling voice filled the air. Joshua could tell that it was being created by aura in a similar fashion to Tank and the rest of Lily's stronger beast companions and he immediately knew who was speaking. 'I feel so much stronger.'

"Tails is that you? You can talk!" Thomas nearly shouted as he bounced on the balls of his feet looking up at the giant beast companion.

"Yes Thomas, I can talk!" The voice rumbled back which was odd with how excited it sounded. Even though the voice was deep and throaty sounding Joshua was certain that it was the voice of an older child instead of an adult. It was in a similar vain to Cinder after she had learned how to talk. Both were clearly young and excitable, but Cinder's voice was feminine and high pitch in comparison to the throaty deep voice of tails.

"This is great. I'm happy for you buddy. Now we'll be the strongest partners around." Thomas said with a smile before glancing over to Lily and rephrasing that. "Well one of the strongest pairings anyways."

'I'm so glad I can finally talk. I also feel much stronger and my flames have this odd chill to them. Check the system so that I can know what they do' Tails said excitedly as Thomas nodded back before bringing up a message for everyone to see.

[Fox Fire (Passive) – Any and all flames created by Tails will have this passive ability attached to them. This ability makes it so that the flames do not only burn the body of an enemy but also anything that can be connected to the soul. In other words these flames are extremely effective at burning through both aura and mana. ]

When Joshua read this skill he quickly figured out why his aura was warning him about the flames that were around Tails' tails. "Thomas have Tails send a small amount of flames my way so we can see how it works out." Joshua said while pointing at his scale blade. He had it shrouded in aura and waited to watch the interaction between his aura and Tails' flames. With a sweep of one of his four tails the eager fox sent over a small wave of flame that crashed into Joshua's aura clad blade. At first it just seemed to heat up the area, but Joshua noticed that the flames were starting to eat away at his aura at a noticeable rate. He had to keep pumping in more aura to fend it off, but the flames didn't go away until Joshua swung his blade hard enough to extinguish them.

"They definitely burn through aura and if they do the same when it comes to mana then just about any energy based defenses I've seen could be burnt through if enough of the flames are used." Joshua said with a sigh. "It'll be a much bigger pain in the ass to deal with beast with similar abilities to Tails."

"If his flames can cling on and burn through aura and mana then they'll have a good chance of dealing with a lot of incoming spells in a defensive way as well." Thomas said with an excited grin. "The way your evolution process is going at this rate you might end up becoming a legendary nine tailed fox down the line."

"I'm not sure if that will be the case." Joshua said with a frown. "Usually legendary creatures are quite rare and I doubt that earth could even handle such a creature this early on in its evolution process otherwise they wouldn't be considered legendary."

'I believe Joshua is right.' Tails voice growled out. 'If the four world guardians aren't even considered legendary creatures then I doubt I will reach that point through normal means.'

"Well if there is a way for you to get there then we'll figure it out together." Thomas said with a grin. The two companions started to have a conversation of their own while Celia started to look to see what rewards they had gained from clearing the dungeon. This time around they didn't gain any weapons and only gained skills, but since it was there first time through the dungeon and they cleared it fairly quickly they got a good rating and high level skills as rewards.

In Joshua's opinion Celia had gotten the far better skill of the two since it was one that was perfect for her role in the group. The skill that she gained was a reinforcement skill that made it so that she could empower any shielding skills around. This wasn't just for shields or barriers that she created with her own skills but also for ones that others created. The combination of this skill with Jayce's far more powerful shield wall could be incredibly useful against large amounts of enemies or a powerful foe. It could also be used alongside the skill she had gained from the canyon dungeon that allowed her create a barrier around herself or an ally that was within a certain range.

The skill that Thomas ended up getting was a decent one as well that allowed him to create a mental link between two of his beast companions in a similar vain to the link he had between himself and each of his beast companions. This would greatly increase the teamwork between his beast companions especially in the case where both of the beast companions are intelligent. It was a skill that wasn't exactly useful for him yet with Tails and Nuts being his only beast companions at the moment, but in the future if the mutated bat creature turned out to be an intelligent species as well then it would be something that could give their teamwork an edge.

Joshua decided to test out Celia's new skill before they left the dungeon and was pleasantly surprised by the result. Originally whenever he coated his scale blade in aura and attacked her shield she would be sent sliding back even when properly blocking the blow, but now the reinforcement made so that she didn't move at all. The reinforcement was around a fifty percent increase in strength and that could go a long way when holding a powerful beast at bay. Plus there was the fact that the skill was still only level one and would grow stronger as she used it and leveled it up. He had already seen that the barrier skill that she gained from the canyon dungeon was strong enough to be comparable to one of Light's aura shields and that would come in handy during any challenging fight.

With everything settled Tails went back into Thomas's soul realm while the group left the dungeon only to come outside back into James Town. It was already getting dark and with the big expedition only being a day away Joshua decided to let everyone get rested up so that they'd be in tip top shape before things started. Joshua didn't really have to worry about Celia and Thomas not getting the most out of their levels since they were constantly fighting beast around their level or higher and were never just carried along for the ride.

Before the group were about to go their separate ways Thomas suddenly spoke up. "I think the little bats about to wake up."