Just a Fancy Glove

As the Blue fox's fist connected with Savina's back, the fire that was covering her body dissipated in an instant, the violet fireball held above her head disappeared.

Blinking, Savina could hardly stand. Her legs wobbled like jelly as she turned to see who had just punched her. Savina's eyes settled on the Blue fox's fox mask. Finding it hard to breathe, Savina could only utter a few words "Why are you here… Kitsune..?"

Staggering, Savina fainted from exhaustion as all the mana in her body had been used up due to her losing control of her magic, Savina collapsed.

Watching as Savina hit the floor, the Red fox put a hand to his mask. "Violet fire… and a Champion to boot… Well, would you look at that."

Running back to the Red fox, Rio tightly gripped his sword with both hands. "What did you do to Neia!" Rio roared Swinging his sword, attempting to strike the Red fox.

Holding out his hand, an orange sword appeared. Blocking Rio's attack, orange energy swirled around the man's fingers protecting them as Red grabbed Rio's sword with his other hand, pulling him closer.

"Her name's Neia? You certain that's correct. Not that it matters right now." As the Red fox wrenched Rio's sword out of his grasp, Rio took a step back bringing his fists up to protect himself.

"What do you want with us?

Confused, the Red fox threw Rio's sword at his feet. "We're not here for you or your friend's kid." He turned his back on Rio, watching as the Blue fox stood over The Hand of Mon. "We're here for the artefact."

"The artefact-?" Distracted by a message, Rio saw it was from Iseul.

Iseul: You're right, Rio, the guy with the blue fox mask. The moment he touched me, I couldn't see.

Looking at Iseul, Rio saw him holding his head with one hand and typing with the other.

Iseul: That blue fox mask bastard thinks he's faster than me. I'll show him... just let me catch my breath.

"You know." Walking up to the Hand of Mon, the Blue fox observed the damage that Savina had dealt to its body. Missing its left arm and right leg, half of its head had melted from the heat. All that was left was charred by the fire. "An artefact that allows you to manipulate the earth around you to form constructs. Now that I would have found challenging."

Holding its hand up, The Hand of Mon prepared to attack as the Blue fox approached it.

"But now you're as hard to beat as a pebble." As the ground around the Dungeon Guardian began to rise. The Blue fox reached forwards, simply grabbing the artefact that made up the Dungeon Guardian's right hand, the golem collapsed.

Within an instant of touching the artefact, the Blue fox turned The Hand of Mon into a pile of rubble. The mana in the room fell silent as the artefact was silenced.

Watching the gauntlet drop on the floor with the rest of the Dungeon Guardian's body, the Blue fox picked it up. "Well look at you now. Not so scary nowwww. You're just a fancy glove." Holding it up, the Blue fox waved to the Red fox. "Catch!"

Throwing the gauntlet across the room, the Red fox caught it with ease.

"Good." He remarked, looking at the gauntlet. We're finished here, let's go before any more problems arise." Turning around, the Red fox walked past Rio and started up the stairs.

As the Blue fox began to leave, he spotted the unconscious Savina lying on the floor.

"I mean…" Holding the gauntlet in his left hand, the Blue fox stopped. Slowly, he reached for his sword's hilt. "I'm sure it would be a pain if she learnt to control that power in the future…"

As the Blue fox slowly unsheathed his sword, Iseul's ears perked up. Standing, Iseul grabbed his sword, scrambling forwards before breaking into a full sprint towards the Blue fox.

Seeing Iseul charge at him, the Blue fox smirked beneath his mask. Quickly drawing his sword, the Blue fox parried Iseul's attack, deflecting it to the side, this time swinging at Iseul. Iseul met the Blue fox's blade, their swords crashed together. Their strength matched, the two swordsmen struggled as they each tried to overpower the other.

"You're definitely the other Champion, your strength is nothing to laugh at, but I'm surprised. You're too slow, you hold yourself back with these clunky swords." The Blue fox spat.

Pushing their swords down, the Blue fox reached forwards, his fingers inches away from Iseul's chest.

Falling back slightly, Iseul grabbed his sword with both hands. Wrenching it upwards, the Blue fox quickly retreated as Iseul's sword almost cut his arm off.

"I guess I can't just do that twice… Unless." Pulling his sword back, the Blue fox stabbed forwards.

Grabbing the side of his sword, Iseul held it up. The tip of the Blue fox's sword came to a stop against the side of Iseul's sword.

Kicking the flat of Iseul's blade, the Blue fox ducked under Iseul's counterattack. His target, the still unconscious Savina. Stopping above her body, the Blue fox flipped his sword so that the blade was pointing down, holding it in both hands. The Blue fox moved to stab Savina's heart.

"Enough!"

The Red fox's voice echoed around the room as a cube of orange energy appeared in the path of the Blue fox's blade. With a thunk, the blade came to a stop inches away from Savina's skin.

Everybody in the room froze, turning to look at the stairs. The Red fox stood half way up them, his left hand outstretched. Orange energy flowed around his fingers as he maintained the barrier.

"I said. That we are done here, Blue." Raising his hand up, the barrier under the Blue Fox's blade moved upwards, knocking the sword away. "We haven't been sent to kill anyone, just retrieving that artefact. We have no need for needless bloodshed."

Gritting his teeth, the Blue fox looked away. Sheathing his sword, he stared at Iseul as he walked past. "Get stronger, I actually want a challenge the next time we meet… and I'm sure we will." The Blue fox grunted.

"I'm sorry about that." The Red fox rubbed his hands together as the Blue fox walked past him. "You two should get your friend out of here before this place collapses, this Dungeon isn't very stable. Till we next meet." With those final remarks, Red followed after Blue exiting the room.

Watching them leave, Rio exhaled. Joining Iseul, Iseul held Savina's hand.

"Is she alive?"

Iseul slowly nodded.

Rio's eyes fell on Savina's arms and legs, all of Savina's limbs had been burnt by her fire. Parts of her hair were singed from the heat.

"What did that guy say when he first got here? Neia's mana was out of control? We need to get her to Elenwen, I'm sure she'll know how to handle this… Can you carry her Iseul?"

Storing their weapons away and as Rio retrieved Iseul's helmet.

Iseul put one arm under Savina's back and another under her legs, picking her up. Iseul nodded to Rio.

~~

"So, tell me again. What happened in that Dungeon?"

Light streamed in from the window above Elenwen's bed. Rio, Iseul and Elenwen sat in wooden chairs around Elenwen's bed on the second floor of her home. Savina had been carefully set down on top of the bed by Iseul soon after their arrival. Elenwen had just finished applying oils to help with the burns.

"So." Holding his cup of tea in both hands, Rio furrowed his brow. "When we arrived at the entrance to the dungeon, there were two piles of rocks, we thought that somebody must have destroyed two golems. So we prepared ourselves for a fight. We went inside, after not finding a single enemy, we bumped into one golem. Quickly dispatching that golem we went further in."

"That's when you found the artefact?"

"Yeah. It was on a pedestal down some stairs. I and Neia spoke whilst Iseul went over and touched it." Looking over to Iseul, Rio frowned, seeing that Iseul wasn't paying attention to the conversation. "The artefact started doing something, Neia told us we had to destroy it before it finished… doing whatever it was doing. The gauntlet started manipulating the ground around it to defend itself. Stone walls, stone spikes, stuff like that. Iseul was able to land a hit on it knocking it off the pedestal, then it created a body out of the surrounding stone."

"It did all of this without somebody wielding it? Sentient artefacts aren't exactly common."

"And that's when it happened. A notification appeared from the system, and she just. You could almost feel it, it was like her rage became something physical you could reach out and touch. It erupted, and her body was covered in violet fire. I don't know why, it all happened so fast."

Elenwen quietly nodded. "Did anything else of note happen?"

"We were attacked? Accosted? I'm not sure, one of them wanted to attack us, the other didn't."

"What do you mean by that, Rio?"

"There were these two guys, they both had masks covering their faces. They must have been the ones who had cleared out the dungeon and killed the two golems at the entrance."

"Two people wearing masks you say? What kind of masks?"

"Fox masks, one was red, the other was blue. Neia mentioned a name, she called them Kitsune? Do you know what that means?"

Sighing, Elenwen intertwined her fingers. "The Red and Blue fox are mercenaries. They work for the Kitsune, an organization that takes contracts for coin, assassinations, retrieval of special items, protection for a convoy. You name it, they provide for it. Each member wears a different coloured fox mask. They are a dangerous faction, the Red and Blue foxes, especially so. The Red fox can create constructs out of a powerful energy he alone wields, and the Blue fox can temporarily nullify your skills and abilities just by touching you."

"Yeah I figured that after Iseul fell over…"

"You said the Red fox didn't want to fight you? Then that means they weren't given orders to kill anyone they met, you're lucky they were only sent after the artefact."

"Iseul gave the Blue fox a good run for his money after he learnt not to touch him, but if that Red fox guy wanted to. I think he could kill all of us…"

"I have one question, Rio. About what happened to.. Neia. Did you see anything, anything at all that could have triggered something?"

"Well." Taking a sip from his tea, Rio looked at the floor. "The notification, it told us a name, I'm pretty sure it was telling us the name of the Dungeon Guardian. It said 'The Hand of Mon' has awakened, does that mean anything to you?"

"Mon." Elenwen sighed. "I may know why..."

"Have you heard that name before?" Rio quietly asked.

"Yes, Mon was her-"

"Mon, was my brother's name."

Rio, Iseul and Elenwen all looked up as Savina spoke.

"Neia you're awake!" Rio cried. Seeing her solemn expression, Rio grew concerned, "Hey, is something the matter Neia?"

Savina almost winced every time Rio called her 'Neia'.

"Rio, I… I need to come clean about something."

"What's wrong?"

"My name, my name isn't Neia. When we first met on that slave ship, I didn't know if I could trust you… I lied when I told you that." Taking a deep breath, Savina held her head up. "My real name is Savina Estia, rightful Queen to the Kingdom of Ruoroa."