The flash of light faded almost as quickly as it had appeared.
And the fox… couldn't move.
Her body felt as though it was locked, frozen mid-stance, paws trembling but refusing to obey her. Panic shot through her like electricity. The ground beneath her blurred and her breath hitched in a painful, tiny sound she couldn't swallow.
"Something is happening to me... I… can't… move… Why can't I move? Why do I feel like I am paralyzed?"
Her limbs felt like they belonged to someone else, they were stiff, unresponsive, and trapped in place as if the earth itself held them. Her heart hammered violently, but the rest of her remained motionless. Not even her tail twitched.
A cold wave crashed over her, a similar feeling she felt before she appeared in the fox form.
"You did not seriously give me another chance just to kill me again, did you? No, I refuse to be insignificant. Not again. Not like when I died. Not that helpless feeling again."
The Rootmaw shook off the light's dazzle and roared, the sound rattling her tiny bones. Aria screamed her name, or what she thought her name was, but the fox could barely register it. Her vision flickered, dimmed, brightened, then dimmed again.
That's when she heard it.
A glitching sound. A crackle deep inside her mind, like broken radio static. A hum that didn't belong to this world.
[System... Awakening... ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]
Her breath froze entirely. It all felt wrong. The voice. A presence. Something digital layered over her instinct and soul.
She wanted to scream, to cry for help, but no sound came.
A black screen flickered behind her eyes for a split second, lines of unreadable code spilling downward like a cracked waterfall.
[Core... Sequence... Initiating...]
[Fault Detected.]
The fox's mind imploded with static, white noise shredding her thoughts. There was no sign of magic nor was it instinct. The only thing she was feeling at the time was fear and pain.
Her breathing quickened, each inhale a desperate struggle for control. She tried to move her paw, just one, but it remained stone.
"Move!"
"Move, please..."
"Move, or we die again."
The Rootmaw charged towards her, enraged, but Aria leapt in front of her, arms outstretched, trembling but defiant.
"STAY BACK!" she shouted, though her voice cracked with terror.
Her staff flared, but the blue light sputtered weakly, nowhere near enough to stop a creature twice her height.
"No, no, no—please..." Aria whispered, stepping backward until her boots scraped the edge of the cliff.
The fox watched helplessly. Her mind screamed, frantic and terrified.
"I don't want to watch someone die again."
"I don't want another helpless ending."
"PLEASE! MOVE. MOVE!"
Something inside her snapped, and energy surged through her frozen limbs. It was not magic, but it felt colder, sharper, and inhuman.
[Core Override: Granted.]
[Mobility Protocol: Forced Reboot.]
Her body jerked violently and her legs twitched. Pain exploded down her spine, but her paws scraped forward across the dirt.
A raw whine tore from her throat, the first sound she had managed.
Aria gasped and spun around. "You—you're moving?!"
The fox didn't answer. She couldn't; her focus tunneled to one point and that was the Rootmaw's massive limb swinging downward.
Aria stumbled due to the pressure and the fox pushed. Hard.
Her body reacted with a strange, mechanical correction, almost as if invisible strings guided her. Her paws skidded, caught, and launched her forward with a burst she didn't know she could produce.
She slammed into Aria's leg, a tiny force, but enough to knock the girl off balance to the side.
The Rootmaw's strike missed them by inches, smashing the ridge and sending chunks of stone plummeting into the forest below.
Aria choked on a sob. "Little one!"
The fox collapsed for a moment, chest heaving. Pins and needles buzzed violently beneath her fur, a sign of her nerves rebooting, muscles reconnecting, and a body waking up from forced paralysis.
She tried to stand, but once again her legs buckled and terror stabbed through her again.
"Not enough… I'm too small… too weak…"
At the same time, the same voice she kept hearing returned, clearer now.
[Emergency Protocol: Seedling Defense Mode.]
[Activation Threshold Reached.]
[Unsealing… 0.7%]
A faint silver glow flickered around her paws once again and her vision sharpened into crystal clarity as sound honed into precise layers of threat and distance.
Aria's trembling hand touched her back and the bond mark pulsed.
"Please," Aria whispered, voice cracking. "Don't die. Not you too."
The fox steadied herself, when she heard the girl's plea, her body was still trembling. But the new instinct rising inside her felt cold, steady, and focused.
It did not feel like anything a human would be capable of doing, the fear simmered under, yet the determination to survive overshadowed anything else she was feeling.
[New Function: Instinctive Combat Assist (Low-Tier)]
[Calibrating…]
'I do not know what this is or what is going on, but a little knowledge from reading and gaming, should help. If this is anything like that, I am not strong; however, I refuse to be a pawn in someone's games.'
Her fur bristled as the Rootmaw roared again, charging towards them and Aria stumbled backward; she knew she was out of room as well as options at that point.
The fox stepped forward, tiny but unwavering, eyes glowing with the first flicker of something ancient. She didn't roar or snarl.
But her voice, the one in her mind, was no longer breaking.
'I'm scared… I'm small… I don't want this… And yet, I refuse to die here.'
She lowered herself, claws digging into the earth.
[Combat Mode: Partially Online.]
The Rootmaw lunged.
And she launched herself right at it. She did not know if she would be able to finish it off, but she had to try. She needed to get out of this mess and figure out what was really going on and why she was there in the first place. In a world that seemed hell-bent on making her hurt as well.