The room trembled faintly.
The fox stood at the center of the formation barrier, wind armor hovering before it once more. The newly forged propulsion veins pulsed gently with pale blue light.
But it wasn't finished.
Its paw dipped into the storage pouch again.
The crystallized Stormlash claw emerged.
Lightning crackled violently the moment it was exposed.
Unlike the refined wind essence from earlier, this was raw.
Untamed.
Jagged arcs snapped across the room, striking harmlessly against the defensive formation before scattering into sparks.
The fox narrowed its eyes.
"Wind alone gives speed," it muttered. "But lightning… gives killing power."
It extended its divine sense and pressed down.
The lightning resisted instantly.
Crack—
A bolt lashed toward its face.
The fox didn't flinch.
Its barrier flickered, absorbing the stray strike.
"Still wild," it said calmly. "Good."
It activated another fire talisman—but this time, it did not create open flame.
Instead—
A compressed refining furnace formed around both the armor and the claw simultaneously.
Golden-red fire spiraled upward in a tight dome.
The claw began to melt—not liquefying entirely, but fracturing into pure lightning essence.
The fox guided the process carefully.
"Separate impurities."
Crack.
Fragments of charred bone and unusable residue flaked away, burning into ash.
"Preserve the conductive core."
The lightning inside condensed into a dense violet orb.
The fox inhaled slowly.
Then—
It slammed that orb into the rear propulsion vents of the armor.
BOOM.
The entire room flashed white.
The barrier shook violently.
Lightning and wind collided.
For a moment—
The fox's control nearly slipped.
Wind howled chaotically, spinning in unstable spirals.
Lightning tried to dominate the formation arrays.
The fox's ears flattened.
Its eyes glowed faintly as it poured threads of divine sense into every single inscription.
"Balance."
Wind must guide.
Lightning must obey.
Not overpower.
Not destabilize.
The fox redirected the lightning into thin, branching circuits along the wind veins.
Instead of acting as continuous propulsion—
It would serve as acceleration ignition.
A trigger.
A burst amplifier.
The furnace burned brighter.
Sweat rolled down the fox's fur.
Its breathing grew heavier.
Time passed.
Minutes.
Then an hour.
In the background, the lizard continued eating, tearing through flesh and bone methodically. One corpse. Two. Five more.
The crunching never stopped.
Seventeen corpses later—
The lizard's body had grown subtly more defined. Its scales darker. Lightning flickering faintly beneath them now and then as it absorbed the dual-element core's residual energy.
Meanwhile—
Inside the refining dome—
The final inscriptions locked into place.
The fox exhaled sharply.
"Fuse."
The fire talisman shattered.
The dome collapsed.
Silence.
The armor hovered in the air once more.
But now—
The blue wind veins were interwoven with thin violet lightning lines.
They pulsed together.
Wind circulating steadily.
Lightning dormant—but tightly coiled.
The fox extended a thread of qi.
Activated it.
WHOOOM—
The armor shot forward so fast it blurred across the room—
CRACK—
A thunderclap followed a breath later as lightning detonated at the propulsion vents.
The fox immediately cut the output.
The armor stopped midair.
The barrier rippled violently but held.
Smoke curled faintly from the rear vents.
The fox stared.
Then slowly—
A grin spread across its face.
"Wind for sustained flight."
"Lightning for burst speed."
It tapped the chest plate.
"And a defensive wind cushion layered with electric repulsion."
Its tail swayed lazily.
"If someone grabs me mid-air…"
A faint spark snapped between its claws.
"…they'll regret it."
Behind it—
The lizard swallowed the last of the seventeenth corpse and lifted its head.
Its wings shifted slightly.
The fox didn't stop.
Wind threads spun like silk before it, the half-finished armor hovering within a cocoon of compressed air and flickering lightning. Every so often, sparks snapped outward before being swallowed back into the refining currents.
"…Using it now would be reckless," the fox murmured to itself. "The lightning veins are still unstable. One misalignment and it'll backlash into my meridians."
It rotated the armor slowly.
Thin violet fractures along the propulsion lines pulsed irregularly.
"It still hasn't fully accepted the fusion…"
So it continued refining.
Remnants of the fire talisman flared faintly at the core of the wind sphere as it used controlled lightning to temper lightning—forcing the volatile energy into obedience rather than letting it rampage.
The room remained quiet.
Only—
Crunch.
Rip.
Swallow.
The lizard tore through the remaining corpses without hurry.
Seventeen.
Eighteen.
Nineteen.
Twenty.
Twenty-one.
By the time the fox stabilized the outer inscriptions, the lizard stood in the center of the room.
The floor beneath it was soaked dark red.
It lowered its head, slowly licking blood from its maw, tail swaying lazily.
Then—
Its gaze shifted toward the corner.
Seven beast cores rested there.
Without hesitation, it walked over.
One.
Swallow.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
The cores vanished down its throat in seconds.
A faint pulse of energy rippled through its body.
Its wings twitched.
Lightning flickered faintly beneath its scales again—more controlled this time.
The lizard licked its maw once more.
Then it turned.
On the bed, the fox crouched low, eyes narrowed, wind and lightning coiling before it in thin, nearly invisible threads.
The lizard tilted its head.
It couldn't see clearly.
But it could feel it.
Wind compressed unnaturally.
Lightning circulated in restrained loops.
It stared blankly.
*What… is that thing?*
It didn't understand tools.
Didn't understand forging.
But it understood power.
And whatever the fox was shaping—
It carried killing intent.
The lizard asked,
"What's the fox doing?"
{System}
> **Refinement detected.**
> The target is currently refining a spiritual tool.
The lizard blinked once.
Then twice.
"So the fox is creating a spiritual tool," it thought. "This is how they do it…"
Its gaze lingered a moment longer.
Then it slowly walked closer and sat near the bed, wings folding neatly at its sides.
It watched.
Silent.
The fox didn't look up.
"I know you're staring. At least… I think you are."
It adjusted another inscription.
"If I take it outside like this and test it at full output, it'll either crack… or attract attention."
A faint smile tugged at its muzzle.
"And I'd rather not explode mid-flight."
The lizard moved closer.
Close enough now to feel the faint electric prickle in the air.
It leaned forward slightly.
The lightning within the armor flickered in response.
The fox finally glanced sideways.
"…Curious?"
The lizard didn't answer.
It just stared.
The fox returned its focus to the tool.
Another talisman ignited silently between its claws.
Not fire this time—
Wind compression.
A refining gale.
The armor spun faster.
Wind wrapped around lightning in tighter loops.
Compression.
Refinement.
Harmony.
The fox's aura fluctuated as it poured steady spiritual energy into the process. Not reckless. Not explosive.
Measured.
Calculated.
Time passed again.
Minutes stretched.
The lizard remained still, watching.
At one point, lightning snapped outward and struck the defensive barrier.
The lizard didn't flinch.
Its gaze remained blank.
After a while—
The armor stopped spinning.
Wind settled into a smooth, steady circulation.
Lightning dimmed from jagged violet to a calm, pale blue-white current embedded within the wind channels.
Balanced.
The fox exhaled slowly.
"There."
It extended a thread of qi and activated it lightly.
The armor lifted silently.
No thunderclap this time.
No violent backlash.
Just a low hum.
The fox's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
"Now it's refined."
It looked at the lizard.
"This," it said, tapping the floating construct lightly, "is called foresight."
The lizard blinked once.
Then glanced at its own claws.
Lightning faintly crawled between them for a split second before fading.
Its head tilted again.
The fox narrowed its eyes slightly.
"…Don't tell me you're thinking of growing bigger wings just to compete."
Silence.
The lizard slowly turned away and walked back toward the corner of the room, curling slightly—but not sleeping.
Its aura felt different now.
Heavier.
Denser.
The fox studied it quietly for a moment.
Then chuckled softly.
"Whatever you are…"
It stored the refined flying armor into its pouch.
"…you're definitely not normal."
The room fell into stillness.
Wind no longer howled.
Lightning no longer cracked.
Only two presences remained within the barrier—
One refining strategy.
The other growing in silence.
And neither of them ordinary.