A hard wind blew.
The clearing was quiet, and calm.
Sat perched on a rocky plateau, in the glade's center, was a tranquil idle fox.
Its thick natural coat was a deep ice-blue accented with a rich gray that dyed the tips of its fur.
Around the fox's chosen mound were the accumulated remains of its many fruitful years of hunt and prowl.
Large piles of carelessly towered and tossed bones loitered—scattered across the ground like leaves during the fall.
The beast lazed within the center, on occasion moving during its rest, opting to find a more comforting position.
It was calm.
So calm.
Excluded around the fox was a fanatic untamed aura of unveiled mayhem that vastly contrasted the tame sterile environment of the glade.
Ssshh…
The silent bristle of brush moving apart disbarred loudly though the silent dwelling.
At the loud noise, the fox's ears immediately perked up, jolting into the air from the negligible din.
Fluttering its eyes open revealed two onyx gemstone-like eyes.
Warranting the noise as a threat to a livelihood, the fox began to scan the surrounding landscape searching for the daring orchestrator of the subtle noise.
It didn't take long to find the bearer of the noise.
What met the fox's gaze was an unusual-looking beast that stood aloft with its hind legs?
The odd thing was, they possessed no fur… well, without the exception of its head, which possessed an unbecoming set of curly ashen gray fur.
This odd creature had a large mesomorphic and sharp—robust gait.
Its total size was rather small, only being a mere 188 cm, but the most unusual detail was the fact the creature donned contrasted heterochromatic eyes that seemingly brindled with a storm of contradictory chaos.
Cusped iron gripped within its hand was a promenade bright silver stick with two nonidentical protrusions sprouted from its top. Each of these protrusions was shaped in its own accord, both respectively shaped in a varied sized organic triangle.
Yet, with its weird features aside, the radiated threat of the thing loomed dominant.
The fox narrowed its eyes, still looking at the thing.
It was debating whether it should or shouldn't attack them
In a threatening manner, the fox began to emanate a low growl from within the depths of its throat.
Should it attack or not?
Right now, the being in front of the fox felt extremely dangerous, but that goes without saying—dangerous prey always tasted the best.
They were a rare delicacy within this desolate place.
Life is full of risks, so what difference did this make?
"A doggo!" the being mused, with a great grin stretched across their face, eyeing the specimen before them.
Stepping forward, the fox, still uncertain about this being, readied itself for combat regardless.
The fox's muscles unconsciously gained tension, and its lower mandible braced open ajar revealing the creature's sharp canines.
"Food or steed, I can only wonder." They laughed, slitting their eyes.
Bang!
The fox lunged forward.
While they did not understand the meaning of those words, it goes without saying the fox was able to understand the intentions behind them.
Noticing the fox's readied attack, Rue beamed. "Oh, this won't do!"
Rue jumped upward and swung his sword at the lousy fox!
Smashing its teeth together, the fox focused entirely on the incoming blade.
It felt dangerous, even more so than the being.
Its instincts were all yelling at the beast to run.
Abandon this fight, or it would die!
These were the falsehoods the fox's thoughts were condemned to.
A sincerity of primal urge and wisp cognitive reasoning confounded the fox—how would it proceed?
Time was a scarce commodity, it had to hurry its decision!
It chose the former.
To run.
Harnessing its Will, the fox began to channel its gathered energy, and without much thought instinctively allowed its inherent abilities to distribute the Will throughout its body.
Ridding its paws into the ground, the fox jumped back.
SHING!
CHRIKKK!
The area where the fox had just been exploded, and the ground cut into two.
Rue swung his great axe forward while igniting the stored Will channeled into his feet.
He burst forward rushing towards the fox.
The fox, bearing witness to the being's hastened speed, grew fearful.
Eyeing Rue, the fox maneuvered to the left in a desperate attempt to elude the scary object.
Seeing this, he immediately vitalized his Initial and swung his axe to the left, burying it horizontally into the head of the fox.
Like a warm knife to butter, the axe's blade effortlessly cleavered though the skull.
Decapitated from the snout towards, the fox seemed it always had—stood on all fours with firm resoluteness.
The fox, after several seconds, succumbed to nature's pull, collapsing onto the ground.
Plop…
Thick blackish filth oozed slowly like syrup escaping from the newly formed cavity.
Meanwhile, the top piece of the fox's head was flung several feet from the main body.
The empty onyx gemstone eyes of the fox's head seemingly looked at Rue, asking him why he had killed it.
The fox was a powerful creature in the second minor destination of the Fourth Destination, but due to the prolonged complacency that came with comfortability, it died relatively quick when faced with Rue, who also possessed the same general specs.
Experience was the ultimate factor within this one-sided fight.
Taking a breath, Rue was immediately assaulted with the stench of the fox's blood.
It had a pungent smell similar to tar.
"Whelp, it was the former with you comrade fox." Stretching out his back, Rue commanded his Initial to demanifest.
Adhering the command, the axe filtered into dust, scattering across the wind.
After a few seconds of careless leisure, the inquisitor glanced at his body, for what was now the nth time.
"Now that I think about it, I'm still in my birthday suit." Tapping his chin, Rue thoughtfully glanced at the fancy-looking hide of the fox's lifeless body. "I don't really want to be mixed up as a pervert, and I already know I won't fare well with authorities since they might have already issued a warrant for my arrest, since I 'somehow' escaped from my cell." Making a wry face, he came to a conclusion.
"Well, the fox is already dead, so—" resting onto his knees, Rue willed his axe back into existence.
Delicately, Rue, with the blade of his great axe, gingerly began the careful process of skinning the fox of its nice-looking hide
This proved to be quite difficult since the fox's flesh had begun to harden after its death, but with enough time and enough elbow grease, the fur had become undone from the body.
Holding the ice-blue and gray fur into the air, Rue smirked, as he examined the fine piece.
"I got myself a new coat!" the inquisitor chuckled. "Oh, and for the final touch."
Holding the fur with one hand, Rue with the other rested his palm against the still blood-sodden interior of the coat.
His palm illuminated with the small feeble glow of an aqua-blue
Receiving a new command from its master, the glow sprouted from the palm and grew outward until the flaccid light had completely swept across the complete interior surface area of the hide.
.…Sssshhh…
A soft sizzling noise allayed into existence after the light made contact with the dampened interior.
The humming noise disappeared after a few seconds, and the dim light receded.
Examining the interior, Rue expressed his delight with a smile.
With the help of his Will, the coat had been dried of any of the fox's annoying bodily fluids.
Lastly, with the coat now done, he put on the large ice-blue coat around his body.
Now dressing him, the coat claded his body in a draped manner around his shoulders and covering his front, concealing his dick and balls.
This coat was rather sizable since it was made with the entirety of the fox's hide.
Rue went from looking like a psychopath that happened to be a pervert, to now appearing to be an unusual berserker.
This was of course better.
Adjusting his new coat a few times, to make sure the coat didn't get in the way of his movement during combat, he felt content with his new look.
"While it may not look the best, it gets the job done." Rue said absent mindedly.
Walking back to the corpse Rue with routine ease, thrusted his arm into the chest tearing out its heart.
Taking a bite out of the heart like a snack, Rue felt all of his build up exhaustion quickly disperse as his body quickly flooded with Will.
This was not the first time he had killed a beast to revitalize his energy, there were several other occasions.
Almost all of them had ended in a similar way, and few beasts actually put up a memorable fight, with one even having torn off his arm.
"All of this could have been avoided, if that damn worm hadn't gotten up and ate my bird." Gruning his expression, he sighed before quickly accepting that the past was in the past.
Nothing would change the fact the birdy was dead.
It was a yesterday conversation.