The five of them stared at the fox with gazes full of wonder and awe. The fox had a blueish color and looked like it was made of condensed mist. It was a bit bigger than a normal fox, but not by much.
But, the moment its body was completely formed, it growled, baring its small fangs.
That sound brought the adventurers back to their senses.
"I don't think that it's friendly…"
"Yeah. That isn't friendly at all."
"See, Henrique? This is the situation where a spear would be a hundred times more useful than this damn knife."
Henrique held his machete and gritted his teeth without answering Ravi's comment, while Ravi jumped to the side to hide in a bush.
((If I could flank that fox, maybe I would be able to do some damage even with a knife.))
At that very moment, the fox jumped forward, running towards Henrique.
A pebble flew in the direction of the fox, but it simply jumped to the side, dodging it.
"Fuck!"
The fox kept running in a zigzag pattern, and Henrique stood there, waiting for an opportunity to slash.
((The secret is footwork. The secret is footwork. I need to position my body and move my foot to the side. Wait for when it tries to bite.))
His thoughts were running wild as he tried to remember what he learned in the swordfighting group.
Meanwhile, Carlos was holding the book open in his hand, trying to make sense of what was written on that page.
The fox finally reached Henrique and tried to bite him. He put his weight on his right foot, moving his left foot behind so he could twist his body.
The fox bit the air as Henrique managed to dodge its attack, and he used the momentum of his body to add strength and speed to his downwards slash.
He felt the blade of his machete connect and then slide down, but it was a feeling quite different from the feeling of cutting flesh he had when he killed the rats.
It felt like he was cutting plastic or a similar substance.
And something that added to the weirdness of the scene was that it didn't show any reaction of pain. The cut was there, visible on its flank, but it didn't flinch or emit any sound after being hurt.
He decided not to think about it, as the fox had its mouth open, ready to go for his lower legs again.
Another pebble flew towards the fox, but it had already lowered its body, diminishing its exposed area, and the pebble just zoomed by, harmlessly.
:::
Carlos was still frantically trying to read the page. He had skimmed through the whole book, but only that one page had something written on it.
((This looks like a spell. It isn't a lesson on spellcasting, but on the spell itself. I have no idea how to conjure it, though. Do I have to draw those symbols? Where? How? There are words here; do I have to chant them? There are so many…))
The page was filled with scribbles and drawings. For some reason, he was able to read the script, but the words made no sense to him.
He was like someone who knew the latin script but didn't know Spanish - even if they know what sounds those letters make, it doesn't mean they understand the text.
:::
Henrique knew where Ravi had hidden and understood his intentions. His dodge earlier was already a deliberate step towards that bush.
So, when the fox went forward on another attack aimed to bite his shin, he retreated, and the fox followed him.
At that moment, Ravi jumped from the bush, brandishing his knife. He was holding it with a reverse grip, and he swung it straight downwards, aiming for the point right behind the fox's head.
He hit it perfectly, but the sensation was the same one that Henrique felt. Like he was hitting a block of plastic.
Despite looking like its body was made out of condensed mist, it was very solid.
The knife left a very visible dent where it hit, but the fox didn't seem affected by it in any way. If it was a real fox made out of flesh, it would have died on the spot.
"What the fuck? This guy is indestructible?"
Seeing that both Henrique and Ravi were close to the fox, Marina stopped attacking with the slingshot. She also felt that even if she hit, it wouldn't do any damage to that being.
Ignoring everything else that was happening around her, the fox kept trying to bite Henrique's legs.
And every time it entered Henrique's reach, his blade would swing down. But, this time, the fox had already learned the pattern and managed to avoid all his counterattacks.
And the fox's dodging also kept preventing it from actually connecting a bite.
Until, suddenly, Carlos' voice reverberated in the cave. The words were alien for everyone there, and they carried some sort of power that all of them could sense.
Marina, Heloisa, and Ravi looked at him. They saw a fluorescent bluish-purple light condensing on his hand, which he had extended in the direction of the fox.
The fox immediately also stopped and looked at Carlos, then sat.
When Carlos spoke the last word, the light went straight to the fox, hitting it in the chest.
The fox's body then started disintegrating into mist again. During all that, the fox remained sitting there, looking at Carlos. It looked like it was smiling, and, right before it completely disappeared, an eerie high-pitched voice sounded in the cave.
"Good job, magician."
[Spirit Fox killed. 5 points.]
:::
Everyone kept staring at the place where the fox had just been, in a daze. What they had just witnessed was simply too outlandish.
Of course, they had just teleported, fought rats, had corpses disappear and pouches appear in their place, got a bag with some sort of spatial storage property…
But this actually looked like magic. With all the visual cues. Nothing they had seen to this point could compare to that.
Then, Carlos fell to the floor.