(Lian Li POV)

I watched the fox's movements carefully, the lightning charged in my hands and prepared to set loose the moment she showed any signs of aggression towards our unconscious Master.

??

She smiled, releasing Master's finger from her mouth with an unnecessarily loud 'pop'.

"Well… Never thought the meddlers will show up this soon."

"Kukukuku~" Diao Chan chuckled. "I see you like to refer to yourself in third person?"

"Ehehehe~ You're funny," The fox giggled. "Any chance you girls would just leave me and my toy alone for a few hours? No, a few days? I promise I'll return him when I'm done… Maybe…"

"Master is not your toy, unhand him right this instance," I hissed.

The vixen turned to smile at me, holding Master a little closer to her chest, "Oh? But he is suuuuuch a darling. Surely he wouldn't look like this if not for me to play with?"

Manami stepped forward, the balls of fire around her flaring up, "Master is a divine being beyond your comprehension! Unhand him, Shizuri, or I will make you!"

The vixen looked down at Master's sleeping face, drawing our attention back to him. My breath caught in my throat when I saw his divine sleeping visage, the sight almost making me lose my focus on my lightning Technique.

Her hand stroking at his face made me come back to my senses, however.

The fox chuckled, "And what if I say no--"

My lightning hit her square in the face, blasting her towards the back of the cave.

There was no danger of hitting an illusion since Manami had already made sure all illusion Techniques had been dispelled, which was how we found this cave in the first place.

Eris immediately rushed forward to catch Master before he fell to the ground, Manami covering for her with a wall of fire when the vixen tried to blast our swordswoman back with a fireball of her own.

"Cai Hong! Take Master and go! We will take care of her!" I shouted.

Eris passed Master over to the loli dragon who promptly ran out of the cave with him in her arms. The sound of wings flapping echoed from outside the cave before a gust of wind blew into the tunnel, no doubt Cai Hong had just taken to the skies.

With Master safely escorted away, we now need to deal with this little heretic.

A figure stepped through the fire wall that Manami had summoned, heedless of the flames eating away at her skin.

"All of you… Why do you insist on getting in between me and my toy? I had even just realised how divine his blood tasted like, there's no way I can go back to all the trash from before!"

I seethed, for this person to dare make Master bleed, there is nothing else more unforgivable than that.

I thrusted out my hand, sending a streak of golden lightning crashing against her.

The vixen sidestepped at the last moment, though the lightning still caught her left arm and blew it clean off her shoulders.

"I won't stop until he's mine!" She screeched, her eyes glowing red in the darkness of the cave.

She charged towards us, a layer of purple miasma covering her remaining right arm while her left arm started to regenerate.

"'Burden of the sky, weight of the world; imprison the heathen that dares to be so bold. Restrict their free will, with naught choice but to be still. Divine Chains!'" Diao Chan recited her binding spell in an attempt to stop her.

The chain wrapped around her right leg just as she leapt towards us, it was just a matter of time before she would be trapped in the air by the chain.

But what we hadn't expected was for her to cut off the trapped leg without hesitation, allowing her to continue her leap towards us.

She stretched her right arm towards us, the miasma expanding outwards in a flash.

My body felt heavy all of a sudden, as though the entire weight of a mountain was pressing down on me.

I gritted my teeth and tried to push it off but something exploded near my chest before I could, sending all of us tumbling outside the cave.

Master's training kicked in and I immediately got on my feet, just a little slower than Eris who already had her sword unsheathed and glaring at the cave entrance.

The vixen stepped out, her left arm already fully regenerated while her right leg was still in the midst of restoring the skin that covered her exposed muscle.

Nothing needed to be said between us.

My body glowed a golden hue as I circulated my quarks while Manami had her tails fanned out behind her, summoning a fireball on the tip of each of her tails. Diao Chan was behind the two of us, chanting another of her Spells.

Eris was first to engage, rushing towards the maroon haired fox with her sword slashing towards her neck.

The fox intercepted the blade with her hand, catching the sharp metal mid-slash without any hint of hesitation.

Thrusting her other hand at Eris, an orb of darkness flew out from her palm, exploding on Eris's chest and sending her flying to the side without her blade.

The vixen pulled out the sword that was stuck halfway through her hand, throwing it towards Eris in an attempt to skewer her.

Our swordswoman barely avoided it by rolling away, her sword piercing through where her head had been.

Manami pointed a finger at her, sending nine balls of fire arcing towards the vixen.

The maroon fox raised her hand, the same purple miasma gathering in her palm.

Clenching her fist, the miasma exploded into a dome around her, causing all the fireballs to stop mid-flight and stay suspended in the air.

Manami snapped her fingers and the fireballs exploded, engulfing the vixen within the fire.

Our nine tailed fox turned to me, "Lian Li, now!"

I reached my hands up into the sky before bringing them down in one smooth motion.

A giant pillar of golden lightning struck down from the sky, engulfing the place she was at.

"Diao Chan! Do it!" I shouted behind me.

Our witch pointed her finger towards the dust cloud created by our attacks.

"'--return all to cinders and cast them into the abyss! Explosion!'"

There was a spark within the cloud before a giant explosion ripped through the area, tossing up an even bigger cloud of dust.

Eris returned to our side with her sword in hand, all of us watching the dust cloud cautiously.

"Hehehe… That was quite interesting…"

The dust cleared to reveal the vixen laying on the ground with only the top half of her body remaining.

I pointed my palm towards her, circulating my lightning quarks again.

"Not so easy," she chuckled, disappearing from our sights.

I let loose my lightning bolt, striking nothing but dirt.

The weight from before pressed down on us again, all of us struggling just to even remain upright.

She appeared a distance away from us, laying on the ground as she waited for her bottom half to regenerate.

Diao Chan began to mutter another Spell but the weight pressing down on us increased, forcing us on to the ground.

She laughed, "I wonder… Should I kill all of you? That way no one will disturb me anymore… Ehehehe~"

The weight increased again, breathing is almost impossible now.

I snapped my fingers, an electrical explosion triggering right in front of her and flinging her up in to the air.

The weight immediately dissipated, all of us getting right back to our feet.

She crashed on the ground nearby, this time looking even worse than before.

All of us stepped towards her in preparation to begin our little torture session on her.

But before we could, a whistling sound permeated from above us.

All of us looked up to see a shiny metal projectile falling straight towards our direction, passing above us to crash into the vixen's body.

Flesh and blood flew in every direction as her body literally exploded from the impact, instantly killing her

We only had the time to be a tad bit disappointed by the loss of chance in torturing her before finally realising what had happened.

What in Master's name was that?