As Shadow began to head back towards the mountain, nearby the bottom of the mountain by a small river sat a lone little fox.
The fox looked extremely focussed on the river for the slightest changes, a sudden ripple in the water appeared within her view.
Noticing this change her little arms flashed out into the water at a fast speed, as she removed her arms her claws were holding onto a fish which flailed around trying to escape.
She held firmly onto the fish bashing it onto a nearby rock, swiftly killing it without any resistance.
Placing the fish on to a small stack of fish, she nodded in approval. 'I think this should be enough to cheer mom up.'
She looked up at the sky and was shocked. "Ah, it's late! I have been out too long!"
As a fifth spirit gathering beast she felt that she could safely enter the forest on her own as much as she liked but never encountered such a late night.
She quickly began panicking about being scolded by her mother.
She sharply turned her body towards a nearby dark area where she heard a sound. "Who?!"
"Hehe little kid so you noticed us!" A large figure emerged from the darkness revealing a large white wolf with the cultivation of 5th spirit gathering.
From several other locations appeared 3 more white wolves, each of them at 4th spirit gathering.
As they surrounded the small fox they released a bloodthirsty killing intent upon her.
While being outnumbered and pressured by their killing intent the little foxes body shivered with fright.
She had been pampered since birth, she rarely faced combat unless it was to help deal with the attacks on the mountain and even then did she face such an opponent as the adults dealt with the tougher enemies.
However a thought struck her awake. 'No! I have to make my way back home to mom.'
Her gaze turned serious looking at her surroundings, because of her smaller size she could not beat the leader immediately.
Especially since she was outnumbered, she had been cornered and had no escape.
Her only option was to find an opportunity to slip through an opening when they get careless.
"Ho, so you got some fighting spirit back but it's all useless!" The leader pounced towards the little fox opening his mouth wide ready to devour her.
The other wolves remained in place watching over the fight which would take place, they had a lot of confidence in their leader.
The little fox took in all of the information around her and tried her best to think up a solution but was constantly met with more problems.
She immediately acted upon her impulses to survive and spread her fire spirit energy through her body.
A layer of red and hot energy wrapped around her feet as she began to use every effort to dodge the attack.
She barely dodged the attack aiming her right claw towards the wolves eye.
The attack hit its mark and the wolf let out a howl of pain. "Aaah! My eye! My eye! Aaaaah! Kill her! Rip her to pieces!"
His leg swung out instinctively after he was hit by the attack, he managed to deal some damage to the little fox as she was kicked backwards towards the river.
She fell down and coughed up a mouthful of blood, looking at the wolf she saw his eye had been completely burned by her attack. "So now he only has use of one eye, I guess that gamble payed off."
The other wolves grew enraged at seeing their leader injured, at first they thought they were not needed but in an instant the little fox had managed to gain the upper hand on their boss. "Get her!"
The wolves moved out of position and charged towards the little fox a small opening appeared in the last moment.
The wolves reached her as tried to swipe her with their claws, she nimbly dodged their attacks and slipped through an opening in their blockade.
She began to flee from all of the wolves that tried to catch her, it was clear they would not give up until they had caught her because she had humiliated their boss.
Time passed and her energy began to empty at a faster rate, although she was not too far from the mountain she did not have enough energy to climb it while being chased by these wolves.
She could not think of a solution, her body was injured from the attack of the leader and running out of energy she began to feel despair.
Her breath grew heavier as she reached the bottom of the mountain, the wolves were not too far behind her when she suddenly saw a figure casually approaching the mountain.