Running with gleeful abandon, Sota still barely noticed when things started going wrong. Being able to easily outrun a human, he would stalk the perimeter as his victims fled, guiding them along the path he wanted with his foxfires whilst always staying out of sight. Only this pair wasn't panicking... or if they were they certainly weren't running like he would have liked them to do. In fact, one of them even started 'singing'.<br/><br/>The little black fox's ears perked at the enchanting melody, and he very well could have lost himself in it had its effects not started to tear at his illusion. He slowed his pace and concentrated harder, pouring all his magic power into it. To little avail. The pressure built harder, little tears began to form in the fake trees. He stopped and concentrated harder... too much.<br/><br/>With a pained yelp, the illusion shattered around them, sending shards of magic to sparkle away in the breeze and revealing the real "forest" (really only a light woodland) beneath. Confused and fazed, Sota barely noticed as the other girl lit up with unholy flames. He could feel something very wrong, though, even by demonic standards, and he<i>did</i>notice when unnatural blades came whizzing towards him. Another yip sent him bounding off in the opposite direction.<br/><br/>As a denizen of the spirit world, the little nogitsune had never known real fear. There were always stronger spirits... demons that hunted in certain places at certain times, but Sota was particularly unambitious for one of his kind and even the ones that could harm him tended to simply leave him alone (either from deeming him too insignificant to bother, or from not seeing him at all). Even when his mother tried to eat him he did not know fear. Life had been one long game; and for the first time in his life, he had lost... and he was afraid.<br/><br/>Panting heavily, he dashed as fast as he could. He didn't make much ground before one of the deadly blades cut him off. He darted to the right and ducked under a falling tree, but the things just went straight through the trunk like it was nothing more than paper. It soon became apparent that despite his considerable speed, the black-flamed wheels of death were faster. In desperation he tried dodging more precisely. Zig-zagging across the ground before ducking and dashing in the opposite direction. Only had forgotten the most important part of this little chase... the source. Trapped by the encircling hoola-hoops of doom, he found himself face-to-face with the most fearsome creature he had ever known. A look of bloodlust filled her eyes, the likes of which he had only seen in particularly evil demons. He searched urgently for any signs of mercy, but found none.<br/><br/>He let out a pitiful whimper as he tucked his tail between his legs and shrunk (quite literally). The gem on his head glowed a mix of silver and green (showing fear and the many deep, desperate thoughts of escape he was running through), and his wide eyes shimmered with welling tears. With little magic and no dignity left, he gazed up at his executioner not as a spirit, but as a tiny, adorable fox paralyzed by fright.<br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:floralwhite">"You win. Please don't kill me."</span>was all he could muster in a broken, high-pitched squeak.