Your Life In an Anthro's World

Outrunning The Witch

You grabbed his arm before he was able to walk away, "She'll kill you."

"I admit, I'm not a match for her," Russel shrugged, "But it's like the kid said. She's not going to waste time kicking me around when you're getting farther and farther away by the second. She'll get loose, I'll slow her down. It may only stall her for a second or two, but every little bit helps, right? Now get going."

You wanted to argue, you wanted to convince him to just go. But as he turned to go in, Annika grabbed you by the arm and began tugging you down the street until you gave in and began to run with her. You didn't look back, and you tried not to think about what was about to happen. After a few blocks you were running on your own without Annika's influence.

"Where are we even going?" You asked.

Annika briefly looked back at you as she ran, "The school. There's plenty of places to hide there and lots of doors that we can lock. Plus, I'm sure the staff would be more than willing to help us."

You then realized that the suit's battery was critically low. If it failed you would be trapped in a very heavy metal body suit. As you were still thinking about what you would do about your low power problem, Silvia literally dropped out of the sky and landed right in front of you.

"I can see why you like to travel along the rooftops," She noted as she looked up to the sky,

"Much easier to see everything and far less obstacles."

Annika grabbed you by the wrist and dragged you into an alley as she desperately fled from the larger vulpine. You briefly looked over your shoulder to find Silvia calmly walking towards you, she didn't run and she didn't look concerned. It chilled your bones the way she hunted you so leisurely... like a phantom. Not wanting to look at her anymore you turned your attention to what was in front of you. The area began to look familiar to you as you got closer to the other end of the alley. And then it hit you, this was near where you'd met Sally for the first time. When you had skipped out on your checkup. Your thought process was dashed to pieces as the nine tailed huntress landed in front of you yet again.

"How long are we going to do this?" Silvia asked. Annika didn't answer, instead she dragged you up a fire escape of one of the buildings you had been running between. By the time you made it to the top you were both exhausted. Annika panted heavily as Silvia vaulted over the side of the flat rooftop. "Your out of places to run," She stated. Annika said nothing, but instead pounced on Silvia who in turn batted her aside with little effort. Annika slid across the concrete rooftop on her shoulder before she righted herself and was back on her feet. However, Silvia was upon her before she was able to move again. "I warned you to stay out of my way," Silvia stated with a frown. Before she could make good on her threat though, you positioned yourself between the two foxes. The mayor paused as she looked down on you. "Brave, loyal and quite admirable," She admitted. Her tails then surged out from behind her and coiled around your arms and legs, "But not very smart." Her tails then violently hoisted you into the air before thrashing you into the ground. Your vision blurred and your ears were ringing. You tried to stand up again but fell over as it felt like the ground beneath your feet was spinning like a vinyl record. For a brief moment, you gained enough clarity to realize that Silvia was strutting towards you. You were still seeing doubles of her, but you had enough clarity and presence of mind to take a swing at her when she got close enough. She easily caught your fist in one hand while squeezing and twisting it in one motion. You cringed as your body locked up in pain, Silvia displayed no emotion as she struck you in the face with an open palm. You felt your head snap backwards followed by the rest of your body. You didn't go very far though before you were yanked back to the fox woman like a horizontal yoyo as she never released your fist from her grasp. She changed her grip from your fist to your wrist while simultaneously thrusting the claws on her free hand into the breastplate of your suit. Her claws didn't penetrate deep enough to pierce you, but that wasn't her goal. Using her claws as hooks she hoisted you into the air and threw you across the rooftop as if she were skipping a stone across a lake. You bounced across the roof three times before rolling to a stop. You were sure that you had bruises and scrapes all over, despite how well the armor did its job. You had landed face down at the edge of the roof. A few more feet would have landed you in the river below. You rolled over onto your back as Silvia stared at you expectantly. "You've earned my respect, proven your courage and survived longer than most would have against me," She admitted, "But that isn't enough to stop the inevitable. Don't make this harder than it already has been. Just give up."

"What's the matter?" You shakily asked as you got to your feet, "Getting tired?"

"On the contrary, I consider you to be worthy prey," She replied, "You have no idea how long its been since I've actually felt compelled to get up and hunt someone down myself. But the novelty of the chase has worn off and this is becoming annoying."

You felt a seething rage beginning to boil up within yourself. Your struggle for freedom, for survival was an annoyance to her? A violent storm of angry thoughts began to swirl around in your mind when one faint thought suddenly emerged to quell the storm. Why? Why was she annoyed? "Because you don't have all day, do you?" You asked. Silvia said nothing, but instead she continued to gaze at you intently. "Whatever diversion you have in place for Tanya and Luna isn't going to hold them forever."

Silvia shrugged, "No point in denying it, you're rather clever after all." Her tails then fanned out behind her as she poised herself for an attack, "But it doesn't change the fact that your still not a match for me."

"I don't have to be," You replied as her tails lashed out at you. Having initiated your dive to the side, one foot had left the ground. But the other never did, steady hum of the suit abruptly stopped. You felt your body lock up as the display disappeared. Through the eye ports you could see Silvia's tails surging towards you. You inhaled sharply as you braced for the impact. All of her tails struck the center of your chest sending you over the edge of the building. You could hear the wind rushing by as you fell to toward the water below. When you hit the water it felt as if your body landed on a trampoline, only instead of bouncing you sunk. As you drifted below the surface of the river, you quickly realized that if you couldn't get out of the suit you would suffocate. You noticed that your view ports lit up once again. But the display was weak and there wasn't nearly as much information shown as before.

You could hear that computerized female voice from earlier, "Now operating on reserve power."

"Oh, great," You muttered, "Now it wants to kick in the reserve power."

"Caution, this unit was not designed for aquatic operation," The voice warned.

You rolled your eyes, "Nah, ya think?!"

Meanwhile, on the surface, Silvia frowned, "I really hadn't planned on getting wet today."

"And you don't have to worry about it, either," Malcolm said.

Silvia turned to find Malcolm, Tanya and Luna on the rooftop.

"The human just fell into the river," Silvia stated.

Without taking her eyes off Silvia, Tanya moved to help Annika back on her feet, "You mean he was pushed into the river," She growled.

"In my defense I honestly expected him to dodge the attack," Silvia remarked. She then looked back down at the water, "But that's trivial compared to the fact that he hasn't surfaced yet, which means he probably can't. His armor is likely far to heavy to swim in. I can save him."

Malcolm scoffed at the offer, "Oh how noble of you."

"To be clear," Silvia replied, "I won't let any of you into the water, you either fight with me or let me save him."