114 Missing (9)

"Don't fight, you're not gonna win anyway," Aunt Maddie had once told Iris, and she had trusted her aunt's words. For the majority of her life.

But at this moment, she threw caution to the wind and advanced on the lead dog. It was a bit larger than the rest, and a bit more nasty. Its face was covered in scars, which brought a shadow of doubt into Iris' heart, but she squashed it and screeched at her opponent as loud as she could.

The hair on her back were raised to look more threatening, but it wasn't helping much with the size of her opponent. It was actually even larger than Lucifer.

'So what? You're still just a dog!'

After a couple fake advances, she pounced on the dog, biting into its leg as hard as she could. Her attack caught the dog by surprise, but this wasn't its first battle. It recovered in record time and kicked Iris like she was a ball of cotton.

She didn't feel like that, though. The heavy hit shook her insides, even if it didn't deal any significant damage.

The swift defeat only fueled her anger, and she rushed to her feet, but by then, the other dogs had moved in. They surrounded her and started to carefully nip at her blind spots. This showed just how weak this pack was to need to harry even such a small prey as her, but this knowledge helped Iris little.

There was simply nothing she could do no matter how much she rushed at the dogs. Her target would simply retreat, and the circle would reform.

It wasn't looking good for her, so the next time she rushed in for an attack, she didn't back away to defend her back but pressed forward. This surprised the pack, but leader moved in at that moment. The main dog pounced on Iris, positioning himself from her back, and she was caught and raised by her tail.

There was a crunch, and Iris screamed in pain as her tailbone was broken, then again when the dog threw her into the wall. The air rushed out of her lungs with a whoosh, and she lay dazed for a moment.

The pack moved in then, ready to finish her off, but Lucifer decided that he had had enough of spectating. When Iris raised her head, she saw him jumping on the back of the lead dog and scratching at him like crazy. His sharp claws left bloody marks on the dog's skin, and the creature howled in pain.

Lucifer rolled down, then hissed at the dogs after shaking his fur, but to his surprise, the pack was not intimidated. The group surrounded him and fell back into the familiar pattern of wearing down their prey.

One suddenly went for the cat's throat, and Iris screamed out in horror. She tried to get up, but there was no way she could make it in time.

Luckily, her scream startled the dog, and the attack missed its target, landing on the cat's back. Lucifer hissed in pain and clawed the dog's face off upon turning back, instantly blinding the unfortunate creature.

The dog howled in pain, but its companions did not retreat. They aimed for the distracted cat, thinking to finish it off in one go.

But Iris was there already, even if her whole body hurt, and she didn't dare to think about her tail. Like a jealous girlfriend, she screeched at all the dogs, showing her teeth as her little claws shone in the faint light.

They backed away for a moment, weary of her, and Lucifer managed to disentangle himself from the blinded dog. He and Iris then stood back to back, ready to face any odds, but there were still four opponents before them.

For a minute or so, the dogs didn't attack, just circling them slowly, and Iris began to hope they would retreat. This confrontation wasn't good for anyone, and she no longer wished to fight. Aunt Maddie had been right—she sucked at this.

Although these dogs weren't mountains like Queen but mid-sized, they were vicious and fast. She had only been able to scare them with her energetic moves, but it wouldn't last much longer. Sooner or later, one of them would try going for her again, and she would be a goner.

'We need a way out, and fast…'

Before she could think of one, though, the dogs went for them again, and all she could do was jump around, faking attacks all around. She was certain that if she bit into someone's leg again, she would be dead the same instant. There was just so much abuse the body of a baby fox could take before falling apart.

One dog snapped his jaws shut where Lucifer's tail had been a millisecond ago, and the cat got pissed. He hissed and went after the dog with the reckless abandon of the damned. His moves weren't refined, but they had strength and agility behind them.

In a heartbeat, he reached the retreating dog and pounced on its back. The weight of over five kilograms added with the momentum of the jump fell the dog, and Lucifer bit into its neck, ending its miserable life. Then, without any hesitation, he picked the dog by the scruff of its neck, and looked over at the other three.

They yelped in distress, and swiftly escaped into the shadows, tails between their legs. Lucifer then dropped the dead dog and hissed in satisfaction. His victory secured, he turned to Iris with a bloody smile.