The First Legendary Beast Master

Karl raced through the darkness, following the sounds of snarling and crashing towards the heated battle. Then skidded to a stop when he saw the situation.

Cara was squared off against a tiny ball of glowing fur, with a large shining rock in its paws.

She cast [Void Blast] and the fur ball surrounded itself with a rock shield, then pelted her with spears of holy light, which she blocked with a barrier of [Disintegrate].

That made the spears explode, and the cavern trembled.

They were attacking multiple times per second, and the whole cavern complex was trembling.

Karl shaped a [Bulwark] to trap the furry creature, cutting through the stone to put it in a full bubble, and the battle stopped.

"Cara, what is that?" He demanded.

[It stole my rock.] Cara complained.

Karl paused to take in the room. There was a nest of soft dirt, the body of a long dead white fox, which felt as if it had been incredibly powerful when it was alive, and then the furry thing with the shining stone.

"Are you sure it was your stone, or was it in the nest with the furry thing?"

[I saw it first, it's mine.]

Karl sighed and rubbed his temples. That tiny furry thing could stand toe to toe with Cara in a duel. Whatever it was, it was not weak. And it was probably the offspring of that dead fox.

"I think you might have tried to rob its nest while it was watching the fight." Karl explained, wondering if the creature was intelligent enough to know that he was advocating for it.

[It wasn't here.] Cara insisted.

Then the creature stuck out its tongue at her, pointed fox ears visible now that it had lifted its head from the defensive position it had held around the stone.

It definitely heard her and understood.

At somewhat less than the size of his palm, this had to be a newborn fox. Of whatever insane species that dead one came from. Just the fact that it was willing to fight with Cara over a stone was impressive.

The fact that it hadn't immediately lost was even more impressive.

Karl stepped through his [Bulwark] and knelt down.

"Hello, little one. I have spoken with Cara, and she will refrain from taking your precious stone." Karl gently greeted the fox.

The creature gave him a skeptical look, and Cara shrugged. The battle was fun, and she didn't really need one more shiny stone if it meant that much to the little furry thing.

[Who are you?] A childish male voice asked in Karl's mind.

"I am Karl. Cara is one of my bonded partners. I apologize if she was mean to you."

[It was mother's. She can't have it.]

Now Cara felt bad for bullying the little thing.

She reached into her space and pulled out an Overlord Ranked Earth Stone as an apology, and rolled it across the floor to the little fox.

The creature looked up in shock, but didn't let go of the stone in his hands as he pulled it in with his tail.

[Thank you.]

The fluffy thing stood up to pull both stones close to its body, and Cara smirked as she had a great idea.

[Why don't you join us? It's not safe here without your mom, right? Well, we've got a Karl. The Karl is very safe, and he helps everyone grow up nice and strong.] Cara offered.

The fox was naturally leery of trusting the word of a bully who had tried to steal his family heirloom right out of his hands. But this creature known as 'The Karl' seemed like a reasonable person.

"There are more siblings. Not all of them are obsessed with shiny things like Cara is." Karl quietly informed the small fox.

[Trustworthy ones?]

Karl nodded. "There is an evolved former Lightning Cerro named Thor. He's very trustworthy."

The fox looked around at the empty nest, where its family once lived. It wasn't suitable to live in any more, and the young one knew that it would have to leave soon, but it couldn't carry its treasures, so it had been delaying as long as possible.

[Only if I can keep my mother's belongings.] He insisted.

"I will make you your own private den to keep everything in." Karl agreed easily.

The white furred creature was already a Totem, though only in power output. In body, it was immature and fluffy, too fragile to be out in the world alone.

[What do I do?] The fox asked.

"Just two simple things. When I try to move you, you accept the link. Then you need to pick a name, and we can collect anything that you don't want to leave here." Karl explained.

The fox nodded, and Karl placed a hand on him to move him into the remaining beast space, which instantly began reshaping to become a large hill full of caves, with long grass on the slopes.

{New Partner Gained} Stonefur Divine Fox

{Name} [Undecided]

The little one had gotten completely sidetracked by the space, which had adapted to his will to make what he viewed as the perfect den, and hadn't chosen a name at all.

Then, he popped back out into reality and ran off down a small tunnel to start loading all the things he had moved from this nest to a safer one.

The big things couldn't get at them in that tunnel, but most of what he brought back were random dried herbs, a few elemental stones that had been etched with crude drawings, and then one scroll tube that was sealed with wax.

Added to the stone he had been protecting, and Cara's apology gift, it wasn't much. But the fox was very happy to have it all somewhere safe as he returned.

[This is a good den. I can come and go so easily, and it holds everything.]

"Wonderful news. Did you decide what we should call you?"

The fox smiled at him from its new den. [My mother called me Tian Qimao. You can call me Tian, I like Tian as a name.]