As elder oaks was keeping most of the foxes that invaded the burrows busy, they managed to destroy most of the food stalls in the process.
Grey looked down at the chaos taking it all in watching every bunny get hurt or worse while his legs were too wobbly to move, karma was just as scared seeing the mess below before he slapped himself with his green paws bringing both boy's back from their thoughts saying "sister since you're strong go help elder oaks while we get the guards to help."
"But wha~"
"Stop before you say anything else we will be fine don't worry about us and just go help as many people as you can." he stated in a not so convincing tone.
Daisy hesitated for a few seconds before saying "Stay out of trouble just get the guards and hide in the secret tunnel NO FIGHTING UNDERSTAND you two."
They both looked at each other then back her and nodded. She then hugged karma while dragging grey in, despite knowing how he hates hugs before hopping to battle surrounded by thorny vines and toxic flowers killing a few foxes immediately after landing on one of their backs using the vines to drain them of blood immediately.
As they watched her go off grey said, "we are definitely not staying out of this are we." He said in an raspy and pained voice.
karma saw some blood escaping greys mouth but didn't say anything about as he remembered the elder's words on the thunder rune.
"Nope; why you scared of a few dozen foxes ~don't worry about it~ They seem to have only few awakened ones with them, Besides You fought off worse."
"Yeah, but they did not have awakened or more than four to five buddies with them at the time and I had the element of surprise with some weapons on hand." Grey said nearly yelling and coughing up some more blood.
" So, if you had a weapon would that help you be more confident for what's to come?" karma asked with a raised eyebrow.
"that's great it's time to jump in and think about the consequences later or as you said yesterday since we are already in the problem, we might as well do everything we can."
Knowing he was going to be dragged along no matter what he just agreed. As the hopped through the burrows, they could hear distant screams echoing everywhere, telling any guard they met where to go as they went to one of many weapon shacks swiftly but carefully.
Making it to the weapons room they saw how most tools were already taken from this stone shack. While they were looking through what was left, they heard fighting outside. Peeking through the window they saw the other rabbit that awakened with them.
"Look it's Joe he needs our help" said karma as he just picked a sickle that was close to him and jumped in.
Grey scrolled through all the equipment and put on a dark green scaled armor obviously from a gator skin. And picking up two really small boomerangs and a really big one only to finally head out of the stone shed to help out.
Only to find a wounded Joe and a victorious karma standing on the bloody corpse of a fox looking proud of his accomplishment. "Too slow better luck next time dude."
"Hm not with your luck, I don't stand a chance. You good Joe." Grey said concerned still coughing blood with his injured throat.
Joe looked up with a bloody eye saying " 'Tis but a scratch lad, now hand me a bloody hammer so I may smite these foul vermin from the face of the planet."
After gearing up properly all three had a chest piece but they gave the only helmet to Joe. Grey also packed strings to make traps his specialty.
Heading back they didn't run to anyone friend or foe which worried them a lot until they turned the corner to see a scruffy looking fox shaking with blood dripping down his mouth. By his feet they saw a headless beige bunny surrounded by mushrooms.
"HA! the dammed lad ate a shroom sniffer poor bastard won't know what hit him." Joe said as he rushed in with a speed and power that was greater than your average rabbit only to try slamming his hammer on the unsuspecting fox, he hit so hard it caused some dust to disperse around himself.
Grey was feeling excited about taking down a fox with such ease as he was about to join but karma stopped him by grabbing his shoulder before saying "something doesn't feel right see if you can hear if something." Grey understood immediately, focusing on his ears to scan the area.
He focused on his ears and tried tuning out all the sounds around them when he heard what sounded like water dripping down three different surfaces in that area. he finally caught a weak heartbeat near what seemed like a much bigger but relaxed heartbeat near the weak one when he heard a low and weak voice muttering "tis nothing but a love tap, your mother has more fire tha-" CRUNCH! was the last thing grey heard before he snapped out of his focus.
At the same time karma and grey saw that Joe was now waving for them to come over near the corpse of a fox. But grey panicked a bit a blurted out in a low tone "don't go over there Joe is dead there are three rabbit corpses and a healthy fox laying down snacking, but I hear no heartbeat from the Joe waving at us I think this is a fox with an illusion rune carful." greys voice sounded more pained now than before and more blood escaped his lips but he wasn't focused on his current sheering pain only survival.
Karma seemed mad as he said "That means we have the element of surprise but since he can make illusions, he should be level ten or higher but if we get him by surprise we can beat him as level ones you attack first since you can track him."
"Bet, but if doesn't work we need get of here we are still newly awakened beast so be careful." Grey said with a nod as they headed towards the illusion. grey left a constant blood trail but still made his way around the building using the dust joe created as cover while karma walked straight towards the illusion.
Due to grey awakening the sound element he could hear everything around much better and feel slight changes in ground vibrations. But also, how his throat was really damaged from using his soul rune to enhance his voice and telling the others to run he knew it would hurt but didn't think it through like most things he did and now he was suffering the pain with every gulp and every word spoken he wanted to cry but refused to cry Infront of karma.
Now standing near the illusion karma started talking to it so grey can find the foxes exact location.
Grey eventually heard the sound of heavy breathing and some dripping sounds together coming closer to them from the left. He assumed the dripping sounds to be their comrade's blood.
Waiting for it to come closer to karma before he abruptly threw the big boomerang on his back with his entire body sending it flying into the foxes snout causing a crack sound and breaking the illusions.
the fox screamed out in pain revealing itself to be directly in front of karma.
Karma was startled and slash the snout while jumping back throwing his other sickle at the eye, getting it pretty deep in yelling " DAMMIT GREY why the hell did you let him get so close!"
karma Landed and picked up joes hammer to prepare for what's next
"Because you said wait for an opportunity!" An angry grey yelled back despite the pain. Armed with only two smaller boomerangs and some string grey started running behind the fox trying to use his string while the fox was still disoriented and howling in pain.
grey was hopping between its legs and tying up the legs and before pulling as hard as he could to make the fox fall over but the fox had now regained its senses and seeing the weak little rabbit that hit him earlier try to trip him pissed it off so much it started lunging towards him.
"Well shit" was all grey could say as he saw the fox flying towards him with is mouth wide open about crunch down on his small fluffy body. two sets of jagged fangs surrounded grey as the maw seemed to slowly close in greys vison.
at that moment his eyes pulsed red for a flicker of a second and everything around him seemed to stop moving including his own body
The only thought going through his mind was 'So is this how my food sees me when I bite into it? Well, Damm.'