Tower of Heaven

ROAR–!

The beast was already defensive. It stared Atlas down as he stared back at it. In his opinion, it would be much better if it just calmed down here and realized that his goal wasn’t to kill it.

’Then again, I have shown no indication of that idea yet.’

So far, the beast had only seen him fighting, so he couldn’t blame it for thinking he was an enemy. He had no plans of being kind to it until its rage had been fully dealt with.

When he first saw the beast egg and felt the hostility in its aura, he gathered his own conclusions. When he faced it after that, he furthered those conclusions and established them as facts.

"Talking" to this beast wasn’t going to do anything. Treating it kindly and coddling it from the start wasn’t going to work for this beast.

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Because as a warrior himself, he could sense the aura of other warriors. He had never been mistaken before, so even if he was looking at a Divine Beast cub, he did not doubt his readings.

The fox charged. It stepped on the orange background, opening its mouth wide and summoning three balls of flame.

Atlas swept his arm through the air to counter them, but the beast wasn’t reserved to attacking from afar anymore.

When the billowing flames cleared away, a coat of clean white fur was revealed. A set of claws slashed towards Atlas, forcing him to turn his body away.

He watched the fox’s claws cut past his face, barely scratching his nose and drawing blood. The beast’s body twisted, leaving it open for Atlas to attack, but he didn’t take the opportunity.

Instead, he allowed its tail to flick towards him and slam into his face, pushing him back with a surprising amount of force for such a fluffy object. It continued to rotate until its head was facing him once again and chomped down on his shoulder.

"Khhh…!"

Atlas couldn’t help but make a sound of pain at the strong bite force, but it wasn’t over. The beast didn’t move with any real intentions, but its instincts told it to resolve its momentum.

It used Atlas as a counterweight, flipping him over its body and landing on its feet while he was slammed to the ground.

Boom!

A huge wave of flames converged on his position. Already aware of its presence, Atlas stood up and stumbled back.

’A warrior does not need to be coddled. A coddled warrior is a warrior who will never be able to truly express his emotions.’

ROOAR–!

The fox spirit did not roar to intimidate. Those roars were made at a frequency that shook Atlas’ mind. Its each and every movement was made with the intention of harming him.

’For a warrior to reach peace, the only option is to let off the steam.’

To fight and fight and fight until the desire to fight no longer clouded the mind. When the desire to fight was gone, the rationality of the mind could return to its rightful place.

’If you are truly a born warrior as I sense, then I believe that you will find solace in defeat.’

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The fox spirit set up another array of cover fire before charging in, but Atlas was waiting for it.

Its paw slashed forward again, and those claws swept by Atlas’ face. Its tail struck him, pushing him back, and a bite came at his shoulder.

His hands came up and grabbed around the fox’s snout despite not seeing it directly.

[Counterflow]

His "qi" interacted with its own. Just like it did to him before, he redirected all of the momentum it was carrying back into its body.

Bang!

Before it knew what was happening, the fox spirit was flying through the air and landing on the ground far away.

GRRR–!

With a low growl, it charged again. It had not yet learned that the same move could not be used twice on a strong cultivator.

Bang!

Once again, it found itself on the ground.

Once again, it charged.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Something changed in its mind when it confronted him directly.

It kept charging over and over and over and over again. It had no regard for its own life or safety as if it was begging Atlas to kill it. However, when he did no such thing, it could do nothing but continue its attack.

Atlas felt directly its emotions. It wasn’t looking at him anymore. It was looking past him, attacking futilely as if it was desperately calling out for help.

It had to be remembered that he was technically inside of the fox spirit’s own mind. When it was far away, it could hide its thoughts and view his from obscurity. But, when Atlas touched its body every time it charged, pushing it away like an experienced handler, it could no longer maintain anonymity.

He felt its questions, the storm of emotion in its mind that replaced its rationality.

No, it never had a chance to develop rationality in the first place. Atlas was someone who completely subverted its expectations already, and it didn’t know how to react.

Who are you?

Why are you here?

Get out!

Die!

Get away from me?

Where am I?

None of these thoughts were coherently made, but these "ideas" were what made up the personality of this fox spirit.

’In the end

It was indeed a warrior as Atlas expected. Its mind only started becoming comprehensible when it was exhausted.

’However, it is still a child.’

It didn’t know how to process the chaotic emotions. The way it knew how to do so was to destroy, just as the people around it did.

This battle was allowing it to calm down, but calming down had no effect when its base state was hostility. If it knew nothing but hatred, how was Atlas supposed to show it the better sides of the world in this contained environment?

’This will be much harder than expected.’

If his goal was to defeat the beast, it would be much easier. He could kill it right now if he really wanted to. It was so exhausted that it was no different from a sitting duck.

’How am I supposed to calm it down?’

No, that was too much of an oversimplification. He needed to make this beast calm, which meant he first needed to establish an idea of what calm was in its mind. He had to give it an environment that would allow it the peace to reason with itself and grow more positively.

’I have that kind of environment

He could think of it easily, but actually utilizing it was a different story.

Bang!

Atlas slammed the fox spirit on the ground again, hearing its growls turn into whimpers.

Its attacks were barely doing damage anymore, but it refused to stop moving.

If it stopped moving, it would lose.

If it lost, it would suffer.

It would do anything not to suffer again.

Feeling these emotions over and over again, Atlas became more curious about its past.

But if he wanted to dig deeper into its history, he needed it to personally take him further into this mental realm.

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