The pirate ships were no longer distant blips.

They loomed now. Sharp silhouettes against the void, all angles and aggression. Akiko's HUD flagged the frigate as the lead, flanked by two nimble gunships that broke formation to angle for an intercept.

"Alright, Driftknight," Akiko muttered. "Time to show me what you've got."

As if on cue, the Driftknight surged forward. Its fusion drive flared in a brilliant cone of mana-laced light, glowing with a blue-white shimmer that lit up the darkness.

Akiko felt a flicker of pride. The mana infusion she and Tanya had worked on for weeks, it was holding.

The Driftknight veered sharply, cutting into a new vector to throw off targeting. A pair of railgun turrets along its dorsal spine opened fire, hurling slugs into the void with dull flashes of recoil.

Akiko caught the burst of light in her periphery as her HUD pulsed, Takuto adjusting her flight path to stay clear of friendly fire.

"Trajectory shift detected. Increased thrust recommended to maintain synchronization."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered. "On it."

She tapped into the sapphire core at her chest. Foxfire flared behind her, flaring in a burst of shimmering flame. The acceleration hit her like a shove to the ribs, but she adjusted quickly, tail flicking for balance. Her body remembered this rhythm.

"Incoming fire. Three projectiles. Probability of impact: 36%."

Akiko's HUD lit with glowing arcs, mapping the projectiles' paths. She twisted into motion, her foxfire flaring in staccato bursts, weaving between the streaks of plasma.

One passed so close her face shield hummed in warning, the charge brushing her aura.

"Not bad," she muttered, heart pounding.

"Targeting systems recalibrating. Anticipated impact probability increasing."

"Thanks," Akiko said dryly. "So encouraging."

The gunships were shifting. Trying to box her in. Their weapons tracked her through the dark like glowing eyes. Behind them, the frigate's weapon arrays began to glow hotter.

Another volley screamed through space. Akiko rolled hard, tail snapping behind her as she slipped through the crossfire. Her HUD flared again, distance markers showing the gunships closing.

She flared her claws instinctively. Foxfire shimmered to life around her fingers. Hot, bright, close-range.

Useless at this distance.

"Gonna have to fix that," she muttered. Another blast ripped past her, close enough to raise the fur on her arms beneath her suit. "But for now... let's get creative."

Her HUD pinged. Takuto highlighted a weak point on the nearest gunship. A ventral panel, partially covered by the armor plating but poorly reinforced.

"Structural vulnerability detected. Recommend close-quarters engagement."

Akiko's grin was razor-thin. "Close it is."

She shifted course, foxfire flaring as she dove toward the ship. Weapons locked on. Muzzle flares lit the hull as it spat fire at her approach.

She twisted and danced through the barrage, foxfire trailing in tight arcs as she skimmed the ship's belly. Her sapphire core pulsed. Mana surged through her.

Her claws lit up, burning bright as twin blades of living fire.

She hit the gunship like a falling star.

Her body twisted into a tight spiral, foxfire blazing from her claws as she closed the last meters in a heartbeat. The hull of the ship loomed beneath her. Dull gray metal, patched and pitted. Cold and lifeless.

Then her claws touched it, and the world turned incandescent.

The foxfire ignited on contact, searing through armor like it wasn't there. Lines of glowing heat etched behind her, elegant and impossible, as if she were writing runes into the vessel's skin. The metal buckled and screamed in silence.

Then, the vacuum did the rest.

A rush of atmosphere vented from the breach, oxygen trailing in a ghostly stream that caught fire mid-spill.

The flames bloomed outward, petals of golden-orange bursting in stuttering sequence as pressure dropped and fire found purchase.

Akiko tumbled clear, foxfire flaring to hurl her back into open space just as the gunship convulsed behind her.

A pulse of heat kissed her back.

She twisted mid-flight, gaze locking onto the damage.

The ship was limping. Its hull scorched, venting atmosphere in ragged jets. Its weapon systems sparked weakly, their power diminished. It peeled away from the fight, broken.

Her sapphire core pulsed weakly against her chest. The claws flickered and died.

She was breathing hard. The strain against her mana core threaded through her body like ice in her veins.

Takuto's voice slipped into her mind, calm as ever.

"Hostile ship damage assessed: 72% functionality loss. Enemy firepower reduced. Recommend evasive action."

Akiko exhaled, her voice a rasp. "Yeah. Copy that."

But her eyes had already shifted, tracing the arc of the second gunship. The frigate beyond, glowing hotter now. Engines spooling.

Two more.

Her magic wouldn't be enough. Not like this.

I definitely need something with range, she thought, filing it away like a blade she didn't yet have time to forge.

Then she rolled, reoriented, and dove toward the next.

Akiko twisted high above the battlefield, foxfire flaring in arcs behind her like comet trails.

Below, the remaining gunship spiraled away, its weapons dead, courtesy of the Driftknight's pounding retaliation.

But then her eyes caught the frigate.

Larger. Meaner. It hovered like a threat held back by restraint. Until now.

Her HUD blinked red.

MISSILE DETECTED.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Her breath caught.

The warhead emerged from the frigate's hull like a fang. Long, narrow, gleaming in the reflected light of the Driftknight's fusion trail. And then it moved. No hesitation. No flare of warning. Just velocity and inevitability.

The HUD drew a crimson line: a perfect arc from launch to destruction.

Straight at the Driftknight.

"Shit," she breathed.

Time to impact: 18.3 seconds. Interception required."

Akiko didn't answer.

She was already moving.

The sapphire at her chest flared with blue heat. Mana surged through her bloodstream like fire in the veins. Her foxfire roared to life, igniting behind her in a white-blue pulse that cracked space like a whip.

The missile streaked ahead of her. Fast, steady, merciless.

She chased it.

The acceleration hit her like a wall. Her ribs screamed. Her vision narrowed. The G-forces clawed at her body, dragging her toward unconsciousness, but she gritted her teeth and held the trajectory. Her tail streamed behind her like a banner made of flame.

"Neural perfusion degrading. Oxygen saturation falling. Initiating cortical stabilization."

Takuto's voice cut through the red haze, cold and focused.

A surge of artificial calm spread through her chest, like cold light seeping through her spine. Her heart pounded once, then steadied. Blood vessels tightened. Blood redirected. Brain prioritized.

Warning: biological debt accumulating. Recovery window narrowing.

The HUD lit with real-time updates, distance collapsing by the second. The missile's hull spun slowly in flight, its shape surgical, ugly in its purpose. Weak points flashed across the surface, highlighted in violet.

"Structural vulnerability detected. Detonation possible if core destabilized at propulsion nexus."

Her fingers curled. Her claws flared.

She pushed harder.

The missile filled her vision now. Every instinct screamed at her to veer away, to survive, but she aimed straight for the core. Her magic flickered at the edge of collapse.

"Target within range. Engage now."

Akiko twisted into a tight spiral.

And struck.

Her foxfire claws raked across the missile's flank in a blinding arc. Metal screamed, then ruptured. The propulsion system tore open, and for a breathless instant, the missile lost its balance.

A pulse of foxfire kicked her away from the limping warhead.

Then, it detonated. Light swallowed the stars. The explosion unfolded like a dying sun, a shockwave of color and force that tore the silence apart.

Akiko barely registered the detonation, just the shove of raw kinetic fury as she was thrown backward, tumbling through fire-light.

Her face shield flared. Her body arced wildly. Alarms screamed in her ear.

She forced her limbs to respond, stabilizing with twitching bursts of mana. Her foxfire flickered, then flared, stabilizing her.

Her vision cleared. The Driftknight was still there. Intact. Dark against the fading bloom of the missile's death.

"Target neutralized," Takuto confirmed.

Akiko exhaled, more gasp than breath. Her body trembled, her skin slick with sweat inside the suit. Every joint ached. Her heart thundered.

"Yeah," she rasped. "Barely."

She turned her gaze back to the frigate. The missile was gone. The gunships disabled. But the fight wasn't over.

Her chest rose and fell with shallow, ragged breaths. Mana throbbed weakly in her limbs, the sapphire at her necklace flickering with fading light. Her foxfire pulsed in irregular bursts, more gasp than roar.

The frigate loomed ahead, massive and monolithic. Its guns tracked her with methodical precision. A fortress in motion.

"Alright," she muttered, voice raw. "One more trick."

Her HUD drew a path. A trajectory that skimmed the outer edge of the frigate's firing arcs. A suicide line with only inches of tolerance.

"Probability of survival: decreasing. Recommend immediate retreat."

Akiko bared her teeth in a grin.

"Thanks," she whispered. "But I think I'll improvise."

She surged forward. Foxfire flared behind her, pale and thready. Flickering pulses turned fatal hits into near-misses, each round grazing too close.

She twisted through the barrage, tail whipping behind her. Her movements weren't clean anymore, they were desperate.

She cut a rising spiral across the frigate's hull, skimming just above its surface until the bridge came into view.

A reinforced bubble of crystal-metal glass. Thick. Resilient. But not immune.

She poured everything into the final approach.

Her foxfire flared one last time, slamming her forward. Her boots hit the transparent panel with a hard, reverberating thud, and for one surreal second, it was like standing on a floor suspended above the stars.

The frigate's thrust gave her gravity.

Her legs buckled beneath her, the last of her strength bleeding out, but she caught herself, steadying.

Inside, through the glass, the crew froze. Eyes wide. Faces pale.

Akiko tilted her head. And waved. No sound passed between them. Just her smile. Sharp, fox-like, flickering at the corners.

"Hey there," she mouthed. "Hope you don't mind if I borrow your ship."

She raised her hand.

The sapphire at her chest flared once. Its final breath.

Runes spiraled into the void, luminous and geometric, weaving around her in elegant arcs.

Born from Driftknight's drive cone, from Kara's precision, Tanya's forge, Kaede's theory, and from that one wild, uncontrolled moment beneath the facility where she nearly tore herself apart.

She'd touched this power before. Let it rip through her unchecked. And somehow survived.

But this time, this time, she aimed it.

Her foxfire coiled inward, no longer the unstable flare of desperation. It condensed, focused. A torch of white-hot mana shaped by memory, by pain, by intent. A spear of alchemical flame, guided not just by instinct, but understanding.

Kaede would love this, she thought, pride aching through the exhaustion. All that nerdy lecture finally came in handy.

Applied Spellform Initialized: Foxfire Pulse Vector (Tier II) – Stabilized Variant.

She stabbed it downward.

The flames struck glass. And glass melted.

The panel buckled, liquefied, ruptured. The inferno punched into the bridge like a divine hammer, white and gold and screaming blue, wreathing the consoles, swallowing the figures inside. Sparks burst from shattered interfaces. The crew scattered. Too late. Fire chased oxygen in violent spirals. The bridge went nova.

The frigate shuddered underneath her.

Akiko stumbled, the tremor reverberating through her bones. Her mana was gone. Her face shield was flickering. Her limbs felt numb.

But she moved.

Pain flickered through her core as she pushed off the ruined bridge, thready foxfire lifting her from the burning wreck, throwing her clear of the collapsing dome

Behind her, the frigate listed hard, sparks trailing from its spine. The light inside dimmed.

Akiko didn't look back. She floated. Exhausted, trembling, orbiting a pyre she had made with her last breath.

A laugh slipped out of her, breathless and hoarse.

"Hope Kara's got the champagne ready."

And then she drifted, lightheaded and weightless, into the silence between stars.

Time flexed, meaningless, her vision a haze of stars and static. Her shield flickered weakly around her head. Failing, but still there, like the echo of a promise. But every stutter let another gasp of air escape.

Which would run out first, her mana or her oxygen, she wasn't sure.

Her HUD blinked with a proximity warning.

The Driftknight was closing in.

A tether snaked toward her, guided by a figure in an EVA suit. She couldn't quite focus on their face, but the voice in her comms cracked through, low and steady.

"Hang in there, Akiko," Joran said. "I've got you."

She felt the tug as he locked the tether in place, then the slow, gentle pull back toward the ship. The cold bit deeper now. Not deadly yet, but noticed, in the way her limbs refused to move and her breathing came shallow.

The airlock loomed. Its hatch opened like a mouth swallowing her whole.

As the cycle completed, warmth poured in. Pressurized air, humming systems. Life.

She barely registered the crew at first, faces blurred by exhaustion. But when Joran eased her down onto a bench, she caught fragments of awe, of relief.

Kara stepped forward. She didn't say anything at first. Just crouched to meet Akiko's gaze.

Her voice, when it came, was quieter than usual. "Good job, little fox."

No sarcasm. No edge. Just... approval.

Akiko smiled, slow and weak. "Told you... I could make magic happen."

Kara straightened. The moment passed. Command returned.

"Alright, Driftknight. You know the drill. Salvage priority: weapons, tech, anything we can hold. Move fast. We don't know how long this window lasts."

The crew snapped into motion, professionalism reasserting itself. Joran and Quinn peeled off to coordinate. Tanya stayed behind.

Akiko slumped further, her strength bleeding out. Even the glow from the sapphire at her chest was faint now, like a heartbeat too tired to rise.

She barely registered the snap of a medkit opening.

But she heard the voice.

"You're lucky you didn't fry yourself out there."

Raya.

Sharp as ever, but undercut by something softer. Concern, maybe. Something unspoken.

Akiko cracked one eye open. "Guess I... don't take advice well."

"No kidding."

Raya leaned over her, fingers brushing along Akiko's arm. A moment later, warmth spread through her veins. Chemical and artificial, but comforting all the same.

"What... was that?" Akiko murmured.

"Just something to keep you upright," Raya replied. "Don't get used to it. You're on rest orders."

Akiko gave a raspy chuckle. "Never thought I'd hear you giving orders."

"Well, someone has to keep you alive," Raya muttered. Her hand lingered for a moment on Akiko's shoulder. "You're reckless, Akiko. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Akiko whispered, her eyes slipping closed. "But it worked."

Silence.

Then a sigh.

"Yeah," Raya said. Quieter now. "It worked."

Akiko opened one eye again.

Raya wasn't looking at her anymore, already sealing the medkit, her movements brisk. But there was the faintest smile curling at the edge of her mouth.

"Now rest," she said, voice firm. "That's not a suggestion."

Akiko sank deeper into the bench, warmth finally reaching her fingers.

"Yes, ma'am," she murmured.

This time, she obeyed.

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