The Zootopian Chronicles II: Darkness

by Menser

The Protectors: They came with promises of safety and protection from all the threats facing Zootopia but what if the greatest threat is The Protectors themselves? Nick, Judy and their Furless friend must forge an alliance with old friends and Legends from Zootopia's dark mysterious past to save their city and world against these invaders from within and new otherworldly threats.

35. Reynard's Story – Part 3E –Crime&Punishm

Reynard's Story – Part 3E – Crime and Punishment

This is the fifth of several sections of the Third Part of Reynard's Story. The bunny agent finally reaps the rewards of his mission. Reynard makes momentous decisions on the fate of those rescued and captured. Punishments come down and everyone gets in on the act. Reynard's goddess will remember this day of retribution throughout the annals of time. But Reynard is not done with his tricks as he executes plans to help all those victims still alive have a future worth living. For those that love combat and action, this is definitely the chapter for you. The chapter is Rating M++ because of scenes referencing sexual acts, rape, torture, torment, scenes of extreme depravity, extreme violence and gore.

Congratulations to everyone on the Zootopia team for a much deserved Academy Award Win. There was no more deserving winner by far of any award in any category. This was the accompanying part that goes with Part 3D. Technically Parts 3C, 3D, & 3E were all supposed to be one chapter, but it would have been incredibly unwieldy and had to be split.

---

Zoodate: (-34 Years) (32 years before the events at the end of Zootopia The Movie)

With his defense set, Reynard focused the rest of the afternoon on going over the list of captives and placing them in categories. He had already released all the gang members and employees of the district bosses who were all kept separated from the others and blindfolded to prevent them from connecting anything to Reynard or the Docks District. Also all innocent witnesses had been released. Prostitutes that did not wish rehabilitation that were of legal age were released, as well as any patrons of those prostitutes not linked directly to soliciting minors.

Reynard had one category for highest guilt which consisted of slaver bosses, employees and patrons of any of the sex clubs and any of the clients of the House of Horrors that were known to participate in any of the activities deemed exceptionally horrific including anything related to sexual exploitation of child slaves, torture of any slaves, cannibalism, skinning or wearing of fursuits and anything similarly heinous. Also any owners of slaves who were known to abuse or mistreat them were placed into this category. Any employees of any of the locations which knowingly participated or condoned any horrific abuses were also subject to the same classification. This pretty much included virtually every employee at the House of Horrors that was involved with slaves in any way.

The second category of guilt included normal owners of slaves, patrons at the prostitution locations specifically dealing with minors, employees who harmed or abused the slaves, and others whose crimes did not merit the top category.

Then there were employees that either did not interact with any slaves, did not witness or know about any of the abuses such as some guards and security, or others such as Bernard the Bear that worked there and were kind and helped the slaves. Any of these employees, especially those that fully cooperated with and aided Reynard's group, were pardoned and in many cases given opportunities for other career work. However each of these employees understood the consequences if any of them ever returned to working for anyone responsible for abusing children or slaves.

There were many clients and employees whose degree of guilt was unclear, and Reynard took care to work with his staff to go over the statements of other slaves or captives to determine their degree of guilt. There were a number of these uncertain cases where Reynard viewed interviews directly with the accused and in many cases came up with additional questioning that needed to be pursued to accurately judge each one. Because these were literally life and death decisions, Reynard took great care in getting each case correct.

One unusual case was a particular masochistic client at the House of Horrors named Sidney that only had adult slaves whip him, cut him and punish him anytime he visited. Interviewing the slaves that had issued the punishment, it was clear the reindeer was a bit nuts, but treated all the slaves quite well bringing them treats and rewards. Apparently the chance to punish Sidney and his friendly visits were the one somewhat bright light in their miserable lives while in captivity. When given a chance to offer a defense, the reindeer instead insisted he was very guilty and wished to be punished severely. Reynard didn't know what to make of this particular nutball, but offered to have his gang punish him severely if the reindeer swore to never use slaves again and only consenting adults. Sidney gladly agreed, and got quite a pleasant punishing beating as he was used for combat practice for a few sessions.

Once Reynard completed categorizing each captive, he then gave every one an opportunity for them to appeal the decision. He left it open to allow an act of financial contrition. If the amount was found to be substantial enough, they may qualify for a pardon. Reynard hated doing this, but the cost of the operations was many times greater than anticipated. Both the short-term and long-term costs to handle the enormous amount of slaves made it necessary to do something drastic to counter the costs. Reynard initially did not anticipate keeping the kids longer than a few weeks. He had assumed they could be quickly returned to their families and guardians or placed in good foster care or orphanages. He did not anticipate that a huge number would have guardians that actively sold them into slavery. He also did not anticipate dealing with a huge number of adult slaves that were nearly all in horrific condition and needed extensive medical care and rehabilitation. In fact they had an enormous amount of children as well who had been treated terribly and required a great deal of medical care, rehabilitation and therapy before even being returned to their guardians.

Reynard and his staff would then spend the next few days going through all the appeals and investigating any they deemed legitimate and then decide whether to change their status. He had other staff investigating guardians especially any that had sold the children into slavery to determine which children were safe to return to their former homes.

---

That evening Reynard decided to visit a certain bunny secret agent who had been treated and cleared by his medical staff and was resting in the best private room and bed possible. His room had been setup in a huge warehouse they were using to temporarily house most of the children rescued from the operations. Jack had insisted he be with all of them as his presence seemed to comfort and assure a large number of the rescued children, and he had been privately meeting with several of them throughout the day in between his medical treatment.

As he entered, the tiny bunny sat up in the bed looking tired but happy pushing two large fluffy pillows behind his back to help keep himself upright. Reynard motioned for him to remain in the bed and the fox pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down.

"Hi Jack, how are you feeling?" The fox asked the bunny with concern.

"Brilliant governor. Feeling bloody tip top sir. Just a bit knackered is all." The bunny responded with a grin using his accent he used when he was no longer on an active mission.

"That is great to hear. I was a bit upset when I heard what had happened to you." Reynard admitted.

Jack gave him a grin and a nod, "I heard a bit about that sir. Although I believe you may be underselling that a right bit. But I was chuffed to hear you cared."

The fox laughed at that, "Yes I suppose I may have frightened a good number of my staff. You must know I would never have put you into such a situation if I thought you were at risk for what happened."

"I know that Red. But I am a secret agent, and such danger comes with the job." Jack responded pensively looking intently at his boss.

"Yes Jack, danger is part of the job, but realize you are not a seasoned agent yet. You don't send someone to do such a job that is not fully prepared. Just like I would never send in a novice thief on an important heist. I wouldn't send an inexperienced safecracker in to open the latest, most advanced safe. There is a reason why I maintain the highest success rate in the entire industry. I make sure every job is planned meticulously. I make sure all risk assessed, all contingencies are accounted for, and that I have the best possible personnel with the right skills and experience for the job." Reynard explained sincerely.

The bunny looked downcast, "Sorry for the cock-up, Red sir. Was a right plonker and made a shambles out of it all and it went wonky on me. But I couldn't just sit there and listen to the boy being done like that and do nothing."

Reynard looked at his young agent sympathetically, "I understand that Jack. You did nothing wrong. You were an agent and were given complete latitude to make those kinds of decision. You were not given proper training on how to deal with that kind of situation. Unfortunately there was no time. You need to be trained on how to ignore the suffering of others, withstanding torture and questioning, and actually actively participate in some activities you would find repulsive. It takes a long while to master many of these."

The bunny looked at his boss aghast, "I… sir… I don't know what to say to that. How could you ever expect me to actively do such things to someone?"

Reynard tried to explain and correct the bunny, "I was not specifically talking about what happened to the young child. I was speaking in general terms. Sometimes you have to be able to give the appearance you are one of whatever group you are infiltrating. To do that sometimes you have to get dirty dealing out punishment, abuse, torture or even death to someone. You will have to learn how to make it appear like you are doing more than you are. There are ways of making someone believe you are causing great harm or death when you are not. But other times you may be dealing with someone who would otherwise expose you and you have to perform those actions for real. You have to think of the success of the mission and your safety above other things. It just takes time and experience."

The bunny slowly nodded looking contrite, "I guess I can see that Red. I put myself and three other agents at great risk of bloody capture or death by my actions. I just didn't think in the moment. And I got myself quite literally fucked in the arse because of it."

Reynard leaned over and gently rubbed the bunny's arm, "Again Jack, you did nothing wrong. You did exactly what I would have done in that same situation. It took me many years to learn how to control myself when bad things are happening around me. I had to learn to step outside of myself and become cold, emotionless and completely focused on something else. It is a difficult technique to master, but is how you can withstand torture, pain and suffering. It is also useful in making many hard decisions like I will have to be doing over the coming days."

"You mean with what to do with the slaves and prisoners right?" Jack wondered.

"Yes Jack. I do not make such decisions lightly. Some of the decisions are fairly easy to make, while others will seem wrong no matter what I do. Others I will have to go against my immediate reaction and think of what is best for the greater good." Reynard responded with anguish.

"How do you mean sir?" Jack questioned.

Reynard sighed and regrettably admitted, "I have had to decide in the case of several guilty parties to release them. Several of them have made offers to buy their freedom that I have decided to accept. The offers will punish them financially, but it pains me to release those guilty of such horrific crimes. But I had to think of the greater good and the future of these victims."

Jack looked at him aghast, "You… you are letting some of these… those committing these atrocities go? How could you do that sir?"

Reynard looked saddened but resolute, "It was not an easy decision Jack, but they made offers that will help hundreds and thousands of victims. I have decided to accept twelve offers. Three from the worst list and nine from the secondary. Once I rejected six of the twelve initially and those six realized their very likely fate, they came back with quite generous counter offers. I despise the idea of anyone being able to buy their freedom, but I had to put my pride and conscience aside and think about what was best for the children, their families and also the many adult slaves. The cost of this mission has ballooned to many times what I had originally anticipated and will completely strip the money I had budgeted for Reds kids this year and possibly several more to come. The cost in medical care, rehabilitation, training, housing, finding homes or taking care of many of these victims long-term will be astronomical. The system can't absorb this many so I will be stuck financing their care long-term. It is the responsibility I accepted by rescuing them. I don't regret doing this, but I have to deal with the consequences of these actions. Speaking of that, I will need a great deal of finances to deal with those same consequences in respect to the court."

The bunny was amazed his boss was being so open and frank with him. But he always appreciated how Reynard treated him like an adult and a close confidant. That is the reason he knew he would be loyal to and work for the fox as long as he wished. But he had questions he hoped the fox would answer, "Red sir. What court consequences are you speaking of? And how substantial were these offers?"

Reynard sighed and considered what to say and then finally answered, "I didn't want to burden you with this Jack, but I suppose after all you have done you deserve to know the truth. There are going to be dire consequences for going against the laws of King Nobel. Even though I was very careful to try and skirt the laws in place, he will surely take offense to my actions. Also I am sure he will be highly pressured by others to demand action be taken against me for these operations. I will have to pay a great deal in money and favors in order to buy influence to try and counter these accusations, but even that may not be enough. I will need substantial funds to finance defenses both legal and literal as I have to increase security. As far as what was offered for freedom, all told it was very substantial. The twelve offers would net me complete ownership of three large buildings in three different districts I can use for housing, training and care of many hundreds of Reds kids as well as the adult slaves. In addition assets and finances worth over sixteen and a half million bucks would be donated to the Reds kids charity. All three buildings would be in the name of the charity as well. I insisted that any payments only go to the charity."

The bunny looked stunned by the amount of money, "That is an amazing amount. You will be set for sure!"

Reynard looked regretfully at the naive optimistic bunny, "I wish that were the case, but sadly it will not be close. We were able to generate twenty-five million last year in donations to Reds kids which only covered part of the costs. There are over two thousands kids now and with the addition of all these others to absorb, those numbers could balloon to over a thousand more. In addition to those other costs I mentioned to you, the new costs will be substantially higher for these new additions based on the amount of care that will be needed. I hope you can now understand why I had to entertain those offers to try and help."

Jack nodded slowly realizing the vast sums of money required to house, care for, train, educate, provide medical care, recruit and place kids in homes for the thousands of children involved in his boss's charity. He also now began realizing that the cost of the four days of operations could be truly vast once you considering how long it would take to deal with all the victims and captives as well as the fallout from the other bosses and the court of King Nobel. No wonder he looks so tired, disturbed and distracted.

But Jack did have one other thing to discuss with his boss. He regretted adding it on top of all the other, but he owed it to his commander, "I hate to add to your list of worries Red, but I suppose Jasper told you that I went on the bloody dungeon raid with him?"

Reynard got a glint in his eye and he chuckled, "Yes he told me. He got a good chewing out over that. But he convinced me that there was substantial danger outside the complex as well. And told me it was safest having you next to him where he could try and keep you out of trouble. I will have to remember to be more specific with my orders concerning you in the future. But he did say you were extremely helpful down there with regards to calming and reassuring all the children."

Jack got a slight grin appreciating Jasper's praise, "Please don't hold it against Jasper. He was very protective of me and was amazing at his job. I know you would have been very impressed if you had seen him. But it is one of those children you mentioned that I needed to speak to you about. Did Jasper mention Missy to you?"

Reynard thoughtfully regarded the bunny, "The wild zebra girl right? I believe Mini and Razer had a few comments about her. Jack… a cute little lamb… and even a young little leopard girl are one thing… but a nearly full grown female zebra who seems quite traumatized and unpredictable is another thing altogether. You have really gone way too far this time. I don't mind your interest in pretty females, but please keep them somewhat reasonable."

Jack laughed at that, "Red, Missy is not a romantic interest to me. I haven't lost the plot. Sure she is the dog's bollocks and a striped goddess, but I only saw someone in great need and thought I could help. She is very sweet and vulnerable is all. She is a fighter and I saw a kindred spirit in her and saw her as a chap… more of a mate to hang with. But I have talked to her extensively and have been working on a report based on the information she has given me. She was sold as a totally new kind of slave we haven't even seen before. Apparently there is a whole ring of those selling child brides. She has provided me the names of her parents, the broker who arranged the sale and then sold her to the House of Horrors when she acted out as well as the names of some other child brides she met. She gave me the locations where they are operating as well. I was hoping I could be sent on a secret mission to help."

Jack handed over all the information he had written down and Reynard briefly looked it over before responding, "I had heard rumors about such things Jack, but had nothing substantial until now. This is impressive. I will have Felix and a team look into it immediately as soon as I leave. Once the broker finds out about what happened last night they may move operations and go underground. Because of this I will need a strike team to hit the location immediately to capture whatever information we can before they can move. As far as going undercover, while you are quite a lovely bunny, I am not sure posing as a child bride is in your wheelhouse." Reynard chuckled at that.

Jack then realized how silly his request may have appeared, "I… I didn't mean going undercover as a bride. I'm not that much of a plonker. I was just hoping to get inside their operation somehow."

Reynard grinned, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but let us handle this. I will let you know as soon as I find out anything. But you need a good long rest now. I know you are putting on a brave front for me, but I know how much all this has taken out of you. I promised you a nice vacation and want to send you on it immediately for a week. Do you still want to take someone with you? Do you want the zebra or…?"

Jacked grinned, "No sir… no… I still want to take the little leopard girl, Silvey. I really fancy her quite a lot and have talked to her several times in between my missions. I know you want to return her to her family and all, but I hoped to spend some time with her before that. Baabs and her brother are still catching up and I hope will be here a bit longer while you decide what to do with them. I will see Missy when I get back as I doubt she is going back to her parents. Also… well Silvey would be quite a lot better for my recuperation."

Reynard smiled at the young bunny, "Of course… I will have to let Silvey's parents know she is okay and have her talk to them. I will make up a nice excuse why we will have to delay her return probably something about needing some recuperation. I will let them know she is in the best care possible. A nice week of relaxation would do her good anyway. But you better not come back with claw marks all over you. Are you ready to go?"

Jack was confused at first and then realized what his boss was getting at, "Oh… no… no sir… I will try and keep her calm. She is really a sweet fit doll and not so wild as you think. I just need a short bit to say goodbye to Baabs, Missy, Tailor, Grover, Bucky, Sam, Bernard, Mini, Razer, Felix, Jasper and several others first. Where would we be off to?"

Reynard laughed, "You sure made a whole lot of friends in just a couple days. I would have never expected that with all the difficulty you had at The Warehouse. Thought you were a loner and you turn out to be the most popular kid in town. You take the time you need to say goodbye. I have a spa retreat I use for my business along the coast in an inlet to the far west of the city called Shangri-La. They will pamper you mercilessly and cater to your every whim. You can expect the most comfortable luxurious beds possible, private pools, massages, saunas, hot mud baths, the finest dining, copious entertainment, water skiing, jet skis, sailing, endless games and your fur will be the softest and cleanest you could ever imagine. I think your little Silvey will be quite impressed."

Jack was quite shocked, "Blimey! I didn't expect all that. I thought I would just get a chance to relax and watch a bit of the telly and have nice soft bed and a decent meal for a change."

Reynard smiled at his bunny agent, "Well when you work hard for me, you get appropriate rewards. Besides you need to rest up while Felix prepares your new training. It sounds like he plans on keeping you quite busy, so relax and enjoy yourself and your time with your little feline friend."

---

Following his meeting with his secret agent bunny, Reynard and Felix immediately sent a raiding party to capture the child bride broker and any involved. They missed the one responsible for Missy but captured four others and a mound of evidence. They found the broker hiding a few days later as well rescuing several dozen captives. Reynard had setup a special task force to strictly interrogate those captives and followup on all evidence to find any others responsible.

It took Reynard and his staff three days to finish going through and finalizing the lists. Three days of painstakingly difficult work that he did not wish to get incorrect. The message he would send the following day was one that was brutal yet had to be done. He had known before he undertook the operations that such actions would need to be taken, but he had no idea the massive scope and that is what bothered him. Aza had known something was bothering him for quite awhile and finally asked him about it.

Reynard had always been honest with her about all aspects of his life. She was the strongest person he knew, and he would never think to hide anything from her. This didn't mean he discussed every aspect or detail with her. Nor did it mean he only told her what she wanted to hear. It meant that when she wanted to know what was troubling him, he would tell her everything and hold nothing back. It took quite awhile to go through everything that was going through his mind, but it also felt wonderful to unburden himself to someone.

She sat patiently in his lap listening to him and waited for him to finish before finally embracing him telling him softly, "I knew it was something quite monumental. But I also sensed you were not ready to tell me before now. Renny, you know you don't have to have to protect me from who you are."

He regrettably released his true soulmate from his embrace and responded to her gravely, "I know that Aza love. It is just a lot to place on you. You have been so happy lately being reunited with your family, and I didn't want to spoil that for you."

"Anything that affects you also affects me love. I took that burden on the moment I agreed to marry you. I know you were still bothered by what the whole situation with Marion did to me. But you never need to coddle me. Your actions in all things were out of love, and even though they probably should have been handled better, I always understood your reasons. I am overjoyed that you reunited me with my parents and now my cousin even though I know now why you pushed for that early reunion. I am very proud of what you have done for all those you have rescued. Having been in the same position as many of them, I know how lucky they all are for having someone like you looking out for them. But what I can't accept is you putting the responsibility for punishing the guilty all on yourself. It is far too much!" Aza told her husband looking deep into his eyes providing the support he needed.

Reynard sighed slumping his shoulders and leaned back holding his lovely vixen closely in his arms staring ahead into the ether as she nuzzled against his neck, "It was solely my decision to undertake these missions. I can't ask anyone else to put that much blood on their paws. Those around me are not assassins, they are my business associates and friends. They are not executioners."

There was a long pause before Aza finally responded prudently, "You owe it to them to give them the choice. You can not put everything on yourself. They all went into this willingly, and it would seem unfair to leave them out of the decision. Your lieutenants all know they are free to object to anything you do and free to express their reasoning. They know you respect their opinions and advice. They could have objected to any of this at any time, yet all of them heartily agreed with your actions and decisions. They all share in the responsibility, and it is unfair to leave them out of the final decision. I know it is your right as ultimate boss, but you still owe it to them."

Reynard remained silent staring ahead at fireplace in their living room. He ran his paws through the soft luscious fur around his lovely bride's neck smelling the fresh scent of lavender and her amazing natural musk. He was so very lucky to have her. She was never afraid to give her opinion and most times she was correct. This time was no exception.

---

"The fuckers don't deserve such an honor or treatment!" Sheba growled angrily.

After Reynard followed his wife's advice and brought Felix, his top lieutenants Coal, Sheba and Rath as well as his three top advisers Lezart, a leopard who had been one of Xandar's lieutenants and currently served as an adviser and planner for Reynard's many illegal operations, Fillo, a large timber wolf and another of Xandar's former lieutenants who had a brilliant mind for finances and the risk assessment of various illegal activities, and Rocky, a raccoon who was a genius at planning and executing anything involving theft, subterfuge and misdirection.

Reynard had brought them all together to let them know his ideas on the punishment of those found guilty after their operations. Sheba was currently expressing her displeasure with his suggestions and was currently stomping around the room in a rage. The tigress was not subtle or tactful about her feelings, and Reynard appreciated that about her.

"They deserve to be gutted like fish or fed to alligators or something! Nothing about their actions was honorable and yet you propose to give them the honor of facing you in one-on-one combat. All 465 of them! That is outrageous! That is ludicrous!" The tigress shouted in rage. Her fury was legendary and it was operating in full force at the moment.

It seemed all his advisers agreed with the outraged tigress.

"Red, this is not like a personal affront to you like those that attacked your kids directly. You don't need to treat it as such. All these crimes happened out of the district. Why should they be treated as district offenses or directed assaults on you? And if you were truly trying to be fair, you should have offered the victims or their parents a chance at justice." Coal advised his old friend.

Reynard sighed realizing now that while Aza had been right, this whole discussion was just another headache he didn't need. But heavy is the head that wears the crown. He responded to his collected council, "Coal you already know this whole thing is a madhouse as it is without trying to find everyone who was wronged by each guilty party and allowing them justice. I just feel it is wrong to simply act as a butcher no matter their crimes."

"The numbers are far too great for what you suggest. The risk is far too great as well. I would never question your skill Red, but combine fatigue with the chance that someone might get lucky, and it is just far too risky." Fillo announced logically giving his assessment of the entire proposal.

"It would seem I have no support for this action?" Reynard wondered.

"If it was just a few I could accept it Red. But the numbers are simply massive. There has to be another solution." Lezart added.

Apparently everyone agreed with this opinion. Reynard sighed and decided to open the floor to alternatives.

---

Reynard stood in room approximately twenty meters wide by thirty meters long. Before him laid out on the floor were twelve carefully placed throwing knives. They were 20cm long (8in) weighing 156g each with 2CR13 High Carbon Steel on the sides and tips. On the other side of the room twelve identical knives were laid in identical positions mirroring his own. Behind him a wall of thick clear plastic had been setup to protect those viewing the combat. Among those witnesses were his council and several other important members including Jasper and two other key mercenary leaders. They all sat quietly and somber waiting patiently.

Reynard felt the slight roll of the boat he was currently on and adjusted his stance and movement accordingly as he had never attempted such an action while on water. The boat was docked south of his district in the Marshlands to the west of Muddy Swamp on the west coastline. He felt nervous merely because it had been awhile since he had faced a live target and it was natural he be hesitant. He had continued to spar several times weekly over the past few years even with his busy schedule. It was excellent for keeping in proper conditioning and also kept his senses sharp and keen. However he had sparred frequently over the past several days making sure he was in peak condition.

It had been a long time since he had called his mistress, and he secretly wondered if she had abandoned him or been disappointed by the lack of attentiveness to her needs over the past few years. He had been so focused on Aza and his family, his business ventures, Reds kids and his crusade to protect the rights of children at the Underground Court that he had neglected her. He prayed to her now thanking her for all she had done for him and the chance she had offered a small abandoned kit. He promised her if she would give him her strength and guidance once more, he would dedicate all the offerings today to her and give her such oblations as she had never imagined.

Beside him was a pedestal with a bowl of water at the top. As he performed an ablution dipping his paws in the bowl of water and drying them off with a towel, he prayed to his goddess Azrael and asked her to join with her acolyte and share in the moment. He performed some stretches and calisthenics performing a series of flips to the right and left, forward and back. He then made some practice runs diving for the knives and making practice throws. He worked himself up until he could get off all twelve knives to their target in a matter of a couple seconds. Once he was satisfied he was ready, he nodded to one of his gang members waiting at the door across the room who nodded to him in answer and disappeared.

This was the compromise he had made to his council. He would perform one-on-one combat against only the bosses, sub-bosses and most influential members of those condemned to certain death. Of the 465 so convicted, two were councilmammals on the Zootopian city council, and another three were prominent citizens of the city. He and each of his lieutenants were given twenty slots to face those they selected using whatever weapons they wished.

Reynard had chosen throwing knives simply because he loved the fluidity of the movement and beauty of the action. However unlike the tigress Sheba, he did not long for the blood and death. It was just a necessary task that needed to be performed. He would get plenty of that once the selected eighty were done anyway. Also it was a concession to both Coal and Aza as throwing knives took a great deal of skill and the chance of one of his opponents getting lucky and injuring the fox was minimal compared to the other techniques chosen by his lieutenants. Aza said that if he insisted on putting himself into danger that he make this weapon choice. Coal had chosen dual identical blades, Rath staves and maces, and finally Sheba had chosen teeth and claws, hers of course. The tigress was quite anticipating paw to paw combat and had promised that she had chosen some worthy challenges from the remaining group. After Reynard had chosen his group, the remaining captives were asked what types of fighting they preferred, and the remaining lieutenants chose from this skill list to try and find worthy opponents.

To truly test the presence of his mistress, the first opponent Reynard selected was a worthy challenge and a truly evil adversary if ever there was one as it was none other than Alzrius the Jackal, the boss of the House of Horrors. Coal had begged him to choose an easier warm-up opponent than the sinister clever jackal who was an expert in numerous weapons including knives. But Reynard had countered that he needed to make sure he had his mistress' attention and no one would be more worthy an offering to her than the mammal at the head of the most heinous vile abuses in the history of Zootopia. Reynard reasoned if Alzrius didn't bring his goddess Azrael back to him, then nothing would and he was doomed anyway. Coal never understood the fox's mistress or how she worked, but only knew that she was the source of his power and had seen her in action many times before. When his boss and friend became one with the goddess, he was a true ultimate force of nature and something everyone should fear terribly, friend or foe.

The jackal wandered out confidently and glanced down at the knives in front of him. He looked across at Reynard and got a vile defiant grin declaring, "I don't suppose I can buy my way out of this like some of your other guests."

It was so like this trickster to try and take his mind off the task at hand, but he was keeping a close eye on the jackal. It took a trickster to counter a trickster. Reynard calmly responded, "Oh I am not saying there is no price for your crimes, but let's just say you don't have nearly enough. In fact no one in Zootopia is rich enough to pay your tab."

The jackal grinned a wicked smug grin, "Well it is good to know I am valuable. What I don't understand is what your part in all this is. What the fuck do you care what happens to all those souls? For my part I merely provided a nice place for my clients to enjoy a little fun to blow off some steam."

Reynard could tell the jackal was merely baiting him, but it was a good enough excuse to at least try to list off the crimes of this self-satisfied demon. Besides, his mistresses needed a wake-up call as she still was absent and Reynard was getting a bit worried. The fox responded calmly, "Alzrius, I can not sit back in good conscience while horrific crimes against children and other innocents are allowed to happen and even encouraged. Every child that is suffering, is alone and afraid, is hurting feeling hopeless and in despair, they are all mine, and I can't stand by and abide by rules that allow this to occur."

"You should have killed Bruun. He will see you hanged for sure… him and Isengrim. The King is their puppet and they will pull the strings and make you suffer for sure. I rest easy in knowing that you have sealed your fate with your actions. All this trouble for more worthless mouths to feed and take care of. At least I found a worthy use for them." Alzrius cackled, an evil malicious laugh that reverberated around the room.

Well it is time to get this over. For his list of crimes the jackal did deserve a formal declaration of charges. Reynard looked at him formally, "Alzrius the Jackal, you are charged with a list of crimes so long that I could be here for an entire day listing them individually. But the primary crimes are running a huge organization engaged in the business of victimizing children and adults. Profiting off selling slaves by the many hundreds and using these slaves for the worst atrocities imaginable including pedophilia, rape, gang rape, forced sex acts, cannibalism, torture of the worst kinds imaginable, skinning of victims, mutilation and desecration of victim bodies, and hundreds more, any of which sentence to you to death. How do you plead?"

Finally… there was a spark Reynard had not felt in a long while. A whisper speaking to him of retribution, a feeling in his body of enmity and fury. The voice spoke to him… it has been awhile my child… but you have brought me someone truly worthy. Yes mistress, I apologize for neglecting you, but I believe you will be pleased with my offerings this day. Darkness began to fill the veins of the fox… it had been a long time since he felt that coldness… but it was like an old friend… like a welcome lover from the past… he felt unimaginable power and strength. He felt rage. He sensed he was transforming once again… becoming something not of this world. The room seemed to darken and the walls began to blacken. The figure standing before him seemed to glow with an eerie light and a fog of death filled the room seeping off from the ether.

Alzrius seemed to sense the change in the fox, and a hint of nervousness broke from his smug countenance, "I… I plead… why the charade? Why all the song and dance with the charges and all? You know I am guilty, so does everyone in this room. I can plead my innocence if it fucks up your plans. Do you want me to grovel at your feet? I merely say to you that I claim you have no right to judge me. You are not my district boss. You are not the King. I reject your authority as well as this puppet court."

Reynard's eyes began to glow with fury as blackness completely filled him and he had become something else. He had become her earthly vessel sent to this world as her instrument of justice. The fox growled low and spoke deep in a voice none recognized now, "I claim the right of justice by the one true court. I claim the right to send you to her to face your ultimate lasting punishment for eternity. She has special plans for your soul."

The jackal stared at the fox bewildered and finally answered with a laugh, "You're nuttier than a fruitcake I see. I could use some right now by the way. I know many don't like them, but I find them delicious, especially dipped in the blood of a young child. You should try it sometime. It would improve your mood. Oh, you could also try a favorite of mine… fucking a corpse. Warm or cold… each have their benefits. It's a great way to cleanse the soul."

The jackal thought to distract Reynard, but he didn't realize that once his mistress was with him, nothing could break his concentration. He only prepared himself for an extremely difficult challenge as the jackal was small, nimble, experienced and wily.

Alzrius seemed disappointed his words seemed to have no effect, but quickly decided to push to much more of a personal attack, "Ah… I see you find such practices mundane. Well I am sure we could find something of a much more fun and personal nature. How about those little kits of yours? I would love to get my paws on them. But I suspect this is all about your frustration of not being able to put your own paws on them. Fucking that whore of yours is doing nothing for you. What's her name… Assa… but I suspect it is not her ass that turns you on. It is the tiny asses of those kits of yours that calls to you frustrating you so. Well that is what I offered to those like you. A welcome place to offer some fox kit you could dress up and pretend is yours. I have been doing such great services for so many families, helping those like you who want to fuck their own children. Think of all the families I have helped giving the parents an outlet. I can do the same for you."

There was a great deal of commotion from behind him. The growls of Sheba could be heard and many other shouts of shock and anger by those here to witness this ritual. If Reynard had been his normal self, such tactics may have worked, for such insults were the worst imaginable. But the fox was something else entirely. He merely looked at the jackal coldly and dispassionately and said one word, "Begin."

The jackal seemed to be quite stunned at the response, or more accurately the lack of one. For just an instant fear and uncertainty passed across his visage, but only just briefly. Alzrius had never seen anyone accept such insults with such dispassion. The jackal had heard the legendary stories of the fox's fighting skills, but he believed them to be merely that, just stories. Gang leaders used them all the time to instill fear and obedience in their followers. Just the mere story or legend would do all the work for the leader. Rarely were they ever actually called to back those threats. He didn't doubt the fox was competent, but the legends said the fox was otherworldly, that he was a creature from the underworld sent to walk the earth. What a bunch of fucking rubbish. Well maybe he is immune to insults, but it seems his overconfidence will be his undoing. It seems the moron will let me have the first move.

Alzrius would never have allowed a fair fight, or given an opponent an advantage. It seems the stupid fox believes his own hype. Well it was time to spread some darker red coloring around that furry coat of his. The jackal carefully maneuvered around the room placing the images and positions of each knife in his head. He watched the fox staring intently at him. The eyes of the fox looked almost like a demon, but Alzrius figured this was just his imagination. He had a plan, a brilliant one to throw the fox off. He would do something the fox would never expect. The stupid fox was all about rules and rituals for these things. Alzrius cared nothing about rules. He had been breaking every rule and doing the unexpected his whole life, and it had served him quite well.

His plan was ingenious. The fox would expect him to grab the knife in the back and throw it and dive to the side and then roll and grab another and throw. But instead of doing the predictable, he would casually move toward the fox and grab the knives closest to his front and throw and roll forward and grab the stupid fox's knives and force him back. He would then control all the knives, both his own and the fox's. He would then be able to use the fox for target practice whenever the fox tried to grab for any of the knives on the floor. He would keep the fox on the defensive until he got several hits and it would be done. It was a brilliant strategy and would be completely unexpected. As he maneuvered forward, the fox would have to position himself in the back. Red would get only one throw as only the knife in the back corner would be in his range. Well the stupid fox's buddies wanted a show. It is time I gave them one. It will be so wonderful to see all their faces as their so called legendary leader is shredded before their eyes.

The jackal stretched and loosened his joints and did some rolls and a couple of backflips in sequence. Let the fox think on that. He didn't need to worry about the fox grabbing a knife and attacking as the stupid fox's sense of honor and the useless respect of his gang members would prevent that. The fox's biggest mistake was starting with him instead of selecting some easier fodder to warmup. The fox was out of practice with killing. You can spar all you want, but actually killing someone was completely different. And Alzrius had quite a lot more practice than anyone at this art. He frequented used slaves for target practice. He would make a game of it as they ran around in terror and would see just how close he could come to hitting them without killing them. It was a great deal of fun watching them scream and flee. He couldn't help it if they slipped or did something unpredictable and got sliced open. He had also killed so many in ritualized torture. And the live skinning was some of the best practice for developing a practiced paw at the art of avoiding any reactions to killing and death. In other words, he was a truly practiced killer.

He then decided it was time to get this over and maneuvered himself into position. He flexed the digits in his paws and casually stepped to the right side of the room watching as the fox did what he expected and backed into the corner position. He then yawned and dove forward somersaulting toward his front most knife grasping the comforting handle in his paws and threw it with no hesitation at the knife nearest the fox waiting for the surprised yelp. But he didn't bother to wait for the reaction as that would get you killed in this kind of fight. You never watched your throws or waited for the reactions. That was the way to certain death. It sometimes took years to break that habit as it was just mammal nature to watch something after you threw it. The instant after he threw the first knife, he spun forward onto Red's side grabbing one of his knives and looking for his target. Well the one problem with the strategy of somersaulting and spinning was that it would cause you to take your eyes off the target. As Alzrius came up in the throwing motion, he realized his throw had missed as the knife was stuck to wall above the untouched knife on the floor. He had no target! He desperately spun looking for the fox, but instead felt impossible agonizing pain…

---

As the jackal before him spouted insults, he was more focusing on controlling the screams of his mistress as she called desperately for blood. She heard the words of the jackal and demanded vengeance. Such things could not go unpunished. Reynard fought to calm himself and block the hot blood in his head and his body felt like it was on fire now and every muscle and nerve was twitching screaming to move and react.

After the jackal finally finished his diatribe, he spoke the words of his mistress, "Begin."

The creature made a show of warming up and pretending to casually wander around the room. But Reynard had his eyes one place, and that was on the eyes of the jackal and nothing else. He was watching where the creature was looking, not what he was doing. He saw him memorize the positions of the knives on his own side of the room and then briefly focus on his front most knife and quickly glance away. The jackal then casually studied the knives on Reynard's side of the room and then pretended to yawn.

From his eyes, Reynard had quite a good idea what the jackal was going to attempt and what he expected Reynard would do. It was a very unconventional strategy, but he would expect nothing less from the jackal. He may despise him, but he certainly respected him as an opponent and as a skilled killer. As the jackal moved forward to his left, he moved back into the corner that was expected. The jackal yawned and dove forward making his move. The instant he started his somersault motion and took his eyes off of him, Reynard made his move instead running forward jumping high and kicking off the wall driving himself forward onto the jackal's side of the room. He saw the jackal come up throwing where he expected Reynard to be, but as the fox landed on the other side feeling the handle of one of the knives in his paw never keeping his eyes off the jackal, he let it fly forward in the direction the jackal was moving which was toward Reynard's former position.

He let the momentum of his jump slide him forward and picked up a second knife and let it fly at full force directly into the body of the jackal, and instantly pushed forward jumping high off the wall and pushing off toward the center of the room landing and grabbing his forward knife ready to throw, but the jackal was laying motionless in a puddle of blood, his mouth hanging open, and tongue sticking out. His glassy eyes stared into nothingness seemingly unaware of the knife protruding from his throat and the other in his chest. The jackal still had a knife still clutched in his paw.

His mistress screamed in his head praising him for his offerings, but slightly upset that it had ended so quickly. He casually walked over to the jackal and jammed his knife into its chest ripping upward splitting it open. He reached both paws inside and grasped the bloody contents filling both paws with guts and organs and raising it high offering his oblation to the goddess hoping it was worthy of her. He could feel her smile and kiss him on the head welcoming him back to her fold.

---

Reynard had gone through three more bosses. Each fight had ended quite quickly. He supposed as a spectacle it was not very interesting as he imagined the fights happened too fast to see much of anything, but his mistress seemed quite pleased, and the gathered guests did not seem disappointed or bored. Keeping the concentration and focus to go through so many was the hardest part. Well he knew the next one was not going to be quick and would be a lot more interesting than any others.

A hulking huge form entered the room with his back to the door as they held swords to keep it back. It finally let them remove the pawcuffs and shackles from around its feet and then quickly close the door. For what stood before Reynard was an enormous beast, one of the biggest polar bears he had ever seen, wearing an eye patch. This was Jax, the boss of the Tundratown operation.

While the other fights may have been lightning fast, this one would most likely be more of an endurance match. More than likely the bear would not bother with knives as they would be tiny and awkward in his enormous paws. This would be more of a matter of trying to keep away from those enormous paws which would easily kill him with one swipe.

The bear seemed to realize what lay before him and chuckled, "Fox, you have really chosen the wrong means of execution. You should have chosen swords, or something you might have a chance of doing damage with. You think any of these will bother me?"

Reynard considered the bear and admitted that it would be difficult fighting him with simple throwing knives rather than long blades, or the specially made diamond claws he loved. The throwing knives were meant for penetrating not cutting, and had short length blades. But he appreciated the challenge and hoped his mistress would as well.

The fox shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly answered the bear, "I have twenty of these one-on-ones. The weapons are not going to be perfect for every scenario."

The bear considered that and laughed, "Why not just choose a simpler opponent and leave me to one of your others there." He motioned to Sheba, Coal and the others gathered.

"I am sure they would have loved to have entertained your request. But it was only out of proper respect that the bosses face me and not an underling." Reynard explained.

The huge bear nodded, "I can respect that. You seem to be a leader of honor and that is a rare thing. I will regret having to kill you. I believe we could have been friends."

Reynard considered this. Of the bosses he would face, this one was probably the least cruel or really evil. He seemed to be more of a businessmammal seeing an opportunity to take advantage of cheap labor. He treated the slaves well, and his punishments were only meant to enforce his rules and not torment or harm. Of all those he would face, he regretted having to face this one the most. Not because of the difficulty of the fight, but because he indeed might have been friends in a different situation.

Reynard nodded to the bear, "I have to agree. We are both businessmammals. I was hoping you could have given me a proper offer to buy your freedom."

The bear smiled surprised, "Oh, this is a shakedown tactic. I can respect that. It is an interesting negotiation technique, I'll give you that. I know several bought their freedom, but the price was quite high."

"I have many mouths to feed and take care of as you can imagine since you provided a huge number of them. Unfortunately the price is much higher at this point, late fees and all you understand. But I do not wish to fight or kill you. Do you wish to make me an offer?" Reynard wondered hopefully.

The bear considered this awhile and then answered, "Regrettably my finances are tied up in some ventures with others so I am unable to offer them. I don't suppose you could take a post-dated check and my promise to pay up sometime in the future."

Reynard smiled. He liked the bear, and that was unfortunate. It was a whole lot easier to kill those truly evil and degenerate. He had to kill a couple he didn't hate in the past, but never someone he actually liked and respected. He had to just put that out of his mind and remember what he was doing and why he was doing it.

He shook his head and formerly announced, "Jax the Polar Bear, you have been charged with the enslavement of 492 children. How do you plead?"

The bear nodded and answered, "I plead guilty to the enslavement, but merely saw it as a business arrangement with the parents or guardians for the most part. Sure there were some that were acquired against the will of their parents, but the vast majority was with the consent of their parents or guardians. They were well compensated."

Reynard nodded, "Regardless of the parents complicity in the enslavement, the children were held against their will and used as slave labor for your benefit. Such an action is considered intolerable, reprehensible and punishable by death."

Jax smiled countering, "Are you not also complicit in holding those same children against their will? I know you have many children who wished to join the gangs, work as prostitutes, or return to those same parents who sold them. Also many of them enjoyed the nice structured life I offered them. Aren't you hypocritical with your own actions? Are you not also restricting the freedom of many of these children?"

Reynard realized the bear did have an argument although it was flawed. He responded to the accusation, "In many cases those children are suffering from psychological conditions which caused them to side with their captors. In others they had to develop coping mechanisms as a way to deal with their environment. For children wishing to be returned to parents who sold them, they will be returned when possible on a case by case basis. But it would be irresponsible to return any children to any guardian who would sell them again or abuse them in any way. I am looking out for what is best for each child. I want to give every one of them a chance at the best future possible. While some have to be restricted for their own good, none of them are enslaved. And not single child is used for profit or any kind of gratification."

"You just simply make yourself responsible for them. You have not been elected or hired, but simply say you know what is best for the children, and whatever you do is perfect. Well I say that is irresponsible. At least I provided them structure, and fed and clothed them." The bear smugly responded.

"You gave them no chance at any future. You used them for your benefit. While you did not openly abuse them, you have harmed them all. You tore them from their homes and the chance to experience a proper childhood. You can seek to question my methods, but my conscience is clean. Each of their lives is important to me and I love them all. They all deserve love, a family, education and a chance at a future. You robbed all that from them and you must pay the price for your actions." Reynard stated beginning to become frustrated and annoyed. His mistress felt the pain in her acolytes heart as he thought of the loss and anguish of all those children condemned to a life of servitude and hopelessness. She caressed his heart and filled him with love and strength to do what must be done.

He simply stared at the huge bear and stated, "Begin."

The bear didn't bother with any kind of warm-up or stretching. He simply growled and came charging at the fox. The move was fairly predictable, but Reynard's was not. He ran straight at the bear grabbing up several knives off the floor. His action shocked the bear who was not expecting his tiny quarry to come straight at him and hesitated for a moment. Reynard used the hesitation to fire two of the knives directly at the head of the bear and spin off to the right grabbing up several more knives. The fox didn't bother to see if the blades hit but instead fired several more at the neck of the beast from his side.

The huge bear bellowed in pain as the blades struck their mark and turned and charged at the fox. Reynard simply moved around picking up knives and firing at the head and neck of the beast. The bear would try and block them with his enormous paws, but was far too late in his reactions. Reynard would dodge and throw, dodge and throw constantly moving and confusing the bear. However soon there were only a couple knives left on the floor as nineteen were protruding from the head, neck and body of the beast coating his upper fur red.

The pain seemed to give the bear strength and power as he moved to try to corner the fox who had to leap off the wall and roll under the bear several times to escape. Soon all but one of the knives were used and the fox couldn't find the missing one. He simply used the time to move around the room in an attempt to wear the huge bear out. But the bear had a great deal more stamina than expected. Perhaps Jax had his own special internal source of power. All it took was one mistake and the fox could be dead. But the dozens of injuries would eventually take their toll. He would just have to try and hold on long enough. Reynard noticed the remaining blade pressed hidden against the edge of the wall. It must have gotten scattered during one of the bear's rampages. The fox deftly grabbed the blade and held it like a fighting blade.

Jax snarled through the pain and grinned laughing, "What the fuck are you going to do with that little pinprick?"

Reynard decided to show him, running forward spinning to the left climbing up the wall and pushing off somersaulting forward coming up behind the bear and stabbing him in the groin and thigh in four quick jabs and then rolling forward spinning to the side. The huge bear bellowed in agony and moved forward limping. Reynard repeated the action several times maneuvering behind the bear stabbing repeatedly into the legs and groin of the huge beast with the small light blade ripping and tearing. Sticky sweet blood covered the entire lower body of the bear, the floor and the fox. The bear was moving slower and tiring, but Reynard was beginning to tire as well. Keeping this kind of intense focus for so long was difficult even with his mistress' help. But she was with him encouraging him. She screamed for the giant bear's blood and death. But even she realized that she would have to be patient when dealing with something this large and him having only shallow blades with which to work.

Reynard could have ended this quickly with with his diamond claws, but the small light throwing blades were mere pinpricks as the bear had said. But they were adding up though as the dozens and dozens of injuries kept the bear in constant agony. Reynard wished he could end it as the one opponent he did not wish to suffer was instead being tortured. But he could not afford to go for a death blow yet as it was far too unpredictable and dangerous. So he had to instead try and rest letting all the cuts and damage do their work. He just carefully moved around watching the desperate bear. He knew the bear was trying to save his energy for a frenzied charge trying to catch the fox off-guard. Reynard instead focused on the bear looking for any motion to let him know it was coming.

Finally there was a twitch of the shoulder, and then the bear dove forward moving to the left to cut off Reynard's avenue of escape. So instead Reynard ran forward under the legs of the bear jabbing upward repeatedly as he passed under him. Jax turned expecting to see Reynard jump away behind him like he had all the times before, but Reynard instead climbed the back of the bear using his white fur as pawholds until he was around the shoulders of the beast and thrust the knife deep into the side of it's neck. Then he began grabbing other blades protruding from around the neck of the beast grabbing the hilt removing them and stabbing them over and over into the neck of the great beast. The bear thrashed and screamed trying to grab the small form on his back, but Reynard just continued to pull out blades. Some he tossed all over the floor, but others he would just remove and stab over and over as hard and fast as he could. Finally the bear realized his only chance and rushed toward the wall slamming his back into it in an attempt to crush the fox.

But Reynard was ready for the move and jumped off rolling forward and picking up several of the blades now on the floor firing them in rapid succession at the head of the bear embedding them in its jaw, head and eye. Unfortunately the fox had hit the bear's bad eye and not the good one. But the damage was brutal nonetheless. The bear tried to move forward, but slipped on the huge puddle of blood underneath it and fell forward with a crash. Reynard wasted no time leaping high into the air and driving the blades he held in each paw into the top of the skull of the beast. Fortunately the blades were designed to puncture and penetrate. As he drove both blades deep inside, he realized it had been impossible prior to this to target this spot on the skull due to his low position on the floor. The bear tried to rise up, but seemed to not have the energy or capacity and Reynard removed both blades from the skull driving them in several additional times and then pulled them free and moved around the front stabbing several times into the neck of the huge beast just to make sure the deed was finally done.

His mistress screamed in joy expressing her adulation bathing in the blood. But the exhausted fox instead closed the lifeless eyes of the great bear with his right paw and whispered in his ear, "Good fight... my worthy adversary."

---

Fortunately it took quite awhile to clean up and dry the room after the fight with the polar bear so Reynard got a long rest heading to a state room to take a shower to clean all the blood off him and lie down in bed for awhile. He felt sorry for those trying to clean up all the blood. He spent his time meditating speaking to his mistress asking her to help give him the strength and focus to finish this. Coal came back after about twenty minutes to let him know they were ready. He dressed in some black stretch pants and a breathable shirt with a vest with several normal pockets perfect for stashing spare knives if he picked up several at once. He refused to wear a brace with sleeves for the knives, armor, or anything that any of the ordinary convicted mammals might not possess. He might be a thief, but he was an honorable one when it came to ritual one-on-one combat.

He had a few fights with some sniveling owners of several of the clubs. They were hardly worth his time and he barely wished to speak to them. None had any skill with knives and dropped dead nearly instantly. In fact of the remaining bosses or sub-bosses only two had any interest to him at all. The first was the boar with the broken tusk whose name was Zeek and was responsible for Jack's attack by the pedophile rabbit as well as a great deal of physical abuse to the tiny young agent. This Zeek was not nearly of high enough rank to qualify to face Reynard, but he added him simply as an honor to his young agent.

As he stepped into the room, Reynard looked at the camera that was filming all the combat through the clear Plexiglas and spoke saying, "This is for you Gray Wonder." They would be using the films to help with instruction and technique improvement for those who specialized in combat instruction for the gang.

The boar snarled looking at the knives on the floor and the fox across from him. He sneered and then laughed, "How did I qualify to face you?"

His mistress wanted this ones death badly. But he would have to temper her anger as this one he did want to suffer. He glared at the boar informing him, "You harmed a bunny friend of mine. You really shouldn't have done that."

The boar look confused trying to think what bunny he could be talking about. He stared at Reynard a good while and then got a strange look and asked, "You mean the tiny little striped fucker? He was yours?"

Reynard nodded glaring at the boar, and Zeek opened his snout and cackled like a maniac, "Hahahaha! That little fucking loudmouth. Well I bet he got fucked good by Finnius before the old guy got done in. I wondered how the little shit was able to pull that off. You are a lot sicker than I thought sending in baby bunnies to get fucked. Nice."

"Well I suppose he will get the last laugh. Enjoy your moment of gloating while you can. I really don't want to bother talking to you more. Zeek the Boar, you are charged with hundreds of abuses and torment of child and adult slaves, actively supporting sex crimes on children, torture and brutality on innocents, and a long list of other charges. How do you plead?" Reynard stated dispassionately to the boar.

Zeek snarled a bit and spit at Reynard, "Fuck you!"

Reynard simply responded, "Begin."

He really didn't have the patience to wait on this piece of garbage. So he faked a move toward a knife on the floor. The move threw the boar off and he quickly dove for a knife. Reynard instead dove to the left and grabbed two knives sending both at the boar who was still scrambling to grasp the handle of the blade. The fox then dove forward grabbing two blades from the boar's side of the room and ran forward slamming one of the blades into the outstretched hooves of the boar pinning it into the floor. He instantly slammed the other blade into other arm of the boar. He snatched the blade out of the hoof of the pinned arm and snatched up another three blades scattered around the boar. His first two blades had hit the boar in each leg.

Reynard then casually wandered around picking up every blade including the two initial blades from the boar's legs until he had twenty-two and watched the boar screaming in agony on the floor. His mistress screamed for death, but Reynard decided to let the boar suffer for awhile as he relaxed in the back of the room. Normally the fox would never think to make anyone suffer during such a contest, but this particular opponent had angered him personally after his abuse and mistreatment of his young secret agent and friend.

The wretched boar shit himself on the floor and screamed piteously. The boar could arm himself with a blade if he managed to pull either his arm or hoof free of the floor. Reynard was hoping he would try this so he could end his suffering. It would be extremely painful and require a great strength of will, something the boar seemed to be lacking. After a few minutes of waiting, the fox finally got bored and decided to motivate the boar throwing a knife into Zeek's side. The boar simply screamed and begged for mercy.

"Pull yourself free!" Reynard shouted.

He waited and the boar attempted to lift his hoof finally. He screamed in agony, but finally managed to lift the hoof slicing it apart. Reynard waited for the boar to pull the other blade from his arm with the now free hoof, but he merely lay on the ground squealing. So Reynard decided to motivate him again throwing another blade into the side of the boar, and then another. The boar screamed over and over.

"Pull the other blade free!" Reynard demanded.

The boar seemed to finally realize what the fox was asking and grabbed the blade in his severed hoof and pulled it free shrieking in anguish. The instant the blade was in the boar's hoof, Reynard sent three blades flying. One landed in the neck, the next the center of the chest and the next the forehead. All three were perfectly lined top to bottom. He had made the throws from the other side of the room. The audience was quite amazed at the accuracy, but Reynard was more relieved not to hear the squeals of the boar anymore. His mistress was quite thrilled, but he was sickened to the stomach. The boar had deserved some extra torment, but Reynard truly wished no one unnecessary suffering. He decided to make sure to end all the others as quickly as possible.

He left through the back door to go clean off, but mainly he wanted to get away from the smell of feces in the air. The boar must have one nasty diet.

They called him back once the room was clear and he met the final boss. It was another one that had abused and mistreated his young agent. This was the Fredo, a large transcaspian urial and head of the slave pen Jack had been stationed at on his first mission. As the huge powerful ram entered the room glaring at him, Reynard turned to the camera and nodded, "This one is for you Death Wish."

The urial glared at Reynard and snarled, "Knives… how about we do this without the knives. Just you and me."

Reynard smiled at him appreciating the attempt, "I will be happy to trade you to Sheba here for that. She would like those nice horns as a trophy to decorate her office. If you want hoof to paw you get her. If you want me, you get knives. I would have preferred something different fighting Jax other than knives, but I chose them for all fights so I am not changing for you. You want the tigress?"

Sheba stood and got the biggest grin on her face showing all her teeth. She stared at the beautiful decorated horns on the rams head drooling, thinking of how nice they would look on her wall. Seeing the huge tigress and the look on her face, the ram thought better of that decision and decided to stick with the fox.

"Good choice."Reynard declared, "I promise to get this over quickly. It has been a long day and I am now quite thankful everyone talked me out of doing all these personally. Fredo the Urial, you stand accused of hundreds of counts of enslavement and selling of children as well as encouraging abuse, torture and mistreatment of children. For all these accounts you are sentenced to death. How do you plead?"

"Like this is an authorized court. The only court I recognize is Isengrim's and King Nobel's, so fuck you." The urial answered.

Reynard looked at him as if bored. His mistress demanded blood for such an insult, "Very well… you are declared guilty. I declare your death in honor of a friend of mine, Death Wish. Begin."

The ram looked at Reynard surprised for a moment and then realized who he was referring to and stuttered, "The little shit bunny? All this is because of that little shit bunny?"

Reynard nodded and waited patiently.

The urial then laughed, "A fox and a little smart ass bunny. The team of the century. Next you're gonna tell me you are recruiting fairies and unicorns as part of your crew."

"The bunny brought your ass down. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss him." Reynard declared.

Fredo decided Reynard had a point and then decided to focus on the knives before him instead. It was clear the ram was not very familiar with them and quite uncomfortable with the situation. Reynard had seen this dance before and realized he would have to get it going or he would be here all day and quickly dove across the floor into the middle of three of them. The ram made a mad dash and landed on the ground. The instant his hoof touched a blade, Reynard scooped two up and let them fly, grabbed a third and rolled to the right ready to throw, but it was unnecessary as both the fox's blades had hit their marks embedding deep within each eye socket of the ram. The ram had fallen forward now lying still on the ground. Reynard slowly moved forward and slit the neck of the urial and offered the bloody blade with both paws to his mistress praising her glory.

Reynard was happy to finally be done with all the bosses. Fighting incompetent helpless victims held no joy or appeal for him. He wished to get all this over as quickly as he could. He merely owed it to theses bosses, no matter how heinous and vile their actions, to face him for their final judgment. But now he was through all of them and had special plans for the remaining five.

Instead of removing the last victim and cleaning the room, he had them go ahead and bring in the next on the list. He was the most prominent of all of them, a sheep who was none other than councilmammal Gerrard Woolly, one of the top leaders in Zootopia's government.

There was a reason that the last victim was the urial, and Reynard had them wait to remove the bloody corpse of the ram until the sheep was in the room. Once he was present, he had his assistants drag the body past the sheep and out the door and began cleaning up the blood while another carefully placed the used throwing knives back into their positions on the floor cleaning the blood off with a cloth.

The ram reacted as one would expect looking thoroughly horrified staring across the room at Reynard who was chatting with his council. Once everything was prepared and the assistants left closing the door, the fox wandered casually into position in front of the knives and spoke to the terrified ram.

"Councilmammal Gerrard Wooly, you have been charged with being a prominent member and leader of one of the most vile and horrific organizations in Zootopia's history. You actively participated in rituals of torture, murder, pedophilia, skinning of victims, wearing the skins of victims, cannibalism, necrophilia, rape, slavery and similar abuses of hundreds of innocent children and adults. For all these crimes you are guilty of death many times over. How do you plead?" Reynard spoke grimly glaring intently at Gerrard.

The terrified ram began wringing his hooves and stammered, "I… you… I want a lawyer."

Reynard responded annoyed, "This is not a government court. You need to defend yourself and not depend on a high-priced lawyer to help you figure out a way to avoid justice. Do you offer no defense for your actions?"

Gerrard realized his position was not good but still stammered, "What… what evidence do you have?"

Reynard smiled at him, "All the evidence was presented to you earlier. You were even given an opportunity for appeal. Besides the fact that you were caught participating in one of these rituals, there was mounds of evidence of your membership, correspondence and payments to this group all recovered and presented to you. There were also many dozens of statements from witnesses who were both fellow clients and slaves describing in detail your involvement in all these nefarious heinous activities. Regardless, as a prominent member of Zootopia, I have given you the honor to face me in open one-on-one combat."

The ram looked down at the knives and across at the lean powerful fox stretching and doing a few spins and backflips to warmup.

The councilmammal looked somehow even more terrified than he had been, his eyes opening wide and he managed to stammer, "But… but… how is this a fair fight?"

Reynard glared at him angrily, "How was what anything you did fair to the hundreds of chained, beaten, starved and abused slaves? How was repeatedly raping little girls and torturing hundreds of innocents FAIR."

In a fraction of a second Reynard dove forward picking up three knives and sending all three flying toward the ram followed by a near simultaneous thunk as they hit.

The ram hadn't even seen what happened until he looked to his right and left frozen in place his back against the wall as blades were wedged in his wool to the left and right of his head. One blade rested just below his chin. Warm fluid trickled down his legs and puddled on the floor. The ram thought it was blood until he looked down and realized he had thoroughly drenched himself in piss. He shivered uncontrollably in terror afraid to move.

Reynard glared at him with disdain, "You are only here as an honor because of your prominence in Zootopia, nothing more. Believe me, yours will be the quickest and cleanest of the deaths here today. You should thank me, as my council had recommended that I hand you over to all your victims and let them each offer you a special thank you."

The ram shook and then sighed. He then seemed to think of something and shouted, "I… I have a proposal for you… an offer… very generous."

Reynard scowled at the ram, "The time for offers is over. Why did you not do this earlier when it was offered to you?"

The ram stammered, "I… I… I didn't think you were serious."

Reynard growled, dove forward, and sent two blades flying, one landing below the other side of the ram's chin and the other pinning the wool on the top of his head to the wall.

The fox snarled, "What possibly made you think I wasn't serious!"

The ram gulped feeling the two blades and the words of the furious fox and responded weakly, "I didn't think you would do anything to me… because… because of my position."

The fox seemed to calm a bit and he declared, "Well you now see your position doesn't mean shit. It does buy you a date with my knife, but that is about it. I will entertain an offer, but it would have to be quite substantial to stop things at this point. There is a massive late penalty."

The ram looked up hopeful for the first time offering, "Three million?" Then after seeing the expression on the fox he added, "Four?" This didn't seem to get the response he was looking for and tried, "Five?" The ram saw the fox was looking a bit warmer and finally sighed despondently and added "Six then. That is nearly everything I have."

The fox nodded displaying his agreement, "Agreed. You will transfer all assets into the name of Reds kids charity in order to began to make amends to those you have wronged. You will also videotape and sign a full confession of your crimes and agree to never harm another child or innocent again or no amount of money will buy your freedom."

Gerrard Woolly sighed in acceptance and nodded the best he could since he couldn't really move his head at the moment declaring, "Of course. I agree to your terms. Now could someone please help release my head."

Reynard called to one of his assistants who opened the door and helped remove the knives from the wall surrounding the ram. The ram was then restrained once more and led from the room while another assistant took the knives and added them back to their proper positions on the floor.

As Reynard lounged in the back of the room, Coal spoke to him though the Plexiglas chuckling, "You did this all on purpose. Orchestrated the whole thing with the urial and sheep. I was wondering why you added those last five."

The fox grinned at his old friend mischievously, "Nothing like a little motivation to open up the purse strings a bit."

---

Reynard got very generous offers from his next few prominent citizens. However one councilmammal refused to believe Reynard would harm her, and the three knives protruding out her head and neck helped encourage the others that were brought forward that he was serious. The fox declared he was a firm believer in equality and guilty females were just as guilty as males and would be punished accordingly. The fact that one of the bosses and top lieutenants he had executed had been females somehow seemed to have escaped the councilmammal's notice.

Reynard had prearranged an alternate list of prominent citizens to take the place of those who made offers just in case this situation arose. But he hadn't anticipated it would be so highly effective. He was pleased to see his new fundraising campaign was so productive. As he came to the final member on the list he had prepared, he now regretted he had not extended it further. He had never anticipated it would get down this far, but he had added fourteen substantial offers to help all those kids and adults who had been rescued to regain their lives and give them a possibility of a future worth living. The final member on the list was a young goat who seemed to have gotten involved in the House of Horrors because of some friends of hers. It was not a valid excuse for her actions as she partook in numerous horrific rituals, but it seemed to be more peer pressure that drove her rather than any enjoyment of the activities. She offered him a sum of four hundred thousand bucks which he accepted warning her that doing something that she knew was vile and wicked just because someone else did it was no excuse.

Coal chastised the fox for going too soft on her, but Reynard answered, "The amount she gave was proportionate to the sums others had given. That amount is over eighty percent of her assets which is the minimum benchmark I set for any offers I would accept this day. I now regret I did not go through more of the guilty and have their net worth assessed. I now have four slots still to fill. But I have been able to raise over forty-two and a half million more to help Red kids which is what is most important. I worry about what may become of them if my offenses against the Underground Court catch up to me."

"You think that they will come for you?" The scarred grisly black panther asked.

Reynard nodded, "It is not a question of if, but when. Well who do I choose for the final four?"

Coal handed him a list of those remaining and their offenses. Reynard then chose the four with the least offenses of any of those remaining.

"Why those four?" Coal wondered, "Wouldn't it have been better to chose the ones that deserved death the most instead?"

"No… those who have committed the worst acts deserve the least mercy of any. I chose the four remaining who deserved a quick painless death instead." Reynard explained.

Coal nodded acceding to the sage decisions of his boss and friend. The fox always amazed him with his profound way of thinking.

Reynard did however provide one moment of excitement in that he took on all four of the final opponents at once. He knew Aza would be upset about this, but he was tired of this activity and wanted to get it over quickly.

He lined all four up on the other side of the room and began to read the charges. But before he could finish an old badger snarled and dove for one of the knives to catch the fox off guard. Reynard dove forward sending a knife through the throat of the badger and then rolling to the side. A middle-aged antelope sprung forward grabbing for another knife and Reynard sent two into his head before it could even grasp the handle of the knife before it.

The two remaining stood frozen in terror as Reynard calmly rose and continued reading the charges and then told them to "Begin." But the terrified wolf and horse refused to move remaining frozen in place. Reynard sighed frustrated that once again his plans were going to shit and he just wished this done. He tried to prod the two to movement by jumping at the knives, but this only made the two recoil in terror and try to cover their faces.

He wandered back to his council and asked for suggestions of what to do.

"Let me go encourage them!" Sheba exclaimed with a wicked grin and a show of teeth.

"I would love to Shea, but this is supposed to be one-on-one combat." Reynard exclaimed.

"Well there are two of them." She countered with a grin.

"Very well." Reynard finally relented, "Just don't hurt them. The whole point of this was to give them a quick painless death."

"I can be quick. Not sure about painless though." She chuckled.

The door to the back opened and the tigress stepped out. She dwarfed the fox as she was the biggest and meanest tigress known. Only Alexei was bigger and even he was scared of her. The two prisoners huddled across the room seemed to realize that a terror beyond their imagining was looking at them like they were a snack and began backing into a corner.

"I would grab a knife before Shea here rips you apart and spreads you all over the room. Believe me… my way is MUCH better." Reynard yelled to them.

The wolf and horse looked to the two bodies laying still on the floor and then at the form of the hulking tigress who was slowly advancing on them. The wolf seemed to think better of his choices and decided to jump forward grabbing at the knife blade nearest him and then keeled over dead with two blades in his neck.

But the horse refused to move until Sheba was upon him and instantly struck slicing a huge claw through his side. This seemed to get his attention and he scrambled around the room trying to escape her, but she was on all fours and was as fast and agile as any and she chased him merciless clawing at him multiple times resulting in screams and shrieks of anguish. Finally he grabbed for a knife and pulled back to throw it. He got a shocked frozen look on his face as a knife buried in his hoof knocking the knife from it and another sunk into his neck and he fell over dead. Four of Reynard's assistants immediately sprang into action entering the room and clearing the mess.

"Thanks Shea." Reynard told the grinning tigress.

"Anytime Red." She immediately answered with a satisfied grin, "Now I get to have my fun!"

Reynard grinned back at the tigress, "You know Coal is next. We have to follow proper protocol you know. Rank and such… but you know I love you. I promise you will get to have as much blood as you wish. There are a pile we have to get through after these formal ones and I will give you the honors with them."

Sheba got a huge grin on her face then closed her eyes and chuffed to show her happiness, "Awwww you know just what to say to cheer me up."

Reynard laughed and entered the viewing area in the back as Coal exited holding two matched swords and practiced some slashing, blocking and parrying with some flips and spins. As the fox sat in a nice comfortable recliner they had brought for him, he relaxed and marveled at the grace and fluidity of his old friend's forms. It was wonderful to get to sit back and watch for a change. He was fatigued and there was much more to go.

But Reynard knew that all the formalness of his meetings was technically unnecessary and the next bouts would all be less formal and more quick and brutal. They should go quite fast except possibly a couple of the ones that Sheba had chosen.

Coal had decided to allow his opponents to choose from a variety of weapon combinations. He could have forced them to use the same weapon like Reynard had as this was not a formal duel but an execution. But the veteran didn't find that sporting versus dual equal blades. He gave each opponent the choice between a single two pawed sword, sword and shield, sword and short sword, sword and dagger and several other options. He even had different sizes and weights offered to find at least one combination with which the opponent would be familiar and comfortable using. Coal wanted a challenge, and it had been a very long time since he had gotten a chance to fight using the dual swords. The technique was the most difficult to truly master and Coal had prided himself on being the best.

Reynard had sparred with him on occasion using practice swords and had lost four times out of five using this choice of weapons. Coal had told him this was impressive as he had never lost more than one out of twenty to any other opponent. Reynard accepted this as it was not one of his preferred weapon combinations or techniques. With knives and daggers Coal found himself cut to pieces by the fox with practice blades of course. The two of them would never attempt to fight each other with real blades as the chance of injury in such furious vicious combat was far too great. They both got frequently injured using practice weapons as it was.

Reynard looked forward to seeing his old friend in action. Coal chose a good first match to get him warmed up as he faced a large brown bear. The bear smartly chose a large sword he could easily wield in one paw and a large shield. Technically the bear had the advantage of weapons as he not only had reach, but he also held a great deal of protection. The disadvantage he had if you disregarded the skill and experience of the panther, was that the weapons were far slower and his opponent was faster. But Coal had chosen this opponent as it should last a lot longer than most of the others he had chosen.

The charges and sentence were read and the panther then just nodded at the bear. Coal was not one to mince words or chat when it was time to fight. He instead preferred to use weapons to do his talking. The two circled each other for awhile looking for weaknesses and then as Coal had gotten the bear used to moving around in the same direction, he pivoted and flipped around to the left slicing low on the bears flank and instantly pulling both blades low across the bottom. The bear was able to just barely get the shield to his flank in time, but left his lower body open as both blades sliced across his legs. The bear roared in agony and Coal instantly feinted a strike with his left sword and drove the right into the exposed belly of the beast and then dove forward into a somersault to miss a swing of the bear's large blade.

The fight continued a few more minutes as the bear maintained a very defensive posture until he got lax for just a moment leaving his left flank open which Coal viciously attacked striking his target, but the panther then crouched anticipating the bears movement of the shield and struck under the shield driving both blades deep into chest of the large bear. The bear got a surprised look on his maw which turned lifeless as Coal turned both blades driving them into the neck of the beast and instantly withdrew them rolling to his right coming up in a defensive stance. The bear collapsed to the floor in a heap and the fight was over. Coal calmly walked back and was given a towel to clean the blades as several assistants worked to remove the bear and clear the floor.

The panther instantly asked that the next opponent be brought in so he could select his weapon while they cleaned the mess. Coal read the charges while the cleaning continued and as soon as they were done he had the condemned cheetah's pawcuffs removed. The cheetah had chosen a sword and dagger preferring the speed and defensiveness of the dagger. Coal told the assistants to have the opponents chose their weapons before coming into the room to make the process faster. He then told the cheetah to start.

The spotted cat was very agile and quick, but the large panther was nearly his equal in those same areas and the room was not large enough for the cheetah to take full advantage of his speed. The cheetah then seemed to try to employ a strategy of forcing Coal to constantly try to engage him while moving around staying out of his reach. Reynard reasoned that the cheetah had been effective with this technique in the past forcing opponents to get frustrated and charge leaving themselves exposed for an easy counter. But unfortunately for the cheetah, his old friend and trainer was used to spending hours training novices and idiots, and was the most patient fighter the fox knew. Now if this was Sheba on the other hand… glancing over at the tiger, he could see she was quite impatient already growling loudly screaming for blood and calling the cheetah a "spotted fuzzy coward" and to "grow a pair and fucking fight you pansy-ass excuse for a cat".

Reynard was just enjoying listening to Sheba's insults when the cheetah failed to notice he was boxed into a corner with only way out. Coal struck instantly not at the cheetah, but at the only exit and both blades struck true as the spotted cat instinctively fled through the only available avenue. He was impaled before he knew what had happened and beheaded nearly instantly with a flick of Coal's wrist.

Reynard marveled at the speed, fluidity and accuracy of his friend. He never got a chance to watch and appreciate his friend's movement as he was usually trying to avoid getting sliced apart. He was merely watching the actions of his old instructor rather than anything the opponents were doing. By studying the panther, he knew exactly where the opponent was positioned and what they were planning on doing. Of particular interest to the fox was the fact that his mistress was still with him enjoying the show. She screamed in triumph and glory reveling in the success of the panther and appreciating the honor he was providing her. Reynard wondered what Coal would think about that. Knowing how uncomfortable his old friend got when the fox spoke of her, he decided it was probably best he not mention it.

The remaining fights went fairly quickly and predictably except the one where Coal actually got injured. The panther was fighting a large leopard who was using a sword and short sword. The spotted cat had barely exposed his right flank, and Coal had quickly feinted with one sword while slicing with the other anticipating the defensive movement. However his blade glanced off the short sword of leopard slicing through the midsection of the surprised spotted cat but continued downward also slicing into Coal's exposed leg. The experienced panther didn't even react, but instead spun cutting into the now open left flank of the cat and slicing the neck with a turn of his wrist. The leopard grasped his bleeding neck out of instinct and immediately lost his head.

Assistants immediately rushed in to aide the panther stopping the bleeding. It was a fairly deep gash, and Reynard wondered if he could continue. Coal never called out in pain or really had any reaction to the cut. This did not surprise the fox as he had seen the panther injured many times before. The cat took it in stride and always said it was the hazards of the job. The panther's hundreds of scars attested to the fact that getting cut was a common occurrence over the years. Coal had always remarked that nearly all the scars were quite old, and demonstrated he had gotten quite a lot better since getting them all. The medics cleaned the wound and seemed to feel that no major arteries or vessels had been cut, but they wanted to sew him up and have him rest. Coal allowed them to suture the wound and then tightly wrap it. He said he had only two more fights and then he could rest. The medics did not like the risk of him opening the wound, but he promised them he would try to avoid aggravating it.

Reynard remarked to his old friend with concern, "Coal, you sure you should be doing this? If you have to complete them, we can move them until the very end. But there is no shame whatsoever in passing them on to Rath or Sheba. Aza would skin me alive if I tried to fight so injured."

Coal laughed at that, "Well it's a good thing I don't have a missus at home. Some nice morbid humor as well considering many of these guys literally did what you threatened Aza would do."

Reynard grinned and nodded, "I have to admit it has been a very morbid day indeed, and will only get far more morbid before it is done. You have to find some humor in it to avoid letting it all overwhelm you. Just be careful out there."

Coal gave his boss a nod and attempted to assuage his concerns, "I was wanting to practice fighting injured anyway. We practice it all the time, but there is nothing like practical experience with an actual injury to get the ultimate practice."

With that Coal continued fighting a tough opponent to attempt injured. It was a male pronghorn antelope using a sword and dagger. The pronghorn was quite surprised that his opponent was obviously injured. And the lightning fast antelope thoroughly took advantage of the situation weaving in and out constantly attacking and avoiding the panther's counterattacks. The pronghorn was also young and quite strong and had amazing stamina. Coal was obviously quite seasoned now. Reynard would never call him old, but he was certainly not at his physical peak anymore. But what the panther lacked in physicality, he more than made up for in experience and wisdom.

The antelope was growing bolder and more brazen with his attacks getting used to being able to drive deep into Coal's guard before having to withdraw. The speedy antelope struck fast and hard and Coal was actually getting the worst of it coming away with several small cuts on his arms and sides. Reynard was becoming concerned when the pronghorn struck and Coal dropped as his leg gave out and the panther groaned falling to his side. The antelope immediately drove the attack slicing at the cat's now open flank, but found two blades buried into his chest as Coal had been faking and had instead used the fall to crouch and spring forward low and under the pronghorn's strike pressing both weapons forward and impaling his blades deep through the surprised and now deceased buck.

The panther wordlessly walked over and sat in a chair that had been brought out for him as the medics bandaged his new wounds and checked on his leg. With all the new tape, Coal was looking like he had lost a bad fight, but the panther merely smiled at everyone in the council and laughed about "new mementos". Fortunately his last opponent was a not so fast older badger with sword and shield who eventually was done in when he blocked one of Coal's strikes, but failed to anticipate the panthers quick turn of the wrist and paid with a slice to the neck.

After the fight, Coal agreed to let the medics look him over thoroughly and to go rest back in Reynard's stateroom during the remaining fights. Reynard could tell that his old friend didn't want to admit he was exhausted by the ordeal. But he could also sense the panther was relieved when his boss ordered him to rest. He stopped the protests with his argument that his old friend could watch the videotape later. Reynard informed him that he would need him fresh for the event following the duels.

---

Rath was up next due to his seniority. Where Sheba was outwardly vicious and terrifying, the lion was serene and pensive. It did not mean he wasn't equally as deadly though. The lion was a master of meditation and combat. He decided to demonstrate his skill in non-bladed weapons this day choosing the simple stave. But any master of the blade facing the lion dreaded that confrontation as they nearly always lost. The long solid staff had far superior reach and in the hands of a master like the lion was swiftly brutal and efficient. Only against someone skilled in throwing blades or a combination of throwing and bladed weapons did the stave come up deficient. Even against that combo, the weapon had tremendous defensive potential.

The members of the gang always liked to call Rath "The lion that never roars" in reference to his calm nature, but Reynard was looking forward to seeing the true nature of his lieutenant. The lion offered the opponents a choice of numerous non-bladed weapons included staves of numerous sizes and weights, clubs, maces, various sticks with hooks and studs, axes of various sizes, spears and variations of these. The lion actually had wanted to offer opponents non-throwing blades, but that did not fit in the rules of use of similar styles of weapons they had established.

As the lion warmed up, Reynard wondered at the skill, fluidity and technique of the lion as he spun the staff in increasingly lightning fast complex patterns while moving, jumping and somersaulting. The fox was hoping for a worthy opponent to truly get to see what the lion could do. The lion would stand silent with the stave in front of him on the other side of the room while his opponent was led into the room. Rath elected to have the assistant read the charges and the sentence and then announce the beginning of the combat. The fox imagined it would be quite disconcerting to face a large obviously powerful lion with a simple staff. Other than the metal reinforced ends on the weapon it was just a large stick.

If Reynard was hoping for an epic battle, he was sorely disappointed. As any opponent moved within range of the placid feline, he would strike in an impossibly fast sweep followed by a strike to the head taking out the feet and then disabling the opponent followed by a death blow strike to the skull. This repeated itself over and over with minor variations until all the witnesses feared this would be all they would see. Finally as his last challenge, Rath faced a grizzly bear with a huge spear, and those collected to watch were thankful for the challenge.

The great bear was cautious watching his placid opponent apparently realizing what a master of the stave was capable of doing. Finally the beast feinted a move to the left and then threw the spear at the lion attempting to impale him while instantly charging to close with him in an attempt to grapple with him or knock him off his feet. Rath instantly dodged to the side and swept his stave defensively and attempted to sweep the legs out from the incoming bear which struck throwing off its balance, but the momentum of the great beast could not be stopped and he struck the lion a glancing blow as the feline rolled. But Rath acted as if it was part of his planned motion using the momentum of the strike to continue the spin of his body. He then spun the staff striking the bear repeatedly nearly too quick to be seen. The head, groin, knee, neck, wrist all were struck impossibly fast with brutal effect as the bear attempted to close the distance with Rath. Once the bear got close enough, Rath struck in a sweeping motion striking behind the knee of the bear forcing him down to the ground followed by an instant strike under the chin of the beast and then a forward flip high into the air followed by a nasty crunching sound as the lion smashed the reinforced end of the staff into the skull of the great bear ending the fight in dramatic fashion.

The assembled council all applauded in amazement, and the lion's only response was a slight nod as he handed his weapon to the assistant and entered the viewing area. The lion had barely broken a sweat. All the other bouts took a great deal of time for cleanup of the fighter, the weapon and the floor, but all Rath's fights had been simply brutally efficient with no mess. Reynard could tell the assistants all appreciated this.

---

But they would have their work cut out for them for the next fights as Sheba smiled wide showing all her teeth. With the exception of the grizzly Rath had just fought, the brown bear Coal had confronted and the huge polar bear boss Reynard had faced, she had chosen every large opponent she could. For anything smaller would be torn to shreds by the ferocious tigress. A smaller opponent may be able to avoid Sheba awhile, but they stood no chance of doing any real harm to her. Even Reynard freely admitted in paw to paw combat, he stood no chance against the fierce feline. Now with his diamond razor claws, they both conceded that Reynard had a strong chance of killing her. However the chance of injury was far too great for both of them in any friendly sparring to determine who would win. The claws were so deadly that Reynard refused to use them in anything but actual combat. A couple of his gang members had attempted to spar using something similar in the past and one was killed and the other crippled. After this happened, only smooth wooden replicas were allowed in any kind of sparring duel.

Because large mammals were fairly rare, Sheba had to satisfy herself with several smaller opponents. She would get down on all fours and prowl around the room ready to fight like her savage ancestors. While watching all the other fights, she had been casually sharpening each of her claws. When they finally announced that it was time to begin, she roared with glee as she prowled around her side of the room impatiently waiting for her chance at blood. Reynard noticed his mistress truly loved the tigress. Personally he felt sorry for anything that stepped into the room with her regardless of their crimes.

Sheba had decided to use her smaller choices early to warmup and practice her pouncing. She chose a mule deer initially. Reynard could see he was quite regretting ever becoming a member of "The Coven" as those who became members of the House of Horrors called themselves. The tigress enjoyed the terror in the buck as she read out each charge and declared him hers to play with now.

Or as she put it growling low at the deer, "You enjoyed diddling little girls and torturing so much. How about you try and fuck me instead cocksucker?"

She then lay her belly on the floor raising her butt in the air and moaning, "Awwwww come get me big boy. I need you now! Don't keep me waiting or I am gonna get angry with you. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

She then grinned at the buck showing all her teeth and laughing with a deep maniacal laugh. The sound sent chills through everyone watching. The impact on the buck was much more understandably severe as he shivered in horror as Sheba rose and began prowling in a very menacing manner while staring intently at the buck with insatiable hunger declaring, "Well you had your chance. Now you have angered me leaving me unsatisfied." She paused a moment and continued, "I suppose I will have to just fuck you instead."

She then instantly jumped forward toward the mule deer forcing him to scramble to his left. But it was merely a feint as she had instead shifted her weight to her back legs and pounced leaping forward where she anticipated the buck was moving. But he was able to realize his error shifting his weight pivoting to avoid her. He was partially successful in that he avoided taking her full weight which most likely would have killed him outright, but she adjusted in midair reaching out a paw and ripping it across the haunch of the buck rending it into a mangled bloody mess. The buck screamed for a brief second before being silenced by the jaws of the vicious tigress which came crushing down on his neck. She flung her head to the right shredding the entire throat of the buck while her claws ripped down it's front disemboweling the deer spilling his guts all over the floor.

An assistant came in handing her a towel. As she cleaned the blood from her mouth and paws, she declared with a growl, "You left me horny, wet, angry and unsatisfied. Shame on you… piece of shit." She then spat on the corpse.

Coal had come back to watch the tigress and relaxed in another recliner with his bandaged leg up resting. The panther looked at Reynard with concern, "She seem pretty sexually frustrated to you? I know she had been hinting to Alexei she wanted some attention, but he seems pretty terrified of her."

"I suppose there aren't many males in all of Zootopia that stand a chance of satisfying her or surviving the attempt." Reynard admitted to his friend.

Coal nodded and postulated, "I suppose that explains why she is so angry all the time."

Reynard grinned and considered, "I will see what Alexei thinks about this. Maybe he can at least give it a shot and see how it goes. I will promise him to tell her not to hurt him… much."

Reynard remembered how brutal and dangerous sex between big cats could be. It usually involved a lot of growling, biting, clawing and violence. For any male, his tigress lieutenant would be the most intimidating and frightening potential partner ever. While sex for him was purely an act of love and enjoyment as he bonded with his one true love, for the tigress it was merely a release of frustration and hormones. Reynard always respected that everyone had a difficult reason for sex, and he never forbade sex between gang members and employees as long as they could always keep it from interfering with their work. Granted he didn't have many females in his gang, not because he didn't offer them an equal chance at employment as he never cared about what species or sex any applicant was. But it was just the nature of his work that attracted a vastly larger number of males than females. Females in the underworld usually all had to be very strong, forceful and more badass than their male counterparts to rise far and be respected. There were some that were gay gang members as well and he didn't judge and discriminate there either although such relationships were usually kept very subtle as not everyone was so understanding.

Apparently his tigress was definitely quite frustrated as she chased, pounced on and shredded several other medium sized mammals. He was hoping her bloodlust could be sated by the violent executions, but her anger did not seem to be abating. More and more faster and slower mammals were called and all fell quickly to the natural gifts of the evolved form of the greatest living land predator, her brutal teeth and claws flashing briefly ripping and tearing everything they touched. Many suspected Sheba had merely evolved the ability to speak, but remained one with her savage primal ancestor in all other ways. Sheba never disagreed with that supposition as she found it quite amusing.

Finally after twelve opponents they got to some larger mammals for her to face. Previously the only real entertainment was listening to her creative insults and taunts. But now hopefully they might actually get a few good fights to view.

The next victim was a very large nasty bull moose. The large powerful monster actually outweighed the tigress by several times and was armed with a rack of deadly antlers, a nasty kick, punch and a powerful bite. This was the first opponent she faced that could actually harm her and she was well aware of it.

The problem he faced was as you watched the fluid graceful motion of the tigress as she prowled around the room glaring at him and licking her enormous lips and mouth with her huge tongue, you realized her speed and agility were breathtaking and posed a serious challenge to overcome in a fight. For such a large predator to move like a ballerina with perfect balance and form, it was truly a thing of awe inspiring brutal beauty.

The tigress even expressed a relative bit of praise for the moose growling, "Finally something worthy of my attention. I hope you live up to your billing as I have become bored. No one has satisfied my lust. Perhaps you might make an attempt."

She presented her butt to him pressing it into the air and her tail swished back and forth expectantly and she moaned a bit. Her actions seemed to have the affect of terrifying her opponent. Reynard could understand that as when you went in for paw to paw or in this case paw to hoof combat, you didn't expect you opponent to ask to be fucked.

Coal made a comment about wondering if any of these condemned would actually try and take her up on her offer. A couple other members of the council responded that any male who could get erect facing that probably deserved to be pardoned. That brought a great many laughs from the viewers. However Sheba did not find the laughing funny as she quickly told the bull, "Once again I have been rejected and left wanting. I suppose I will have to take my disappointment out on your hide instead. Let's go motherfucker!"

And instantly she closed with the moose. But instead of pouncing, she approached cautiously as she knew if he were to catch her underside with those antlers as she leapt at him, she could be actually harmed or killed. While Sheba was insanely aggressive, she was also incredibly intelligent and cunning. The tigress respected every possibly threat and took no unnecessary chances as that was the reason she had survived long enough to rise to lieutenant in a gang.

The moose maintained a defensive stance brandishing his antlers like spinning swords waiting to deliver a brutal kick or punch followed by an impalement on the rack sitting upon his head. But if he was waiting for the tigress to give him an easy opening, he was disappointed as she instead attempted to move around his sides to his exposed flanks swiftly striking with several swipes of her claws. He was obviously unused to fighting an opponent on all fours so low to the ground, and nervously tried to block her numerous attempts. He was hoping her attacks would put her off balance or expose her, but her balance was impeccable as she could strike while moving and instantly dodge under his strikes with his hooves due to her low position.

The moose was afraid to try and kick her as it exposed him to all kinds of dangers. For example she could easily knock him off balance, and on the ground he would be instantly dead. Like most ungulates in Zootopia, he was not used to walking on four legs, and his body had evolved so his balance and center of gravity was designed for walking upright on his hind legs instead. His opponent however was suited for either position, and was very used to running, pouncing and attacking on four legs. She decided to now remind him of this as she anticipated his movement and struck viciously with her claws intending to rake them across his legs and forearms or anything else the bull decided to use to block her attacks.

He shrieked in pain as her claws ripped him several times. She had pawfuls of knives which she called claws and she used them effectively to continue to rip and shred him over and over backing him around the room. She was looking for an opening. That one slight hesitation, barely perceptible stumble, or incongruous move that would seal the bull's fate. But he was a well trained fighter, and the assembled viewers were impressed with how he had withstood her repeated attacks and aggressiveness. He also got several punches in and even a good kick. But he could not afford to commit to using his full strength as he would be thrown off balance with a miss. So these were glancing blows which did far less harm to her than all her lacerations were doing to him.

Then suddenly she struck forward and rolled to the left causing the moose to scramble to adjust as she was now on his exposed flank, but he was too slow as she raked one of her claws down his side as he frantically turned, and raked her other claw down his chest ripping it open. He twisted and desperately kicked and lowered his head to catch her with his antlers, but she leapt forward onto the wall behind him pushing off with her back facing the ground. She flipped in midair turning to land on the now exposed back of bull moose sinking all four claws deep into his flesh and closing her huge jaws around his unprotected neck clamping down like a vice.

The moose screamed in agony attempting to rise up, but her weight and momentum drove him to the ground. He tried to roll to dislodge her, but she simply clamped all four claws into his meaty flesh so she could not be dislodged and locked her jaws tighter around his neck slowly suffocating him. He gasped desperately for air for several minutes making a horrible coughing gurgling low-pitched retching sound and then shuddered and lay still. Sheba chose that moment to gnash her jaws a few times and grasp the front of the bull's neck and rip it apart. Satisfied, she stood and motioned for a towel wiping off the excess blood and licking her paws and arms where she had been punched and kicked on occasion.

The assembled bodies were stunned and quite impressed with her patience and prowess. It was quite rare to see the ferocious hostile tigress be so calculating in her attacks. Reynard raised his opinion of her significantly with this display. His mistress however adored her and begged her to join with the goddess and lead a never-ending campaign of death and destruction across the world. Reynard informed his mistress, the tigress was his instrument and dedicated her victims as sacrifices to her glory. She seemed quite satisfied with this idea and looked forward to what other offerings the tigress had in store for her.

The next opponent was a female hippo. While the hippo was large and powerful, the combat was not very exciting unless you enjoyed massive amounts of ripped flesh and blood. Reynard's mistress Azael was quite pleased, but the others assembled were more than a bit nauseous after it was finished. The clean up took quite awhile as pieces of the helpless hippo seemed to have to be cleaned from nearly every corner of the room.

The remaining six opponents would be an impressive array of some of the most powerful species in Zootopia. Sheba had saved the best for last. She was one to always believe in showmanship and presentation.

The first was a leopard who was small in comparison to the tigress, but was quite agile and vicious for his size. She begged him to try and satisfy her sexual urges, but he seemed more interested in staying alive and so she remained frustrated once again. The battle was an impressive array of leaps, snarls, hisses and mad clawing. Coal commented that it looked a bit like sexual foreplay until she lacerated the leopard's entire right flank and sank her teeth around his neck driving her razor sharp fangs deep into his neck ignoring his flailing claws and holding him until he lay still. She then rose and carried the body with her jaws still clamped around his throat and tossed him down at the entrance for the condemned.

The next was a large male lion named Heathcliffe. The huge lion was nearly equal in size to the tigress and seemed to present an interesting challenge.

Sheba seemed to think so as well as she grinned, "Finally something worthy to play with. Heathcliffe love, have you ever tried a tigress before? If you had, I am sure you would have never bothered with those sex clubs. You should have come calling if you had such perverted thoughts, and then you wouldn't be in this position."

Healthcliffe grinned in response, "You offering kitty?"

Sheba grinned back showing her huge mouth of razor sharp teeth and removed her stretch pants and waved her bare butt at him showing him she was definitely open to that possibility.

Healthcliffe seemed quite shocked at first and then roared in response removing his own pants demonstrating he was up to the challenge as he seemed quite aroused.

"Well that's something you don't see every day." Jasper commented.

The others present to watch all agreed.

"Impressive!" The tigress growled, "But you don't get me so easily. You have to prove you're worthy first."

She then shocked everyone instantly leaping in the lion's direction and he scrambled to avoid her rush growling as he rolled to her right. He kept trying to get around behind her, but she was lightning fast and fierce. They both met growling and flailing claws. Sheba then got down on her belly and seemed to be submissive for a moment and the lion cautiously moved around her and began to position himself to mount her. Just as he got on her back, she twisted to the side raking both claws across his belly and then leaping on top his back clamping and gnashing her teeth into his neck.

Fortunately for him, his great mane helped to protect his neck from part of the damage as he roared in pain standing and driving Sheba into the wall. But this was quite a painful exercise for the male cat as it only served to drive Sheba's four sets of claws deeper into his flesh. But he kept slamming her over and over into the wall withstanding the immense pain screaming each time he made contact. Finally he gave up trying to dislodge her using this method and began rolling around the floor, but the effort seemed to exhaust him as she nearly weighed as much as he did and was pure muscle.

Once Sheba figured the lion was thoroughly fatigued, she released her hold rolling off him and slashing viciously repeatedly into his left haunch and shank. He roared in agony and struck at her, but she rolled and dodged out of the way. Exhausted and badly injured he growled at her, "Don't you want me to fuck you whore?"

Apparently this was not the appropriate thing to say to a lady as she pounced on him driving him back slashing him repeatedly with her paws knocking him on his side and clamped her jaws down on his haunch and violently thrashed her head rolling to the side ripping his leg apart and continued rolling away. As the lion shrieked in utter torment she spat out part of his leg and began raking his chest with her claws and then his neck. He tried to dodge her strikes, but both his legs were crippled and he could only slide around to the side. She then struck over and over lightning fast alternating feints and strikes ripping and shredding. The lion was able to get some claws of his own on her but his claws weren't nearly as sharp and deadly and only did superficial damage, while her strikes led to fountains of blood and chunks of flesh. The final moments of the battle were not pretty or spectacular, just bloody and gory as the lion tried to defend himself, but had no more strength left to withstand the devastating relentless assault of the tigress. Finally he lay still as she clamped her jaws around the great beasts neck and held it tight until the corpse lay cold and lifeless.

She then put her pants back on and wandered back to the Plexiglas and commented, "Damn mane was too thick to get a death blow in earlier."

Reynard responded to her, "All these remaining fights are gonna be like that. I want you to rest between each one. I want you at your best and can't afford for you to be badly injured."

She grinned at the fox as assistants cleaned her and bandaged her wounds, "Awwww… it is nice to hear you care so much about me. What is Aza gonna say? Never tried a fox before, but I'm game."

Reynard laughed at the tigress, "Well I'm afraid Aza would kill me and then where would we be. Just make sure you are fully rested as the remaining four are all not going to be fast or easy."

"Of course Red." She nodded and sat in a large chair that was brought out onto the floor while the crew cleaned and dried the floor.

Once all were satisfied she was rested, they brought out a polar bear named IceCube that been working at the Tundratown Operation. He was enforcement for Jax and enjoyed punishing the children a bit too sadistically. After learning of a few cases of sexual abuse of the children, he was added to the condemned.

While not nearly as big as Jax, he still outweighed the tigress significantly at over 1000 kg.

IceCube seemed amused by the tigress grinning, "Awww a widdle kitty cat."

The tigress grinned back showing her enormous mouth of teeth, "Awww a bear who loves to fondle little children. I have something here nice and pointy you can fondle."

The polar bear seemed surprised that the tigress displayed not even a slight ounce of fear or trepidation at facing him. She instead stood picking her teeth with her claws waiting on him.

Finally he got frustrated and growled, "We gonna dance or what?"

She grinned and let out a massive roar forcing many to put paws to their ears and then began to prowl approaching the big bear.

The polar bear realized his best move was to stand and fight using his enormous size as an advantage. Running around, rolling or moving exposed him to the vastly superior speed and agility of the tigress. Sheba knew that fighting a polar bear was never easy as his powerful paws and long claws could be deadly. And while his jaws could be harmful as well, they were relatively small compared to the enormous mouth and teeth she possessed. The danger was just the hulking mass the bear possessed. They also had quite a lot of natural protection with their thick fur coat, hulking powerful mass and thick protective layer of fat under their fur.

Just as Reynard's battle with Jax was a slow endurance battle, hers would most likely be one as well. However Sheba's claws and her huge teeth were longer than the blades of the throwing knives Reynard had used. But she had to be careful when using them as a crushing blow from the bear's huge paws with his full weight behind them could injure her quite badly.

Reynard had discussed the possibility of stopping the fight if Sheba received a crippling blow from these next opponents. These were not formal duels so technically there was no honor involved. These were executions and the opponents were merely offered the dignity of going out with a fight rather than simply being put down. He knew the tigress would be quite furious with him if Reynard so ordered the end to the battle. But he decided that was preferable to having his tigress permanently crippled or dead. Reynard had armed himself with several very large throwing knives and had Coal and several others armed if he needed to step in and save her life. The fox felt along the brace feeling the comforting familiarity of the handles of the large sharp blades ready to fling them at a moments notice. The fox knew how dangerous a large polar bear would be having just faced one. He had no desire to face one ever again if it could be helped.

As Sheba faced off with the bear, she knew engaging him face to face would be suicidal as the huge bear weighed more than double her weight and could just bear down on her. She needed to force the bear on the ground not on his two back legs to have a chance at a kill. The only problem was that the bear knew this as well and had no plans on letting this happen.

The tigress decided that if the bear was going to just sit back and wait for her to come at him, she was going to make him pay. She proceeded to repeatedly approach his side and jab and feint and swipe repeatedly striking the legs of the large bear. He would swipe at her with his huge paws anytime she closed, but she stayed low and would duck under the swipes trying to get quick jabs onto the back of the bear's legs. The bear soon got wise to her actions and hunched low to strike her as she reached in for a swat, but instead quickly withdrawing, she lunged forward sinking her jaws and massive 9 cm upper canines into the bear's leg ripping and she pulled her mouth out rolling to the right to avoid the bears counter strike. The bear roared in pain, but took the strike in stride. But he was clearly favoring the injured leg at the moment.

However now the tigress had a target to go after as she maneuvered herself to jab and strike clawing at the already injured portion of the leg. The bear tried to keep upright swiping at her as she attacked, but got frustrated with her constant painful strikes at the torn flesh and once again leaned down striking her on the side with his paws and claws. But she was ready for the strike and dove forward chomping down on the injured leg sinking her teeth deep into the wound and pushing off rending the flesh ripping the muscle and sinew.

The tigress was bleeding from her side where the bear had raked her with his long claws, but the bears leg was now bleeding profusely. The battle continued like this for awhile with Sheba constantly striking and jabbing at the raw flesh and the bear committing for a strike only to result into a ripping and tearing from the cats massive jaws. Her face and side were covered in blood while more blood pooled under the bear's bleeding injured leg. Fortunately her side seemed to be mostly bruised rather than bleeding so the bear was taking a far greater blood loss if it came down to that. But Sheba was having to expend a lot more energy in her lightning quick vicious attacks. The question came down to what would give first, her stamina or the bears strength due to blood loss.

However the tigress surprised everyone as once she had the leg of the bear bleeding sufficiently, she suddenly backed away prowling nearby and sat down on her haunches panting to catch her breath. IceCube seemed confused by the move initially staring at the tigress suspiciously. But when he realized she was just resting he decided to try and rip part of his shirt and fashion a tourniquet to attempt to stop the flow of blood before he became too weakened from the constant blood loss. He was just about to tie it in place and was fumbling with a knot using his enormous paws which were clearly not designed for such an intricate task when Sheba pounced slamming into the bear sinking her jaws around the wrist of one of the bears paws while raking her claws against his body. The bear looked up startled and roaring trying to knock the tigress away. He was successful, but not before she took a nice chunk out of his wrist and paw.

The battle continued with the tigress not allowing the bear to bandage his leg as she would rest, pounce, strike with her claws and teeth mostly focusing on the injured leg and arm of the great bear. The fight seemed to go on forever and had been continuing for over twenty minutes when the bear realized he would have to try and get a crippling strike in to disable the ferocious feline or succumb to the loss of blood. Trying to get through the thick hide of the bear was extremely difficult as both the tigress and Reynard had found. But by focusing on one spot and continuing to expand on the injury, she had found a way around the massive natural armor of the bear.

It wasn't a textbook fight, and certainly wouldn't win any awards. But it was one the smartest possible for the tiger to defeat the huge polar bear paw to paw. Finally the bear decided to try and retie the bandage when he saw Sheba resting. But the bear instead planned on striking the tigress the instant she pounced. Unfortunately for him Sheba was an incredibly wily and experienced fighter, not some novice, and could see from his eyes what he was planning. So instead she feinted a pounce causing him to jerk dropping the bandage. She then waited as IceCube instinctively reached down to pick it up and pounced landing on the bear's back driving the surprised bear to the floor.

This was the moment Sheba had been waiting for as she dug her claws into huge bear's back sinking her teeth into his neck and pulling with all her strength ripping it. Initially the bear tried to rise, but found he didn't have the strength and the tigress repeatedly bit into the wounded neck grasping fur and muscle and pulling and rending flesh, skin and fur until the bear realized he would have to dislodge her and desperately began to roll crushing her under his massive weight. But she hung on clamping her jaws into the now profusely bleeding neck and finally released her grip when he rolled to the side to attempt another crushing roll. As soon as she was free from his weight, she pushed off from his back rolling to the side to avoid the bear's crushing mass.

The tigress then limped over in front of the bear staring at him as he sat upright on the floor panting himself. Normally she would have wanted to strike while he was on the floor, but she was hurt and exhausted. She was also comforted by the fact that IceCube was now bleeding abundantly from both his leg and his neck. The blood loss was becoming a factor and the bear realized he was in desperate straits and had to have a crippling blow on the tigress to win. However Sheba knew this as well and now attempted to avoid him as he tried to crawl to her. She was injured, but was still far more mobile than he was and easily kept out of his reach. Also his movements were causing his wounds to bleed more. The bear decided to save his energy and lunged at her when she was near a corner trying to pin her, but she was ready for such a move and leaped over the diving bear landing behind him as he crashed into the corner.

Those assembled could tell she wanted to leap on his back, but instead seemed satisfied to watch the bear crawl along the floor until she felt he was not faking his exhaustion and leaped onto his back flipping in the air to land facing his head and clamped her jaws into his injured neck once again ripping and readjusting her grip until she had her jaws on the underside of the bear's throat and clamped down tight holding it with all her might choking the life out the formally white bear who was now many shades of red. Finally she was satisfied her quarry was dead and she released her grip and slowly made her away across the room limping badly.

Reynard screamed for the medics and they had her lie down checking all her wounds. They had to first bathe her to determine which blood was from her wounds and which was from the polar bear. They then cleaned the wounds and thoroughly bandaged her. Reynard ordered that she be x-rayed and taken to a bed to rest.

Coal mentioned concerned, "She is an amazing fighter, but the numerous fights she had chosen are just far too brutal for even her to handle back to back. Fighting paw to paw against such large opponents is too much."

Reynard nodded agreeing with his old friend, "I will discuss what to do with the remaining three. But I can't see her facing those particular three without being healthy. I am thinking we save them until last and do the gauntlet and the others first."

Since the cleanup would take some time, the fox went to visit his tigress to see how she was doing. He smiled at her standing over her and petting her enormous head, "Bit off a bit more than you could chew, eh?"

She grinned at the choice of words as he helped clean some of the blood off her face, "I forgot how tough a fight against a polar bear was paw to paw."

"You did see my fight against Jax didn't you?" Reynard asked raising his eyebrows.

She nodded admitting, "I thought I could do better. Well once I was engaged, I realized it was not going to be a quick fight and had to change the strategy to one I knew I could win."

"Well I am here to ask what you want to do with the remaining fights as I am not going to let you in against those three opponents until you are feeling tip top. I was hoping you would let Alexei have a crack at them or at least some of them while you rested. I know he had expressed a wish to be your second." Reynard offered to the tigress in a hopeful manner.

Sheba growled, "I'm no wilting flower that needs a big strong male to help her out."

Reynard shook his head, "Lex would never think that about you. He only wants to help you. Let him have this chance. I think it will really help his confidence… well with you know..."

The tigress considered his words, "Getting involved in my love life Red? Don't think I can handle it myself?"

Reynard smiled at his tigress, "You have to admit you can be a bit intimidating even to Alexei. I think if you let him do this, both of you will benefit a lot in the future. I just figure you deserve a little love so go easy on him. Let him be the big chivalrous male tiger for once. Also you don't want to miss the gauntlet do you? You won't be able to participate if you don't rest up."

Sheba thought about Reynard's arguments for awhile and finally responded, "Fine. Send him in. I am not gonna miss the fucking gauntlet. But if the damn fuzzball is gonna be my second, I better get to watch."

Reynard nodded smiling, "I will send him in. I will have a bed placed in the viewing area for you to rest while you watch. But you better lay still and not strain yourself or so help me..."

She twitched her whiskers at the fox and nodded that she understood. Reynard then went to find his huge Amur tiger bodyguard to talk with the tigress.

---

A blinding glint of steel flashed for an imperceptible instant as the cape buffalo dodged just in time to avoid being sliced in two, but one of the curved horns of the giant beast was a casualty to the lightning fast blade wielded by the largest and toughest male tiger in Zootopia. For Alexei, Reynard's personal bodyguard, had taken the place of Sheba and offered each of his opponents their choice of weapons to use against him since he would not be using paw to paw combat.

While the cape buffalo was only slightly bigger than he, the following two opponents, a female rhino and male bull elephant were enormous, and Alexei had decided on his specially made extra large single-edged curved blade with a squared guard and long grip that could be used two pawed or single pawed. The weapon was 145 cm in length and weighed 4.9 kg, and yet the tiger wielded it so fast and powerful it was like a knife blade in his paws.

The tiger also wore his side sword, a slightly curved 80 cm blade, sheathed by his side in a scabbard to be used as a backup weapon or for close quarters combat. The great tiger on occasion demonstrated he could fight with both blades at once, but as a practical matter he only used one at a time. He was currently fighting an extra large cape buffalo who had decided on an enormous battle axe.

The buffalo used the axe to great effect both defensively and as a healthy deterrent to closing attacks. But the tiger was fast, acrobatic and agile seemingly attacking from all sides at once keeping the buffalo on the defensive. The cat constantly probed the defenses and would slice away at him as he got through the buffalo's guard time and time again. As the buffalo began to exhaust himself from his constant defensive maneuvers and the numerous cuts all over his body, he began to strike out more and more desperately trying to catch the huge cat with the cutting blade of the axe. The only problem was that the buffalo's movements were too telegraphed and the tiger easily dodged them quickly counter striking. Once the buffalo swung too far and the tiger rotated the blade and brought it slashing downward full force nearly severing the buffalo's arm. One-armed the buffalo was doomed as the tiger sliced him apart. He then jumped against a wall flipped forward slicing upward with his huge blade from behind the startled buffalo cutting deep into his thick neck leaving a stream of red blood in its wake. The buffalo realized it could no longer even raise the heavy battle axe and Alexei struck lightning fast striking deep across the front of the buffalo's neck severing his carotid artery causing him to fall forward onto the floor dead.

Those assembled were amazed at the brutal efficiency of the tiger with the enormous blade as it seemed like a giant claw extending from his body. It was as if it was a part of him and its effects deadly and brutal in their effectiveness. Sheba seemed to appreciate the huge tiger's efforts on her behalf, and Reynard was pleased to see she had gained some respect for the bodyguard. Perhaps there is some hope for the two of them to find a little moment of love in this world after all.

The fights against the rhino and elephant figured to be messy bloody affairs and those thinking such were not wrong. The opponents were far too thick and bulky for simple cuts to sever their flesh, and the great tiger had to guard against getting the blade stuck in their hide. He was still armed with the backup sword and his natural weapons, but trying to kill an elephant or rhino paw versus hoof was extremely difficult.

The rhino chose a large mace and shield. That combination along with its natural body armor made it quite a defensive opponent. It's enormous horn could easily impale and kill the tiger if the rhino could strike with it. Reynard noticed his goddess loved the great tiger although not quite as much as the tigress. The fox figured that must have to with how much a kindred soul the tigress was to his mistress. But Alexei was about to put on a show that might help change her mind.

The great cat approached the female rhino like he was going to engage her, but instead rolled forward under her shield slicing the blade across her legs. As she turned the shield instinctively, the tiger instead crouched under her continuing to spin around her slicing the blade deep across her legs spinning her around as she tried to follow him and then suddenly rolled outward with his blade held up defensively. Then giving her no chance to recover, he instantly struck across her arms, chest and shoulders weaving the blade around spinning and slashing.

Then suddenly he feinted toward her neck and instead impaled her belly with a good half a meter of steel striking under the shield that had followed the upward feint. He instantly withdrew the blade spinning to the side cutting down deep on an exposed arm. The rhino tried to keep up with the movements of the tiger, but they were far too fast and constant and seemingly were coming from everywhere. The neck and head of the rhino were enormous and well-armored so the tiger instead decided the best strategy was death by a thousand cuts.

Alexei struck over and over slicing into the arms of the rhino making it difficult for her to wield the mace and shield, but he got too close and she was able to catch him with a mighty swing of her mace catching him in the belly throwing him to the side spinning. He righted himself before hitting the wall, but was clearly hurt by her crushing blow. Her successful strike energized her giving her a small shred of hope as she grimaced trying to ignore the severe pain screaming from all over her body. She pressed forward attempt to strike a follow-up blow on the injured cat swinging with all her remaining might, but the wily striped bodyguard ducked her blow thrusting his blade with both arms impaling her nearly the full length of the blade and then just as quickly pulled it out.

She looked down in shock completely ignoring the crouching tiger which pounced skyward driving the blade upward through her neck into her skull. He then immediately released the embedded blade kicking off her belly with both back legs rolling backwards barely avoiding her massive collapsing form.

He waited for help from the assistants to roll the rhino over so he could remove his blade and was checked over by the medics. He had some bruised rips which were painful, but he decided to proceed to the final battle with the huge bull elephant. The medics gave him some pain medication to help and bandaged and padded his ribs enough to hopefully prevent them from hindering him too much. Reynard noticed Sheba was quite appreciative of his decision to continue despite his injury. Reynard had heard her betray her concern for the tiger when he had been injured, and she been his greatest cheerleader roaring with approval at his devastating strikes.

The bull elephant decided on a combination halberd in his trunk, war hammer in one hoof and a huge shield in the other. The elephant swung the halberd with his trunk nearly hitting Alexei causing him to dodge and weave as the huge monster advanced on him. The elephant had superior range with his trunk and the reach of the halberd, and had superior defensive capability with the war hammer and large shield. Alexei decided he would have to change his strategy, carefully watching the approach of the elephant judging the reach and speed of the enormous creature.

The elephant advanced cornering the tiger grinning in victory as he brought the halberd smashing down onto the head of the cat. But Alexei sidestepped the crashing trunk and halberd instead slashing forward with all his strength and weight coming into contact with the enormous thick muscled trunk and cleanly severed it.

As the elephant stood frozen unbelieving staring at half his trunk lying on the ground, Alexei didn't hesitate continuing his motion stepping forward and slashing the backs of both the elephants legs and jamming the blade of the weapon through the groin and into the belly of the huge bull. But the elephant had recovered trumpeting in anguish spinning to the side and slamming the shield against the head of the tiger causing Alexei to lose control of the hilt leaving the blade impeded nearly its entire length. The bull rampaged in pain at the tiger trying to crush him with it's massive body, war hammer or shield. The tiger desperately rolled and leaped forward out of the range of the enraged beast and came up drawing his secondary sword.

The elephant came rampaging forward, but the movement was obviously ripping it apart on the insides as the embedded sword cut into its internal organs causing horrendous damage. Alexei tried to move inside the elephant's guard slashing and striking with his sword while carefully spinning, dodging and weaving trying to avoid the enraged bull's frenzied attack. But the elephant hit the tiger a glancing blow with a shield and followed it with a strike of the war hammer knocking Alexei into a corner stunned. The elephant suddenly charged the corner landing upon the helpless tiger.

The room froze and everyone gasped. Sheba screamed in horror, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Reynard instantly opened the door pulling throwing blades, but realized he was too late. As he pulled back to toss the first blade, he instead let it drop lifelessly to the floor behind him as he saw the huge form of the elephant standing motionless in the corner. He called all his assistants in as well as the watching council, and they all grasped the huge elephant from all sides lifting upward and back. It took nearly everyone they could find to pull the elephant away from the corner. The huge bull teetered upright and then crashed backward as everyone scrambled to get out of the way.

Reynard immediately moved forward trying to remove what remained of his bodyguard and friend only to see an enormous pile of grayish and pinkish gooey pillows or casings several meters high. The fox was confused and unsure of what he was looking at until he looked back at the elephant on his back and saw its belly had been sliced open and a trail of gigantic entrails continued from the cavity to the pile of massive intestines and organs he saw piled in the corner where the tiger should be.

Reynard began desperately yanking on the huge gooey sticky globs pulling them away and immediately others joined until the saw a piece of razor sharp steel sticking upright and then saw some glimpses of orange and black stripes. They scrambled to uncover the tiger and finally exposed his head and body. Once they found his shoulders, the entire crew lifted him up by each armpit and pulled his slime covered body from the pile of entrails lying him flat on the floor.

The good news was he didn't appear to be crushed, but the bad news was he wasn't breathing. They attempted to press against his chest on his heart, but Coal and Rath were having problems pressing hard enough to have any effect and they called to try and get one of their Rhino gang members who was on the upper deck of the ship. Then all of a sudden a striped mass of fury came through knocked everyone out of the way and Sheba jumped on Alexei's chest pressing down with both paws together rapidly while Coal used his paws to make a seal on the sides of Alexei's mouth and Rath blew inside trying to get air to him. The medics then brought in a special breathing mask they placed over the tiger's mouth and a pump to quickly administer breaths while another readied a defibrillator placing a sealant on the paddles and yelled, "Clear." But just as Sheba moved off his chest for them to administer the shock, Alexei began coughing and spitting up some mucus. They removed the mask and cleared his mouth and throat and then attached an oxygen mask over his face while the medics monitored him.

After a few minutes he finally regained consciousness and sat up with his back to the floor looking confused at the elephant and the giant pile of intestines all over.

"What happened?" The giant Amur tiger asked confused as he looked questioningly at the very concerned tigress who was holding him in her arms.

Reynard answered his bodyguard, "It seems you were stunned and the elephant tried to crush you in the corner, but you must have had enough sense to raise your blade above you as he came down and you cut a hole completely through his gut. Instead of falling on top of you, you fell inside of him."

Alexei shook his head in wonderment and got a grin as the giant tigress rubbed her face against his ignoring the gooey mess and then giving him a few huge licks with her massive tongue.

Coal made another amazing observation, "You are fortunate you were not sliced apart by your own original blade which was sticking through that chest from the back of the bull. Fortunately the giant guts of the beast intercepted the huge blade protecting you from being sliced by it."

Alexei nodded but then showed a red mark down his shoulder, "I was actually sliced by it, but was very fortunate that what struck me was the dull side."

Reynard tried to get the attention of his tigress lieutenant and remarked to all, "Well how about we get Alexei to the medical bay to be fully checked out. I tend to like to have that done when one of my crew comes back from the dead. That sound okay Shea?"

Sheba nodded her head and removed Alexei's blade from the body of the elephant and cleaned it placing it back in its scabbard. She then helped to carry Alexei out of the room and to a temporary medical bay setup for just this kind of emergency. Sheba, Reynard and a few others stayed outside while they checked the tiger over thoroughly and others worked to clear the huge mess from the room.

---

The duels had taken the entire morning and the early afternoon to complete, and they still had 370 executions to get through. Reynard had promised his mistress a day of glory and offerings like she had never imagined possible and the next phase of the punishment would help him keep that promise to his goddess.

They decided on something they had read about in the histories called the gauntlet. They would release twenty prisoners into the room. Waiting for them would be a gauntlet of punishers consisting of Sheba armed with her teeth and claws, Coal with dual equal blades, Rath with a stave and Reynard with a full brace of throwing daggers. Each would spread out so as to avoid hitting each other and would essentially kill the twenty as fast as possible.

Reynard was essentially the insurance policy if any prisoner tried to flee or if any of the others were having any problems, as the fox would fire missiles of death rapidly killing any who caused any problems. The fox was quite happy to sit back and let the others enjoy the work as he actually had quite enough of killing for a long time to come. But gladly prepared himself to ensure his lieutenants were not harmed if things got out of control.

They had selected those with fighting skill and the biggest most powerful condemned to fight in the duels. The remaining 370 were the smaller and weaker condemned and were all unarmed so they reasoned that they could handle twenty at once. If there were any problems, or if the number seemed too easy, they planned on adjusting the number up or down as they went.

As the doors opened and the first batch of twenty entered, it was quite chaotic as those entering all tried to run back out the door and it took an entire group on the other side to try and force them to stay in the room as the desperate mammals forced their way back out. The outer six fell and were quickly dispatched by a swipe of Sheba's paws and jaws and a few cuts by Coal and crushing blows by Rath. However fourteen of the prisoners all managed to force themselves back out the door and they had to spend a good ten minutes rounding up and capturing the ones on the loose. One even managed to get to the top and jump off the boat, but a beaver gang member was able to easily catch them in the water until others arrived to haul them back.

They had learned their lesson with the first batch and instead brought the second batch completely into the room blindfolded. A full contingent of staff stood at the door to the exit and they removed their pawcuffs. The assistants then quickly removed the blindfolds and exited. The group of twenty looked around quick confused until they heard the huge tigress growling and noticed the other armed gang members, and then mad chaos reigned as a mixture of screaming, frozen staring and running in all directions occurred. If it wasn't for Reynard's mistress giving him strength and encouragement, he might have gotten sick at the massive slaughter as death surrounded him on all sides. But the fox had watched the video tapes of the House of Horrors and the various sex clubs those assembled were responsible for and the fury inside him rose and consumed him as he let knives fly in three different directions striking three different prisoners who had decided they had seen enough and taken off into various parts of the room. Sheba was a one kitty wrecking crew shredding limbs, torsos and anything she could reach. Rath and Coal made sure to give her plenty of room as they didn't want to accidentally come anywhere close to the shredding machine. The black panther and lion calmly dispatched anything within reach, and then pursued any of those that had fled. One desperate wolverine had remained unnoticed and had leapt at Coal from behind while the panther was busy dispatching a couple of targets. But the wolverine forgot about the fox waiting in the corner of the room who let two blades whistle through the air, and Coal turned feeling something crash into him only to see the dead creature at his feet with two knives protruding from its neck.

The gauntlet continued one batch after the other with various alterations, but Reynard could only call it what it was and that was a mass slaughter. The fox enjoyed the beauty of one-on-one duels as the combat held interest and challenge to him. But this slaughter on an unheard of scale sickened him. He had expected there would be guilty parties that deserved such treatment when he undertook his missions, but if he had known this would be the result, he was beginning to wonder if he would have done it again. The fox had to keep thinking about all the innocents in the worst conditions possible in ultimate hopelessness. He had spent quite a lot of time among them understanding what had befallen them. Those visits and images recorded by the mercenaries gave him the strength of will to continue to make sure this never happened to any others. As they continued batch after batch, even Sheba seemed to be getting a bit exhausted at the amount of slaughter. The only one that seemed insatiable was Reynard's mistress who was in ultimate ecstasy reveling in the death and chaos bathing in the blood of the fallen.

The gauntlet lasted two hours. Two hours of blood, guts, screams of anguish and horror, the loss of bowels and bladders, expressions of terror and despair, begging, pleading, prostrating, severed limbs, weeping and death on an unimaginable scale.

Finally it was over as the last one fell. All four of those who had been executioners felt cold inside. Committing murder on such a horrific scale did something to you even if it was justified and necessary. You had to shut your normal self away and become merely an instrument of Azrael, a bringer of earthly justice and righteous to the land.

---

Going forward Reynard realized he now had to focus on the living and helping all the innocents adjust to their newfound freedom. Most of those rescued could not be immediately returned to their families as they needed a great deal of counseling, medical care and love before they tried to readjust to their former lives. Some communities like bunnies had a huge support group waiting for them and could be returned almost immediately. When Rachel had gone back with her parents after being rescued with Aza from The Dungeon, she had a huge family that all made her feel welcome and loved. She admitted to Aza there were moments where she felt tainted and worthless, but her family quickly removed those feelings and doubts convincing her that she was the most precious thing they had and nothing that happened to her could change that. For those that did not have such a support system, Reynard had hundreds of kids who had been through the same thing the captives had gone through and they all helped the rescued adjust and gain back that hope and confidence they had lost.

But he had one task remaining before he could focus on the recovery process which was very well funded now due to his special fundraising efforts earlier in the day. First they released the boat from the mooring and moved it south into one of the deepest sections of the Marshlands and began the grisly process of dumping the 450 corpses or what was left of many of them. The fifteen that had bought their freedom had already been transferred to another ship and all finished transferring assets and signing and videotaping confessions. They were all being well treated and were set to be returned to their homes that evening. All of them knew the consequences of speaking about anything that occurred. The full confessions and mounds of evidence of their crimes were quite powerful deterrents to those fifteen from ever uttering a word about anything. Part of the agreement for their cooperation was that no word of their crimes or involvement in any of the activities would ever be exposed as long as they kept their silence and never committed any such crimes ever again.

They then moved the ship back to the temporary dock and then stripped everything possible from the ship they had been using for the executions. The ship had been set to be retired anyway and they were about to send it off in style. They then marched the 279 prisoners onto the ship held in pawcuffs and some with their legs restrained as well to varying degrees. All these prisoners were also wired together with cables attached to various structures in the ship. They then took the ship out into the deep water south of the city and the assistants all begin disembarking from the ship.

Reynard then got on the intercom to the entire ship pronouncing his sentence and the final punishment, Phase III, announcing calmly, "Assembled convicts, you have all been found guilty of horrific crimes against innocents and all deserve a sentence of death. However, the crimes did not rise to the level of many others. Most of you are guilty of slavery and nothing more. Because of this all of you have been given a chance, a chance at redemption and life. For any of you that survive, I hope you see this as a new opportunity to change your lives and dedicate yourselves toward the betterment of others. If however you are found to have returned to your former crimes, believe me, you will be praying for the sweet cold embrace of death if we find you."

The fox then explained the chance they were given, "If you all work together, it is possible all of you could survive. Panic and chaos is the enemy. Keep a calm head and you just might live. Those with an unfair advantage with regards to swimming such as tigers, bears, beavers, otters, hippos and any other mammal with a natural ability to be adept at aquatics have been handicapped to some degree based on their natural advantages. Remember, if you all work together, you can all get out of this alive. I am a believer in redemption, and am cheering for such an outcome. Good luck!"

A couple of assistants unlocked the ends of the long cables that snaked around the entire ship connecting the prisoners and began pulling them free until they had several hundred meters of cable piled up. They locked the door to the top and set a remote charge in front of the door. The captain then released all the seacocks at once releasing water into all the ballast tanks and the hull simultaneously scuttling the ship.

As the ship began to fill with water, all those aboard began to transfer to the sister ship they had parked alongside and quickly but orderly moved across a walkway with rails that had been setup between the ships. Fortunately it was a fairly calm day late in the evening so the shaking and movement between the ships was fairly minor. However as water began to pour over the sides of the ship and down into the hold there were screams and a great deal of pounding on the door leading to the upper deck.

Reynard got on the intercom again issuing a warning, "Please stand back from the outer door. There are charges set and it will be blown in a couple of minutes. Anyone within the blast radius could be injured, killed or knocked unconscious. This is your last warning. Good luck to you all."

The fox then put the intercom speaker down and calmly strolled across the walkway following the final crew. Once they were sure all were retrieved they began withdrawing the bridge between the ships. As the sinking ship got low enough in the water and the water began to pour in over the sides, Reynard set off the remote detonator blowing the door to the upper deck and potential salvation for all those trapped below. All other exits above deck had been sealed so it was the only escape for any that didn't wish to sink to the bottom of lake. Reynard, his council, the ship's crew, and his assistants and gang members all watched as the ship slowly began to disappear below the surface of the water.

"Are none of them going to get out?" Coal wondered.

Jasper's excellent eyesight in the low light picked up something, "Wait… I see something in the water there!"

Sure enough in the water they could see many dozens of forms floundering around. All those along the side pulled out binoculars watching the action.

The scenario did not look good for their chances of survival though as most of those in the water seemed to be spending all their energy punching and kicking and climbing over the bodies of others using their fellow captives to help keep them above water. A few of the others seemed to realize what was going on with the giant melee and decided to head out on their own moving in different directions. The captain had picked the exact point equidistant from all land so it didn't really matter which direction they swam as they all were about the same distance from land. For any understanding the currents, they may be able to ride the currents to help them make landfall. However trying to swim with restraints was extremely difficult and very slow and tiring. They had already seen a few of those swimming away struggling in place and a couple disappearing beneath the water.

The captain had checked radar and still didn't see any nearby vessels, but it was possible some of the swimmers might be able to locate a ship that could rescue them close to shore. But the vast majority of the survivors seemed to be collected in the area where the ship had sunk all hanging onto each other using the dead and suffocated as a makeshift life raft. They remained with the floating mass throughout the night intercepting a couple curious ships and discouraging them from approaching.

By the first light of the morning those still remaining alive on the mass was greatly diminished. Either part of them had decided to strike out on their own or had succumbed to elements and sunk to the bottom. Reynard and the captain decided it wouldn't be a good idea to be seen in the water in the light of the day and left the area heading northwest to the Marshlands. They arrived in one of the hidden bays in the Docks District a couple of hours later and his lieutenants and council went to take care of critical gang business and then get some rest. He also suspected Alexei and Sheba had other personal plans based on the looks the two had been giving each other.

---

Reynard arrived home at Maupertuis and took a long shower to clean off the many layers of blood and gore that had collected and hidden in his fur. He then had a warm bath drawn and sat in the warm water just relaxing resting his aching muscles and trying to calm his headache and rest his weary body and mind. They had a tub that was able to heat itself and maintain a constant temperature and Reynard decided to take full advantage enjoying a long relaxing bath. After about thirty minutes, he heard the door open and something got into the water with him. He smiled as the love of his life snuggled up next to him hugging him tight and rubbing her head under his chin. He wrapped his paws around her and gently touched his muzzle to hers licking her nose resulting in a giggle from his gorgeous vixen.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" The fox remarked with a sigh.

She smiled and snuggled close, "I think there are well over a thousand children and adults that are free today that weren't a few days ago as well as many thousands of other kids who were given a future where none existed that would argue you are deserving. But my own personal answer is that I couldn't ask for a better husband or father for my kits."

Reynard pet his love's head grinning, "I think I will stay around the house for the next few days if that is okay. I have been away from you and the kits far too long."

Aza got a big grin hearing this, "Are you finally finished?"

The fox sighed, "For now… but I fear we are only just getting started."