Mirajane's POV

Before the King had shown up with poor Phaedra chained up and displayed like a criminal, I had been meandering through the crowds gathering intel as best I could. I was at the very back of the crowd when the king began to use his magic to break through the sealing stone fused to Phaedra's chest. I had immediately begun pushing through the crowd. By the time I could come to stand next to Freed, who looked shocked beyond words to have seen his spell nullified within seconds, the lava wall had burst up, blocking our view of the King forcing a kiss on an emotionless Phaedra. Once the lava disappeared and the King gave his strange order, I clenched my hands into fists when I saw the princesses beginning to pick off my friends.

My eyes went to the King, who had wrapped a possessive arm around Phaedra's waist as he watched his puppets attacking my friends with obvious relish. I had just begun my Satan's Soul spell and could feel the transformation beginning to take effect when one of the princesses with floor-length black hair stepped forward, holding a beautiful quill pen in her hand. My eyes widened when I realized that Freed had sent his own purple runes through the air, streaking towards the woman. Shimmering white runes appeared in the air in front of her and I saw her mouth moving. The runes shot forward, crashing through Freed's spell as if it were made of dust and then streaked towards Freed, wrapping his arms and chest tightly in a band of runes.

"Freed!" I cried out in anger. My transformation into my normal form of Satan's Soul was complete, but as I stepped forward to help, a woman dropped from the sky, landing directly in front of Freed.

Her black hair was pulled up in an intricate, traditional style with two large pink-tinted fox ears trembling from the tops of her skull. She was wearing a miniature kimono with black spandex shorts and thigh-high mesh boots. But most impressive was that nine, fluffy, beautifully silky tails were waving behind her, seemingly in constant motion.

"Mmmmmm. Thiz one haz a ztrong heart. Zeira, can I have him, pleaze?" The woman asked. She held out a hand with wickedly sharp pink claws growing where her fingernails should be and tapped one of them over where his heart would be. Freed glared angrily at the woman as he struggled to release himself from the strange script bonds he was in.

Having seen enough, I unfurled my bat-like wings and pushed off, zooming straight for the strange creature and kicking her hard in the side. To my surprise, the kick seemed to hardly faze her. She flipped beautifully through the air, landing with perfect balance on one of the tall poles that Phaedra had been chained to moments before. She grinned widely, her black lips splitting her pale face in a strangely seductive expression.

"His heart is already taken," I growled, standing in front of Freed as he used his rapier to awkwardly draw runes in the air and break the spell holding him in place.

"Watch out, Mirajane!"

A strong arm wrapped around my waist and yanked me to the side just as a barrage of white runes rushed past me, exploding against the ground. I looked back at Freed, saw the concern in his eyes, and couldn't help but smile for just a moment at him. I was quick to turn my attention back to the fox girl though, who had leaped over gracefully and was standing close to the script mage called Zeira.

"The heart of a loveztriken man iz alwayz juiziest," the woman said, licking her black lips with a wild gleam in her eyes.

"I'll make shure to zave hiz heart for you, Vayda. But remove thiz monztrozity from my zight. She reekz of dark magic," Zeira said, waving the feather part of her quill pen delicately in front of her nose like a fan and crinkling it in a look of disgust. To my surprise, Freed jumped in front of me and shot off a spell of his own towards the two mages. Zeira once again used her own runes to dissolve Freed's, but Vayda jumped incredibly high into the air, avoiding Freed's spell and landing on the rooftop of one of the houses.

"Don't let it get too damaged, Zeira," Vayda called from her perch before holding out her hand and shooting a beam of pink energy towards me. I beat my wings, instantly lifting myself into the air and easily avoiding the attack.

"Freed..." I called down, feeling worried.

"Go, Mirajane. The sooner we beat them the sooner we can go home," Freed called after me in the midst of sending spells and blocking Zeira's.

Suddenly Vayda appeared in front of me and I felt her knee slam into my unprotected stomach. Even as I began to move back I kicked out, trying to return the favor, but she had somehow turned her kick into backward propulsion and avoided my jab. As I flipped twice through the air I saw her land back on the roof of some poor citizen's home.

"Ready to play?" Vayda called out, once again licking her lips as she glanced down at Freed.

Anger boiled inside of me and I zoomed towards her. I growled in frustration as Vayda, instead of facing me, turned and began springing impossibly fast through the city. Terrified screams and cries of fear rang out underneath me from unseen civilians, making me hold back my more destructive spells that I was itching to use.

When Vayda suddenly stopped and turned to face me, I had made my decision. I continued jetting towards her, swooping in a spiral to avoid the beam of power that she sent straight at me. With a wide grin, I slammed my clawed and gauntleted hand into her stomach and increased my speed. Vayda gasped as we shot away from the city together.

As soon as I had left the last house behind me I pushed forward, sending Vayda rocketing towards the sand dunes below me. She crashed to the ground, rolling through the sand for several feet before she popped back up on her feet. I frowned when she brushed herself off, seemingly not feeling any pain from my punch, as she grinned up at me. Her nine tails continued to swirl behind her, their pink tips curling around fetchingly as she looked up at me with what looked like a sick delight on her face.

"It'z been a while zince I fought zomeone who uzed take over magic. If you weren't trying to interfere with my beloved, then I would have loved to... CHAT!" On her last word her nine tails suddenly all reached upwards and she held up her hands, which had a glowing pink sphere between them. Narrowing my eyes at the power I could feel from the growing spell I held my own hands out and began gathering the dark magic that seemed to infect every particle of air around me.

"Evil Explosion!" I yelled, pushing my orb of dark magic out towards Vayda just as she sent a similar pink orb towards me. The two orbs collided and the resulting explosion was so intense that I felt myself being rocketed backward. I desperately tried to use my tail and wings to correct my trajectory, but I soon found myself slamming into the sand.

Besides a few bruises from the landing, I wasn't hurt though, and I swiftly got back to my feet. Through the smoke of the fading explosion I could see Vayda jumping to her feet as well, her black lips turned up in a crazed smile as she began to streak through the sand towards me. Her feet seemed to hardly touch the ground as she ran and I flared my wings.

Pushing up from the ground I zoomed straight for her, reaching out my clawed hands. We began trading blows and I hissed in anger and pain as three of her wickedly sharp nails raked across my stomach even as she was deflecting my punch. Ignoring the surface wound, I launched myself into the air, flipping quickly and landing behind her. Reaching past her twisting tails I grabbed onto her arms and grinned.

"Evil Spark."

My spell created a huge electrical current inside me and I pushed it from my body into Vayda's. Black lightning began coursing through and around her body. She screamed at the shocking pain and all of her tails became so poofy from the static that I couldn't even see her.

Releasing my hold, the woman flopped to the sand beneath us face first. Her tails, which were sparking with stray black lightning all over, fell and covered her almost entirely from view. I was just about to turn away when an evil chuckle began to sound from the heap of poofy tails that smelled strongly of singed fur. Beating my wings, I began to hover a few feet above the chuckling woman as she slowly pushed herself up onto her knees. Her tails flopped to the ground and I blinked as she grinned up at me with a crazed look in her eyes.

"I should have known my zeduction form wouldn't work againzt a Demon Take Over zpecializt," Vayda said with a huge grin, revealing that all of her teeth were pointed and looked sharp as daggers.

Narrowing my eyes, I began gathering my magic for a Satanic Blast attack. But suddenly Vayda shot up, flipping in the air and landing as her entire body began to glow.

"Kitzune Zoul: Maldad," she said with a cackle.

I continued gathering energy but my eyes widened as I saw her body begin to transform. Her lovely human features became blurred. Her body elongated and I watched as dark fur burst over her whole body. Then her nose jutted out into a long muzzle and her hands turned into thick, wickedly clawed paws. I pushed out one of my hands, releasing the dark energy I had gathered in a powerful blast.

Her body disappeared inside a massive column of dark magic and I expected to hear screams of pain. But nothing happened and I flicked my eyes around, realizing that she had somehow escaped before the attack hit her. Turning around I gasped.

A huge, fox-like creature with deep red fur and black markings hovered in the air behind me. I managed to bring my arms up just as a beefy paw reached out and smashed into me, tossing me through the air like a fly. I straightened myself out just before I hit the ground and I backpedaled swiftly, narrowly avoiding a spear of blood-red magic.

Glaring at my opponent I wondered if she thought I was toying with her. I shot a beam of dark magic towards her, and to my surprise, she held out one of her fur-covered paws out where a red orb glowed and as my magic hit it, it deflected to the left without causing any harm at all.

She can deflect spells just like my Dark Deflect, I thought with a narrowing of my eyes. I couldn't see how she was flying, but she swooped through the air, waving her long, animal-like body as if she were swimming through the air currents as her tails, now a deep red in color, streamed behind her. Clenching my jaw, I flew towards her and we once again began fighting hand to hand. Even though she had a more animalistic form now, she was still able to keep up with me and as a huge explosion rang out from the direction of the city I had left behind, my frustration began to mount.

"I can't wait to zample your little green-haired friend'z heart," Vayda said, her voice sounding more raspy and deep than it had before. She suddenly kicked out with one of her back legs, gouging me even deeper across my stomach where her nails had swiped at me before.

She followed the kick with a burst of her magic, which exploded across my chest and sent me flying down to the ground. I had to bite my tongue to keep from shrieking in pain as I felt my wing snap underneath me. Breathing heavily I glared up at the princess, who was cackling like a hyena as she swam/flew through the air towards me.

"You'll never get the chance," I growled angrily as I began to shift into another form. "You're not the only one with multiple takeover forms."

My normal Satan's Soul melted away and just as Vayda was about to slam me with a blast of her magic new, stronger wings sprouted from under my shoulder blades, replacing my broken one, and I launched myself up into the air. Vayda let out a hissing growl as I swooped into the air, avoiding her attack and glaring down angrily at her.

I could feel all of my senses heighten as I finished my transformation into my Halphas form and I shot through the air towards Vayda. Her eyes widened as I moved so quickly the air shrieked around me and slammed my scaley, clawed fist into her stomach. She shot back through the air from the power of the punch and I pointed one hand in her direction.

"Cosmic Beam," I said quietly, gathering both dark and cosmic energy into my palm before releasing it in a furious stream of power. It slammed into Vayda's body mid-air and exploded with a deafening crash. I shielded my eyes from the brilliance of the explosion but quickly turned back and watched in satisfaction as a fur-covered body fell from the smoke cloud that remained from the explosion and crashed to the ground.

Flying over to the body, I waited for a few seconds and then allowed myself a self-satisfied smile when her monstrous fox form disappeared, leaving her bloody and injured human body lying on the sand. Grabbing her by the ankle, I turned and began flying back towards the city and the main square where all of my friends were.

A/N Sorry if the battle was a little short :S I hope you enjoyed it! I based Vayda's power off of the legend of the Ninetailed Fox that can be found in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean folklore. Apparently, in Japanese folklore, they refer to these shapeshifting trickster just as Kitsune (which literally means fox) so that's why I called it Kitsune Soul.