Elemental Cats

Even before all the dirt could fall from the creature's body, Toz could already begin to tell what kind of demonic beast it was. It was an oversized worm with a circular maw filled with teeth that could easily shred through the ground and whatever rocks came in its path. Something like a human leg wouldn't even serve as an appetizer for the beast or its meter-wide gaping mouth.

But as it rose, Toz could see an appendage retract into the center of its maw. It looked like a tongue but with teeth all over it. If that thing hid right beneath the surface and waited for someone to step right on it, Toz wouldn't be surprised if the one who fell for the trap lost their leg.

Fortunately, the archer had reacted quickly and shot an arrow at the tongue before it could tear off his leg completely. However, the archer was still immobilized and couldn't escape the Earth Worm as it continued climbing up and bending its body in a curve similar to the path that its sand attack traveled. But unlike the lump of sand, the Earthworm wasn't affected by the arrows the archer shot. Its teeth, moving like a maelstrom of destruction, shredded all the arrows before they could barely hit it.

The Earthworm's enormous and lengthy body made its movements look slow, but it closed in on the immobilized archer with frightening speed, its maw spinning, its teeth grinding, and its skin twitching.

The archer didn't have enough time or space to launch an attack powerful enough to pierce through the swirling jaws of doom, but he could attack its sides in hopes of making it reconsider its meal choice. He launched several arrows that curved around the Earthworm's maw and struck its sides. Some of them elicited screeching from the Earthworm, but none of them were quite enough to make the Earthworm stop its movements. If anything, they only infuriated it and made it move even faster toward the archer.

The archer didn't stop attacking, but despair was evident on his face. Although he thought he was ready to face death when he stepped onto the battlefield, he didn't expect it to be at the hands, or maw, of a demonic beast lurking below ground right outside the camp. The only thing he could do other than continue firing useless attacks was regret that he wasn't more cautious.

The Earthworm was so close that the archer could smell the stench of its previous meal reeking out of its maw. Since there was nothing he could do, and since it was futile even to attempt to resist, the archer accepted his fate and closed his eyes.

However, he hadn't expected death at the hands of the Earthworm to be so hot, painless, and noisy. The archer opened his eyes again to see what was going on.

His eyes opened wide, and his jaw inadvertently dropped at the sight of the Earthworm curdling and twitching like a stranded fish with smoke rising from its mouth. The archer saw its charred teeth and mouth and could only stare at the dying Earthworm in awe as another attack came flying, once again washing the surroundings in heat.

The Fireball hit the Earthworm's mouth again, scorching its mouth and its insides.

But Toz wasn't done. Since the Earthworm was still moving, it could obviously still handle a few more attacks, which would let Toz modify his Fireball a couple of more times.

Toz used the inspiration he got from when he broke out of prison to improve his Fireball, which improved its damage. Toz hadn't expected the demonic beast to be able to handle so many of his attacks, so he was slightly surprised. But he was also happy, and he continued blasting Fireball after Fireball onto the Earthworm's scorched corpse long after it had seemingly died.

Since they knew that Toz was practicing his Fireball while using his mana vision, the cats only watched with patience. Mindle watched a little more closely since she also used fire, but the other cats quickly grew disinterested. After a while, Toz noticed that he wouldn't be able to improve his Fireball much further, so he stopped torturing the poor Earthworm's ash.

The cats knew what Toz was doing, so they didn't think much of it, but to the archer, it looked like Toz was someone with an incredible vendetta against Earthworms or a maniacal fire mage. In either case, it might be best not to be too close, so the archer bowed in thanks before cautiously hobbling back to the camp.

When he noticed that Toz wasn't caring about him, the archer relaxed and hobbled back more quickly. During the battle, adrenaline had kept him from feeling the pain. But when the fear of death subsided, the torn muscles, bones, and nerves in his mangled leg and foot wouldn't stop screaming. And each hop only worsened the pain, but the archer gritted his teeth and jumped back to the camp so that he could get help. Hopefully, his leg wouldn't be too far gone.

Toz looked at the archer and admired his iron-willed attitude. Of course, he would have been more admirable if he had avoided the Earthworm instead of getting injured.

After looking at the ashes that remained after the Earthworm, Toz and the cats moved deeper into the battlefield. Killing a demonic beast and saving a fellow combatant of the Alliance of Kingdoms was only the start of their accumulation of merit. If they want more, they'll have to do more.

While walking, all of them thought about how the Earthworm had withstood several of Toz's Fireballs and began thinking about ways to improve their strength.

Mindle, with her Tongues of Flame, and Nil, with his Sharp Rain, didn't have too much to worry about since they had their offensive spells. Lucy did have his mind manipulation magic that worked exceptionally well against demons and demonic beasts, so he had easy to attack the enemies, but he didn't have a way to actually damage or kill them without depleting his mana since that was what it took to kill someone by only destroying their mind.

Scrael, while strong, wasn't necessarily strong enough to tear through the enemies they would face on the battlefield. But she had ample experience with fights of life and death, and it was during such fights that she grew the most, so she would probably do alright, even without a spell to support her.

Asilean was the one in the worst position. He and Taienra had mostly drifted through the Void, so he wasn't as used to combat as the others. He didn't have any spells to increase his fighting power, and his only offensive move was slashing through space at the same place as his opponent, which could be difficult if the opponent had a lot of mana that could resist his magic.

Thankfully, none of them were alone. Toz and the cats would work together to overcome each other's weaknesses and display a strength that far surpassed what each of them could accomplish on their own.

With that mindset, the six of them walked deeper into the battlefield, and the symbol on Toz's hand began to imperceptibly fill out.