Elemental Cats

Asilean could already feel his mind buckle as he used magic to check on his surroundings and the buffalos' movements, dispel his target's demonic energy, and coat his claws, all at the same time.

But if he only endured for a moment, it would be over, and he might even have a solution to his lacking combat strength. So he endured.

After getting rid of the demonic energy that hindered his space magic from tearing through the space that overlapped with his target, Asilean struck out with his reinforced claws.

Asilean didn't even feel a speck of resistance until he reached the buffalo's hide, and by then, it was already too late. He had already torn through space, and his paw moved with enough force and momentum to continue through the buffalo's shoulder.

His four claws opened up four half-a-meter-long sparklingly blue tears in space in the same place as the buffalo's shoulder. Asilean hadn't managed to amputate the buffalo's shoulder completely, but the wound was deep enough that it lost control over its leg.

The buffalo stumbled back in panic, pain, and fear. As it left the spatial tears behind, it showed off its injuries with a fountain of dark red blood. Four deep wounds, gouged out of its shoulder, revealed how much meat had disappeared into the hole in space and how difficult it would be for the buffalo to recover.

However, it might not even get the chance to recover.

His success had made Asilean eager to give it another try, and the buffalo was barely in a state where it could move properly, much less defend itself against Asilean's attacks.

Asilean could feel a budding headache, though, so he took a few moments to distance himself from the buffalos and let his mind recover before going for another attack. Since he had done it once, he could do it again. And each time he did it, it would grow easier on his mind. Even if the first time he used magic in three different ways at the same time strained his mind, it wouldn't be as bad the second time, and the third time might not even be a challenge.

With his mind aired out and his mana in order, Asilean got ready for another round with the buffalos. He dove back into the fight with the herd that had become even more frenzied after two of their members had gotten gravely injured.

Since he heard the sounds of Toz and Scrael's fighting due to the buffalos' bellowing and bleating, Asilean wondered how they were doing. But he was busy with his own battle, so he didn't think more about it. If he was doing fine on his own, there was no way they would be in trouble.

And Asilean was mostly right. Toz and Scrael weren't having much trouble with their fighting.

In order to let Asilean get as much practice as he needed, Toz decided to take a slower approach to kill the buffalos. It was slower, but it would also let Toz practice his swordsmanship.

Since Taienra had been kidnapped before Toz's final sword was completed, Toz still only had his four-attribute sword. It was fine as long as he didn't use his void or space magic with it directly. But that was what he wanted to do. Toz wanted to use his void magic and combination magic and mix it with his swordsmanship.

But since he couldn't do that at the moment, he could only hone his swordsmanship and prepare for when he got ahold of a sword that could handle all his magic.

Although he was decent, maybe even pretty skilled, at controlling and using his magic, the sword skills he used to supplement his magic were lacking in comparison. Toz basically used his reflexes, dexterity, and raw physical abilities to swing his sword in the way he thought by nothing more than habit and instinct would be best.

Toz hadn't had any proper training, but he had sparred with people more used to armed combat a couple of times and had learned a lot about how to wield a weapon. He had also learned Stris' Armor Slice sword technique which gave him some hints on how to use a sword.

But he was still far from being as skilled with the sword as a sword fighter. And Toz had a feeling he wasn't yet ready to mix his magic with his swordplay until he got better at wielding a sword.

However, while fighting the buffalo herd, he could practice swinging and striking enemies with his sword. He didn't know how beneficial it would be for him, but if he put all his effort and thought into every swing and strike he made, he was bound to learn something sooner or later.

He also limited the magic he used to move around and dodge the buffalos' attacks and charges.

Aside from using metal magic to reinforce himself and the sword, Toz only used his mana vision to help him fight the buffalos, nothing else. He used his sword and reflexes to block, parry, intercept, or dodge the buffalos' attacks, and when he could, he counterattacked.

Activating mana vision was more to train his mind than to have it actually help him. But when he had it active, he noticed he could more clearly see his sword's trajectory. He also saw the mana flowing through his sword in ways he hadn't noticed before.

While it was just a hint as to how he could combine his magic and swordplay in the future, Toz noticed that he could affect his sword's path by controlling the magic in it. He also figured out how to more accurately replicate Armor Slice with his mana.

Armor Slice was a martial technique that used martial energy to create a layer of aura on top of a blade-type weapon that would be sharp enough to even cut through armor.

It was possible to use it with mana. Some attributes would be more suitable than others, and the efficiency varied depending on how skilled the mage was. Thankfully, Toz had the metal attribute, which was very suitable when it came to properties of sharpness. He was also skilled at controlling his mana, so he could imitate Armor Slice to a great extent.

But when he used his mana vision on his sword filled with metal mana, he noticed how he could improve and correct his magic when using Armor Slice.

It was an unexpected boon. But Toz happily accepted it since it would help him develop his magic swordsmanship in the future.

However, he was quickly brought out of his temporary joy-filled reverie by the onslaught of the herd of buffalos.

He dodged the attacks with only a couple of bruises, thanks to the combat suit.

After realizing that he wasn't in a position to daydream, Toz refocused on the battle and decided to try out his newly acquired proficiency with Armor Slice.

Due to the buffalos' rough hide, sturdy muscles, and overbearing demonic energy, he had only managed to barely incapacitate one buffalo so far. And the others quickly prevented him from finishing it.

However, things changed almost as soon as he began using Armor Slice.