Elemental Cats

As Toz wanted, he got a close-up experience of the fascinating attacks from the blue cat. But he didn't have time to do anything other than guess that it was probably the space element. The current situation didn't allow Toz to leisurely inspect the magic attacks of others since he was busy launching fireballs like a pyromaniac.

The majority of the void beasts in the swarm were low and medium level ones, so they died from only the waves of heat that the fireballs' explosions created. High level ones, on the other hand, needed to either be close to the explosions or receive a direct hit for them to die. However, the flames and power of the fireballs were buried under the incredible mass of a seemingly endless amount of void beasts.

Thankfully, Toz had a lot of mana and could afford to unleash fireball after fireball. And he wasn't alone either. Although Nil, Lucy, and Scrael weren't having an easy time attacking the void beasts, Mindle's attacks were extremely effective.

Mindle's tongues of flame didn't even have to come close to the void beasts before the heat they gave off turned the void beasts into ash. And the tongues grew hotter with each passing moment as Mindle kept turning up the heat and testing the limits of her spell.

The blue cat's attacks were also effective as it tore apart the fabric of space, leaving large wrinkles and scars in the air that distorted and tore apart the void beasts until they were repaired.

But despite Toz, Mindle, and the blue cat attacking the horde of void beasts and killing innumerable beasts, there didn't seem to be an end to it. Toz had no idea for how long the whale had been running around and gathering the horde, but he could understand why there hadn't been any void beasts near the island for quite some time.

Their attacks couldn't even slow down the void beasts' advance. At least not until Mindle managed to conjure a third flame. The third flame, aside from creating another source of heat that burned the void beasts, also helped Mindle strengthen the two other flames.

With Mindle's third flame added to the mix, they finally managed to stop the void beasts from narrowing the distance. But they still showed no signs of stopping, even when the heat grew so intense that all the blood evaporated and turned to ash before it could reach the void beasts.

Toz could only assume that the void beasts were following the trail of pure and concentrated starlight mana that seeped out of the whale's back. Considering the wounds were dug where the whale stored mana, Toz wasn't surprised that mana left the wounds that were made in the process of digging out the crystals. However, that also meant that they wouldn't be able to stop the void beasts' chase until Stitches patched up the whale enough for it to stop leaking.

But Toz doubted that would be possible before the group in charge of attacking ran out of mana. He, Mindle, and the blue cat was burning through mana just to barely keep the void beasts from narrowing the distance now that the whale was pushing the island of trees and couldn't reach the same top speed it had before it slowed down. It was also becoming increasingly clear that the whale was exhausted.

Toz could hear the heavy panting from where he was standing, and he could feel the whale's labored breathing through his feet.

The whale wouldn't be able to flee for much longer. And Toz and the other two in charge of keeping the void beasts at bay wouldn't be able to stop the void beasts from devouring them all.

The only thing Toz had to do, was launch fireballs like there was no tomorrow, and he could let his mind wander slightly. He still had his eyes on the swarm of void beasts to make sure that the fireballs land where the highest concentration of beasts was. But he began thinking of a solution to their utterly problematic situation. He had an instinctual feeling that there should be a way to solve it, but he just couldn't figure it out.

A whale leaking mana attracts incredible numbers of void beasts. The swarm of void beasts is too big and aggressive for a few medium level mages and beasts to take down by themselves since their mana will run out. Even while not pushing the island of trees, the whale is too slow to outrun the void beasts. The whale is also growing increasingly exhausted, and the situation grows worse with each passing moment.

The most obvious way to stop the bleeding is to have Stitches give the whale's back emergency treatment and cover the holes enough for the whale to contain its mana. And then, hopefully, the void beasts will stop hounding after the whale. But everything Toz could think of wasn't viable. Stitches needed time to do his work. By the time he would finish, they would all already be devoured by the void beasts. Toz might like experiencing new and interesting things. Dying to a horde of rampaging void beasts was not something he was interested in.

Toz felt like a bolt of lightning had struck his mind as he figured out a possible solution.

Toz glanced at the blue cat out of the corner of his eyes and asked,

"What does your friend think of trees?"

The question that came from out of nowhere and its seemingly nonsensical contents almost caused the blue cat to fumble its magic.

Toz didn't have enough time to tell the blue cat everything he needed to, but even a shortened version was enough to give the blue cat hope. The blue cat gave an even shorter version to the whale, who grunted an oaky through heavy breaths.

Although it might lead to other problems down the line, it was the only viable solution for their current situation. And it seemed like an outrageous idea, but Toz at least thought it might really work.