Elemental Cats

Asilean's injury was a simple blow to the head, so after Stitches worked his magic, Asilean woke up and joined the others.

After Asilean woke up, Taienra sighed in relief and turned her attention to Dristel.

Toz and Wulf had brought Dristel to the same place Stris was since it would be more convenient to store both prisoners in the same place. However, no one had built a prison to house Stris and Dristel, so their confinement was a little unorthodox, and Taienra had to use her control over the trees on her back to make it work.

Dristel seemed reluctant since it was a very crude and uncomfortable way to hold a prisoner, but he wasn't in a position where he could object. He would at least be next to his brother.

Dristel walked over to his brother after confirming that Stris was only unconscious and not permanently injured or dead. Dristel stood a couple of meters away from Stris' head since the ground hid the rest of his body.

When Dristel was in place and stood relaxed without raising any defenses, the ground disappeared from under him, completely burying everything up to his neck. Dristel could look around, breathe, and eat, but he couldn't move the rest of his body. And sleeping would probably give an incredibly stiff neck.

However, for eighth and ninth level fighters, merely being submerged in wood wouldn't be enough to keep them restrained unless it was wood of a suitable toughness. The void trees were, without a doubt, special, but they weren't durable enough in their original condition.

Growing wood with metal magic might work if the metal mana was of a high enough level, but their only sources of metal magic were Nil at the sixth level and Toz at the fifth level. Even if there was anyone who was at a suitable level, it would take too long to make the wooden constraints.

Toz and the others didn't bury Dristel and Stris in the wood because of its ability to forcefully constrain them. It was because the void trees, under Taienra's control, could sap the martial energy out of Dristel and Stris. It required their cooperation or for them to be unconscious, but compared to dying, it was a lot easier to live without martial energy for a little while.

Without Toz's sword and having to control it, Taienra wouldn't have been able to drain Dristel and Stris of their martial energy. That discovery comforted Taienra in her choice to accept the forest on her back. And she looked forward to making more discoveries regarding what the trees were capable of doing.

With Dristel and Stris tucked in, Taienra headed to Pirate Haven. The plan was only half-finished, and everyone was beginning to look forward to the end result where Toz ruled over Pirate Haven. At least Toz and the cats were eager about that. The Bunglehoppers were worried about the city and, more specifically, their treasury. Joan and Joshua were worried about Tasha, who had stayed and defended Pirate Haven against the Starsling Navy.

Joan had been too scared to approach Red Hook to ask about Tasha after Toz and Asilean teleported her and the other two pirate leaders to Taienra. Joshua, on the other hand, was courageous enough to ask Red Hook about Tasha.

Red Hook was unexpectedly helpful when she found out why Joan and Joshua wanted to know. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could tell them about him since she herself didn't know more than Retsy did, despite being Tasha's direct superior.

According to Red Hook, she and Tasha were more in a cooperative relationship rather than a leader-and-subordinate relationship. Tasha didn't tell Red Hook more than she needed to know, and Red Hook didn't ask for more than that since she was interested in Tasha's strength, not his personal life or what he did before arriving at Pirate Haven.

The only reason Tasha even followed Red Hook in the way he did was that it was the easiest way for him to get revenge on the Starsling Kingdom. Without Red Hook's help, it would have been impossible for him to have improved as quickly as he did or find out that the Blue Lounge League was secretly affiliated with the Starsling Kingdom.

Red Hook might not have been able to tell Joan or Joshua more than they already knew about Tasha, but she could, at the very least, help them meet each other as soon as things calmed down.

Joan and Joshua were naturally worried about how it would go for Tasha since he would probably go wild and try to take down as much of the Starsling Kingdom's navy as possible, even if it meant he had to risk his life to do it. Hopefully, Tasha would realize that a single fleet would be nothing in the eyes of the entire Starsling Kingdom, and if he wanted to take proper revenge on the entire kingdom, he would have to live longer and grow more powerful.

Joan, who had initially been conflicted about Tasha's newfound violent tendencies, was slowly coming to terms with how much he would have changed. But she still didn't want Tasha to needlessly risk his life just because he thought she and Joshua were dead.

Most of the people on Taienra's back were feeling strong emotions in anticipation of what awaited them back at Pirate Haven. Toz and the cats were worried about Toz's ambition. The Bunglehoppers were worried about their base and treasury. Joan and Joshua were worried about their husband and father.

The one exception was Brunswick. Brunswick was forcefully adopted into the group by Toz and the cats because they saw the potential of his inclination. And because he seemed like a nice addition to their rag-tag bunch of drifters. However, to Brunswick, it seemed like they only took him in to use his eyes. The working conditions were a little better than the Blue Lounge, and no one yelled at him if he forgot to put on the glasses solely made to hide his eyes. But the pay was a little less regular, and there also seemed to be a few more working hazards connected to hanging out with Toz and the others.

Brunswick also didn't feel entitled to the treasure, so he had nothing to worry about in there. And he had never met Tasha before, and he had learned during his time in Pirate Haven that there was nothing more meaningless than worrying about a person you didn't know.

Brunswick sat a little off to the side, staring into the Void and contemplating his present and future life.

However, he didn't reach any conclusions before Taienra had brought them all to Pirate Haven and the devastation that surrounded it.