Elemental Cats

Like they had done during their break between the first and second trip to the jungle, Toz and the cats strolled around Dormant Thunder, letting their minds wander and relax. Walking through the jungle where an ambush could come anytime from any place, the group needed to stay alert and on guard all the time. Doing that would eventually begin straining them, so they appreciated the short time in the city where they didn't have to be as careful constantly.

However, even if Toz relaxed and pondered on the contents of his grimoire, trying to understand it, he wasn't distracted enough so that he wouldn't notice the atmosphere in the city.

They had only been in the forest for about a week during their second expedition, but during that time, the city had grown somber. The pedestrians still around hurried from place to place, regularly looking over their shoulders. It felt like more people traveled using carriages and with guards.

Toz and the cats walked around like usual, but the mood in the city kept them on edge. It wasn't until they asked at the guild before heading out for their third expedition that they found out a string of gruesome murders had taken place all over the city.

Violence in a city filled with explorers who took pride in their strength wasn't uncommon. And while people rarely died, even if fights broke out, those were mostly accidents or singular occurrences.

The gruesome killings that had taken place in the last few days had been too extreme to be ruled accidents, and the locations of the victims and murders made it clear that some psychopath was doing it for fun. The victims that had no similarities except being in Dormant Thunder were all tortured and almost torn to shreds in an alley before being dumped in the middle of a trafficked street or a square.

Hearing that made Toz reconsider their strolls through the city. If even the city guards, who were filled with people at the sixth level and with several unique inclinations suitable for hunting down criminals, had trouble catching the culprit, Toz wasn't confident he could guarantee his safety.

Though, being the target of a renowned serial killer, or maybe even catching that serial killer, did sound pretty interesting. But since they were already on their way out of the city and headed for their third expedition into the forest, they might as well wait and see.

If the serial killer is still on the loose after their next trip, they can try and catch it.

The region of the forest they were headed for began deeper inside Treblor than the Crooked Branch region. It took the group a couple of days to reach the Rainforest region.

Since the Rainforest region was a lot bigger and deeper within Treblor Forest than Crooked Branch, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect some pretty interesting dangers.

Unlike the abrupt change in atmosphere between the area outside Treblor and the Treblor Forest itself, the environment and climate transition gradually between the two regions.

The trees slowly straightened out and reached up to the sky, forming a dense cover of foliage that began blocking out the sunlight.

The vines didn't stretch between the trees and instead hung down the trunks of them.

But the most significant change was the humidity in the air. Simply touching the trees left Toz with damp hands.

Fighting on slippery trees would definitely prove a challenge, even if their foes turn out to be weaker than expected.

The group's first opponent didn't turn out to be dangerous in direct combat. And while Toz struggled to retain his footing without adding spikes to his shoes with magic, the cats didn't find any difficulties running and jumping on the trees as they spread out to avoid the first attack.

The swarm of frogs was only at the fourth level, so they didn't have a chance at trying to sneak up on the group and were noticed long before they arrived in front of Toz and the others.

But their method of attack was devious, and the group only avoided the poison that came flying because they wanted to dodge the tongues that preceded that poison.

Toz noticed the sizzling remains on the ground and was happy that the cats had been careful and evaded the attack.

After the cats spread out, they encircled the swarm of frogs.

With the humidity and how wet the surroundings were, Mindle didn't have to worry about a forest fire even if she attacked at full blast.

Lucy and Nil stopped the frogs from fleeing, and Scrael chased down the ones that got through Lucy and Nil's barricade or escaped the moment the first attack failed.

Mindle continued spraying flames at the trapped frogs, eliciting panicked croaks as the frogs died.

After some time, when most of the hundred or so fruit-sized frogs had died and turned into a poisonous crisp, the group was forced to back away due to the toxic green smoke that began wafting up and spreading through the air.

The poison-filled frogs seemed to have started haunting the group as the poisonous smoke that was noticeably worse than the poison the frogs had spit out began drifting through the air in the direction of the Toz and the others.

The poisonous fog didn't dissipate and spread through the forest like a cloud, leaving a trail of poisoned and dying trees and vegetation.

The group tried burning or blasting away the poisonous fog with fire or lightning, but the attacks flew straight through the cloud, not having much effect.

Thankfully the cloud didn't move too fast, so the group had room to try different things and stop the fog. But even trapping it in a huge metal box delayed it. And that only shortly as the poisonous fog eroded the walls of the box and continued on its quest through the forest.

When the group tried moving in a different direction to lose the fog following them, they noticed that it wasn't actually the frogs' remnants haunting them. The fog drifted in a set direction, probably due to outside interference.

Seeing no reason to rein in their curiosity, Toz and the others switched places with the cloud of poison and followed it as it drifted calmly through the forest. Though they made sure to stay clear of the remnant poison on the trees and the ground.