Elemental Cats

Joshua's discovery regarding what he was capable of, thanks to his inclination, was pretty startling. And Toz almost immediately thought that if Joshua was strong enough, he might be able to steer the entire island by taking control of the island's barrier bubble. However, those thoughts only led to the realization that it would take a lot of time for Joshua to reach that level, and they would still have to be stuck on the island of trees for it to be of any use.

After Joshua figured out the workings of his inclination in more detail, he told the others on the island about it because he found it neat and wanted to share his discovery. The only thing that slowed him down was leaving the bubble he had unintentionally trapped himself inside. However, once he got the hang of it, he could easily make himself pass through the bubble again. And just to make sure he actually had it figured out, he tried going back in and out of the bubble several times.

Since he had pridefully shared his progress with everyone who listened, Joshua decided to get back to training. This time he decided to train while inside the large bubble. And it seemed like Joshua had finally solved it. At first, Joshua couldn't even understand what was happening as the mana practically surged into him like a river. And the intense flurry of detailed sensory stimulation from everything within the bubble overwhelmed his mind, making it even more difficult for him to process and guide the mana to his mana pool.

The shock brought him out of his training state, and Joshua lay down on the ground. As he relaxed, he realized what had happened, and he sighed. After confirming that the island's barrier was also a bubble that he could interact with, he had accidentally connected to it with his inclination somehow. And using that connection tried to funnel as much mana as possible into himself while at the same time having every last detail of the area enshrouded by the bubble sent directly into his mind. Overwhelming was an understatement.

The influx of mana made him feel bloated, and despite being such a mess he couldn't make sense of it, the tsunami of information left him with a throbbing headache. The only reason he figured out what happened so quickly was that his inclination made him aware of how far he had reached beyond his capabilities. Joshua's inclination also helped him stop his training before he overloaded his brain and permanently injured himself.

Joshua decided to take a break from training until he could figure out how not to do the same thing next time. Though, the pain in his mind didn't exactly make him excited about thinking up a solution, so he took it upon himself to stand watch and keep a lookout for void beasts.

It was a boring task, but it let him relax his brain since there was nothing that strained his mind as he only looked into the almost empty Void. In order to alleviate some boredom, Joshua began counting the stars. He wasn't expecting himself to actually count them all or keep track of all the stars in the Void. It was only to pass the time and let his mind be distracted by something simple.

And Joshua managed to get pretty far in his counting before he lost track, but after he began counting anew, he noticed that one of the stars looked slightly bigger than it had the last time he gave it a number. At the same time, Toz sensed something in the direction of the growing star and turned his head in that direction.

Joshua didn't immediately go and look for anyone else to tell them about the star since he wasn't sure it was really growing bigger with each moment.

However, he didn't need to tell anyone after Toz appeared next to him. Toz hadn't sensed something with his ordinary senses. It was a vague feeling of distress, reminiscent of what he had felt when in Tumbling Thunder Forest. A feeling similar to what he had felt when Scrael was in trouble due to the demonic ritual.

That was also why he had sensed anything before anyone else. Although the cats hadn't noticed anything, they noticed Toz's movements and joined him at the edge of the island. And after Joshua, Toz, and the cats were all gathered, the rest of the island's inhabitants joined them. And by the time everyone stood at the island's edge, what Joshua thought was a star, was evidently not a star.

But it didn't seem like it was a simple swarm of void beasts either. However, it was too far away to determine the identity of the object since it was so far away, despite its apparent size. They could tell it wasn't a star because it wasn't bright enough and because of how it came closer and closer to the island.

Toz and the others would have already been able to tell what kind of beasts they were if a swarm of void beasts had been close enough to appear to have the same size.

However, even after several moments passed and the thing far off in the distance kept increasing in apparent size, it was still so far away that it was impossible to determine if it was a single beast or several clumped together.

The group's main worries were naturally that it was the predator that had scared off all the other void beasts in the area. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do aside from having their magic prepare for when the beast came within range. Based on how quickly the object came closer, there was no way they would be able to flee on an island they couldn't even control.

Using the boats might give them some more hope, but at the same time, it would also reduce their chances of surviving in the Void. Stitches had confirmed that the boats weren't enough to attract void beasts frequently enough for them to survive on eating them. There also wasn't a guarantee that the boats were faster than what they would have been fleeing from.

Staying on the island and taking a stand was the option with the highest likelihood of ensuring everyone's continued survival.

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