Elemental Cats

Toz looked at the fat man who shouted at them before turning to Lucy, clearly disregarding the man. Lucy understood Toz's attention, and shadows burst out of the ground to cover the entire ballroom in a dome of darkness. The dome of darkness would prevent anyone from escaping and alerting the guards and prevent the guards from sensing the commotion that Toz and the cats were about to stir up.

After Lucy's dome went up, Toz and the cats turned toward all the noble-wannabes, who were slowly recovering from their shock. Some looked frightened after Lucy put up his dome, but most of them looked like they were about to burst from all the suppressed outrage. However, they couldn't suppress their rage at Toz's rudeness for much longer, and the people gathered in the ballroom soon began shouting and hollering at Toz.

Toz naturally got annoyed at that and sent a fireball into the air. The fireball exploded into a shower of sparks that rained down on the ball attendees and the servants. The fire was more for show than attack, but it still scared everyone to silence, especially when their clothes began catching on fire.

After everyone had put out the fires, they looked at Toz in fear. Most people in the ballroom had enough sense to realize that Toz was powerful. They had all, at least, started as bottom-rung pirates, even if their current standing was something like executives in a company. They were also acutely aware that any pirate powerful enough to contend with Toz was part of the proper guards. Not the ornamental guards with pretty faces and shiny armor that were part of the ballroom's decorations.

However, not everyone was part of the crowd, smart enough to keep quiet. The obese man who demanded Toz's identity still hadn't realized the gravity of the situation. One of his comrades was about to stop him from speaking up, but he was too late.

"I didn't ask for fireworks! I asked for who you are!"

The obese man was tackled to the ground by a tall, lanky guy with glasses, who placed a hand on the round man's mouth to shut him up. The obese man struggled to free himself, but his outer layer of fat only hid a few more layers of fat. There wasn't a hint of muscle anywhere on his body. The lanky guy with glasses soon relaxed his grip on the big guy's body since he became incapable of struggling anymore. He still had his hand on the fatty's mouth to keep him from talking, but he loosened it enough to allow the fat guy to breathe as heavily as he needed due to his exertion of flopping around on the ground while trying to shove the lanky guy off him.

Toz and the cats looked at the spectacle with humor in their eyes.

"To answer that person's question since it will save some time, we are-"

"The Paw Print Pirates!"

Lucy's interruption made Toz and the other cats look at him.

Toz had been about to tell everyone he and the cats were raiding the place and would spare anyone who handed over all their storage items and valuables. However, Lucy stopped him mid-sentence.

Questioning Lucy would not give off the fearful effect that Toz wanted in order to make the robbery go smoothly. But he was left with no choice since the other cats also wanted to know when Lucy decided on the group's name.

"Since when?"

"Since we arrived?"

Lucy answered Toz's question as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Toz was the dumb one for not knowing.

"At Pirate Haven?"

"Hmm. Maybe since we decided to become pirates?"

Toz's question made Lucy think deeply enough to realize he didn't know the answer himself.

"Never mind that, then."

Toz turned to face the rest of the ballroom before continuing.

"In any case. We're here to rob all of you of everything you own. Hand over any storage items and everything of value on your person. If you do that, you might get out of here alive."

The people in the ballroom began stirring and mumbling to each other, but no one seemed like they were about to give Toz what he wanted.

To demonstrate his sincerity, Toz gathered lightning in his hand and threatened them,

"I might not have been clear enough. Comply, or die."

Since no one immediately handed over everything, Toz decided to make an example out of the fat man, still held down by the man in glasses.

The lightning bolt pierced through the air directly at the fat man's thick head.

It happened too fast for the people to react. After the purple-white flash faded, the next thing people reacted to was the scream from the glasses guy. At first, they thought it was because of the lightning that barely missed him.

But when they looked closer, they noticed that the lightning didn't miss. It had hit its mark, and that was exactly why the guy on top of the fatty's corpse screamed.

The fatty's head had turned into burnt mush splattered outwards on the floor.

Toz found it ridiculous that people whose background was piracy had become so sheltered they were squeamish enough to faint at the sight of a smashed and splashed head when it is one of the most common ways to kill people.

Toz scoffed at the sight. Although he hadn't intended it, it was enough to trigger everyone to shakingly empty their pockets and fingers and gently, while bowing, creep forward to Toz and put everything at his feet. The man with glasses was first and quickly helped the people who fainted give up their belongings when he finished handing over the rings and bags he owned.

It didn't take long for a pile of storage rings, bags, and pockets, ripped off of the clothes of some of the executives, to gather in front of Toz and the cats.