Elemental Cats

The magic circle backing the Blood Fiend came like a circular wave of reddish light each time the Blood Fiend went from puddle to humanoid giant. However, after Mindle shrank to below the Blood Fiend's height, the magic circle's light wasn't solely red. Tendrils of magic that looked like cracks in the red light had infiltrated the magic circle.

Mindle noticed what was going on, but the tendrils didn't seem to have any obvious effect on the Blood Fiend, so she continued lambasting it with her paws. But she wasn't splattering the Blood Fiend as easily anymore since it became capable of putting up resistance when Mindle shrank to a small enough size.

The Blood Fiend still lost ten out of ten times. But each time it lost, Mindle lost a significant amount of strength, and it went from three attacks to four, then to seven before the Blood Fiend fell.

And each time, the tendrils deepened and spread throughout the magic circle. It was impossible to tell if the ominous tendrils were a sign that something was broken or if they were a sign that the Blood Fiend was about to transform into something even stronger after dying so many times.

But eventually, when it looked like Mindle and the Blood Fiend were evenly matched in strength, the source of the dark, creeping tendrils revealed itself.

"There we go… And now a little like this, before…, Finally!"

Toz sighed at the voice coming from the Blood Fiend.

"Oh, mighty feline beast of fire! You have done well to push me this far. But now, it's too late for you and your comrades! You have awakened me from eternal slumber! I, the Blood Ancestor, will show you the true meaning of despair!"

The Blood Fiend that had apparently transformed into the embodiment of the Blood Ancestor turned toward the skies and roared in a show of dominance. But since the person talking had a cute and small voice, it looked and sounded as if a baby was throwing an angry tantrum.

"Come, Fire Cat, and face me in glorious combat!"

The Blood Ancestor pointed at Mindle and waited for her to charge. Mindle shook her head and sighed slightly, but she obliged the Blood Ancestor and charged forward.

And so, the glorious battle that the Blood Ancestor wanted unfolded in front of Toz and everyone else on the battlefield. Of course, to Toz, who knew who the 'Blood Ancestor' was, it became an interesting show. But the others like Kahglia, the Flesh Golem, the Death Knight, and all the troops of the Alliance of Kingdoms were on the brink of despair. Some had even started contemplating suicide to at least get a painless death.

However, people quickly realized that Mindle still had the advantage. Despite the Blood Ancestor's confident proclamations, it turned into a mostly one-sided beatdown, with Mindle doing the beating.

It barely even looked like the Blood Ancestor was capable of defending itself.

"Ahh! How do you even control this thing? How does Toz even walk around with a body like this? What a madman!"

The 'Blood Ancestor' probably hadn't meant for those words to slip out through the Blood Fiend's body so that everyone on the battlefield could hear them. But it happened, and those who knew Toz's name naturally looked at him with shock. Why did his name come out of the Blood Ancestor's mouth?

But considering that only ten people knew his name, it didn't cause much of a stir. Well, thirteen if he counted the members of the infiltration squad who were still knocked out.

However, Kahglia, who hadn't heard Toz's name, looked at him with suspicion.

"What's your name?"

"..."

"It doesn't happen to be 'Toz,' does it?"

"No comment."

Toz felt sweat start pearling on his forehead as he avoided Kahglia's gaze. Just the fact that she asked him that question showed how much she suspected it.

"Looking at you now, you're pretty relaxed, huh?"

"Not at all. I just look like this no matter what happens."

Kahglia took a few steps toward Toz and bent down slightly to stare at him closely. She unclenched and clenched her fist.

"I'm going to ask you this once. Okay?"

"Mmhmm."

Although Toz had done more toward the Blood Fiend than Kahglia, that didn't mean he was stronger than her. It was a matter of what they were up against and how the Blood Fiend was resistant to physical damage. However, Toz was highly susceptible to physical damage.

And after helping Mindle feed and strengthen the firestorm after already using incredible amounts of mana to restrain and burn the Blood Fiend, Toz didn't have much mana left. He might be able to escape, but he didn't want to run away without the cats, even though it looked like it would be fine since Lucy had taken control of the Blood Fiend and started using it to play with Mindle.

"What are you up to?"

Unfortunately, Kahglia asked a question Toz didn't know how to answer.

"Just waiting for my cats to finish following around."

"You heard me when I said I was only going to ask this once, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So, what are you thinking to spout such stupid nonsense?"

Kahglia looked like she was about to start using violence, so Toz hurried to back away from her, using space magic.

"You have no right to question me!"

Kahglia's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Toz using space magic. But since he had survived against the Death Knight, it wasn't that surprising. She sighed since her intimidation tactic hadn't worked.

"Fine. I won't question you. Just tell me what's going on and if we're going to die or not."

Toz shrugged from far enough away that Kahglia wouldn't pose a threat.

"Probably not."

"Good. You're coming with me after we're done here, by the way."

"Hey! I just told you that you can't question me, and now you're trying to kidnap me?"

"Kidnap you? I invited you? Where are you from, anyway?"

Toz was reluctant to answer this apparent kidnapper's question. Thankfully it didn't look like he had to since the battle between Mindle and the 'Blood Ancestor took a weird turn.

"Ah! Ah. Wait a little Min- I mean Fire Cat. Some pests showed up. I'll be right back, so don't go anywhere!"