Elemental Cats

Before Scrael could push herself off the Stone Demon and distance herself from it, and wait for it to die, the Stone Demon used the last of its power to grab her wooden paw. Since it was her prosthetic leg, she wouldn't feel pain if she lost it at the hands of the Stone Demon, but without Taienra and the void trees, there wasn't a way to make a new one.

However, it seemed like the demon didn't have enough strength left to shatter the leg. It just grabbed it and held it tight so that Scrael couldn't move unless she discarded her leg. But before she could muster enough mana to let the leg disconnect from her, the last light behind the demon's eyes went out. The demon had died, but it still held Scrael's leg in a deadman's grip, so she still couldn't escape its grapes just yet.

Since it was dead, Scrael considered asking Toz and the others for help to dislodge her leg, but before she could, the dead Stone Demon moved again.

After losing an arm and reaching out with the other to hold onto Scrael, the Stone Demon's body was unbalanced and tipped over. The Stone Demon fell face-first with its rock-solid arm still stretched out, and the demon pinned Scrael to the ground.

With her feet on the ground, Scrael began struggling to pull herself free from the demon.

But she didn't have to do much. Now that the fight was over and Scrael had come out victorious, there was nothing holding Toz and the others back, so they ran over to help Scrael.

A quick swing from Toz's sword removed the demon's hand from its body, and a little Dissolution removed it from Scrael's paw.

After making sure she was okay, the others quickly began praising her for her victory. Scrael felt a little conflicted since she knew she had made a couple of mistakes, but she still happily accepted the others' thoughts before letting them know that she was tired.

Since Toz and the others had watched the fight, they could understand why. The air had trembled all the way to their hiding spot from the powerful impacts and magic. And to make sure that Scrael recovered as quickly as possible, Toz and the other cats told Scrael to enter the familiar space and rest. Now that she had fought well and exhausted herself, she didn't have to worry about the others until she recovered enough to fight again.

Having another set of eyes to keep watch over their surroundings could help them avoid ambushes, but only if the owner of that pair of eyes wasn't dead-tired.

After Scrael hopped into the familiar space to rest, the others rummaged through the Stone Demon's remains to see if it had anything of value. But it seemed like the Stone Demon lived a comparatively tragic life since the only thing that it had was the leather skirt.

Toz and the others left the body as it was before they left to continue further into the battlefield. After watching Scrael fight the Stone Demon, the others had gotten fired up and eager to fight such an intense battle themselves. Not only because it looked exciting but also because they had seen Scrael grow during the fight. She displayed power and magic she hadn't shown before. And it might in part be due to reaching the seventh level, but merely breaking through to the next level or division wouldn't let her show such might while also controlling it flawlessly.

Fighting with the Stone Demon had helped Scrael reign in all her thunderous lightning and also made her learn a new way to attack. Even the way she moved faster than what the others could perceive seemed to be a new trick. As it was, Scrael might currently be the strongest in their group, solely thanks to her battle with the Stone Demon.

The others also wanted to have such a glorious fight with a worthy opponent so that they could improve just as rapidly as Scrael. Of course, simply fighting a battle of life and death wouldn't be enough to make them stronger or help them temper their magic. In fact, Scrael might be the only one that could do it so well.

Scrael had fought to survive most of her life. She didn't talk much about her past. But her scars were more than enough evidence of how rough her life had been. If she didn't have the right constitution and mentality, she wouldn't have survived as long as she had. And she wouldn't have survived so many fights with wounds grievous enough to leave incredible scars like the ones she had if she didn't have the capability to rapidly improve while fighting.

The others vaguely understood that Scrael was more suited to battle than them due to her previous lifestyle, but that didn't mean they couldn't or wouldn't improve in combat. Pushing oneself past their limits using the threat of death was something anyone could do. And since the bond between Toz, Scrael, and the other cats shared their talent in magic, it might also be possible for it to share talents other than ones related to magic. It was a baseless guess, but it wouldn't be too strange. It was just that that part of Toz's inclination had never gotten an opportunity to shine.

In any case, whether they would be as good at it as Scrael or not, Toz and the other cats still wanted to fight. Even if they didn't display rapid improvement the same way Scrael did, they might still find clues or leads on how to train in the future. And even if they didn't, accumulating fighting experience was always a good thing, especially if they wanted to possibly stand up against an empire in the future when they're rescuing Taienra.

Toz and the cats' eagerness to find their next target might have been the reason why they moved on from the scene of Scrael's battle so quickly. It might also have been because Scrael's battle didn't last very long. But Toz and the cats left the Stone Demon's corpse behind, and soon after, several figures appeared nearby, when Toz and the cats were already far away.