Elemental Cats

Scrael and Asilean arrived next to Mindle soon after Toz left her on the ground, and she conjured her flames. Scrael and Asilean nodded at her before diving through the opening in the fire magic containing the herd of buffalo.

Since Scrael could still feel the aftereffects of her battle with the Stone Demon, she didn't let loose completely and stayed close to Toz. But Asilean realized the opportunity he had been handed and decided to take full advantage of it.

With Mindle's flames limiting the buffalo herd's movements, practically trapping them in an arena, Asilean got stuck in the middle of several buffalos aiming for his life. The constant threat to his life and having to maintain perfect awareness of his surroundings almost immediately pointed Asilean in a direction he could improve, even if it wasn't offensively.

So far, he had only dodged or avoided opponents by running in a straight line away from them. However, dodging while in the middle of rampaging demonic beasts wasn't as simple as merely shrinking space and dashing forward. Asilean had to meticulously analyze and watch out for every stray leg, hoof, or head aiming for his life.

The trick he tried to use against Yill, spatial shifting, was incredibly useful since it allowed him to move instantaneously in any direction. However, he wasn't adept at using it at first, so he accidentally moved himself closer to danger several times. Shifting space like that also drained his mana, so Asilean had to use it sparingly.

Instead of avoiding the strikes that were already about to reach him, Asilean began using his void and space magic to extend and enhance his senses. With his space magic, he could sense the movements in space. However, sensing the movements of matter or life in space was different from only perceiving the movements of space itself, so it took a few attempts until Asilean could rely on it.

After figuring that out, he decided to use the leeway he got himself to try out attacks.

Reinforcing his claws with space magic and tearing space had devastating potential since it would sever or tear through whatever was in the part of space Asilean clawed. But the buffalos' oppressive demonic energy resisted the effects of Asilean's space magic, and his claws left nothing more than superficial scratches.

He had found a way to dodge and survive in the midst of the stomping hooves, but it would be useless if he couldn't injure or kill the buffalos since the more than twenty demonic beasts would certainly outlast him. Asilean could escape or rely on Toz and the other cats, he could even jump up and take a breather to rest and recover before diving back in, but before entering the circle of fire, he had already decided to give it his all.

And if he gave up now, he couldn't be satisfied with himself.

Eventually, Asilean noticed one thing regarding the buffalos. They were mindlessly stomping him and weren't very careful or attentive to each other. It seemed like the members of the herd weren't the intelligent type and were more suited to following the leaders' orders. But when there were no leaders or orders, they just followed their instincts. Instincts powered by demonic energy that told them to rampage and attack anything and everything in sight.

After analyzing their movements by sensing how they affected the space around them before they even moved, Asilean didn't have much trouble avoiding their attacks. It took some mental strength to maintain such vigilance, but it wasn't enough to strain Asilean unreasonably. He could even decrease the precision, which would lower the time he had to dodge, but it would also not require as much mental exertion.

Instead of sensing the buffalos' movements to the tiniest muscle twitch, he simply looked out for when their limbs actually began moving, something he couldn't do with only his eyes in the middle of such a hectic battle.

However, the buffalos could barely tell what they were doing themselves, much less what any other buffalo was doing.

Since he couldn't attack them by himself, Asilean began using their attacks against themselves.

He positioned himself so that when he dodged, one buffalo's strike would land on another one's leg. Since the buffalos' bodies were sturdy from the beginning and reinforced with demonic energy on top of that, a few strikes didn't do much. It took several clean hits for a buffalo to break another buffalo's leg, and it would recover after only a few minutes at most.

Things hadn't gone quite according to Asilean's plan, especially since they grew more agitated after attacking or being attacked by each other.

That wasn't the only thing that worked against Asilean. As they grew more frenzied, they also spurred and strengthened the demonic energy surrounding them, which made it harder for Asilean's space magic to detect their movements.

The increased intensity of the buffalos' rampage and the sudden spike in difficulty of sensing their movements had Asilean dodging and darting around frantically and on the verge of panic.

He could only persevere and try to figure out a way to solve his situation. it wasn't dire enough for him to give up just yet. More importantly, he didn't want to give up. Although he hadn't figured out a way to increase his offensive power, he had still managed to learn something by sensing the buffalos' movements using his space magic.

Increasing his personal strength would be good, but getting stronger in any way he could would still put him and the others closer to finding and saving Taienra.

And sensing the buffalos' movements almost let him see their moves five steps ahead, even when there were more than five buffalos attacking him at the same time. Asilean realized that it would be even more useful if there were fewer opponents since he could dedicate all his concentration to a single target. He might even be able to figure out what the target would be doing before they themselves knew.

That realization sparked Asilean's wish to grow stronger, and he started fighting back. Even if his claws only scratched the buffalos, if he scratched them enough times, the buffalos would still go down in the end.