Elemental Cats

After he began using Armor Slice, Toz's sword cut through the buffalos' demonic energy, and when he improved it using his mana vision, he cut through their bodies as well.

His sword shone as he swung it through the air. Blood sprayed as he chopped off legs left and right and slashed open buffalos.

The bloody and fierce battle made Toz's own blood boil, and he excitedly hacked away at the buffalos.

However, he quickly realized that he was too excited. Using Armor Slice made it easy for him to defend and counterattack the buffalos' attacks. Too easy, in fact.

If he wanted to kill all the buffalos as quickly and smoothly as possible, Toz would have used his magic from the start. But he didn't because he wanted to train his swordsmanship skills. After realizing that he was wasting valuable sparring partners, Toz stopped using Armor Slice and went back to only reinforcing his sword to increase its durability.

Unfortunately, there weren't very many buffalos left. Toz had killed and maimed a bunch. Scrael killed a few and finished the ones Toz injured but didn't kill, and Asilean was wreaking havoc in another corner of Mindle's flame arena with his newfound offensive capabilities. He was even spurring the buffalos into such a frenzy they tried to escape the enclosure. But due to Mindle's magic, they burned to death before they could even fully enter the fire.

Once a few buffalos got picked off and died, it became progressively easier to kill the rest as well.

Since there weren't a lot of buffalos left of the herd, Mindle helped clean them up, and before they knew it, Toz, Mindle, Scrael, and Asilean finished with their part of the plan. Standing in the middle of several heaps of buffalo corpses in varied states of destruction really imprinted the fact that they were on a battlefield into Toz and the cats.

But since Nil and Lucy were still busy fighting their opponents, Toz and the other cats didn't just stay still and ponder about the reality of war. They split up into two groups and ran over to Nil and Lucy in case they needed help. But also because they were curious about how Nil and Lucy were doing.

Toz and Scrael went to Nil, and Asilean and Mindle headed for Lucy.

Toz felt a little dissatisfied that his tussle with the buffalo herd hadn't given him much other than the improved Armor Slice and some experience fighting with only his sword. But he realized that he wouldn't have been able to learn much from fighting simple-minded demonic beasts in the first place.

And since they finished pretty quickly, they would be able to support Nil and Lucy faster if they needed it. If they didn't need it, they could simply watch their fight and get a better understanding of their companions' combat abilities, which would help them cooperate better in the future.

Toz and the cats already held incredible trust in each other, so leaving their backs to each other wasn't a problem. But they could only bring out their own and each other's full potential and strength if they knew what the others were capable of doing. Since everyone trained and improved constantly, it was hard to keep track of how strong everyone was at all times.

The fights they would be having wouldn't only serve as training. They would also help Toz and the cats to understand how strong the others were.

Although Toz and the three cats that helped him exterminate the herd did their part at a decent pace, Toz worried that they had still been too slow and would miss the fight. He would have also worried that Nil and Lucy weren't able to take care of the buffalo leaders if he hadn't trusted their strength. And if they had been in any kind of serious, life-threatening trouble, Toz would have sensed it through his inclination.

Thankfully, it didn't seem like Toz had missed the fight's climax, as Nil and the buffalo leader looked to be in the middle of their battle.

Since Nil had always been more interested in traps and constructing things to hunt his prey with before actually initiating a battle with his target, Toz had been curious about how he was going to fight against the buffalo leader when he wouldn't have had enough time to set up anything. He did have his spell, Sharp Rain. But Nil wasn't as boring or one-track-minded to only spam his spell until the buffalo died.

If anything, Nil would be reluctant to use Sharp Rain since it didn't really align with the way he wanted to use magic. Sharp Rain was a decent spell that greatly increased his offensive power. But it was lacking in versatility and creativity. Nil learned it since he needed something to increase his strength, but it was the only thing he could learn at the time.

If he'd had a choice, he would have likely chosen something different.

But even if it didn't suit the way Nil used magic, Sharp Rain had still taught him a lot about metal magic and its various properties. The way metal could be sharp, soft, rigid, and flexible, all at the same time, had greatly improved Nil's other magic.

Even if Nil couldn't use another spell, he could use the effects and properties of Sharp Rain when he used his other magic to begin imitating the effects of spells and true magic. He was still quite a distance away from actually creating a new spell, but as long as he could increase the power of his magic, Nil was happy.

However, it remained to be seen if that would be enough for Nil to emerge victorious against the buffalo leader he was fighting. And the only way to find out was to continue fighting against the rampaging buffalo without faltering.

A single moment of weakness, a single mistake could spell doom for Nil.

A demonic beast that seemed to be at the ninth level wasn't something a seventh level being fought carelessly.