Elemental Cats

After Asilean's interruption ended and he stopped causing a disturbance, it was finally time for Lucy to explain how he defeated the buffalo leader.

He had just told them about the pebble and how that triggered an idea. Now he only had to tell them why it triggered an idea and what it reminded him of, as well as how he thought about how to do it before he could finally begin explaining his magic. It was a rare moment where Lucy's magic actually had some thought behind it, and he didn't just come up with it on the spot, so he wanted to brag about his superior intellect and insightfulness.

However, before Lucy could begin, Toz held up a finger and shushed him.

"Be quiet for a moment."

Lucy pouted at Toz's interruption, but he obediently listened and stayed quiet. He let go of his pout after a few seconds as he grew curious about what Toz was doing.

Toz closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate on sharpening his senses. The other cats realized what he was doing and also turned their attention to the world outside the black-tinted translucent shield covering them like a tent.

The cozy atmosphere under the shield gradually grew tense as Toz and the cats, stayed silent and concentrated on perceiving whatever it was that had caused Toz to shush Lucy.

However, neither Toz nor any of the cats sensed anything, even after several minutes of absolute silence and concentration. In a silence where not even their breathing could be heard, there was nothing to explain why they couldn't hear anything.

The only reasonable reason for why they didn't hear anything was that Toz had sensed wrong.

After the minutes of concentration, that thought popped up in the cats' heads. But only for a moment before they discarded it. Toz wouldn't make such a mistake, and if he did, he would notice it before he told them to stay quiet.

Since the cats didn't sense anything, they waited for Toz to either sense something or to give up.

A few of the cats with greater perception abilities, like Asilean and Mindle, didn't stop looking.

Mindle could use her mastery of heat to sense if there were any living beings giving off heat in their surroundings. But she didn't sense anything even after looking around them several times.

Asilean used void and space magic to stretch his senses far and wide, but he also didn't sense anything.

Eventually, Toz also realized that no matter how much he looked, he couldn't find anything, so he signaled to the cats that it was fine to talk again. But he didn't lower his vigilance in the slightest.

Following Toz's signal, Lucy began talking again. Carefully, in case he disturbed Toz's concentration.

The other cats listened just as carefully since it was obvious that Toz had sensed something, even if he couldn't pinpoint it. However, it also seemed like it wouldn't make a change if they just kept turning their ears and shaking their whiskers in absolute concentration since they still couldn't find it. And Toz knew that the cats needed to relax a little, so he let them continue with their story moment.

After making sure that Toz didn't mind them talking, Lucy began explaining again.

But he didn't continue where he left off. Because there had been a few minutes where the cats did something else, the anticipation and suspense that Lucy thought he had built up with his story was gone. Naturally, he had to restart from the very beginning.

Asilean couldn't help but groan since it would take ages for Lucy to reach the exciting part, which was what they really wanted to hear. If they were unlucky, Lucy might even go on a tangent and begin his story from before he was born. If that happened, Asilean swore he would find a way to teach Lucy a lesson.

But despite, Asilean's groaning and the other cats' more than apparent displeasure, Lucy began his story from the beginning and once again explained how he noticed a pebble next to him during Toz's quick strategy meeting.

The cats didn't have anything else to do, so they still listened to Lucy talk, although haphazardly. Lucy ignored their half-hearted attention and continued talking in a clear, attention-grabbing voice.

And when he finally got to the part where Toz interrupted him last time, he managed to regain the other cats' attention. Nil even opened an eye and turned to look at Lucy, like the others were already doing.

"And that was when I realized that–"

"Wait."

However, after only a few more words than last time, Toz once again interrupted Lucy. But this time, it wasn't without cause. Toz had cause when he did it before as well. But now, the cats also sensed that something was wrong outside the shield covering them.

Ever since they entered the battlefield, they had been able to sense the battles others fought, even far away, since the magic and the attacks were so powerful.

But now, only a deathly stillness hovered around the forest of stones they had sought refuge in, though they didn't know how far that silence stretched since their perception was blocked some distance away.

Whatever it was that covered their surroundings had descended as silently as the night. And even Toz, who was fully concentrated on watching their surroundings, didn't notice it until it happened.

The cats stopped talking and got up while rousing their magic. They position themselves in a circle. However, Nil was still injured, and before he knew it, Toz had already swept him into the familiar space.

Toz and the remaining four cats stood in a pentagonal shape as they warily watched their surroundings.

Based on the magic that covered them, it was clear that they were being targeted.

Since the shield hiding them wasn't doing its job properly and wouldn't be very helpful if battle broke out, Toz and Lucy got rid of it without even discussing it beforehand. Their seamless synergy was especially helpful in situations like these, where the distraction of talking would reveal an opening.

Eventually, a few silent moments after they got rid of the shield, a couple of hooded figures appeared from within the darkness.