Elemental Cats

The Zombie Stone Demon's punches weren't heavy enough to make Toz falter, but if he kept taking them head-on, his arms would quickly tire. But he remembered soon after he started dodging that the Stone Demon didn't only attack with its fists. It also knew how to use gravel and the stone around it in its attacks.

The Stone Demon's attacks seemed a little less refined after transforming into a zombie, and the bursts of gravel that accompanied each of the demon's fists didn't even scratch Toz. But they did make it more difficult for him to fight back, though only marginally.

After dodging both the fist and the ensuing hail of stones, Toz straightened his arm, his sword an extension of his body. With the length of his arm and the sword, Toz had no trouble reaching the demon, even after dodging its attacks.

The sword, reinforced with metal and coated with fire, cut through and singed the demon's skin. The wound wasn't deep enough to cause any real damage. But it proved that the demon still took damage. However, Toz couldn't be sure if the demon didn't bleed because it was dead, the wound was shallow, or because of the fire. So he attacked again, this time without fire.

Since he had already gotten comfortable with the demon's simplistic attack pattern, Toz landed a graver injury this time. And he could confirm that the Zombie Stone Demon still bled, but the grey, thick blood like liquid grey stone had gotten a black sheen and was filled with the death attribute.

Toz became increasingly curious about the functions of death magic. But he concentrated on the fight and the robed figures in case they were up to something since that was a lot more important than fleeting curiosity.

The robed figures seemed like they were only watching Toz and the cats fight, but Toz didn't let down his guard. Instead, he started taking things more seriously.

He still hadn't figured out what the source of the Tribe of Death's confidence came from, but until he did, he would have to keep being careful. At least it looked like they were making steady progress with their opponents.

Toz was gradually chipping away at the Stone Demon.

Mindle and Asilean were cleaning up the weaker buffalos, with Lucy giving them support when they got stuck deep in the thick of it. They didn't need Lucy's aid, but it was a way for them to keep their true strength hidden while still decreasing the buffalo herd's numbers.

And while the three other cats dealt with the herd, Scrael fought with the leader.

That was when Toz realized something. There was only one buffalo leader among the zombies. However, there had been two when they fought them and their herd.

Toz was so confused by the discovery that he instinctively blocked the Stone Demon's attack instead of dodging it.

After getting his mind back on track and retaliating against the Stone Demon by punching it in the face, Toz looked at the zombie buffalo leader.

The zombie buffalo was almost intact on one side, while the other was gruesomely destroyed. The only thing that had been restored following the effects of the death magic was the skeleton. The flesh hung in rags, clearly showing off the smashed internal organs.

The damage on the zombie buffalo leader was all the evidence Toz needed to confirm that it was the one that Nil killed, which meant that the one Lucy killed was missing. After figuring that out, Toz turned to the cats, who had to have already noticed it.

"What happened to the other one?"

Despite the lacking clarity in Toz's question, the cats understood what he meant, and Lucy answered.

"I didn't leave a corpse they could use."

"You're gonna finish your story after this, Lucy."

Toz was curious about what Lucy did so that there wasn't even a corpse left behind. But they didn't have the time for stories at the moment.

Although the zombies had similar capabilities to their living selves, there was one distinct difference. They didn't feel pain. Despite the injuries that the Stone Demon and the buffalos incurred, their movements or actions weren't hindered in the slightest.

But there were some things that even the zombies couldn't ignore.

The Stone Demon might not have felt pain when it once again lost its arm, but that didn't mean it could ignore the consequences of losing that arm. It had one less fist to try and punch Toz with, and its body became unbalanced.

It was the same with the buffalos. Once their legs were cut off, they couldn't move around and became sitting ducks for Mindle and Asilean to finish off.

The Zombie Stone Demon and the zombie buffalos weren't stronger than when they were alive, and after a while, they died again at the hands of Toz and the cats.

Toz cut off the demon's head, which seemed to have made it useless.

Scrael and Asilean gave the buffalos similar treatments.

Lucy and Mindle were the only ones not killing the zombies. Lucy's magic wasn't quite suitable. And while Mindle's magic was perfect for extermination and getting rid of corpses, she held back for several reasons. One of those reasons being her identity as a spirit.

The figures from the Tribe of Death didn't seem to have noticed Mindle's identity, but it would be a lot harder for her to hide it if she freely showed off her magic and strength. But if she painted herself as the weakest in the group, the robed figures wouldn't pay much attention to her.

Mindle was restraining herself so much that her magic left the buffalo's dead skin dry and helped weaken the buffalos without actually dealing a lot of damage to them. She only used three of her Tongues of Flame since that was all she needed. She controlled them and had them fly around the battlefield, heating the buffalos, making steam rise from their moving corpses, and helping the others defeat them.

After killing the Stone Demon, Toz helped the cats clear out the zombie buffalos, and just like that, they had killed their opponents a second time.

Toz and the cats turned to the robed figures with a questioning and expectant look. He refused to believe that the robed figures thought that would be enough to defeat them. Since their bodies and faces were hidden by the robes, Toz couldn't use their expressions to tell if they were surprised or not. But they didn't seem affected by Toz and the cats breezing through their reanimated corpses.

The robed figures were already facing them before Toz and the cats even finished, and they didn't move after the Stone Demon and the buffalos fell. But after a few moments, the one who hadn't spoken as much as the other waved a hand and sent a wave of death attribute mana toward the corpses strewn across the ground.

Toz and the cats each had at least one chill run down their spines following that magic. Even if they weren't familiar with death magic, they could tell that it was a bona fide spell. And considering its destination, its purpose was evident.

Toz started to realize why they were so confident in bringing Toz and the cats back to their fortress without having to use excessive force.