Elemental Cats

After grabbing the cats, Toz set them down outside the array of fire that Mindle arranged to keep the trees contained. It didn't work very well since the trees weren't afraid of fire. But since the trees weren't very quick or agile, it didn't matter. If the cats were outside their grasp, there was no way the trees would catch up.

However, neither Toz nor the cats had any intentions of retreating. There was no way they could let the tree that had taken Mindle's flames and threatened her life leave intact.

The cats had already regained their senses by the time Toz put them down. But it seemed like Toz wanted to deal with the trees on his own, so they let him. After being on the battlefield and fighting for so long, sitting back and watching someone else do the fighting was incredibly relaxing. And the cats relished in the break that Toz offered them.

That didn't mean the cats weren't ready to intervene at a moment's notice should Toz need it. They just grabbed every second they had to rest and recover as much stamina and mana as possible.

Toz started off his fight with the burning tree by getting rid of any distractions. Compared to the ordinary trees, the one that had absorbed Mindle's magic was the most dangerous. It still used the same means of attack, lashing out with its branches. But its branches were far quicker, more powerful, and they also came with the incredible effect of setting fire to whatever they touched that wasn't the other trees. Though it looked like the burning tree was trying to spread its fire to its kin.

Thankfully, Toz's plan slowed that down.

Toz used the speed, agility, and force he got from reinforcing himself with lightning magic to do something similar to what the cats had done when they dodged the branches.

But unlike the cats, who had to be mindful of each other, Toz could move as freely as he wanted. Toz used that freedom to direct and bait the trees to tangle together far more severely than the cats had managed. And when he had done that, he used his hands to tie the trees and their canopies together.

It was only a stopgap measure and wouldn't hold for long. But Toz had successfully separated the burning tree from the rest of the thicket. Hopefully, the small clearing would be enough for Toz to defeat the tree that had adapted to and taken Mindle's flames as its own.

Toz didn't doubt that he could win over the tree if he went all out. But he had set a restriction on himself to control and improve his growth in a certain area, namely, his lightning magic. He wanted to try and beat the tree using only his lightning magic.

He didn't stop himself from using his sword. But Toz had a feeling that using the sword wouldn't amount to much from what he had seen of the cats' fight with the trees.

Nil and Asilean had demonstrated plenty that the trees only regenerated from simple cuts and lacerations. And Toz didn't think he would be able to do something the cats couldn't with only his sword and lightning magic in that regard. Maybe he could do something if he used other elements as well.

But Toz didn't let his thoughts go in that direction as he instead focused solely on lightning.

He reinforced his body to its limit, after which lightning began spilling out of his eyes and hands. Purple sparks fell from his hand like a shower of lightning rain. And his eyes shone in a blazing purple light. The amount of electricity flowing around and from Toz made the air buzz with a static hum.

With his mana vision active, Toz was pushing his lightning magic as far as he could. He wasn't quite at the level he was when he used fire to break out of prison. But he was getting closer. He could feel it.

And with lightning filling his entire being, he could also feel the world slow down. It felt like what Scrael had described had happened to her during her fight with the Stone Demon. Unfortunately, Toz wasn't at quite the same level as her. He had only reached the level where the world slowed down in his eyes, letting him see things in slow motion. He couldn't move as freely in the world of slow motion as Scrael had. And Toz doubted that things were as slowed down for him as they were for Scrael.

But all Toz needed was for the world to grind to a halt. With his mana vision active, sight was half of Toz's strength.

And with the world seemingly not moving, Toz had all the time in the world to look around as much as he wanted. He could see the tree's flames move like seaweed. He could also see beyond that how the tree was absorbing and adapting to the mana around it. A quick glance toward the other trees let Toz know that the burning tree was done with its adaptation and the other trees were like clean slates, ready to absorb and adapt as soon as they came into contact with mana.

It was the first time Toz had encountered something like it, and he couldn't hold back a grin. This was exactly the reason why he wanted to explore the universe. To encounter, find, and discover things he hadn't even read about and figure out how they work and how to pick them apart.

Doing it while only using lightning magic was simply adding some spice to an already delicious meal.

After taking in the situation and realizing how the trees worked, Toz was pretty sure he could defeat them in an instant as soon as he used void magic. Something as powerful as the Adaptation Trees' magic was bound to have a weakness, and if it worked like Toz thought it did, void magic was that weakness.

He was eager to test it out since he wanted to know if he was so lucky that he possessed the trees' weakness, just like that. Though that would come after he proved to himself that he could defeat the Fire Tree with nothing but lightning.