Elemental Cats

Although Mindle didn't have that long to prepare her explosive ball of fire, the arrow still flew out with enough power to bend the trees it passed by. The flaming projectile, despite being coated in darkness, still left behind a bright orange light in the air. Proof of how adept Mindle had gotten at using her flames over the past few weeks.

The arrow brushed past Toz with a whooshing sound, ruffling his hair and coat. Despite Toz already running fast, the arrow practically pulled him along with the force of the dragging wind.

Barely more than a second after the arrow had been launched, it struck the Rat King's left shoulder before it could react. The arrow itself made a dull thud on impact, which was then followed by the sound of cracking bones and burning flesh. Although, the sizzling sound was immediately drowned out by the Rat King.

The Rat King let out a piercing shriek that almost had Toz stumbling from the pain. Being as close to the origin of the sound with sensitive ears really isn't good for the hearing. But thankfully, the shriek was only deafening right after the arrow struck.

After the initial scream of pain, the Rat King backed away from Hugh while huffing and snorting in pain.

Unlike when it had its leg sliced off, the Rat King seemed much more susceptible to being impaled or having its body pierced. Aside from getting angry after Hugh lobbed off the leg, it barely flinched in pain before it burned and reabsorbed the leg, letting it regrow. But now, with its shoulder pierced by a meter-long burning metal arrow, the Rat King could hardly stand.

It continuously tried to back away from the arrow stuck in its flesh and grinding against its broken bones.

Toz didn't stop to admire the sight of the Rat King trembling in pain. He had a hard time believing that the arrow alone would be enough to severely incapacitate the Rat King for much longer. If it was that easy beating the Scorched Earth Rat King, it wouldn't have such a terrifying reputation. In all likelihood, it was the first time that the Rat King was suffering from serious injuries, and the first experience of pain had momentarily shocked the Rat King. But, before long, it would regain its senses and deal with its injuries.

Toz didn't want to stick around and find out if the Rat King could easily recover or not. If it could, it would be better to have already put some distance between himself and the Rat King. And if it couldn't recover, it wouldn't matter if he was there or not. He could just return later.

As he ran past the location of the beatdown, he bent down to pick up Hugh's limp body and slung it over his shoulders. Thankfully the transformation had come undone after Hugh fell unconscious so Toz could easily move him.

That managed to attract the Rat King's attention. Although it was still twisting around in pain, it hadn't forgotten that the one initially responsible for injuring it was the human that had transformed into a tree. While it had been pummeling Hugh like there was no tomorrow, the Rat King knew that he wasn't dead. And until the human had paid for its sins, there would be no reason for the Rat King to rest.

There was also the case of another human appearing suspiciously at the same time the Rat King was inflicted with another injury.

The Rat King had been injured twice in two different ways, and there were two separate humans in front of it. The Rat King was a lot smarter than its food packages, the first level rats, and it didn't take much for it to make the connection that both the humans in front of it had injured it and were now a priority to kill.

Although the Rat King was still struggling with the pain and the arrow lodged in its shoulder, when the two humans, one being carried by the other, started fleeing, it began regaining its sanity.

It just barely managed to reach around and bite the arrow, pulling it out with its teeth. After the arrow was out, the Rat King used its own fire to get rid of the burn scars covering its shoulder as the bones realigned themselves with snapping sounds, and the wound closed up. Despite the darkness mana covering the bloody arrow on the ground, it didn't take a whole lot of effort for the Rat King to melt, burn, and absorb it.

The Rat King's body trembled after it recovered. Although the arrow filled with mana had managed to restore some of the energy the Rat King had expended to heal itself after both injuries, it was still suffering from an overall loss. And that was not even considering all the mana that had been wasted after it failed to conjure a meteor and when reinforcing its body and claws to attack the curled-up Hugh.

Although it could easily burn to the forest not even a stone's throw away to recover and grow stronger, the Rat King's anger clouded its judgment, and instead of doing the objectively smart thing, it listened to its feelings and started chasing after Toz and Hugh.

Even though Toz had a slight headstart, there still wasn't any significant distance between him and the huffing Rat King. And if Toz slacked off in the slightest, the Rat King would catch up instantly.

Toz had originally wanted some more leeway, but it was a good thing that the Rat King stuck so close to him since it would be easier to bait it into the traps that he and Nil had set up.

But the traps that Toz and NIl had arranged were on the path directly between the wasteland and Yellow Sparks, so if they wanted to lure the Rat King through them, Toz would first have to bring the Rat King back to its original course. The distance between the Rat King's original path and the forest wasn't that great, but covering it at full speed while carrying a fully grown man would be difficult. But with the threat of being eaten by an angry overgrown rat, Toz was confident he could handle it.