After the blue cat and the whale agreed to Toz's suggestion, he explained his plan in more detail and made sure that Nil and Stitches heard every last bit since their cooperation was a must for it to work. After confirming that they understood Toz's plan correctly, the two of them got to work, Stitches still amazed at what Toz had come up with.
Nil dashed to the other side of the island, where he created two long bands that stretched down to below the underside of the island. He made sure they were sturdy and wouldn't get torn off the island before running off to the side of the island.
Stitches had taken up a position in the center of the island and was stretching his perception down through the roots to the bottom of the island. Since Stitches didn't possess any detection capabilities other than being able to sense life force, he wouldn't have been able to extend his senses all the way to the other side of the island if it weren't for the trees. Because the trees were alive, he could hitch a ride on their life force to perceive the situation on the other side.
After Nil finished creating the two bands of metal at the front of the island, the whale stopped pushing the island and dove down below it before catching up to it and pressing itself against the metal bands. Although the bands were attached to the island with a lot of mana, they wouldn't hold forever as the whale dragged the island along.
Nil rushed to finish the metal bands on the sides of the island that would reach down next to the whale's fins and relieve some of the pressure on the whale's snout. The sidebands would help the bands at the front from tearing and from digging into the whale's skin. But the makeshift harness Nil created after connecting all the bands under the whale's belly wasn't the entire solution.
That was where Stitches came in. Although he didn't have a wood or nature attribute that would have been more suitable for controlling the trees, he could still influence and speed up their growth. Coupled with his ability to control the whale's life force and how it healed, Stitches could grow the trees and the whale together.
It seemed like a crazy idea. Trying to use a forest as a way to stop the whale's from bleeding out and leaking mana. But Stitches had gotten to know the forest's characteristics during his stay on it, and while it was an outrageous plan, he couldn't say it wouldn't work. Though, he was beginning to wonder if Toz's lunacy had started to affect him since he was curious if it really would work. And not because he wanted to survive. Stitches' curiosity stemmed from the manipulation of life force required to connect a star beast to a plant.
Stitches was in position and ready to begin the final stage of the plan. The cats delivered his signal to Toz, who told the blue cat, who, in turn, told the whale.
The whale had only dove under the island and pressed itself against the harness that Nil had made without touching the underside of the island. However, after receiving the signal from the blue cat, it braced itself and rose upward.
Everyone on the island could hear the whale grunting in pain as it pressed its back, riddled with deep holes and wounds, against the underside of the island. They could only imagine the pain the whale felt as the numerous injuries came into contact with the rough surface at once.
Stitches, who had worked as a healer for the army and could sense the whale's life force tremble on top of that, winced at the grunts. But he was the only one who definitely couldn't afford to be distracted as he immediately got to work.
The whale struggled to keep up the same speed while fleeing, so the blue cat was forced to focus on keeping the void beasts at bay, despite desperately wanting to comfort the whale.
Toz and Mindle didn't slack off either, as they used as much of their mana they could at once to burn even more void beasts. It was all or nothing. If Stitches didn't succeed, they wouldn't need to save their mana either way.
Toz, Mindle, and the blue cat attacked the void beasts with relentless zeal. Nil ran back and forth across the island, reinforcing the bands and the harness since it was imperative that the whale and the island moves synchronized while Stitches performed his magic.
Stitches felt the pressure from everyone else on the island, but he had learned several things working as a healer. And one of them is that rushing or panicking is the worst thing to do while working with a patient suffering from incredible pain. There was no way Stitches would let the pressure and the knowledge that everyone's continued survival relied on him affect his magic.
Only a few precious moments had passed since the whale pressed its back against the island. Stitches hadn't been idle during those moments. He had made sure to sense and grasp the situation carefully. If he made any rash movements and rushed to connect the whale and the island, he could very well doom them all. If he made a wrong move, he could accidentally kill the whale.
Stitches began, with utmost gentility and care, to stir his, the island's, and the whale's life force. He sensed the minute differences between the island and the whale and reacted accordingly as he began coaxing the trees to absorb the star attribute mana leaking from the whale's wounds.
Small tendrils began stretching from the wood and gently connected to the whale's bare flesh. Stitches made sure the tendrils didn't rush to devour the whale and prevented the whale's tissues from rejecting the roots' advance.
Under Stitches' thorough supervision, the whale's muscles and the trees' roots began weaving together. Though since the whale had already lost a lot of blood and energy, it was mostly the trees that nestled into the injuries on the whale's back.
The whale felt the numerous roots and tendrils of wood worm their way into its flesh. And it felt like a thousand bugs were digging into its back. But the whale knew that it was only wood and that it was the only way they had to solve their problem.
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