The prosthetic leg was good enough for everyday use. But Scrael wouldn't be able to stay away from fighting in the future. It was in her nature. So the leg would be useless if it couldn't withstand her magic and the speeds she moved at when fighting.
Following Toz's suggestion, Scrael carefully roused her mana and filled her body with it. Fly-sized sparks of lightning traveled through her fur as she surged with lightning.
Scrael included the prosthetic leg in the process and sent some mana to it. There weren't any problems at first. The mana flowed through the leg, not as smoothly as her real leg, but since it was only the first prototype, it couldn't be helped.
However, as Scrael pushed more mana into the leg, it burst. The metal couldn't handle the pressure of Scrael's mana when the circulation was so poor.
The burst startled Toz and Scrael. But after making sure that it didn't harm Scrael, they started working on the next prototype. Since the first had been unable to withstand Scrael's power, Toz tried making one using more mana.
The second prototype looked exactly the same as the first, but Toz had spent a significant amount more effort into creating a sturdy leg that should be able to hold up against more of Scrael's power.
But this time, the leg was even worse. The abundance of metal mana clashed with Scrael's lightning mana, making the leg even more difficult to use. Unless the leg could accept Scrael's mana, it would be nothing more than a decoration.
Thankfully, Scrael noticed the leg's nonexistent mana efficiency and stopped the mana flowing into it before it was too late.
Since using more mana didn't make the leg any better, Toz was slightly stumped at what to do, but he tried making different versions of the leg with varying amounts of mana. Those legs weren't for Scrael to try out. Toz was going to make wooden legs using the properties of the trees.
While the wooden legs grew, he tried combining his lightning element with the metal legs he made to see if that would make the legs easier for Scrael to use.
However, Toz couldn't make the two elements blend seamlessly. No matter how tightly he wove the lightning into the metal, they were still two distinctly separate elements. And it didn't end with that. Toz's lightning was slightly different from Scrael's since he had trained it differently. Although the conflict between the two different lightning manas wasn't as fierce as the battle between the metal and the lightning mana, it still prevented Scrael from using the leg.
But Scrael restored her fighting spirit thanks to the hope Toz gave her, so she wasn't dejected even by the repeated failures. It only made her want to work harder to come up with different ways to solve her missing leg problem.
While she couldn't create her own leg using lightning magic and the trees. She could help Toz by infusing the prosthetics he made with her lightning before the trees grew to replace them.
Hods had finished cleaning up and sat down next to Toz and Scrael, sometimes coming up with his own suggestions on what to do. Shortly after Hods sat down, the rest of the cats, including Asilean, came as well. Since Taienra was connected with the forest, she could accurately sense what was happening and partake in the discussion and brainstorming of Scrael's new leg.
Unfortunately, her connection with the trees wasn't deep enough that she could control the entire island with a thought. But she could still speed up the process of the trees replacing the mana constructs slightly to help them perform their experiments faster.
The other cats also tried various things to help. Either by infusing the constructs Toz and Nil made with their magic to see if it was more compatible with Scrael's lightning or coming up with other designs for the leg.
The first prototypes had only been made to resemble Scrael's original leg, and they weren't lacking only in mana efficiency. Their functionality was also lacking. The metal didn't have the same flexibility and feeling as the bone and muscle of Scrael's leg. The wrist joint and the toes' mobility were also completely nonexistent on the prosthetic legs Toz first made.
The legs without functional joints worked, but Scrael's movements were stiff and would limit her combat ability in the future, even if they got the magic to work properly.
However, making a fully functional model with the right flexibility that would also be able to withstand Scraels magic and physical strength wasn't exactly as easy as napping.
They tried making various joints at the wrist. But, even if the joint could withstand the force it would be put through, it still left the paw dangling. Some joints had the paw dangling back and forth only, while others had the paw swinging in all directions, like a kite caught in turbulent wind.
Eventually, Toz made a ball joint that connected the paw and the wrist. The paw had a tiny ball attached at the top that sat inside a socket at the end of the leg part. With Toz's control over his magic, he managed to polish the metal surface smooth enough that it didn't need any lubrication to move freely.
But that still left the paw dangling loosely. If Scrael wanted to walk with the leg, she had to drag her leg backward so that the underside of the paw came into contact with the ground. It would be impossible to do that while running at full speed or fighting.
Toz was sure that creating a joint was the way to do it, but he couldn't figure out how to stabilize the paw. He also couldn't figure out a way to soften the paw without making it massive or structurally insecure.
At least they saw hope in making a functional leg for Scrael. Even if they couldn't figure out how to let her use magic with it, she would at least be able to walk and run, almost like before.
