Toz was still curious about what made the tribespeople of the Tribe of Death so convinced of their victory, and he used that to retain sanity as he prepared to face off against the Zombie Stone Demon and the herd of zombie buffalo. They had defeated them once, which the tribespeople already seemed to know.
After defeating them once, they would be able to defeat them again. And Toz doubted that the zombies would be stronger than when they had been alive. Otherwise, he would advise Dyra to give up. How was the Obsidian Empire supposed to win if they were up against opponents that could use the corpses of the slain and even strengthen them?
However, Toz didn't rule anything out as he warily analyzed their opponents.
The tribespeople hopefully couldn't strengthen their puppets, but they could most certainly alter them. The death attribute oozing from the demon and the buffalos were more than enough proof of that. The only question was if it was an addition or substitution.
In any case, the demon's and the buffalo's abilities had been changed, and probably drastically at that.
Analyzing the situation and their opponents rationally helped Toz calm down. And seeing the zombie demon and its four-legged companions act according to the figures from the Tribe of Death helped Lucy calm down enough to begin working on the darkness covering them and their surroundings.
Even if it was nothing more than a large cover to keep Toz and the cats in place, Toz wanted a confirmation of that. Working under assumptions would only put them in danger.
Although they had the robed figures¨promise that they would be brought in without excessive violence, that might still include killing them. They were, after all, from the Tribe of Death.
Not to mention how Toz didn't have any intentions of going willingly.
The appearance of the undead had spooked him, but he hadn't forgotten his plan of getting captured and infiltrating the Tribe of Death's base. And included in that plan was them getting as much experience as possible fighting people from the Tribe and getting an understanding of their magic by resisting their kidnapping.
However, since Toz was planning on causing a ruckus inside their base, he wasn't going to reveal all of his cards. He would still put forward a great fight since he wanted to know the limits of the Tribe of Death's magic, but only if he could do it without revealing everything he and the cats were capable of doing.
Even without showing off their entire strength, Toz would still be able to figure out the basics of death attribute magic, despite it being his first time experiencing it. Or so he hoped. He was set to find out whether that was true or not in the coming moments since the figures from the Tribe of Death had waited long enough.
The Zombie Stone Demon and the zombie buffalo herd started moving at the same time.
Toz had informed the cats of the general gist of his plan, and they knew that they shouldn't go all out just because they were scared. That last part was directed at Lucy. But they shouldn't hold back if they felt threatened or like they were in danger.
If worst came to worst, they would simply have to escape and find another way to gain an equivalent amount of achievements. Though before they could escape, they had to do something about the sticky darkness covering the sky.
Lucy could sense that it was partly darkness magic from a ninth level mage. But it was based on demonic energy and interwoven with death attribute magic. Death and darkness attribute magic cast with demonic energy wasn't something Lucy was used to handling.
However, anything with darkness in it was Lucy's toy. And it didn't take long for him to sneak his way inside the cover without any of the robed figures noticing. He didn't have enough control to get rid of it completely, but if he wanted, he could easily open a path out for Toz and the other cats.
After securing an escape route, Toz and the cats felt a lot more secure, and they started battling the zombie horde.
Toz stepped up to face the zombified Stone Demon. Scrael and Asilean were still slightly fatigued from their fights. They had recovered quite a bit while listening to Toz's stories and then some more while listening to Lucy. But they still weren't fully rested, so Toz took it upon himself to face the opponent that seemed the most dangerous.
Mindle could have also handled it, but her abilities were better suited to dealing with several enemies. And her building up enough heat to get through the Stone Demon's defenses would affect the entire fight.
Until they figured out how to let Mindle let loose without having to worry about the other cats, she would have to rein her magic in a little. Thankfully, it seemed like she didn't have to go all out in order to damage the zombies since they started sizzling and smoking soon after she sent out three Tongues of Flame.
Mindle, Scrael, and Asilean dashed out to handle the buffalos. Lucy disappeared into the shadows of the battlefield as he prepared himself to support whoever needed it, and Toz braced himself against the Zombie Stone Demon's fist.
Toz had worried that the Stone Demon would spew out death magic with its attacks after being turned into a zombie. But it seemed like his worries were a little exaggerated.
Death mana hung around every zombie like a bad perfume, but it was most likely a side effect of whatever magic caused the reanimation.
The Stone Demon's attacks weren't very different from what they would have been before it died.
Unfortunately, Toz and the others didn't get a chance to experience what those attacks would have been like due to the nature of Scrael's battle with it.
But now that he was facing it himself, Toz realized that the Stone Demon fought with its bare hands. It threw heavy punches that collided with the edge of his sword without even getting scratched.
Toz realized after the first attack, which he quickly backed away from using the force of the punch, that dodging the demon's fists would be easier than blocking them all.
So that was what he started doing.
