Toz ran across the ground for only a bit before sensing something that made him smile. He didn't have to go far before he found a trace of the cats. Unfortunately, they were too far down for him to be able to do anything to reach them at the moment.
At least, Toz couldn't break through the ground on his own. But now that the tunnel system was close enough that the interference it had on their bond didn't work, Toz could coordinate with the cats to break through the ground. But they had to be fast since the storm was quickly closing the distance to Toz.
So, without any intentions of delaying, Toz immediately began levying attacks of fire, lightning, metal, space, and void toward the ground. Darkness wasn't very efficient at destroying the ground, especially not when compared to the effects of Dissolution. Combined with the efforts of the cats, Toz quickly pierced through the ground and reached his companions.
However, the cats weren't alone. They were accompanied by a few humans and a heap of corpses. And Toz recognized some of them. Nil, Mindle, Scrael, and Asilean had stationed themselves around four people who looked like they were on the verge of accompanying the fifth person in the infiltration mission.
Hal, Seich, Mifter, and Wyrie were haphazardly piled atop each other on the ground in the middle of the tunnel. And Braxton had joined the pile of red-robed corpses encircling the cats and the infiltration squad.
"Heya!"
Toz landed on the ground, a little confused about the situation. But mostly happy about regrouping with the cats again. They hadn't been apart for too long, But Toz had nearly died on several occasions, and he couldn't have missed the cats more. Besides, the mana storm didn't really have time to focus on what had happened since he had to continue moving.
"'Toz!'"
"Did you find any traces of Lucy?"
While he spoke, Toz began moving toward Hal and the others, and he started picking them up and stacking them on his shoulder like sacks of potatoes.
"Nope. This place's complete maze. But we confirmed that Braxton was a traitor and working together with the red-robed guys. We found him leading those guys into an ambush."
Nil pointed to the pile of people on Toz's shoulder while he spoke.
"And since saving them would surely give us contribution points, we did just that! Good job, right?"
"Yeah, you did great, Mindle. By the way, I have a storm chasing me, so I have to move quickly. Do you guys wanna come with me to the battle or continue looking for Lucy?"
"I wanna see the storm!"
Mindle shouted excitedly before leaping up to Toz's free shoulder with an eager jump.
The other three cats looked at each other quickly before answering.
"We'll look for Lucy."
"That kid's causing too much trouble. We'll go bring him back real quick."
"I'll go with them in case we need to teleport out of here."
Nil, Scrael, and Asilean decided to stay in the tunnels and look for Lucy.
"Does your space magic work through these tunnels?"
"Yeah, as long as they're weakened with a little void magic first."
Asilean grinned as he answered Toz's question before he and the others set off through the tunnels. Toz watched them leave for a second before jumping up through the hole in the ground he and the cats made. He jumped from one side of the wall to the other as he propelled himself and the four people stacked on his shoulder with him.
Mindle held on tightly to his shoulder, excited to see the fire mana storm. And based on the wide eyes she had when they returned to the surface, she wasn't disappointed.
"Toz, can I keep it?"
Toz chuckled.
"Yeah, sure."
He didn't think Mindle meant what she said and that she was just enamored by the sight of the swirling mass of fire mana. However, when he felt her jump off his shoulder and dive into the storm, he realized that she was serious.
Toz looked back, slightly worried. But he quickly noticed that there was nothing to worry about when it came to Mindle's well-being. Unlike Toz, who was a human with the fire attribute, Mindle was a fire spirit. She was a being of pure fire. While the mana storm would tear apart or pummel Toz, it accepted Mindle as its own. Mindle was like a fish in water as she swam through the tornado of fire mana.
Toz almost grew a little envious as he saw how easily Mindle handled the firestorm that almost shattered his mana pool and killed him. But a good thing for Mindle was a good thing for him, so he shook off his jealousy as he continued toward the battlefield.
Now that he had picked up the infiltration squad, he couldn't run quite as quickly as before without risking injury to them. They would have been able to handle his speed if they were completely healthy. But all of them looked worn and injured, so Toz didn't want to take any chances. He had to bring them back alive so that they could give a statement and support him in getting stupid amounts of contribution points.
It would be a little risky bringing the four of them through the battlefield. But if he could survive Anaster, Toz felt as if he would be able to handle most other things as well. Toz hadn't had time to think about it when they fought, but he realized something afterward. When his mind had time to relax as he just ran away from the storm, Toz remembered that he had fought a couple of other high level fighters and mages, even a couple of ninth level ones.
Anaster was undoubtedly a demon at the ninth level. But he far surpassed the strength that Red Hook and Dristel had when Toz fought them. He was nearing the threshold to the transcendent level. He was still far from crossing it, but he was still not at a level of strength that was common, especially not in the Mortal Realm. So, if Toz managed to fight him, he should be able to pass through the battle ahead relatively easily.
