Elemental Cats

The shark snapped its jaws shut around Scrael's right forelimb. The jaws closed with an ominous crunch, eliciting a pained yelp from Scrael. The shark didn't stop just because its jaws were locked around Scrael's limb. It pressed down even harder, forcing its teeth to connect through Scrael's limb. Scrael screamed at the pain of having her leg bit down on by a ninth level beast. She could feel the bones in her leg breaking and shattering. Her skin and flesh tore to make way for the shark's lethally sharp teeth.

Toz and the others rushed to help Scrael as soon as they saw the shark close its jaws around her leg, but they weren't fast enough. When they arrived in front of the shark, it shook its head and body furiously, tearing apart Scraels leg.

The remaining strings of tendons and skin snapped as Scrael and the shark separated. The shark swallowed Scrael's paw with a ferocious glint in its eyes as its teeth still glistened with Scrael's blood.

The shark's shakes threw Scrael to the ground. Scrael only whimpered slightly before standing up on her three intact legs, despite the pain.

The shark reveled in the taste of Scrael's blood, and it watched her hobble away, her ragged and bloody stump of a right leg dripping blood. The shark also had to be wary of the other beasts and people that surrounded it, so it couldn't rashly attack Scrael again.

However, since the shark wasn't capable of rational thought more than what a stone was, it was its instincts that told it not to make rash decisions.

The beings around the shark were all laced with bloody murder, and their killing intent soared after Scrael lost her leg. They hadn't attacked the shark because Scrael wasn't yet in safety and because their last thread of rationality warned them that the shark was a ninth level beast, and everyone else was exhausted and running out of mana.

But as soon as Scrael got far enough away from the shark, everyone else moved.

Stitches rushed to take care of Scrael's leg. Although he couldn't regenerate it, despite being a seventh level healer, he could at least mend the broken stump to stop the bleeding and hopefully lessen the pain.

While Stitches helped Scrael, the rest attacked the shark in unison. Their exhaustion and lack of mana wouldn't stop them from tearing the shark to shreds.

Lucy began by using almost all the mana he could muster, both from himself and from the surroundings, to tie down the shark and limits its movements.

After Lucy bound the shark to the ground, Nil unleashed his spell from directly above the shark, nailing the shark to the ground. The shark would be able to swim upwards to get free of the spikes after it broke Lucy's shadows with its void magic. But Hods and Nil stopped that.

Although it took incredible amounts of mana, Nil didn't worry about that as he changed the remains of his spell. The spikes usually dissipated shortly after the spell finished, but Nil kept supplying them with mana, keeping them lodged within the shark's body. He had also placed some around the shark's jaws so it wouldn't be able to tear its body and free itself from the crucifixion. Unlike the rest of the shark's body, its jaws would be able to move through the spikes freely.

While Nil kept the spikes in place, Hods used his sledgehammer to bend the spikes around the shark's body, imprisoning it in a tight-fitting cage.

Even when the shark eventually wore down Lucy's magic, it would still have to wear down Nil's as well before it could break free and counterattack.

But Toz and the others wouldn't let the shark struggle itself to freedom just because they had trapped it. As soon as Hods began bending the nails and locking the shark in place, Toz and Mindle started attacking the shark.

Toz hacked at the shark's jaws with his sword, chipping away teeth and fragments of bone. The shark panicked and tried to wriggle free, but that only served to entangle it further on the crooked spikes.

Mindle used the rest of her mana to conjure her three flames and burn the shark's head so Toz would have an easier time chopping away at its jaws.

The only thing Toz kept in mind while mindlessly swinging his sword was Scrael's injured leg.

Toz attacked the shark's jaws frenziedly, and despite the five-level difference, he managed to damage them. But not without damage to his sword. But the sword was only a magic construct. Even if it got blunted and chipped, it would recover with some mana.

Temporarily damaging a sword he was only using until his real sword finished growing in exchange for cracking the shark's jaws was a trade, Toz was willing to make.

Mindle's flames burning away the shark's head and neck kept the jaws still so that Toz could unleash a flurry of attacks without having to worry about his strikes missing.

Eventually, the cracks Toz had inflicted grew and spread throughout the entirety of both jaws. Toz and the shark could sense the shark's inevitable demise. But while the shark panicked and struggled to break free from its restraints with enough force to break through Lucy's shadow bindings, Toz had a wicked smile on his face.

The shark was still tightly locked in place by Nil and Hods' handiwork, so even after Lucy's restraints were broken through, Toz could attack without worrying about the shark retaliating or fleeing.

Toz had seen the way the shark looked at Scrael after eating her paw, and now he could direct a similar gaze toward the shark. The difference was that his gaze was filled with cold murderous rage.

If it weren't for its brain being set on fire, the shark would have trembled at the intensity of the killing intent Toz held against it.

But even if its brain had been intact, maybe the shark would have been more preoccupied with its jaws that were on the verge of breaking since the shark's existence would end along with its jaws.

However, the shark was trapped, on fire, and under assault. There was nothing it could do to stop Toz from shattering its jaws, and eventually, it happened. The jaws burst into fragments. The teeth were sent flying in a small area around the shark. The shark's body became lifeless mush and collapsed on the ground.

The last void beast was dead.