Elemental Cats

There was no one who celebrated after the shark died. At most, a couple of sighs of relief. They had won, but the victory didn't come cheap. Joshua had pushed himself into a coma, and Scrael had lost her right paw and a small part of her leg. And unlike void beasts, Scrael couldn't just regenerate her leg. It would take some pretty incredible magic to fix that since even Stitches, a high level mage, couldn't do it.

Stitches couldn't heal Scrael completely, but he could stop the bleeding and make Scrael grow skin over the stump. Scrael kept up a brave face as she hobbled around and got used to moving with three legs instead of the usual four. But Toz and the other cats could tell that she was hurting.

Scrael had always been proud of her speed, agility, and athleticism. It would be near impossible for her to reach the power she was so confident in having with only three legs. It wasn't easy getting over something like that, and even if Scrael tried to accept reality and adapt to the change in her body, it wouldn't come easy.

It wasn't the time to comfort her while everyone was standing around and looking at Scrael with pity in their eyes. For now, Scrael would need some peace and process what it meant to live with one leg left than she was used to having.

The others accepted that and left her at the edge of the island where she could stare into the Void and let her mind wander.

While Scrael stayed behind with her thoughts as the only company, the others went back to the center of the island and the house to check on Joshua.

Stitches hadn't gotten the opportunity to check on Joshua since Joan brought the collapsed Joshua back to the house before Stitches finished healing the whale. And Stitches just went directly to the edge where the rest had gathered.

And the situation with the three void beasts was much too urgent for Stitches to haphazardly leave and check in on Joshua way back at the house.

But now that the three void beasts were dead, and there wasn't anything urgent taking up Stitches' attention, he could take a look at Joshua's condition.

When Toz and the others, accompanied by the blue cat, arrived at the house, they heard soft sobs. Joan hugged Joshua's body while crying. She had placed Joshua on the bed and sat on the floor next to him, draped over his body.

They, who had come to check in on Joshua, naturally assumed the worst at Joan's muffled sobs. Stitches rushed in but stopped mid-step a few steps inside the door. He wasn't a seventh level mage for nothing, and he could sense Joshua's life force pulsating weakly.

In his panic, he had missed checking with his senses before he rushed in. But after he calmed down, Stitches could sense that even if barely, Joshua was alive. That meant Stitches would be able to heal him, even if his life hung by a thread.

Although Stitches couldn't regenerate limbs, he was at least capable enough to nurse Joshua back to health. After doing a proper and more thorough inspection of Joshua, Stitches found that Joshua's body was simply worn out. It wasn't a degree of wear that a young boy should ever have. It was more similar to what a lifetime slave's body would look like after being driven to exhaustion every day for years, up to the point the slave died from overwork.

It was horrible, and it proved how much Joshua had pushed himself in order to aid Lucy and the others on the island in their escape from the void beasts.

But it wasn't untreatable, especially since Joshua was only a first level mage. As mages and fighters grew stronger and reached higher levels, their bodies developed a natural resistance toward outside influences. The degree of resistance might change due to special inclinations, but it was the same for practically everyone.

The resistance wasn't anything grand or particularly effective in combat. But it made it more difficult for negative and positive influences to affect the individual's body. Which meant that, higher level beings needed healers of appropriate levels to heal them.

It also meant that beings with high enough levels could completely ignore whatever beings of lower levels did to them if the difference was big enough.

The resistance came from a difference in the quality and quantity of mana. The body constantly exposed to quality mana at all times will naturally be affected, so even if the being has run out of mana, the resistance is still in effect.

But, just like the phenomenon makes it difficult for lower level beings to interfere with higher level beings, it makes it easier for higher level beings to influence lower level beings.

With the six level difference between himself and Joshua, Stitches would have an even easier time manipulating Joshua's life force and helping his body in its natural recovery. But even with that extra help, it would still take time and effort for Joshua to recover completely. And until then, he would stay comatose.

Joan almost cried tears of joy after Stitches told her that her son would make a full recovery. Though, he neglected to tell her just how bad Joshua's situation was, just in case it would cause her further worries.

Even if Joshua was comatose for a while, Joan was happy just knowing her son would live. She had lost her husband not too long ago. Joan couldn't handle the thought of losing her son as well. When she had seen Joshua collapse, she almost fainted and joined him on the ground. The only thing that kept her going was her instinctive reaction of helping her son as much as she could. She hardly even remembered how she had gotten back to the house while carrying Joshua.

Stitches stayed behind with Joan and Joshua as he began healing Joshua, and the others left the house again.

The two most emergent situations were dealt with somehow. But they weren't quite at the point where everyone could rest. Even if most of them really wanted to take a long visit to the land of dreams, they had a couple of things to deal with first.