Elemental Cats

Since Toz had decided to go through the guards, there was nothing the glasses guy could do to change his mind.

"Can you pinpoint the guards' locations? Right! What's your name?"

"With enough time, yes. And my name's Brunswick."

"Great. Let's go."

Brunswick led Toz and the cats back to where he had stopped advancing previously.

Since the guards might notice them if they talked or sued magic, even if they tried to hide it, Brunswick used hand gestures to point in three different directions. Toz understood enough to maintain confidence about defeating the guards before they managed to alarm the other guards. Toz relayed Brunswick's information to the cats with the help of his inclination before they teamed up two and two to take down one guard per pairing.

Asilean and Mindle targeted the one on the left, Nil and Scrael went for the one in the middle, and Toz and Lucy attacked the guard to the right.

Asilean shrank the space between him and the guard so that Mindle's flames flew over to the guard in an instant. Mindle used all three of her flames, and she cranked up the heat as high as she could while keeping it under control so that she didn't melt the stone walls. The guard barely had enough time to yelp before he began melting along with his suit of armor.

The other guards didn't even notice their comrades also getting attacked and killed almost instantly.

Scrael stunned the guard she and Nil were responsible for so that the guard couldn't react when Nil pierced his body with a dozen spikes. The guard let out a few gurgling sounds as his lungs filled with blood before dying.

The third guard had the most peaceful death seen from outside. However, Toz and Lucy's combination was worse than any nightmare. Toz's spell submerged the guard in an infinite darkness where he quickly lost all senses and perception of time and self. Lucy's magic grabbed hold of the feelings of fear and insecurity and amplified those feelings explosively. They practically filled the guard's mind with waking nightmares scary enough to put the guard into cardiac arrest.

Though, some high level fighters and mages would be able to recover from their hearts stopping by flooding their body with mana. The high levels weren't the last division before reaching the transcendent level for no reason, after all.

However, even disregarding the terror-filled mind of the guard, he didn't get the chance to try and recover since Toz blinked forward and twisted his neck an entire turn, stopping just short of tearing the head off and unleashing a spray of blood.

Brunswick stared at the scene with enough shock to make his jaw hit the floor. His glasses had also dropped to the tip of his nose. His eyes didn't allow him to see everything that happened all at once, partially because he wasn't able to understand what happened, especially with the guard that Toz attacked. But what he did see was enough to make him doubt the eyes that had always shown him the truth.

Since it all happened so quickly, Brunswick didn't have enough time for an in-depth analysis, but what he did see was still shocking. Toz and all the cats had incredibly dense mana, which they controlled with finesse greater than he had seen any medium level pirate possess.

There were also a total of three spells used in the ambush. Spells might not have been rare for Toz and the cats who picked up a bunch of grimoires from Linda's Bookstore, but they were incredibly rare in Pirate Haven. Anyone rumored to possess one was hunted down and killed before the rumor even had time to spread to the next tier. Yet there were three people who used spells right in front of him. Brunswick couldn't believe it.

Brunswick didn't know if the pirates in front of him didn't know about the value of grimoires, even almost empty ones, or simply didn't care. Considering Toz and the cats' strength, Brunswick was inclined to believe the latter.

However, Brunswick didn't get any more time to stare in awe at the skills of Toz and the cats since they had to move. It wasn't the first time his eyes told him the way to survive. They had done it in the ballroom after Toz's fireworks. And now more than ever, they let Brunswick know that Toz wouldn't need to exert any effort into killing him. In order to stay alive, Brunswick had to be on his best behavior. Though, he was still scared that Toz would silence him in order to keep the fact about the spells a secret.

But even if Brunswick was scared of getting silenced, he still wanted to try and survive by doing his best to lead Toz to the treasury while showing off his usefulness at the same time. The Blue Lounge Councilors and most other people Brunswick met didn't like his eyes and what he could see with them. However, Brunswick had a feeling that Toz was a practical person and wouldn't mind Brunswick telling him what he noticed.

While resolving himself to survive, Brunswick led Toz and the cats through the final turns of the corridor that ended in a large vault door.

Before the ambush of the guards, Brunswick was worried that Toz and the cats would take out their frustration of being unable to open the heavily fortified and enchanted door at him. But the strength they displayed resolved any such misgivings.

Toz looked at Nil.

"Wanna give it a go?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Nil went forward and touched the vault door that was as wide and tall as the hallway and was without any visible handles or opening mechanisms. Nil placed his paw on the door so it would be easier to fill it with mana and wrest control over the metal away from the enchantments keeping the door in place.

As the enchantments couldn't withstand Nil's onslaught of mana, they began lighting up before shortcircuiting and fading away. After purging most of the enchantments, Nil smiled and began prying open the door.