Elemental Cats

After telling Joan and Joshua about what he found out regarding Tasha, Toz began looking for an opportunity to set up a meeting between them. However, the Red Hook Pirate Crew and their strongest pirates had gotten incredibly busy due to the deal they made with Toz and the Bunglehoppers.

Tasha was especially busy since he was one of the strongest pirates in the Red Hook Pirate Crew. After Red Hook got the grimoire, she immediately started learning the Blood Spear spell, leaving her subordinates to suppress and harass the Blue Lounge pirates. Considering Tasha's grudge against the Starsling Kingdom and, by extension, the Blue Lounge League of Pirates, there was no way he could sit still.

Tasha was constantly out on missions to raid and attack the Blue Lounge's ships and pirates, and Tasha spent the few times he was back at Pirate Haven attacking the Blue Lounge pirates and their bases. And by the time Toz got information on Tasha's whereabouts and tracked him down, Tasha had already left to raid the Blue Lounge's ships again.

If he really wanted to, Toz would have been able to talk to the higher-ups or directly interfere with the Red Hook pirates in order to get a hold of Tasha. However, acting against the Red Hook Pirate Crew could severely harm the future of his plans. And talking to the other pirates of the crew would lead to him giving a suitable reason for talking to Tasha alone. If Toz told the truth, he might expose a weakness in his group that it wouldn't be weird for an opposing crew to take advantage of, especially not considering the way Toz had set up the plan.

Not to mention how it would be difficult to make Tasha believe Joan and Joshua were still alive without letting him actually meet them. If someone told Tasha about Joan and Joshua's survival without solid proof, there was no guarantee he wouldn't go berserk. And Toz felt like asking Tasha to meet without giving a reason would just end with Tasha ignoring the request and going out to attack some Blue Lounge pirates.

Toz kept trying to find an opportunity where he could get Tasha to meet with Joan and Joshua. But Toz didn't spend all his time doing that.

He participated in attacks on the Blue Lounge's bases and places of business, cooperating with the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas to corner the Blue Lounge League of Pirates. They made steady progress, despite the Blue Lounge having greater depths of resources than most people thought.

The common knowledge regarding the Blue Lounge League of Pirates was that it was initially a coalition of a few middle-sized pirate crews that eventually united under Chairman Stris' lead. The Blue Lounge League of Pirates was also the numerically largest and fastest growing crew since it attracted weaker pirate crews to join using various benefits.

Stronger and more experienced pirates and inhabitants of Pirate Haven knew that the Blue Lounge League of Pirates was somehow connected to the Starsling Kingdom. However, most people thought it was something like Stris sent on an impossible mission to unite all pirates as a punishment.

Even Retsy couldn't find out the true depth of the Blue Lounge's connection to the Starsling Kingdom.

However, the recent ongoings between the big three crews and the Bunglehoppers had shown that the Blue Lounge had hidden their strength and resources incredibly well.

Despite being assailed on multiple fronts by forces everyone thought equal to the Blue Lounge League of Pirates, the Blue Lounge still had enough strength and resources to control the pace at which they retreated.

The Blue Lounge was still forced into a retreat, but it happened on their terms, and they made sure that the ones who attacked them suffered considerable losses. There was also seemingly no end to the Blue Lounge's ships pouring out from and into their island, no matter how many of them the pirates of the other crews destroyed.

Toz looked on at the situation with slight unease. According to his original plan, he would have already started setting up the Pirate Meet by now. However, the Blue Lounge's strength and persistence forced him to delay his plans. If he rushed and called for a Pirate Meet too soon, it would only set the stage for the Blue Lounge League to come out victorious.

The Pirate Meet had to be the finishing move for when the Blue Lounge had already exhausted most of their strength. If they couldn't use the Pirate Meet to get rid of the Blue Lounge League once and for all, it would only backfire, especially if they don't know the true depths of the Blue Lounge League's forces.

The only good thing with the situation was that the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas were also experiencing significant losses since it would make it easier for Toz to have them submit to him in the future.

And since the Bunglehoppers and Toz and his cats were all powerful elites, they didn't have to worry about any losses. They only had to avoid making any grave mistakes or getting caught by people whose strength approached Stris.

Thanks to Stitches, it would also be fine as long as they didn't die. Severed limbs could be reattached or remade using the void trees on Taienra's back, and torn-out guts could be stuffed back inside. As long as they made it back with most of the pieces they left with, Stitches would be able to patch them back up, whether those pieces were intact or not.

When they weren't fighting with the Blue Lounge League of Pirates or recovering from those fights, Toz, the cats, and the Bunglehoppers spent their time training and preparing for what would possibly be a battle against the entire Pirate Haven. Although Toz and the others' plan was for them to basically end out on top without having to do anything, they still prepared for the worst.