Elemental Cats

After leaving the prison, Dyra guided Toz and the cats to an apartment complex not far away. The prison was on a plane that acted as an intermediary location between the Mortal Realm and the war. Aside from the prison, there were several other facilities, such as apartments and housing for people preparing to enter the battlefield or hospitals and recovery centers for people leaving the battlefield, temporarily or permanently.

There was also a logistics division where military business was conducted, which was where Dyra went after handing over a token to Toz and the cats.

Toz used the token to unlock the room Dyra had assigned them.

After entering the room, Toz and the cats took a few minutes simply to hug each other and rejoice at being safe and sound. However, no one had any intentions of relaxing or slacking off, not when Taienra was still in trouble.

Toz began teaching the cats what to watch out for in a battle with a high level combatant.

High level mages weren't much different from their weaker counterparts. They were generally better in almost every aspect, with greater mana reserves, quicker casting speed, and more powerful magic. They also had a greater chance of having learned several spells.

High level fighters, on the other hand, developed the ability to control martial energy independently of their body. Melee fighters were no longer limited to short-range combat, and archers and the like didn't have to use physical arrows or projectiles to attack after becoming high level fighters. And just like mages, fighters would have had more opportunities to learn techniques.

That was all the information he could give to the cats to help them prepare. They would have to figure things out as they go while on the battlefield. Thankfully, Toz and the cats were confident in their abilities. Instead of worrying about what they would face on the battlefield and what they would be up against, it would be better to train.

But before that, Toz told them about what he had done and how he had broken out of prison.

Unfortunately, since spirit beasts used magic mainly by instinct and innate ability, they didn't quite understand what Toz had done or why he had done it. And they were only more confused when he started talking about a miniature clone that helped him use stronger magic. The cats tried copying him and using only their consciousness to use magic, but without their mana pools sealed, it was impossible for them not to use their mana.

The only one who still seemed interested in what Toz was talking about, even after failing, was Mindle. And that was because of what he mentioned happened to his fire magic. As a fellow fire user, Mindle was keen on learning how to improve her magic, and it seemed like Toz's words and actions had inadvertently guided her in that regard.

After listening to Toz talk about how he almost transformed the fire mana itself into actual fire instead of only using the fire mana to generate fire, Mindle seemed like she had caught the tail of an epiphany of sorts. She barely remembered to thank Toz for his help before sinking deep into thought while training her magic.

The other cats had already started training their magic while Toz talked with Mindle.

Toz wanted to figure out how to permanently enter the state where he could bring his elements to the brink of transforming into their true nature. It would certainly increase his strength significantly, but if he didn't succeed, he would have wasted time he got to train his elements and refine his mana and body. Unlike the clone and its functions, which didn't have a guarantee of success before they were shipped to the frontlines, refining his mana would grant him a lesser but more reliable increase in strength.

Since they would be fighting with their lives on the line, Toz decided to play it safe and began refining his fire mana. Since his fire magic was the one that had succeeded in bringing out the effects of the clone, Toz decided to strengthen it first. It was also the same element as his strongest purely offensive spell, Fireball. In order to increase his strength as much as possible, Toz prioritized his fire attribute.

However, right before he could bring it to the same level as his void attribute, the sixth level, Dyra came and told them they were going to the frontlines of the war.

Toz was worried that Dyra's interruption had caused Mindle some trouble. Fortunately, it seemed like she had gained something before Dyra came. But she entered Toz's familiar space to continue thinking about her magic while Toz and the others followed Dyra to the hangar.

Dyra wouldn't be going to the battlefield herself, but she guided Toz and the cats to a transport ship that would be delivering combatants and supplies to the frontlines.

Although the war had been ongoing for at least a couple of years already, there was still a constant supply of new combatants coming from across the kingdoms of the Mortal Realm. But not everyone was a fresh recruit. Several of the people entering the same transport ship as Toz and the cats were veterans at the seventh level who had been transferred to the high level battlefield.

Since it was a proxy war, it followed strict rules, and one of them was that combatants fought on an appropriate battlefield. Low level mages and fighters battled on the low level battlefield, and so on.

Toz was one of the rare exceptions. Fighting at battlefields at a higher than oneself technically wasn't forbidden. Since it didn't add an element of unfairness, as the opposite did, there was no reason to put a restriction on medium level mages or fighters entering the high level battlefield. However, in most such cases, the medium level mage or fighter was only charging straight toward their death, so it only happened rarely that a medium level combatant entered the high level battlefield.

Even Dyra, who could push past most administrative difficulties with her authority and status, had to go through the proper procedures because a medium level fighter would be of more use on the medium level battlefield than the high level one.