Elemental Cats

When they blocked Toz's sword, the death mage concentrated the power of its defenses on where the sword was, which meant that the rest was weakened instead. Since they had just attacked Hassandra with a swarm of death magic, they weren't worried about getting counterattacked while its defenses were down.

However, Scrael and Asilean were outside of the death mage's calculations, and when the two cats appeared, it was already too late for the death mage. The two cats were already right next to the death mage when the mage noticed them.

The death mage was startled but not startled enough to panic and let go of Toz's sword. Instead, they expended more mana to reinforce the entire barrier. But for some reason, their mana refused to follow their instructions when it came to where the two cats were. The barrier weakened instead of growing sturdier.

Asilean used the skill he honed when fighting against the buffalos for the very first time to weaken the death mage's defenses, letting his and Scrael's attacks reach the death mage's robes with barely any resistance.

But after bypassing the defense and landing a blow on the robes, Scrael and Asilean had to quickly retreat to avoid the deluge of death magic that rained down on them. Fortunately, they were quick enough to escape unscathed.

Although their attacks hadn't done any damage to the death mage due to the unexpected resilience of the robes, their efforts weren't for naught. With the time Scrael and Asilean bought him, Toz found a gap to send a Fireball straight at the death mage.

Due to the increased sturdiness of the death mage's defensive barrier, the Fireball didn't do much, despite Toz focusing on its firepower. But it did weaken the barrier enough for a secondary Fireball, focused on piercing, to reach the death mage.

The death mage felt the impending sense of danger and concentrated all of its defensive power in front of the Fireball. When combined with the defensive power of the death mage's robes, the dark grey shield was enough to prevent the Fireball from piercing its body.

However, Toz had also made sure to cram in a lot of force behind the Fireball, which pushed the death mage backward. The death mage lost their balance and allowed Scrael to land a blow from beneath. Scrael's blow didn't face any defensive magic, and she shot up straight into the death mage's back. Scrael's movements were like a lightning bolt, and she blasted the death mage into the sky.

After striking the death mage, Scrael cast a glance at her paw. Since she had done it with her intact paw, she felt the sensation of the impact with the death mage's body clearly. She cast a worried glance in Toz's and Lucy's directions before throwing her worries to the back of her head. Although she had blown the death mage into the air, that would be far from enough to defeat it.

Even without being able to regain their balance while fumbling through the air, the death mage was already preparing magic on a different level from their previous attacks.

However, before they could launch their attack, Scrael was already upon it with another lightning-charged punch. Scrael pushed down on the death mage's chest with her sparking paw and sent the death mage crashing to the ground.

Crashing to the ground with the force of Scrael's punch behind them might be enough to injure the death mage. But it would also allow them to regain control over their body, so before they landed, Toz intercepted them with another attack.

Toz jumped up and threw an upwards diagonal blow to the death mage's ribs which sent the mage flying once again. While descending and watching the death mage fly away, Toz thought that the death mage would have been a more ferocious opponent if they were to eat more.

However, Toz knew that he shouldn't ever let down his guard until the opponent was defeated. It might not be enough then, either since his experience with the people from the Tribe of Death had shown him that not even death was enough to stop some enemies.

So, Toz kept a watchful eye on the death mage as they flew through the air in the direction of Hassandra before abruptly stopping in the middle of its flight.

The same something that stopped the death mage in mid-air quickly bound their limbs together, restraining its movements. And most likely their demonic energy as well since each of the death mage's attempts to use magic failed.

But it didn't look like it was completely safe yet. Although the death mage's magic was temporarily sealed, its body was merely constrained. They could still try and struggle free, which, based on their movements, wasn't a completely futile endeavor.

It almost looked like the death mage was about to free itself with nothing more than its physical body.

However, before they could, rope shot out of Hassandra's hands and bound the death mage even tighter. It became evident that Hassandra was also the one who had caught and constrained the death mage in midair. But her previous magic had been invisible, so she threw a stunned look at Toz after successfully capturing the death mage.

She had barely managed to keep her magic under control until she completely restrained the death mage due to what Toz and the cats had done.

Intervening in her fight with the death mage and successfully surprise attacking it was one thing, but it wasn't very surprising. On the battlefield, ambushes were more numerous than hair on a dog.

What caught her by surprise was that Toz sent the death mage flying into the center of her invisible string. String that could only be sensed by someone at a higher level than her. Toz sent the death mage to where her string was the most dense and where it would be the easiest for her to capture and restrain the death mage.