Elemental Cats

While denying reality, Toz tried to put the Fountain of Death into another ring. After doing that three more times, he groaned in agony. He had ruined all his rings, and it was all for nothing. The Fountain of Death couldn't be put into a spatial storage item. It was infuriating and annoying, but it wouldn't be the end of Toz.

Toz put down the Fountain of Death after draining the heat from right below it. After that, he spread the flames and heat of the lava pool even further so that he could get some time to think about what to do.

Since he didn't know if the Fountain of Death resisted all kinds of spatial manipulation or just storage items, Toz didn't dare to try and teleport it. Doing that would also require Asilean's assistance. And asking him for help when he and the other cats were busy wasn't something Toz wanted to do unless absolutely necessary.

At the thought of the cats, Toz grew curious about how it was going for them since they had been radio silent after he dropped them off. But he quickly told himself to sharpen his mind. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was in a considerably sticky situation. And if he didn't take it seriously, he would have to leave the Fountain of Death behind.

The lava pool and the ring of fire had given him some time to think, but it wouldn't take long until reinforcements other than the armors came. And it was very likely that they would be able to deal with some puny flames that Toz didn't put his heart into conjuring. Before then, Toz had to come up with a way out of the encirclement and the Fortress of Death.

Toz looked around the room to see if there was anything that could help. Unfortunately, there was nothing but half-molten and scorched stone.

Toz heard the sounds of more reinforcements arriving, and it wasn't only a bunch of empty-headed armors this time since he could faintly hear voices. He sighed and resigned himself.

Since there weren't any ways out, Toz would simply have to carve one himself.

Though rather than carving a way out, it might be more appropriate to say that Toz was planning to remove the need for a way to escape.

With no enemies to escape from, he didn't have to escape.

It was the simplest way Toz came up with that would allow him to keep both his life and the Fountain of Death. And now that the Fountain of Death was out of order, he didn't have to worry about the armors resurrecting endlessly, no matter the damage they took.

Toz grabbed his sword and covered it in orange fire. He looked at the armors all around him and at the archway where more were steadily pouring into the chamber.

Toz roused his mana. Balls of fire, bolts of lightning, javelins of metal, and spatial tears appeared in the air around him while tendrils of darkness stretched out below him and invisible waves of void magic spread through the chamber.

Conjuring and manipulating all his elements at once put a toll on Toz's mind, but if he couldn't handle even this much, he could forget about reaching his full potential. He hadn't even started combining them.

Thankfully, the miniature clone within his consciousness added some strength to his mind, which gave Toz some confidence that he would be able to pull through.

After deciding on what to do, now Toz only had to figure out how to do it.

Coming out victorious against the entire Fortress of Death was a lot simpler as words instead of actions. Toz almost wondered if he had gone insane since he had both come up with the idea and decided to go through with it.

However, maybe that insanity would help him see a path to victory that a sane person wouldn't.

With a grin on his face, Toz began thinning the numbers before the next wave could arrive. Although it might be easier to deal with large numbers at once if he saved up and prepared destructive magic, it would be for naught if the second wave of reinforcements had someone that could block that kind of magic.

Instead, it would be better to free up as much space as possible so that he didn't have to worry about a hundred swords flying at him at once.

And since he was determined to stay in place since that was where the Fountain of Death was, Toz wouldn't have the same ease of movement that he was used to. If he avoided an attack by escaping to the other side of the Fortress, someone might come and grab the Fountain while he wasn't there to watch it.

And now that it wasn't continuously spewing forth demonic energy, it was a lot more difficult to detect the Fountain with his mana vision. The death attribute energy filling the Fortress hid the Fountain's signature. There were also the spatial fluctuations rippling through the Fortress and obscuring his ability to see through the mana for long distances.

The easiest and simplest way for Toz to succeed with his plan and keep the Fountain of Death would be to stay inside the chamber, which would limit the number of enemies that could attack him at once. He would then proceed to slowly whittle away at those who came at him until there were no more reinforcements.

With a plan that gave him some meager confidence, Toz got to work.

The chamber wasn't very large, but it could still fit a significant amount of enemies that could potentially swarm him with their sheer number. Toz didn't think he would be able to block a tsunami of armors if they came for him with that sort of tactic.

But handling lesser squalls and waves should be doable.

And the first wave was already in front of him, so Toz unleashed the magic at his sides.