Elemental Cats

The last thing Hugh had felt or experienced before he thought he died was the blast of an incredibly fast projectile passing right above him. Despite having his eyes closed, he sensed the bright streak that the projectile left in the air it flew through. However, he didn't even have time to think about what it could be as he lost consciousness to the pain and physical trauma of his injuries.

However, despite believing otherwise when everything went dark, Hugh obviously didn't die as he still felt like he was being beaten and tossed around. The pain momentarily awoke him before sending him back into unconsciousness. His brain was still too addled from all the blows the Rat King inflicted on him to think clearly.

When Hugh finally woke up, having recovered enough to have coherent thoughts, he was no longer bouncing around, and the world didn't feel like it was falling and rising all the time. The clearheadedness also helped him realize how badly injured he was.

The entirety of his back was torn open, leaving only bloody rags of flesh to cover up his ribcage. Thankfully the Rat King had been more interested in ripping and tearing than in physically crushing Hugh, so although a few of his ribs were cracked and his spine was bruised and aching, he wasn't crippled. With a few potions and enough rest, Hugh would be able to make a full recovery. Assuming he managed to first access the potions stored in his spatial ring or wouldn't be attacked by a wild beast before he recovered enough to defend himself.

Since he was alive and no further injured after losing consciousness to the Rat King's assault, obviously, something had happened to the Rat King that prevented it from finishing off Hugh. There were also some hazy memories of being bounced around during the period he was out like a light.

But just those details wouldn't tell Hugh about his current situation.

However, as his brain started working again, and he opened his eyes and started perceiving the world around him, Hugh felt several other presences nearby, as well as some kind of activity that sounded somewhat like a fight.

Although the tearing pain he had to endure to turn over and manage to get a look at what was going on made the process excruciatingly slow, when Hugh finally saw it, he didn't know how to react.

Hugh saw the back of a dark-haired man in a blood-spattered coat, standing in front of a large pitfall. Around the pitfall were three cats of different colors.

Based on the movements of the cats and the man, they were obviously using magic, and it seemed they were torturing some kind of beast down in the hole.

Since Hugh was still nursing a concussion and had just woken up, it took a few minutes for him to put the pieces together. He stared blankly at the pit as he thought.

Right before he lost consciousness, something had attacked the Rat King that was busy mauling his back. He had slightly waken up a few times after that, and during those times, he had been shaken around, almost like he was carried by a running person. And when he finally came to entirely, he saw a group of beings attack a beast trapped in a pitfall. When he looked closer, the opening in the ground was even slightly larger than what he remembered the Rat King to be.

The evidence all pointed to the man and his cats having rescued Hugh from the Rat King and then somehow trapped it in a hole in the ground, and they were now torturing it.

At first, Hugh didn't have any problem with that, he was only grateful, but as his brain continued waking up and he sensed the levels of mana displayed by the man and the cats, he got more than a little doubtful of the situation. Despite having completely drained his mana, he was still a fifth level mage and possessed the senses of one.

With Toz, Lucy, Nil, and Mindle openly using their mana and not even trying to hide their levels, Huh sensed that there were two third level mages and two second level ones. Hugh had a hard time believing that such a line-up could do what he, an experienced fifth level mage, could not. Even if they had the numbers advantage, it wasn't to such a degree that they could overpower a fifth level mage.

Hugh wanted to look around more and try to figure out the actual situation, but when his gaze went to the tiny black cat sitting by the pit, the cat's head whipped around, and the yellow eyes seemed to pierce his gaze and freeze him on the spot.

Hugh, in his prime, probably wouldn't be affected too much by Lucy's look, but weakened as he was, he couldn't move a muscle as the tiny black cat seemed to grow larger and larger, covering up his entire view, until all he could see was darkness and the cat's eyes staring down at him from up above.

While Lucy didn't exactly hold a grudge against Hugh, they all knew that Hugh was after the egg that Mindle had been in before she was born. And that Hugh was weirdly persistent in looking for it. Since Hugh was stronger than them at the moment and could pose a threat to them when he recovered, Lucy was of half a mind to get rid of trouble before it even sprouted. The reason they had saved Hugh from the Rat King, to begin with, was because he might be useful against the Rat King.

With the Rat King pinned down and on the verge of death, Hugh had outlived his usefulness and could join the Rat King in leaving the world of the living.

"...ats enough." Hugh only came to after he heard those words. The black cat was still looking at him, but it had returned to its palm-sized figure and no longer covered the sky.

"Now then. How do you feel, mister lumber-janitor?"

Hugh looked in the direction of the young man who had turned around and was obviously addressing him. The dark-haired man smiled slightly, but the smile didn't reach the cold, green eyes, and Hugh got shivers down his exposed spine.