Elemental Cats

After the buffalo landed, it wasn't even a matter of time before it was the pillar's turn.

As soon as he heard the thumping sound of the buffalo's landing, Nil activated the tiny amount of mana he had gotten control over during the fall. He used the mana to control the metal right under him and launched himself off the pillar.

In theory, if he did it fast enough, he could offset the speed of his descent and arrive at the ground with low enough momentum to survive the landing.

It was just that he needed to launch himself with incredible speed in order to reach a speed similar to the falling pillar. It was just that Nil wasn't very specialized in making his magic move quickly. His traps relied on mechanical functions to exert the force and velocity they did. And Nil didn't have enough time or mana to try and imitate Sharp Rain's speed on a flat surface.

The only thing he could do was take inspiration from the explosive speed with which Scrael could use her magic.

Nil didn't know if he was successful or not until he opened his eyes when the wind stopped blowing all around him. He had at least succeeded in offsetting the pillar's falling speed. The only question left was whether he would survive the rest of the fall, so Nil turned his gaze downward.

Nil wanted to curse.

He had overestimated the pillar's speed slightly, and it was more time left until it hit the ground than he thought. So Nil was still pretty high up in the air.

Nil gritted his teeth and accepted his situation. He would still suffer a broken bone or two after landing, but he would survive, which was a lot better than what would have happened if he had underestimated the pillar's speed.

After confirming his position, Nil began inspecting the ground where he would land in order to guarantee as safe a landing as possible.

However, his preparations were unnecessary. Not because he wasn't going to land. That was going to happen no matter what.

The pillar's impact on the ground would be enough to send tremors through the ground and maybe even stir up a small earthquake. The ground would be destroyed and changed before Nil could land. So trying to secure a safe landing spot before the pillar landed would be like trying to find a nice tree to sleep in before a forest fire.

Not only that, it turned out that Nil didn't have to worry about controlling his landing in any way. The shockwave caused by the oversized pillar was enough to send Nil's feathery body flying.

Even if he wanted to control where he was going, he couldn't. But at least it minimized the downward trajectory as it pushed him up and back.

Nil fumbled and tumbled through the air like a bird caught in a storm, and he struggled to straighten himself. The only thing he could use to try and orient himself were the glimpses of the sky and the ground he caught.

But even they were quickly obscured by the dust cloud sent up by the pillar's collision with the ground.

Nil rolled through the air and could only use his instincts to feel around and sense how far he had left, but even that wasn't of much help, and before he knew it, Nil's world shook.

Pain shot up all over his body as he struck the ground like a tiny meteor and plowed a trench.

Nil's mind was all jumbled from the impact and the pain, but he could still make out that he was still alive, even if he didn't want to be at the moment. But his thoughts cleared with every passing second, and he gradually realized that while his pain was warranted, his injuries weren't as severe as he first thought they would be after he landed.

His back and shoulders had taken the most damage since that was what hit the ground first, and then the damage stretched to his side, neck, and head as he plowed through the dirt.

There was a lot of torn fur and skin, several broken ribs, and fractured bones. But it was far from as bad as it could have been. Compared to dying, it was a lot better to get some injuries that would all recover without issue.

After confirming the state of his body, Nil managed to push through the pain, and he stood up to crawl out of the hole he had dug himself into when he landed. But he didn't need to walk anymore since he was swept up into Toz's embrace.

Toz had sensed Nil's wish to at least see through things to the end by himself, and he respected it. But now that Nil had landed, he didn't need to sit still anymore.

As soon as Nil stopped moving, Toz was already on his way over, accompanied by Scrael. He had held himself back for Nil's sake, but he couldn't do it anymore, especially not after he could sense Nil's pain through their bond.

Toz's heart ached as he cradled Nil in his arms and soothed him. Unfortunately, he didn't have a way to heal Nil or even relieve his pain. Toz was at a loss for what to do. And he felt like he was beginning to panic due to the gruesome wounds on Nil and the blood flowing from them.

But before he could become hysteric, both Nil and Scrael calmed him down and comforted him.

Nil knew that his injuries only looked bad, and although he was in pain, Toz panicking wouldn't help in any way.

Scrael, who had been injured several times in her life, often even worse than how badly injured Nil was currently, could tell at a glance that his injuries weren't lethal. He would show a full recovery in a couple of weeks at most.

With the two cat's comfort, Toz managed to calm down slightly, but he still held Nil tightly and helped him stem the bleeding.

Although Nil was injured and out of mana, he was safe, and he had successfully killed the buffalo leader. And staying in place wouldn't help him recover any faster, so Toz, still carrying Nil, walked with Scrael to where Lucy was fighting the other buffalo leader.