Elemental Cats

Toz wasn't confident that he would be able to awaken the true nature of flames again in such a short period before his mind could even get a chance to recover. But there was one significant difference between his current fight with the Blood Fiend and his stunt in the Fortress of Death.

He wasn't alone. He had Kahglia, the Flesh Golem, and the Death Knight by his side to protect him. But most importantly, Mindle wasn't far away.

Unlike Toz, who mostly suffered due to the firestorm of mana, Mindle was like a fish in the water or a bird in the sky as soon as she came close to it. So, after a while, when she had gotten used to the tornado of mana and when Toz asked for help, Mindle was ready to assist.

Mindle was enlightened and thankful when she heard Toz's idea of trying to control the mana storm. If he hadn't said anything or asked for help, Mindle would have probably just stayed inside the mana storm and swum around leisurely, enjoying the fire mana. But now, she was excited. Both to try out what Toz had inspired her to do and to finally get an opportunity to help Toz, who never seemed like he needed help.

Just like that, the mana storm slowly began moving toward the Blood Fiend. Kahglia, the Flesh Golem, and the Death Knight naturally got a little worried. The firestorm hadn't been powerful enough to interfere too much in their battle since it would make both sides fight in unfavorable conditions.

But now, they were already at a huge disadvantage against the Blood Fiend, so if nature came and interfered, it would be even harder for them to fight. None of them had any intentions of giving up, but it all seemed a little hopeless when everything was going against them.

But the firestorm took a slight detour around Toz and the other three. Kahglia, the Flesh Golem, and the Death Knight whipped their heads around to look at Toz, the fire-wielding mage. They then looked at the mass of fire mana that moved as if controlled by someone. Puzzle pieces seemed to fall into place in their minds, and they looked at Toz with slight awe. What kind of natural disaster was this seventh level mage?

Toz didn't say anything. What was he supposed to tell them, anyways? That his companion, a living, breathing spirit, is controlling the tornado, not him? It would be better to just concentrate on setting the stage for Mindle instead.

Toz drank the remaining potions and filled his mana pool to the brim so that he could help Mindle as much as possible when she finally moved the tornado into position. He also concentrated the power of the ring of fire so that the firestorm would have something to anchor to. And if the firestorm anchored to the ring of fire, the Blood Fiend would be caught inside a vortex of swirling fire mana, who, under Mindle's support, would eat away at the already leaking Blood Fiend.

It didn't take long for Mindle to pilot the firestorm into place above the Blood Fiend with the help of Toz's ring of fire guiding her. When the firestorm was locked in place, it began eroding the Blood Fiend at once. But the mana storm wasn't powerful enough to compare to the transcendent Blood Fiend.

Since Mindle didn't have to move the mana storm around anymore, she instead began turning her attention toward strengthening it. She spread her influence over the tornado and helped it spin even faster, gather even more mana from the surroundings, and grow even larger.

Toz also did what he could from the ground to feed the fire tornado and help it grow powerful enough to kill the Blood Fiend. But the stronger it got and the more demonic energy it wore away from the Blood Fiend, the more demonic energy entered the firestorm and threatened to interfere with its momentum.

Since the demonic energy inside the Blood Fiend was made from all the blood spilled on the battlefield for the duration of the war, the Blood Fiend had more than enough demonic energy to compete with the amount of mana in the firestorm.

The orange storm of fire mana began to take on a slightly reddish hue that spread from the bottom up.

Toz saw the demonic energy infiltrate the firestorm and start spreading to Mindle, and he couldn't help but worry. Since he could tell that Mindle had practically become one with the firestorm, he was worried that the demonic energy would corrupt her or injure her.

However, the only thing he could do was strengthen the fire of the firestorm, so that's what he did.

Eventually, the storm of mostly fire but partly blood grew to such an extent that the Blood Fiend was mostly obscured. It also began taking over the surroundings and stirring up a natural storm of wind that rustled clothes and even threatened to take Toz to the air. But he quickly conjured a pair of metal arches and put them over his feet to keep him grounded.

The firestorm fought against the demonic energy invading it, and the clash threatened to dispel the entire storm at times. While at other times, it looked like the storm was fiercer than ever.

The storm fluctuated and trembled as it sent bursts of fire and blood away and into the air. Eventually, with the help of the ever-growing flames at the bottom of the tornado, the firestorm managed to grab hold of an advantage.

The flames and the firestorm worked together to push the red demonic energy into a thin twister in the center of the tornado. The fire tornado controlled and guided the top of the demonic energy twister upward and into the sky, where it lost control and spun until it dispersed itself.

The fire tornado continued funneling away the demonic energy as much as it could, but the demonic energy constantly threatened to corrupt the firestorm again. And Mindle wasn't sure she could keep the firestorm in control long enough to outlast the seemingly bottomless source of demonic energy that was the Blood Fiend.