Elemental Cats

Kahglia and the Death Knight followed Toz and Red Hook through the large portal Toz made with Asilean's help. The four of them reappeared on the battlefield where Toz and the other two had fought against the Blood Fiend. It wasn't much different from before. Even the Blood Fiend was there, and it charged toward Toz and the others as soon as it noticed them.

Red Hook just sent out her dagger and inserted it into the Blood Fiend's chest, just like she had done before.

"Below ground?"

"Yep, I made a hole over here."

Toz nodded in response to Red Hook's question and led her to the hole he dug so that he could get through to the cats. And next to the hole was Asilean, who was waiting for them.

Asilean didn't say anything and just jumped down the hole. Toz sensed that while it wasn't urgent, Asilean didn't want to waste time.

Toz turned to Kahglia.

"I don't think you will fit down there."

"Yeah. I can see that. Do I just wait here?"

"I need to bring the dagger with me, so the Blood Fiend will keep respawning until I'm done with the magic circle. If you can handle it, it should be fine. Otherwise, you should consider taking a few thousand steps back."

Toz spoke after Red Hook warned Kahglia. He also pointed toward where the Blood Fiend had caught up with the army.

"The Blood Fiend did decimate more than half the army, so there's probably a bunch of free stuff over there and in the camp."

"Hey! I was planning to take that as payment for saving all your sorry asses!"

Toz didn't miss a beat after Red Hook spoke.

"Three-way split?"

"'Three-way?'"

Kahglia and Red Hook spoke in unison after Toz's suggestion and stared at him with judgemental expressions.

"Right, we can't forget mister Death Knight. Four-way split?"

"No, no. Why should either of the two of you get any?"

"What do you mean? Sure, you might have saved us in the end with your dagger. But without me, we wouldn't even have gotten that far."

"Yeah. And without your overwhelming generosity, there would have been an entire army's worth of stuff to loot."

"What are you talking about when you've already shoved the other half in your giant pockets?"

"You know what? I'm stronger than the two of you, and I saved your lives. Shouldn't you consider giving my men and me everything?"

As she spoke, Red Hook made sure to pressure Toz and Kahglia with her transcendent level mana. Thanks to his strong mind and the miniature clone, Toz managed to shake most of it off with only slight effort, despite his weak and tired state. Kahglia also didn't show any signs of being subdued by the pressure.

"Freaks."

Red Hook snorted, but she didn't back down.

"Can you stop fooling around? You too, Toz."

Their argument was interrupted by Asilean, who reappeared in the middle of them with a stern gaze.

"Alright. Sorry about that. Lead the way."

Toz started walking after Asilean. He pushed along Red Hook as well, who thankfully didn't resist. She did shrug off his hands after a few steps, though.

Right before they joined Asilean and jumped down the hole, Toz and Red Hook looked back at Kahglia.

"'Three-way split.'"

Kahglia held up her hands helplessly before she started turning around and running to get away from the Blood Fiend that would soon resurrect now that Red Hook's dagger had drained it. With nothing else to do, the Death Knight followed Kahglia. It didn't think it could do much underground since Red Hook, a transcendent, would be there. But it could help go through all the corpses for loot.

Kahglia looked at the Death Knight and winked. Unsure of how to respond, the Death Knight just nodded. Kahglia wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"Hey. I won't say anything if you don't say anything. Catch my drift?"

The Death Knight nodded again. This time, Kahglia seemed satisfied, and she continued running toward the smashed and drained corpses. Since the Blood Fiend had drained everyone of their blood, only mummified bodies remained, which made the process of looking for magic items and treasure a lot easier than it could have been.

So, while Kahglia and the Death Knight rummaged through the corpses and the remains of the Alliance of Kingdoms' camp, Toz and Red Hook followed Asilean as he led them through a winding maze of tunnels.

Asilean kept up a fast pace, but Toz and Red Hook didn't have any problems following. If anything, they could go even faster. But the tunnels were too crooked and took too many abrupt sharp turns. And it only got worse the closer they got to the center of it all.

"So, what happened with the others? Did you find Lucy?"

Asilean sighed before answering Toz's question.

"You'll understand when you see. But they aren't in any danger at the moment, at least."

Those words only made Toz even more curious, especially since he still couldn't sense the other cats. However, the only way to really find out what had happened and what was going on was to see it for himself, just like Asilean said. So, Toz followed along without asking any more questions.

Red Hook was also curious about what was going on, but if Toz didn't get a proper answer or know, Red Hook doubted she would get anything from asking. So, instead, she spread her senses and tried to detect what lay at the end of the tunnels. But since the tunnels suppressed their senses, and because whatever it was at the end of the tunnel overwhelmed her senses with blood attribute demonic energy, Red Hook couldn't tell any details. 𝒻𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝑛ℴ𝘷𝑒𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝑚

Eventually, Asilean and the other two, bursting with curiosity, finally arrived at the center of it all. They had reached the end of the tunnels. And as Asilean said, it was easiest to understand by seeing.