Elemental Cats

Toz and the cats continued carefully into the untouched place in the forest. Despite the heavy air giving off a dark atmosphere, the area they were in seemed to have more ambient light than what the forest should have in its depths. Although it wasn't even bright enough to compare it to how bright it was during the day, it was almost like a starlit night, barely enough light to see contours and silhouettes.

But unlike the previous parts of the forest, there were no beasts or plants giving off light. Aside from the trees and regular vegetation on the ground, there was barely even traces of anything else. It was like the group had entered a different forest.

Eventually, after walking for some time in the deathly silent area, the group sensed intense mana fluctuations from what could very likely be the absolute center of the strange part of the forest they were in.

Along with those mana fluctuations, the constant feeling drawing Toz to the forest spiked in intensity. If it weren't for that feeling having grown steadily stronger the deeper the group continued into the forest, the strength of it would have almost made him stumble.

The feeling Toz felt made him more anxious to find out what was happening in the forest since, with the spike in intensity, there was a hint of fear added to the feeling, aside from the usual attraction.

Soon enough, the group arrived at the edge of a large clearing.

The clearing was easily more than forty meters across, and unlike the rest of the forest, it was properly lit up. But the light didn't come from torches or ordinary sources of light. It came from all the beasts and plants gathered in the center of the clearing.

All the beasts were trapped in cages and stacked on top of each other, creating a ring around the clearing. The cages of beasts were surrounded by large piles of various lightning attribute plants and materials.

Beneath the beasts and materials, the group could faintly see the ground glowing irregularly. If Toz wasn't completely wrong, it looked like a magic circle that spread throughout the glade, almost the entire way to the forest.

Based on the way the beasts and plants were arranged on the magic circle, it looked as if the beasts were sacrifices for a magic ritual.

Though Toz didn't know enough to be sure if he was right or not, but from what he knew about advanced magic, appropriate materials, accompanied by some way to channel their energy and at least one spell, would make a ritual.

The only thing lacking for the ritual in the clearing was one or several mages chanting to initiate and control the ritual. But if Toz's guess that the robed weirdos who had hired the thugs were responsible for the frenzied beasts in the forest, the ritual most likely didn't lack any mages. It had just not begun yet.

However, that didn't last long. Shortly after Toz and the group arrived at the clearing, they heard the rustling of leaves and cracking branches that signified someone was walking through the forest. And based on the sounds, it wasn't just one person either.

At another place in the clearing, three figures dressed in dark red, like the sky during a blood moon, robes stepped out of the forest.

"That Rage Powder you found works like a charm on those stupid beasts. Where did you get it from?"

"Oh, you know. I have my sources."

"Stop being ridiculous. It was your sister, right?"

"..."

Despite the distance between them, Toz easily heard the conversation between them. But it was hard to figure out who said what since the voices were all raspy and sounded distorted as if they had a serious throat illness. The hoods covering their faces also prevented Toz from seeing their faces and whose mouth moved when one of them talked.

It was the shitty bastards who had hired the thugs to try and kill Toz, that was for sure at least.

Toz didn't expect to find them directly after deciding to enter the depths of the forest. But now, he was wondering what to do, if he should quickly retreat and inform Rick or try and deal with the situation on his own. It probably wouldn't be too hard to interfere with a magic ritual since it should have stringent requirements during its execution. But if he fucked up, and the robed figures he couldn't tell the strength of noticed him, he could be in deep shit.

However, it seemed like the choice was made for him. If the robed figures had just come to inspect the beasts, he wouldn't have the chance to interfere with the ritual, and he could only try and back away unnoticeably. But the robed figures' words forced him to stick around.

"Since those two apes failed to kill that sneaky rat, we have to move up the schedule a bit."

"Doesn't matter. We have enough materials to summon the Demonic Spark Bear anyways, even if it's not a high level one."

"Though it sucks that we couldn't find that rat and kill him."

"Let's just get it over with."

As the three robed figures finished their short discussion, they took their places an equal distance between themselves around the magic circle, separating the clearing into three thirds.

After the figures got into their position they started chanting. At first, nothing happened and they just repeated the same unintelligible words and sounds for a few minutes.

Despite not understanding what they said or anything really happening, Toz and the group found the words increasingly ominous.

Even if nothing else had happened yet, the heavy atmosphere that had stretched out in the forest surrounding the clearing seemed to have gathered together in the clearing alone, pressing down on the grass, making it lie flat against the ground.

That was only the first part since after the heavy air gathered together, it started swirling around in the clearing, becoming the tip of a tornado, that as the chanting continued started stretching toward the sky.