Elemental Cats

After Toz had skipped around enough and gathered all the Stone Balls in one large clump instead of having them all spread out as they charged back and forth, trying to catch him. Now the Stone Balls would only come from a single direction, and Toz wouldn't need to twist his neck several times just to see where all the attacks would come from.

Having all the Stone Balls in one place would also make it easier for Toz to counterattack. And that's just what he did.

He met the swarm of Stone Balls' charge head-on. But right before the collision, he dashed to the side, and with the help of Lucy holding the Stone Balls' feet down, he swung his sword right at the place where the legs were attached to the bodies. He brushed past several Stone Balls outermost of the cluster, severing their right legs.

But the attack didn't end there. Right when the Stone Balls were about to use their Stone Blood to regenerate their limbs, balls of fire were sent directly to the place where the legs had been attached. With how hard Mindle had been training and working on controlling her mana, it was a breeze for her to strike precisely where Toz had and prevent the legs from regenerating.

If Stone Balls could be incapacitated that easily, just by cutting off their legs, there would have been no way they could have earned their reputation for being so troublesome to deal with. In a similar way to how the Stone Trees used their sap welling out to create a protective layer, the Stone Balls could use Stone Blood to create new legs. Sending a stream out of the leg hole and then manually controlling it to partially petrify and allow the Stone Ball to walk and run again. As long as there is still Stone Blood in the Stone Ball, it can continue creating new legs.

And on the flip side, if there is no Stone Blood, the Stone Ball becomes a sitting duck. However, without Stone Blood, there is no value to the Stone Ball. Someone aiming to collect Stone Blood could go about it two ways. Smash the bodies to kill the Stone Balls instantly. Or sever the legs and stop the Stone Balls from regenerating them to incapacitate them and then, when they can't do anything to defend themselves, break them apart and collect as much Stone Blood as possible.

Since Toz didn't possess enough power to handle instantly smashing all the Stone Balls, he had to go for the second option of removing the Stone Balls' mobility. Thankfully, while the Stone Blood didn't petrify when subjected to ordinary daylight, when exposed to strong enough heat and brightness, such as one from direct fire, the Stone Blood stiffens, effectively preventing the Stone Balls from regrowing their legs.

Even with only half of their legs cut off, the Stone Balls were practically put out of commission, and the number of them that could continue charging at Toz decreased.

Toz, Lucy, and Mindle repeated their combo several times, and eventually, they managed to have all the Stone Balls struggling on the ground with either both sides of legs removed from their bodies or only a single one. While it wouldn't be strange if the Stone Balls started rolling away, for some reason, after their legs were removed, or if they were provoked enough, they didn't flee. In fact, their defense capabilities were so outstanding that if they lasted long enough, the Stone Blood within them could force away the spot of petrified Stone Blood that was blocking their legs from regrowing.

Since it would be annoying having to knock down the Stone Balls again, and even more so considering they would use up that precious Stone Blood if they regenerate their legs, Toz got to work smashing them apart.

Although the club Nil had made couldn't measure up to his sword in terms of density, durability, and amount of mana, a blunt weapon would be more suitable for breaking apart the round stones.

And so, like a kid with a stick and a vendetta against eggs, Toz clobbered away at the pitiful Stone Balls lying on the ground.

The Stone Balls were certainly sturdy, but Toz, as a thrice refined mage with a beast type inclination, was pretty strong just by himself. Adding the reinforcement filling his body with metal attribute mana, and how he controlled the club with magic at the same time he swung the club, it didn't take many hits to break open a Stone Ball.

While Toz continued breaking up the next Stone Ball, the cats gathered the spilled Stone Blood and pieces of Stone Ball that were covered in it within a bunch of spatial rings that Toz had in his coat.

It looked like the last Stone Balls alive were ready to push out new legs and spring back to life and attack Toz right when he got to them. He rushed to finish the one he was currently attacking before showering the ones that were left in flames, cauterizing their wounds again, and charring their surface black. And then he proceeded to break them as well.

After Toz finished smashing the last Stone Ball, he helped the cats gather all the Stone Blood in the spatial rings. Since he didn't know if the shell was worth anything, he brought most of it with them as well. But the empty spatial rings and pockets in his coat were running out. So, after selling as much as he could to the guild, they would need to clear out unnecessary junk from his coat.

Since they had gathered the sap from the Stone Trees and the Stone Blood from the Stone Balls and they didn't have any more available space to store more materials, the group headed back to Sleepless Brights.

On their way back, nothing unexpected happened. Although it was slightly surprising that they hadn't met another human, considering how lucrative harvesting Stone Blood could be.