Elemental Cats

Toz and Nil had, in their boredom, almost turned the entire island into a fortress of metal before finally being satisfied. It was a nice distraction from the hunger that had begun assailing Toz and the cats.

Keeping track of time was difficult without a watch or a sun, but Toz estimated that they had been drifting through the Void for more than a week since he first woke up. And they had not seen a single sign of anything else.

The dark sky, dotted with various colorful lights, all of them an incredible distance away, was an objectively amazing sight, but it would be even better if it was accompanied by some food.

Toz and the cats, while not on the verge of starving to death just yet, were incredibly hungry. Toz had tried preparing the leaves and roots of the trees, but no matter what he did, the taste was practically vomit-inducing and only made them sick.

So instead of torturing themselves with inedible food, the group tried to endure their hunger.

Although the Void was mostly empty space, there were still creatures and things in it that could provide salvation to the group. But Toz had no idea if it was even possible for them to encounter anything other than mana before they died.

But there was nothing they could do about their current situation. And Toz was unable to break through to the hunger and how lacking his body was in energy, so he was stuck reading his grimoire. At least the desperation helped him concentrate on learning the spell, and he made some progress with that.

Though he was only left with feelings of resignation, what good would come from learning how to cast a fireball in their current situation?

They had managed to secure a barely sustainable water source by squeezing the barely stomachable liquid from the leaves, but learning spells and training was the only distraction the group had from the hunger.

Thankfully, the hunger made it difficult for them to fully concentrate on their training, and they held some awareness of their surroundings.

Otherwise, the group would have easily missed what might very well be their salvation.

From a distance, it looked like a tiny glittering blue spot of light, just like any of the other infinite light spots sprinkled throughout the Void. But as the fortified island of trees continued floating through the Void in the direction of the dot of light, the dot grew in size and radiance, something no other star or light had done so far during their journey through the Void.

Although it still looked like there was quite a distance between the source of light and the island carrying Toz and the cats.

The one who first noticed the object in the distance was Scrael, who had taken a short break in her training. She saw it off in the distance and noticed how much larger it was compared to every other source of light around it. And as they continued drifting closer to it, the source of light grew in size.

Scrael alerted the others when it was finally close enough to begin determining the true nature of the object. And from the distance the group watched, the object looked like a globe of water floating through the Void.

But eventually, as the group drifted closer, it became clear that it was a school of fish. Since they swam freely through the Void, the fish had to be some kind of void beast. Although Toz and the cats knew that void beasts existed and lived naturally in the Void, they didn't know much about them.

However, the fact that they were living beings was all the hope the group needed to try and fish for them. The only problem was how. Even if Toz and the group had some kind of bait, they didn't even know if it would be something that would lure the void fish to them. It made sense for void beasts to be far from accustomed to the food coming from a plane. And it wasn't like they lived in an environment where they survived by eating all the time.

In any case, there was still quite a distance between the fish and Toz's group, so Toz and Nil started weaving a net they could throw outside the trees to catch the fish.

It had originally looked like the school of fish swimming in a globular pattern would pass by the island of trees, and Toz would have to throw the net far away, hoping to catch at least some of the fish. But as the distance between the fish and the island shrunk, the messily swimming fish stilled and turned in the direction of the island.

The fish spread out in a circle and swam, each of their movements synchronized with the others.

Toz and the cats were finally close enough to see the fish up close. The fish, which had looked mostly blue from a distance, were almost see-through and didn't seem to be much other than eyes and sharp teeth.

The ghostly fish brought up some scary thoughts in Toz, Nil, and Lucy, but only temporarily. Their hunger won over their fear, and they knew rationally that the fish were void beasts. It wasn't strange for them to look strange.

Toz and the cats prepared to face the void fish that were swimming toward the island of trees aggressively with their piercing eyes and puncturing teeth.

As the fish got closer, Toz and the cats could sense the void attribute surrounding them and encroaching upon the island of trees and the reinforcements Toz and Nil had made.

Thankfully, the fish didn't seem to be too powerful, and their void magic only eroded the surface of the metal. But as soon as the fish were close enough to practically touch the sphere of protection the trees had erected around the island, the erosion and nullification of the mana grew more intense.

The fish continued in their advance and targeted the trees, going for the leaves first.

As the fish surrounded the island and began chewing on whatever they could fit their jaws around, the leaves started disintegrating and disappearing into the weird bodies of the fish.

Seeing their safe haven in the Void being turned into the part of the void beasts Toz and the cats couldn't sit still and launched a counterattack.