Ethan didn’t twitch a finger as he watched the orange cat approach. Not out of fear, though he was a bit worried. This thing had twenty levels on him and, well, it was a cat.
They were unpredictable.
Ethan didn’t have a lot of experience with cats aside from the one time he tried hand-feeding one and got a nasty scratch for his trouble. He didn’t hate them. He knew they could be adorable and cute and all that, but he also knew they could be… jumpy.
The cat finally reached his feet, and it sniffed up at him. It had fire-orange eyes with dilated charcoal-black irises and when it stood on its hind legs and waved its front paw, Ethan nearly moved down to pet it but refrained. Instead, he just watched for a moment, confused at what the elemental wanted.
Oh.
Ethan looked down at the flames licking up his wrists. The wand. Or maybe it was sensing his traits? [Child of Flames] and the wand’s unique trait might be attractive to it.
Ethan gently boosted his flames and slowly leaned over, groaning in his throat at the pain that shot through his stabbed stomach. The cat reached higher—and rubbed its face on the fire a couple of times before it started licking it.
Ethan had expected it to play with the fire or something. He didn’t expect to see it munch on the fire as if it was made of cotton-candy. Neither did he expect the satisfied growl and purring as it progressively grew more and more excited.
I guess I did have cat treats.
Ethan fed the cat while he kept a constant healing flame around his stomach. He wasn’t feeling as cold anymore, but there was still healing to do. And the flames helped keep the pain at bay.
Glancing down at the wound, he found it nearly closed up but of course, that didn’t mean the internal damage was all healed though at this point, he was almost sure his healing flames and [Enduring Brawler] would be able to fully heal him.
Which was mind-boggling, considering the gravity of the injury.
Ethan slowly breathed out and continued feeding the cat. The growly purrs were comforting, for some reason.
Maybe he could make a friend out of this powerful cat-elemental-thingy.
It took close to five minutes for the cat to stop devouring Ethan’s flames. He didn’t dare stop and none of the remaining lizardlings dared to move either, though he’ll deal with them once his safety from the feline was assured.
Ethan kept the flames on, but soon he began suspecting he was growing tired. Magic-wise. It hadn’t been obvious at first, but as he was feeding the cat and calming down, he felt an odd sense of fatigue that seemed to emanate from his chest and down his limbs. He felt hollowed, a bit. At first he wondered if it was because of the stab, but as that wound continued healing, the tiredness in his limbs only kept growing.
This was confirmation that channeling too much mana might create some sort of fatigue.
Ethan slowly exhaled while the cat licked its chops. He reduced the flame of his left hand to a minimum, keeping it against his stomach.
Might be worth taking a small break. After I deal with the remaining lizards.
The cat rubbed at its face for a few seconds and when it was done, it looked up at Ethan. It flicked its ears, sending a small gout of fire around them, meowed once, and a prompt popped in front of his eyes.
Ethan blinked at the prompt, then looked at the cat. “No.”
The cat growled at him, and its ears turned backward. “Wait,” said Ethan as he ignited his right claws once more, hoping to distract the cat for a moment. His chest ached at the expenditure, but at least his little gambit worked. The cat straightened its ears and waited.
“Let’s talk about this,” said Ethan as he coughed in his throat to buy himself a few seconds to think. Pain shot in his stomach, but he dismissed it.
This was huge. If he could somehow recruit this cat, it would give him an edge on a lot of participants. Plus, it was a fire cat. A fire elemental. If he was actually trying to learn fire magic, there was no better practitioner to observe.
Ethan reeled his excitement in for a second and considered the downsides. Will this pact stuff be dangerous? Is it like those soul-selling deals in stories? It didn’t seem like it… there was no fine print that he could see. It seemed straightforward enough.
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Also, how would it be enforced?
His thoughts were cut off as the cat growled once more. He looked down at it, then condensed some fire in a small ball and offered it as a bribe. The cat curiously peered at it and tapped it with a paw. “I can offer you three meals a day. In exchange, you do what I ask.”
A low-ball offer. But it gave room for negotiation. The cat growled once more, twitching its ears, but its ears didn’t go in airplane-mode. It gave him a long and low meow and a new prompt appeared.
Ethan shook his head. Why did I think it would be willing to negotiate?
Though it was clear enough the cat could understand him perfectly well. It was just being stubborn.
Fitting, really.
Ethan eyed the cat and the dancing flames all over its fur. It was still paying very close attention to his claws and to the fires coating them. Which gave him an idea.
“Alright,” said Ethan. “I’ll give you flames at least three times a day. In exchange, once a day, you do at least one thing that I ask you to. We can negotiate more meals or more favors on a case-per-case basis.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Ethan flared the flames of his right hand a bit more and made them dense in the cat’s excited eyes. It couldn’t help but track the fire and then—
Ethan snuffed the flames out.
It surprised the cat, and it definitely annoyed it. Ethan forestalled it. “Accept, and you’ll get to see the fires every day. I get into a lot of fights. You can travel with me. And you’ll be able to taste a lot of different fires.”
The elemental swished it tails left and right and stared up at him. It flicked its ear once or twice as it thought it through, and then it gave him a resolved meow.
The cat’s fur ignited. Its paws left the ground as it rose in the air, while Ethan’s body locked up. The temperature rose around them, and Ethan found himself locking eyes with the cat. Something snapped between them in a second. A connection. And through it, he felt a foreign emotion leak into his own mind. He felt curiosity from the elemental. Boredom. Confidence.
Typical cat things.
And then the magic was over, and the odd energy holding him in place relented.
Ethan exhaled in relief. That had been more intense than expected. Looking down, he found the cat swishing its tail, staring up, so Ethan ignited his hands once more, ignoring the worsening ache in his chest, and watched as the cat excitedly focused on the flames. A second later, it jumped up, trailing flames, and Ethan expected the fire to feel hot or maybe even burn him, but it didn’t. It was just warm. A bit like his own flames.
“Alright. I’m going to finish off those lizardlings and then we can leave.”
The cat turned to him and meowed.“[Food?]”
The feminine voice in his head made him jump. He looked left to the cat on his shoulder. “You can speak?”
In response, it rubbed at its face with its paw for a second and then gave him a bored look. It meowed in its throat. “[Yes,]” the cat said, and its voice definitely sounded exasperated. She flicked its head at the lizardlings. “[Food?]”
How about that? Talking cats. Well, elementals in this case. Wait. Was she a cat with elemental powers, or an elemental in a cat form?
Ethan couldn’t tell, but he could ask her later. He glanced at the lizardlings and shook his head. “Not food for me. And I think you can do better.”
The cat jumped off his shoulder and went to lie near the door, then it closed its eyes. Clearly, it wasn’t willing to deal with whatever it was he intended to do and instead was more interested in a micro-nap.
Well, Ethan didn’t mind that and in the end, something good ended up coming from these lizardlings. But they were still going to pay for the poor people they decapitated and fed to the flames.
He glanced at them. There were a dozen or so still alive, but it seemed the fight had left their bodies once their ritual ended up summoning a cat and not whatever it was they’d been expecting. They sat there on the bare stone floor, listlessly staring at him or at the cat.
Ethan frowned. He didn’t like that. He’d rather they fight back or just attack him.
Before he could consider letting them walk out and wallow in their defeat, the image of the decapitated heads flashed in his eyes, and he knew he couldn’t let them walk out of the cave. Not if there was any risk they’d start their shit again with some new unsuspecting victims. But before he got to that unpleasantness, he wanted to check on another problem.
What’s going on with my levels? And what’s happening with the updated quest?
Side quest:
Reach level 30 and declare your true path
Reward:
Prime Wand
Body Reforging
10 stat points.
Ethan mumbled. “What does that mean? What’s a true path?”
Looking away from that for a second, he checked the rewards and whistled. “It is a wand. A new one. And what about this body reforging? Is that why I can’t level anymore?”
He looked up at the lizardlings, and found them staring at the ground. None of them was above level 20 and he just didn’t want to deal with them, but he couldn’t have them around either. Not when he needed to spend time on his interface.
It would have been better if there was still a shred of a fight within them. But I can’t risk it.
Ethan extended his hand and, ignoring the fatigue weighing him down, he lobbed a small fireball in their midst.