As William struck the night cat he was engaged with, he briefly wished he was the sort who used swords to fight. Only briefly, because he imagined that most swords wouldn’t be sharp enough to do that much to these monsters either. More importantly, a sword rebounding from an enemy instead of cutting through them would generally leave the user more open, since they would generally not be expecting that to happen. However, in addition to that, Chris was a staff, and William thought he wouldn’t be able to get a better weapon in any form. He also thought that he needed to focus on the fight he was currently in… An explosion brought his mind back to the battle.

Dong Xin was still facing off against two of the night cats, but Yu Li had not been standing around doing nothing. To begin with, she hadn’t ever just been “standing around”. She watched the flow of the battle and moved around so as to make it easier for Dong Xin to keep the night cats away from her, though this was basically just moving away from the night cats but not too far from him. She had also been chanting a spell, which resulted in a fireball. This was aimed at the feet of one of the night cats. There were two reasons for this. First, they were very fast, and thus could somewhat dodge one aimed directly at them. In addition to that, actually telling their precise location to begin with was hard enough. The fireball impacted the ground, and night cat was too distracted with Dong Xin to even dodge. The explosion was large enough to cover it in fire… but although that fireball might have killed a human, it wouldn’t be enough to kill the night cat. However, the sudden occurrence of fire was both painful and frightening. This caused the freakish, six-legged beast to retreat to a distance of about ten meters.

That left Dong Xin facing off against just one night cat… and he smoothly switched from purely defensive techniques to offense. His staff left arcs through the air as it pummeled the night cat from seemingly all sides at once. The force was like it was being struck with boulders, but it was never moved far in one direction before being struck again from the other side. Dong Xin also seemed to have no difficulty hitting his target, either. The sound of bones cracking could be heard throughout the formerly quiet section of forest.

Now that William had a way to consistently target his enemy, he grew more confident in his attacks… and this transferred over into Chris. More specifically, Chris didn’t bother to add much ki to his attacks when William didn’t. Chris never needed it to protect himself, since they had yet to find anything that could even scratch him. In addition to that, it was much more efficient when William and Chris combined their ki to strike. If asked to explain how they did it, William would shrug, and Chris might note that he was a staff. Not that nobody combined ki to attack, but generally they had strategies and plans to do so… instead of just doing it by feel. However, Chris was a magic staff specifically made to enhance fighting capabilities… theoretically including magic, though that part hadn’t been actually tested. The end result was that William and Chris working together in sync were not much worse than Dong Xin’s attacks, even though their level of training was much less. In the dim light, a blue streak moved through the air, striking at the head, neck, and any of the four front legs of the night cat William was facing. At the same, time, it fended off the tentacles that were flailing about. Though they were not as visible as cuts, wounds were building up on the night cat. The night cat in front of William hissed, then turned and retreated. The one that was already a distance away retreated as well, leaving behind only the scent of its burned flesh. The one still engaged with Dong Xin, however, had no chance to run… and with a final loud crack, its skull was caved in.

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William was rather disappointed they had to leave the night cat’s body behind, but he understood that there was no way for them to carry such a large body with them, even with the emaciated appearance. That was too bad, because its hide would likely be valuable, or more important to William, useful. However, nobody had the tools or the skills to skin it, and thus it was left behind… though they did take a few teeth as trophies.

As they continued through the forest, they proceeded more cautiously. Just because nobody had been significantly injured in that fight didn’t mean that it couldn’t have happened. If Yu Li had been the one attacked first, that would actually have been quite likely.

William considered the things he had thought about during the battle. “Hey, Chris… can you be any kind of weapon besides a staff?”

There were a few moments of no response, before the response “no” came. Then William had to stop for a moment to let Chris scrawl a more complete answer in the dirt. “I can change size, basically, but my shape is quite set. I’ll always be a hexagonal crystal.”

William shrugged. “That’s fine. I like you just fine as a staff just fine, I was just wondering.”

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In a few more days, while they still had a significant portion of the forest left to travel, the danger where they were was reduced. That was because they were far enough from Ostana that there wouldn’t be any knights patrolling, so they could travel on the road. That left some risk that people would notice them travelling and mention them… but that was fairly low. However, William did keep Chris in a special leather case he had prepared. It was basically just an extra large scroll case. The reason for this was that Chris had a very unique look which would draw attention, and it might not be best for the general public to know he had Chris… who was a rather famous staff, even if most of the stories involving him before he met William were made up, and most of the ones after were exaggerated. Still, there were some possible political ramifications if Chris was just shown around everywhere, and it was best to avoid them. Plus, he looked expensive, which would just invite unnecessary trouble in some places.