Chapter 227 The Bunglehoppers (8)

After finishing up, the cats turned to Toz and ran toward him. Frank and Vaner were shocked and prepared for battle. Frank encased his fists in an icy aura, and Vaner conjured several orbs of water in the air around him.

However, before the two pirates could do something that they would come to regret, Stitches smacked their heads from behind.

"They're friends! Calm down, for fucks sake. Can't you see the Cap'n and Mossboss not doing anything?"

"Oh, I'll show you calm, alright!"

Frank and Vaner listened to Stitches' words and dispelled their aura and magic. Though while Frank went to talk with Wulf and Hayar, Vaner decided to educate Stitches on why he shouldn't smack someone on the head from behind by demonstrating it against Stitches. Vaner wrestled Stitches down to the ground and sat down on his back while poking his head.

The cats were about to run to Toz and share their adventures in Pirate Haven with him when they saw Stitches being thrown to the ground and bullied. For the cats, who hadn't experienced the two's relationship dynamic, it looked like the big, hairy man was mistreating their friend. And if the cats knew one thing, it was that they were the only ones who could mistreat others. Others couldn't be bad to one of them.

Toz saw what the cats were about to do, but he didn't stop them. He only told them not to be too harsh on Vaner since he was still Stitches' friend using their bond. Stitches was his friend as well, and it would do Vaner some good to know that Stitches had someone backing him.

Scrael wasn't proud of her speed for nothing, and she was the first to reach Vaner. Vaner felt something rapidly approaching him, but by the time he sensed it, Scrael had already arrived. Scrael rammed into Vaner's body, tackling him off of Stitches and sending him flying.

Since Toz had asked them to hold back, she had used her shoulder to tackle Vaner instead of tearing into him with her claws like she usually did with her prey.

Lucy's attack came after Vaner stopped bouncing on the ground. Lucy tied him to the road with shadows, rendering him immobile and preparing him for Nil and Mindle's attacks.

Nil sent a rain of spikes toward Vaner. Not a single one of Nil's conjured weapons actually hit him, but they did pierce the edges of his clothes as they created an outline of metal around his body.

The first three attacks had happened so quickly that Vaner didn't have time to react. But Mindle's fire was slow enough that he had time to react. Though, even if he had time to react, there was nothing he could do except conjure some water to try and counter-attack since his body was locked down.

Mindle's flames hovered above Vaner. Since she held back, they didn't do much more than singe his eyebrows and beard, but any attempt at conjuring water quickly turned into steam.

Asilean didn't really know what he should do in order to scare Vaner into submission, but he used void magic to help Mindle nullify any magic that Vaner tried to use.

The cats only let Vaner go when it looked like he was about to cry out for his mother. They went back to Toz, who was busy keeping the other pirates from interfering.

Wulf and Hayar, who knew the situation regarding Toz, the cats, and Stitches, were a little less insistent on stopping the cats, especially since the cats weren't actually doing any harm to Vaner. However, Frank wasn't calm enough to listen to reason, and Toz had to stop him by threatening force.

Frank encased his fists in an icy aura again and looked like he was about to try and fight his way past Toz so he could help Vaner. However, Hayar's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

Frank followed Hayar's pointing and looked at the cats stepping away from the mostly intact Vaner. Frank realized he had missed something and calmed down enough to listen to Hayar and Stitches' explanation.

After making sure that Frank wasn't going to do something foolish, Stitches went to check on Vaner and, if needed, heal him. However, the cats had controlled their strength, so the only thing hurting was Vaner's pride and facial hair.

The cats strutted arrogantly in a row over to Toz. It was almost enough to make Toz suspect that they had practiced their coordination, especially when Lucy broke formation and darted up Toz's body onto his head.

Lucy placed his paws on either side of Toz's head and bent forward, looking at Toz upside down with a wide grin on his face.

"Tozzie! This place rules! I haven't seen this much action since the Brunsen incident!"

However, Toz didn't respond in kind to Lucy's enthusiasm.

"Lucy. Remember what I told you when we first arrived?"

"!"

Lucy's grin turned into a stunned expression.

"...Have as much fun as we want and create mayhem?"

"..."

Lucy looked downcast since he realized he hadn't followed Toz's request to investigate Pirate Haven before stirring up trouble. He was afraid that Toz was disappointed in him since it was pretty evident that Lucy was the main instigator for everything they had done in the short time since Toz left the cats.

However, Toz's words flipped Lucy's mood again.

"Close enough. Now, get out of my face. I can't see anything."

Lucy backed up on top of Toz's head with a wide smile since Toz wasn't disappointed with his actions. Lucy also took it to mean that Toz wouldn't mind if he did something similar again. Before there had even been enough time for his first string of misdeeds to calm down, Lucy was already preparing for his next row of antics.

While Lucy chuckled evilly, hidden in Toz's black hair, the other cats answered Toz's question about why they had been fighting with the Blue Lounge pirates.