Cats don’t have seven lives

It didn't work as I wanted, as those cats were quite agile and managed to get through. Nonetheless, it worked well enough. Using the houses themselves as extra walls, we drew them into the more closed areas, gradually separating the group by lifting the earth under their feet, pushing them back again. Raidha, for her part, was in charge of attacking those we managed to push away.

We tried to incapacitate them without killing, but we quickly noticed that their number was not diminishing. Since there were no casualties, those damn cats recovered too quickly from our blows. In the end, I couldn't help but get hit by some of them. Not all of them were exceedingly good at fighting and they didn't manage to seriously injure me, but at that rate, they would end up overwhelming us. It was only a matter of time.

"If we continue like this, we won't go anywhere. Raidha, I'm sorry, but if you don't want to kill them, at least we'll have to hurt them strong enough to make them unable to move anymore..."

"If there is no other choice."

Change of plan, it was time to hurt. I pulled out the pistol and Vurtalis, targeting their arms and legs. Thanks to that, the cats began to fall little by little, but not fast enough. Both Raidha and I began to show signs of exhaustion within minutes.

—Stop this nonsense, you moron. Just kill them and stop losing time.

"Shut up…"

—If you don't kill them, sooner or later they will return, and at that moment they will know your ability and they will be prepared to overwhelm you before you can do anything. Be sure that you won't have a good time.

"I said shut up!"

—Moron, later don't say that I didn't warn you.

Truly speaking, we were having a hard time. He was right, but... Anyway, I just ignored him and returned to my business. After all, we were already cornered with about fourteen of those cats.

—As I said.

'The hell, just shut up!'

I took a step back and looked at Raidha sideways. Unlike me, she didn't need to hear a stupid childish voice inside her head, but as always, her face was showing signs of an internal debate about what she should do.

"Raidha... this is not going well."

She bit her lip and immediately took a step forward.

"Listen! Things don't have to end this way!"

A stone flew straight into her face, showing that none of them wanted to hear anything from her. For some reason, I had a Deja Vu... Next, a scream of agonizing pain was heard from a few meters behind us, coming from one of the injured cats that weren't able to stand anymore.

"If they can take them down, we can too!" Shouted one of the townsmen.

We immediately turned back and saw something unexpected.

"Yes!" A crowd answered in unison.

Most of the inhabitants had disappeared as soon as they saw that they were chasing us, or so it was until that moment. Some people returned to combat with renewed spirits. Apparently, they plucked up their courage after seeing that the two of us alone were taking down the Faerain.

"Of course, at first you are afraid, but when you see that the numbers decrease a little you arm yourself with courage and go out to counterattack with a greater number than theirs..." I muttered to myself.

—That's why I told you to kill them.

"One thing is not related to the other..."

Different cries of pain could be heard, both near and far. They were screams of incapacitated cats dying at the hands of the townspeople. After eliminating all the wounded, they threw themselves at the group of cats that were still standing.

"Not! Wait! Stop!"

Raidha tried to run towards them in a clear attempt to stop them from killing cats, but I took her by the arm, preventing her from taking another step. She gave me an unpleasant gaze, but I shook my head in response.

"Don't strain, Raidha, they won't listen to you. Also, if you get in the way you will get hurt. Let's take the opportunity to escape... And if they follow us... Well, that probably will be better... We can lure them away from town. In this way, we will protect the inhabitants from the cats... and the cats from the inhabitants... Just let's go from here..."

She gave me another gaze full of pain and doubt, but she lowered his head and turned away. We ran out of town. The cats began to follow us as expected but were intercepted before they could reach us. A pitched battle had formed through the streets of the town.

"Look what we've done! We have to go back there and stop it."

"Raidha... We can't do anything."

She ignored my words and started running back into town and I immediately ran behind her in an attempt to stop her. However, we stopped midway after seeing a more than familiar face. Ahead of us was Mirthia, who was carrying her sword drawn. We both stopped in front of her.

"Mirthia..." I whispered.

I was not able to fully see her expression, as she had her head lowered looking at the ground and her hair was covering her eyes. I clenched the hilt of the sword and pistol, preparing for an imminent collision.

"Mirthia, wait!"

Raidha jumped between me and Mirthia with open arms, probably in an attempt to protect me from her rage.

"Stop it at once! This is absurd, if we continue in this way too many people will die for nothing. What happened was an accident. That tiger attacked us and that's why Drayd..."

Mirthia lowered her sword, raised her head, and stared at me. She didn't seem to have calmed her anger, but at least she seemed willing to listen.

"Mirthia, I really didn't want... He wanted to kill me and I don't control my power well. Before I knew it I was..."

I tried to really apologize somehow, but the words weren't coming out in any convincing way, no, they weren't coming out at all. After all, I still felt no guilt about what had happened. Our gazes were still fixed on each other for a long time, until she seemed to relax a bit and let out a kind of sigh at the sound of "meaaaaau".

"Say no more, I get it, meow. I too acted on impulse. I'm actually here on my own. I did not come with the others, meow."

"Really?! Then convince them to stop attacking the town!" Raidha yelled with a happy expression.

"Yeah, this has gotten out of control. If we don't stop them it will be a disaster."

We were in luck, at least she was a rational cat. I didn't want to fight against the one who saved our life and welcomed us into her house. Furthermore, she was the only one who could end the slaughter.

"See! In the end, talking can fix things. Let's not waste any more time and stop them before it's too late," Raidha said with a big smile.

Mirthia smiled back at Raidha, and although I felt that the atmosphere was still somewhat tense, this was not the time to fool around with nonsense.

"Yeah... Luckily Mir... Uh... Huh?"

The moment I turned to the town, a great pain pierced me from end to end. I looked down and saw a red-tinged object protruding from the lower part of my chest, a sword, Mirthia sword... She stabbed me in the back.

'Of course... I forgot how treacherous cats are.'

With a sharp jerk, she pulled it out. The forces left me and I collapsed on the ground.

"Seems that in the end, you learned nothing I taught you."

I opened and closed my mouth like a dying fish, trying to say something, but the words weren't coming out.

"Did you really think I'd forgive you so easily, meow? In all my life I will not forgive you, meow. Now die like the dog that you are."

My mouth kept opening and closing, trying in vain to let out a word

—Moron, never turn your back on an enemy!

"I thought she was a friend..."

I finally managed to let out an almost imperceptible sentence.

—You have no friends.

Those were the last words I could hear before my consciousness was completely turned off.