Tiger Cage

Summer was the first one to move. She ran through the invisible barrier and stopped only a meter and a half away from it. She then made two earth walls that were conjoined with each other, so that the top would have enough space for a few people to stand on.

After turning around and giving a signal for the others to move, she zoomed to the right, swiftly bypassing several pouncing tigers. The [+40 Agility] effect from her bracelet and [+10 Agility] effect from the spear gave her enough speed to evade those attacks. Although not completely, since she still had to swing her spear around and injure a few tigers along the way.

She made sure to keep in her mind the rough position of the invisible barrier, since she couldn't see it. And with that, she kept herself close to it as she ran.

At the same time, Patrick casted both of his newly-learned spells, [Earth Shield] and [Earth Gauntlet]. He nodded to Nikolai before both of them rushed toward the conjoined earth walls. From there, instead of following Summer, they went in the opposite direction, also keeping themselves close to the invisible barrier.

Along the way, Patrick kept deflecting a few pouncing tigers with his small round earth shield while bashing the skulls of a few others using the earth gauntlet that covered his right hand. Keeping the shield and gauntlet in one piece slowly drained his mana, but he didn't care.

From time to time, Nikolai would also fire earth missile at those who were a bit further away. The two worked hand in hand as they plowed their way toward their assigned destination.

Now that Summer had covered enough distance between the conjoined earth walls and herself, she waited for a bit until her father and Nikolai created the same distance between themselves and the earth walls, but on the other side.

With Summer covering the right side of the earth walls, and Nikolai and Patrick together covering the left side, Henry then shouted, "Now!"

At the same time, Summer and Nikolai each erected an earth wall perpendicular to the first ones. They made sure the wall was positioned right next to the invisible barrier.

After Patrick was done dealing with a nearby tiger, it was then his turn to erect a wall next to the one made by Nikolai.

Meanwhile, Summer did the same thing, creating another earth wall right next to the previous one. However, while her father and Nikolai had each other's backs, she had to do this while defending herself against the tigers alone. She was mainly utilizing her speed and her spearmanship to keep the tigers at bay.

But she didn't have to struggle for long. With the tigers distracted from the center and flocking to both sides, another signal came from Henry. Immediately, the six soldiers plus Sergeant O'Brien zoomed toward the conjoined earth walls. After reaching them, they climbed up the walls and stood on top, looking over the entire area unhindered.

The soldiers started shooting the tigers jumping at Summer on the right and Nikolai-Patrick duo on the left. Meanwhile, Sergeant O'Brien was trying to snipe the mutated tiger.

However, as if sensing it was in danger, the bigger monster retreated all the way to the portal. It didn't enter it, but stayed in front of it, growling ferociously as if guarding the portal.

The distance between the portal and where Sergeant O'Brien stood wasn't too far for a bullet from her high-powered rifle to reach. But it was far enough for her to struggle with her aim in the middle of this chaos. Besides, Summer had told her they would deal with the mutated tiger after wiping out the regular ones. So she redirected her aim from the monster and began assisting her soldiers.

Like that, Summer, Patrick, and Nikolai kept erecting earth wall after earth wall, all adjacent to one another. Meanwhile, the soldiers were making their work easier by getting rid of some of the troublesome tigers. However, guns couldn't down a tiger in one shot, owing to the monsters' medium-sized Health pool. Medium for the standard of unevolved monsters. So only a few tigers had been successfully killed.

After the three earth wall builders reached halfway through their agreed destination, Henry, Mrs, Wang, and Fiona finally made their move. Henry and Mrs. Wang positioned themselves on Fiona's sides as the three advanced toward the conjoined earth walls. They passed by the earth walls and continued onwards.

Some tigers noticed the three and began using their lightning element mana to boost their steps while approaching the three exposed humans at the center. However, Mrs. Wang was ready. She instantly casted [Line of Fire] twice to shoo away the tigers coming from both sides.

Henry then followed shortly after by enveloping himself and the two women within his [Eye of The Storm]. The tigers struggled to break through the wall of tornado to get to the humans hiding inside it. The three then kept moving onwards at a steady pace as earth walls kept rising one after another some meters away along their left and right.

After a little while, Summer made a sudden turn to the left and the two men to the right. They began creating earth walls perpendicular to the ones they had previously made. This way, both sides would eventually meet in the middle, and the area would then be closed off by three rows of earth walls.

Fiona, Henry, and Mrs. Wang arrived at their destination at the same time as the last earth wall was erected at the meeting point between Patrick-Nikolai duo and Summer.

"Come on!" Henry shouted as he turned around crouched, his back supported by the wall and his arms extended forward. Fiona quickly stepped on his hands and used them to jump upward. Her hand hung from the ledge of the wall and she hoisted herself up, eventually standing on the wall.

Patrick offered the same help to his daughter on the other wall, as Nikolai assisted Mrs. Wang on the wall next to it. After the three women finally occupied one wall each, they began helping the three men to climb up.

At this point, everyone except Summer was almost out of mana, but they were finally in their position. The tigers were boxed in between rows of earth walls and one invisible barrier. The soldiers stood facing the group, with an almost fifteen meter distance between them.

Summer had got the idea of a tiger cage made of earth walls after she contemplated how many earth walls they had had to deploy during the first round. Instead of using them individually for defense, why not combine them to trap all the tigers in one place?

And looking ahead at the invisible wall that wouldn't let monsters and magic through, it basically acted as one side of the box, therefore conserving everyone's mana.

However, they weren't finished yet. There were still about thirty tigers left, which were a mix between the first and second batch.

Summer looked behind, and she could see the Abyss portal with the mutated tiger guarding it. She ignored it for now as she took off her bracelet and handed it to Fiona. The woman needed all the mana boost she could get, after all.

Magnus' mother then raised her arm and casted [Tidal Wave]. A big wall of water was created, which then splashed upon a few unsuspecting tigers. She then casted the spell again, and again, and again.

Many rounds of [Tidal Wave] later, the tiger cage had now been flooded. Far ahead, the water could be seen trapped by the invisible barrier. The tigers were swimming while roaring in anger, and Fiona almost depleted her mana reserves. Thankfully, she had done her job well, bumping her skill level up to four.

"Thank you, Mrs. Helvig," said Summer as she raised her spear, positioning it as if it was a javelin. She didn't have a lightning element affinity, but that didn't mean she couldn't channel a bit of lightning element mana to trigger the weapon's active skill, [Judgement From The Sky]. The skill wouldn't be able to reach its full potential in her hands, but that was okay. All the water Fiona had provided would more than make up for it.

After activating the skill, the spear was then covered in golden streaks of lightning. After that, she used all her strength to throw the spear down.

*Crack!*

The tip pierced the asphalt and the blade was lodged halfway through the ground, the weapon's shaft extending up to the sky, albeit a little tilted.

Not even a second later, a bright flash of light shot down from the sky toward the spear.

*Boom!*

A loud thunder rang in everyone's ears. Electricity from the lightning quickly traveled down the spear and into the water flooding the ground.

And just like that, all of the tigers, most of which had been injured by the soldiers, instantly died of electrocution. Which was ironic since the monsters specialized in lightning element.