Mutated Tiger
Summer was observing the dark motes of dust that floated up from the surface of the flood. There was not a single tiger spared from the mass electrocution. She cupped her chin while wondering how the heck she would be able to get the spear back in her hands. The water was still pretty much electrified, after all. She hadn't expected a little lightning element mana donation from her would activate such a powerful skill. It wasn't overpowered, but it was enough to get the job done.
The fact that it packed so much power behind that one strike certainly more than made up for the lack of versatility, the opposite of Katja's [Tempest].
And on that note, how were the civilians going to get through the area now that the whole thing had been turned into a deadly swimming pool? Would Fiona be able to drain the water, somehow? Did the woman even have enough mana left to do so?
Maybe they just needed to wait for a few more minutes for the electricity to die down. Summer's execution of the skill was a bit lacking, after all. So the lightning element mana definitely wouldn't linger around for long.
"Summer, honey, look!" Fiona called out while pointing at the sky.
Summer looked up and saw what looked like a person descending from the sky. A second later, they all realized who it was. Lisa had arrived, all bloody and battered, after her shenanigan with TJ.
She spotted the group of people standing atop a row of earth walls and focused her eyes on Summer. She smiled in relief as she almost crash landed beside the older girl.
"Whoa, easy there," Summer said, catching the smaller girl's weakened body. She sat her down and began healing all her wounds. Fiona had returned her bracelet, so she now had an extra chunk of bonus mana. She sighed upon seeing the bite wounds on Lisa's left arm and a shallow one on her right leg.
'I should've kept Magnus from agreeing to her demand,' Summer couldn't help but think.
A few minutes later, the girl had been fully healed. In the meantime, everyone had taken the chance to replenish their mana, so they were ready to face the mutated tiger.
However, they still had to wait a bit more for Summer as she went from her father to Nikolai to heal the wounds they had suffered while building the rows of earth walls. Besides, the girl also needed to recover her mana after that.
It took almost half an hour for Summer to finish everything. She figured that by now, the water must have already been turned back to normal. However, it would take time to clean up the whole area, and a new batch of tigers could come from the portal at any point while the mutated one was still standing. Thankfully, she now had just the right person to retrieve her spear.
"Lisa, can you fly over there and get that spear for me, please?" she asked.
A while ago, Lisa had noticed the butt of Summer's spear sticking out from the surface of the water—technically it was still Magnus' weapon, but same difference. She glided over to it and struggled to pull it out of the ground.
'Holy shit. Just how strong is my big sister now?' she mentally asked.
Failing to rely on her strength alone, she applied an upward [Gale] on herself while gripping the spear shaft tightly. After expending a bit more mana, she finally got the weapon out of the ground and then flew back toward the group.
"Thank you," said Summer while receiving the spear from Lisa. The girl then ruffled Lisa's hair before turning to the direction of the Abyss portal. However, the mutated tiger was nowhere in Summer's sight. Until she looked straight down.
The tiger had just used its lightning element mana twice to propel itself forward and then up. With just one hop, it was already in Summer's face, ready to tear her flesh apart.
Summer was too startled to react, so she could only raise [Forthright] to shield her front.
Thankfully, her father was right next to her, ready with his right arm covered in [Earth Gauntlet]. He sent a solid fist to the tiger's snarling face.
*Bam!*
The fist landed perfectly on the monster's forehead, sending it flying just as its claws were about to swipe Summer's hand that was holding the spear. The tiger was sent tumbling on the ground a few times before it got back to its feet and shook its head.
Summer didn't waste time as she slid down the earth wall, one hand on her spear and one hand extended. The others followed closely behind her. Except for Lisa; the girl flew up and was ready to send a rain of wind bullets at the monster.
With Summer's speed, she was able to cover a long distance between the earth wall and the tiger in just four seconds. Her extended hand then glowed white.
[Illuminate]!
She used the same technique as the one she had done for winning the spar against Henry. The bright glow from her hand was supposed to blind the tiger momentarily. And then, she and everyone else was supposed to take that chance to send a barrage of attacks that would definitely deal a lot of damage to the monster.
However, not everything would always go according to how it was supposed to.
The tiger didn't just stay still while waiting for the humans to approach. It had started to move to another position as Summer was about to cast a light upon it. It somehow knew not to target her first. So it turned away from the flash of light and went toward the person closest to her; and that would be Mrs. Wang.
It applied lightning element mana on its feet to zoom toward the older woman and slashed once. Its claws tore the startled woman's chest, followed by a high-pitched scream coming from above.
"NO!" Lisa screamed after seeing her mother being injured. "MOM, RUN!"
Summer inwardly cursed before she turned and raised her spear. She thrust at the tiger's exposed behind. But the tiger was faster. It had anticipated her movement, somehow.
A white-and-black tail wrapped around the spear shaft and yanked it off Summer's hands. She would've been able to hold on to it, had she been aware of and prepared against the coming tail. Alas, she could only watch from the corner of her eyes as the spear flew away.
The tiger was about to turn before the ground cracked beneath its feet, causing it to lose its footing and slipped.
Nikolai had just used his boots' [Seismic Path].
The tiger stole a glance at the man and instinctively knew that it was about to get cornered from all sides by this group of humans. So it turned back toward Summer and swiped one tail at her. She stepped aside fast enough to evade it. However, the tail was just a decoy.
The mutated tiger had two long tails. So while one was used to distract Summer, the other went around and wrapped around her waist.
Summer didn't even get the chance to be surprised as she felt her body being yanked away. The power behind it was so strong she was sent flying toward the portal at high speed.
Fortunately, in a split second, she noticed Fiona picking up her spear and throwing it at her flying form. She extended her hand and the weapon landed right in her grip.
Next thing she knew, the sight before her changed and her back landed on a barren soil with a slight red hue painting the air around her. Her mind went fuzzy for a bit and her spine skidded on the ground for a few meters before she stopped. She grunted while slowly picking herself up.
She didn't need to look behind to know she had been yeeted through the blackhole. Far ahead, she could see a big chunk of black rock, upon which the biggest tiger she had seen that day was standing.
On two legs.
It had two humanlike hands, each had its long fingers and claws folded around the hilt of a curved dagger. Unlike the other, smaller tigers, it had a pair of blue eyes and three long tails. And as Summer's eyes traveled downward, she finally figured out what Magnus had been about to say when he was theorizing about why the second batch of tigers had come sooner than normal.
The tiger's belly showed a bit of a bump.
'So, that's a byakko. And the mutated tiger is either her mate or her offspring. And it was somehow able to smell she was in danger because we kept killing her minions outside. So it probably ran here and led the rest of her minions through the portal,' Summer thought.