Tigers, Tigers Everywhere

'This isn't working,' thought Summer as she erected an earth wall for the umpteenth time that night. She had lost count how many earth walls she, her father, and Nikolai had casted already.

The horned tigers were relentless, and the battle had started to incline more toward a defensive stance.

It hadn't been that way at first. Everyone had been successful in downing multiple tigers, and the six soldiers under Sergeant O'Brien's leadership were doing a good job covering for the group against the felines' sneak attacks.

In fact, everything had been going so well that Summer had thought that they would be able to clear out the area and evacuate all the residents sooner than expected.

That was, until the unexpected happened. A new batch had crossed the portal earlier than normal. The group hadn't even finished eliminating the current one as over forty more jumped through the blackhole, looking all dizzy for a moment before they all bared their fangs. Worse, they were accompanied by a slightly bigger horned tiger who possessed more two tails instead of one.

Summer had initially wanted to contact Magnus to ask what was going on, but immediately stopped herself. She couldn't expect him to lend her a hand every time a problem occurred. She needed to firm her heart and take over the situation on her own.

But Magnus couldn't read her mind and didn't know she was thinking like that. He called her in an instant, told her he had been preoccupied with assisting TJ, and explained to her about the four uninvited newcomers.

'It's not a byakko. I've seen those things pop up from time to time in the past. And yes, horned tigers are among the most unpredictable bunch of monsters. They don't always adhere to the 'schedule' regarding when a new batch arrives. At one point, I've even seen over two hundred of them completely jamming an Abyss Circle because more kept coming from the portal within short intervals.

'I did half-expect this to happen at some point, but definitely not this soon. It has only been a few days since Chapter 3 began, so the monsters are supposed to still be learning about the existence of these portals. They wouldn't have flocked one portal this early, as groups of monsters are normally scattered between long distances over there in the Abyss.

'I wonder what triggered this early arrival. It's as if they could smell…oh, wait. I think I can guess—'

'Magnus, I love you, but you can be frustrating sometimes. Can you please skip all the unnecessary parts and get straight to the point? What is that bigger tiger and what can I expect from it? Tell me so I know what to do, please!' Summer said quickly.

'Oh, sorry. Like I said, it's not a byakko. It's still a horned tiger, in the same evolutionary state as the others. However, what made it a bit different from the rest is that it's mutated. The mutation is the result of being the offspring between a regular horned tiger and a byakko. And because mutated tigers have the blood of a byakko, they're slightly stronger and faster than a regular horned tiger. They can also catch another byakko's smell more easily, even over a long distance. So if my guess is correct and that the byakko beyond the portal is a female, that means—'

'Alright, I think that's enough explanation, Magnus. Thank you. But now I need to focus,' Summer interjected him again before hanging up.

And that brought the scene to ten minutes later, where a fifth of the new batch of regular horned tigers had been defeated, but the rest were still healthy and rampaging around unrestrained. After defending herself against a pouncing tiger by rising an earth wall, Summer proceeded to run backwards. She had informed everyone to focus more on defense and only attack when necessary. At the same time, they were to slowly retreat toward the edge of the Abyss Circle. They were planning to recuperate beyond the invisible barrier.

After they finally stepped out of the Circle, which was apparent from the sight of several tiger heads bumping against an invisible wall, they felt relieved.

Though, they were also frustrated since it felt like they were wasting time. The longer they waited outside the Circle, the sooner even more monsters would come from the portal. But they had no choice; they were running out of mana and had to replenish their tanks.

While doing that, Summer's mind didn't stay idle. She was trying to come up with the best course of action for the next round. The mutated tiger hadn't actually made its move, yet. It was as if it was trying to conserve its energy and at the same time, letting its normal and smaller counterparts to whittle down the humans' stamina and mana. This showed that it had slightly higher intellect than regular horned tigers, even though it was technically still in the same evolutionary level.

Moreover, it wasn't as if the humans managed to survive unscathed. So Summer had to delay her mana-replenishing session even after managing to get behind the protective barrier of the Circle.

Mrs. Wang suffered from a deep scratch on the right side of her face, severely injuring her eye and almost blinding her. Fiona had to provide healing for her during the fight. However, since the woman had only learned the skill earlier that morning, she could only stop the bleeding, while the wound was still half open. Summer eventually finished her healing job when they arrived outside the Circle.

Henry had his arm almost bitten off. Had Summer not noticed a tiger being attached to his arm and thrown her spear in time to kill the monster, Henry would have suffered the same fate as TJ.

Nikolai had his liver punctured by a horn. As in Fiona's case, she had recently acquired [Lesser Heal], so he was able to temporarily slow down the dropping of his HP while retreating.

Some of the soldiers had also been injured. After healing everyone in her group, which took about half an hour, Summer moved on to these soldiers. Most of them only received shallow wounds, since the soldiers had been ordered to keep their distance from the magic-throwing group so as to not get in their way, and only focus on backing them up from afar.

"Sergeant O'Brien," Summer called the woman who was currently talking to one of her soldiers.

"What is it, Ms. Murphy?" she asked after dismissing the soldier.

"You said you couldn't shoot down the monsters from beyond that invisible wall?"

"That's correct. A bullet without a target can still pass through it, just like how we can walk through unrestricted. However, if we aimed at a monster, the wall would instantly deflect the bullet. And as if the wall deemed we were cheating, the system would deduct ten XP from the shooter for every bullet fired."

Magic couldn't pass through the invisible wall, either. Whether from the inside or outside of it.

Summer glanced at the mutated tiger standing like an arrogant cat, curiously anticipating what the humans would do. She then swept her gaze over the people in her group and the squad of soldiers. After thinking for a while, she finally came up with an idea, which she then relayed to everyone.

Ten minutes later, everyone was ready to march through the invisible barrier and face the tigers once again. The monsters had been licking themselves and swatting their paws at each other while the humans were recuperating. It was as if they got bored after finding out they weren't able to reach the humans.