When the spined moles rushed out, Wen Yu had to think of a way to stop them from burrowing underground as Wen Lin and Qi San wouldn't be able to continuously produce spirit fires in the middle of an attack.
He clicked his tongue before instructing Huo Lan and Duyi to block the entrance to the spined moles swamp field with spirit vines as soon as the spirit beasts were lured out.
Spirit vines were usually abundant in swamps anyways so this was quite favourable. All they needed to do was control a substantial amount and support it with their spirit energy to stop the moles from clawing their way through.
Once the moles were trapped out of their homes, Wen Lin would support Huo Lan and Duyi's spirit vines with her own spirit energy to trap them in a form of vine cage and Qi San would directly attack the beasts within.
As for Wen Yu's part in the plan, he was bait. He decided to take on the most terrifying job as he secretly felt inadequate for having sparse spirit energy. Even though this was the best plan, he still wanted to join the action too but he really couldn't. How sad.
They all got into position and waited for Wen Yu's signal. The child in question got down the tree and walked until he stood just outside the spined mole territory and then he condensed a really tiny spirit fire in his palm.
Wen Lin and Qi San in the tree, secured themselves with spirit vines and then proceeded to swing from the trees surrounding the swamp den as they pumped out large amounts of spirit fires.
The spined moles ignored the spirit fires above their homes at first but as the fire increased and became hotter, they all crawled out of their burrows with loud, angry roars.
Wen Lin and Qi San quickly hid in a tree and controlled the spirit fires from behind the scene. The spined beasts looked about and finally spotted Wen Yu with his tiny spirit fire lit in his palm.
With no other person around, the beasts automatically pegged Wen Yu as the troublemaker and rushed towards him, pounding their heavily clawed fists against the muddy ground.
Wen Yu slowly stepped backwards as the beasts steadily approached. Immediately the beasts crossed the threshold of their swamp, Duyi and Huo Lan controlled numerous spirit vines to seal up the entrance whilst Qi San and Wen Lin put out the spirit fires and rushed over to help.
When the beasts were within 5 ft of him, Wen Yu finally reacted and sent out his spirit energy to attack the base of their quills and broke off a few. Although the skin of the spined moles was practically impenetrable, the base of their quills were quite hollow and could be easily broken off, if you were meticulous about it.
As soon as Wen Yu got what he wanted, Duyi sent out a vine to wrap around his waist and pulled him out of the path of the crazed spined moles. At the same time, Wen Lin closed off the path in front of the spined moles with spirit vines, effectively trapping them within.
The kids were all sweating profusely from the drain but none of them complained but persisted stubbornly. After trying continuously, Qi San looked to Wen Yu in mild panic. The skin of the spined moles was really tough and his spirit energy was like cotton on them!
Wen Yu gave him a calm look to reassure him and then moved his attention to the quills he'd broken off. The achilles heel of the spined moles was also one of the tools that afforded them tight defense against predators, it was their quills.
The quills of spined moles contained a sort of deteriorating poison that reduced the tenacity of their skins once activated and used on them. Wen Yu slipped his spirit energy into the quills and activated the poison within, turning the quills from dull gray to black.
Next, he flicked the quills at the spined moles through a hole. Once the poison came in contact with their skin, the black faded to gray. "Now!" He shouted at Qi San.
Qi Dan gathered a huge amount of spirit energy in his palm and sent it towards the spined moles with a huge roar.
BOOM!
The ensuing blast blew the spined moles to bits and scattered the spirit vine cage. The other kids were even blown away but Duyi and Wen Lin managed to wrap themselves in more spirit vines in time whilst Huo Lan flew and landed in a mud pit.
Pfft! Even though they were tired, the others could barely refrain from laughing at Huo Lan's predicament. The kid sat in the mud pit with a lost look before directing a fierce glare at Qi San.
Wen Yu walked over and helped the kid out of the mud pit. There was no water in sight so cleaning was out of the question for now. The kid would just have to endure.
After taking a while to catch their breaths, they all decided to gather the pieces of the spined moles in search of the QR tags.
Huo Lan was the most dissatisfied. "Kill the spined moles like a normal person? No! I'm Qi San and if I don't overdo things then I would loose my balls and citizenship," He complained as he searched.
The others burst out laughing whilst Qi San scratched his nose to hide his blush. He really didn't mean to overdo it, he was agitated when he kept trying to kill the beasts without success so when the chance finally presented itself, he just couldn't help himself ah.
They all finally gathered the parts containing the QR tags and sighed in relief. The messy pieces of flesh were extremely bloody and had an unpleasant smell. Separately, they could handle it but seeing it together now...
Huo Lan turned to the side and vomited whilst the rest of them gagged on air.
"I'm not touching it anymore!" Wen Lin declared and took off the leaf wrap she'd used to cover her hands.
"It's fine, I'll do it." Wen Yu said and began taking off the tags. He didn't think the supervisors thought this through when they were placing the tags. Anyways, If someone else stumbled upon these tags, it would just be them working hard for the benefit of others. He couldn't allow that so he gingerly took out the tags.
Duyi wanted to help but there was no way he was touching that mess one more time. He'd look for a different way to repay the Wen kid.
Once all the tags were gathered, Wen Yu looked up and his eyes landed on a spot behind Duyi before widening in horror.
He quickly rushed over and pushed Duyi out of the way in time for a large, clawed paw to descend on him accompanied by a resounding roar.
BANG!
Wen Yu was smashed onto a tree and he fell to the ground with a large amount of blood slipping past his lips and his torn uniform. He held the torn flesh on his chest as he looked up.
The spined mole empress had arrived and she was pissed as f*ck to discover the loss of her little harem members.