Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 148 The Evil God Appears (Thanks to the generous donor Tianrangzhibie for the reward)

The name of the underwater city beneath Lake Vijima is now lost to history. However, as an underwater city in an inland lake, it is not very large. It is more like an underwater town than a city.

However, the residents of Vigima City could never have imagined that beneath the seemingly beautiful and peaceful surface of this lake lay a terrifying evil god and hundreds of his minions.

While developing their own power, they quietly lay in wait, ready to unleash a massive disaster at any moment.

Unbeknownst to them, Wayne, along with his six fellow witchers and three sorceresses who would fight alongside them, had already begun a secret purge.

The underwater town looks very dilapidated. Apart from the small, collapsed underwater houses in the Roman style scattered around, there is a huge temple in the very center of the town.

Numerous half-fish guards, armed with various rudimentary weapons, patrolled the town's perimeter, while many small, thin half-fish caught fish and seaweed that came into their sight, doing their part to ensure the survival of their kind.

Since the second half of last year, the months-long blast fishing activities have severely damaged the group of half-fish people who once dominated Lake Vijima. The surviving half-fish people have become extremely sensitive to their surroundings.

Although the loss of a dozen or twenty per day may not seem like much, when added together, it has caused this group of murlocs to lose almost half of their warriors.

This has forced them to rarely go out to forage anymore, and they mostly just stay in their nests, wary of any strangers who dare to enter their territory.

Therefore, when Wayne and his group, supporting the underwater barrier separating the lake water, set off from the bottom of the water and approached the underwater town, they immediately provoked a violent reaction from the town's native inhabitants.

In reality, it won't be like in a game, where two or three enemies appear at once, and you gradually erode their power like leveling up by fighting monsters, before a big boss appears and you fight one-on-one, allowing you to accomplish the feat of taking on an entire faction single-handedly.

As soon as Wayne and his group approached, the merfolk unleashed their strongest power. Led by a dozen strong merfolk leaders clad in bone armor, nearly two hundred merfolk swam towards Wayne and his companions like a surging black tide.

Before they even got close, a large number of bone harpoons were launched from their hands, like spears thrown by two armies in battle, shooting densely towards the underwater barrier.

However, these half-fish people, who have always lived in a closed environment, are unaware that there is a type of spellcaster among humans called warlocks.

Faced with the barrage of harpoons, Kayla, dressed in a long white dress and adorned with several magical items, held a small magic wand and quickly chanted a spell.

As the incantation ended, Kayla swung her wand forward, and an invisible giant wave surged in front of her. After leaving the underwater barrier, it quickly formed a turbulent spray that directly shattered the harpoons that were being thrown at her, rendering them powerless.

As a sorceress skilled in defensive spells, her magic might not be very effective against massive armies or large legions. However, against merfolk whose individual combat strength is no match for ordinary humans, her defensive spells are a powerful force capable of turning the tide of battle in small-scale combat.

The half-fish were also taken aback. Throwing harpoons was their signature move. Although they had few enemies and little combat experience near Lake Vigema, they could always catch their food in the lake with this move.

Unexpectedly, their infallible tricks were completely useless this time. However, encouraged by the strong merfolk leaders, the group of merfolk regained their morale, grabbed their weapons, and charged directly towards the underwater barrier, preparing to overwhelm them with numbers, engage in close combat, and use a human wave tactic.

Faced with the surging merfolk, the seven demon hunters, including Wayne, instinctively shielded the sorceresses behind them, forming a simple semi-circular formation to prevent the merfolk from harming the vulnerable sorceresses behind them if they rushed into the barrier.

Especially Yennefer, who has been channeling magic to maintain the underwater barrier, could lose its effectiveness if she is attacked. In that case, millions of tons of lake water would press down, and everyone would likely be seriously injured.

Therefore, Wayne stood closest to the three sorceresses, almost protecting them hand-to-hand, and did not participate in the battle with the other witchers. This was his main task in this operation.

Soon, as the group of merfolk drew closer, when the first batch of merfolk passed through the underwater barrier and, affected by the barrier, fell from the lake in mid-air to the ground, the six demon hunters standing at the front line immediately launched a precise and swift killing spree.

Their natural limb structure and rudimentary equipment left these merfolk defenseless against the demon hunters' blades. In addition, merfolk were naturally slightly inferior to ordinary people in combat. Facing these fully-equipped super warriors who had drunk magic potions, applied sword oil, and cooperated seamlessly, the battle was one-sided from the very beginning.

The weapons in the hands of the merfolk shattered at the touch of the Witcher's steel sword, and their bodies were quickly cut into countless pieces. The fishy, ​​foul-smelling blood splattered across the lake bottom, only to be covered by new merfolk flesh.

These black waves of half-fishmen were like hitting the hardest reef; the moment they made contact, they were shattered into tiny splashes, utterly powerless to resist.

Wayne held his steel sword, remaining highly vigilant as he stood guard beside the three sorceresses while silently watching his fellow witchers slaughter the murlocs.

No merfolk could withstand three moves from a demon hunter. With their perfect teamwork, even if they could block attacks from the front, they would often be pierced by a sword that came from behind.

Unfortunately, no one has been able to understand the language of the half-fish people to this day. Otherwise, they might have been able to negotiate with them to give up their faith in the evil god, instead of exterminating them as they have now.

Soon, as more and more merfolk poured into the underwater barrier, Keira and Triss joined the battle.

The two sorceresses, one wielding lightning magic and the other fire magic, were equally devastating against these unarmored merfolk.

Every bolt of lightning and every fireball leaves horrific wounds on these half-fish people, but even more severe than these wounds is the psychological pressure.

After all, for these primitive and ignorant underwater fish-men, hand-to-hand combat with swords was still within their comprehension, but those bright lightning bolts and scorching fireballs were terrifying things they had never seen before. Such magical attacks quickly broke down their mental defenses.

With the combined efforts of the sorceress and the demon hunter, they quickly wiped out nearly half of the two hundred-plus murlocs.

Such massive casualties in a short period of time immediately alerted the merfolk leaders.

Upon seeing this, one of the largest and strongest merfolk, who should have held a high position among them, immediately brandished his weapon, uttered a series of incoherent shouts, then pulled an ugly seashell horn from his waist, put it to his lips, and blew a loud sound.

Upon hearing the noise, the half-fish who had been charging ahead immediately abandoned their still-fighting comrades and began to retreat towards the location of the huge temple in the town.

Geralt and his companions, unable to break through the underwater barrier, could only watch helplessly as the fish-men escaped.

In the end, he could only vent his anger on the merfolk who hadn't had time to escape. The attack became even more ferocious, and the merfolk who hadn't had time to flee were all hacked to pieces and fell to the bottom of the lake forever.

However, the results of the first battle were still quite significant. Although the two sides fought for less than twenty minutes, Wayne's side only suffered minor abrasions on his arm due to the depletion of physical strength and magic power, except for Belial, who was unable to dodge in time.

Even if other witchers were attacked by the merfolk's weapons, they could not penetrate their armor and cause actual damage.

The half-fish people on the other side lost nearly a hundred corpses in this battle, and finally, under the leadership of their leader, they all retreated into the huge palace in the center of the town.

Unfortunately, the underwater barrier moved much slower than the fish-men could swim, so they could only slowly make their way towards the temple, step by step.

After entering the underwater city from the bottom of the lake, Triss slowly exhaled, then turned to Yennefer and said:

"Ye, let me maintain the barrier. It's your turn to rest."

Yennefer, her face somewhat pale, nodded. Maintaining such an underwater barrier required a tremendous amount of magic power, which a single sorceress could not sustain for the entire time. This was why the sorceresses hadn't used large-scale spells earlier; they needed to conserve enough mana to maintain the barrier until they returned to the surface.

After being replaced by Triss, Yennefer immediately took out a bottle of purple potion with a rather unpleasant smell and drank it. Although the taste and smell of this potion were not good, it was one of the most commonly used potions by warlocks and could effectively help spellcasters recover their mana faster and boost their spirits.

Seeing Yennefer covering her mouth as if she wanted to vomit, Geralt, ever the simp, immediately pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to the sorceress, much to her delight. Unfortunately, Yennefer only glanced at him sideways before disdainfully tossing the handkerchief, stained with the stench of half-fish blood, to the ground. She simply wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and asked Wayne:

"What do we do next, Wayne?"

"Should we eliminate the merfolk near the town first, then concentrate our forces to enter the temple, or should we go directly into the temple?"

Wayne was also thinking about this issue, but before he could make a decision, the old Witcher Vesemir also offered his idea.

"I think we should keep chasing them and catch up with them as soon as possible, Wayne."

"Faced with our overwhelming combat power, these merfolk did not choose to scatter, but instead all fled into that temple."

"Clearly, there must be a power within them that they trust, a power they believe can help them fight against us."

"At this point, the more time we give the enemy to prepare, the stronger the resistance we will encounter."

The old witcher's idea was immediately agreed upon by the other witchers. George, while wiping his sword, said:

"Yes, Wayne, I think so too."

"We should eliminate the evil god first, and then deal with its minions slowly. Otherwise, the evil god might see an opportunity and choose to escape."

"This will prevent us from achieving our objectives in this operation."

After hearing their ideas, Wayne agreed. After a short rest, some of them immediately headed straight for the temple gate and chased after it.

The underwater temple's structure is similar to the Pantheon in ancient Rome.

However, compared to the magnificent temples of the gods, this underwater palace has existed in the lake for an unknown period of time, and its exterior is covered with a large amount of algae and various kinds of filth.

Instead of possessing the grandeur expected of a temple, it appeared rather sinister and terrifying, like the gaping maw of a monster waiting for others to walk into its trap.

However, Wayne and his group were not afraid of this. Facing the dark entrance to the temple, Kayla immediately aimed a large-scale light spell at the door.

The path ahead and the interior of the hall were illuminated, and the group, maintaining a vigilant formation, carefully entered the temple.

With seven witchers and three sorceresses, this team was fearless not only against two or three hundred murlocs, but also against a fully armed human army of three hundred.

Upon entering the temple, a stench even more putrid and foul than the smell of fish immediately filled everyone's senses. Wayne and the others looked towards the hall and instantly understood what these half-fish people relied on.

Inside the enormous underwater temple, the half-fish people who had fled inside had reformed into an attack formation.

However, they are quite different from those they were in the previous battles.

Not only were all the merfolk blood-red, but their expressions were also fierce, their muscles were bulging, and their bodies were much larger, as if they were possessed by some kind of power.

Behind this group were a dozen or so hunched merfolk priests, each holding a metal staff, constantly waving their staffs and directing a blood-red power into the bodies of these merfolk.

The dozen or so strong half-fish leaders from before were now completely unrecognizable.

Their bodies swelled to about three meters in length, their skin was a pale blue like a water ghost, their heads were covered with wriggling tentacles, and their muscles swelled to an eerie degree, making them appear to possess considerable destructive power.

Behind this group of merfolk was a giant nearly five meters tall, with almost black skin, resembling an octopus head, staring at the people entering the temple with his huge, blood-red eyes.

(End of this chapter)