Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 72 Fierce Battle Against the Half-Fishman

Damn, why did it suddenly switch to a Cthulhu style?

Wayne cursed under his breath, but he also knew that this evil god Dagon did have a bit of a Cthulhu tentacle monster vibe, and like Cthulhu, he came from the deep sea. People knew very little about the monsters, sea beasts, and demons in the ocean, and even the Witcher didn't know much about them.

Just as he was considering whether and how to make his move, suddenly a dozen or so half-fish people, dressed in linen shirts that covered their bodies and looked rather thin, emerged from a crack on one side of the cave.

Unlike the other naked merfolk, these thin merfolk wore simple clothes and were adorned with ornaments made of bones, coral, pearls, and other materials.

It should be a profession similar to a priest, perhaps holding a fairly high position in the society of the half-fish people.

At this moment, they lined up in a row, each holding a container made from sea monster bones, and walked slowly toward the blood pool with a respectful posture.

Inside these containers was fresh blood drawn from who-knows-where, and strange little octopuses, each the size of an egg, were swimming in it.

The merman at the very front of the group had the most distinctive appearance. He was hunched over, his facial features were withered, and his large merman eyes were bloodshot. He held a staff that shimmered with black metallic light in his right hand. Unlike the other mermen who were bald, his chin had six black tentacles that were twenty or thirty centimeters long, which were always twitching unconsciously, making him look quite terrifying.

Wayne was startled and immediately retreated back to his hiding place, peeking out to carefully observe the newly appeared group of merfolk.

Within a minute or two, they quickly reached the blood pool in the center of the fire pit altar. After chanting an unknown incantation, they poured the blood and small octopuses they were holding into the blood pool.

Then, in an orderly fashion, they sat in rows in the open space in front of the blood pool with utmost humility, bowing their heads and continuing to chant incoherent, unidentified eulogies.

The lead peculiar merman chanted a eulogy while striking the ground with his metal staff. The thumping sounds created a strange melody that drew people in to listen intently.

As the half-fish priests chanted, the strange little octopuses in the blood pool became even more active. They deftly inserted their tentacles into the mouths and noses of the six bound hostages, causing the hostages, who seemed to be unconscious, to begin trembling and struggling unconsciously.

Listening to the strange chanting and melody, even Wayne, who was hiding to the side, felt that his mind was being polluted, as if something wet and slippery was licking at his mind, making him feel dizzy.

Seeing this, Wayne knew he couldn't delay any longer. He first cast a charged version of the Quen sign on himself, then reached into his pouch and pulled out three of the most powerful honeycomb bombs. After lighting them, he threw them all at the location of the worshipping half-fish priests.

The sound of a flame igniting the fuse rang out.

The half-fish people who were holding a sacrificial ceremony never expected that an enemy would launch an attack on them from their own lair.

Upon hearing the sound, they all stared blankly at the three burning honeycomb bombs that landed beside them.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

Technology triumphed over magic. Amidst intense flames and sounds, the group of half-merfolk priests, lined up in several rows, were blown to pieces by the power of the alchemical bomb before they could even react. Their limbs flew off and they became dead chunks of flesh.

Without delay, Wayne rushed to the blood pool and used his silver sword to cut off the ropes binding the six people and the tentacle monsters on their faces.

Unfortunately, even so, the six people showed no signs of waking up and fell straight into the pool of blood as if they had lost consciousness.

However, Wayne didn't have time to worry about the situation of these six people at this point.

The loud explosion of the honeycomb bomb had awakened all the merfolk guards inside the cave. About twenty or thirty merfolk guards, along with the six elite merfolk guards stationed near the small cave, all screamed and swarmed towards Wayne.

Moreover, Wayne noticed out of the corner of his eye that the peculiar merman with whiskers growing from its chin, who had just been blown to pieces by the three honeycomb bombs he had used on the half-merman priest, was still alive despite being mutilated in many places.

It struggled to support itself on the ground with its special metal staff, its bloodshot murloc eyes fixed on Wayne, barking and yelling in its half-murloc language with an extremely excited expression, seemingly directing the guards and elite warriors to attack Wayne together.

Without time to think, Wayne took a deep breath as he watched the merfolk surging in from all directions, gripped his silver sword tightly, and charged towards the peculiar merfolk with incredible speed.

As the saying goes, to catch the thief, you must first catch the king. A well-organized team and a rabble without a leader are two different things. In any case, taking down this seemingly highest-ranking half-fishman is definitely the right choice.

Unexpectedly, when Wayne charged toward it, the special half-fish remained completely calm. It used its special staff to slam heavily onto the ground.

After a muffled sound, the metal on the staff flashed, and the corpses of the merfolk priests surrounding it exploded into flesh and blood, scattering into the air, as if subjected to some special power.

All this foul-smelling flesh and blood seemed to have a mind of their own, rapidly gathering around the peculiar half-fish, forming a viscous armor of flesh and blood on its body, causing it to swell to about two meters in size.

Seeing this, Wayne narrowed his eyes, his mind racing, and he immediately came up with an idea.

He stopped seven or eight meters away from the special half-fish man, reached into his pouch and took out two alchemical bombs filled with silvery-white liquid. Without thinking, he threw them toward the special half-fish man's location.

The merman seemed to sense the danger and immediately swung his flesh-and-blood arm at the two bombs in the air.

Bang!Bang!

Two muffled explosions rang out, and the silver-white alchemical bombs detonated in the half-fish man's hands the moment they made contact.

Accompanied by the low temperature and white frost, an extremely cold aura instantly enveloped an area several meters wide, including the half-fish man's arms and torso, along with its flesh and armor, all of which were covered with a layer of hard frost in a very short time.

This is the North Wind Bomb, a special alchemical bomb developed by the Witcher. It can freeze enemies within a certain range in a very short time. It is expensive to make, but extremely effective against flesh and blood.

The instant the special half-fish was frozen, Wayne did not hesitate. He instantly condensed a charged Ald sign with his left hand and rushed in front of it.

With a sudden, forceful push of his hand, an extremely powerful shockwave struck the flesh and blood armor of the special half-fishman.

Click! Click! Click! Click!

Amidst the sound of ice shattering, the half-fish priest's entire flesh armor was shattered into fist-sized blocks of ice, which were then scattered like petals by the Ald sign.

With a loud bang, the metal staff, now without its owner, was sent flying several meters away, crashing to the ground with a thud that was quite ear-piercing.

The merfolk who charged toward Wayne seemed to be intimidated by Wayne's violent killing method, and even their initial indomitable momentum weakened somewhat.

However, while the enemy might hesitate or waver, Wayne's actions did not falter. Before the merfolk could surround him and form an encirclement, he immediately chose a direction and charged forward, brandishing his silver sword.

Using a strategy of trading injury for life, he avoided powerful attacks, allowing ordinary attacks to strike his armor and Quen shield, while his silver sword swiftly reaped the lives of the half-fishmen.

Slashes, thrusts, decapitations, and the combined impact of several Inid and Ald signs quickly broke through the encirclement of more than a dozen merfolk, hacking these thin, demi-human warriors to pieces, turning them into mangled corpses.

About ten minutes later, after more than thirty half-fish warriors had become victims of Wayne's blade, even these foolish half-fish understood what fear was and what it meant to be invincible.

Without a priest to command them, their morale finally gave out, and like a mob, they turned and fled the cave.

Wayne was left standing alone, using his silver sword to support himself on the ground, letting the foul-smelling blood and chunks of flesh drip onto the ground. He stood panting among the corpses, looking down at their fleeing figures.

(End of this chapter)