Chapter 148: The Evil God Appears (Thanks to the big boss Tianrang Zhi Bie for the tip)

The name of the underwater city beneath the shores of Wyzima is already forgotten by all, but as an underwater city in an inland lake, its scale was not large; it would be more accurate to call it a small underwater town than a city.

Yet, the residents living in the city of Wyzima could never have imagined that beneath this seemingly beautiful and tranquil lake surface, a terrifying evil god and hundreds of the evil god's minions were hidden.

They were quietly lurking while building their strength, waiting for the right moment, preparing to unleash a massive catastrophe at any time.

And, equally unaware, Geralt had already brought his six fellow witchers, along with three sorceresses assisting them in battle, to begin a secret clearing operation.

This underwater town looked extremely dilapidated; aside from the small, collapsed Roman-style underwater dwellings scattered around, there was a vast, sprawling temple in the very center of the town.

A large number of Drowner guards, carrying various crude weapons, were constantly patrolling the perimeter of the town, while many scrawny Drowners were catching schools of fish and seaweed that entered their field of vision, doing their part for the continuation of their tribe.

Since the second half of last year, the months of continuous "fish-bombing" activities had caused severe damage to this group of Drowners, who had once been the overlords of the Wyzima lakeside, turning the survivors into birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, extremely sensitive to their surroundings.

Although a loss of ten or twenty a day didn't seem like much, added together, it had cost this group of Drowners nearly half of their warriors.

This forced them to rarely venture out for food, mostly cowering in their lair, wary of any strangers who dared to enter their territory.

Therefore, when Geralt and his party, supported by an underwater barrier that kept the lake water at bay, set out from the lake floor and just approached the vicinity of the underwater town, it immediately triggered a violent reaction from the town's inhabitants.

In reality, it wouldn't be like in a game, where two or three enemies come at a time, allowing you to slowly erode their strength like leveling up, and finally having a big boss fight you one-on-one, letting you complete the feat of taking on an entire faction by yourself.

As soon as Geralt and the others approached, the Drowners immediately unleashed their greatest strength. Led by a dozen strong Drowner leaders wearing bone armor, nearly two hundred Drowners swam toward Geralt and his party like a surging black tide.

Before they even got close, a massive number of bone harpoons were thrown from their hands, shooting toward the location of the underwater barrier like spears cast in a battle between two armies, dense and thick.

However, these Drowners who had lived in a closed environment all their lives did not know that among humans, there existed spellcasters called sorceresses.

Facing the large number of incoming harpoons, Keira, wearing a white dress and adorned with several magical items, held a small wand and quickly chanted a spell.

As the incantation ended, Keira waved her wand forward, and an invisible giant wave surged from in front of her. After leaving the underwater barrier, it quickly formed a churning spray, directly stirring the incoming harpoons into disarray and stripping them of their attacking power.

As a sorceress skilled in defensive spells, perhaps her magic wouldn't be of much use against thousands of troops or large legions, but against these Drowners, whose individual combat power didn't even match that of an ordinary human, in this kind of small-scale battle, her defensive magic was a powerful force capable of turning the tide.

The Drowners were also stunned for a moment. Throwing harpoons could be called their ultimate move. Although they had almost no enemies near the Wyzima lakeside and little combat experience, relying on this move, they could always catch their food in the lake.

They hadn't expected that their previously infallible ultimate move would be completely useless this time. But soon, encouraged by those strong Drowner leaders, the group of Drowners regained their morale, took up their weapons, and charged directly at the underwater barrier, preparing to win by numbers, engage in close-quarters combat, and use human-wave tactics.

Facing the surging Drowners, the seven witchers, including Geralt, very consciously blocked the sorceresses behind them, forming a simple semi-circular formation to prevent any Drowners who broke into the barrier from harming the vulnerable sorceresses in the rear.

Especially Yennefer, who was constantly channeling magic to maintain the operation of the underwater barrier; if she were attacked, it was very likely that the barrier would lose its effect, and at that point, with millions of tons of lake water pressing down, everyone might suffer serious injuries.

Therefore, Geralt stood closest to the three sorceresses, almost acting as a personal bodyguard, not participating in the battle with the other witchers; this was his primary mission in this operation.

Soon, as the group of Drowners kept approaching, when the first batch of Drowners passed through the underwater barrier and, affected by the barrier, fell from the lake water in mid-air to the ground, the six witchers standing on the front line immediately launched a precise and swift slaughter.

Their innate physical structure and the protection of crude equipment left these Drowners with no ability to resist under the witchers' blades. Coupled with the fact that Drowners were naturally slightly inferior to ordinary humans in combat power, facing these fully-prepared super-warriors who had taken potions, applied blade oils, and were cooperating tacitly, the battle was one-sided from the very beginning.

The weapons in the Drowners' hands shattered at the slightest touch of the witchers' steel swords, and they, along with their bodies, were quickly sliced into countless fragments. The foul-smelling blood, reeking of fish, splattered the lake floor, only to be covered by the flesh and blood of new Drowners.

This black tide composed of Drowners was like crashing into the hardest reef; the moment the two sides made contact, they were shattered into tiny water droplets, with no power to resist.

Geralt held his steel sword, maintaining a high level of vigilance, guarding the three sorceresses while quietly watching his fellow witchers slaughter the Drowners.

Not a single Drowner could last more than three moves in the hands of a witcher, and with their tacit cooperation, even if they could block an attack from the front, they would often be directly pierced by a sword sneaking in from behind.

It was a pity that no one had yet been able to understand the Drowners' language; otherwise, perhaps they could have used negotiation to make them abandon their faith in the evil god, rather than exterminating them like this.

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

The two sorceresses, one using lightning magic and the other using fire magic, were equally devastating against these Drowners who had absolutely no armor protection.

Every bolt of lightning, every fireball, would leave horrific wounds on these Drowners, and even more serious than these wounds was the psychological pressure.

After all, for these primitive and ignorant underwater fish-men, hand-to-hand combat with swords was still within their range of understanding, but those shining lightning bolts and scorching fireballs were terrifying things they had never seen before. Such magical attacks quickly shattered the defenses in their hearts.

With the concerted efforts of both the sorceresses and the witchers, they soon annihilated nearly half of the two hundred-plus Drowners.

Such massive casualties in such a short time immediately alerted the Drowner leaders.

One of them, the largest in size and presumably enjoying high status among the Drowners, saw this, immediately waved the weapon in his hand, let out a series of gibberish shouts, then pulled an ugly conch horn from his waist, put it to his mouth, and blew a loud sound.

Those Drowners who were still charging at the front, upon hearing the sound, immediately abandoned their companions who were still fighting and began to retreat toward the location of the huge temple in the town.

And Geralt and the others, unable to rush out of the underwater barrier, could only watch helplessly as those Drowners fled.

In the end, they could only vent their anger on those Drowners who hadn't managed to retreat in time. For a while, the offensive became even more fierce, and the Drowners who hadn't managed to escape were hacked into pieces one after another, falling to the lake floor forever.

However, the results of the initial battle were quite significant. Although the two sides had been engaged for less than twenty minutes, on Geralt's side, aside from the consumption of physical strength and magic, only Berengar had suffered a slight graze on his arm because he didn't dodge in time.

The other witchers, even if they were hit by the Drowners' weapons, couldn't penetrate their armor to cause any actual damage.

And the Drowners on the opposite side had left behind nearly a hundred corpses in this clash, and in the end, led by their leader, they all cowered into that huge palace in the center of the town.

Unfortunately, the underwater barrier moved much slower than the Drowners could swim, and they could only move forward slowly, step by step, toward the temple.

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

"Yen, let me maintain the barrier; it's your turn to rest."

Yennefer, whose face was a bit pale, nodded. Maintaining such an underwater barrier consumed a considerable amount of magic, not something a single sorceress could support the whole way. This was also why the sorceresses hadn't used large-scale magic just now; they had to retain enough magic to maintain this barrier until they returned to the surface.

After being relieved by Triss, Yennefer immediately took out a bottle of purple potion that smelled quite unpleasant and drank it. Although the taste and smell of this potion were not great, as one of the most commonly taken potions by sorcerers, it could effectively help spellcasters accelerate magic recovery and boost their spirits.

The simp Geralt, seeing the goddess Yennefer covering her mouth with a look of wanting to vomit, immediately took out a white handkerchief from his chest like a warm man and handed it to the sorceress. Unfortunately, Yennefer just gave him a sideways glance, then threw the handkerchief stained with the foul-smelling blood of the Drowners onto the ground with some disgust, just wiped the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand, and asked Geralt:

"What now, Geralt?"

"Should we first eliminate the Drowners near the town and then concentrate our strength to enter that temple, or enter the temple directly?"

Geralt was actually thinking about this question too, but before he could make a decision, the old witcher Vesemir also put forward his thoughts.

"I think we should continue the pursuit and catch up with them as soon as possible, Geralt."

"Faced with our overwhelming combat power, these Drowners didn't choose to scatter, but all fled into that temple."

"Clearly, there must be a power inside that they trust, believing that power can help them resist us."

"At this time, the more preparation time we give the enemy, the more intense the resistance we will encounter."

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

"Yes, Geralt, I think so too."

"We should eradicate the evil god first, and then slowly deal with their minions. Otherwise, perhaps that evil god will see that the situation is bad and choose to flee."

"Making our mission this time impossible to achieve."

After hearing their thoughts, Geralt also expressed his agreement. After a few minutes of rest, the group immediately headed straight toward the gate of the temple.

The structure of the underwater temple was similar to an ancient Roman pantheon.

However, compared to a magnificent pantheon, this underwater hall had existed in the lake for who knows how long, and its exterior was already covered in large amounts of water algae and various filth.

Not only did it lack the grand momentum a temple should have, but it appeared quite eerie and terrifying, like the giant mouth of a monster waiting for others to throw themselves into the trap.

But Geralt and his party were fearless. Facing the pitch-black temple entrance, Keira immediately aimed at the direction of the gate and released a large-scale illumination spell.

Illuminating the path ahead of them and the interior of the hall, the group maintained a vigilant formation and carefully walked into the temple.

Seven witchers, three sorceresses—this team of theirs, let alone dealing with two or three hundred Drowners, would be fearless even if facing a fully armed human army of three hundred.

After entering the temple, a smell even more putrid and foul than the fishy odor immediately permeated everyone's sense of smell. Geralt and the others looked toward the hall and instantly understood what these Drowners were relying on.

I saw that in the huge underwater temple, the Drowners who had fled into the temple had reorganized into an attack formation.

However, they were quite different from when they were fighting before.

Not only were the eyes of every Drowner blood-red, their expressions fierce, their muscles bulging, and their bodies a size larger, as if they had been possessed by some power.

Behind this team, there were also a dozen hunched Drowner priests holding metal staves, constantly waving their staves, directing a blood-red power into the bodies of these Drowner warriors.

And those dozen strong Drowner leaders from before were now completely unrecognizable.

Their bodies had swollen to about three meters, their skin was a pale blue like a Drowner's, their fish-heads were covered in wriggling tentacles, and their muscles were swollen to a bizarre degree, looking at a glance like they possessed considerable lethality.

And behind this group of Drowners, there was another giant, nearly five meters tall, with skin close to black, looking like a giant with an octopus head, staring at the people who had entered the temple with a pair of huge, blood-red eyes.

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 149 =====