Chapter 176: Spectator's Pain

"So, to hit that target you have to..."

I have been spending the rest of the days training these two, Hawk Gern and Eri Strent. They've been showing progress faster than what I initially thought. It's actually impressive. The four artifacts that I gave to them were just perfect. Neco got a good haul.

Eri's two artifacts were,

[Bracers of the Hateful, part of a long forgotten armor a bowman once used. No one knows of his armor, or his name. He was just a wandering bowman whose goal was to find peace by getting revenge on someone. Has 2 sub skills.

||Lone Wolf||

Gain 100% increased damage when damaging enemies who are 10 meters away from you. If an enemy gets near you in that 10 meters, you'll instead lose 30% attack damage.

||Pinpoint Accuracy||

You'll be able to see how far the enemy is, wind direction and chances of hitting the enemy while aiming using a ranged weapon or magic.]

[Necklace of the Conjurer, a necklace worn by a conjurer who was also a druid. Has three sub skills.

||Forest's Friend||

Gain a 2% max health healing for every second you're in the overworld.

||Summon Eagle||

Summons a lightning eagle that gives you bonus movement speed. This eagle can fly five kilometers away from you but if they go over the five kilometer limit, they'll return to you after five seconds. You can see what the Eagle sees when you activate /Vision Exchange while the Eagle is out.

If Eagle dies -12 Hour Cooldown-

||Summon Wolf||

Summons a flame wolf who can negate an attack once every 20 seconds. The flaming aura the wolf unleashes has a small burn damage to enemies who are near it. This wolf can transform as an arrow and can be shot using a bow.

If Wolf dies -12 Hour Cooldown-]

And the artifacts for Hawk are,

[Hawk Ring, said to be worn by a friendly spear throwing giant. No one knows of its origins other than being worn by a giant. Has three sub skills,

||Ranged Attack||

You will gain 30% strength while wearing this item and the farther the enemy is, the projectile that you shot will gain an increasing damage.

||Charged Up||

The longer you hold on to a fully pulled bow and arrow, the damage will increase up to 100% within four seconds.

||Splash Arrows||

Your arrows will emit a wind shockwave which knocks back enemies and friendly allies. This will become stronger the nearer your enemy is near you.]

It seems that they're slowly growing. I hope this can be useful to Zieglind or something.

"Rize! Rize!" I could hear someone calling for me. I looked over to the direction from where I heard and it was just Feran.

"Hey Feran. Need something?" I asked of him.

He put his hands on his knees as he tried to get some air. "We need to help Zieglind. It seems that he's in trouble."

"Alright. Eri, Hawk, I'll be going somewhere. It'll be quick. I think. Just practice the daily things I placed upon you two."

Me and Feran went to get Helga and we changed into our gazer forms and followed Feran to wherever he was heading. I was the first one to ask the question. "What's happening?"

"I don't know." Feran replied. "Zieglind was panicking. He told me to bring the two of you immediately. I know where he is since he passed me these weird information through my head so we're heading there now."

"Where is it located?" Helga asked.

"It's an artifact dungeon. It's around... here." Feran pointed at the sea.

"It's underwater?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

We got in the underwater castle using the Marestones that Feran prepared and we're not there yet but we could feel pulses of magic spreading everywhere. The seawater quaked and shaked every second or so. There's an explosion and we were actually getting blown away.

"This... this is a fight?" I could feel the surges of mana throughout the entire seawater. Blue particles were coming out of everywhere.

"Mana is easier to see in seawater." Helga suddenly said. "These particles are what mana looks like in its bare form. It's impossible to see on the surface but in water, they're completely illuminating. Providing light. But these mana particles only appear if something is concentrated on the water. But they're not even here on the seawater. They're inside that castle. The shockwaves of their fight is sending waves of power everywhere. Zieglind is a monster himself but what he's fighting is something along those lines."

Another giant explosion occured but this time it pierced through the walls of the castle. It was a giant beam of fire that melted the stones that was infront of it in the seawater. We headed over to there and looked at the wall and it was completely destroyed. But there was a barrier protecting it.

"Inventory." I pulled out Hou Yi's bow. I pulled it with all my might but I could only make a scratch and it instantly restored. "This is pretty powerful. Let's try to find another way."

We looked over the whole castle and we found a single trapdoor. As we opened it, we could see Zieglind inside. But there's a barrier here too. It seems that we have to destroy this no matter what. "Feran." I called out at him. "Buff me. Let's try destroying this. There's no other way in. I'll put up a barrier if the inside gets flooded."

"Wait- wait a minute, look at the enemy he's fighting." Feran stopped me.

"Huh?" I looked over the translucent barrier and saw Zieglind clashing with a... "Lion? But it has a scorpion tail."

"No, that's a manticore. But somehow it doesn't have a human face. Interesting... Alright. Let's try to bust through. What's the element that you're going to use?"

"I'm going to use a lightning enchant to try and melt this barrier while hitting it with a bow."

"Alright." Feran raised his chalice, "Damage Increase, Archery Damage UP, Lightning Wares, Vicious Arrow."

Several glowing light came flashing and then disappearing meaning that his spells went through. "Quick Shot, Triple Shot, Archery Boost, Strengthen... and finally, Volatile Hell." I swam up and up until I like the distance and pulled my Hou Yi's bow with all my might.

Lightning spread throughout the entire water chaining with the mana particles all around us. I let go of the string and it was like a ray of light came firing. None of our eyes could see what just happened.

As my arrow struck the barrier, small lightning explosions formed everywhere. The place that I attacked were suddenly smoking. We rushed over to there but there was only a small hole for where a small amount of water came through. It regenerated quickly.

"This barrier... is extremely powerful. How can we get in..." I have the same skill like this so if I just... "Dispel." As soon as I activated that, I could feel thousands of information just flowing through my head. This is a unique barrier... Was this set up by the manticore?"Argh... I can't dispel it. This skill is far more different than mine. There's more equations than I expected." How can we dispel this... "Feran. Call Zeta right now. We need someone who can dispel this."

"Alright."

"Good." I looked over the fight to see what's happening but I feel like the manticore is looking at me. "Huh?" It opened its mouth? Is it saying something? What's with that thing it's creating?

Zieglind then jumped as if covering me.

"Hey Zieglind what's-" And then, a bright light overtook the view at the bottom. "ZIEGLIND!" The shockwave that emitted blew us all out of the water and the hot burning sensation was felt and the whole seawater was boiling.

"Wh- what happened!?" Helga looked around dumbfounded not knowing anything.

"We're back here?" Feran looked at the sea.

"Feran, bring me back there!!!" I shouted.

"Y- yeah. Dull Pain! Fire Resistance!"

"Thanks!" I dived right in and Helga and Feran followed. The heat is melting off my skin but good thing I can't feel anything with Feran's buff. I looked over at the trapdoor that we found earlier and it's still intact.

"H- hey... Look at... Zieglind." Helga pointed out.

I couldn't help but cover my mouth. "He's barely holding on in there!"

"And look at who he's carrying!"

"That's Neco!? But he's burnt incredibly bad!"

Zieglind then ran with his fake limbs to the wall to avoid the attacks of the manticore and dispelled the barrier. He then threw Neco at us and it seems that he lost all of his strength seeing how his fake limbs seems to disappear.

"Zieglind! Damn... he's too far. Feran, take care of Neco. Helga, start healing him." I then lent Neco to Feran.

"Y- Yeah! Regeneration!" Helga casted on Neco.

I grabbed Zieglind and swam away.

The manticore then spoke. "Bring. Him. Back. HERE!" The manticore jumped and was about to pounce me.

"No-"

"Gravitational Push!" The manticore was then slammed down to the bottom of the sea. Who was it? That saved us? I looked up and it was none other than Zeta.