Chapter 146 - Chased By Fishes

Liam grinned. He did not look back anymore. He knew what he was being chased by and what was about to happen. 

He also knew that his chances of success were not that great.

In a way, this was even more challenging than when he had faced the numerous trolls. 

Nevertheless, he dared to come here as he desperately needed the item that dropped out of these creatures.

So even with the risks involved, he still willingly walked into this trap zone.

As Liam churned his mana to boost his physical state, he narrowly missed the several attacks that were being hurled at him.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Sparks flew and more attacks landed with every step he took.

By now the entire swamp was filled with screeching noises and hordes and hordes of merfins were slowly starting to gather together.

The loud screeching noises attracted all the colonies of merfins residing in the swamp area and hundreds of fishes started chasing the single human being.

Moreover, they were not chasing him simply. 

They constantly hurled various attacks at Liam. Several spears came for him. Numerous tridents were aimed at him.

But the worst part was the spells.

Merfins had a very unique fighting pattern. They had a weak defenseless body and all their attributes were also piss poor.

However, the advantage they had was their numbers and this swamp they resided in. Here, they were the rulers and others were intruders.

While everyone else was affected by the swamp debuff, these walking fishes did not suffer from the same.

Along with these two strong points, there was also one more final nail to the coffin, which was the spell casting merfins.

Some of the merfins were naturally gifted and they were able to cast a variety of trapping spells.

[Mana Nets] 

[Freezing Lattice]

[Tar Pit]

[Drunken Earth]

The merfin's specialty resided in movement control spells and attack after attack landed on Liam.

This was their approach towards all their prey. 

They attacked as a horde and used their control mechanisms to trap and prevent their targets from escaping their grasp.

This coupled with the poisonous nature of the swamp, any intruder would slowly be squeezed out of their health.

And when they finally fell, the end result could only be one, death!

The merfins would swarm over to them like ants and not even bones would be left behind. 

But Liam was not working alone.

He had already come here prepared for this.

As he held his life in the palm of his hands and jumped swiftly from one branch to another, suddenly fire started raining from above.

It came just in the nick of time, helping Liam gain some sort of momentum.

"Good job, Luna! Keep going!" He shouted in his hoarse voice, panting in between.

The merfins who had been energetically chasing him so far started slowing down. 

They screeched loudly and looked up to see why it was raining fire, but alas, they couldn't see anything past the dense canopy of leaves and vines and the drab smog.

Liam used this confusion to put more distance between him and the walking fishes.

This was it. This was his plan. He took the time and trained the two pets and now it was time for the results to show.

As Liam skillfully kited the fish gang, jumping around the groove of trees, Luna bombarded them from above with fireballs. 

In this way, they slowly brought the enemy's health down and killed the merfins one by one.

But this was easier said than done. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.

While Liam ran around the swamp and Luna took down a few merfins, more and more colonies started joining in.

Within a few minutes, the entire swamp full of merfins were running behind him, all sending out several attacks aimed at him.

Liam dodged a few but inevitably several landed on him.

He took some of the spear attacks and physical attacks head-on but he made sure to avoid all the control type attacks.

They were the most dangerous, as even being hit by one would lead to his sure death.

But because of this, his health was dropping every second. He dunked one health potion after another and kept going on.

"Don't stop. Attack. Attack!" Liam shouted and continued moving.

Every time he got a second lead, he used it to put more distance between him and the horde. 

This continued on for a while and Luna who was attacking from above became a total nervous wreck.

The fox did not want to disappoint Liam and she could see that his life depended on her efforts. 

So she did her best and even targeted those fishes specifically whose health was about to bottom out.

Because the spirit beasts had naturally high mana regeneration speed, she was easily able to keep up with this for several minutes and by then the number of fishes started dwindling.

Seeing this, Liam once again shouted. "Luna, attack the ones with the red fins first."

These were the spell casters and the ones that needed to be filled first. 

Luna understood his command and quickly did the same. Now that the numbers were starting to become lesser and lesser, it was easier to target.

And the merfin spell casters began to drop dead.

[Ding. You have gained experience points]

[Ding. You have gained experience points]

[Ding. You have gained experience points]

…

…

…

As time passed, the number of fishes chasing behind Liam was steadily decreasing and no more new colonies came out to join the fight.

However, there was now another issue that had cropped up. Because of all the fireballs, the tree cover was becoming more and more negligent.

The fishes were finally able to catch sight of the culprits who were responsible for all of this chaos. 

There were still a few spell casters left, so the merfins began targeting the huge bird circling in the sky.

They wanted to bring the fight down to the swamps where they were unbeatable.