CHAPTER 430: THE MURLOC SHAMAN

Jezsere was already on the verge of tears at this point. The timid girl that she was clearly wasn’t prepared for a sudden attack. However, because she was worried that her crying might affect me, she forcefully held back any further crying. Even so, her shivering hands grasping on my arms was more than enough of a signal to me that she was very afraid. With how close she was to me now, her fragrance was constantly wafting into my nose, but I wasn’t in any position to bask in its glory for the time being.

Curse you, look what you fish heads did! My lucky charm is all scared now. You’d better watch out, else I’ll get my Devil King Idol to make fish paste out of all of you.

Yet just when I was about to call forth my Devil King Idol to flatten them, a spinning stone spear came screeching towards me from a distance away. Just from how furiously it was rotating, I could already tell it was going to be at least a few times stronger than an ordinary stone spear. Naturally, I had no intention of testing my luck against such an attack. I grabbed Jezsere by the waist and tumbled to the floor, narrowly dodging the spear.

You’re all dead! Who was that that threw the spear? I’ll teach you to try and ambush me like that!

I gazed in the direction of the spear and so happened to come upon a weaponless Murloc still standing in a daze… that’s the one! It has to be him!

My eyes narrowed in on the soon-to-be dead fish, and with a flap of my wings, sent a volley of Mana Feathers right at him. This time, I didn’t just fire them out as usual. Thanks to the inspiration from that spinning spear, I had the brilliant idea to add a high-speed rotation to my Mana Feathers as well.

Thanks to that, my Mana Feathers seemed more like drills than feathers as they sped towards the dazed Murloc…

An instant later, the Mana Feathers had closed the gap between us thanks to its newfound speed, piercing right through the eyes of that Murloc without any difficulty whatsoever!

However, that wasn’t the end either. After killing the first Murloc, my Mana Feathers continued onwards without any signs of slowing down at all. It was only until it collided with the third Murloc that it finally exploded, leaving that poor Murloc with horrendous injuries.

The sheer power demonstrated in just the short span of a few seconds was so shocking, it even startled me. Never would I have expected that just adding a spin to these Mana Feathers would lead to such a massive increase in penetration power. Not only did that one single volley kill off two Murlocs, it even maimed a third when it no longer had the power to pierce it. Now, that just wasn’t fair!

Barely a second later, I was already focusing my mana into a volley of my new and improved Mana Feathers. A couple of flaps later, I had easily slain over a dozen Murlocs.

Seeing how I was able to massacre their brethren so easily with one spell, even their renewed morale wasn’t enough to prevent the survivors from routing. With a nonsensical but fear-filled gurgle, the survivors all scrambled towards the safety of the river. As they stumbled head over tail to escape, everyone of them was cursing their parents right now for not giving them a longer pair of legs.

“Brrrrggwwwlll…”

Their desperate escape did not go unnoticed by the other Murlocs either. Even those who were engaged with the Dark Elves were starting to rout thanks to the franticness they displayed. While these Murlocs might have put on a heroic front when faced with a foe weaker than them, but when push came to shove, they were all more than happy to turn tail and run. Simply put, they were all bullies.

The rest of the Dark Elven attendants were immediately inspired by the sudden reversal in fortunes. One after the other, they pulled out every move they knew to try and take down as many Murlocs as possible. At the same time, they took the opportunity to slowly reform into one group. With their skillful sword and shield tactics, they managed to achieve this in mere seconds.

Now that they were together once more, all that was left was to finish off the Murlocs and secure this victory.

Phew… that’s the end of this battle at least. Blasted fish.

However, that optimism only lasted a few seconds before the routed Murlocs suddenly turned around to attack us once more…

“Brrrrrr~~~~”

That was the sound of a shellhorn blowing. The moment I heard those notes, my head began pounding with a fury that was only matched by the shaking I felt in my arms. I looked down and found Jezsere in an even worse shape than me right now. Both her hands were covering her pointy Elf ears while her body continued shaking uncontrollably.

“Master… the sound.. It hurts…”

With no time to lose, I hurriedly hugged her tighter, then with a hefty flap of my wings, retreated a good dozen meters back. Thankfully, this booming horn sound only lasted a short while before it stopped. It was then that Jezsere recovered some semblance of control as well. Her adorable little head was still swaying about in a daze while she hyperventilated slightly.

“Jez, are you alright?”

“Jez is… fine..” Even though she said that, she was still limp in my arms.

Concerned, I reached out to message her temples while gazing cautiously in the direction of the river banks. “Do you know what that was just now?”

As of this moment, the Murlocs were all charging at us with a speed that put their previous escape to shame. Gurgles abound, they rammed into the ten Dark Elves and easily surrounded them in a few seconds.

It was then that I spotted a relatively weaker Murloc jumping onto land. This Murloc wasn’t wielding a stone weapon like the others. Instead, it held a magical staff that seemed to be made out of wood. The head of the staff was carved into the shape of a spiral with a tiny fist-sized pearl in its center.

What was also worth mentioning was that this diminutive Murloc had a horn the size of a child’s head by its waist. From the looks of things, this was the culprit behind that horn call.

“Master… those should be the Undermarsh Murlocs, that staff wielder should be their shaman…” Our resident lucky charm began explaining, having recovered somewhat by now. “A Murloc Shaman has the strength of a Five-star. That horn call just now is their battle hymn.”

Battle hymn? So it’s a skill to stir their battle spirits. Seems like it also has the side effect of suppressing their opponent’s morale. No wonder they started charging at us like drugged-up attack hounds.

With my wings, I could have left long ago with Jezsere if I wasn’t concerned about those ten Dark Elf attendants. In fact, that thought did cross my mind a few times. However, I couldn’t be sure if they would have been able to make it out on their own given how our enemy’s numbers were still unknown. Besides, I still had the Devil King Idol as a backup plan. That was why I was able to calmly stay behind and watch even now… Hmmm… but the Undermarsh Murlocs huh… I thought Zurnalin had already taken care of them? What are those dumb fishies doing here then? Aren’t they afraid of being defeated by the Blood Drake Riders again?

Still, their numbers are really something to reckon with. There has to be at least a thousand of them on shore right now…I can still fly away, but the attendants have already been surrounded. Looks like capturing that shaman is the only out now.

“Don’t mind me and Jezsere, get that Murloc Shaman, quick!”

As the saying went, cut off the head and the body will die. The moment that shaman stepped onto land, I immediately realised that it was the key to this battle ending.

“Understood, your holiness.”

Having received my orders, the attendants immediately sprang into action, rushing in a beeline towards the shaman. With their powerful swords and shield, they cleaved a bloody road all the way through the Murloc horde. At this point, there was only ten meters separating them from victory.

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“Mwwwrrgggllll!”

Realising that he was in danger, the Murloc Shaman gurgled in that signature nonsensical language of the Murlocs while waving his staff. An icy arrow quickly formed above the staff and shot out towards one of the attendants. However, that was easily deflected by a defensive spell of that Dark Elf. A crack later, the arrow had completely shattered into the ground without ever threatening that Dark Elf.

The ten Dark Elf attendants rushed forward like hungry wolves, eager for their prey. Whoever stood in their way were quickly slammed aside or skewered by their deadly longswords. Now that they had pulled out all the stocks, there was no way a bunch of Murlocs who were at most Four-star could ever hope to stop them.

By now, that Murloc Shaman was beginning to realise that if he didn’t flee now, he was doomed. Behind him was the Brackishwaters River, his safe haven away from the impending doom in front of him. All it would take was one leap from him and he was safe.

However, there was no way I would ever let it go at this point. The moment it showed signs of escaping, I flew up into the air and activated my Shadow Guardian. It immediately stretched itself out as a shadow on the ground and rushed right towards the shaman. And before I could even say mmmrrrggglll, the fleeing Murloc Shaman was captured.

The Murloc Shaman tried desperately to break free of the shadowy binding, but the moment it did so, it was confronted by a couple of scythe-like weapons. The Shadow Guardian stabbed its bladed arms right into the shoulders of the Murloc Shaman without any hesitation, nailing it to the ground.

“MMMMMRRRRRRGGWWWLL!”

The Murloc Shaman screamed at the top of its lungs, face even more ugly than it already was before.