Chapter Thirty: The Merman Tribe

A relentless massacre! Frenzied slaughter! Berserk fury! Whether they were murlocs below level ten or murloc warriors above level ten, they fell like wheat before a scythe. Even the occasional murloc chieftain, bulkier and stronger than their kin, could not withstand for long.

Under his control, razor-sharp spatial blades fell upon the murloc chieftains every thirty meters. Even if they managed to force their way through the crowd of their kind with sheer strength, the throng was too dense, and with Chu Cheng fighting and retreating to buy time, by the time they finally squeezed through, they could barely hold on, many collapsing amidst the press before even reaching him.

At this moment, the countless ordinary murlocs, circling layer after layer, became his strongest shield, protecting him from the attacks of the murloc BOSS.

This extraordinary efficiency in reaping lives halved the murloc tribe in less than five minutes.

Numerous murloc chieftains, unable to break through their own ranks, were struck down from afar, several treasure chests floating conspicuously atop the corpses.

Even the two murloc priests did not escape their fate. They had been casting spells from beyond the talent’s rebound range. But Chu Cheng was prepared; as soon as he finished charging up, he took cover behind a rock, and a massive burst of frost exploded, dropping the temperature sharply.

Using the terrain to evade spells, he charged out, advancing layer by layer towards the two priests. With a barrage of spatial blades slicing madly, the frail yet high-damage priests soon fell.

The immense slaughter experience quickly accumulated, easily making up for the 5,000 experience points awarded in the previous dungeon’s narrative, filling more than half the experience bar and pushing him to level 13.

He allocated the five attribute points gained from leveling up to Constitution—each point granting one Toughness and fifty Health, making him even more resilient.

At this time, Wang Weilong and the others were huddled behind several rocks over fifty meters away, mostly sitting and waiting, occasionally peeking out with numb expressions at the endless stream of murlocs falling.

They had long since grown numb to such scenes, having nothing left to say.

After who knows how long, Zhang Chunlei, again peeking out as usual, suddenly exclaimed, “Not good, the Murloc Chieftain is about to charge!”

The others immediately grabbed their weapons, rose from cover, and saw, beyond the dense circles of murlocs, a towering figure roughly shoving aside his kin and charging toward Chu Cheng.

Murloc Chieftain (Elite): Chieftain of the murloc tribe, level 30, 6,200 HP.

This BOSS stood three meters tall, covered in thick scales, with sharp bone spurs jutting from his back and joints.

His strength was immense, easily shoving aside the lesser murlocs as he lunged for Chu Cheng.

Chu Cheng was ready; as planned, he fought while retreating, backing toward the space between two massive boulders, while calling out to his teammates over the team channel.

“Hold him off for a moment, I’ll be right there.”

At that moment, the murloc chieftain, growing impatient with the small fry in his path, let out a short cry, slammed his steel trident into the water, and a surging wave erupted—two meters high and three meters wide—blasting all the murlocs aside and reaching Chu Cheng in the blink of an eye.

Anticipating this, Chu Cheng darted behind the boulder just as water exploded everywhere.

The massive wave smashed against the rock, shattering it to pieces.

With a furious snort, the chieftain again slammed his steel trident down. This time, no wave came, but seawater began to surge in from afar, rapidly rising in this area.

What had only reached knee-deep quickly rose, submerging the surrounding murlocs.

But Chu Cheng was well-prepared; having slipped behind the boulder, he had already begun his escape, moving out of the rising water before it could reach him.

The chieftain stabbed his trident again, sending ripples outward as the swelling water formed rolling waves that surged toward him.

The chieftain and many murloc chiefs hid within the waves, swiftly advancing.

“Chu Cheng, evade for now. The Murloc Chieftain only has these three trump cards,” Zhang Chunlei shouted as he arrived. “In this skill’s effect area, all murlocs’ attack and speed increase dramatically, and their health regenerates rapidly. But if we get caught, we’ll be slowed down and our healing halved—we can’t fight at all.”

Understanding the danger, Chu Cheng immediately activated Swift Acceleration, quickly escaping the water and making for the shore.

The nearly three-meter-high waves were terrifying, but their scale was small; they soon lost momentum and crashed apart upon reaching the shore.

Again and again, each surge eventually collapsed, the chieftain’s summoned waters draining back into the sea, and the area returned to normal.

Only then did the party re-enter the water, ready for battle.

Chu Cheng once more took the lead, drawing another circle of murlocs, then drew his flintlock pistol and fired—striking the Murloc Chieftain and reflecting all damage back onto him.

Enraged, the chieftain pressed forward, but this time Chu Cheng did not dodge and met him head-on.

Meanwhile, Zhang Chunlei leapt onto a boulder, marked the chieftain with a talent mark, nocked a blue-glowing magic arrow, and began charging it up.

Zhang Qing climbed atop another nearby boulder and began chanting his own spell.

Their gathering power drew the chieftain’s attention. Just as his trident struck Chu Cheng, dealing a high 142 damage, the chieftain looked over, a trace of hesitation on his ferocious face.

Chu Cheng, without a moment’s pause, activated Frenzy—his hands becoming a blur, striking eight times a second, the blades almost a phantom as he stabbed at the chieftain, each hit dealing about 25 damage.

“What a high defense!” he thought. His base attack was 59—each Frenzy strike should deal 70%, or 41 points, and with Zhang Chunlei’s talent mark granting a further 20%, that was 50 per strike. Eight hits should total 400 physical damage, but in reality, only 200 registered—the defense halved the output.

Still, despite the lower damage, he succeeded in holding the chieftain’s aggro, and another trident strike landed, dealing 143 damage.

Fortunately, he had switched to blue-grade gear, his cumulative defense now very high; otherwise, with his previous equipment, each strike would have cost well over two hundred health.

After two strikes, blue light flared on the chieftain’s trident, and a vortex appeared beneath Chu Cheng’s feet, trapping him. The chieftain jammed his steel trident into the water, gathering energy for a powerful move.

At this moment, Zhang Chunlei and Zhang Qing had finished charging.

After a full five seconds, Zhang Chunlei’s arrow flashed with blue light and struck the chieftain, unleashing a burst of frigid energy that instantly froze both the chieftain and the water at his feet—a massive -655 damage exploding forth.

At the same time, Zhang Qing completed his chant, launching a massive, thigh-thick ice lance over three meters long, which impaled the frozen chieftain.

-728

-354

The first number was the ice lance’s damage, the second the shatter effect as the frozen chieftain broke apart.

As the shattered chieftain crashed down, Wang Weilong charged forward, followed by Cheng Mingyue. Seizing the moment as the BOSS was off balance, each unleashed a powerful attack, dealing several hundred more damage.

This barrage cut away a third of the chieftain’s health.

With the earlier reflected damage from Chu Cheng, the Murloc Chieftain now had only half his life remaining.