"Ma Zhan!" Dad barked.
"Got it, sir!"
One of the cultivators responded with a yell and surged forward, swinging his spear and cutting down a bunch of merfolk in his path. Without even so much as a glance at the falling corpses and geysers of blood, he reached the gap left by the falling door and planted the shaft of his spear there, standing guard.
"None shall pass before me!" He vowed. A merfolk lunged at him, but he cleaved it into two with a spin of his spear, not at all perturbed as both halves of its corpse fell on either side of him. Grinding his boots against the blood-slicked ground, he thrust his spear forward to lance the tip through the throat of another merfolk that slashed at him.
Dad smiled and turned his attention back to the biggest merfolk. Unlike the others, this particular one was adorned in jewelry and actually had a loincloth. Armed with a trident, it gripped the shaft with its webbed fingers and stabbed at my father.
However, dad parried the trident with his sword before retaliating with a riposte that forced the creature to retreat. He frowned when he saw that the merfolk remained unscathed.
"You must be the leader, huh?"
The merfolk didn't reply, instead sneering with those thick, rubbery red lips. It probably didn't understand our language at all. A high-pitched whistle left its throat before it charged forward with its trident. Water currents swirled around the three forks, a violent maelstrom that left deep gouges in the walls and ceiling of the corridor when it swung its weapon.
Dad deflected the next attack, his own qi forming a protective layer around him and protecting him against the sharp jets of water that split off from the merfolk chief's strike. Twirling his sword about, he slashed at the merfolk's arm, but the chief reflexively withdrew and hopped a few steps back. with a hiss, it swung its trident down to send a tsunami washing forward to drown dad, but he simply obliterated the tidal wave with his sword.
Not only that, he manipulated several of the water currents to send them spurting in the direction of the other merfolk. The creatures shrieked as they were pierced by water lances that dad transformed his opponent's attack into, further decimating their numbers.
"Keep it up, men!" He said confidently. "We'll be able to wipe them out before long!"
The merfolk chief let out a guttural bellow and slammed its trident against the ground. A long whistle exited its mouth once more, but this time it dragged on for much longer, causing me to wince from the discomfort in my ears.
At first, it appeared as if the merfolk was retreating. The remnants of the ragged band pulled back to behind their chief, while the cultivators were too stunned by the disorientating screech to pursue them. Needing some time to recover, they stood their ground and watched the fleeing merfolk cautiously, but it turned out that the merfolks weren't escaping.
They were getting into a new formation. Initially, I was puzzled, even as I was positioned further back. Even as I took aim at one of them with my bow, I could see that they were at a disadvantage. It was only a matter of time before dad and his subordinates overwhelmed them. They no longer had the numbers to continue fighting, and they were cornered. The only way left for them was to run through the back, and though I was in their path of retreat, I wasn't reckless enough to bar their way by myself. Dad was also waving for me to get out of their way, but he stopped when he noticed the merfolk staying where they were.
"What are they planning?"
The silence was broken a few seconds later when scrabbling echoed from all directions. Ventilations burst open and dust poured out from shafts as merfolk crawled into the corridor from all over, dropping into the area right outside the central lab. Thankfully, the central lab was isolated from the rest of the facility, which was why they couldn't access it through such pathways, but…
We were surrounded.
"Reinforcements?" Dad narrowed his eyes. "There are more of them than I thought."
"Don't worry, sir." One of his subordinates spun his sword about, generating fiery qi that incinerated a couple of merfolk stupid enough to land right next to him. He hacked a third down. "They are mostly ordinary ranked. With the exception of their leader, it doesn't matter how many of them there are. We'll be able to annihilate them."
"It'll take a lot of time, though," another cultivator grumbled. "There's no end to them."
"Dear!" It was mom. She was organizing the surviving researchers to pull furniture and machinery together to construct a makeshift barricade, and I was relieved that she was all right. Dad turned to her and she nodded tightly. "The merfolks are after the artifact. We've managed to transport it to the vaults at the bottommost level of the facility, and while the merfolks haven't found it yet, it's only a matter of time before they do. The merfolk chief has dispatched its brethren all over the place to search for it. We can't allow the artifact to fall into their hands!"
I remembered the quest that the system gave me. Initially, my priority was to ensure the safety of my mom, but now that I had confirmed that she was all right, I realized that it would be bad if I failed the quest.
"Why?" Ma Zhan asked. "What's so important about that artifact?"
"If the merfolks get their hands on it, they'll be able to use it to strengthen aquatic spirit beasts. That will intensify their assault on land later. The undersea tribe have shown signs that they wish to expand their territory beyond the sea, and already there are reported attacks on fishing ships, cargo ships and tankers. If the spirit beasts at sea grow any more powerful…"
"This just keeps getting better and better," one of the cultivators muttered as he tried to hack his way past the merfolk. "Damn it, there's too many of them!"
"Jun Wen!" Dad yelled, noticing that I was still shooting several of the merfolk from afar with my azure arrows. I was the only one away from the section in front of the core lab, far from the largest concentration of merfolk that were massing to swamp the human defenders. "You know this place well enough! Go on ahead and secure the artifact! Get to the vault and ensure the merfolk don't get their hands on it!"
"Okay," I replied and turned around. Recalling the routes and pathways from the times that I had visited this place with mom, I broke off and hurried down a corridor. I could still hear the merfolk scuttling through vents here and there, but their numbers and diminished in comparison to when their chief first whistled for them.
Even the merfolk had limits to their numbers. But I was probably on a timer here because there was no telling if any of the merfolk had made it down to the vaults. If they realized where the artifact was, they would cut their way through the security and seize it. I still remembered how easily they cut through the last bastion of defense to the core lab. If dad and his squad hadn't made it when they did, the researchers inside – along with mom – would have been massacred.
I clenched my fists. All the more I couldn't allow these damned creatures to get their way.
Sprinting through the winding corridor, I skidded to a stop in front of an elevator. Unlike the utilitarian ones, it was a hi-tech elevator with holographic controls and a glass window to provide a nice view of the sea outside. This part of the lab had been submerged underwater, and the lights in the elevator illuminated the fish and other forms of life that swam past.
"It's still working, huh?"
Even though I really shouldn't be using an elevator in an emergency, this was still the fastest way down. Not only that, it also depended on the type of crisis. What were the merfolk going to do, cut the power? As intelligent as they were, they appeared to rely on brute force to pry the doors open. There was no reason for them to destroy the elevators and I doubted it even occurred to them to cut the power.
Otherwise, I would be going, "What do you mean, they cut the power? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!"
Seemed like merfolk were less intelligent than aliens…
While I worked on the holographic panel and called the elevator up, I heard the soft brush of something crawling in the vents above. Of course. The merfolk wouldn't just leave me running around unattended. As a human, I was a threat to whatever they had planned.
Turning around, I caught sight of a shadow. I looked up and spotted the green-scaled merfolk climbing through the ventilation shaft above, its webbed feet sticking to the dusty surface and leaving a trail of slime. It leered at me, its rubbery lips peeled back to reveal two row of fangs.
I conjured a thin and sharp azure arrow in my right hand before flicking it at my stalker. The glowing projectile punched through its forehead and obliterated its brains, causing its head to crash to the ceiling of the duct it was occupying. Its corpse collapsed, causing the duct to rattle, but already I was returning my attention to the elevator that had just arrived. The doors slid open and I stepped inside, raising a finger to tap on the bottommost level on the holographic display.
The doors shut and the elevator plunged downward.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for the elevator to reach the bottom, and I was already out the moment the doors slid open. I raised my palm and conjured a couple more tiny but deadly azure arrows above it, but didn't bother drawing my bow. In such a confined space, I didn't have the luxury of drawing my bowstring. The power would be reduced, but given that the majority of the enemy was ordinary ranked, it shouldn't be a problem.
Or so I hoped.
"Damn…"
I was a little too late. The vaults had been breached by a swarm of merfolk that were hacking and slashing at the reinforced gates. They ignored most of the contents that had spilled out, mostly biological samples of the marine life here, stored in cryostasis for later dissection and research. Freezing fog billowed out in thick wisps, the merfolk inured to the cold because they were used to inhabiting the near icy depths of the sea.
They looked like vermin, digging and scavenging through the stuff.
Fortunately, they had yet to crack the one vault that contained the Ancient Aquatic Artifact. I now understood that its ability was to enhance aquatic spirit beasts, or so mom said. If the merfolk managed to get their slimy paws on it, they would grow exponentially stronger, maybe even become Yellow ranked. And their chief…if they brought it back to it, it might actually be boosted to Peak Earth rank. Even dad would have trouble fighting such an opponent, given that it was no weaker than beginner Earth rank at least right now.
"Damn it…"
The majority of the merfolk turned around to glare at me when I slid to the damaged entrance, hissing. A few of them reared back, their deadly claws gleaming in the cold illumination of the freezing vaults.
I didn't wait for them to come to me.
This time, I drew my bow. There were far too many of them for me to dispatch, even if they were only at ordinary rank. My bow glowed when I infused it with my qi, and dozens of azure arrows materialized not just in my right hand, but surrounding me, each of them linked to the bow in jagged lights of esoteric force. Taking a deep breath, I fitted an arrow to the bow string and pulled, and as if in response, all of the azure arrows floating above me tensed.
In a single motion, I unleashed them in a devastating volley.