Not until all the merfolk at the scene had fled did Wayne no longer be able to maintain his tense state. He half-knelt on the ground, somewhat limply, and his body under the armor also sent out signals of pain.

Although the injury-for-life fighting style just now was incredibly lethal and extremely efficient, allowing him to avoid the siege of the murlocs, it also left him with more than a dozen bruises and scratches on his body. The high-intensity battle of just over ten minutes almost consumed most of his physical strength.

Wayne half-knelt on the ground, breathing softly. After about five minutes, his body recovered a little under the effect of the Swallow Potion.

He stood up and walked towards the blood pool altar deep in the cave. When passing by the corpse of the special merman, he did not forget to put the strange staff forged from unknown metal into his storage bag.

In the blood pool, those weird-looking octopuses were still rolling in the blood. Six hostages were sitting in the blood pool, leaning against wooden stakes, and they still hadn't regained consciousness.

Wayne stepped forward and checked their pulse and breathing. Although weak, they were still alive.

However, when he observed their faces, Wayne was horrified to find that many tiny octopus tentacles had grown on the chins of these hostages.

Although it has not yet grown to 20 or 30 centimeters long like that special half-fish man, both its bones and flesh seem to have undergone permanent changes because of this strange ritual.

This strange thing made Wayne very worried. He couldn't help but think of the horror movie plot where the evil god came and looked for a body.

Perhaps, like the aliens, there are already offspring of the evil god growing in the bodies of these hostages, waiting to break out when the time is right.

He reached out and pulled the smallest earth spirit, Fitz, out of the pool of blood. He flipped his eyelids and found that his pupils were dilated and he was unconscious.

He put the little guy into the cold water in a puddle nearby, letting the cold liquid cover his body, but unfortunately there was still no sign of him waking up.

Seeing this scene, Wayne was also a little distressed. Although the mermen in the cave might have escaped, if he wanted to leave the cave, he had to pass through the underwater passage that was hundreds of meters long.

Wayne himself could still get through there with the help of the Hekna Amulet, but it was simply a pipe dream to want to carry through several people who were unconscious and completely unable to move.

These hostages are not dead yet, and it doesn't seem appropriate to leave them here to fend for themselves.

There was no other way, Wayne could only look for other exits in the cave. Unfortunately, after searching for half an hour, he did not find the exit. However, he did find a lot of valuables such as pearls and corals as trophies, which made up for the loss of his alchemical bombs.

The hostages were still unable to wake up, which made Wayne quite troubled.

Just when he was at a loss as to what to do, accompanied by the sound of three small footsteps, a familiar voice suddenly reached his ears:

"Wayne, are you okay?"

"I've brought my father and mother to see you."

Hearing the sound, Wayne turned around and saw three little earth spirits of different heights, wearing simple fur clothes and with purple skin, walking towards him.

The little girl Lala followed the two obviously older little earth spirits anxiously, looking around with a uneasiness on her face.

After seeing Wayne, his eyes immediately lit up and he wanted to run over excitedly, but was stopped by another female earth spirit.

After seeing Lala, Wayne smiled and nodded at her, then looked at the other two older little earth spirits.

Although the little earth spirits all look similar in appearance, the two little earth spirits standing in front of Lala are quite calm and composed like elders.

The male earth spirit was obviously not young anymore. Not only was his height already around 1.2 meters, he also had a black and white beard growing on his chin.

In his hand, he held a staff made of some animal's bones. When Wayne looked over, he politely nodded and saluted, saying, "Mr. Wayne, thank you for taking care of my daughter Lala, and thank you for taking the risk to save my son Fitz."

"My name is Cruz, and I'm Lala and Fitz's father."

"I heard that demon hunters must receive corresponding remuneration for carrying out commissions. After this matter is over, I will definitely pay you a satisfactory remuneration."

After saying this, he turned around to look at his anxious wife and daughter, then looked at Wayne, paused for a second, and asked, "From the looks of it, you've already defeated the half-fish priest here. I wonder how my child Fitz is doing now?"

Wayne nodded to Cruz, pointed to the blood pool altar behind him, and said truthfully: "Mr. Cruz, I don't know the details."

"When I got here, there were six hostages, including your son Fitz, tied up in the blood pool altar."

"They are performing a satanic ritual."

"Although I killed the merfolk here, I don't understand their knowledge and I can't wake up your son."

Upon hearing this, Cruz looked in the direction Wayne pointed, and his expression returned to anxiety. He nodded at Wayne, without saying anything more, and immediately took his wife and Lala to trot towards the blood pool.

What surprised Wayne was that this little male earth spirit Cruz was actually a very powerful spellcaster.

Although he had no way to wake up his son Fitz and several others, he was able to use magic spells, levitation and underwater breathing to solve the problem that Wayne had been unable to take them out of the water.

However, there were still too many people who needed rescue. Wayne protected their safety all the way. It took more than an hour to escort the little earth spirit's family and the five hostages who had not yet awakened to the location of the Fisherman King.

To do this, he had to drag his tired body and fight a group of wild wolves.

On the way, Lala told him that when the little girl was waiting outside the cave, her parents noticed something was wrong when they returned home, and hurried over from home and found her, which led to the subsequent scene.

When they arrived near the boat, the Fisher King was still sitting on the rock, with the corpses of several water ghosts lying beside him.

He saw such a large group of people coming and turned to look at his own small boat before he could say anything.

Angela, Lala's mother who had been taking care of her son in the team, suddenly walked to the shore, took out a leaf shining with green light from her clothes, put it in her mouth and blew out a melody.

Dozens of seconds later, a huge sea turtle about seven or eight meters long suddenly crawled out from the bottom of the lake.

After seeing the giant turtle, Lala clapped her hands excitedly and said to Wayne, "This is my mother's friend, Uncle Mando. I didn't expect him to come to Lake Vizima as well."

After the giant sea turtle climbed ashore, it spoke a few words to Angela in some unknown language, then crawled down and allowed Lala's father Cruz to transfer the six people, including Fitz, onto his back.

After doing all this, Cruz turned around and looked at Wayne. After such a long period of continuous spellcasting, the little earth spirit wizard looked exhausted. He nodded to the demon hunter and asked, "Mr. Wayne, I must bring my child home as soon as possible and use the power of the goddess altar to help him relieve the curse."

"As for the other five people, I don't have the ability to rescue them. I can only temporarily transport them back to the vicinity of the swamp village and return them to the hands of humans."

"Is this okay?"

Wayne nodded helplessly at this way of handling the matter. No one knew how to solve the evil god's ritual. Being able to rescue them from the merman's lair was already merciful enough.

As for the future fate of these people, whether they can wake up or survive, it all depends on their own luck.

When they had discussed the countermeasures and were about to leave Black Tern Island, the Fisherman King, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice:

"Mr. Wayne, Lala, and the cursed Fitz."

"The goddess invites you and wants me to take you to see her."

Wayne was stunned when he heard this. He did not expect that the legendary Lady of the Lake would invite him to meet her tonight. Cruz, who had originally been full of sorrow, immediately showed an expression of excitement and joy when he heard that the goddess wanted to meet his daughter and son. He said:

"That's great. If the goddess is willing to grant me a favor, my son Fitz will definitely be safe."

Seeing that Wayne did not agree immediately, the little earth spirit wizard Cruz thought that Wayne was hesitant about something, or did not know who the Lady of the Lake was, so he began to persuade him:

"Mr. Wayne, the Lady of the Lake is a kind and great deity who has been protecting this lake for thousands of years."

"It is precisely because of the goddess's protection that this lake has not become the lair of the evil god Dagon's followers."

"You destroyed the ritual of the evil god Dagon today and defeated his followers. The goddess will definitely reward you for this."

Wayne was not afraid that the Lady of the Lake would have any conspiracy against him. He was just thinking about the goddess' intentions. Seeing that the Fisher King was still looking at him with questioning eyes, he nodded and accepted the invitation.

This is a kind and upright god, and you will not suffer any loss if you meet him.

Ding! [Rescue Fizz the Little Earthling] has been completed.

Rewards: 48 experience points and an expert-level treasure chest.

(Thanks, Silver Spear and Iron Sword, Bei Dangyun, Very Important, To the Left..., 20180622175609275, and other big guys for the rewards, muah.) (End of this chapter)