Chapter 283 Lake Malbec Operations(3)

Roxy launched volleys of arrows as the hippos shot orbs of dense water out of their mouths towards her. The arrows weren't doing anything, as the hippos created earth walls to block the attacks. As Roxy drawed their attention, Tim and Kate appeared beside them and stabbed two of the tier 3s in their necks, killing them. The hippos were enraged spun around, sending the two angels flying as they were hit by a beam of water. The two of them crashed into the forest heavily and coughed up blood as their chests were slightly caved in. The hippos roared and the tier 3s charged towards Tim and Kate, forcing both of them to unsteadily fly into sky. The tier 4 hippos started stomping onto the ground, their bodies glowing an earthy brown and the ground began to crack and a small earthquake shook the ground.

[Shield up.] Synthia said created a barrier while everyone rushed behind her to take cover. Hundreds of meter long, sharp spike erupted from the ground, flying into the air. Some of them impacted the barrier, while others simply fell back down into the lake. Synthia gritted her teeth as she channelled more energy into the barrier, causing it become thicker and the spikes to stop piercing through. Once the shower of Earth spikes ended, Kirt flew from behind the shield and sent a bolt of lightning towards one of the hippos, causing it to spasm in pain. By far, his attacks proved to be the most effective. The angels quickly scattered once more and Simon dropped to the ground, flying low to the ground and one of the tier 4s charged towards him and he quickly gathered the earth around him, creating earth armour that covered his entire body.

Both crashed into each other, and as expected, Simon was pushed back, but he quickly manipulated the [Rock Armour] so that he wouldn't be pushed too far back. The hippo opened its jaws wide and bit towards his shoulder and he quickly put his battle axe in the way. The hippo bit down on the battleaxe and black smoke started to rise from it's mouth, but it didn't let go and instead, manipulated the earth beneath it to create a spike that pierced through his stomach. Simon coughed up blood, and the hippo looked at him gleefully, ready to kill this pest. But before it could, a golden fireball descended from the sky and crashed into the hippo, pushing Simon back.

Once the dust and smoke cleared, he could see the bisected and scorched corpse of the hippo and Synthia standing over it. He coughed violently, spitting out blood and making him realize he still had a spike in his stomach, which he quickly pulled out.

"Thanks." He said and she nodded her head, before kicking the corpse into the water, before returning to the sky.

'Shit.' He thought, as he quickly flew back into the sky, his wound bleeding heavily, but he could feel it slowly regenerating, emphasis on slowly.

'Hurry the fuck up Castiel.' He thought.

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Currently, Castiel was swimming as fast as he could towards the bottom of the lake. The lake was over a hundred meters deep, a distance not easy to cover underwater, even by an angel. He could already feel his chest tightening from the pressure and he estimated that he had around thirty minutes of oxygen left, an estimation that was rapidly decreasing. He wrapped himself in a skin tight barrier made of wind, relieving some of the pressure and increasing his speed. As he swam, he could see a several shadows in the distance and couldn't help but sigh internally. He could see a school of fish with sharp, carnivorous fangs, swimming rapidly from the side and he shook his head in annoyance. He tightened his body, bringing his legs close to his chest, before kicking with all his might, releasing a strong burst of wind that propelled him atleast twenty meters downwards caused a shockwave that kicked back the fish. He was saving this for his return trip since it costs a lot of HP, but he decided that now wasn't the time to be stingy and let out a few more bursts, causing him to reach the bottom within five minutes. He quickly summoned the [Holy Core] and placed it on lake bed. The core levitated and shined brightly, causing the water around it to boil. He took out the soul crystals they got over the last five days and heaped them around the soul crystal, causing them to rapidly break down into particles that were quickly absorbed by the core, causing it to send out a powerful shockwave of holy energy that boiled the water in the lake as it went. The fishes that were pursuing Castiel quickly left, and Castiel almost sighed in relief as the barrier started to gradually expand, spreading through the entirety of the waters.

[The water has been cleansed.] Castiel said through [Telepathy] as he rapidly swam upwards, releasing bursts of winds as he went.

[I felt it, we're heading into the water now.] Synthia said as he was close to the surface. His head popped out above the surface of the water, and he inhaled loudly, taking a big gasp of air. He spotted the others a few meters away swimming towards him and he could see the hippos chasing them along the banks, sending volleys of earth spears towards them. He quickly took his glaive out of his storage ring, and quickly threw it towards one of the hippos, stabbing it in the , causing it to roar in pain. He controlled the winds around the glaive to make it fall into the lake and Synthia quickly grabbed it before they reached reached him.

"Hurry, we need to swim to the other shore." Mark said hurriedly and all of them immediately started to swim away from the shore while the hippos continued to launch attacks at them, landing a few hits. They also tried to enter the water, but they quickly got out as they were burned by the [Holy Territory], forcing them to leave defeated.

"Take that you ugly bastards." Castiel said as the hippos left in a huff.

"This mission was a lot easier than I thought it would be." Castiel said and the others glared at him, and he looked at them confused, before he looked down and realized that the water was filled with blood. Inspecting all of them, he realized that they had no shortage of injuries. Their were holes and broken bones all over their bodies, and a few of them even seemed to have broken wings.

"At the very least, the missions over now." Castiel said, and just as he did, the water around them began to boil and they heard a deafening roar from beneath the surface. A large fountain of water rose, before falling back down to the surface, revealing a long serpentine creature, covered in thick blue scales and had furious red eyes as black smoke rose from it's body.

"Ah fuck me, where the fuck did that dragon come from?" Castiel said frustratedly and the dragon like creature looked down on them with a furious expression.