Arrows rained down across the path ahead, and exploding fireballs burst beside them in waves of scorching heat. Pujis fell one after another during the charge, yet Number Four—transford into a rolling ball—did not slow even when grazed by several attacks.
Arama’s puji legion had not yet reached the battlefield, but the demon forces, with their airborne scouts, detected them before Tri-Mountain City did.
The unit appearing ahead was a blocking force dispatched from the demon army’s split detachnts.
This was not a true ambush. Against the myriad scouting thods employed in war, concealing a large army was nearly impossible.
The demons had simply seized favorable ground along a route the pujis had to pass.
Once battle began, Number Four rushed ahead of the formation despite Inanna’s panicked cry.
Number Four was impulsive, but its agility was remarkable.
Even curled into a ball and rolling at high speed, it bounced at perfect timings off uneven ground, dodging incoming arrows and magic projectiles with uncanny precision.
When it leapt again, every demon soldier below was drawn to the motion.
The spinning mushroom-ball unfurled midair. Its mycelium tendrils lashed outward like a rapidly-whirring top.
[Blade Storm]
[Sharpness]
Before the razor-like tendril whips, the demons’ forged steel chestplates sliced open like paper, and flesh beneath split with them.
By the ti Number Four landed, four mangled corpses already lay around it.
The only survivor—a mage—had blasted himself away with Airburst in the final instant. Now he crawled on the ground with a broken leg.
Nearby demons prepared to counterattack, but before they could move, the air around Number Four rippled like water—
and it vanished in plain sight.
“Invisibility! Mages, cast—”
A thin red line suddenly traced across the squad leader’s throat. He collapsed, clutching his neck.
The demons panicked, attacking blindly toward where they heard faint “puji” chirps, striking their own comrades in the confusion.
Unlike Number Nine’s first battle—where it nearly fainted at the sight of blood—Number Four adapted astonishingly quickly. Its chaos tore open a gap in the demon line, and swarms of self-destruct pujis rolled into the breach.
A chain of explosions erupted, dirt and torn limbs flying as the once-tight formation collapsed.
anwhile, Arama’s main forces pushed forward under the protection of heavy-armor pujis.
A massive greataxe cut through the air, trailing a piercing boom.
Just revealed by a detection spell, Number Four barely twisted aside. The axe blade grazed its mushroom cap and severed two tendrils and one short leg.
Xenophon could no longer ignore it.
A flicker of surprise flashed in the boar duke’s eyes. He hadn’t expected a re diamond-rank walking mushroom to evade his ambush.
But surprise was all.
He swung the axe again and again, relentless. Number Four dodged as best it could on its damaged body, but fresh wounds accumulated with every passing second.
Each near-miss tore off more mycelium. The once-smooth mushroom body now looked battered and ragged.
“What do we do? How do we save it?!”
Inanna stomped anxiously behind the lines, fingernails digging into her palms.
Number Four had charged too far ahead. It was completely separated from the main force. She had no idea how to rescue it.
Number Ten tapped her back gently with a tendril—its presence calm through the mycelium network.
“Not a big problem.”
Inanna looked at it with trembling hope. “Little Ten… Do you have a way—?”
Before she finished, Number Four finally faltered. Its movents slowed half a beat. Xenophon’s axe crashed down with crushing force.
The mushroom body burst apart with a muffled explosion—scattering chunks of flesh across the ground.
“Pfah.”
The boar duke spat toward the remains, irritation in his eyes. He hadn’t expected killing a diamond-ranked mushroom to take this much effort.
“Number Four!”
Inanna covered her mouth, tears blurring her sight.
But Number Ten remained calm. It walked to a small, inconspicuous burrow and reached inside with its tendrils. After so searching, it dragged out a basic cannon-fodder puji.
“That boar-head is really strong. No way to fight back at all.”
A familiar consciousness flowed through the mycelium.
Inanna jerked her head up, staring at the puji adjusting to its new body.
“Number Four? But you… How…?”
“You really don’t know? The Great Puji Will protects us. Death is just changing—”
Before it finished, Inanna scooped it up and crushed it into a hug—much too tight. The simple puji body even felt a bit suffocated.
For once, Number Four felt… embarrassed.
anwhile Number Ten’s thoughts carried a rare hint of annoyance.
“Have you forgotten the mission? You wasted a body already. How are you supposed to protect the pink pujis later? With self-destruction?”
“Ha… hahahaha…”
The battle raged on. The two sides had finally rged into full lee—but the situation was not encouraging.
Even though the prince was still focused on Tri-Mountain City, the portion of demon forces he left behind was more than enough to deal with Arama’s battered troops.
In fact, the pujis were now the core of the fighting force.
Unlike the Battle of Dragonroar Valley, this ambush left Lin Jun little ti to prepare the battlefield. The Mycelium Carpet was present, but thinly spread; puji production was slower than usual.
On Arama and Lorenzo’s side, their fight against Xenophon and another bloodborn duke was equally rough.
Both their trusted weapons had been lost or destroyed in the Dragonroar Valley campaign. Their temporary replacents greatly reduced their combat power.
After only a few exchanges, chips had already ford on Arama’s blade. Facing Xenophon’s relentless blows, he was forced into evasive defense.
Lin Jun observed silently, weighing whether to use [Retinue Maker].
A giant puji would certainly shift the flow of battle—but expecting it to shatter the entire demon army was unrealistic.
This wasn’t a narrow gorge like Dragonroar. With open terrain, a giant puji’s impact was greatly reduced.
The skill had a one-week cooldown. He needed to save it for the decisive mont.
He decided to wait and observe the other front first.
……
On the other side, more than ten giant burrower pujis erupted from beneath the lightly-defended demon encampnt. The puji clans, leading their squads, flooded out of the tunnels.
These pujis were far weaker than the elite troops on the main battlefield, but they weren’t here for head-on combat.
Under the efficient coordination of the mycelium network, Number One and Number Two split their squads and advanced toward specific supply points.
“The northwest granary is on fire!”
“The eastern armory is under attack!”
“Mana crystal storage has invisible pujis inside!”
The bloodborn commander turned into a frantic firefighter—snuffing out flas in one area, rushing to intercept acid pujis dissolving weapons in another.
He possessed great strength, yet still felt swamped.
The pujis’ hit-and-run tactics were maddening. They burrowed to reposition, turned invisible when facing tough opponents, and every ti Ern arrived to quell a disturbance, another erupted elsewhere.
Twice he thought he had extinguished the flas—only for hidden pujis to reappear and reignite the embers.
Too few defenders, and the soldiers were sward.
Too many defenders, and the pujis struck elsewhere.
From a high vantage point, Vissarious watched the chaos in his rear encampnt. His crimson pupils narrowed slightly.
But he issued no order to reinforce it.
Instead, he turned his gaze toward Tri-Mountain City.
There, Sword Saint Elvien was already leading the main defensive forces out of the city. The silver blade Hazy Moon glead coldly beneath the night sky.
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