novelraw Chapter 457 - 448: No One Knows Puki Better Than Me
Chapter 457 - 448: No One Knows Puki Better Than Me
On the fungal mat of the rock wall, a newly born Puki broke free from the mycelium’s restraints.
In the instant of completing its formation, its small mushroom legs gently kicked, and its body yielded to gravity, plummeting downward.
The howling valley wind caused its mushroom cap to flutter violently, emitting a plup-plup sound.
It was not a solitary traveler; in the night sky, countless Puki of various shapes were falling together.
Below, the Demon Race’s arrows and magic wove a web of death, surging upward.
A nearby scale-covered Puki was instantly carbonized by the leaping electric arc, a fat variant was pierced by several sharp arrows, collapsing like a punctured bag, and even those in stealth mode were ignited by a stray Fireball Technique, reduced to blackened remains.
This newborn Puki was not exempt either.
An arrow pierced its fragile mushroom body, ending its brief life. From birth to demise, the average lifespan of a Puki at the valley mouth was only six seconds.
Yet, its mission had already been accomplished.
The Puki’s remains crashed heavily to the ground, with mycelium scattering in all directions. Simultaneously erupting was a large plume of purple Hallucinogenic Spores!
...
"Intercept them! Don’t let a single one come down! They’ll explode!"
"Watch your feet! Be careful of the holes by your feet!"
"Mage! What about the Purification Spell?! Quickly dispel this poisonous fog!"
"They’re everywhere, how can we purify them?"
"With a gale! No, the corpses of these Puki keep releasing poisonous fog, it can’t be blown away!"
Since entering this mushroom-dominated valley mouth, the warriors of the Demon Race seemed to have fallen into a nightmare abyss.
Puki rained down from the sky like a torrential downpour, while new attackers surged continuously from the holes in the ground... endless!
These Puki would self-destruct upon contact, and even if killed prematurely, their remains became new sources of toxic fog.
Only by completely incinerating with fire could the spores’ spread be halted.
However, the fire mages in the army were overwhelmed by the all-encompassing tide of Puki.
It can’t be fully burned, simply can’t be burned away!
The more resistant ones, like trolls, were less affected.
Next were the troops under Sigmund’s command, who were somewhat equipped with Antitoxic Potions, allowing them to hold out longer.
The most miserable were the goblins under Virelis’ command.
The precious potions naturally didn’t reach them, and their short stature placed them right in the region of highest fog concentration.
So far, the majority who had collapsed were these little green-skinned folks.
And after they passed out, they were often trampled into an indistinct pulp by the chaotic footsteps of their allies before they could die from the poison.
Sigmund watched the scene before him, his eyelid twitching. They hadn’t even engaged the humans yet, and this happens?
He looked up at the semi-formed Puki still hanging on the fungal mat above, feeling absurd—were these all grown in a day?!
A species with such terrifying production speed; the damned intelligence department classified this as a "common threat"?!
This was clearly a strategic-level force!
Sigmund had no way of knowing what blunders had occurred within the intelligence department, but the current troubling battle situation forced him to respond immediately: "Virelis! Release the Dark Beasts!"
With the order, a wave of Low Tier contract-bound Dark Beasts surged forth from the ranks like a tide.
These eyeless crawling creatures clung tightly to the rock wall with their sharp limbs, climbing upwards at surprising speed.
Meanwhile, the elite Blood Race warriors transformed into flocks of bats, ascending into the air.
This tactical combination was originally prepared to capture the tricky pathways on the rock wall, but now had to be used prematurely to clear the Puki attached to the fungal mats on the rock face.
The result was unsatisfactory, however. The Blood Race managed okay, with blood manipulation killing the incomplete Puki one by one, and although occasionally countered by Puki, the casualties weren’t too high.
The Dark Beasts, on the other hand, faced a catastrophe.
As melee units, regardless of their speed, they had to get close to the rock face covered with fungal mats and Puki to attack.
Thus, in a series of explosions, numerous Dark Beasts turned into fragmented meat mixed with fungal remnants, falling off the rock wall in succession.
In the distance, to the human defenders who witnessed this scene, the fungal mat emitting faint fluorescence seemed to ignite with the flames of hope!
For the Blood Race ravaging the air, human archers and mages further back in the pathways started targeted sniping.
The position of these pathways was tricky, making it difficult for the ground troops of the Demon Race below to provide effective support.
Unless...
...
A Diamond Level human mage hovered in mid-air, releasing a shockwave that tore through a blood shield around one of the Blood Race. In the next moment, two sharp arrows exploited the gap, piercing the Vampire’s body, causing it to fall powerlessly.
The mage panted slightly, a faint smile appearing on his face, when suddenly an urgent warning came from a comrade behind him.
He turned his head abruptly, catching only a glimpse of a figure moving like a ghost before his vision spun.
With one swift strike, the mage was beheaded. Virelis, without losing any momentum, landed on the rock wall with a push, dodging incoming arrows, and directly crashed into a pathway.
After a brief clash of metal and screams, the four human warriors within the pathway were all sliced into pieces.
Just as she was about to leap towards another pathway, several whistling giant rock projectiles forced her to change trajectory, landing back at her original spot.
"Can’t let you wreak havoc just like that, can I?" Lorenzo, holding a longsword and magic staff, walked out slowly from the opposite pathway, his hair and beard bristling, "The terrain this time is in my favor."
"Hey—" Without further ado, Virelis pushed off with her foot and rushed forward, swiftly engaging him in battle.
Virelis wasted no words, her foot exerting force, her figure shooting out like lightning, as the two instantly locked in combat.
Despite lacking leverage in mid-air and constant interference from the cold arrows of soldiers on either side, Virelis maintained the upper hand, though Lorenzo held his ground more tenaciously than last time, preventing a quick defeat.
Below, Sigmund, looking towards Alama who also sat at the central army, did not personally take action. He observed the entire battle situation calmly and after a moment, actually ordered the retreat to be sounded with the horn.
"That damn fat bat!" Virelis, who was in the midst of an intense fight, glared at Lorenzo, who was slightly disheveled, with a fierce look and grumbled while being forced to withdraw.
Witnessing the Demon Race retreating like a tide, the human stronghold erupted in deafening cheers!
And amongst countless eyes, overwhelmed with emotion from surviving a disaster, the most focused gazes weren’t towards Lorenzo, who bravely held against the Defiler, nor Alama the Earl who manned the central command, but rather converged on the pink-haired young girl at the far end of the lines, Inanna.
In those gazes mingled incredulous amazement, gratitude for salvation in dire straits, and... a glimmer of seeing hope incarnate.
...
"Fat bat! Why did you retreat?!" Virelis chased after, starting with a swipe of her blade.
The blood shield floating around Sigmund easily blocked her rage-fueled slash, his tone remained calm, "You should also care about the army’s actual situation, although the casualties aren’t severe at the moment, the consumption far exceeded expectations. Even if we forcibly break through those mushroom defenses, engaging Alama’s main force afterward will incur greater costs."
"So you intend to give up just like this?" Virelis squinted, sneering, "After delaying so many days, how are you going to explain to the Prince?"
"The war must continue, and I have a way to deal with those Puki."
"Good! I’ll be waiting!"
"Your colleagues are all rotten folks!" Once she left in anger, Sigmund’s roommate’s voice echoed in his mind, "Xi, you asked me, you asked the right... person, no one knows Puki better than I do! By cutting off the fungal mat outside the valley, without magic power supply, the Puki are rootless and not worth worrying about!"
"I hope your information is reliable." Sigmund’s trust was evidently still reserved.
"Don’t worry, helping you is ultimately helping myself! Besides, this weakness of the Puki was discovered by the humans, easy to verify, you just suffered from late contact!" His roommate’s tone was extremely sincere.
Sigmund nodded, and after a moment thought, agreed.
He took out a jar he carried with him, sipped a small amount of blood, and even though gaining help beyond delicious blood from his roommate was rare, the gloom over today’s fruitless attack was somewhat dispelled.