In Cave Eight, connected to the frontline base, a colossal mushroom rose from the ground—a sight never before witnessed. Its cap nearly touched the cavern ceiling, emanating a faint yet constant phosphorescent glow, serving as the undisputed center of the entire space.
*Pop, pop*—like soldiers shaped by an assembly line, puffshrooms emerged one after another from the base of the giant mushroom.
The moment they appeared, they swiftly assembled into silent, orderly formations before being dispatched to other caves to engage in deadly combat with Chis.
The entire cavern's defenses were impeccably tight. All connected passages had puffshroom patrol units shuttling back and forth on the ground, while the air was densely packed with bat-type puffshrooms flapping their wings, searching every inch of space above.
An eye-worm possessing **[Refraction Invisibility LV7]**, despite its desperate attempts to conceal itself, was still cornered by several bat puffshrooms and ultimately detected.
In the next instant, the surrounding bat puffshrooms swarmed forward. After a brief explosion, only a puddle of charred, smoking flesh remained of the eye-worm.
Similar incidents had occurred multiple times over the past two days, yet Chis persistently sent reconnaissance units to infiltrate, attempting to gather intelligence from within.
Today, it finally succeeded!
Just as that explosion drew away the vast majority of bat puffshrooms, another eye-worm precisely seized the gap in their defenses, silently slipping through what had been an impenetrable security net and successfully infiltrating Cave Eight.
And then it saw it!
That unprecedented giant mushroom, and the scene of puffshrooms being continuously produced from within.
Though this eye-worm was also quickly destroyed in the subsequent intensive search, Chis had already obtained the crucial information it sought—this mushroom nest was precisely the decisive key point it had been desperately searching for, one capable of reversing the entire war's outcome!
Under Chis's absolute dominion of unified will, its forces began efficient assembly.
As specialized assault units with significant advantages against puffshrooms, evil eyes naturally took their place among them.
The route options for attacking Cave Eight were extremely limited. The adjacent Snake Cave had already been transformed into a fortress by the puffshrooms—Chis had already experienced how tough a nut it was to crack during the first pursuit battle.
The neighboring Cave Seven was a busy transportation hub with puffshroom forces flowing through continuously. Taking that route would be tantamount to directly engaging the puffshroom main forces in decisive battle.
The other passages facing Chis's controlled territory were also without exception under strict surveillance by large numbers of puffshroom reconnaissance units. Forcing a breakthrough wasn't impossible, but their offensive intentions would inevitably be exposed in advance. When that happened, puffshroom reinforcements from surrounding caves would swarm in, and the sneak attack would likely turn into a full-scale decisive battle.
What Chis wanted was to concentrate all its strength to strike at weakness with overwhelming force, destroying the puffshrooms' production nest in one decisive blow.
After the puffshrooms' reinforcements were exhausted, it would slowly nibble away at them bit by bit through gradual erosion.
As for both sides committing their full strength in direct confrontation?
This wasn't what Chis wanted—not because it lacked confidence in winning, but because it would be too costly.
Low-tier beetles were manageable, capable of reproducing in swarms within days.
But mid-tier units like eye-worms, six-claws, clumsy beasts, and so forth—their cultivation time was measured in months.
Mid-tier units that could mature in just over a month had previously been its advantage, but against puffshrooms, this became a disadvantage.
Look at the puffshrooms' production efficiency—one after another emerging from the giant mushroom without pause!
Moreover, the resource losses during battlefield corpse recovery were also significant losses that couldn't be ignored.
Now Chis only wanted to end this unprofitable war at minimal cost.
Therefore, it decided to flank!
From the intelligence the eye-worm transmitted back, it had seen that the puffshrooms' reconnaissance and patrol forces were almost entirely concentrated on the frontlines facing Chis's controlled territory, while the rear passages were virtually undefended, with only sparse guards!
Surely the puffshrooms wouldn't expect it to circle around such a large arc for a rear assault?
To ensure secrecy, it even dispatched small units to harass—or rather, sacrifice themselves at—the puffshrooms' other caves, all to create confusion.
Meanwhile, its main army quietly passed through several caves, making a massive flanking arc. For this, it even fought two battles against entrenched wild magical creatures before gaining passage.
Now, having weathered countless hardships, the fruits of victory were finally within reach!
Chis's forces advanced all the way to the end of the passage entrance before being detected by the caught-off-guard puffshroom sentries!
The counterattack was swift—the puffshrooms attempted to use firepower to block the opening, but it was already too late.
Evil eyes charged at the forefront, their pale **[Petrification Rays]** instantly turning the hastily assembled puffshrooms into rigid stone sculptures!
Six-claws serving as vanguard followed close behind, dispersing to charge at the approaching puffshrooms, preventing them from clustering together—puffshrooms posed little threat as long as they couldn't form groups!
Chis's true main force surged like a torrent directly toward the giant mushroom.
Claws, acid, gnashing teeth—the giant mushroom's base was peeled away and destroyed layer by layer under the frenzied assault.
Finally, the innermost structural layer was exposed before Chis!
One Chis impatiently swung its claws in a fierce strike, tearing through the final layer of tough mycelium—
*Clang!*
Its claws shattered. Through the torn gap, what was revealed inside was... a full ten massive puffshrooms clad in thick rock armor!
These puffshrooms possessed extremely strong defenses—even the most fierce-attacking six-claws could only scratch some surface shell, unable to inflict effective damage.
The heavy-armored puffshrooms moved with ponderous steps, and smaller Chis would even be directly trampled to death by them.
Massive quantities of hallucinogenic spores surged forth from the gaps in their stone armor, instantly dyeing the entire core battlefield area a sickly sweet purple miasma!
Several six-claws working together finally managed to tear through one heavy-armored puffshroom's outer rock armor with great difficulty!
However, what was exposed wasn't the expected snow-white mycelium, but another layer of densely packed scales gleaming with cold, hard luster!
An evil eye redirected its gaze, its pale beam focusing precisely on the breach!
The petrification effect did begin to spread... but under the heavy-armored puffshroom's **[Magic Resistance LV6]** and its formidable 50 hit points, the petrification progressed extremely slowly.
By the time this heavy-armored puffshroom's greater half had finally turned to stone and crashed thunderously to the ground, masses of Chis who hadn't managed to escape the hallucinogenic spore range had already fallen around it.
Realizing something was wrong, Chis wanted to retreat—but not by returning the way it came, rather by continuing to charge forward!
To make this great flanking circle, it had nearly exhausted its supplies along the way. Now it could only choose to break through the cave and return directly to its own territory!
The Chis abandoned their entanglement with the remaining heavy-armored puffshrooms. It had already discovered these things' weakness—slow movement. Just ignore them.
But when Chis charged halfway through, most of the passages connected to Cave Eight showed varying numbers of puffshroom figures, and all these formations included heavy-armored puffshrooms, standing like city walls at the very front of their ranks...
...
Welcome to the decisive battle, foolish insects!
Comments