Don't rush into attack just yet. These two stone statues don't have any status panels—they should belong to some kind of mechanism or trap category.
Would they be rigid in their behavior?
Just now, the puffshroom was only attacked after crossing the halfway line. What about when staying outside that line?
With a thought, a cannon fodder puffshroom was driven to the platform's edge, pressed tight against the boundary line. The mushroom cannon charged up and took aim—
Bang!
Bad luck. Despite the distance not being particularly far, the mushroom shell grazed past the stone statue and landed on the tightly shut gate behind it, leaving no trace whatsoever.
The stone statue still activated!
The statue wielded that long staff, its heavy body taking several steps forward. The staff swept across with a dull whoosh, and cannon fodder puffshroom number two instantly followed its predecessor's fate.
Lin Jun had the puffshrooms retreat outside the platform—this distance was already quite far, making the mushroom cannon's hit rate poor.
When the mushroom shell grazed the stone statue's shoulder, chipping off a small piece of debris, the statue activated once again.
However, unlike the previous two times, this time both stone statues charged out together. After trampling cannon fodder number three underfoot, they didn't stop but turned their attention to all the puffshrooms present.
The real battle erupted suddenly!
The puffshrooms were still clustered together when the stone statue's massive staff shadow fell like a mountain!
In that instant, swaths of puffshrooms were turned to mycelial fragments before they could even counterattack—some floating in the air, others stuck to the ground!
Lin Jun urgently ordered the puffshrooms to scatter and fight back, but the situation's outcome was almost immediately apparent.
The mushroom cannons hitting the stone statues could only scrape off some surface damage, while each swing of those terrifying stone staffs was like a giant scythe sweeping through a wheat field, instantly clearing large areas!
The two stone statues eliminated the main puffshroom forces with barely any effort. It was actually hunting down the scattered remnants that took more time.
When there wasn't a single intact puffshroom left in the entire area, the stone statues returned to their original positions with heavy steps, the purple glow in their eyes slowly extinguishing as they turned back into sculptures.
Total annihilation—the complete, irreversible kind.
Whether crushed into mycelial pancakes by giant feet or smashed into unfusable fragments by stone staffs, all exceeded the repair range of [Mycelial Reconstruction].
However, while there were no puffshrooms left, Lin Jun still had the fungal carpet!
If the fungal carpet could spread over there...
The moment the fungal carpet crossed the center line, the stone statues' eyes lit up with purple light again.
Flames swept through until the entire platform was cleaned, then they retreated once more.
Tch!
Though he'd guessed that bug-exploiting tactics might not work, he hadn't expected the two stone statues to be so intelligent!
Just on the third probe, they identified all present puffshrooms as enemies, and could even precisely identify and eliminate non-individual threats like the fungal carpet!
It seemed only a frontal assault would work.
But the mushroom cannons could only chip off stone fragments when hitting them. To defeat such massive stone statues would require who knows how many puffshrooms.
In any case... better call the troops over first.
...
Puffshrooms jumped across the chasm one by one, returning to the Amethyst Underground City.
Just two hundred were left at the stone fortress to maintain operations.
All other puffshrooms set out toward the core.
Not wanting to delay, Lin Jun brought Little Black along too—she was quite happy to return to the warmer region.
As for Norris and Little Pig, they remained behind.
Norris lacked the strength for this kind of battle. Even piloting a Jida mech, he'd probably last only a strike or two.
Little Pig served as the Far North Special Task Force, keeping watch for any demon spawn that might head south.
The stone statues' attack power was quite brutal. Even heavy-armored puffshrooms couldn't withstand a direct hit, given their ten-plus meter frames.
Their speed was also considerable, though that was relative to their massive, heavy bodies.
In terms of pure agility, Little Black was still far superior to the two stone statues.
Lin Jun didn't want to slowly grind down the stone skin by having puffshrooms charge forward one after another—that would waste too much time. So he simply brought Little Black over as reinforcement.
If they couldn't win, worst case he'd just have Little Black run.
After nearly a day's journey, over two thousand puffshrooms arrived at the core area, including many heavy-armored and elite puffshrooms...
Little Black, who had slept the entire way, drowsily crawled out from inside a couch potato puffshroom. With the puffshrooms' pointing and gesturing, she finally understood that the two stone statues opposite were enemies.
Without rushing straight in, the nice thing about trigger-type enemies was that they gave you plenty of time to arrange your battle formation.
The puffshrooms spread out in formation while burrowing puffshrooms busily prepared for battle, some even carried to the cliff tops by bat puffshrooms to work.
After waiting a full half day—Little Black had nearly fallen asleep a second time—Lin Jun finally completed his deployment.
Under Lin Jun's unified control, all mushroom cannons, regardless of distance, roared in unison!
Over a thousand magical artillery rounds thundered simultaneously, instantly engulfing both stone statues completely.
Stone fragments flew wildly, dust shot skyward!
When the stone statues charged through the smoke, their bodies were covered in craters, and one statue's long staff had even been blown off at one end—an unexpected bonus.
Unfortunately, once the stone statues started moving, the distant puffshrooms' hit rate plummeted, and bad luck might even result in friendly fire.
Standing in the front line at the platform's edge were thirty heavy-armored puffshrooms.
They weren't there to tank damage—they were there to self-destruct!
The charging stone statue swept its staff like playing golf, sending four heavy-armored puffshrooms flying, then lifted its foot, crushing one into a puddle of mycelium and stone fragments.
However, when it took its second step, it stepped into a trap, its entire foot sinking into a large pit.
The heavy-armored puffshrooms seized this opportunity, gathering around its foot and exploding in unison.
In the earth-shaking explosion, several stone mushroom caps flew out wildly, one tracing a high arc and directly crushing a distant cannon mushroom still on standby.
The heavy-armored puffshrooms' sacrifice was worthwhile. When the smoke cleared, that stone giant's foot had been blown off, and its other foot was covered in cracks, appearing unable to move properly.
Its upper body swung the long staff, and any approaching puffshroom would be smashed to pieces. However, Lin Jun didn't need to get close—he didn't even need the mushroom cannons.
On the cliff top, burrowing puffshrooms worked with all their might to sever all connections between an excavated boulder and the cliff face.
A crude but tremendously powerful rockfall trap—its only drawback was that Lin Jun couldn't control its timing very well. That's why restricting the stone statue's mobility below was so important.
Through the burrowing puffshrooms' tireless efforts, the boulder seemingly carved from the cliff top finally fell, along with over ten burrowing puffshrooms who suddenly lost their support.
The stone statue noticed the boulder at this moment and struck out with its staff...
The boulder crashed down like Mount Tai, its shockwave flinging away surrounding puffshrooms while flying debris caused massive casualties.
But... success!
The stone statue pinned underneath had gone silent.
Now only one remained—time for a head-on confrontation.
"Little Black!"
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