“Little Jiji, are you… hibernating?” In a cozy hut Airaven hugged her Scout Puffshroom, poking its soft body with a puzzled frown.
Lately Little Jiji stopped scampering off. At first she was thrilled, thinking it wanted to stay close.
But something was off. It just sat on her head all day, sluggish, like a sleepy bean.
“Where do Puffshrooms… hibernate anyway?”
Carefully she carried the seemingly “senile” Scout Puffshroom inside, placing it on a soft bed and tucking it in. After settling her friend she wandered back to the yard, staring at the gray sky.
“So boring. Anything exciting out there?”
Boom! Boom—!!!
Deafening explosions raged around Polar Fortress’s walls.
Eighteen Resonance Cannons and countless Mushroom Cannons wove a symphony of destruction, mixed with dying wails, desperate roars, and frenzied battle cries, never stopping.
Below the walls a strike team led by senior warriors, tasked with breaching the ramparts, hit an unexpected block.
“Kins?! Is that you? Why… how could you?!” A half-demon senior warrior’s voice shook with shock and pain, eyes splitting as he stared at his old comrade blocking the way.
Kins’s body was entwined with pale mycelium, fused beyond recognition. He looked away, dodging the accusing gaze, silently raising his staff, its tip sparking with dangerous lightning.
“I… had no choice,” Kins rasped, voice heavy with resignation.
The words crushed the warrior’s last hope. Tears turned to resolve as he gritted his teeth. “Fine, Kins! Let’s settle this like old times!”
In a flurry of clashes, blade met lightning. The warrior’s agility dodged deadly bolts, seizing a gap in Kins’s casting to charge forward!
Kins erupted in a blinding electric web, forming a raging lightning cage around himself.
The warrior roared, refusing to dodge, crashing through the arcs! Burnt flesh stung the air. Ignoring the pain he broke into the cage’s core!
His long blade surged with unstoppable force, aiming for Kins’s throat!
At the last second, instinct twitched his hand. Years of fighting side by side betrayed his will!
The blade only grazed Kins’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood.
In that instant Kins’s charged lightning blasted the warrior’s gut!
Bang!
The warrior flew back like a torn sack, slamming into the ground, blood spilling from his mouth and nose, body twitching, unable to move.
Kins stumbled, his staff aiming at his fallen friend while his other hand dazedly touched the warm cut on his neck.
“Pah!” The warrior spat blood, eyes full of self-mockery and rage. “Damn… habit! Finish it, traitor!”
“No… I can’t…” Kins’s hand shook on the staff, staring at his friend’s pained face, unable to release the gathered magic.
Seeing this, the warrior pleaded with his last strength. “Kins, turn back! Come with me to the Empire! There’s gotta be a way to break those bonds! There’s gotta—”
Psh!
A gray-white mushroom burst from Kins’s staff-holding palm, the sharp pain forcing a scream as the staff fell.
“Kins!” The grounded warrior’s eyes split.
“Such a heartbreaking scene—friends drawing blades.” A Voice Puffshroom appeared between them, its sticky sigh oozing. “Look at Kins, enduring such torment rather than strike you down…”
It turned to the warrior, voice dripping with pity. “Can you bear watching your cherished friend die in agony? Drop your weapon, join us! Once your sins are cleansed, freedom will be yours!”
“Shut up, devil!” The warrior summoned his last ferocity, plunging a short dagger into the Voice Puffshroom’s body!
Another identical one sprouted from the mycelium behind him, continuing, “Devil? You’re the invaders! No surrender? Fine, fight on.”
[Fusion Parasite]
The failed persuasion melted the Voice Puffshroom into the mycelium. Kins’s pained howls spiked to an inhuman shriek!
Gray-white mushrooms exploded across his body, mycelium fusing deeper with flesh in a horrifying surge!
When the final burst popped a dull mushroom from his left eye… silence fell.
“Kins…?”
No reply.
“Kins” stiffly bent like a puppet, picking up the bloodied staff.
Magic gathered at the tip, now steady, aimed at his immobile friend.
Those once-wise, emotional eyes were now empty, covered in mycelium, devoid of life.
Payne saw the strike team’s halt from afar.
Though details blurred at the distance, the interceptors’ shapes were clearly half-demon and lizardman—likely the missing scouts!
Charm? Puppetry? Necromancy?
Ideas raced through his mind.
Diamond-tier warriors alone wouldn’t reach the walls.
He glanced at the half-demon chief. “Bastardos, what are you waiting for? I’ll cover you with magic—charge!”
Bastardos’s face flickered with doubt.
The situation was grim. Breaking the fortress and destroying those weapons was key to victory.
But if they knew that, so did the demonkin.
Bastardos didn’t trust they’d left the walls undefended. Charging meant unknown dangers.
Worse, Payne’s words hinted he’d stay safe at a distance, “covering” while Bastardos played bait…
On the distant walls, the comical red-caped Marshal Puffshroom blared their “crimes” through an amplifying spell.
Bastardos weighed his options, but someone snapped first.
“Vile thing! Shut up!” Yuneer’s shrill voice cut the battlefield. Blood from countless dead surged, forming a massive dark-red spear aimed at the Marshal Puffshroom, screaming through the air!
Its size blocked all escape routes!
But the Marshal Puffshroom didn’t plan to dodge.
Wall Puffshrooms powered up, raising three huge magic shields in layers before the fortress!
The blood spear pierced two shields like butter!
But on the third it faltered, collapsing into a foul blood rain, drenching the Marshal Puffshroom redder!
“Too weak! Too weak!” The Marshal Puffshroom shook gleefully, blood-soaked. “You blood-sucking hag, that’s all you’ve got?”
“I’ll rip you apart and boil you!” Yuneer raised her arms, summoning a flood of blood for a devastating strike!
But the forming spear trembled, warped, and collapsed again!
Someone was stealing her blood control?!
A vampire in the enemy ranks?!
Who?!
Yuneer’s crimson eyes locked on a tall figure among the Puffshrooms—Louisa.
She didn’t know her but sensed her power level.
“Hah, rare indeed!” Yuneer sneered. “A titled vampire traitor? I haven’t seen one in ages!”
The fortress meant nothing now. “Once I tear off your head, I’ll dig up which family spawned your stain!”
Her palm clenched, ripping Louisa’s controlled blood away, forming countless sharp blood blades around her!
In a one-on-one, a high-tier vampire’s blood control crushed a lower-tier’s.
But this wasn’t one-on-one.
As Yuneer moved to shred the traitor, her floating blades twisted and collapsed!
Her face changed!
Ten… no, dozens of vampires were wrestling for the blood!
Individually weaker, their sheer number stalled her control!
The enemy faced the same struggle.
But where did so many vampires come from?
Her senses stretched, locking onto… the hopping Puffshrooms beside Louisa?!
?!
“What’s wrong, Countess?” Louisa licked her sharp fangs, claw slicing her wrist, her own red blood pooling into a sphere in her palm. “Weren’t you coming for my head?”
The battlefield’s blood, torn by dozens of forces, answered to no one.
Only blood from oneself stayed loyal!
“You think I need that mixed blood to kill you?” Yuneer flicked her finger, drawing her own blood, forming a spinning scarlet rose with razor edges.
“Go! Fight! I love watching women brawl!” The Marshal Puffshroom jeered, quietly adjusting Resonance Cannons for the perfect “peacemaking” shot.
(End of Chapter)
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