In everyone’s eyes, the silver-armored guard captain raced across the waves. The holy sword in his hand flashed, and the ferocious pigfolk leader was cleanly bisected.
As for the magic arrow that crippled the pigfolk leader’s wrist at the critical moment, almost no one noticed.
The pigfolk soldiers had long been demoralized by the unanswerable rain of arrows from the sea.
Now with their leader dead, what little fighting spirit remained completely collapsed. Despite still outnumbering the enemy, they scattered and fled.
Facing enemies who had fully exposed their backs, Sophia’s guards showed no mercy. They gave chase, and with every flash of sword light, pigfolk fell screaming.
But the guards were only twenty-plus in number.
Against more than five hundred pigfolk fleeing in all directions, even giving their all, they couldn’t wipe them all out.
Meanwhile, the Goldvalley survivors who should have joined the counterattack were lying on the ground in various twisted positions, drooling with silly smiles.
The hallucinogenic spores released by the Puchis didn’t distinguish friend from foe. While stopping the pigfolk advance, they also knocked out most of their own side.
At the ship’s bow, Sophia nocked another arrow.
This one was aimed at a pigfolk desperately fleeing four kilometers away.
The magic arrow shot out but ultimately grazed the pigfolk’s heel and buried itself in the dirt.
The pigfolk, focused only on escaping, didn’t even realize he had brushed past death.
Seeing this, Sophia helplessly lowered her bow. Four kilometers was still a bit much for her current state.
Moreover, her trembling right hand showed her body was nearing its limit.
“About half got away,” Sophia said with some regret.
“That was expected,” Priest Samuel sighed lightly.
If Sophia hadn’t insisted, they shouldn’t have revealed themselves here at all.
Saving one small group did nothing for the big picture and risked exposing the Hero’s location.
The Hero had only just reached diamond tier. Her combat power far exceeded ordinary people, but against the entire demon race, she was still too weak. She needed to keep lying low.
In fact, if the recent movements of the archipelago’s mist hadn’t been strange, and they weren’t preparing for possible contingencies, they shouldn’t even be here at this time.
Sophia was simply too kind. She understood Samuel’s principle of keeping her away from uncertain risks and was willing to cooperate.
But when things happened right in front of her, she couldn’t help but act.
Samuel often lamented in his heart—if only they had summoned Sophia earlier, with her, the catastrophe three hundred years ago would never have happened.
“Parasitism… mycelial network connection… Puchis…” Sophia’s murmur caught Samuel’s attention.
The ship was still about two kilometers from the shore.
For Samuel, saving people was acceptable, but the Hero’s true appearance must never be exposed to these people.
At this distance, Samuel could roughly sense the shore, but for clear observation, only Sophia on the entire ship could manage it.
Not to mention she had that thing called a panel; her scouting ability often surpassed even his as a temple-tier priest.
“Samuel,” Sophia suddenly spoke, “most of the people on shore seem to be parasitized by some kind of mycelium. Do you know what’s going on?”
Samuel shook his head. He had drifted at sea with the Hero for over half a year, with only a handful of contacts with the Archbishop, mainly exchanging critical intelligence. Naturally, this parasitism wasn’t included.
But based on experience, he analyzed, “Those on shore seem to be variant Puchis. Since it’s mycelial parasitism, it’s probably some kind of connection-control method.”
“Parasitism? Won’t that be dangerous?” Bella chimed in from behind.
“I don’t know,” Samuel said calmly, as if such things weren’t strange. “But as long as it can be used against demons and buy us time, a little cost is acceptable. Lady Sophia, you should return below.”
Sophia took one last look at the shore, her gaze lingering on the Puchis sitting blankly after losing their masters’ control.
These mushroom monsters clearly had low attributes but very high skill levels—quite novel to Sophia.
“Bella, handle things on shore for me. Leave it all to the guard captain. I’m worried he’ll just leave the unconscious people there.”
“Leave it to me!” Bella accepted happily.
She cast Water Walking on herself with the Ocean Scepter, handed the scepter to Samuel, flipped over the rail, and ran across the water toward the shore.
…
Lin Jun’s camera was currently mixed among the blankly sitting Puchis.
Angela’s injuries had been barely stabilized by mycelial parasitism.
Parasitizing her specifically had no deep meaning; after learning the beastmen’s situation, Lin Jun simply thought he could spend a bit more effort testing on them.
Since he could conveniently save this female beastman, there was no reason to let her die.
Lin Jun was somewhat surprised by the sudden reinforcements. He recognized the ship—he had glimpsed it from afar while with Dylan. So it was the Church’s ship.
Too bad, when Lin Jun tried to see who was sniping from the ship, the ship’s magic array blocked [Sonar Detection] and [Mana Perception].
Tch.
Lin Jun hated these hide-and-seek types; obviously hiding some shady secret.
Soon, another person walked on water from the ship, but dressed as an adventurer, not in Church priest robes or warrior armor.
Open panel.
【Name: Bella Slike】
【Level: LV48】
A bit stronger than average warriors, but only gold tier.
Hm…
Slike…
That surname seemed familiar?
And Bella…
Switch view to Puchi Home.
Dylan was watching Bianca lead Puchis around the store with a loving face, preparing to open.
【Name: Dylan Slike】
Oh!
This was Dylan’s daughter he had searched for forever and never found!
So when Bella reached the shore, she immediately saw a Puchi stand by her feet.
She took two steps, the Puchi followed two steps, looking like it wanted to be adopted.
“What? Want to come with me?”
Seeing the Puchi practically hugging her leg, Bella crouched down and gently rubbed its soft, round body. “Haha, so cute. But no, I can’t feed you mana potions at sea… Wow, it’s so friendly…”
The Puchi naturally didn’t answer, just clung tighter.
Bella laughed lightly at the Puchi’s enthusiasm, habitually activating [Truth Sight] while pinching its squishy body.
Silver eyes fell on the Puchi.
The next moment.
“BLEURGH——!!!”
Human stomach acid mixed with undigested food splattered all over the Puchi…
(End of Chapter)
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