After Spark warned of a possible siege, Lin Jun marked the three nearest tribes closest to the fortress for monitoring.
There might be more, but watching a few key ones would reveal the overall movement.
As expected, the tribes began active war preparations: stockpiling mushrooms and other food, drilling warriors day and night. The camps buzzed with pre-war tension.
Lin Jun had prepared all kinds of surprises along their path, just waiting for these overconfident fools to walk into the trap.
If he lost this fight, he’d feed his main body to Little Black!
Yet unexpectedly, after assembling their warriors, the tribes didn’t march on the fortress. They turned south instead.
What for?
They couldn’t possibly be bold enough to attack the Empire, could they?
The Empire was busy fighting humans in the south and hadn’t even committed full strength. A ragtag tribal alliance had no chance of exploiting weakness.
If not attacking the Empire, then what was the purpose of heading south?
After thinking it over, Lin Jun concluded they were likely planned to fully assemble first, then launch a unified assault on the fortress.
A much smarter strategy; at least better than attacking piecemeal and being defeated one by one.
At the edge of the fungal mat zone, a mana vortex suddenly appeared, devouring all surrounding mycelium and mana.
When it dissipated, a newborn scout Puchi stood on the bare ground.
[Kin Maker]
The scout Puchi’s body shimmered, quickly blending with the environment.
It silently tailed one of the southbound tribal forces, beginning its mission.
Meanwhile, at the fortress, two thousand troops had assembled, plus tens of thousands of Puchis forming an endless white sea.
These were troops Little Pig had trained to varying degrees. Inside the fortress, nearly three thousand more kept things running.
All manner of demons and humans stood shoulder to shoulder. Werewolves mingled with cave-dwellers. Even a few dwarves slightly taller than Puchis stood at the edges; unlike Thorin, these were slaves purchased from tribes, same as the humans.
Such a bizarre mix would be attacked on sight in any normal nation.
The army’s discipline wasn’t great; whispers never ceased, but at least everyone stood in their assigned spots without shoving or chaos.
This basic order was mostly came from Little Pig’s relentless drilling.
Norris was also in the ranks, but not mixed with the main force.
He led the Jida squad at the rear. Each Jida’s shoulder mounted a resonance cannon; they were the mobile artillery.
Though they couldn’t match the miraculous three-kilometer sniping Lin Jun had once seen, their volume-heavy covering fire would be far more effective against tribal rabble.
Farther north, in the area so cold even [Cold Resistance LV8] struggled; Lin Jun’s far-north laboratory; a twenty-plus-meter-tall giant variant Jida made of fifteen hundred Puchis leaned against a protruding ice walls.
This was the extreme application of [Resonance]; an experimental unit Lin Jun had prepared for the current situation.
Most residents of the fortress had no idea that every day a Puchi squad delivered materials here.
Minerals for chitin shells, low-tier magic crystals for [Crystal Symbiosis].
Now the super Jida’s shell coverage exceeded eighty percent, gleaming in the ice reflection. But among the core Puchi group forming the large mana shield and giant resonance cannon, less than forty percent had reached A-grade crystal symbiosis.
Full S-grade… even Lin Jun couldn’t afford that luxury yet. Just maintaining this project already ran all his mines at full capacity.
Lin Jun’s consciousness swept over the half-finished super Jida and abandoned the idea of using it.
One: it wasn’t complete. Two: against mere northern tribes, current forces were more than enough. Exposing a trump card in an unimportant fight and drawing imperial attention would be stupid.
Though the tribes hadn’t marched directly on the fortress, the marshal Puchi still leaped onto Little Pig’s head and issued the departure order in a voice that made everyone tremble.
Strictly speaking, this was an extremely rushed mobilization.
From sudden assembly to counting Puchis and gear to marching; less than half a day total. Normal armies couldn’t prepare that fast.
But for Lin Jun it was no issue. As long as they marched on the mat, it was home-field advantage. Logistics? Nonexistent. Mushrooms grew wherever they went.
They could even replenish Puchis on the spot after fights. No need to worry about supply lines; efficiency was naturally high.
Lin Jun still ordered Little Pig to lead the mixed army south at normal speed and await further instructions once he clarified the enemy route.
Yet two days after departure, what the scout Puchi showed him made Lin Jun awkwardly realize: these tribes’ grand joint military operation… didn’t seem aimed at him at all…
…
Luo River, the north’s only seasonal river, partially thawed in spring. Only in summer did it fully unfreeze.
This time, five tribes near the Luo River had united to hunt a new monster type that had appeared along the banks.
The five tribes sent over three thousand warriors, encircling a large area.
They sprinkled stone dust on the ground, tightening the circle inward.
Broken Blade Tribe’s elite warrior Broga moved constantly among his dust-sprinkling subordinates.
At one point, he noticed an unnatural claw print appear in the dust beside one of his men.
Without hesitation, his ringed saber flipped. Coordinating with a forward lunge, he appeared meters away the next instant.
Air filled with spraying purple blood. A six-clawed creature that had nearly touched his subordinate appeared before everyone.
With a screech, its body was severed in two.
“Keep advancing!”
At Broga’s command, his men suppressed their fear and continued sprinkling dust forward.
But this time they clearly put more effort, trying to spread it farther.
(End of Chapter)
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