Though the first scouting team had failed, once Earn truly mobilized the manpower of two entire demon camps, the situation underground was quickly mapped out, and the existence of the Puchis discovered.
“Puchis?” Visarius leaned back in his chair. “You’re certain it’s those mushrooms?”
“Absolutely certain, Your Highness.” Earn knelt on one knee. “They’re digging wildly beneath the battlefield, stealing corpses to break down into mana and nutrients. I suspect…”
“You’re worried there’s a human controlling them from behind, right?”
“Your Highness is wise.”
“Not hard to guess. You know about the Puchi masters in Goldvalley City. However…”
He raised a hand. A thread of blood shot from his fingertip, snatching a sealed report from the scroll rack behind him and letting it drift lightly into Earn’s hands.
“You probably haven’t seen the full details of the Dragonroar Valley battle yet. Read this. It’s the explanation Sigismund sent.”
Earn unrolled the parchment, his eyes scanning rapidly. His expression grew stranger by the line.
“These Puchis… can really be this strong?”
Endless numbers, countless tactics, utterly fearless of casualties—the earlier parts were still believable. But that final section—how an unkillable giant-beast Puchi had collapsed the entire canyon with a single explosion…
Earn’s first reaction was disbelief!
“To be honest, I’m skeptical too,” Visarius said, retracting the scroll with a tendril of blood. He still had to take this to His Majesty later to square accounts. “The Puchis Sigismund described are on a completely different level of threat from the ones in Goldvalley City. Either there really is something strange about these mushrooms, or someone is making excuses for their crushing defeat…”
Earn looked up. “Your Highness, true or false, we’ll know once we test them!”
Visarius nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking. I’ll leave it to you, but do not underestimate them. I don’t want any more surprises.”
“Yes, sir!”
…
Earn soon experienced firsthand the true meaning of the report’s phrase “endless numbers, countless tactics, utterly fearless of casualties.”
He never imagined a day would come when he’d be issuing anti-toxin potions to goblin cannon fodder—three bottles per goblin, no less.
There was no choice. After several rounds of fierce clashes, the entire underground tunnel network had become saturated with deadly hallucinogenic spores.
Even the excavated entrances continuously spewed purple poison mist. Without potions, sending goblins down was just feeding them to the enemy.
Along with the goblins went a small number of magical beasts and twenty blood-clan elites.
Earn repeatedly warned the vampire commanders: the moment the situation turned bad, use the goblins as shields and prioritize retreat.
Yet the fighting was far worse than anticipated.
Of the twenty blood-clan elites who entered, only six staggered back alive. The accompanying goblins were nearly wiped out.
According to the survivors, goblins were simply no match for Puchis.
Early in the fighting they could still manage a 1:2 or 1:3 kill ratio.
But as the battle dragged on, facing horrific casualties and an unknown number of remaining Puchis, the already timid goblins quickly lost morale. Even executing deserters on the spot couldn’t turn the tide.
Once the cannon-fodder shield was gone, the blood clan’s own safety became the problem.
The cramped tunnels forced them to stay in bat form. Aside from [Blood Manipulation], most of their abilities were unusable; their combat power was slashed.
Puchis would burst from side passages to cut off retreat, or simply self-destruct and collapse the tunnel.
Those who failed to read the situation and withdraw immediately never came back.
The first full assault suffered devastating losses for almost no gain. Earn immediately changed tactics.
He recalled the report: fungal mats feared non-magical fire.
After sending a small team to risk their lives verifying this was true, Earn requisitioned every drop of lamp oil in camp and even requested an emergency shipment from the rear through the Prince.
Massive quantities of oil were poured into the tunnels. At his command, roaring flames instantly devoured the entrances.
Thick black smoke pillars shot skyward from every opening, alarming even the defenders of Threehill City, who stayed on high alert for half a day.
Yet when the oil finally burned out and Earn sent men down to check, they discovered the underground layout had somehow changed again.
All the oil had drained into specially dug pits—wasted!
The only silver lining was that the thick smoke from the blaze had temporarily displaced the poisonous spores, clearing the air underground.
Not that it helped much. Now anyone entering the tunnels needed a mage to cast Breathing spells just to move.
What infuriated Earn even more was that follow-up scouting teams suffered retaliatory Puchi ambushes.
Losses were light, but it clearly meant his fire attack had achieved nothing.
Committing massive forces to fully exterminate the underground Puchis was unrealistic; the army’s primary objective remained capturing Threehill City.
Spending too much effort below ground would only play into the humans’ hands.
Since eradication was difficult, Earn switched to defense: doing everything possible to collapse tunnels near the demon camps.
He personally led mage squads, using [Great Earthquake] to bring down shallow passages, [Mud Marsh] to flood key nodes, and [Stone to Sand] to disintegrate reinforced walls.
At the same time he laid numerous simple yet effective detection arrays around camp. The moment a Puchi tried to dig close, it would be precisely eliminated.
Truth be told, the Puchis Earn had faced so far were only at Goldvalley City level, and they were already this troublesome.
He sincerely hoped Sigismund’s report really had been exaggerated to shirk blame; otherwise he dared not imagine how bad things could get later.
Fortunately, after he destroyed all the near-surface tunnels, the Puchis finally seemed to quiet down.
They were still stealing corpses from the battlefield, but at least they no longer operated near the demon camps.
What he didn’t know was this:
Deep underground, several chonk Burrowing Puchis were gestating—some of the numbered Puchis had even been dragged in as guest stars.
Lin Jun didn’t expect these little ones to contribute much in this super-spec battle; it was a rare big stage, so he brought them out to see the world.
Otherwise, being chased and eaten by Little Black all day, their combat ability wouldn’t improve—they’d only master hide-and-seek.
Hearing the Mycelial Lord needed them, the mushroom-race Puchis were thrilled, itching to charge out and kill for their Lord right now!
Especially Number One and Number Two—though neither said it aloud, both were clearly fired up, secretly competing.
…
Aboveground, the demons continued their fierce assault on Threehill City’s second wall.
Yet the nearly recovered Sword Saint did not join the defense.
He and the Archbishop were both waiting—for an opportunity.
Originally, the plan had been to deliberately show a flaw when the second wall was half-breached, luring Visarius in.
But now, with the arrival of Pink Puchi’s forces, that opportunity had come early!
(End of Chapter)
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