[Shadow Walk] was indeed a pretty good skill in the wild. Lin Jun had also equipped this skill on many Mushroom Fortress personnel responsible for gathering intelligence.
However, it was only limited to the wild where reconnaissance magic arrays were lacking.
As for trying to rely on this thing to stealth across the fungal mat?
With such a huge status panel darting back and forth along the shadows, it would be strange if Lin Jun didn't spot it.
That squad of Shadow Puchis was deployed ahead of time to block them right after they were discovered.
Assassins, spies, and the like were the most useless.
And because the Faceless Ones didn't coordinate with Eugene's side, their disappearance didn't cause a single ripple.
...
On the city wall, Eugene looked at the belated trolls arriving not far away. All the external reinforcements had finally assembled.
"How is it? When do we march?" the Demon-kin Duke Dean beside him asked.
This time, Eugene would personally lead the army north.
Dean needed to stay behind to hold the fort and couldn't go to the front lines himself, but he still dispatched a full three thousand elite warriors. Obviously, just like Eugene, he wanted to resolve the Northern Territory problem once and for all.
"We march tomorrow. But I still have a very bad feeling. The intelligence is too sparse. They definitely have some special anti-reconnaissance methods. My spies are completely unable to penetrate deeply, and those Faceless Ones of Levi's won't share information with us."
"How exactly do they do it?"
Eugene couldn't be blamed for feeling frustrated. In past wars against other races, when did the Empire not infiltrate the opposing side until it was like a sieve?
Intelligence, sabotage, assassination.
Before the official battle even began, the Empire would have already secured all the advantages.
However, facing the Northern Territory, the intelligence capability the Empire took pride in had actually failed.
Furthermore, because there were also Demon-kin in the Northern Territory, Eugene estimated that the intelligence leaked from their side might even be slightly more.
The information asymmetry made Eugene somewhat unaccustomed.
But he had no other way.
The Northern Territory problem had to be solved eventually, and the summoned reinforcements couldn't remain stationed here forever waiting for him to hesitate.
The arrow was on the bowstring; it had to be fired.
As the one who had interactions with the Northern Territory the earliest, Dean also had a premonition that this battle probably wouldn't be that easy.
Dean tossed Eugene a piece of crystal: "If the situation looks bad, crush it. I will personally lead people to back you up. Don't lose all my tribesmen in the Northern Territory."
"Then what about the rear? What if the Mountains invade taking advantage of your absence?"
"I've already informed Levi. The moment I make a move, he will put pressure on the border fortresses of the Mountains to attract their attention. If that doesn't work either, at worst we just lose a few cities. To us Demon-kin, what's important is our tribesmen."
Seeing that Dean already had arrangements, Eugene nodded and didn't say more.
The next day, after a round of heavy reward promises from Eugene, an army of nearly forty thousand stepped onto the Northern Territory covered in fungal mat!
...
At the front-line positions of the Northern Territory, on a temporarily erected high platform, the Marshal Puchi stood facing the wind. A bright red cape, longer than the Puchi itself, trailed far behind it.
The Marshal Puchi opened its four mycelial tentacles, as if embracing the entire battlefield. Below were densely packed square formations of Puchi Masters, with patches of Puchis on the outer perimeter, and further away were their allies, the dwarves.
Lin Jun's telepathy spread through the mycelial network into the minds of all Mushroom Fortress soldiers.
"...For years, the Northern Territory has been bullied and enslaved by the Empire! We were driven out of our homeland and wantonly trampled upon. In times of peace, the Empire treated the Northern Territory as a slave production ground; in times of war, they conscripted us as cannon fodder. This kind of humiliation has lasted for hundreds of years!"
"Must we continue to endure such humiliation for another hundred years, a thousand years?"
The tentacles swung fiercely.
"Now is the opportunity to wash away the shame!"
"No matter what, it's three hundred thousand against thirty thousand. The advantage is ours!"
The Marshal Puchi's tentacles pointed into the distance, pointing toward the direction of the Empire army.
"The first battle is the decisive battle! One battle to settle it all!"
The tentacles were raised high.
At that moment, a roar like an avalanche and a tsunami erupted within the mycelial network!
"Mushroom Fortress, sure victory!"
"Mushroom Fortress, sure victory!!!"
Countless thoughts gathered into the same voice, booming in the mycelial network! The soldiers holding their weapons flushed red. They shouted over and over, venting the fighting spirit in their hearts.
Of course, everyone communicated through the mycelial network. Even the cheering and roaring were in the mycelial network.
This scene, falling into the eyes of the dwarves not far away, was extremely bizarre.
In their view, the Mushroom Fortress camp was dead silent. That Puchi wearing the eye-catching bright red cape stood on the platform, wiggled a few times, and then the Mushroom Fortress soldiers excitedly raised their weapons again and again, their faces carrying expressions of fanaticism.
But it was still dead silent.
Although they knew they were probably communicating through the group telepathy ability called the mycelial network, but...
"This is truly too fucking bizarre," Duwalin watched for a long time, finally unable to hold back, squeezing this sentence out from between his teeth.
Several dwarven adjutants beside him nodded one after another, expressing deep agreement.
After complaining, Duwalin turned around and faced those several thousand silent, waiting compatriots of his.
He took a deep breath, then opened his throat and roared:
"Warriors! Raise your battle axes—!"
...
The front-line positions were still undergoing pre-battle mobilization, but the battle had already begun from the moment the Empire army stepped onto the fungal mat.
"Watch out for those holes in the ground! Destroy all the holes in the ground!" The captain of a vanguard squad loudly directed his subordinates to destroy the entrances and exits of those underground networks.
The Empire hadn't gained nothing from previous battles; at least they learned to seal these holes in advance.
Although they couldn't eliminate the Puchis hiding deep underground, at the very least, if the Puchis wanted to drill out of the ground again, they would inevitably make a large commotion. This would give the army behind enough time to react, preventing them from being ambushed from the center time and time again like last time.
Suddenly, the squad captain discovered a Puchi drilling outward from a hole that hadn't been destroyed in time.
Drawing the blade, throwing it—done in one smooth motion.
Before the Puchi could come out, a blade was plunged into its mushroom cap, and it stopped moving.
"Captain is so accurate!"
This set of smooth and flowing movements from the vanguard captain left a new recruit in the squad stunned, his face full of admiration.
"Kid, practice more, and you can do it too. Then let me teach you a little something else..."
Saying that, he not only pulled his blade out of the Puchi's mushroom cap but also reached in, grabbed the dead Puchi by the foot, and pulled it out.
"This kind of Puchi can be taken back and used as military rations. Boiled together with dried meat, the taste is actually not bad!"
"Captain..."
"Don't worry, except for the ones with cyan mushroom caps, ordinary Puchis aren't poisonous. You can rest assured..."
"Captain, it seems to have moved!"
"What?"
Before the squad captain could react, the Puchi, which had already been confirmed dead, suddenly shot out its tentacles and wrapped them tightly around his back.
Boom—!
After the sky full of mycelium drifted down, the new recruit, whose face had gone pale from fright at the sudden explosion, heard the agonizing wails of his captain.
The captain, who had been smugly imparting his experience just moments ago, was now not only covered in cuts and bruises but had both his arms blown off; yet, he wasn't dead.
The new recruit and other soldiers hurriedly stepped forward to help him stop the bleeding and bandage him, trying to save the squad captain's life.
In the panic, no one noticed that some spores had stuck to the squad captain's wounds. Watered by fresh blood, they grew into mycelium and further drilled into his flesh...
(End of Chapter)
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