Little Black landed on the ground, staring blankly at the blood splattered all over the place.
She collected a little bit here and a little bit there, piling it into a lump, but the sparkling gemstone didn't reappear.
She couldn't understand. How could such a big person just disappear in a flash?
And her sparkling thing disappeared along with him.
Suddenly, a picture appeared in her consciousness.
It was a Puchi carrying that gemstone on its head, placing it outside her mushroom house.
The large tail that was originally dragging on the ground instantly perked up, then smacked the ground fiercely twice.
Following a powerful flap of her wings, she transformed into a dark shadow once again and flew back at full speed.
...
Ultimately, this wasn't Little Black's fault. Who would have thought that a vampire could also self-destruct like a Puchi?
On the other side, the battle at the Luo River was nearing its end.
Even though there was still a reserve force left by Eugene on the opposite bank, and under the command of the adjutant, they executed a retreat, counterattack, and resistance.
But the scene of Eugene being beaten into exploding his blood to escape still dealt a massive blow to the morale of the troops.
Coupled with the inherent disparity in strength between the two sides, a rout became inevitable.
The adjutant was killed in action, command failed, and chaos ensued.
Apart from a small group of Demon-kin who were still persisting in resistance, the rest of the Demon tribe all became lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
The key point was that most of them couldn't even outrun the rolling Puchis.
Everyone was harvesting contribution points. Only No. 4 lay sprawled on the bank of the Luo River, looking like it had lost all desire to live.
Right now, it just wanted to swap back into its small body and throw itself into the arms of the Pink Puchi.
However, Lin Jun didn't capture all the routed troops. Instead, after capturing two-thirds, he had Little Pig withdraw the troops.
The Puchis tied up captive after captive, while the Mushroom Fortress soldiers happily calculated in the mycelial network roughly how many contribution points they would get while cleaning up the battlefield.
They were very reassured about the distribution of contribution points; the Mushroom Fortress never missed or mistakenly issued battle merits.
On the dwarven side, Bador was in a superimposed state of being both happy and unhappy.
Nothing made him happier than seeing the Empire's army collapse. Even though he was covered in injuries, he still tirelessly cleared out those Demon-kin who were still putting up stubborn resistance.
As for being unhappy, naturally, it was because Eugene got away.
Unlike the simple-minded Bador, General Duwalin, who was responsible for commanding this time, was considering much more.
The situation turning from defeat to victory certainly delighted him, but the power displayed by the Mushroom Fortress somewhat exceeded the expectations of him and the Mountain clans.
Let alone a Lord-tier combat force like Louisa.
The endless bizarre Puchi tricks during the engagement, the nearly inexhaustible Puchis, and finally the two super-giant Puchis that broke through the ice from beneath the Luo River.
Those things were even bigger than a fully formed Fire Elemental Lord!
Their body sizes could rival the Empire's strategic-level weapons, the Abyssal Beasts.
Although he didn't know their exact strength yet, just this sheer mass was enough to turn the tide of battle.
One could even say that if they had just released those two giant Puchis right from the start, they wouldn't have gone through the bitter struggle phase at all.
Of course, in that case, the enemy would have definitely chosen to retreat in an orderly manner, and it would be unlikely to wipe them out completely like now.
No matter what, the power of the Northern Territory far exceeded the previous expectations of the Mountains.
One must know, this was a new organization formed by a group of tribesmen who had experienced the extreme cold disaster.
To actually possess such formidable strength.
Upon returning, he naturally had to heavily emphasize this during the clan meeting.
However, in Duwalin's view, this should be considered a good thing.
After all, everyone had a common enemy in the Empire. The stronger the Northern Territory was, the more it would naturally attract the Empire's attention, and the Mountains would have a much easier time.
However...
Looking at the dwarven warriors being dragged out of the holes by Puchis one by one, having already received Puchi treatment and no longer in danger of losing their lives, Duwalin muttered to himself grumpily:
"Clearly having enough strength yourselves, yet still coming to us. Next time, we can't be easily tricked into coming for support..."
...
"Ha... ha... ha..."
On the ice plains, three Demon tribe members were fleeing toward the south.
Among them, a Lizardman walked at the very front.
A Horned Demon followed closely behind, carrying a heavily injured Demon-kin on his back.
The armor of all three demons had been thrown away; wearing those things, they simply wouldn't have had a chance to escape. Only the Lizardman still held a chipped long saber in his hand.
After a day of fleeing, they had confirmed there were no pursuers behind them.
Let alone pursuers, they couldn't even see any other routed soldiers.
Everyone scattered and fled, simply not daring to group up. Ultimately, just like this, they were scattered in the vast expanse of ice and snow.
However, the enemies weren't chasing anymore, but the threat of the Northern Territory itself manifested—the cold!
Eating and drinking didn't matter; there were mushrooms everywhere, and the mushrooms had juices inside. They wouldn't starve or die of thirst.
But there was truly nothing they could do about the cold!
When they were with the army, there was collective heating, area-of-effect constant temperature spells, and heat-generating potions.
But now, there was nothing left.
If they didn't escape the Northern Territory as soon as possible, they could only freeze to death.
The Lizardman turned his head and looked at the Horned Demon, unable to help but complain: "Why are you still carrying that Demon-kin? Did you forget his arrogant and bossy attitude before? Now we can't even protect our own lives, and you're still bringing him along?"
The Horned Demon glanced at the Lizardman and continued forward carrying the Demon-kin: "He got injured saving me when I was surrounded by Puchis. I can't leave him behind."
"But if you don't leave him behind, he'll die too! Do you actually think he can hold on until we get out in his 'one breath away from death' state? If you ask me, bringing his magic core back is loyal enough!"
The Horned Demon didn't say anything more, just lowered his head and continued forward, making the Lizardman curse him as an idiot.
When the cold became unbearable, they gathered some firewood and painstakingly started a fire in a small cave they found, trying to get a little warmer.
The shivering Lizardman huddled very close, looking like he wished he could jump into the fire pit for warmth.
No one noticed that some mushrooms on the roof of the small cave dropped a few spores onto the Demon-kin playing dead.
Feeling his body finally warm up a bit, the Lizardman walked over to the Demon-kin and found that the Demon-kin still wasn't dead.
"Such a tough life!"
After walking for another day.
Even the Horned Demon with his thick fur had trembling limbs, tortured immensely by the cold, let alone the Lizardman who originally wasn't very resistant to freezing.
He had a premonition that he wouldn't survive tonight.
The Lizardman looked at the Demon-kin on the Horned Demon's back, and the more he looked, the more he couldn't understand.
He suddenly rushed up: "On what basis? I'm almost freezing to death, yet a heavily injured guy like you is so good at living?"
Stepping forward to pull the Demon-kin, he saw the mycelium that had already spread throughout his entire flesh and blood.
After a brief moment of being stunned, the Lizardman didn't feel fear, but instead burst into the ecstasy of seeing the hope of survival.
"Puchi Master... Mycelial Symbiosis?! So that's how it is! Hahahahahahaha!"
Subsequently, under the horrified gaze of the Horned Demon, the Lizardman ran under a mushroom tree, raised his long saber, and plunged it right into his own stomach...
...
Ten days later, the three demons finally escaped the Northern Territory. The Lizardman and the Horned Demon were taken away by the Demon-kin who had already taken over the border and sent into a barracks.
And that Demon-kin was taken away separately.
Entering the barracks, the Lizardman found that it was full of soldiers who had survived and escaped from that battle.
And almost every demon who made it out alive was exactly like them... they had formed a symbiosis with mycelium.
(End of Chapter)
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