As the stripped-bare captives fled back to the cities further south, the general outline of how Cold Bay Fort fell spread along with them.
What that white mist covering the top of the fortress was, the City Lords didn't know yet, but the fact that the city gates were opened by parasitized traitors couldn't be any clearer.
With Cold Bay Fort as a warning from the past, never mind letting parasitized individuals into the city now, the City Lords wished they could directly drive out all the parasitized individuals already inside their cities.
In fact, some City Lords had already started doing just that.
Of course, they didn't just kick them out directly. Instead, using various transfer orders as an excuse, they arranged for them to go to strongholds and camps outside the city, abandoning them in a relatively decent manner.
The resulting shortage of military strength was filled by those who had fled back and luckily hadn't been parasitized.
As for those who *were* parasitized—even though their parasitism was the result of being "treated" after sustaining injuries while continuing to fight valiantly even after Cold Bay Fort fell—no matter how much they pleaded, not a single stronghold dared to take them in.
Except for Cold Bay Fort.
While Norris and his forces digested Cold Bay Fort, incorporated the surrendered troops, and rearmed, a divergence began to appear among these parasitized individuals who were hitting a wall everywhere they went.
A portion became completely disillusioned and chose to flee into the wilderness to hide.
A portion felt indignant that they had clearly fought valiantly yet had to suffer such unfair treatment, and turned around to defect to the Mushroom Fortress.
And a very small portion blamed everything on the Mushroom Fortress and swore to fight the Mushroom Fortress to the death.
Of course, this was only *them* thinking they could still fight the Mushroom Fortress to the death.
And those cities and fortresses that drove the parasitized away weren't doing much better.
Although they used official military transfer orders, the soldiers at the bottom weren't stupid; they could see what was going on.
After asking around, those soldiers who had fled back inevitably started making their own little calculations in their hearts.
As for Norris, he indeed only had a vanguard army under his command, with no large force following behind.
But after incorporating the surrendered Demon-kin, he spent a few days replenishing the Combat Puchis. When he finally led the army to another nearby city, their momentum had directly doubled.
This time, there was no drama involving traitors opening the city gates; the parasitized Demon-kin in this city had long been transferred to strongholds outside the city by the City Lord.
Norris encountered those strongholds when he arrived leading the grand army. The Demon-kin soldiers inside had almost all run away, and those who hadn't had almost no will to fight. Seeing the grand army pressing down, they either turned and ran or surrendered on the spot.
Commanding a siege battle personally for the first time, Norris was still somewhat nervous.
Before commanding, he also consulted Sister Blood on many things through the mycelial network. Through the network's visual feed, he also saw the fierce battle situation on Louisa's side.
That scene made him swallow hard.
Fortunately, the city in front of him wasn't as sturdy as the one Sister Blood was facing; it was just an ordinary small border city.
"Let's hope I don't mess this up..." Muttering softly in a voice only he could hear, Norris, standing on the mushroom cap of an Otaku Puchi, suddenly waved his hand forward. "Attack!"
Ming took the lead and charged out, even running ahead of the Puchis!
However, exceeding the expectations of the commanders on both sides, the fighting will of the defending Demon-kin was surprisingly low, and they displayed obvious combat-avoidance behavior.
One by one, they huddled behind cover as much as possible. When the Puchi cannons struck, many soldiers' first reaction wasn't to return fire, but to drop to the ground to dodge.
After Ming charged onto the city wall, the soldiers engaging him began to flee as soon as they discovered he was invulnerable to swords and spears, even before Ming had actually attacked them.
The very first one to flee was precisely one of the captives who had been released back.
During the volley-fire phase, he still had the courage to hide behind the city wall and shoot a couple of arrows, but when the enemy actually got on the wall, he didn't dare to engage in close combat at all!
Because he knew that as long as he got injured, it was over!
The fate of those parasitized individuals was still vivid in his mind, and he didn't want to become like that too, so he fled.
The supervising unit inside the city walls locked onto him, riding their warbeasts and hurrying this way.
However, before they could even arrive to kill this guy who was deserting on the eve of battle, a chain reaction was triggered!
More released captives began to disobey orders, retreating and fleeing, even despite the officers' shouts.
The chaos spread, and this time, even ordinary soldiers began to flee.
At this point, even if the supervising unit consecutively executed several fleeing soldiers, it was of no use. Even they themselves were scattered by the deserters.
By the time Ming led the Puchis to occupy a section of the city wall without expending much effort and planted the Mushroom Flag on it, all the Empire soldiers realized that the overall situation was lost.
The Horned Demon City Lord stared blankly at the scene before him. He had originally thought he could hold off the offensive for at least half a month, yet he didn't even last half a day.
When the Puchis surrounded him, he couldn't even muster the thought of fleeing or putting up a stubborn resistance; his heart felt only absurdity and despair.
Even now, he couldn't figure out why the soldiers under his command had been defeated so quickly.
Ming knew a bit about it, but the ease of it still far exceeded his expectations.
Next, it was the familiar process again.
Those who stubbornly resisted were treated, then released along with the other Empire soldiers. Those willing to surrender were incorporated, and after simple training, the troop numbers were replenished, and they continued their conquest to the next place.
When he first arrived, Norris only had one Mushroom Fortress vanguard army under his command.
But as they fought, the troops snowballed, growing larger and larger.
It didn't take long for the number of surrendered Demon-kin soldiers to far exceed the number of Mushroom Fortress soldiers.
In any other faction, this would be an incredibly dangerous situation.
A general had to possess extremely strong personal capabilities to barely command such a force, and had to be constantly wary of a backlash.
But in the Mushroom Fortress, this wasn't a problem.
It wasn't that no one harbored such thoughts, but they would all quietly and soundlessly disappear before they could even start an uprising.
Norris just had to systematically command the attacks step by step.
It wasn't that the nearby City Lords hadn't realized where the problem lay, but by the time they noticed, the point that "those who stubbornly resist will ultimately probably be parasitized and then ostracized" had already spread among the soldiers; it was too late to do anything.
Moreover, by this time, Norris's grand army of Puchis was no longer something that a few small cities and fortresses could handle by joining forces. The only thing limiting Norris's advance was, ironically, the speed at which the fungal mat spread; it couldn't quite keep up.
When Dean received the news from afar, his face turned green with anger.
He had judged that the Cold Bay Fort side wasn't the main force, but he never expected it to develop into this kind of situation!
What was even more agonizing was that he had no time to go rescue that side now.
The Mushroom Fortress's main force had actually not gone toward Round Tower City to open up communication with the dwarves; instead, they had headed straight for the most heavily defended Dragon Horn Fort.
Furthermore, the offensive was exceptionally fierce. Even after he sent the remaining half of his main force as backup, urgent reports still flew into Dean's hands like snowflakes.
Dean was currently bringing the remaining half of his main force to support Dragon Horn Fort.
Now, he also understood Louisa's intentions.
That Vampire traitor had absolutely no intention of playing some protracted game of offense and defense with him.
What "advancing on three fronts simultaneously," what "splitting forces to probe"—it was all a diversion!
From the very beginning, that woman had been aiming for a decisive battle, a decisive battle that could thoroughly determine victory and defeat.
To this end, she had even specifically chosen Dragon Horn Fort, the location most advantageous to Dean.
"Is she really that confident she can win?"
Dean's voice carried suppressed fury, sounding as if it was squeezed from the depths of his throat.
He couldn't remember how long it had been since he experienced this feeling of being underestimated.
Dean had no intention of avoiding battle.
If he couldn't win even at Dragon Horn Fort, then there was indeed no need to fight the subsequent battles.
He looked in the direction of Dragon Horn Fort, an extraordinary flame igniting from his body: "Then bring it on!"
(End of Chapter)
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