"Here—how did this place become like this?" The mermaid responsible for leading the way for the Mushroom Fortress vanguard forces couldn't help but exclaim in surprise as she looked at the trench that had become incredibly unfamiliar.
Relying on the light provided by the hanging mycelial pillars, everyone saw a terrifying scene.
The trench was originally a deep fissure on the seabed, with steep rock walls on both sides, and the valley floor hidden in eternal darkness.
But at this moment, the color of the stones on that fissure could no longer be seen.
A thick layer of flesh and blood covered every inch of the rock walls. It was grayish-red, rising and falling rhythmically as if it were still breathing. It was as if the crowd hadn't arrived at a trench, but inside the body of some massive monster.
"Strange, what's going on with this fish?" A half-demon discovered a small fish with half of its body sunk into the flesh and blood. The other half of the fish was still struggling, trying to break free.
He reached out, pinched the fish's head, and pulled outward. After applying a little force, he only pulled off half a fish, yet he couldn't see the other half of the fish's body inside the fleshy wall.
"Where is the lower half—damn it, what is this?!" The half-demon tried to pick at it, but suddenly found his finger was stuck.
He struggled, trying to pull his hand back, but his hand was like it had grown onto it, unable to separate.
That flesh and blood that was originally just clinging to the rock wall was slowly creeping up along his hand bit by bit.
"Let me go!" The half-demon controlled a Puchi to attack the fleshy wall, slicing it to shreds.
After finally getting his hand out with great difficulty, he discovered his palm had already fused together with that chunk of flesh and blood, and it was still spreading up his arm.
A tentacle blade flashed past. The half-demon acted ruthlessly, directly slicing off his entire hand.
On the cross-section of the wound, mycelium squirmed, and before long, fresh blood no longer overflowed.
As frontline personnel, self-healing skills were standard equipment.
As a Puchi Master, losing a hand wouldn't cause one to lose their combat power.
However, this was not over. That severed palm slowly sank along with the water current, landing onto another patch of fleshy mat. It actually grew onto it taking advantage of the momentum, and before long, it actually regained vitality. Opening and closing its claws, it seemed to want to grab the Puchi not far away.
With a shot from a mushroom cannon, the severed hand and a small patch of the fleshy mat were completely annihilated.
"What the hell are these things? Everyone be careful, do not touch this attached flesh and blood!"
However, another team member pointed below and said: "I'm afraid it's very hard not to touch it."
Below the crowd, the flesh and blood no longer merely clung to the rock walls. Between two opposing rock walls, there was even flesh and blood connecting them. Looking from afar, it was like a spider's web, layering upon one another and continuously extending downward.
Right at this moment, Marshal Piggy's voice rang out in the minds of the vanguard squad: "Try corrosive damage."
Under Piggy's command, over a dozen Puchis with black stripes swam down.
[Curse of Corrosion LV6]
Under the effect of this aura skill derived from Evil Grass, the nearby fleshy mat belonging to Keith gradually withered and festered layer by layer, eventually turning into shriveled black threads of meat.
At this point, even if someone touched it again, there was no longer any phenomenon of devouring or fusion.
The range of [Curse of Corrosion] wasn't small, allowing them to clean up an area of the fleshy mat relatively easily. The only problem was that it couldn't kill instantly.
The reason it was only equipped at LV6 was that corrosion at this level could be reduced to a negligible degree by the [Corrosion Resistance LV10] on the vanguard team members.
If they increased the level further, while efficiency would increase, it would affect their own personnel, which wasn't suitable.
With the intelligence from the vanguard squad, more Mushroom Fortress soldiers carrying Corrosive Puchis dove down, beginning to orderly clear out the fleshy mat on the outskirts of the trench.
Norris was among them. He scratched his somewhat itchy arm, knowing this was the feeling of being slightly affected by the corrosion.
Suddenly, the Jida shot a tentacle toward a nearby fishman, entangling the fishman's feet, and abruptly pulled him back amidst his exclamation of surprise.
The next moment, a Puchi beside the fishman was hit by an undercurrent and instantly shattered to pieces.
"Enemy attack!"
A massive deep-blue magic shield materialized on the Jida's left arm, blocking several more undercurrents once again.
Almost at the same time, practically all the Puchi Masters in the squad were attacked by undercurrents.
Some blocked or dodged it, but there were also those who were injured or even died as a result.
Facing a sudden attack, the soldiers did not panic.
They methodically changed formations, having the Puchis line up and swim to both sides to block any potential follow-up attacks. Subsequently, they began packing up the corpses of their comrades and sending them into the mycelial pillar hanging down in the middle.
After the corpses were sent in, they were rapidly decomposed, making the fluorescent mushrooms on the mycelial pillar shine a bit brighter.
To the devout Mushroom Fortress soldiers, death was only the beginning.
However, the current situation was not optimistic either.
Norris frowned, vigilant of the movements in his surroundings.
Those undercurrents just now—he only noticed them when they had breached into close proximity. Logically speaking, with so many reconnaissance skills on the Jida, he should have detected them much earlier.
It should be known that even when fighting a powerhouse like the Sword Saint Puchi, Norris only failed to keep up with the other party's speed, rather than failing to perceive the attacks.
This was the first time this had happened since joining the Mushroom Garden!
"Mushroom cannons—attack!"
With Norris's order, countless mushroom cannons poured out toward the rock walls on both sides. The fleshy mat shattered together with the rocks, and countless scraps of meat and crushed stone sank deeper.
This bombing indeed blasted out new movement.
[Vibration Perception]
From the explosions of the mushroom cannons, Norris accurately pinpointed an anomalous vibration; something was shuttling around inside the rock wall, dodging the mushroom cannons.
Mana began to gather on the Jida's shoulder, and a blinding magic halo congregated at the muzzle of the resonance cannon.
BOOM—!
The artillery tore open a massive crater on the trench's rock wall. An entire chunk of the rock wall lost its support and crumbled, sinking toward the depths of the trench.
In the crater, several bloodied and mutilated mermaids were revealed. Their bodies all showed signs of flesh and blood being twisted and fused. However, unlike those embedded in the fleshy wall, these mermaids dragged half a severed meat tube behind them, with purple fresh blood still seeping out from the cut.
One of the mermaids whose tube hadn't been blasted apart suddenly began to convulse. Norris was just about to deliver the killing blow—
"Mushroom!" Slurred words spat out from that mermaid's mouth. She raised her head, her eyes entirely murky. "I knew—you would find me. I knew, we still have one final battle! But it doesn't matter, I am already prepared, Mushroom—just come—I—am waiting for you—"
Lin Jun took over a Puchi. A tentacle blade swept past, separating that mermaid's head from her neck, and the status panel disappeared.
"Relying on crooked and evil ways, your speech has become much more fluent! But do you expect me to go down just because you told me to?"
Above the trench, more Jidas and Puchi Masters slowly descended.
Number Four and Number Seven, two Giant Puchis, stepped on the seabed, half of their mushroom bodies exposed above the sea surface, like two moving mushroom mountains.
Even the fungal mat on the sea surface was continuously generating new cannon fodder Puchis, densely packed and covering the entire field of vision.
The Puchi's tentacle waved forward: "Bomb that bug out for me!"
(End of Chapter)
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