On the calm sea, a massive fleet sailed into the reef area that used to be the mermaids' domain.
Sophia leaned on the ship's rail, listening quietly.
Aside from the sound of the ocean waves, there was only the flag representing the United Kingdom flapping in the wind overhead.
"So calm, we haven't encountered a single bug."
Bella was wiping a sword blade with an old cloth. Hearing this, she looked up and glanced out at the sea: "Isn't it a good thing that there are no bugs?"
Sophia looked worriedly at the fleet behind her: "I'm worried that Keith has concentrated its forces to ambush us. The fleet is too large; I'm afraid I'll have a hard time protecting them all."
Suddenly, Sophia stopped talking and looked into the distance with some confusion.
She was seen suddenly inserting two fingers into her left eye socket, directly plucking out her gem-like eyeball, and then tossing it into the sky.
Several framing lines expanded out from the eyeball, and the originally blurry scene in the distance was pulled closer bit by bit.
"What is it?" Bella looked over following her gaze. Unfortunately, with her eyesight, she couldn't see anything besides the boundless sea.
"Mermaids, fishmen, half-demons... so many Puchis, and what a huge Puchi!" Sophia's tone became increasingly bizarre as she spoke. If it weren't for the existence of the status panel, Sophia would have wanted to recall her eyeball and wipe it to see if she was under an illusion. "Why are there Puchis in the sea? And what are they doing gathered there?"
Noticing the Hero's actions, Priest Samuel and the Captain of the Guard also hurried over. Upon hearing such outrageous intelligence, after a brief discussion, they decided that avoiding trouble was better than asking for it, and planned to have the fleet accelerate through this sea area.
However, just as the crowd finished discussing, they found that Sophia was actually staring blankly in that direction, forgetting to speak.
On the other side, Little Black, sitting atop Number Seven's super-large mushroom cap, instinctively turned her head to look at the sky in the direction of the fleet.
She felt as if there was something shiny in the sky.
Unfortunately, after squinting her dragon eyes and staring for quite a while, she found nothing.
Meanwhile, Lin Jun was completely unaware that a fleet was sailing past in the distance. There was no fungal mat over there, and it was far beyond the thousand-meter reconnaissance limit of the fungal mat. Lin Jun was currently fully focused on bombing bugs!
It rained under the sea—Puchi rain.
Cheap cannon fodder Puchis, one by one, emitting [Curse of Corrosion LV10], slowly sank into the trench; they didn't even have tails.
While slowly falling into the deep trench, they corroded the fleshy mats meticulously cultivated by Keith to nothingness.
And once they received any attack, they would self-destruct.
Even if they were instantly killed and unable to self-destruct, it didn't matter. If one Puchi was attacked, the other Puchis in a circle around it would also chain self-destruct. And if left alone, these Puchis would just corrode their way down.
At the same time, the floating mushroom fungal mat on the sea surface was continuously generating these cannon fodder Puchis, drawing mana from other areas, batch after batch, in an endless stream.
Facing Keith, who seemingly planned to turtle up, the Mushroom Fortress decisively chose a war of attrition which was most advantageous to them—Lin Jun had plenty of Puchis!
Muffled sounds of self-destruction came from the depths of the trench one after another. After realizing how the mushrooms planned to handle it, Keith had to change its plan.
In the darkness of the deep trench, several pale giant eyes slowly opened.
[Petrification Ray] shot out from those giant eyes, the grayish-white beams sweeping across the Mushroom Fortress arrays!
However, unlike the tragic situation during their first encounter when the Puchi army was petrified in swaths and had to use Rock-Armored Puchis as cover to fight back, although a grayish-white layer appeared on the soldiers' bodies, the progress of petrification was quite slow.
[Magic Resistance LV10]
Even for a warrior concentratedly irradiated by the beam, it would take at least a full minute to completely lose their ability to move.
And the Mushroom Fortress's side simply wouldn't give it that one minute!
Mushroom cannons flew ahead first. Countless magic shells exploded in front of the evil eyes, stirring up layers of ripples, blocked by the evil eyes' [Magic Shield].
But the resonance cannons of Norris and the others followed closely behind. The magic explosions, far exceeding mushroom cannons, shattered that barrier like a soap bubble. The aftermath of the shattering incidentally swept up the evil eyes—whose main bodies were incredibly fragile—shredding them into pieces.
But this was only the beginning.
In the deep sea, several tentacles covered in sharp teeth suddenly shot out, fiercely slapping into the middle of the Mushroom Fortress array.
The seawater was churned up, soldiers who couldn't dodge in time were swatted away, and a gap was torn in the Puchis' formation.
Mushroom cannons bombarded those tentacles, blasting open blood holes one after another, but only damaged the flesh and skin, completely unable to stop their movements—Tentacle-Toothed Beasts, apex predators in the sea.
Surging out together with them were a massive number of marine bugs, some seen before and some never seen before, densely pouring out from the depths of the trench, clashing into a chaotic battle with the Mushroom Fortress soldiers.
The Sword Saint Puchi shuttled across the battlefield treading on moonlight. Four tentacles wrapped around longswords danced into countless afterimages, reaping the lives of the bugs.
Number Seven and Number Four clumsily lunged at the equally clumsy Tentacle-Toothed Beasts. Both sides had tentacles, intertwining, tearing, and strangling each other; the scene was extremely "elegant."
The skill [Gigantism] was originally stripped by Lin Jun from the Tentacle-Toothed Beasts. However, after Lin Jun's long-term training, it had long surpassed the original level.
During this tangled fight at the moment, the two clearly larger Puchis held the upper hand.
Disregarding the Tentacle-Toothed Beast that was still wrapped around its mushroom cap gnawing at it with sharp teeth, Number Four's massive body directly pinned down another one. Its mycelial tentacles tightly wrapped around the opponent's thick tentacles. Amidst Number Four's happy yelling and shouting in the mycelial network, the Tentacle-Toothed Beast's tentacles were pulled off one by one.
Purple blood spread from the severed ends, dyeing the surrounding seawater dark purple; even Number Four was forcefully dyed half into a purple mushroom. Just when Number Four excitedly planned to finish off the other Tentacle-Toothed Beast, a violent vibration came from the depths of the trench.
Before Number Four could figure out what it was, a giant meat pillar, whose cross-section alone was comparable to a Tentacle-Toothed Beast, shot up from below, lifting the entire Giant Puchi Number Four right out of the sea surface!
"Wow, I'm flying—" and then it plummeted, crashing in the distance, setting off a tsunami.
Number Four was silenced.
Almost at the exact same time Number Four fell to its death, on the pillar of flesh and blood, the countless chimerized mermaids on that evil pillar all opened their mouths in unison.
A melodious and beautiful chorus of [Voice of Charm] spread from this incredibly evil meat pillar to the entire battlefield.
The Sword Saint staggered, tumbling several times on the sea surface like a skipping stone before steadying his figure once more.
His [Sword Heart] could launch sharp counterattacks against mental attacks, but it wasn't complete immunity.
A grand chorus of this scale, even he inevitably found himself affected.
As for the other Mushroom Fortress soldiers, they fared even worse. Just moments after the chorus began, those faces that were still fighting bravely became dazed one after another. The weapons in their hands dropped, their eyes unfocused, as if their souls had been sucked away.
On the contrary, the bugs controlled by Keith were completely unaffected; they were controlled puppets to begin with, and their minds did not belong to themselves.
With this kind of compatibility, it's no wonder Keith specifically chose to fuse mermaids into its flesh and blood.
On the battlefield, the Puchis were still attacking on their own according to prior commands, but having lost the command of the Puchi Masters, their formation grew increasingly chaotic. If this continued, losses would inevitably be disastrous.
Right at this moment, a voice-Puchi popped out from the fungal mat beside the pillar of flesh and blood.
"Stupid bug, I've been waiting exactly for this pillar of yours!"
Beyond Keith's visual range, on the left arm of the Jida Divine Weapon that still bore traces of splicing, a massive amount of mana compressed and layered, forming a giant energy sphere with a dark purple center and blazing white edges, exceeding thirty meters in diameter.
Ultimate Resonance Cannon!
When that cluster of light finally appeared within Keith's perception range, the pillar of flesh and blood trembled fiercely, attempting to retract into the depths of the trench.
But like all gigantic things, speed was always a fatal flaw.
There was no sound; the sound was swallowed, devoured by that sphere of light that suddenly expanded to its limit.
The middle section of the pillar of flesh and blood vanished within the radiance. The remaining stump above fell weakly, smashing into the sea, splashing up a wall of waves as high as a mountain, desperately shrinking back toward the deep darkness.
After all, this was [Leviathan]. The Ultimate Resonance Cannon that could annihilate a giant dragon with one shot could only destroy the better half of the pillar of flesh and blood.
However, this indeed dealt Keith a heavy blow as well.
The aftermath of the explosion set off layers of tsunamis, churning the entire battlefield upside down. The Mushroom Fortress's formation also scattered, many soldiers were swept away by the wave crests, and Puchis tumbled in the seawater, but the bugs suffered even heavier losses.
Piggy observed the battlefield through the mycelial network and felt it was time: "Entire army reform formation, prepare to pursue—"
Vibrations came again, but not as obvious as the first time, because the source of the vibration wasn't beneath the soldiers' feet.
Little Black's golden pupils abruptly turned toward the direction of the Jida Divine Weapon: "Dragon—"
The seabed beneath the feet of the Jida Divine Weapon was forcefully ripped open into a massive gaping maw.
Mud and sand surged, crushed stones splashed, and five giant dragons burst out from that crevice. Roaring, they bit down firmly onto the Jida Divine Weapon that was just about to turn around and meet the enemy. And the lower halves of these dragons were connected to another pillar of flesh and blood; coarse meat tubes were inserted through their spines, fusing into one with their bodies, pulsating with every twitch of the giant dragons' movements.
"What, what is all this?"
In the distance, even without Sophia's eye, Bella, Samuel, and the others also saw that giant pillar of flesh and blood that rushed into the clouds, got blasted apart, and then popped out again.
And Sophia's face was even uglier. She not only saw the giant pillar of flesh and blood, but also saw the terrifying status panel of the Heart of Keith through it.
(End of Chapter)
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