Chapter 681 - 670: The Beginning of the Northern War
Chapter 681: Chapter 670: The Beginning of the Northern War
[Shadow Shifting] really is a pretty decent Skill out in the wild, and Lin Jun had also equipped a lot of the Fungus Castle scouts in charge of gathering intel with this Skill.
But that only applies to the wilderness where there are no reconnaissance Arrays.
As for trying to use this thing to sneak on a Fungal Mat?
Such a huge panel darting along the shadows back and forth—Lin Jun would have to be blind not to notice.
That squad of shadow Puki had been sent ahead specifically to block them the moment they were discovered.
Assassins and spies and all that are the most useless.
And since the Faceless Ones weren’t interfacing with Eugene’s side, their disappearance didn’t cause so much as a ripple.
...
On the city wall, Eugene looked at the trolls that had finally lumbered up in the distance; all external reinforcements had at last arrived.
"Well? When do we march?" the Demon Race Duke, Dean, asked beside him.
This time, Eugene would personally lead the army north.
Dean had to sit in the rear and couldn’t go himself, but he still sent three thousand elite Warriors. Clearly, just like Eugene, he wanted to settle the Northern Territory issue in one go.
"We march tomorrow, but I still have a bad feeling. We have too little intel; they definitely have some special counter‑recon methods. My spies can’t penetrate at all, and Levi’s Faceless Ones won’t share any information with us."
"How the hell are they doing it?"
You couldn’t blame Eugene for feeling uncomfortable. In past wars against other Races, when had the Empire not infiltrated the other side till it looked like a sieve?
Intelligence, sabotage, assassination.
Before the first formal clash, the Empire would already have the upper hand.
Yet facing the Northern Territory, the Empire’s proud intelligence capabilities had actually failed.
In fact, because there were also members of the Demon Race in the Northern Territory, by Eugene’s estimate, they might even be leaking more intel on their own side.
The information asymmetry left Eugene more than a little unaccustomed.
But he had no other options.
The Northern Territory problem had to be resolved sooner or later, and the reinforcements they’d called in couldn’t just sit here forever while he hesitated.
The arrow was nocked; it had to be loosed.
As the one who had first had dealings with the Northern Territory, Dean likewise had a hunch that this battle would be anything but easy.
Dean tossed Eugene a crystal. "If something’s off, crush it. I’ll personally bring men to support you. Don’t you dare get all my people killed in the Northern Territory."
"What about the rear then? What if the Mountains take the chance to invade once you leave?"
"I’ve already talked it over with Levi. The moment I move, he’ll put pressure on the border fortresses by the Mountains to draw their attention. If that still doesn’t work, worst case we abandon a few cities. We of the Demon Race—what matters is our people."
Seeing that Dean had made arrangements, Eugene nodded and said no more.
The next day, after a round of generous promises of reward from Eugene, nearly forty thousand troops stepped into the Northern Territory, a land carpeted with Fungal Mats!
...
At the Northern Territory frontline, on a hastily erected high platform, Marshal Puki stood facing the wind, the bright red cloak trailing behind him even longer than he was tall.
Marshal Puki’s four Mycelium tentacles spread wide as if embracing the entire battlefield. Below, dense rectangular formations of Puki Masters, with sheets of Puki around them, and further out, their Dwarf allies.
Lin Jun’s will flowed through the Fungal Network into the minds of all Fungus Castle soldiers.
"...For many years, the Northern Territory has been bullied and enslaved by the Empire! They drove us from our homes and toyed with us at will. In times of peace, the Empire treated the Northern Territory as a slave-breeding ground; in times of war, they conscripted us as cannon fodder. This humiliation has gone on for centuries!"
"Are we supposed to endure this humiliation for another hundred years, a thousand years?"
The tentacles whipped down sharply.
"Now is our chance to wash away our shame in one stroke!"
"No matter how you look at it, three hundred thousand against thirty thousand—we have the advantage!"
Marshal Puki’s tentacles pointed into the distance, toward the direction of the Imperial Army.
"The first battle is the decisive battle; one war to decide the world!"
The tentacles rose high.
In that instant, a tidal roar erupted within the Fungal Network!
"Fungus Castle, will win!"
"Fungus Castle, will win!!!"
Countless thoughts merged into a single voice, booming through the Fungal Network! The soldiers gripping their weapons flushed red in the face, shouting over and over, venting the battlelust in their hearts.
Of course, everyone was communicating via the Fungal Network; even their cheering and roaring was done inside the Network.
This scene looked downright eerie in the eyes of the nearby Dwarves.
From their perspective, the Mushroom Castle Camp was deathly quiet. That Puki with the striking bright red cloak stepped onto the platform and wriggled a few times, and then the Fungus Castle soldiers suddenly began lifting their weapons up and down excitedly, fanatical expressions on their faces.
But it was still silent.
Though they knew the others were probably communicating through some group Telepathy called the Fungal Network, still...
"This is creepy as all hell." Duvalin watched for a long time before finally forcing the words out through his teeth.
The Dwarf officers beside him all nodded vigorously in agreement.
After venting, Duvalin turned around to face his several thousand silently waiting kin.
He took a deep breath, then bellowed at the top of his lungs:
"Dwarves! Raise your battle-axes—"
...
The frontline was still in the midst of pre‑battle mobilization, but the fighting had begun the moment the Imperial Army set foot on the Fungal Mat.
"Watch those holes! Destroy all the holes!" The captain of a vanguard squad shouted loudly as he directed his men to destroy the entrances to the underground tunnel network.
The Empire had not come away empty‑handed from the previous battle; at the very least, they’d learned to seal these holes off ahead of time.
They couldn’t wipe out the Puki lurking deep underground, but at least if the Puki wanted to emerge again, they’d have to make a lot of noise, giving the troops behind them enough time to react, instead of getting blown apart from the center like last time.
Suddenly, the squad captain spotted a Puki trying to crawl out of a hole they hadn’t yet managed to destroy.
Draw, throw, all in one smooth motion.
The Puki hadn’t even made it out before a blade stabbed into its cap, leaving it motionless.
"Nice aim, Captain!"
The vanguard captain’s fluid moves left a new recruit in the squad staring, full of admiration.
"Kid, practice enough and you can do it too. And then I’ll teach you one more thing..."
As he spoke, he not only pulled his blade out of the Puki’s cap, he reached in and grabbed the dead Puki by the feet, yanking it out.
"These Puki here can be taken back as rations. Boil them up with some jerky and they taste pretty damn good!"
"Captain..."
"Relax, aside from those with green caps, most Puki aren’t poisonous. You can safely—"
"Captain, it moved!"
"What?"
The captain hadn’t even processed it when the Puki he thought dead suddenly lashed out with its tentacles, wrapping tightly around his back.
Boom—!
After the explosion, with Mycelium drifting down everywhere, the new recruit—pale with fright from the sudden blast—heard his captain’s agonized scream.
The captain who’d been smugly passing on his experience moments ago was now covered in wounds, both arms blown clean off, yet somehow still alive.
The new recruit and the other soldiers rushed up to staunch the bleeding and bandage him, trying to save his life.
In the chaos, no one noticed the spores clinging to the captain’s wounds, where, nourished by fresh blood, they sprouted into Mycelium and then burrowed into his flesh...