Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 706: Chapter 695: The Snowball Crush

As the stripped prisoners fled back to the city further south, the rough details of the fall of Cold Bay Castle spread along with them.

The city lords still didn’t know what that white mist shrouding the top of the castle was, but it couldn’t be clearer that the city gate was opened by possessed traitors.

With Cold Bay Castle as a cautionary tale, now there’s no way they would let possessed individuals into the city. The city lords wish they could directly expel the possessed from within the city as well.

In fact, some city lords have already started doing this.

Of course, they wouldn’t directly throw them out, but instead, under various orders, they assigned them to outposts and camps outside the city, abandoning them in a more dignified manner.

The military shortages thus created were filled by those who fled back and were fortunate enough not to be possessed.

Those who were possessed, although they had been parasitized because they heroically fought despite the break of Cold Bay Castle and got injured, pleaded for acceptance, but none of the outposts dared to take them in.

Except for Cold Bay Castle.

During the period when Norris and his team were reorganizing Cold Bay Castle, absorbing surrendered troops and re-arming, these possessed individuals, who met with resistance everywhere, began to diverge.

Some were completely disheartened and chose to flee into the wild.

Some, indignantly feeling they had bravely fought yet faced such unjust treatment, turned to seek refuge with the Fungus Castle.

And a very small number blamed everything on the Fungus Castle, vowing to fight the Fungus Castle to the death.

Of course, they just assumed they could still battle against the Fungus Castle.

And those cities and fortresses that expelled the possessed weren’t much better off.

Although official military orders were used, the soldiers weren’t fools and could see what was happening.

After inquiries, the fleeing soldiers inevitably began to scheme in their hearts.

As for Norris, he indeed only had a vanguard army under his command, with no large force following behind.

But after absorbing surrendered members of the Demon Race, and spending a few days to replenish the Battle Puki, when he finally led the army to the nearby city, the force had doubled in momentum.

This time there was no traitor opening the city gates; the possessed members of the Demon Race had long been transferred by the city lord to the outpost outside the city.

Norris encountered those outposts when he led the army there, and nearly all the troops had fled. Those who hadn’t were already demoralized. When the army came, they either ran or surrendered on the spot.

Commanding an siege warfare personally for the first time, Norris was still somewhat nervous.

Before commanding, he sought a lot of advice from Sister Blood via the Fungal Network, and through its visuals, he saw the fierce battle ongoing with Louisa.

The sight made him swallow hard.

Fortunately, the city before him was not as solid as the one with Sister Blood, just an ordinary small border town.

"Hope I don’t screw this up..." he muttered in a barely audible voice before standing on the Fat Otaku Puki’s mushroom cap and gave a sharp wave of his hand, "Attack!"

Ming led the charge, even running ahead of Puki!

However, surprisingly to both commanders, the defending Demon Race soldiers showed unexpectedly low combat will and exhibited obvious fear of battle.

Each tried to shrink behind cover as much as possible, and when the Mushroom Cannon fired, many soldiers’ first reaction was not to fight back but to lay on the ground to avoid it.

After Ming charged up the wall, the soldiers engaging him, realizing that he was immune to attacks, started fleeing even before Ming reached them.

The first one to flee was one of those who had been released.

During the exchange of fire, he had the nerve to fire a couple of arrows from behind the wall, but when the enemy got on the wall, he dared not engage!

Because he knew that if he got hurt, it would be over!

The fate of those who were possessed was still vivid in his mind; he didn’t want to become like that, so he fled.

The overseer squad on the city wall noticed him and rode their War Beasts over.

Yet, before they could kill the deserting fellow, a chain reaction was triggered!

More released prisoners began to retreat defying orders, and run away, with no use despite the officers’ orders.

The chaos spread, and soon even the regular soldiers began to flee.

At this point, even the overseers couldn’t do anything, despite executing several deserters, and found themselves scattered by the fleeing soldiers.

By the time Ming effortlessly took a section of the city wall with the Pukis and planted the mushroom flag, all the Imperial Soldiers realized the tide had turned.

The Horned Demon City Lord stared blankly at the scene before him. He originally thought they could hold for at least half a month, but didn’t even last half a day.

When the Pukis surrounded him, he didn’t even muster the thought to flee or resist, only feeling absurd and despairing inside.

To this moment, he still didn’t understand why his soldiers lost so quickly?

Ming knew a little, but it was still far beyond what he had anticipated happening so easily.

Next, it was the familiar process again.

Those who resisted were treated, then released along with other Imperial soldiers, with those willing to surrender being absorbed, quickly trained, and added to forces, continuing to conquer the next place.

Initially, when they arrived, under Norris’s command was only a vanguard army from the Fungus Castle.

But with each battle, the group grew like a snowball, getting larger and larger.

Soon, the number of surrendering soldiers of the Demon Race far exceeded the number of Fungus Castle soldiers.

In any other force, this would be quite dangerous.

The general must have strong personal abilities to barely command such a troop, always wary of a backfire.

But within the Fungus Castle, this problem didn’t exist.

It wasn’t that no one harbored such thoughts, but they would silently disappear before making any moves.

Norris just had to command the attacks step by step.

The nearby city lords also realized the problem, but by the time they did, "resistors will eventually be possessed and then expelled" had spread among the soldiers, and it was too late to do anything.

Moreover, at this time, Norris’s Puki army was not something small cities and fortresses combined could contend with; it was the speed of the Fungal Mat spreading that limited Norris’s advance.

When Dean received the news from afar, he turned green with anger.

He had determined the force at Cold Bay Castle wasn’t the main force but never expected it to grow into this situation!

Even more bothersome, he now didn’t have the time to go and rescue there.

The main force of the Fungus Castle didn’t come to Round Tower City to establish a connection with the Dwarves, but instead surged toward the heavily fortified Dragon Horn Castle.

And the attack was exceptionally fierce. Even after deploying half of the reserves, urgent reports of distress still poured onto Dean’s desk like snowflakes.

Dean was currently leading the remaining half of the main force, rushing to support Dragon Horn Castle.

Now, he also understood Louisa’s intention.

That Blood Race traitor didn’t plan on playing a long and drawn-out game of offense and defense with him.

The whole three-pronged advance, the division to probe, were all just a ruse!

From the beginning, that woman planned for a decisive battle, a battle that would completely determine the victor.

For that, she even intentionally chose the most advantageous place for Dean, Dragon Horn Castle.

"Are you so confident you can win?"

Dean’s voice, filled with suppressed anger, seemed squeezed from deep within his throat.

He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he experienced such disregard.

Dean had no intention of avoiding battle.

If he couldn’t win at Dragon Horn Castle, then the subsequent battles indeed didn’t need to be fought.

He looked in the direction of Dragon Horn Castle, extraordinary flames igniting on his body: "Then bring it on!"