Chapter 707 - 696: Defending Dragon Horn Castle
Chapter 707: Chapter 696: Defending Dragon Horn Castle
The sky above Dragon Horn Castle was painted in two colors, half the orange of the setting sun and half the eerie blue of magic power.
Beneath the city walls, the corpses of Pukis littered the ground.
The high-intensity battle had blasted every inch of land into ruins, and even the fungal mat wasn’t spared.
The blackened layers of fungi smoldered, some still smoking, others stamped into muck by the soldiers of both sides.
Another wave of Pukis surged forward.
They rolled over the corpses, tentacles waving, their round bodies deftly dodging through the rain of arrows and magic. Yet, under the near-saturation of attacks, only a few managed to reach the base of the wall and explode.
On the eastern section of the city wall, a corner had crumbled.
Outside that gap lay a giant Puki with half its body remaining, its tentacles still reaching upward, but now corroded to a golden yellow, crumbling to dust at a touch. New Pukis tried to squeeze through the crack, only to be stabbed back by the defenders’ swords.
"Watch out above, they’re coming again!" someone shouted.
In the sky, a group of flying Pukis flapped their wings, charging toward the walls. The archers on high prioritized handling these surprise attackers, but with little success.
[Combat Instinct], [Flight Mastery], [Evasion]
These Pukis skillfully danced up and down, avoiding most of the attacks.
At the top of the castle, Feng Yi, the Demon Race deputy currently in command, stood at the edge.
He drew his bow, nocked an arrow, his movements fluid and smooth.
As the bowstring was pulled taut, the air around the arrow began to twist and spin, emitting a sharp buzzing sound.
Release.
The arrow transformed into a stormy whirlwind in the air, spinning and roaring, sweeping up all incoming Pukis, tearing their wings, shredding the mycelium, and after the arrow had passed, they all plummeted to the ground.
The arrow’s momentum remained, crashing into a Fungus Castle soldier’s barricade below.
The barricade was originally a sloped pile of boulders, and the soldiers behind it were urging their Pukis to charge.
The moment the storm struck, the boulders exploded, and the soldiers could only let out a scream before being swept up in the furious whirlwind, gravely injured if not killed.
After releasing a single arrow, Feng Yi quickly ducked down.
Two Resonance Cannons struck almost simultaneously.
The first shot skimmed the wall, crashing into the sky behind, exploding into a blinding white light. The second struck the wall head-on; the runes-enhanced surface shook violently, the shattered stones falling heavily, with a few striking his back.
The magic power around gradually calmed, the wall remained, and the runes continued to barely hold.
He stood and looked out at the black mass of Puki army outside, another wave surged forward.
Unending, simply unending!
Day and night, the high-intensity battle continued, depleting both military supplies and magic power reserves of Dragon Horn Castle rapidly.
Moreover, besides the conventional battle, there were endless minor tactics.
"Lord Feng Yi, those Pukis have tunneled over again!"
"Stop them, we can’t let the fungal mat touch the defense rune again!" Feng Yi immediately organized a group of earth spellcasters to head underground in Dragon Horn Castle.
When the Pukis first dug tunnels, they watched, ready to laugh at the opposing side.
What kind of place is Dragon Horn Castle?
A fortress operated by the Demon Race for hundreds of years, with a defensive system so perfect, ranking prominently in the entire Northern Territory of the Empire.
The underground defense runes were as tight as those on the surface; a few tunnels were simply not sufficient to breach them.
However, those Pukis didn’t directly attack but spread mycelium through the tunnels.
When the mycelium connected with the outer defense rune, it surprisingly used its magic collection ability to start siphoning off Dragon Horn Castle’s magic reserves directly.
The abnormal magic consumption, by the time they identified the issue, had already consumed a third of the reserve magic, nearly causing Feng Yi to faint from rage.
In the lowest level of the basement of Dragon Horn Castle.
The room was small, with runes carved all over the ceiling, and in the center, a crystal sphere emitted a ghostly blue light.
Inside the crystal, nearly a hundred red dots moved slowly; these were the Puki positions detected by the detection crystal.
At the basement entrance, a demon clad in armor turned, scanning the room.
The mages stood firm at their casting positions, a few fully armed guards stood by the door, swords and shields ready, their expressions tense.
"Prepare yourselves, I’m going to deactivate the outer defense, still three minutes."
No one responded, only a few heavy breaths were heard.
He pulled the door open, slipped out, the heavy iron door closing behind him with a muffled thud.
The next moment, the runes on the ceiling dimmed.
The mages hesitated not, beginning to cast almost simultaneously.
Earth-colored magic surged from their palms, infiltrating the rock beneath, spreading in all directions.
Beneath the ground, the soil began to churn.
The Pukis digging tunnels were squeezed and crushed, buried alive underground.
But almost simultaneously as they suffered the attack, the tunnel-digging Pukis turned and headed towards this basement!
Soon, there was no need for the detection crystal; the guards had already heard the buzzing of the drilling Pukis.
"They’re here!"
The moment the first Puki emerged, a guard’s sword swung down, slicing the round creature in half, leaving it no time for self-destruction.
Then came the second, the third.
Most were killed instantly, but a few managed to self-destruct before the attack.
The guards, however, wore enchanted armor, able to withstand one or two explosions.
Yet, despite their preparation, one Puki squeezed through the gap between a guard’s legs.
Its tentacles swung wildly, slicing through a casting mage’s midsection. The mage let out a scream of agony before collapsing limply.
Almost simultaneously, another guard’s sword cleaved through the Puki’s mushroom cap.
The three minutes passed, the runes lit up once more.
The runes on the ceiling reactivated, the flowing light filled up again, enveloping the entire basement in protection.
The last Puki was hacked down to the ground.
The room was in chaos.
The underground Pukis were almost cleared out; even if some weren’t fully killed, the tunnels dug out were all destroyed, and it would take half a day to dig through again next time.
Yet, on the Demon Race’s side, two guards were severely injured, one mage dead.
The faces of the people were numb, seemingly accustomed to such losses, silently retrieving demon cores from the dead.
The medics received the wounded, prioritizing not bandaging but taking a thin, sharp knife to cut open the wounds.
With each cut, they meticulously checked the depths of the wounds for any remaining spores to prevent parasitism.
...
Outside the Fungus Castle camp.
Looking at Dragon Horn Castle still standing despite a week of assault, Lin Jun couldn’t help but marvel, "Such a strong fighting spirit, it feels like a completely different level compared to Little Norris! Traitors are hard to find."
It wasn’t as if no Demon Race was parasitized successfully, but unlike Cold Bay Castle, where the parasitized were sent to the front lines, most parasitized Demon Race members preferred to die in battle for their companions to reclaim the demon cores.
No matter how Lin Jun appealed to reason and emotion within the Fungal Network, it had little effect.
Little Pig nodded, "It’s normal, after all, the Demon Race numbers are few, and under Dean’s leadership, they value honor and the overall community of their race. On unity, naturally, they’re incomparable to other demon races."
"Vampires aren’t numerous either."
"It’s different; the Blood Race cherishes power and pleasure more. Before blood jade wine, their means of enjoyment were few, leading to many having unique little hobbies. Like the Earl of Cold Bay Castle and his servants: the Earl likely knew the servant hated him but pretended ignorance, keeping him close as a servant to better torment him mentally. Just didn’t expect you, Boss, to have something like the Wondrous Mushroom."
Saying this, Little Pig chuckled lightly, seemingly mocking the Earl’s arrogance.
Then she returned to business, "The siege combat puppets will arrive tomorrow; they move too slowly, let’s hope their performance won’t be too disappointing."
"Rest assured, if the performance is suboptimal, I’ll dock Marco and their budget later!"