Swordfish was missing.
According to the plan, as the main firefighting force, he was supposed to take a trip down, clear out the Keith bugs along the way, casually glance at the situation on the seabed, and then float back up to report. Keith's current scale was long past what a single person could kill off entirely. Lin Jun knew this in his heart and never expected him to handle it all.
However, half a day had passed, and the Sword Saint had neither floated up to the sensing range of the fungal mat, nor died and returned to the Mushroom Garden to respawn.
Was he captured? Or was he trapped somewhere?
Lin Jun felt that the possibility of being captured wasn't high. No matter what, that was the Sword Saint. He couldn't possibly be beaten by a swarm of bugs so badly that he didn't even have time to press [Self-Destruct], right?
While waiting for the Sword Saint to return, Piggy wasn't idle either.
The true main force of the navy began to assemble toward this sea area, and the floating mushroom fungal mat on the sea surface also changed its appearance under Lin Jun's will.
Those mycelia originally spread on the water surface proliferated madly under the urging of mana. But they no longer spread out into a mat; instead, they entangled with each other, growing spirally downward, forming mycelial pillars reaching toward the seabed.
These mycelial pillars were extensions of the fungal mat. Although they were a negative asset in terms of mana consumption, they could provide the diving main force with all the support the fungal mat could offer.
They drooped down from the sea surface, blue-green fluorescence slowly flowing along the pillars, like countless glowing tentacles hanging down from the sky, inserting into the dark deep sea in clusters and bunches.
The Mushroom Fortress's naval forces dove down alongside these mycelial pillars, and Norris was among them.
Through the Jida's perception, he "saw" the bug corpses floating in the sea.
Densely packed and oddly shaped, many were varieties never seen before.
Some looked like squashed starfish, others like vines covered in barbs...
A portion of the bugs weren't completely dead yet, but there were no living eye-bugs nearby. Having lost their command, they were left with only their most primitive instincts, either struggling or devouring the corpses of other bugs around them.
As long as they didn't get too close, they wouldn't even initiate attacks on the diving forces.
Of course, this didn't mean Lin Jun would let them go.
Lower-level bugs that had lost their eye-bugs had absolutely no power to resist, being blasted to pieces one by one by the mushroom cannons.
Continuing to dive alongside the mycelial pillars, Norris finally encountered organized living bugs.
A massive meat-whale-type bug was currently retrieving those floating scraps of flesh with the assistance of some small bugs.
They seemingly hadn't expected the Puchi army to dive down. When illuminated by the fluorescence on the mycelial pillars, the meat-whale desperately swam its body, attempting to dive deeper to hide, but Norris had already aimed the resonance cannon on the Jida's shoulder at it.
This kind of massive, cumbersome bug used for transportation was basically a live target; naturally, it was impossible for it to dodge the resonance cannon's attack.
And its defense formed by a crust of flesh and blood was easily annihilated by the resonance cannon.
The massive meat-whale bug had a large hole pierced through its body. After struggling twice and letting out a sorrowful wail, it stopped moving.
As for those small bugs assisting in collecting the meat scraps, after a portion of them were wiped out by the tentacle pierces and mushroom cannons of other Puchis, they hid far away. After finishing off a wave of bugs, no more living bugs were encountered in the subsequent dive.
Keith was annoying exactly because of this.
Every time it couldn't win, it would hide, simply not giving Lin Jun a chance to find it for a decisive battle.
Lin Jun could only use the method of continuously compressing its living space to slowly eat away its strength bit by bit, but this method was quite time-consuming. Finally, the vanguard forces dove to the bottom.
Norris scratched his head inside the Jida: "Where on earth did Fourteen swim off to?"
During the second half of the diving process, although not many bug corpses could be seen, a faint purple color could still be detected in the water. Clearly, Fourteen had killed his way down, it was just that the majority of the bug corpses had been retrieved later.
But the problem was, even now, the Sword Saint Puchi was still nowhere to be seen.
"Let's search the surroundings. Be careful not to get too far from the mycelial pillars, watch out for being—"
Before Norris could finish speaking, a sudden change occurred.
A melodious singing voice came from the darkness where the fluorescence couldn't reach.
"Careful, it's the [Voice of Charm] of the mermaids!" The instant the singing appeared, an experienced fishman warned in the mycelial network. "Concentrate!"
However, what transmitted over wasn't the voice of one or two mermaids, but a grand chorus from all directions, completely surrounding Norris's vanguard squad! "Damn it, why would mermaids attack—"
With a charming ability far exceeding a single entity, the fishmen, half-demons, snakemen, and others in the vanguard squad soon all fell into a [Charmed] state.
Their tense expressions relaxed, and they blankly swam slowly toward the darkness.
Although the Puchis beside them wouldn't be affected by the charm, having lost the command of their Puchi Masters, they could only automatically execute the follow command, swimming along with their charmed Puchi Masters.
Almost in an instant, the vanguard squad's formation collapsed. Only two people still remained awake.
One of them was a rare mental-type spellcaster. Although their tier wasn't high, they had basic mental protection skills, and at this moment, under the repeated washing of the [Voice of Charm] chorus, they were struggling to hold on.
The other person was Norris.
He hadn't put up any protection, much less was he proficient in mental magic.
However, under the attack of this chorus, although he also felt it was a bit difficult to concentrate his attention, his situation was actually much better than the mental-type mage beside him.
All of this was thanks to Lin Jun occasionally helping him train in his dreams; his mental resilience far exceeded ordinary people.
Of course, Norris himself didn't know this. He just felt he was more prone to having various weird dreams.
"Damn it, damn it!" That mage knew it was impossible for him to hold on anymore. Before his consciousness fell into a trance, he issued a final command to his subordinate Puchis, "Bomb them to death!"
The Puchi Fish immediately swam toward the darkness.
Attacks struck from the darkness, but the Puchis nimbly dodged on their own.
[Combat Intuition LV7]
Although the attacks were dense, a few Puchis still managed to break through up close. Boom!
The radiance of the explosion illuminated the darkness, allowing Norris—who was unable to use [Sonic Detection] due to the sound interference—to clearly see the things attacking them in the darkness.
"What the hell is this?" The scene before him made even Norris's voice tremble.
It was a ring of massive tentacles coiled around the vanguard squad. On the fleshy walls of the tentacles, countless mermaids were embedded.
Threads of flesh covered their bodies that were exposed outside the fleshy wall, making them look ferocious and terrifying.
It was exactly this fleshy wall that was controlling these live mermaid specimens to unleash the chorus of [Voice of Charm]!
Resonance Cannon!
Norris launched an attack without hesitation. The artillery struck the tentacle, blasting flesh, blood, and mermaids alike into minced meat.
The attacked tentacle suddenly squirmed and withdrew into the distance.
Replacing it were countless scarlet bug eyes in the darkness.
The [Voice of Charm] disappeared, and the Mushroom Fortress soldiers were still in a trance. Their originally tight and orderly formation was completely disrupted. Facing the overwhelming swarm of bugs lunging at them, they could only instinctively command the Puchis to resist on their own.
Having lost orderly coordination, a massive number of Puchis were torn to shreds by the bugs, and the frontline was continuously compressed. Norris wanted to break through upward, but several consecutive resonance cannon shots failed to blast open a gap in the bug tide large enough for them to pass through.
With his back against the rock wall, even if Norris separated from the Jida, using one combat power as two, it was still difficult to hold on. Seeing that he was about to be killed before the subsequent reinforcements arrived, and then begin his own career as a Puchi...
Suddenly, a pair of slender arms extended from the rock wall, wrapping around his neck and pulling backward forcefully!
Norris then disappeared into the rock wall.
A few other Mushroom Fortress soldiers nearby who were close to the rock wall were similarly pulled inside.
But that was all. More vanguard squad soldiers were ultimately submerged by the bug swarm.
However, these soldiers did not collapse. They persisted in fighting and successfully held on for a long enough time. The bugs that killed them couldn't evacuate in time and were all wiped out after being counter-surrounded by the Mushroom Fortress's follow-up forces.
As for that massive tentacle, it did not appear again.
All the corpses were thrown into the mycelial pillars for decomposition, and over eighty percent of the soldiers successfully transformed into Puchis.
However...
"Where is Norris?" Lin Jun controlled a Puchi to feel around the rock wall.
(End of Chapter)
Comments