This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms – Chapter 674
After the flying Puchis appeared, Eugene also dispatched his bat combat squads.
These giant bats could carry a full combat squad of five to eight people on their backs. Combined with the bats' massive bodies, they possessed a tremendous advantage against Puchis in the air.
Even if Will and the others repeatedly resurrected, all they could do was stall these bats; they were entirely suppressed and beaten the whole time.
However, the cost of raising and contracting these bats was extremely high. Even a Duke like Eugene had fewer than a hundred of them on hand, and only about forty had accompanied him this time.
And his opponent's flying Puchis...
Looking at that endless number, Eugene couldn't fathom how this thing could be worth much money.
Therefore, even though his bat troops held the upper hand in the sky, looking at the occasional giant bat shot down and falling amidst explosions, Eugene couldn't bring himself to be happy at all.
Eugene currently still had two army formations available: one was his own headquarters troops, and the other was the Demon-kin elites Dean had handed over to him.
Looking at the battle lines on both sides, he resolved to crush one side first as a breakthrough point.
Contrary to his subordinates' expectations, Eugene didn't choose the seemingly more precarious Mushroom Fortress positions, but instead the dwarven positions that had acted like an iron wall since the beginning of the battle.
What the generals under Eugene saw in the Mushroom Fortress positions was an opportunity, but what Eugene saw was risk.
The combat methods these Northern Territory tribesmen displayed using Puchis were too new—so new that there wasn't a single reliable tactic to deal with them; they could only react and counter move by move.
Although they seemed to hold all the advantages right now, the massive number of Puchis provided these tribesmen with a vast buffer and stalling space. He didn't know what other tricks they might pull out later.
In comparison, although the dwarven positions were sturdy, the dwarven warriors were superior in strength, and there was an expert no weaker than Eugene himself like Bador holding the fort...
Eugene had a clear idea of their overall strength.
Ultimately, it was only a few thousand dwarven reinforcements. No matter how sturdy their temporarily erected positions were, they couldn't possibly compare to those true dwarven castles in the Mountains.
If he stalled that Bador and threw the Demon-kin troops into the attack on the dwarven positions, it would be enough to crush these external dwarven reinforcements in a short time.
After making some contingency deployments, Eugene handed the command to the two adjutants beside him, while he himself led the Demon-kin elites and joined the battlefield.
With Eugene's entry, the originally stable dwarven positions instantly became precarious.
Under the cover of heavy-armored Horned Demons, those elite Demon-kin, relying on their respective unique abilities, quickly tore apart rift after rift in the dwarven defense line.
Even with General Duwalin commanding with all his might, a rout became an impending reality.
Bador saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart, but was tightly entangled by Eugene and couldn't break away.
During a gap in the dogfight, Bador looked back at the Mushroom Fortress positions. It wasn't much better over there; they had already been beaten to the base of the stone walls.
"Damn it! Where is the backup plan that vampire talked about?!"
...
On the other side, Little Pig finally appeared in everyone's line of sight.
She stood atop the stone wall, looking from afar at the dwarven positions locked in a bitter struggle, her expression somewhat surprised.
"I showed weakness to this extent, yet he still chose to defeat those dwarves first... To be able to become a Duke, it seems he indeed has some capability."
What the Boss wanted were injured dwarves, not dead dwarves.
Therefore, Little Pig couldn't just watch helplessly as the dwarves got wiped out.
Some things originally prepared for the elites under Eugene could only be used on the surrounding soldiers first.
Of course, there was also what she had always been keeping in mind...
"Louisa!" Along with a call, Yvette descended from the sky riding a giant bat, hovering in midair level with the city wall.
"Big Sister Louisa, why are you here? Weren't you going to the human territories to find the Holy Scripture?"
"Big Sister, Lady Elinore is very angry with you. Don't continue making mistakes. It's still not too late to return with me now and plead for punishment. I will also try my best to speak up for you!"
Yvette's face was full of concern, her tone sincere, seemingly truly wanting to persuade Louisa to change her mind.
Little Pig listened to her rhetoric with great interest, but remained unmoved.
"Speak up for me? Do you mean after the failure of the East Garden operation, when you privately reported to Elinore and pinned all the blame on my head? Or when capturing the fugitive, you used a traitor to intercept the intelligence I found and snatched the person away a step ahead of me?"
"This..."
Yvette scratched her cheek somewhat sheepishly. When she raised her eyes to meet her gaze again, the disguised concern vanished without a trace, and the hooked corners of her mouth were full of mockery.
"Really... so you knew everything all along?"
"However, there are only so many promotion quotas. If you don't fight, if you don't snatch, then you can only wait in place to rot and stink!"
"Big Sister, you have more commanding talent than me, than any other sister. You are too threatening."
"If I didn't bring you down, how could I get this precious Earl title?"
"I just didn't expect that you actually didn't die over at the humans' side, and even mixed your way into becoming the boss among this group of tribesmen? Truly hilarious."
"Big Sister Louisa, anyway, these tribesmen are about to be wiped out. No matter how much you struggle, you'll only be stuck at the Diamond tier for your whole life. Your life has no hope."
"Why not help your little sister here? Lend me your head to help me go one step further, how about it?"
On the battlefield, a massive amount of fresh blood gradually rose up under Yvette's manipulation, transforming into small blood bats that fluttered and enveloped the two of them in the middle.
And Yvette herself, wielding a blood crystal long spear and stepping on the blood bats, walked slowly toward Louisa.
"Poor Big Sister. Think back to when I was just transformed; you were so powerful and unattainable. And now?"
"Why not condense a weapon? Even if you can't snatch control of blood from me, an Earl, surely you can at least control your own blood, right?"
"Don't give up, struggle a little, otherwise it'll be very boring."
While mocking verbally like this, Yvette's movements didn't pause at all.
Arriving in front of Louisa, she thrust the blood spear out without hesitation.
Of course, she deliberately avoided Louisa's face, aiming for the heart instead, lest she ruin the face and Lady Elinore wouldn't be able to recognize her when she brought the head back.
However, the spear tip crumbled inch by inch a foot away from Louisa's chest, directly turning into primitive blood that floated around the two of them.
"What?" Amidst her shock, Yvette wanted to condense the weapon again, but felt that all this fresh blood was being pulled by another powerful blood-controlling ability and couldn't be used.
Not only that, even the blood bats fluttering around exploded one by one, reverting to the most basic blood.
Little Pig: "What are you standing there blankly for? Can't you still use your own blood?"
Yvette stared fixedly at Louisa, wanting to find a trace of a "surviving a disaster" expression on her face.
However, she was disappointed. Louisa merely looked at her with a light chuckle as if looking at a monkey. Obviously, she was the one who did all this.
"Impossible! Lady Elinore clearly didn't bestow blood upon you; how could you possibly have Palace-tier strength?"
Facing Yvette, who seemed completely unable to understand the current situation, Louisa said unhurriedly:
"You are right."
"There are only so many quotas. If you don't fight and don't snatch, when will you get the chance for promotion?"
"Yvette, a vampire's ability has its limits. I've learned one thing from this short life: the more one pursues promotion, the more one will be bound by the power of the bloodline. Unless one can surpass being a vampire!"
Yvette: "What... are you talking about?"
Louisa abruptly tore off her cape, revealing the blood crystal battle armor beneath.
Simultaneously, [Mimicry] receded. On her originally relatively clean skin, crisscrossing mycelium emerged.
"I reject my vampirity, Yvette!" (TN: "I'm not going to be a vampire anymore, Yvette!")
Little Pig waved her hand, and the Blood Guard Puchis behind her drilled out, completely seizing control of the fresh blood in the area. It transformed into blooming blood-line flowers that surrounded Yvette in turn.
The magic crystals on the battle armor also lit up one by one, the barbs digging deep. Feeling the power filling her entire body accompanied by pain, Little Pig casually grabbed a few strands of mycelium on her face, unable to hold back her wild laughter any longer: "Yvette! Take a good look. This... is true power!"
(End of Chapter)2