Chapter 593: Chapter 358: Major Overhaul
A long, piercing wail echoed through the mushroom forest, followed by a boiling gurgling sound, carrying the joy of having defeated a powerful enemy.
The mushrooms bounced neatly beside the spine-dog’s corpse, the Fungus Carpet surging, while the mushrooms floating midair wobbled and flew even higher.
A fat mushroom as large as a small hill bounced out from the depths of the mushroom forest. It stood a full two meters tall, slightly taller than the battle mushrooms. Its plump cap was three times thicker than that of an ordinary mushroom, and with every bounce the soft, springy cap would jiggle three times. The stalk was even more outrageous: at its thickest root, it was only two circles smaller than the cap.
The flesh-colored cap had pale yellow rings on it, looking extremely bright and eye-catching.
Accompanied by dozens of 1.6-meter-tall battle mushrooms, every time it bounced, the mushrooms around it had to jump along. If they accidentally mistimed it, when it came down the surrounding battle mushrooms would be flung away and would need half a day to jump back.
After bouncing its retinue of guards into complete disarray, the Mushroom King finally arrived beside the spine-dog’s corpse.
It let out a dignified gurgle.
The little mushrooms bounced excitedly twice, then stopped.
The Mushroom King was very satisfied and continued its speech, "Guji, gugujiji..."
Halfway through, a faint mycelial network belonging to a ghost-parasol mushroom on the Fungus Carpet suddenly pulsed once. The Mushroom King’s speech also came to an abrupt halt, and all the little mushrooms that had stretched their caps to listen froze, turning their heads to look toward the depths of the mushroom forest.
The message transmitted through the mycelial network was just one: the enemy is coming!
A point of starlight rapidly expanded in the dim, damp mushroom forest, then turned into a vicious streak of lightning tearing through the air.
In the instant before the mushrooms could react, it nailed itself into a 1.6-meter-tall guard mushroom.
The guard mushroom didn’t even let out a sound before it vaporized on the spot, and the Thunder Spear pierced into the Fungus Carpet.
The dark red Fungus Carpet trembled violently, lightning spreading like water. Once it extended beyond five meters, the lightning could no longer maintain a liquid form, turning into vicious arcs of electricity that crisscrossed outward, devouring more mushrooms.
The three nearest mushrooms were covered by the lightning net. Their tender white bodies flashed brightly, then quickly turned yellow and red before becoming a small charred patch in front of the Mushroom King.
Finally, with a thunderous boom, the lightning that had spread over a dozen meters finally subsided.
A huge scorched patch more than ten meters across appeared on the Fungus Carpet. At the very center, several meters of the Carpet had been burned through, exposing the black soil beneath. With just this one strike, four battle mushrooms with the equivalent of Tier One combat power were killed, and five more were blasted wounded.
"Guji!"
The Mushroom King let out an enraged roar. Tens of thousands of little mushrooms cried guji in response and surged forward. Wherever the eye could see, ten thousand mushrooms leaped, ripples expanding across the water pooling on the Fungus Carpet like rain on a lake’s surface.
The Mushroom King turned and ran back the way it had come.
In the fungal nest, the giant battle mushrooms that had been slumbering soundly were summoned. They shook their caps as they rose and headed in the Mushroom King’s direction.
The massive spore-sprayer mushrooms crowding the edge of the fungal nest like mere decorations also started moving.
In an instant, the entire mushroom forest became ghostly and shifting. Even forces that hadn’t been deployed against the red-furred mushrooms all awakened under the Mushroom King’s call. A full ten thousand battle mushrooms surged in a mighty tide to encircle the intruders.
"Bang!"
Su Huan casually thrust once, his arm sinking entirely into the giant mushroom’s massive stalk, but the latter felt no pain at all. It twisted its body, trying to stomp Su Huan to death.
The conductor narrowed his eyes, using Pan-energy Transformation to convert energy into intense heat. The giant mushroom finally felt pain.
But it was already too late.
His skin split open in an instant, flames surging out, turning the over ten-meter-tall giant mushroom into a pillar of fire.
The collapsing giant mushroom smashed dozens of production mushrooms that couldn’t dodge in time into mushroom patties.
Yet there was no joy on anyone’s face.
More and more mushrooms were surging in from all directions. Hundreds, then thousands of spore-sprayer mushrooms ringed them, madly spewing grayish-white spores that blended into the gray fog, almost impossible to detect. Each giant mushroom carried dozens of 1.6-meter-tall battle mushrooms with tough skin, like mobile fortresses of war closing in on them.
In a daze, it felt as if the entire mushroom forest was besieging them.
Seeing this scene, even Su Huan frowned. These mushrooms might have single-track fighting methods, but each one had the qualities of a Tier One Evolver.
He had already seen over a thousand mushrooms, and judging from how the Fungus Carpet was trembling, there were likely many more behind.
These mushrooms had enormous bodies and extremely high resistances; killing them would waste a lot of energy. He did have enough to wipe out ten thousand mushrooms, but he would definitely be worked to death here!
Yu Jing and Lu Xiao, leading the soldiers, were already locked in battle with the mushrooms.
Thanks to the Power Armor, the spore-sprayer mushrooms’ spores were temporarily ineffective against them. The real threats were those thick-skinned giant mushrooms and battle mushrooms.
These mushrooms had a very high water content; each battle mushroom weighed between 130 and 160 kilograms. If one of these things fell on you from over ten meters up, no matter how good the bone load-damping system inside the Power Armor was, the soldier would still be stunned for a moment. If a giant mushroom jumped and slammed down on you, it’d be no different from taking a direct hit from a Tier Two Zombie.
The soldiers formed into squads of five, splitting into groups of two and three. Two men were dedicated to watching the sky, while the remaining three turned into Firepower Hands, shredding any mushroom that lunged at them into pieces.
But the mushrooms’ Life Force was extremely tenacious. A fatal wound to a zombie was just a trivial little hole to a mushroom.
The massive ammunition reserves inside the Power Armor were being burned through at a crazy rate.
Su Huan flexed his right fingertips, hesitated for a moment, then withdrew his hand.
