Chapter 260 - 156: Manqiluo’s Buffet
The members of the flanking squad returned to where they had first climbed the cliff, but to their surprise, they couldn’t find the path up.
The spot they remembered climbing up was now covered in lush vegetation, including many tall, strange plants.
"This isn’t the right place! These plants weren’t here when we came up!!!"
"Are we lost?"
"The plants along the way look different, too."
"Captain, what should we do? If we can’t find the path down, we’ll be trapped here!"
Everyone began to panic.
"Search! Tear this place apart if you have to, but find it!"
"Everyone, set fire to the woods! Clear away everything that’s blocking our line of sight! I refuse to believe this!"
The captain made a swift decision.
"Captain, if we start a fire, won’t the Sniper Corps downhill know someone’s up here?"
"What if they do? We’ve already decided to abort the mission. If we can divert the Sniper Corps’ attention, we can at least say we made a contribution."
"Burn it all!"
The captain had grown desperate. He recklessly decided to raze the entire mountaintop.
It had to be said, the Eye Demon on his back was a ruthless one. Despite the terror in its heart, it didn’t panic. Instead, it decided to flip the whole table.
The remaining 30,000 soldiers formed small squads and quickly spread out.
They drew their weapons, began hacking at the surrounding flora, and piled it up to be burned.
Seeing this, the plant people hidden nearby dropped their disguises. They began to silently close in from all sides.
At the edge of the cliff, Manqiluo stretched, her immense form rising from where it had been buried amongst the vegetation.
As a plant person in her high thirties, approaching level forty, her "Giant Plant" ability had reached level three. Her original height of one meter had swelled to a towering eight meters.
Four massive Big-Mouthed Flowers, each one gigantic and terrifying to behold.
"Captain! A monster!!!"
The soldiers of the flanking squad were just about to hack down the strange plants when the sudden appearance of the giant Manqiluo startled them.
Now that she had revealed herself, Manqiluo had no intention of playing games. She went straight into feeding mode.
The Big-Mouthed Flower could absorb nutrients from its devoured targets to grow, meaning eating targets granted experience points.
Due to her immense size, Manqiluo hadn’t participated in the previous operation and had missed out on a lot of experience.
Other high-level plant people had also sat out for the same reason.
Now, they had all converged on the flanking squad’s position. Huge plants emerged from the surrounding jungle. They weren’t as gigantic as Manqiluo, but their predatory maws were still terrifying enough to make the soldiers of the flanking squad instinctively cluster together.
"AHH—"
"HELP—"
To Manqiluo, this huddled mass of soldiers was a buffet laid out on a platter, hers for the taking. Her four great maws took turns, each one plucking a person from the crowd and swallowing them whole.
Manqiluo was high-level and of Legendary grade, with incredibly high stats. The soldiers she swallowed might as well have been made of butter; they melted in her mouth, not even lasting a second.
"GULP—"
"GULP—"
"GULP—"
"GULP—"
Manqiluo devoured them at a steady, unhurried pace of one per second, looking almost elegant as she did.
The other high-level plant people also launched their attacks: multi-headed Pea Shooters of various types, oversized Gloom Mushrooms, multi-nozzled Giant Mushrooms, towering cacti with man-high spines, rapid-fire Cat’s Tail Grass, and Watermelon Shooters that launched spike-filled watermelons...
When their "Giant Plant" ability activated, most high-level plant people chose to fuse with a plant of their own kind. However, some innovators fused with other types of plants, achieving fusion effects even more peculiar than simple hybrids.
For example: a Pea Shooter fused with a Cherry Bomb could fire explosive peas; an Earth Spike fused with a Squash could leap from the ground to bury enemies, dealing high damage, though its cooldown was a bit long; a Big-Mouthed Flower fused with a cactus grew internal spikes, drastically increasing the damage dealt to swallowed targets...
However, aside from the attacks of the plant people who had advanced to Hero-grade, the other plants’ attacks only looked intimidating; their damage wasn’t high enough to kill soldiers in one hit.
Furthermore, due to the limited number of plant people present, their "Coordinated Combat" passive wasn’t very effective. Overall, their frontal assault was not nearly as powerful or effective as their initial ambush.
After withstanding a few volleys, the captain actually started to relax.
’These attacks aren’t even that strong. My soldiers must be pathetically weak to have been killed so silently by this!!!’
"Don’t panic! The enemy has shown their faces! Form ranks and fuck them up!"
At his command, the members of the flanking squad suppressed their fear and began to form up in an orderly fashion.
However, Manqiluo had no intention of giving them a chance to mount a desperate defense. One of her Big-Mouthed Flowers shot out, extending with incredible speed to swallow the captain whole.
The captain’s world went dark. He found himself encased in a protective barrier.
The barrier was filled with a sweet-smelling liquid. The moment he was submerged, his health began to drop precipitously.
The captain (or rather, the Eye Demon) knew this was bad. It immediately drew upon its Spiritual Energy to form a Spiritual Shield and began to frantically attack the barrier trapping it.