Chapter 167 166. Keep moving forward
"Raise your shields!" A loud shout echoed through the woods.
Soralin, who had activated the [Vision of Truth] and was the main force in mine clearance, had been searching back and forth for suspicious traces on the ground.
Some mushrooms growing in the forest gave her a lot of trouble to identify, so she failed to notice the fat guy Puji hiding in the tree in time.
The church warriors are indeed a well-coordinated and time-tested unit.
A moment after Solarin gave the order, huge shields with holy emblems intertwined to form a dome above everyone's heads.
However, it was still a step too late. The golden light of the [Holy Barrier] had not yet completely disappeared, and the three fat guys were about to fall.
Fifteen, who was at the end of the team, rushed out before Solarin could speak, and jumped into the air by stepping on the shoulder of an adventurer.
cut!
The three fat bastards were all cut into two pieces.
However, before the people below had time to be happy, they saw more Puji bursting out of the fat man Puji's body.
Some of these Puji were killed by the impact, some were stopped by the barriers, but some still fell into the crowd.
People near the point where the puff landed subconsciously tried to dodge, block or counterattack, but it caused more chaos.
A warrior tried to use his arm armor to knock away the falling Puji, but at the moment of contact——
boom!
The blinding green light mixed with the sticky corrosive slurry exploded violently! Like a signal, more explosions rang out among the crowd.
“Ahhh!”
"My eyes!"
"Shield! Raise your shield! Protect the caster!"
Screams, explosions, and the sizzling sound of corrosion instantly resounded around.
The adventurers were in chaos, but the church warriors showed organizational skills far beyond those of the adventurers.
Even though Puji exploded not far away and was covered in corrosive slime, they still held up the [Sacred Barrier] and blocked most of the shock waves and splashes from above, otherwise the situation would have been even worse.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that they are better equipped and can withstand more damage.
Puji's attack did not end there. Taking advantage of the chaos in the human formation, Puji, who had ambushed in the forest in advance by digging a tunnel, surrounded the humans from both sides.
"Hold the formation! Don't panic!" a church captain shouted at the top of his lungs.
However, he could command his church warriors, but not the adventurers.
In the chaos, although most adventurers stood with the church warriors, some still chose to be smart.
Either they rely on their fast speed to escape in the direction they came from, or they use means such as invisibility to try to hide aside and wait for the crisis to pass.
These practices might help them escape danger in other situations, but they were clearly the wrong options for Lin Jun.
Under multiple reconnaissance perspectives, ordinary adventurers simply cannot truly hide in the dungeon.
After the escaped person ran back to the first floor, he was caught by Puji who had been waiting for a long time.
As for those who are invisible or disguised, a team of Puji will inadvertently pass by their position, and then they will really disappear.
Sixth-level mental magic—group pain immunity!
As Aidin took action, the team, which was originally a little chaotic, quickly stabilized.
But Aidin's face looked terribly ugly.
The moment he was ambushed, Aidin created several phantoms around him to disperse the attack, but those Puji ignored the phantoms and focused on attacking his real body.
Aidin had to hide in the church's team in a panic, relying on a group of gold and silver to protect him.
This feeling of being restrained made him regret following along.
Fortunately, the crisis did not last long—Fifteen took action.
After realizing that he had been tricked by the Pujis, Fifteen, out of shame and anger, showed his true strength.
With the help of [Swimming Steps] which was close to the maximum level, Fifteen moved through the forest like a gust of wind, and wherever he passed, the Pujis fell down in groups like wheat harvested by a sickle.
At the beginning, the self-destructive Puji who mixed in the team barely caused some trouble to Fifteen, but after figuring out the trick, Fifteen no longer got close to them, but killed them from a distance with the wind of his sword.
Nearly two hundred Pujis in the field were all killed in less than eight minutes.
To be honest, this was a bit beyond Lin Jun's expectations.
Although he didn't think he could cripple this team right away, Lin Jun thought the Pujis could harass them for a while longer, but it turned out to be less than ten minutes...
"What's the situation?" Fifteen asked while adjusting his breathing after sheathing his sword.
After a brief silence, Solalin's voice sounded, with a hint of fatigue and heaviness: "According to the preliminary count, one church soldier was killed and one was seriously injured. Five adventurers... were missing, three were killed, and three were seriously injured."
She turned off [Vision of Truth] and rubbed her swollen temples. The corpses all over the ground had greatly interfered with her vision. Now that she had the skill on, everything she saw was a blur, so she might as well turn it off.
Solarin did not mention those with minor injuries. Those with minor injuries would recover quickly under the treatment of the priest, while the so-called serious injuries referred to those who had suffered injuries that could not be reversed by ordinary treatments.
For example, blindness, or amputation...
This kind of serious injury can still be cured if you spend a lot of money to buy special potions after leaving the dungeon.
But at this moment the team was still in the dungeon and could do nothing.
"Damn it!" Fifteen cursed in a low voice, his face gloomy, and he didn't feel like he had won at all.
He didn't expect that the losses would be so heavy after just the first wave of contact.
The insidiousness of those things was far beyond expectations, especially the corrosive slime, which was a disaster for adventurers without heavy armor protection.
He saw several soldiers who were injured by the corrosive slime, their bodies covered in blood and even their bones exposed, and they were receiving emergency treatment from the team's chaplain.
Although the warrior tried his best to suppress his voice, his distorted face revealed his pain.
Aidin had to add another group pain immunity at the right time.
"The question now is," Aidin walked over and asked with a frown, "what should we do with these wounded?"
"We can't abandon them. They might not be able to get out of this dungeon on their own." After a brief thought, Fifteen concluded, "Puji has set up a combination of traps and ambushes. There is a high probability that there will be an ambush on the way back."
"Then...send some people to escort them out?" Aidin asked hesitantly even though he knew it was inappropriate.
"How much should we divide?" Solalin bluntly pointed out the key point. "If we have too many people, we won't have enough combat power to advance. If we have too few people, we will just be given food to the Pujis if we encounter an ambush."
"And now?"
"The core combat power of the team has not been truly damaged, and the number of wounded is small. Carrying them will not slow down the overall marching speed."
Soralin's voice was steady and powerful, but then she changed the subject, revealing an unprecedented solemnity.
“However, the combat power displayed by Puji has far exceeded our previous expectations.
In our subsequent exploration, we must proceed step by step with extreme caution.
Once the situation changes, we must retreat decisively and then make a new plan after retreating."
As she spoke, Soralin's eyes were fixed on Fifteen.
In Soralin's opinion, Aidin was just a mercenary who worked for a salary. He would not lose any money if the retreat took place, so he naturally had no objection.
What she was afraid of was that Fifteen, the strongest one, would not cooperate at that time.
Fifteen obviously understood what she meant and gave up the right to speak: "You are the commander, you have the final say."
Aidin on the side nodded in agreement.
But in fact, Soralin still doesn't know Aidin well enough.
If she planned to retreat, Aidin would not only have no objection, but would even agree with it...
(End of this chapter)
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