At present, Bechymos was flying above the mushroom forest. It was preparing to observe the entire island as the fungus devourers spread across the island.
However, a sound interrupted Bechymos' actions.
The mushroom forest below Bechymos was constantly shaking. It was the sound of countless creatures moving about. Bechymos could see many creatures moving about in the forest.
It seemed that not all the creatures that had just awakened had been burned to ashes. A considerable number of them had come to the ground, and they were all … flying creatures!
Suddenly, countless fungus monsters flew out from the forest and charged straight at Bechymos in the sky. The number of these creatures was extremely large, but they were very small in size. The largest among them were small arthropods that did not exceed thirty centimeters.
When the group of fungus monsters flew out from the forest, they swept towards Bechymos like a purple tsunami. Even though Bechymos had a gigantic body, he was still surrounded by the group of creatures in an instant.
Lin could sense that they were constantly gnawing at Bechymos' skin. However, as Bechymos' skin was too thick, they could not bite through it at all. Even so, they kept trying, trying to drill into Bechymos' blowhole or blowhole. Bechymos had sealed off these areas, leaving no gaps in its skin. When the arthropods flapped their wings, they would scatter large amounts of fungus dust. When they flew in the air, the fungus dust would scatter like sand, forming a thick layer of fungus dust that stuck to Bechymos' skin.
The fungus dust on Bechymos' body began to grow. It was an extremely corrosive fungus. Lin noticed that some of the fungus monsters on Bechymos' back had begun to kill each other. They were not going crazy. Instead, they were using their bodies as nutrients for the fungus. The fungus that absorbed the nutrients began to grow wildly. They pierced into Bechymos' skin with needle-like mycelium.
What should one do when subjected to such an attack?
It would be better not to move at all.
Although it appeared to be floating in the air, Bechymos' body was operating intensely. Lin could begin an experiment – replacing immune cells with multicellular creatures.
In fact, this had been done a long time ago. Multicellular creatures could easily devour large amounts of bacteria, but they could only be called powerful if they could deal with the invasion of plague fungi.
Bechymos released a large number of troops into his blood vessels. These troops were collectively known as the Immunes. They could move freely within his blood vessels. It looked like a spider-like creature, but it had ten appendages. At the end of each appendage was a small and sharp pincer that could tear the mycelium of fungi into pieces bit by bit.
When a large number of mycelium penetrated the Bechymos's skin and drilled into the subcutaneous structures, they would begin to release dissolving fluid. At that moment, the immune would immediately gather at the corresponding location and release a type of liquid, neutralizing the dissolving fluid before it could harm the cells.
This was a battle within the body.
A large number of immune individuals wandered between the flesh beneath Bechymos' skin, dealing with the countless mycelium extending from Bechymos' skin. These would be torn apart by the small pincers at the end of the limbs of the immune, and then devoured and decomposed. Lin used another type of troop, the 'blood-carriers', to transport these nutrients back to Bechymos for absorption.
To Bechymos, these large numbers of invading mycelium were, in fact, food. The defensive speed of the immune could keep up with the speed of the mycelium's invasion. In fact, it was already very difficult for the mycelium to penetrate Bechymos' thick skin. Moreover, not every part of the skin could be penetrated. The immune could easily find every mycelium that penetrated the skin and decompose it.
After the battle lasted for thousands of seconds, the immune had decomposed countless mycelium. The wounds that had been pierced by the mycelium were rapidly mended with a stronger layer of skin. The mycelium on Bechymos' body was becoming less and less. Some of the immune could even drill out of Bechymos' pierced wounds and go outside to devour more mycelium.
These large amounts of nutrients were transported to the center of Bechymos for conversion and storage …
The large swarm of fungal monsters outside Bechymos' body was still flying around, seemingly unaware of the changes that had occurred in the battle. It seemed that the fungi could only react rapidly to what they could see. The fungal beasts couldn't see those tiny battles, so the fungi couldn't make use of their intellect.
From the looks of it, there seemed to be quite a lot of flaws. Although the ability to control other creatures seemed very strong, there were still various problems.
After Bechymos had finished dealing with the mycelium invading its body and absorbed enough nutrients, it slowly opened the muzzle of the cannon.
Seeing the opening of the cannon, a large number of fungal monsters immediately surged forward, but what greeted them was a pillar of fire.
Under the surging flames, all the fungus monsters blocking the muzzle were instantly incinerated. Their ashes were blown away by the wind, completely dispersing into the air.
The plague fungus seemed to have realized the problem only now. When it discovered that Bechymos wasn't injured in the slightest and could even fight back, all the fungal monsters immediately fled and dissipated into the distant sky.
It seemed that they knew how to run.
But … what was that?
An incomparably huge figure appeared in the direction the arthropod-type fungal monsters fled, and it was getting closer and closer …
The figure had a pair of huge wings and four thick limbs. The huge claws at the ends of the limbs seemed to prove its identity.
It was a wyvern!
The wyvern wasn't completely covered by the fungus, but there were still quite a lot of mycelium sticking to it. It seemed that the plague fungus had more than one wyvern under its control. The wyvern was perhaps fifteen meters long. Although it wasn't known if that was its limit, it was already long enough. However, perhaps because it had been left there for too long, it was showing signs of 'malnutrition'. Its body looked rather … thin, as though it had lost all its flesh and its skin was sticking to its skeleton. Many cracks had appeared on its wings, and the fungus had formed several sacs on its back, seemingly used to help it fly.
"Wuuu …!" Accompanied by a loud roar, the huge figure suddenly flapped its wings and pounced at Bechymos. The sharp claws of its forelimbs pierced into Bechymos' skin at the same time, carving out six wounds. Its sharp claws were deep enough to penetrate Bechymos' blood vessels. Blood began to flow from the wounds.
Although it was malnourished, it still had sufficient strength.
At this moment, the wyvern's throat began to swell. The moment it opened its mouth, it flapped its wings and flew up, spraying a huge amount of fungal dust on Bechymos' wounds.
A large number of immune creatures immediately rushed towards the wounds along the blood vessels. At the same time, Bechymos stretched out two of its tentacles and wrapped around the wyvern's tail.
Although Bechymos' tentacles were only used as cannon barrels, there were still a lot of muscles on them. The wyvern flapped its wings continuously, but it couldn't break free at all. Bechymos exerted force with its tentacles wrapped around the wyvern's tail and threw the wyvern into the forest below.
The wyvern fell into the forest with a loud roar under the tremendous force. With a loud crash, the wyvern fell into a pile of broken mushroom trees.