When the Scorpion Spider Demon charged towards the Troll Mouse King, the latter was also rushing towards it, its boneless tentacle-arms shooting forward first.
The bone tips, aimed at the Scorpion Spider Demon's body, struck with fierce speed and immense force.
The Scorpion Spider Demon swung its Wolf Fang Club to meet the attack, clashing with a metallic clang. The bone tips were knocked away but were quickly controlled by the Troll Mouse King and aimed right back at the Scorpion Spider Demon.
This probing attack marked the beginning of the battle, with the Troll Mouse King's movements being extremely sharp, and every attack carried tremendous force.
When the attack from the tentacle bone tips failed, it immediately closed in for hand-to-hand combat; its massive beast claws struck with powerful force upon the Scorpion Spider Demon, colliding with the Floating Pagoda Black Armor with a resounding clang.
Two tentacles from beneath the ribs also launched an attack, attempting to snatch the Wolf Fang Club from the Scorpion Spider Demon's grasp, but the Floating Pagoda Black Armor on its body was not just for show.
Armored plates from the Floating Pagoda Black Armor formed chains, battling the tentacles. Although slightly weaker in strength, they did not give way an inch.
The two massive creatures constantly attacked each other, trading blows with thunderous impact, each hit felt profoundly. Under such attacks, any rat monsters that came close became casualties.
Elsewhere, just as the battle between the Scorpion Spider Demon and the Troll Mouse King erupted, the nest-mother rat started stepping forward with massive strides wanting to help the Troll Mouse King.
However, as it started moving, countless vines already burst from the ground, binding towards its body.
"Roar"
The nest-mother rat got its beast feet entwined by the vines and immediately began to struggle and roar, its forelimbs and sharp claws reaching out towards the vines.
Its sharp claws sliced through, and with a strength not inferior to the Troll Mouse King's, the vines broke one by one.
Su Han watched the vines break and contemplated, "The strength of the vines is still lacking, could the metallic quality be insufficient?"
Previously, he had mostly fought weaker monsters, and few could tear the vines apart.
Even some somewhat stronger monsters could not escape the density of those vines, which now served as a reminder to him.
With a thought, he continued to command the Ancient Worm Tree to attack, reasoning that if one vine could be broken, then let ten vines entangle it.
With Fast-Growing Vines and Intermediate Self-Healing in hand, Su Han had enough confidence to wear it down.
As Su Han controlled the Ancient Worm Tree to burst forth, more vines surged like a tide, especially entwining around the two hind legs furthest from the forelimbs.
The nest-mother rat swung its massive forelimbs to break free, but at that moment, four thicker tentacles suddenly surged from the ground, unmistakably the Man-eating Vines.
No sooner had the Man-eating Vines appeared than they rapidly wrapped around the two forelimb beast claws and bit into the nest-mother rat's body.
A significant amount of Paralyzing Toxin was injected, and the nest-mother rat immediately realized the bad situation, swelling up and emitting a piercing roar.
The terrifying roar, with its powerful sonic force, caused some nearby rat monsters to have intracranial bleeding and collapse on the spot.
Many vines weakened in their movements due to the roar, loosening their grip on the nest-mother rat.
Seeing the hope of escaping, the nest-mother rat struggled even harder, attempting to break free from the vines' bondage.
If it managed to break free this time and join the Troll Mouse King, then the vines could never bind it again.
But it was celebrating too soon.
After withstanding the initial impact, the Ancient Worm Tree quickly reacted and intensified the vines' bondage.
From afar, Su Han's eyes narrowed, then he shouted, "Old Zhu, where are the city-defense crossbows?"
Zhu Xiong was currently controlling his Angel Envoy to sweep through those monsters, and had himself entered the fray with an axe, each swing taking down a monster.
A huge explosion sounded, and a large hole immediately appeared in the stomach of the Troll Mouse King, with blood continuously spurting out.
After a series of heavy hits, the Troll Mouse King could no longer resist.
Meanwhile, the wounds previously inflicted on the Scorpion Spider Demon had already mostly healed, slowly closing up.
[Detected a fusion-capable living monster, the Troll Mouse King, proceed with fusion?]
[Detected a fusion-capable living monster, the Broodnest Mouse Queen, proceed with fusion?]
Prompts for fusion simultaneously appeared for the Scorpion Spider Demon and the Ancient Worm Tree.
Su Han's eyes lit up, exactly what he had been waiting for; without any hesitation, he immediately thought to himself, "Fusion."
The two Angel Envoys started fusing unrestrainedly, while the surrounding rat monsters tried to interfere and rescue their king.
But fusion didn't stop them from acting, the Scorpion Spider Demon continued its fusion with one hand, while sweeping away rat monsters with the Wolf Fang Club in the other, keeping them from getting close.
Even more terrifyingly, the Crimson Demon Eye, after a brief rest, burst forth again, sweeping over a crowd of rat monsters before it.
Although the power was somewhat reduced since it wasn't a one-on-one attack, it was still a formidable attack for the rat monsters.
At the Ancient Worm Tree, Fast-growing Vines covered the ground and underground, strangling approaching rat monsters or turning them into nutrients for the Man-eating Vine.
The Tree-born Worm had already been recalled to its side, and although there were only a hundred hatched worms currently, combined with the vine attacks, they were enough to trouble these rat monsters.
"Kill!"
The defeat of the Mouse King and Queen plunged the rat monsters into chaos, weakening their assault considerably; Guo Wutao and Yan Tiejun seized the opportunity to launch a final attack.
This time, not only the Angel Envoys fought, but the Contractors also began to push forward.
Clad in Black Armor, Su Han gripped a Pu knife and charged into the rat monster swarm, leading the charge in the general attack.
With every movement of his hand, a rat monster was cleaved in two; though in human form, Su Han's strength was greater than that of a typical Angel Envoy, and in just a few short moments, he had swept through hundreds of rat monsters.
Such sweeping continued for half an hour until the rat monsters were completely scattered, gradually being exterminated; even those few that escaped numbered only over a hundred and could only struggle to survive in the caves.
With just over a hundred rat monsters left, it was unlikely that they could evolve to such scales again.
Especially since there was no longer a stockpile of food, they would need to continuously compete with other monsters to secure resources for growth.
"We finally won."
Guo Wutao wiped his blood-stained machete, his body and face already splattered with blood, the smell so familiar to him now.
Having retired from the front lines a while ago, it had been a long time since he had fought in earnest, and Guo Wutao felt somewhat nostalgic.
Yan Tiejun, however, was much calmer; his Angel Envoy, a Giant Macrophage Dog, also of First Order Upper Grade, had killed many rat monsters in the fight.
"Days like this will be plenty in the future," he paused slightly, "but at least we finally have this stockpile, which means we can do so much more."
Guo Wutao nodded, understanding Yan Tiejun's meaning; with the stockpile secured, they could shelter more people, expand the base, save survivors... each of these required food as a backbone.
Otherwise, just waiting for crops to grow would take at least two or three months, by which time most people would be dead.
"Old Yan, you take some people to clean up the battlefield, and I'll go with Su Han to check the warehouse, see what the situation is,"
"Okay."