Chapter 86: The Withered Frenzy, the Furnace's Roar, and the Thorn's Faint Light

The Boulder Bastion cast silent, heavy shadows beneath the setting sun (the wasteland's eternal grey haze). The faint blue-green glow on the Thornsteel armor plating flickered like exhausted breathing, slowly brightening and dimming. At the bastion's peak, the muzzles of the few remaining Thornsteel hive-cannon turrets were dim, the great iron-thorn wheels had ceased to turn, and even the glow of the earth-fire in the furnace zone seemed duller than usual. Seven days had passed since Lin Mo and Wrench departed. The territory lay under a stifling silence, broken only by the furnace's low rumble and the clinking of craftsmen patching armor, hammering at frayed nerves.

Copperbeard stood at the bastion's highest point, his mechanical augmetic eye scanning toward the Withered Forest, his bushy brows knotted into a lump. The dwarf's rough fingers unconsciously rubbed the cold hammerhead of his forging hammer, still stained with the purplish-black residue left by the previous insect tide. Sister Ai Li and Xiang Lingna still slept beside the ley-line fissure, the light from the new sprout at the tip of the World Tree sapling as faint as a candle guttering in the wind. The link to the Sanctuary Core was so weak it was nearly severed, transmitting only intermittent, warning-laden pulses: 【…Blightclaw… Mark… Active… Danger…】

"Old Copperbeard! The probe's reacting! Deep in the Withered Forest! Massive energy gathering!" a refugee warrior stationed at the spare detector Wrench had left behind screamed in terror, his voice especially jarring in the deathly stillness.

Copperbeard's heart clenched, and he lunged at the detector screen. The vast area representing the depths of the Withered Forest was lit up with dense purple light points—representing high-concentration decay energy—blazing and converging like boiling magma! The scale far surpassed any previous insect tide! Even more chilling, at the center of the purple sea of light, several enormously massive, mountain-sized crimson light points were forming!

"Damn it! The big ones are coming!" Copperbeard's roar was like a thunderclap, instantly shattering the territory's silence! "All hands—maximum combat readiness! On the bastion! Polish those muzzles for me! Furnace! Burn at full blast!"

The shrill alarm once again tore through the wasteland's sky! Refugee warriors poured out from every direction, faces bearing fear, but more than that, the vicious ferocity of those driven to the brink. They grabbed crude weapons, charged up the bastion, and took their positions. The surviving hive-cannon turrets began to charge with difficulty, orange-red light gathering at their muzzles. The heavy iron-thorn wheels, driven again by the furnace's waste heat amid the grinding of gears, emitted a teeth-grinding screech as they slowly accelerated.

Copperbeard personally leapt into the furnace zone, his massive mechanical augmetic hand slamming down hard on several thick energy conduit valves!

"Burn—for me!"

Boom——!!!

The ley-line furnace erupted with an unprecedented roar! Orange-red earth-fire surged from the furnace mouth like an enraged dragon! The vast energy was forcibly split—one portion injected into the bastion's energy shield core, the shield's light instantly surging to form a solid orange-red light barrier over the bastion's outer layer; the other portion flooded into the energy channels within the Thornsteel armor plating, the faint blue-green glow blazing bright like a red-hot branding iron!

Thornheart, this battered war machine, under Copperbeard's furious roar, forcibly squeezed out its last strength and bared its remaining fangs!

At the horizon's end, the dim sky was completely swallowed by a churning, ink-thick purplish-black tide! That was no insect tide, but a destructive flood composed of countless even more twisted, frenzied Withered monsters! Decaying giant tree-men marched with earth-shaking steps, each one leaving scorched earth burning with purple fire; siege beasts aggregated from bones and slime let out roars that shattered eardrums; in the sky, a sky-darkening swarm of larger decayed wyverns, like a cloud of death, swooped in first!

And at the very front of the flood, three terrifying figures like moving mountains radiated a suffocating pressure! Their main bodies were highly corrupted giant radscorpions, but their shells were covered in thick Withered crystal clusters, and their tails had been replaced by massive cannon barrels dripping with purplish-black energy fluid—【Corrupted Giant Scorpion Artillery】! The crystal clusters on their backs flashed wildly, and three thick, condensed to the extreme purplish-black energy beams, like spears of judgment from hell, instantly crossed space and slammed into the Boulder Bastion!

"Shield—full power!" Copperbeard's eyes nearly split with fury!

Hum——!!!

The orange-red light barrier on the bastion's surface blazed to its absolute peak in an instant!

Boom! Boom! Boom!!!

The three destructive beams slammed hard into the shield! The terrifying impact made the entire bastion shake violently! The light barrier's surface erupted with blinding energy turbulence, caving in sharply like a water surface struck by a boulder! After holding for only a few seconds, accompanied by a heartbreaking sound of shattering glass, the orange-red light barrier exploded! The residual energy shockwave slammed hard into the Thornsteel armor plating!

Sizzle-crackle——!!!

In the struck area, the blazing blue-green light flashed wildly in resistance, but the armor plating's surface was still forcibly melted and eroded into three massive, scorched deep pits with purplish-black slime dripping from their edges! Molten metal dripped like fresh blood! The internal energy circuits instantly overloaded and burned out!

"Armor damage in zones B2, C5, E7! Shield core overloaded and shut down! Cooling! We need cooling!" the monitoring refugee warrior's voice was on the verge of tears.

"Cooling, my ass! No time!" Copperbeard roared, "Hive-cannons! Fire for me! Take down those big scorpions!"

Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle——!

The surviving hive-cannon turrets on the bastion spat out an orange-red pulse net, firing at the wyvern swarm in the sky and the flood's vanguard on the ground! But the firepower was sparse, the effect negligible. The iron-thorn wheels spun frantically, grinding up a few approaching Withered beasts, but were quickly drowned by the subsequent monster tide!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Corrupted Giant Scorpion Artillery finished charging again, the destructive beams lighting up once more! Their target was the bastion's most severely damaged area! This time, there was no shield to block!

Despair enveloped the bastion!

At this critical moment—

Hum!

A faint yet exceptionally resilient emerald-green light, like a bonfire lit in the darkness, spread out from the direction of the ley-line fissure! The source of the light was Xiang Lingna!

The unconscious little girl had somehow sat up at some unknown moment, her eyes tightly shut, but her small body was enveloped in a dense emerald halo! Her hands pressed unconsciously against the ground, fingertips digging deep into the scorched earth! The withered World Tree sapling floated before her, and the nearly extinguished new sprout at its tip was madly drawing the life force surging from within Xiang Lingna, emitting an unprecedented emerald radiance!

"Thornheart… protect…"

Xiang Lingna's unconscious murmur, like an ancient incantation, echoed in everyone's heart!

With her voice, the pale golden vines clinging to the bastion instantly came alive! They grew and twined frantically, weaving into a massive vine protective net covering the damaged armor area! Dense emerald light flowed across the vines' surface! At the same time, at the bastion's base, countless roots covered in rock and thornwood spikes burst from the earth—not to attack, but like loyal guardians, layer upon layer shielding before the bastion, forming a barrier of thorny roots!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The destructive beams slammed hard into the vine protective net and the thorny root barrier!

Sizzle——!!!

A shrill sound of dissolution rang out! The vines rapidly withered and burned under the beams! The thorny roots' rock armor was melted through, the wooden spikes snapped! But their sacrifice was not in vain! The emerald light flowing on the vines and the tenacious will contained within the thorny roots greatly weakened the beams' power! In the end, when the beams pierced through the barrier and struck the bastion's armor, they only left deeper scorch marks at the edges of the previously melted pits, causing no new structural damage!

Xiang Lingna's body trembled violently, a wisp of fresh blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and the emerald halo enveloping her dimmed considerably. The new sprout at the sapling's tip also showed obvious signs of wilting. But the bastion, it had withstood this fatal blow!

"Good girl!" Copperbeard's tiger eyes glistened with tears as he let out a sky-shaking roar, "Brothers! Little Xiang Lingna has bought us time! Furnace cooled down! Shield—light up again for me!"

Hum——!

In the bastion's damaged area, temporary energy circuits were forcibly connected, and a thin but tenacious orange-red light barrier rose once more!

Thornheart, under the power of the sapling unconsciously channeled by Xiang Lingna, straightened its spine once more in the face of despair! Yet the Withered Frenzy had only just begun its assault!