Mafu had wished to not be right, but he was quickly proven to be.

  He slowly but consistently lost contact with the mycelium network in two places. The Hollow grasped the earth and ripped it up with their hands.

  For a normal orc, it would be too tiresome and not effective. But with a thousand or so Hollow on each front, it was progressing at an alarming pace.

  The next issue was that it was not only orcs this time. There were a few dwarves and three giants. The giants stood at 5 meters tall, give or take.

  Their heads were larger than a human in proportion to their bodies. They had relatively small eyes and a massive jaw. As they were part of the Hollow, they also had the same gray skin.

  These giants would be hard to stop in a normal fight. But this time Oran and Otek were not out hunting, so Oran could most likely pierce the giants. At the very least, that is what Mafu expected.

  The settlement was furiously preparing for the invasion. The orc women were constantly running back and forth to supply the watchtowers and the gates with supplies for the upcoming battle. The first two watchtowers made out of the Roman concrete and rebar had also been completed.

  Now, two thousand Hollow would be a horrible fight. But unlike last time, new ants had been acquired, and the heavy hitters were all here. However, there was no guarantee that it was only 2000 Hollow.

  The orc dukes, Jod, Oran, and Otek, were all ready. Jod also had a few ideas, starting with:

  "Should I make Gwarth one of the dwarven dukes? It would help in the upcoming fight."

  "Would he be a good ruler? While he is a leader amongst warriors, that often does not translate to being good at governing people."

  Jod looked deep in thought. After a while he went to ask Gwarth about it, and when Jod came back he explained that he considered Gwarth good enough, and Gwarth had agreed to it since it would help the current situation as well.

  He had not been keen on being in charge of a part of the territory, but since he was supposed to be one of the leaders of the dwarves about to arrive soon, he thought it wasn't a bad idea.

  The next idea from Jod was

  "If we win, should we push into the Hollows' territory?"

  "That depends on our losses, but it is not a bad idea. As we learned from the dwarves, there are many of these 'nests' in the valley, but removing one of them has its benefits."

  "Should we make a plan for it then?"

  "You are more knowledgeable about war than me. I came from a peaceful world, mostly. I have never truly fought before. Confer with your dukes."

  Jod looked a bit pained and responded with, "But you have knowledge. Maybe not as extensive about war as the topics you talk to Ula about. But still, knowledge."

  "If you have a worry about your plan, you can ask me. But the more I help, the more the plan can go wrong. I might use a strategy that is not tailored to this world. Our world had no mana, no skills, or levels. We fought with projectiles at distances five times what Oran can shoot arrows."

  Jod finally relented and stood up to go gather the orc dukes for a meeting. Mafu was not only not knowledgeable about war but also found it hard to make decisions involving the lives of people living in the territory. Or, well, kingdom.

  Mafu preferred to leave those decisions to those who would fight with their bodies on the line. And in fact, micromanaging the people living in the kingdom felt exhausting.

  Mafu did not know if he had changed in personality since he became a mushroom, but things that did not have to do with him directly took energy to think about. At least, if it was expected to be quick. He felt like he needed more and more time to decide on things.

  And in the end, if he were to try to build his old world here, it would be bound to fail. He was not all-knowing or even particularly knowledgeable about governance. He knew a few basic ideas, but ideology was a thing he seldom considered.

  It was better to simply intervene when bad things were decided. Such as if they decided to have slavery, if racism flourished, or if some other thing happened that truly abhorred him.

  With him intervening on the large things, the rest of it he preferred to leave to Jod and the dukes. After all, no one likes living under a tyrant. And that is what he would become; even if his ideas were "right" to him, they would seem bad to the people who had not lived in a large society for millennia.

  Developing new things and upgrading the territory would eventually guide some things in a good direction. Such as the rebar, the long-term idea of a train, and Mafu had also begun thinking about the sewage issue.

  Right now the orcs had multiple pits dug and communal outhouses built above them. But someone had to empty the pit every now and then, which, of course, no one wanted to do.

  Making flushing toilets was actually a realistic idea. Water towers do not need electricity or any great knowledge to build.

  However, that was a project for after they won this battle. Mafu refocused his thoughts and made sure that all his warriors were ready and that all his military buildings were at capacity.

  He had not slacked off about making military buildings, and currently he had a total of 800 mushroom soldiers. They would quickly die in the coming battle, but if they served to save a single life of the people, it was a worthwhile investment.

  Taressa had likewise birthed a few more soldier ants and acid-spitter ants. Only a few of the new military ants were grown and ready, but it was a welcome addition.

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  The ants were chittering and moving about more than usual. They seemed more energetic as the battle was drawing closer. It was probably an effect of Taressa's mood, as she was perpetually connected to all her aunts.

  Athena and Demeter had not gotten their poison research to work yet. Some plants that had been grown did have poison, but the few captive parasites had shown no reaction to it.

  Tenia and Akro had made a few improvised explosive devices, but they were still very primitive. And there were only twenty of them. Mafu was more worried that they would hurt his allies than his enemies, but he allowed them to be used.

  He did add the condition that orc warriors good at throwing would be the ones to use them.

  The explosives was basically a square, with its sides roughly forged together. Inside of it were mostly random small iron shapes. Hopefully the parasites would be hit by the shrapnel, and the explosion would probably take off some body parts of the Hollows' bodies as well.

  Mafu felt somewhat confident that they would win this fight. He could not guess the amount of Hollow accurately, but with the added strength since the last attack, he felt that they had a good chance.

  Now, all that was left was to wait a little bit. The Hollow had to come closer. If they attacked one of the fronts and it was a "fake," then half their army would most likely lose.

  ---

  A few days later.

  Jod was leading half of their army to one of the battlefields. With him, he had Oran and Otek. The three orc dukes would go to the other battlefield. Of course, they had all their forces split down the middle.

  It had been decided that if they won, they would wait for the dwarven warriors before they considered a counterattack. Jod was feeling satisfied with the plans for the coming battle and the next.

  But it was unnerving not knowing the number of enemies. If what Mafu had seen was only a fraction of the Hollows' army, it would be hard to win.

  The decision to have the battle fought outside the settlement was to make sure Mafu's territory did not shrink too much. Not only were the firecaps useful in combat, and his ensnaring mycelium, but their food production and dungeons were also run off of his mana.

  If they lost too much of the territory, his mana gain would also drop. And neither Jod nor the orcs wanted to give up the dungeons, which would be the first thing Mafu would cut the mana supply to.

  The dungeons had gained them all quite a few levels. For the warriors who could not gain many levels, as the Hollow did not give a lot of experience points, the dungeon was their lifeline.

  Oran walked up beside Jod and informed him that the Hollow were digging about 500 meters ahead in the forest. He had scouted ahead of the army.

  Jod stopped the army and ordered them to check their weapons and ready themselves for battle. Then he ordered the mushroom soldiers to move ahead in the formation he wished them to be in.

  Being connected to Mafu gave him a connection to the soldiers as well, and they followed his mental orders to perfection.

  Then they slowly walked forward, their senses all tuned up to the maximum.

  It seemed like forever until they came upon the Hollow, and Jod immediately ordered the mushroom soldiers to attack. He had the mushroom soldiers on the two flanks, which then allowed the rest of the army and Jod to attack from the center.

  The first few attacks from the mushrooms worked well, as the Hollow had not been aware of them. Then, the Hollow started fighting back. The mushrooms were never very durable, and they quickly lost a lot of soldiers.

  But by then, the main army had caught up, and the slaughter began.

  Jod's mind became dulled as the battle proceeded, as he swung his sword and cleaved hundreds of Hollow apart. He aimed slightly above their waist with horizontal slashes, aiming to kill the parasites as well as the body.

  Jod had to remind himself to check every now and then how the battle was going, and to him it seemed to be progressing well.

  ---

  At the same time, on the other battlefield.

  Parek stood in the center of his army, watching the Hollow die. He smiled slightly as he imagined them clearing out the nest after this battle. He was tired of this life, hiding from these parasitic corpses.

  The battle was progressing well, and Parek felt the power of a duke flowing through his body. He would have gotten tired before, but now it felt like he had endless stamina.

  Then he heard a loud and deep sound and trees creaking. Two giants appeared, bending trees apart as they walked through the thick forest. Parek caught himself with his mouth open and ordered some of his warriors to back off.

  This was what they had prepared for, but the sight of the giants still shocked him.

  "Prepare the explosives!" He ordered with a thundering voice.

  The other battlefield had Oran to deal with the giant; this battlefield had the explosives.

  Parek watched as the lit explosives soared through the air, five of them.

  Three of them hit their mark. The orc warriors backed off slightly, not because they were afraid of the explosion that was quite far away, but because the sound of the explosives detonating was alarming.

  One giant lost his right leg at his knee and fell forward. The other giant had worse luck, as the explosives detonated close to his stomach. A big hole opened up from his waist to just under his chest, and he fell backwards onto his backside.

  The first giant tried standing up and continuing the fight. The second giant seemed to be dead, or rather, the parasite inside him must have died.

  Parek laughed and ordered:

  "Three explosives on the giant without the knee, two on the other giant's corpse to make sure he is dead!"

  Yet again the explosives soared, and since both giants were now immobile, it had a devastating effect. Both the giants now stayed down, seemingly dead.

  Parek drew air into his lungs and screamed with a thunderous roar:

  "Forward! Fight these corpses until there are no more left! Soon, we will kill all the Hollow in the valley!"

  His orc warriors surged forward, motivated by the easily defeated giants. The Hollow was now not anything to be feared but simply corpses to decimate.

  Parek stood back and watched, satisfied with the result of the explosives. He still had ten left, but there were no signs of more giants.

  ---

  The first battlefield, slightly later.

  The Hollow started acting strangely. Jod estimated that they had killed close to two thousand at this point, but then a change came over the Hollow.

  About half of what was left of their army spread out and took a sort of defensive stance. The other half started running at full speed away from the battlefield.

  Jod instantly ordered the warriors to push forward, and he himself started running at the Hollow. It did not take long for them to kill the Hollow that had remained.

  Tracking down the Hollow that had escaped was futile, as the warriors were exhausted and the tracks went in all directions.

  Jod sat down next to a tree and leaned his back on it after ordering the warriors to stop and take up a defensive position. He then ordered those not on watch to rest their bodies for a bit.

  "Mafu, did you see what happened on our battlefield?"

  "Yes, it is encouraging."

  "What do you mean? We let about 500 or so go?"

  "Yes, which means they are running out of soldiers."

  "You think so? What if they simply are preparing to attack the other front?"

  "The other front is also winning heavily. They have killed about 2000 as well, but that was all that was there. The Hollow over there did not retreat."

  Jod thought it over for a while and then asked,

  "Why did they not retreat over there?"

  "I am not entirely certain, but my guess is that this front is close to their nest."

  "So they went back to defend their nest?"

  "Yes, if they suffered more losses, they might not have enough to defend their nest."

  "Then, you are right; it is encouraging."

  "Do not take it for certain, though. It could be a trap to lure us to the nest as well. They have shown to have some intelligence and strategy with this attack."

  Jod agreed and then ordered his army back to the settlement while keeping their guard up. The other battlefield would soon do the same.