Not a single Infected joined the battle.
They were still on the Copper Pillar.
After the Hive was disturbed, the Infected clinging to the pillar did not jump down. Instead, they curled up even tighter, their knuckles deeply embedded in the grooves of the Inscription, their bodies pressed motionlessly into the gaps between their own kind.
The Infected scattered across the ground around the Copper Pillar, those not clinging to it, all stood at the rear. Their posture was more like that of guards maintaining some kind of order.
Lu Yuan saw one Infected raise an arm covered in woody bark and smack an ordinary Ghoul beside it. The ordinary Ghoul immediately charged toward the group without the slightest hesitation.
A chill ran down Lu Yuan's spine.
They're driving ordinary Ghouls forward as cannon fodder.
He then saw a second and third Infected make the same gesture, driving one Ghoul after another forward. Occasionally, an Infected would use an arm tangled in roots to grab an ordinary Ghoul trying to flee and forcibly shove it toward the front line.
They can command others now.
The Forest Seed's parasitism had changed more than flesh and bone. These infected individuals possessed a degree of coordination beyond Ghoul instinct. Ordinary Great Ghouls had a certain level of intelligence, but they were nowhere near capable of commanding their kind and arranging an orderly defense.
Even the Great Ghouls in the Pipe Network Layer had only developed intelligence after being contaminated by that unknown Seed...
They were consciously guarding the Copper Pillar, pushing ordinary Ghouls out to wear down their enemies while refusing to waste a single Infected themselves.
Lu Yuan committed that information to memory.
The front line continued advancing. Leike, the Blue Knight, and the Great Ascendant worked together to tear toward the