118: Chapter 118 The Sowbug Host, an Endless Array of Sowbugs
After explaining the plan to hunt the Ultralisk to Ling Xi, this soft, cute angel squad leader did not object, only reminding them to stay safe with worry in her eyes.
"Theoretically, an Ultralisk is indeed no match for a Tier 4 Awakened," Ling Xi said softly, fiddling with the Holy Light Beacon in her hand.
"But in reality... for the more than three hundred years since the Confrontation Era, there has never been a combat record of a Tier 4 Talent fighting an Ultralisk. And even before the Confrontation Era, there were no records of a Tier 4 Talent fighting an Ultralisk alone."
She looked up, her ice-blue eyes full of seriousness: "Graduates from major academies basically all enter the warship unit system. Even those with combat-oriented Talents mainly serve as shipboard defense forces, countering advanced Zerg like Tyranid Warriors that can breach the interior of warships."
"As for units like the Ultralisk... the main reason for judging that an Ultralisk is not a match for a Tier 4 professional is actually that the Ultralisk is a mass-produced Zerg unit, and the number of Ultralisks released in a single attack is far greater than the number of human Tier 4 professionals."
Ling Xi paused: "In actual combat, Ultralisks are generally killed by soldiers of Tier 3 and below piloting heavy mechas, operating large unmanned weapon systems, or by destroyer-class ship cannons. These units are generally considered to have lower equivalent combat power than Tier 4 professionals. But... in short, be careful."
Li Yuan understood what she left unsaid.
Megalophobia.
The oppressive feeling brought by such mountain-like, gargantuan creatures is an instinct carved deep into the genes of intelligent life. Facing an Ultralisk, let alone fighting, just standing in front of it and maintaining one's sanity requires extremely strong willpower.
This is also why humans prefer to use warships and heavy firepower for beyond-visual-range strikes—to reduce the psychological impact of facing the giant beast head-on.
Furthermore, at this scale, it's really hard to say whether the attacks that are effective in equivalent combat power calculations are still effective. For example, my beam saber might be able to stab the pilot of a white emperor mecha to death, but for an Ultralisk, it might not even be as effective as a thorn prick.
"We will be careful," Li Yuan promised solemnly.
Ling Xi nodded, not saying anything more.
...
The battle fortress left the Angel Defense Zone and headed towards the basin where the Ultralisk slept.
Inside the vehicle, Li Yuan brought up the holographic projection of the Zerg detection map. Since activating this ability on Edge Star No. 7, his perception range for Zerg units had expanded to a radius of fifty kilometers. At this moment on the map, the red dots representing Zerg units were dense, but looking closely, one could find a pattern—most of the Zerg Swarms were gathered near creep nodes, while the "blank areas" between nodes were relatively safe.
"Go this way." Li Yuan traced a winding path on the map. "Bypassing three creep nodes, although it means traveling an extra twenty kilometers, there are only sporadic Zerg Swarms along the way."
Elia leaned over to look, her silver hair brushing across Li Yuan's shoulder. She pointed to a larger red dot on the path: "There is a nest of Stalkers here, do we need to clear them in advance?"
"No need," Li Yuan shook his head. "The battle fortress's anti-stealth detection system can detect them in advance. We will maintain speed and pass through; they won't be able to catch up."
Laya pressed in from the other side, resting her chin on Li Yuan's shoulder, looking at the huge red dot on the map representing the Ultralisk: "It's so big... bigger than all the other red dots on the map combined."
It was indeed huge. The Ultralisk's life reaction intensity was like a small sun on the map, making all the Zerg units within a few dozen kilometers appear dim and dull.
The route was planned, and the battle fortress began to accelerate. The anti-gravity suspension system allowed the twenty-five-meter-long vehicle to glide smoothly over the creep, easily breaking a speed of two hundred kilometers per hour. Occasionally encountering small Zerg Swarms along the way, they were all cleared by the battle fortress's automatic defense system—the precision of the three phase-shift ion cannons was extremely high, with each shot able to pierce through several Zerg units.
Two hours later, the Ultralisk was close at hand. Looking out from the observation deck, the outline of that "mountain range" on the horizon became clearer and clearer. Even from over a dozen kilometers away, one could see the bone spurs standing like mountain peaks on its back, as well as its massive body rising and falling slowly with its breathing.
The air was filled with a rich aura of life—it was the bio-energy field emitted by the Ultralisk, which even caused the surrounding creep to turn a deeper shade of green.
"Twenty kilometers from the target." The Light Guardian's report came through the communication channel.
"Decelerate, prepare—" Before Li Yuan could finish his order, an anomaly suddenly appeared on the Zerg detection map.
Just ten kilometers directly in front of the battle fortress, in an area that originally only had five or six large red dots, a dense cluster of tiny red dots suddenly erupted. The number of those red dots was so great that they almost formed a blinding red area on the map.
"Wait, what is that?" Laya also saw the change on the map.
Li Yuan's pupils constricted.
He recognized this unit—in his memories of Edge Star No. 7, before the white emperor mecha's decisive battle with the Ultralisk, the first things that needed to be cleared were the hosts of these things.
Larvae.
Not one or two, but thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions.
Almost simultaneously, the scene ahead confirmed his judgment.
Three hundred meters away, a seemingly ordinary hill of creep suddenly "came alive." The ground bulged and ruptured, revealing dense, translucent membrane bubbles underneath. Each of those membrane bubbles was the size of a house, with several to over a dozen fist-sized insectoid creatures curled up inside.
Larva incubation sacs.
The next second, all the membrane bubbles burst simultaneously.
"Puff—puff, puff, puff—"
Like fireworks set off simultaneously during a festival, tens of thousands of incubation sacs all ruptured within a few seconds. A massive amount of Larvae poured out; they were only one-third the size of a Zergling, their carapaces were dark brown, their mouthparts were sharp, and the speed at which their six articulated limbs crawled on the ground was shockingly fast.
One incubation sac could hatch five to fifteen Larvae. And on this hill in front of them, Li Yuan roughly estimated there were at least 150,000 incubation sacs. That meant 750,000 to 2.25 million Larvae.
And this was just the yield of one wave. And the Brood Host could produce a wave of Larvae every half minute.
"All units, combat readiness!" Li Yuan's voice rang out inside the vehicle.
The battle fortress's turrets instantly turned, the three phase-shift ion cannons finished charging, and their muzzles lit up with a faint blue glow. The heavy cannon on top was continuing to charge high-energy ion shells, and four high-explosive plasma cannons entered standby status. The surrounding automatic defense machine guns began to warm up and rotate.
But the Zerg Tide came faster.
The first wave of Larvae had already rushed to within two hundred meters in front of the battle fortress. They were a dense black mass, like a surging ocean of asphalt, and wherever they passed, even the creep was devoured completely.
"Fire!"
The ion cannons fired in unison.
Three faint blue beams plowed across the ground, cutting three ten-meter-wide scorched tracks through the Zerg Tide. The Larvae directly hit were instantly vaporized, those on the edges were scorched by the high temperature, and those further out were blown away by the shockwave.
One volley cleared at least a thousand Larvae. But it was useless.
The Zerg Tide did not stop at all; the Larvae behind stepped on their companions' corpses and continued to charge. Moreover, more incubation sacs were rupturing—Li Yuan saw that the hill in front was just the beginning. Further away, four or five other similar hills were bulging and rupturing, releasing even more Larvae.
"It's a Brood Host!" Elia's voice carried gravity. "I've seen them in war history footage. They don't have any attack power themselves, but they can produce Larvae infinitely—as long as there is sufficient energy."
Laya had already switched to her Angel Combat Form, holy wings of light spreading behind her, and a Holy Sword of Light condensed in her hand: "These bugs are so annoying!"
The battle fortress continued to fire.
Ion beams, rapid-fire ion cannons, high-energy ion cannons—all weapons output at full power. High-energy ion shells blasted one blank area after another in the Zerg Swarm, but they were filled in by the subsequent Zerg Tide in the blink of an eye. High-explosive ammunition with arcing trajectories attempted to attack the hill bodies in the distance, but were blocked by an invisible barrier hundreds of meters from the target, exploding into clusters of ineffective sparks.
"The host has a bio-energy shield!" Li Yuan immediately concluded. "Normal splash attacks and indirect shelling are ineffective; we must hit the main body directly!"
The problem was, the hosts were over a dozen kilometers away.
Elia's Moonlight Power had a maximum range of ten kilometers, and the effective range of Laya's Heaven-Sent Holy Sword was about the same. They couldn't reach the host bodies at all.
The Zerg Tide was getting closer and closer.
Fifty meters.
Thirty meters.
Ten meters!
The Larvae at the very front had already pounced on the battle fortress's energy shield, their sharp mouthparts crazily gnawing at the energy shield. Although the attack power of a single Larva was weak, there were simply too many of them—thousands upon thousands of bites were landing on the barrier every second.