Chapter 78 - 77: Charge! Charge! The Insect Swarm’s 1st Large-Scale War

Chapter 78: Chapter 77: Charge! Charge! The Insect Swarm’s 1st Large-Scale War

RUMBLE—

As the Insect Swarm stampeded, the entire mountain forest echoed with thunderous roars.

The earth trembled.

The Insect Swarm charged, and the Mountain Demons—having detected the threat early and gathered into a massive horde—charged right back!

These Demon Fiends resembled giant apes, standing over ten feet tall with green faces and vicious fangs. They let out a unified roar. In the past, they were the absolute Overlords of this mountain forest region.

The Insect Swarm’s consecutive days of blockade had already caused considerable chaos within their ranks. This sudden assault threw them into an utter panic. Slaughter among Demon Fiends in the mountains was naturally brutal. Once a Demon Race was defeated, it would be massacred to the last to cement the victor’s dominance.

Decades ago, they had defeated the previous Overlords of this land, the Grey Wolves, establishing themselves as the new rulers. As for the Grey Wolf race, they naturally vanished completely.

However, when the Mountain Demon King appeared, this chaos quickly vanished. With a single roar, all the panicking Mountain Demons found their pillar of support.

The strongest Mountain Demons roared and surged to the forefront of their ranks. Their eyes were bloodshot, as if ready to spew fire, and the demonic energy erupting from their bodies soared into the sky. Then, they sprinted madly toward the Insect Swarm.

When enemies cross paths, the fearless prevail!

The Demon Fiends of the mountains understood this truth best. Once a war between races began, there was no turning back. This was different from a war between humans. ℯℯ𝑙.

This was a race war!

They clearly treated the Insect Swarm as a large, invading Demon Race, unleashing their absolute peak combat power.

ROAR! ROAR! ROAAAR—

Amidst the rising and falling chorus of roars and howls, tens of thousands of Mountain Demons sprinted at top speed through the jungle. A sizable number of the more agile ones bounded and weaved nimbly through the treetops.

Compared to the uniform composition of the Mountain Demons, the charging Insect Swarm’s units were far more complex. Surging at the very front were vast swaths of Rapid Insects, interspersed with rolling Poison Burst Insects. The most powerful units—the Cockroaches and Profound Flood Dragons—held the center. Flanking them were experimentally bred Flame Tigers, Mountain-Shaking Bears, and dozens of other Qi and Blood Realm units of varying appearances and strengths.

Among them, there was even a giant ape-type unit resembling the Mountain Demons. Standing a towering twenty feet tall, its entire body was clad in carapaces, and its Fists gleamed with a metallic luster like Warhammers. Evidently, these were mutated creations bred by combining Mountain Demon prototypes with Insect Swarm DNA.

Bringing up the rear were the Blood Shadow Pythons and a few other relatively fragile units capable of ranged attacks, completing a three-dimensional offensive formation. Even in the midst of a frenzied charge, they perfectly maintained their Array.

In the sky, thousands of Flying Insect Race units soared. The collective drone of their vibrating wings could be heard from kilometers away. When they spread their wings, they eclipsed the light of the Sun, casting a massive shadow over the earth.

And Qin Yu was right there in the sky!

As the charging forces drew closer, Qin Yu could even see the bloodshot eyes of the Mountain Demons and the visible breath steaming from their jaws.

The entire Insect Swarm grew increasingly frenzied. The Rapid Insects leading the vanguard let out excited shrieks and roars.

War! A large-scale war!

Only in the most intense crucible of war could the Insect Swarm potentially evolve. The grander the scale of the battlefield, the greater the chance of giving birth to mighty Insect Swarm units, allowing them to break their limits on the threshold between life and death and become even more formidable existences.

This was the Insect Swarm’s first truly massive war!

RUMBLE—

The earth trembled as the distance between the two sides rapidly shrank.

There was no declaration of war; there was no parley! The battle simply began.

But the first wave of attacks didn’t come from the ground, but from the Flying Insect Race in the sky! High above, thousands of Black Thorn Eagles simultaneously spat out streaks of black shadows from their beaks!

Those Flying Snakes, barely five centimeters long and shaped like triangular diamonds, rained down. In the first wave alone, tens of thousands of Child Gu explosively launched forth. Like a volley of arrows, they blanketed the leading horde of Mountain Demons.

However, these Child Gu were no ordinary Arrows. They had eyes!

In mid-air, they rapidly locked onto their targets. Supported by the Insect Nest’s immense computing power, every single Child Gu knew exactly where to strike, locking onto the Mountain Demons’ weak points.

SQUELCH! SPLAT! SQUELCH!

The sounds of Child Gu burrowing into Mountain Demon flesh, or being crushed by Energy, rang out. The vanguard of the Mountain Demons shrieked in sheer agony. Some that had been leaping through the treetops fell howling, crashing into the ground with resounding thuds.

In a mere instant, hundreds of Elite Mountain Demons fell.

Then came the second wave! Gu Insects sprayed forth like a sky-blotting rain of arrows, reaping the Mountain Demons’ lives like a Reaper’s Scythe.

The Heart-devouring Mother and Child Gu.

Upon discovering the effects of this special Gu Insect that granted the Insect Swarm ranged attack capabilities, Qin Yu hadn’t hesitated to order mass incubation. The first batch was deployed exclusively on the flying units.

Originally, Black Thorn Eagles were melee-reliant units with relatively weak combat power; their primary functions were scouting and harassment. But when paired with the Heart-devouring Mother and Child Gu, a qualitative change occurred.

When hundreds of Black Thorn Eagles equipped with the Heart-devouring Mother and Child Gu attacked simultaneously, even powerful Demon Fiends with Qi and Blood like a Dragon would be whittled down to death by ranged attacks if they lacked the ability to fly.

However, the Heart-devouring Mother and Child Gu still had its flaws. Because they were too small, the number of Child Gu a Mother Gu could incubate was limited, making it insufficient to sustain a protracted, large-scale war.

After the Black Thorn Eagles in the sky unleashed three volleys of attacks, the Mountain Demons and the Insect Swarm on the ground finally crashed into each other.

Stimulated by the scent of blood, both the Insect Swarm and the Mountain Demons had long since plunged into an absolute frenzy.

The vanguard Rapid Insects hissed, the Reaper’s Scythe-like blades on their backs raised high as they vaulted across the ground and darted between tree trunks. The Mountain Demons roared furiously, swinging their massive, thick arms.

BOOM—

The charging forces of the Mountain Demons and the Insect Swarm completely collided. Like two raging tidal waves crashing together, countless blossoms of blood splashed upon impact.

One Rapid Insect brandished its Sword Wall, slicing open a Mountain Demon’s throat. It was just about to leap into the air when another Mountain Demon seized its body and slammed it brutally onto the ground.

A Qi and Blood Realm Mountain Demon with bloodshot eyes flared its external strength. Over a dozen Child Gu clung to its body, and some had even burrowed inside. Yet, it continued to roar and slaughter with reckless abandon. Like a humanoid tank, it continuously pummeled several Rapid Insects to death.

But the very next moment, a Poison Burst Insect rolling like a giant fleshy orb vaulted into the air and self-destructed mid-flight. Thick, purplish-black liquid doused the Mountain Demon, sizzling fiercely upon contact.

Its robust Protective Energy instantly disintegrated. The purplish-black liquid melted away its flesh and bones. Seizing the opportunity, the Child Gu clinging to it burrowed deeper into its dissolving body.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A succession of explosions rang out as over a hundred Poison Burst Insects hidden within the Insect Swarm detonated, executing highly precise assassinations on the Elite units among the Mountain Demons.

Only then did the Elite forces of the Insect Swarm finally engage the core Mountain Demon horde.

The heavy bodies of the Cockroaches shifted, their hideous maws spreading wide to spray massive amounts of corrosive acid. The Profound Flood Dragons roared, their serpentine tails lashing out violently. Flame Tigers, Mountain-Shaking Bears, the giant ape-like creatures resembling the Mountain Demons, and dozens of other diverse Qi and Blood Realm Insect Race units unleashed their myriad abilities.

Some spewed flames from their jaws; others conjured sharp spikes bursting from the earth. They collided head-on with the surging Mountain Demons.

Amidst the clash, some Mountain Demons rammed the fire-breathing Flame Tigers, forcing them back step after step, before crushing their skulls with massive hands and splattering their brains. There were also roaring Mountain-Shaking Bears that smashed into Mountain Demons, sending them flying backward with shattered bones and torn muscles.

The vanguard where the Insect Swarm and the Mountain Demons clashed acted like a massive meat grinder, ravenously devouring lives. Lives from the Insect Swarm, and lives from the Mountain Demons alike.

However, neither side showed even the slightest hint of retreating.

Only the charge! A maddened, relentless charge!

Even if charging forward meant being torn to shreds the very next second, absolutely not a single Insect Race unit took a step back.

This crazed, tragic aura made the Mountain Demon King, who was observing from the rear, look grim.

The charging Mountain Demons couldn’t perceive it. But standing at a high vantage point in the rear, it saw clearly that the moment they collided, the Insect Swarm pushed the charging Mountain Demons back with overwhelming superiority.

From the very beginning, the Mountain Demon Elites had suffered horrific casualties under the attacks of the enemy Flying Demon Fiends and those self-destructing units. In the ensuing impact, the Insect Swarm clearly held absolute dominance.

The surging Insect Swarm was like a terrifying, razor-sharp blade. It pierced straight into the Mountain Demon horde, initiating a harrowing massacre.

How could these ordinary Demon Fiends possibly hold their ground in a frontal battlefield against an Insect Swarm perfectly coordinated across multiple unit types under the Conductor of an Insect Nest?

The battlefield had already been ruled by the Sovereign Insect Swarm.

"ROAR—"

The Mountain Demon King bellowed, trying to halt its race’s collapse. "Damn it! Where are the Fire Crows? They promised to ally with us to drive these blasted outsiders away!"

They were at too severe a disadvantage!

Facing the three-dimensional attacks of the Insect Swarm, the Mountain Demons completely lacked the power to fight back. This was especially true for the attacks raining down from the sky like falling arrows; they left the Mountain Demons with nowhere to hide.

A few Mountain Demons found massive boulders and hurled them into the sky. They hoped to scatter the Black Thorn Eagles with this method, but it was futile. It couldn’t threaten the flying Insect Swarm hovering a thousand meters above.

"They fled! The moment they saw those invaders, they immediately ran away!" said an elderly yet exceptionally tall Mountain Demon standing beside the Mountain Demon King in a low, gravelly voice.

"Damn it! I knew those feathered beasts were unreliable!"

The Mountain Demon King was furious. The bloodshot hue in its eyes grew even richer, and bursts of blood-red mist began billowing from its body.

"Prepare to fight to the death!

"Bring out the things the Blood Demon Sect delivered earlier!"