The Earth Surge Held in Reserve

The Earth Surge Held in Reserve

As the number of Voidling swarms plummeted and they could no longer pose a real threat, the ground offensive officially began.

The strategy Karya jokingly called "draining the lake by surrounding it" hinged on sending elite troops deep into enemy territory to create a salient, then using it as a foothold to carve out a small area where they could unleash a barrage of spells without restraint.

In this process, draining the lake was the easy part. The hard part was surrounding it. Establishing a stable zone for concentrated firepower was no easy feat.

Fortunately, the elite troops charged with breaking through and surrounding the enemy had an overwhelming advantage over the Voidlings. Even though the creatures followed orders perfectly and worked together seamlessly, they could offer little meaningful resistance against the Great Elementalists and Icathian guards protected by Malphite.

The Voidlings were no bigger than wild dogs, and under the Great Elementalists' and Icathian guards' assault, they really were beaten like dogs. Their chitinous shells wrapped around their bodies and provided relatively cheap protection, but that level of defense might work against the wild animals of the desert. Against Great Elementalists and Icathian guards, they were all thin shell and soft filling.

Now and then, a few larger Voidlings appeared among them. Some hid within the swarm, while others burst out of the ground in an attempt to launch a surprise attack and disrupt the allied forces' advance. But with Malphite there to deal with them, their impact was limited.

The Monolith truly deserved its reputation as the Shuriman Empire's crowning achievement.

After using Golden Wheel Stones to establish a unified network, Malphite had an overwhelming advantage over the Voidlings. They were huge, corrosion-resistant, capable of changing shape, and worked together seamlessly. They