Chapter 283
It still had hundreds of thousands of troops at its disposal, but at this moment, they seemed stretched thin. It needed time; once the swarm returned, it could crush all resistance with sheer numbers. But—
The blade was almost within reach.
"Charge! Don't get entangled. Mai Sakurajima has already provided the coordinates."
Yuki the Roar; he wasn't just hot-blooded and brainless. He had planned everything afterward while fighting Kamui.
Mai Sakurajima's special ability had cooled down, and she had already traversed the chaotic battlefield to reach the depths of the 'cave,' destroying the second Spirit Particle Communicator, which immediately reminded Yuki of her.
Levi Ackerman led his assault team to dig holes everywhere, riddling the giant worm with holes from the inside.
Even the location where the warship crashed was calculated; it 'just happened' to be in the western part of the Zerg hive, precisely where the swarm's defenses were weakest.
Yuki himself led a group of remnants in a charge, and just as the Queen was desperately micro-managing, he pierced the Zerg hive like a sharp knife.
The streets were wide, the buildings were still relatively intact, and there were very few insect swarms blocking the way. They were either protecting the queen or had joined the earlier struggle for the Fire Seed.
"The Queen is moving, the swarm is converging," Johnny Silverhand reported, noting the hundred-plus friendly unit markers jumping around as a whole.
"It's fleeing, heading towards the main force of the swarm; those insects are its last trump card."
Yuki growled, confirming his earlier suspicions: if the Queen reunited with the main force, it would be a true, limitless rebirth, capable of exhausting everyone.
"Then it will fight with all its might to stop us, and Captain Levi and his men can't handle it." Johnny Silverhand immediately raised the question. This was an opportunity, but it would be difficult to seize it.
"It can't escape. Are you keeping your satellite orbital cannon to breed?!"
Johnny Silverhand himself had forgotten that he was still holding a trump card, which he hadn't used even during the most intense part of the battle, demonstrating just how strong Yuki Sorajima's patience was.
You've been through drug rehabilitation, haven't you? How can you resist this?
"Where should we fire?"
"Attack where the insects are most numerous! Continue to deploy your soul force field to draw the remaining energy of the Fire Seed downwards. I'm going to burn that umbrella!"
Do you think I have three heads and six arms?
Johnny Silverhand was so busy that the biological CPU was practically smoking, yet he managed to delegate every task with the help of the Central Database.
Boom!
A bright beam of light pierced through the sky and slammed into the front, instantly annihilating the hundreds of insects that had managed to gather. Before the survivors could even recover from the aftershocks, a hail of bullets pounded into their bodies.
"Advance, leave two squads behind to clean up." Yuki swept past the corpses, and after giving the order, soldiers naturally stayed behind to clean up.
He didn't need to worry about such trivial matters. The commander-in-chief had already divided the remaining forces into small teams, and everyone, whether they were Psychic Warrior or frail logistics personnel, was fearless in the face of death.
You can't escape.
Yuki stared ahead. The red wall had appeared at the end of the road. Some stinging beetles and liquid beetles were frantically climbing up the wall. Under the Queen's micro-management, their tactical movements were much better than before.
"Satellite orbital cannon, blast a breach."
Yuki slowed his pace. The last beam of light exploded ahead, breaching the city wall and turning the insect swarm above into a bloody mess. But they were equally fearless of death, even with missing limbs, they were ready to fire.
It's impossible to annihilate the attackers, but as long as they are delayed, the fleeing queen can rejoin the main force and become invincible.
"Reiner Braun, come and clear the way!" Yuki roared, his Phantom Longblade unleashing Incandescence flames that instantly expanded dozens of times in size.
Swish--
He sliced through the nearly twenty-story apartment building next to him with a single stroke, placing his palm on the surface amidst the burning fungal carpet.
Concept Enhancement: Iron Body.
A flash of light, and the reinforced concrete building, as hard as steel, collapsed with a rumble, only to be caught by the strong Giant before hitting the ground.
"Aslan, provide aerial cover! The rest of you, unleash full firepower! Charge!"
With Yuki's roar, the Giant, wielding a massive battering ram, unleashed his Transcendental Grade abilities, and his body even began to mutate—a demonization inflicted upon him by the Smiling Lady.
Thump thump thump...
His feet pounded the earth, concrete splattered everywhere, and before the dust from the railgun had settled, the Giant charged straight at him.
The dense barbs and slime made the battering ram spark, and I watched helplessly as he charged towards me.
Boom!!
The wall was smashed through, and hundreds of insects were blown away. They had no chance to land as a barrage of bullets from various Blaster Rifle and electromagnetic cannons blasted them apart in the air, causing their flesh and blood to splatter everywhere.
Led by Yuki, the hundred-man squad stormed into the core area like ferocious beasts. In less than five minutes, their vision suddenly went dark, and strange 'crackling' sounds filled their ears.
Countless thick vines grew out and coiled towards the attackers, obscuring everything. This thing posed an immense threat. Fortunately, the assault team had directly entered the Queen's body; otherwise, they would have been unable to get close at all.
"Silver Hand, how much time do you have left?"
"Shut up, give me a minute!"
"Thirty seconds at most. Everyone form a circular defensive formation, smile, and clear a path for Reiner Braun. We absolutely cannot let him stop."
Yuki's tone was urgent; every second was precious now, because his senior was moving away, and he had already guessed how the queen intended to make her last stand.
Teresa nodded silently, and as bullets rained down in all directions, she leaped onto the battering ram. The Giant was already exhausted, gritting his teeth as he arched forward, but the vines that were entangling him were increasing, and his speed was getting slower and slower.
Demonic energy released. Sixty percent.
Her silver eyes turned gold, her beautiful face contorted, the giant sword flew through her hands like a piece of paper, and her hearing, intuition, and strength all improved.
High-Speed Sword.
Swish swish swish swish...
The sound of the sword cutting through the air blended together, Extreme Speed swung blade formed a wall, severing all the vines within a range of tens of meters.
The Giant and Gundams were too large to be mistaken for real targets; they drew most of the attacks, allowing Yuki and the others behind them to focus their fire at them with ease.
The speed of the assault did not slow down. Even though the forest of flesh and blood was endless, when the Devil's Vision was obscured by a large fog, Yuki drew his Hunter's Blunderbuss without hesitation.
Ignite.
With the sound of gunfire, the gathered soul energy blazed fiercely, the black veil before their eyes was torn away, Yuki finally saw the battlefield clearly.
This is the core area, surrounded by dense, vein-like vines that twist and sway in the soul fire. In the distance, there is a giant insect.
Its dark green skin was covered with dense spores, resembling a centipede with hundreds of legs. Its body was thick and stout, probably over a kilometer long, and its size was not much smaller than that of the Hope.
This is the Queen? She's absolutely disgusting!
It was an incredibly ugly insect, the latter half of which looked like a combination of a caterpillar and a centipede. It had no head, but it did have a lantern-like antenna, and it was too fat, with its whole body covered in wrinkles.
It was running eastward, its massive body crushing everything in its path, while fireballs kept bursting from its surface—clearly the work of Levi Ackerman and his crew.
Yuki noticed that his damaged body was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Immortality?"
Its sheer size is quite intimidating. The reason the battle was so intense before was because the Hope was simply too large, enough to divide the battlefield into several parts. Seeing this giant worm, it will probably take some effort to find the Queen.
But I had guidance from my senior.
At this distance, Yuki could clearly sense Mai Sakurajima's presence, his eyes locking onto the location with the lantern-like tentacles.
"Give me the Queen's true form."
"Silver Hand, calculate the optimal positions and guide each squad to place the Earthquake Generator!"
They can't stop them! Have these humans all gone mad?
When humanity, Isshin, pursued them like a hot knife through butter, the Queen was somewhat bewildered and even felt a sense of fear.
Its body is shedding its skin because it was burned to death once and had no choice but to devour a large number of offspring to grow a new body.
Could it be that the beings from beyond the heavens are after me? No, that can't be right. Their kind are clearly on my side. Didn't the sage say that the beings from beyond the heavens would leave after their goal was achieved?
The Queen suddenly didn't understand the players. What was the source of their hatred for each other that made them so determined to fight to the death? But the Queen couldn't care less about that now.
The mushroom cap was ignited, completely exposing the main body. Most of the guards were killed, and the rest were completely unstoppable. There were also the humans inside the body, like maggots clinging to the bone, impossible to shake off.
As for the main force sent out, some were destroyed by the burning galaxy, and some were held back by the frenzied humans, unable to break free no matter how they micromanaged.
Give me a little more time. Once I reunite with the swarm and devour the offspring, I can reclaim my fragmented soul and become invincible!
The Queen looked out over the plains outside the city. On the horizon, there was a rolling swarm of insects. The two sides were only twenty or thirty kilometers apart. Even if the humans fought desperately, they would be able to meet in less than twenty minutes.
Just as Yuki guessed, all the insects were products of it splitting its own soul using the Emerald Stone as a carrier, so they could be retrieved at crucial moments.
The Queen will be even stronger, so strong that these exhausted humans cannot defeat her, but the problem remains:
It had few insects left and needed to rejoin its offspring. Seeing the silver-white machines carried by its pursuers only intensified its fear.
They already know how to kill me...
"Stop them!"
The queen screamed as the giant insect smashed through the red wall, shattering all the tall buildings along the way, and headed east in a straight line.
Hundreds of surviving Bat Dragon swooped down, risking their lives, even self-destructing, to entangle the pursuers.
They formed a wall of flesh and blood, aiming at the foremost Yuki the insect plague, which was about to leap onto the giant insect's fat tail. Suddenly, the building was hurled like a javelin, forcefully chiseling a hole through the wall of flesh and blood.
"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"
The Queen personally manipulated the situation, focusing all her attention on Yuki, who had transformed into a burning comet, trailing a long tail, and flew straight toward the giant worm's head.
Hundreds of insects did not attack or even stop him; they seemed to be under some kind of evil spell and began to kill each other frantically, even breaking free from the queen's control.
Cyberpsychosis... what is that?
The Queen covered her head, suppressing her frenzied emotions, when suddenly she heard a muffled 'pop' sound above her head, like a bubble bursting.
Amidst splattering pus, a man, his body ablaze with sparks, appeared in this spacious, warm nest, his gleaming blade pointing towards him.
"Where are you going!?"
Chapter 44 Insect Killing! (8K)
The second time they faced each other, the situation was completely different.
The queen had no time to be shocked; the knife before her was far too sharp, radiating a deadly chill.
If I kill him, I still have a chance.
This was the only solution, and Yuki quickly looked around and found that he was in a spacious hall with walls inlaid with glittering Emerald Stone, which were connected by thick blood vessels leading to various parts of the giant worm's body.
At the very heart of the matter, it was in this place that the Queen split her soul to produce offspring. Looking at the Queen, who resembled a crab and had grown six sharp, razor-like arms, Yuki narrowed his eyes even more.
The queen's body was so new, like that of a newborn baby.
You are weaker than before.
Seeing through the Queen's predicament at a glance, it could reclaim all the insects inside her body, but who would stop Levi Ackerman and the Commander-in-Chief's teams? Were they just going to let them plant Earthquake Generator and shred her body to pieces?
The Queen had now completely calmed down, handing over control of all her offspring to the General Bug Aldrich, with only one strict order: do not allow humans to start the machines, withdraw all attention, and her golden eyes were filled with hatred.
He ruined his own plans, and then relentlessly pursued him all the way here.
"Yes, but it's more than enough to devour you."
Yuki, too lazy to waste words, looked at the six outstretched blades and slowly tensed all the muscles in his body.
The ground beneath their feet undulated as the giant insect ran, the Piercer hole in their head gradually closed, and a drop of pus dripped down under the pull of gravity. Just as it bloomed, Yuki moved.
Bang!
The opening shot was a hail of bullets, hundreds of which covered the area in front of her, but the Queen made no attempt to dodge. She sheathed her twin swords and charged straight at him.
The black insect armor spewed out countless sparks, incredibly hard, and shotgun shells couldn't penetrate it at all. Its locust-like hind legs pushed off the ground, and it only took a fraction of a second to go from still to high speed.
Clang--
Yuki threw his musket away, braced his sword with both hands against the blade, and slid backward as he was thrown into the air. Without pausing, he used the momentum to roll to the side.
Ugh.
The blade that grew from behind the queen Piercer the afterimage. As Yuki rolled, he slashed at the opponent's thick hind leg. With a 'clang', the long sword penetrated half an inch into the bone. Then, he lightly slammed his elbow on the ground, causing his body to spin and fly into the air.
Rolling Blade. Phantom.
The Phantom Twin Blades snatched from the player displayed a dense array of blade light, making it impossible to distinguish between illusion and reality. Yuki transformed into a rolling Tatsumaki of blades, while the Queen's response was equally simple.
Six blades danced wildly, speed against speed.
Ding ding ding ding...