Dragonkin · Four-Fang · Zergling

Dragonkin · Four-Fang · Zergling

With a wave of the Overmind's hand, both the zerglings and boars charged at the same time.

The largest Four-Fang Boar took the lead.

The elite zergling let out a shrill cry as well. Its two backward-jointed legs swung rapidly, and within just a few strides, it had reached more than twice the boar's speed.

The two beasts finally slammed viciously into each other.

The zergling was driven back several meters by the Four-Fang Boar, its legs carving long trenches through the creep—though it was fast, the difference in their weights was simply too great.

The elite zergling was already far larger than most zerglings, yet it still weighed less than a hundred kilograms. The Four-Fang Boar, meanwhile, had already been a large specimen among the boars of this world. After Zerg infection, its bone density had increased, its skin had turned shell-like, and it had grown a host of additional organs. It weighed more than six times as much as the zergling, so naturally, the elite zergling could not win in a head-on collision.

Though it had been pushed back, the zergling was actually the one with the advantage.

The two scythe-shaped appendages on its back pressed against the boar's head. The bony spikes on them easily pierced through the Four-Fang Boar's shell and muscle, driving straight into its bones. They blocked its tusks while forcing its head upward.

The horns beside the zergling's mouth easily stabbed into the boar's neck. At the same time, its maw full of sharp teeth opened to its widest and clamped down on the Four-Fang Boar's throat.

Crunch— Dark-red blood sprayed through the air as a massive gash opened in the boar's lower neck.

At the same time, the other boars began to encircle the zergling under the Overlord's command.

The elite zergling flicked the appendages nailed into the boar's skull, and the Four-Fang Boar's massive body flew like a cannonball, smashing another boar to the ground.

Then, the elite zergling's grasshopper-like hind legs abruptly tensed. With one leap, it pounced directly onto a boar's back.

Its scythe-like forelimbs and back appendages stabbed into the boar's flesh to anchor itself. The zergling opened its bloodthirsty maw and bit straight toward the boar's nape.

The boar's overgrown shell and thick hide were as soft as tofu in the zergling's mouth. One bite tore through flesh and hide, another split open the spinal processes, and the third snapped its spine clean in two.

There was no longer much suspense in the battle that followed.

The elite zergling completely crushed the boars in reaction speed, velocity, and strength. Once it had settled into its fighting rhythm, it relied on its powerful and precise jumping ability to spring from one boar to another.

The Overmind could practically see the Survey Corps fighting Titans in its movements.

Seeing that it was about enough, the Overmind called off the fight and severed the visual link between the Overlord and Elar.

The Four-Fang Boar shakily climbed to its feet and walked toward the splitting pool. Though a huge chunk had been bitten out of its neck, it was still far from death.

Even if an artery had been damaged, all it needed was for its heart to stop beating for a while, and the proliferating Zerg tissue would naturally fill the wound. The few severed cervical vertebrae were more troublesome; whether it healed itself or reconstructed the body's central control system around the break, both would take some time.

As for the zergling, it jumped down from a boar-type aberrant combat organism with a bloody strip of pork shoulder clamped in its jaws. It chewed twice to adjust the meat's position, then tilted back its head and swallowed it whole.

Scarlet light spilled from the gaps in the zergling's carapace. The Overmind could sense that its body was in an extremely active state—meaning the zergling was extracting useful genes from the pork.

The zergling's genetic chain had been specially designed from the start. Its minimalist structure gave it a great deal of evolutionary "redundancy," allowing it to alter its own constitution through acquired consumption.

This was not merely reflected outwardly. More importantly, it involved fine-tuning the nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems, allowing them to better adapt to the local biosphere.

Thus, after the elite zergling had been "reborn," there were not many visible changes apart from a slight differentiation in its teeth, with the four canines in its upper and lower jaws becoming more pronounced.

However, the boar's genes had already been added to the elite zergling's genetic chain, turning it into a "Four-Fang · Zergling."

The Overmind asked Elar, "What do you think?"

Elar hung his head and said nothing.

"You know resistance like this is meaningless," the Overmind said, as the tentacles within the hatchery began to glow with dim light once more.

Only after Elar's mind had slipped into a semi-chaotic state did he slowly speak. "A powerful life-form. It would stand out even among magical beasts."

Magical beasts were beasts with naturally powerful souls, yet not powerful enough to qualify as epic species. In terms of psionic level, they were individuals from levels 3 to 7.

"And compared to elves?" the Overmind asked.

"Far inferior," Elar stated with certainty.

Elves were a long-lived and stubborn race, accustomed to spending hundreds or thousands of years on a single pursuit. Their highly efficient photosynthesis spared them from struggling for survival, while the inherited memories from the Tree of Life solved the problem of education. This meant that no matter which path an elf chose, even the dullest among them could, through a thousand years of unceasing practice, reach the limit of what their body or soul could achieve.

As a result, elves had no detailed power-ranking system at all. Elven transcendent beings were either at soul strength level seven—the limit an elven soul could normally attain—or they surpassed that limit and leaped across ranks to become level-nine or level-ten saints. There were almost no other states.

The Overmind was not too disappointed. After all, zerglings had always been known for their numbers.

Still... it was an elite unit, after all. The fact that it could not even handle the enemy's fodder troops left something unsatisfying.

After pondering for a moment, the Overmind reached out and touched the splitting pool behind him. A few minutes later, a mass of gelatinous substance glowing with dark-red light floated above his palm.

This was the Dragon Lion's "essence." Put simply, it was the biological essence induced and replicated from the Dragon Lion's body through Zerg processing methods. It contained genetic information, key proteins, energy-storing substances, and psionic energy.

By the Swarm's standards of value, this was the most precious thing the Overmind had acquired since arriving in this world.

Without hesitation, the Overmind tossed the essence to the elite zergling.

The zergling rose without hesitation and swallowed the Dragon Lion's essence in one bite.

Without the calibration of an evolution chamber, such direct and brutal analysis carried a certain degree of risk. The zergling's genetic chain might not be able to bear the genes of such a high-level unit.

Of course, it did not matter if it collapsed. It was only an elite unit.

"Kreee—" Accompanied by the zergling's violent shriek, the elite zergling's body began to proliferate and break down amid intense tremors. Its carapace continually cracked apart in the red glow before rapidly reconstructing itself, and before long, the zergling was covered in blood.

The creep intelligently wrapped itself around the zergling and began to differentiate into a cocoon.

Nutrients and hormones from the hatchery were delivered, helping the zergling temporarily break down organs and tissues with severe genetic conflicts before regrowing them.

The Overmind continued to support the zergling through the hive mind. His psionic energy turned into threads, connecting to every one of the zergling's endlessly dividing cells...