Annihilation Battle

Special structures began to appear on the Creep.

They were spherical lumps shaped like pinecones, each the size of a human head. The instant they appeared, they alerted the rare white-striped spiderlings among the small spiders.

It could briefly intervene in the Shadow Realm!

But before it could warn its companions, the spherical lump contracted and relaxed twice, and a peculiar scent began to spread through the area.

All the small spiders gradually stopped working and, in a dazed state, began guarding the Creep nodes.

Pheromones.

The Swarm had already cracked the secret of communication between the various spider castes. While detailed control over individual spider behavior through different pheromones still required further testing in the Evolution Chamber, at least some simple ones—such as coordination pheromones, gathering pheromones, warning pheromones, evacuation pheromones...—had already been selected.

At that moment, the Creep nodes were continuously releasing the Lesser Spider Matriarch version of "self-interest pheromones"—in other words, making the spiders regard the Creep as a Lesser Spider Matriarch and feel protective and affectionate toward it.

This originally trace alcoholic substance had been produced by Swarm organs in quantities that nearly reached lethal levels.

Every spider that came into contact with it was left thoroughly befuddled by the fumes.

The Creep was able to spread once more over the spider silk in the vertical shaft.

But before the web system could collapse, chaotic noises came from the other end of the cave.

A group of Zerglings skated rapidly across the Creep, their two feet flashing like they were on ice.

Even upon reaching the vertical shaft, they showed no intention of slowing down. Like ski jumpers, they charged straight into it and began falling swiftly along parabolic arcs.

They had no concern about falling to their deaths.

After all, based on this world's gravity and air resistance, their maximum velocity in freefall would only be a little over 170 meters per second.

As long as they maintained a proper landing posture, the Zerglings' leg structure could cushion the impact well enough to keep them from dying.

Besides, the vertical shaft was not a straight drop, but a wavelike structure with at least seven bends of more than thirty degrees.

Naturally, there was no need to worry about the Zerglings crashing into the rock wall on the other side either. Although their vestigial wings could not yet provide sufficient lift because key genes had not been activated, maintaining their posture in midair—or even gliding and circling over short distances—was not a problem.

The spiderwebs that had severely hindered the Zerglings last time failed to provide the expected obstruction this time.

The instant the Zerglings touched the webs, the once-tough spider silk melted away as quickly as ice and snow beneath the morning sun.

Dark brown spots rapidly spread across the webs.

This was the effect of the spore slurry that the Venom Devourers had sprayed over them before departure.

The Creep spores contained in the slurry clung to the Zerglings' bodies and remained dormant for the time being. Once they came into contact with nutrients, they immediately began reproducing.

Moreover, the Overmind had modified the developmental direction of the Creep produced by these spores. Even without being connected to the Creep network, once they multiplied, they would immediately differentiate into pinecone-shaped Creep nodes and release pheromones outward.

Of course, there were spiders on the webs as well. Spiders carrying prey back to their nests constantly came and went through the dozens of caves connected to the vertical shaft.

These spiders likewise failed to obstruct the Zerglings.

First, interferon robbed them of their will to fight. Then their eyes began to glow red. Before the webs had even melted away, they had already become infected—the Creep spores on the Zerglings carried large quantities of Zerg virus.

The small spiders' immune systems could indeed resist the virus for one to two weeks, but that was only against the most primitive version of the virus.

After spider corpses were sent into the Spawning Pool, viruses specifically tailored to their genes began to be compiled.

Even the Dragon Lion, whose soul strength had reached level seven, had fallen to a specially compiled virus. These spiders would fare even worse—when the Dragon Lion virus had been edited, the Swarm had possessed neither a Spawning Pool nor an Evolution Chamber.

Furthermore, all the spiders in the swarm had been produced by a single Spider Matriarch, resulting in extremely high genetic homogeneity. This greatly reduced the workload of compiling the virus.

The Swarm easily found a way to fool the spider swarm's immune system.

As long as the Zerglings approached the spiders, vast amounts of virus could spread unimpeded through their bodies, and "spider-to-spider transmission" quickly began to occur.

The Overmind, along with the dozen or so Overlords hatched over the past two days to decipher Elar's memories, focused all their attention on this battle.

They stood ready at all times to pull the newly infected into the hive mind.

With more than a dozen powerful psionic users, even the consciousness of magical beasts and small spiders was crushed immediately.

The white-striped Shadow Spiders were slightly stronger, but they could not hold out for more than thirty seconds.

Even the Long-Legged Giant Spiders would become puppets under the Overmind's command within twenty minutes.

In the short term, the only ones capable of resisting this highly targeted virus were the Lesser Spider Matriarch and the mere dozen or so giant spiders under the Spider Matriarch.

Thus, an astonishing scene unfolded.

The battle was clearly taking place in the enemy's own lair, and the Swarm's side consisted entirely of advance airborne troops. Yet the battle immediately entered the encirclement-and-annihilation stage.

The Overlord in charge of battlefield command had even begun arranging for personnel to move the large number of spider eggs in the spider nest to a safe location—these were all Swarm assets.

The Long-Legged Giant Spiders' silk was countered by Creep spores, while the Lesser Spider Matriarch's combat strength had already been assessed during the last encounter. A little over a hundred Zerglings would be enough to handle them.

The true focus of this operation was the Spider Matriarch...

This epic species, with psionic power at level eight, was the largest enemy the Swarm had faced so far.

It was even larger than the stump monster from back then. The Lesser Spider Matriarch, which could already block a cave as wide as a road, was not even one-fifth of its size. It was practically the size of a building.

For most animals, size was the most direct reflection of combat strength.

Just as Elar had once found the Dragon Lion, whose soul level was lower than his own, exceedingly difficult to deal with, an epic creature this massive—whether a Dragon Lion or a stump monster—would have no equal in a one-on-one fight on the frontal battlefield.

Like a typhoon sweeping through, it cleared out the spider swarms that dared attack it after being infected, showing not the slightest mercy despite them being its own offspring. Wherever its long forelegs swept, an entire swath could be cleared in a single stroke.

Even with the Zerglings' tough carapaces, anyone grazed by its limbs would be flung away and die on the spot.

But the Spider Matriarch did not remain dominant for long.

Just as it was about to rescue a Lesser Spider Matriarch nearby that was entangled by dozens of airdropped Zerglings, a needle-like pain suddenly stabbed into its back.

It raised its body, all eight eyes turning toward the sky.

Zerglings were plummeting toward it at incredible speed, the horns beside their cheeks pointed straight down.