Infinite Firepower

Spider Cave.

The Overmind was speaking with Elar.

The giant snake's gaze possessed at least two abilities.

One condensed a layer of stone over the target's surface, sealing the target inside. The other caused the calcium content within the target's body to surge, rapidly calcifying its flesh.

Both were thoroughly bizarre.

"So this petrification ability is a type of magic?"

"Petrification Ray, a typical earth-element spell."

Unlike the Long-Legged Giant Spider, which relied on the magic-affinity structure of the "soil-affinity groups" in its silk, the giant snake's Petrification Ray consumed mana. It was a "proper spell" whose power changed along with its mana expenditure.

That was why the Swarm's units petrified at uneven rates.

Quantifiable mana meant mana could be depleted, which made a war of attrition worthwhile.

But...

"Is your mana as Saints also unlimited?" Elar's earlier stunt of locking both his health bar and stamina bar had left a deep impression on the Overmind.

Since there were no intelligent races in this world apart from elves, Elar had never fought a Saint-level mage either. He had no relevant memories and had to rely on his own judgment.

Elar's judgment was, "There should still be a limit to how much mana can be mobilized at one time."

Well then, it really was an infinite mana bar.

"Epic species and Saints are different," Elar objected.

The Overmind knew that as well.

A Saint's soul was sustained by will. Every fraction of their power was controlled by the Saint themself, so as long as a Saint subjectively believed they still had "strength left," they would not grow tired.

But an epic species' soul was sustained by its bloodline, and its power was limited by instinct. In other words, if an epic species' muscles and nerves felt they should be tired, then it would truly start panting. But that was only if the epic species was not in a life-or-death crisis. In such circumstances, its desire to survive overwhelmed everything else—tired, my ass! You're about to die! Keep moving!

Mating season worked on the same principle. Survival and reproduction surpassed everything at the instinctive level.

In other words, once the petrifying giant snake went berserk, its mana would still be inexhaustible. Combined with its wide-area destructive power, it would be difficult to handle.

Just then, Agatha's voice came from nearby. "Overmind, the new Spore Crawlers have fully matured. Should we continue sending them to the Moonwing Beast cave?"

The Overmind waved a hand. "Forget it. The Swarm can't take down that giant snake yet."

It was not that they could not defeat it. Since the Spore Crawlers' spore clusters could still injure it, it was not invincible. But unless the giant snake went to the region where the Swarm's Hatchery was located, if it chose to flee, the Swarm could not hold it.

Besides, both the Carnivorous Bees and naked mole rats had passages leading to the underground world. They did not lack this one route.

But before his words had even faded, the Overmind suddenly raised a hand. "Wait."

That snake... had left the Moonwing Beasts' core territory.

What had struck the giant snake was a Strong Acid Spore Cluster. As its name suggested, it was a spore capable of secreting strong acid—a microscopic Swarm unit that could parasitize, draw nutrients, and replicate itself. And it was definitely far harder to cure than athlete's foot or toenail fungus!

Although its simple structure and scarce numbers prevented the Overmind from using it as a bridge to release psionic energy, merely sensing its location was very easy.

This was the battle's only gain: The Swarm had left a mark on the giant snake.

He casually linked his perception of the spores to an Overlord, ordering it to keep watch on the giant snake's location at all times.

The Overmind turned to Agatha. "Send them over. Continue the plan."

Five days later.

The Swarm had successfully taken over the full territories of three populations.

Their resistance had been far weaker than expected.

The Moonwing Beasts, whom the Overmind had been so wary of, seemed to have been frightened by the giant snake. Even after the Swarm infected the entire bat cave, they could not be found.

The Carnivorous Bees had not been so alert. Furthermore, other than reproducing, the queen bee rarely involved herself in anything. Before the infected Carnivorous Bees surrounded and attacked her, she had not even noticed the existence of the Swarm plague.

Moreover, the surfaces of the Carnivorous Bees' mouthparts and stingers possessed a multilayered composite structure called an "active epicuticular membrane." By altering its internal molecular arrangement, it could temporarily attain extraordinary hardness.

This meant that some soldier bees could unleash destructive power nearly equal to the mandibles of worker bees. Even the queen bee's carapace could not completely withstand such damage.

Thus, the Swarm did not even need to act. The infected Carnivorous Bees cleanly dealt with their own queen. If the Overlords had not reacted quickly, the queen bee would have been devoured alive by the infected.

The naked mole rat queen was not as unfortunate as the Carnivorous Bees.

Because rodents were good at tunneling, the naked mole rat queen had a dedicated breeding chamber.

After realizing something was wrong, the naked mole rat queen decisively sealed the entrance to the breeding chamber and bit to death every naked mole rat inside that showed signs of infection.

Then she dug her way out and fled...

Such decisive action deeply shocked the Overmind.

However, unlike the flying Moonwing Beasts, no matter how fast she dug, she could not get very far, especially with a body as large as hers.

Although the naked mole rat nest lay beyond the maximum range of the Hatchery's vibration-wave detection, the Overmind only needed to deploy two Spore Crawlers to lock onto the naked mole rat queen's position. He then ordered the newly produced Roaches to dig in from another passage in the Great Labyrinth and intercept her...

Underground, the naked mole rat queen was using the massive incisors protruding from her lips like an excavator bucket, frantically shoveling through the earth. At the same time, her two forepaws rapidly scraped away the rubble carved loose by her incisors, pushing it behind her, while her hind legs packed it down behind her.

It kept the oval space around itself from being buried.

But as it dug deeper, the naked mole-rat queen felt that the "texture" of the rock ahead seemed to have changed.

It was far too soft.

The naked mole-rat's incisors paused. It stepped back two paces and lightly brushed the rock with the long whiskers on its face, judging its texture.

Before it could reach a conclusion, two sickle-shaped, high-density claws punched through the rock.

A monster the size of a van, its entire body wrapped in savage bone armor, charged into the small space the naked mole-rat queen had dug out.

Rather than hindering its digging, the Roach's heavy shell—along with its protrusions and bone spines, all astonishingly hard—easily widened the tunnel as it moved.

Moreover, the Roach's powerful sense of balance kept its vicious head perfectly steady no matter how its body twisted, its gaze locked firmly onto the naked mole-rat queen.

The sight was so bizarre that the naked mole-rat queen froze for half a second, failing to attack immediately.

The Roach took the opportunity to open its mouth.

A stream of powerful acidic saliva, thick with a rancid stench, sprayed from the gap between its front teeth...

Smack—

Before the acid could even reach it, the naked mole-rat queen swatted with one claw, yanking the Roach straight out of the tunnel entrance and flipping it onto the ground.

To the naked mole-rat queen, that van-sized body was no different from a toy car.

Then the naked mole-rat queen lowered its head and viciously chiseled into the Roach's abdominal shell with its incisors, shoving back and forth.

"Hiss—" Green saliva sprayed from the Roach's mouth, splashing across the naked mole-rat queen's facial skin.

Before long, it began to sizzle, corroding away the outer skin and exposing vivid red muscle beneath.

Yet the naked mole-rat queen paid it no heed and continued gnawing through the Roach's shell, as if the corroded flesh did not belong to it—naked mole-rats barely felt pain.

Fortunately, beneath the Roach's body lay a large pile of rubble the naked mole-rat queen had excavated.

On one hand, it was constantly crushed and ground into sand beneath the Roach's shell, providing at least some cushioning.

On the other hand, the Roach's shell was covered in absorptive epithelial cells. These cells, commonly found in the small intestine, possessed formidable digestive and absorptive abilities.

From the moment the Roach's shell came into contact with the gravel, it began secreting acidic mucus, dissolving and drawing the rock into its body. It used the material as nutrients to accelerate wound recovery and repair its shell. At the same time, the Roach's three auxiliary hearts began working almost simultaneously. Under the green glow, the holes chiseled into its shell rapidly closed at a visible rate.

Though its recovery speed could not keep pace with the damage, it still barely withstood the naked mole-rat queen's relentless assault.

Then more Roaches dug through the rock wall. Bracing themselves against the stone with their sharp insect limbs, they madly sprayed acid at the naked mole-rat queen.

It was only a pity that Roach acid worked just as well on stone. Otherwise, the number of Roaches the Overmind had sent could have drowned the naked mole-rat queen in acid inside the cavern.

Thick smoke and the scorched stench from the acid's corrosion soon filled the cramped space.

Even though naked mole-rats felt no pain, the horrible sensation of its skin tightening and sticking together drove the naked mole-rat queen into a frenzy.

Crack—

The pitiful Roach was finally torn in two beneath the naked mole-rat's teeth.

But at the same time, six Roaches glowing green immediately rushed forward, swinging the massive high-density claws on their backs and hammering them into the naked mole-rat queen.

Because of the difference in size, the gap between Roach claws and Zergling appendages was like the difference between a fire axe and a fruit knife.

The hide of a low-tier epic creature, difficult for Zerglings to penetrate, was quickly carved open into bloody wounds beneath the Roaches' claws.

But their goal was not to injure the naked mole-rat queen. They only wanted to draw its attention, making it focus on beating them up and creating openings for the other Roaches to attack.

Just as stark white bone began showing through at the naked mole-rat queen's joints, the Overlord in charge of commanding the battle suddenly received a new order: Lure it into the labyrinth. Capture it alive!

The Overmind had changed its orders on the fly.

After all, naked mole-rats were different from spiders and Carnivorous Bees.

Spiders' web-spinning abilities were highly suited to the Great Labyrinth's underground environment, while Carnivorous Bees happened to fill the Swarm's current lack of small flying units—Exploding Mosquitoes made far too much of a commotion when they self-destructed, potentially causing widespread cave-ins underground.

What could a group of animals whose greatest traits were resistance to hypoxia and fearlessness of pain do after joining the Swarm?

The Overmind had originally sent the Roaches to hunt them down only to collect essence.

But now, the Overmind had changed its mind.

The naked mole-rat queen was quite capable of digging tunnels, and the Overmind had been considering creating a Nydus Worm in advance.

Why not use a Level Eight epic creature as the core, replace the Nydus Worm's crushing serrated teeth with Drone pincers, replace its corrosive fluid with Roach saliva, then add a Spore Crawler's detection ability to distinguish direction... It should be able to achieve eighty percent of the original Nydus Worm's efficiency.

Besides, a Nydus Worm with the upper body of a hairless rat sounded pretty damn cool.

Under the Overlord's command, the Roaches carried out the Overmind's order flawlessly.

They deliberately left gaps, forcing the naked mole-rat queen to dig in a specific direction.

The naked mole-rat queen was not stupid. After digging for a while, it noticed the Roaches' intentions.

Unfortunately, it had no choice.

The moment the naked mole-rat queen stopped or changed course, the Roaches would rush forward and batter it mercilessly.

The instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm was innate to all living things, even though it had already foreseen what was about to happen...

Smack—

The naked mole-rat queen's head burst from the soil. Before it lay a defensive line formed by Roaches, Web Weavers, and even Spore Crawlers.

"Squeak!" With a grief-stricken cry, the naked mole-rat queen fell beneath the combined assault of acid, Creep spore slurry, and acidic spores.

A Drone slowly floated out from behind the many insectoid units and began hatching a Spawning Pool on the spot...