After only a few dozen Venomspiders entered, no more came in.
The Frost Serpent knew this was how the bugs intended to wear it down, but it could only fight back. The prolonged battle had already left it exhausted.
Who knew how many Venomspider corpses lay piled beneath the surrounding ice? Perhaps a thousand, but there truly seemed to be no end to them.
Once the Venomspiders surrounded the Frost Serpent, they attacked without giving it a single second to catch its breath.
Dozens of white silk strands struck first, shooting toward the Frost Serpent from every direction in an attempt to restrict its movements. This was the Venomspiders' usual opening move.
Just as the silk was about to hit the Frost Serpent, a freezing wind swept around its body, blowing the strands off course and scattering them to the side.
The Venomspiders were not discouraged by this. They kept firing silk, some of which struck the surrounding glaciers, some was stopped by the ice armor, and some stuck to the ground near the Frost Serpent.
Watching all this calmly, the Frost Serpent did not take the initiative to launch a wide-area attack. It knew these spider bugs were extremely agile.
Whether it used its freezing breath or hail, it might only kill or injure a few bugs while consuming a great deal of its own stamina.
Moreover, these bugs were all beasts, without the slightest psionic response. They were empty to psionic perception.
Even the Frost Serpent's psionic perception had difficulty detecting them.
It was truly inconceivable that a pack of beasts incapable of using psionics had driven it to this state.
Sensing a hint of danger, the Frost Serpent abruptly lowered its body, dodging a surprise attack from two Venomspiders trailing silk from their rear ends. Seeing that they had nothing to push off against in midair, the Frost Serpent finished them off with two precise ice lances.
More Venomspiders attacked using the silk at their rear ends and the web they had just woven. With exceptional three-dimensional mobility, they closed in around the Frost Serpent and pulled away again, constantly spitting acid at it.
The ice armor did not provide complete, three-dimensional, 360-degree protection. It always had blind spots, and many scales splashed with acid sizzled as they burned.
Even as it came under attack, the Frost Serpent kept retaliating with its tail and ice lances, whittling down the Venomspiders' numbers. Trading injuries put the Frost Serpent at a disadvantage, but it was also the only way it could hold out for now.
Perhaps because of the fatigue from its prolonged battle, two Venomspiders suddenly managed to leap onto the Frost Serpent. They raised their rear ends high and viciously drove their stingers into it.
The highly armor-piercing stingers instantly punctured the Frost Serpent's scales, injecting concentrated acid at the same time.
The agonizing pain of the acid inside its body made the Frost Serpent wail. It felt as though lava were churning inside it.
Tormented by pain, the Frost Serpent could no longer conserve its stamina. A freezing wind froze its wounded areas along with the two Venomspiders.
Hundreds of ice lances appeared at its sides and fired like a machine gun, blasting all the surrounding Venomspiders and their webs into a bloody mist.
Only a few Venomspiders farther away escaped.
Before it could even catch its breath, the Frost Serpent raised its head and saw that the large hole eaten away by acid had grown larger again. Dozens of fresh, unharmed Venomspiders crawled in through it.
Another round of attrition began.
Aboveground, the Behemoth had likewise fallen into peril. Its condition was no better than the Frost Serpent's.
As it charged into the Swarm, Zerglings quickly surrounded it. Large numbers of them climbed nimbly onto its enormous body like ants, attacking with their bone blades as they climbed.
On the other side, Needle Crawlers formed a loose firing line, constantly shooting needles at the side of the Behemoth that had no Zerglings climbing over it.
With its exceptionally protective hide and fur, the Behemoth was not particularly afraid of the Swarm's bone blades and needles. It simply shielded the vulnerable eyes on its face with its arms and continued its charge.
Seeing that their bone blades had little effect, the Zerglings tried to climb onto the Behemoth's head. Left with no choice, the Behemoth began slapping at the Zerglings on its body with both hands, often crushing several with a single blow.
A whistling sound tore through the air as two enormous spiked tentacles lashed at the Behemoth like whips. This taller kind of Creep Tumor relied purely on accumulated bulk to gain greater strength, without any technique.
Even with the Behemoth's enormous size, it could not easily withstand such a lash. But it reacted quickly, twisting its upper body and first knocking one tentacle away with both claws before grabbing the other with both hands.
The spikes on the tentacle pierced its flesh, and blood flowed over the Behemoth's palms.
But it could not worry about that. The Behemoth shook its body violently, throwing off most of the Zerglings clinging to it, then gathered its strength and leaped into the air while gripping the spiked tentacle.
The hill-sized Behemoth cast an enormous shadow over the ground before finally landing on top of the Creep Tumor attacking it. Its massive feet and body nearly bent the Creep Tumor under its weight.
The Creep Tumor also began to retaliate, its three remaining spiked tentacles swiftly striking back.
But the Behemoth was faster. Its claws flashed through several afterimages, swiftly severing all the spiked tentacles at their bases. Just as it breathed a sigh of relief,
the Creep Tumor contracted downward, then violently discharged, its internal needle sac instantly spitting out hundreds of needles.
Unable to dodge in time, the Behemoth could only shield itself with both arms. These needles were far more powerful than those fired by the Needle Crawlers. In an instant, the Behemoth's front bristled like a hedgehog, with more than half the length of each needle buried in its muscles.
Its wounds roused its ferocity. The Behemoth roared again, flung its arms wide, and frantically attacked the already half-dead Creep Tumor with its claws.
Finally, with the sound of bursting flesh, the enormous Creep Tumor was cut in half. Having vented its fury, the Behemoth let out a roar and pounced on the Swarm surging toward it again.
The Beast Horde, which had been intimidated into staying put by the sheer number of Swarm creatures, was emboldened. Roaring, it too charged down the slope and collided with the Swarm waiting in battle formation. In an instant, blood swept across the battlefield, and severed limbs began flying through the air.
Through their prolonged confrontations, the Swarm Network had gained a great deal of experience. Now, with equal numbers, the Swarm's fighting strength far surpassed that of the Beast Horde.
Of the ten thousand combat bugs, two thousand split off to surround and attack the Behemoth. The remaining eight thousand still overwhelmed the ten thousand-strong Beast Horde, making the battle practically a slaughter.
There was a human camp beside the Hatchery. The Knights, who had been trembling all over as they waited for their fate to descend, heard the Behemoth's furious roars.
To find out what was happening, some Knights, led by Ymir, climbed the newly built watchtower in trepidation. Then they saw the Swarm and the Beast Horde colliding and tearing into one another.
The bloody, brutal scene left the Knights with their mouths hanging open and their eyes vacant, as though they had forgotten to breathe.
They saw the Beast Horde fighting with all its strength yet still being slaughtered by the Swarm. They saw the Behemoth, over ten meters tall, being engulfed by the Swarm again and again, its body drenched in blood.
"Is this the power of the Swarm? This is a vision of hell," Ymir muttered to himself.
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