They broke away from the defense line and chased after the Reaper. Not every insect could possess the speed of the Reaper. Most low-level insects were only two or three thousand times the speed of light. After chasing for a distance, they had no choice but to give up. Only a few high-level insects that came from afar continued to pursue.
The Reaper ' actions attracted five giant insects, each over 50,000 kilometers long, which rushed towards the fleet from tens of light-years away to intercept it.
The Reaper responsible for interception immediately ceased their charge. They separated 5,000 ships from the 30,000, forming teams of 1,000 to attack the five giant worms. The remaining Reaper were responsible for intercepting the other high-level worms that were still pursuing them at speeds of 4,000 times.
There is only one giant worm in each area. Currently, the fleet is surrounding the giant worm. Although the giant worm is faster than the Reaper, the Reaper's armor and defense are stronger. Overall, it seems that the Reaper still has the initiative on the battlefield.
The intercepting Reaper quickly came into close contact with the giant insects. The first wave of spatial cannons was fired, leaving hundreds of giant holes, each a kilometer in diameter and hundreds of meters deep, on the insects. If such holes were on an ordinary warship, it would certainly result in the destruction of the ship and the loss of life. However, for these giant insects, whose bodies were seven or eight hundred kilometers thick, these wounds were like needle pricks to a person.
The space cannons have been strengthened and improved, with their power greatly increased. They are now powerful enough to penetrate two or three Small Star Sector Civilization warships that are stationed side by side. If they were still the kind of level 20 or so insectoids from before, they could already penetrate them with a single shot.
However, when the attack reached the giant insect, its attack depth was only a few hundred meters. Daozi had once described the terror of a level 25 insect, and although the scenario was fabricated, the insect's condition now seemed entirely true.
The giant insects are fast. They use their teeth, spikes, or tentacles to launch a frenzied counterattack against the Reaper, biting Reaper one by one. Even the Second Reversed State Armor, which antimatter could not shake, was directly bitten to pieces. These insects may have already exceeded the 25th order. If they reach a certain number, they will be enough to pose a threat to the Great Star Region Advanced Civilization.
Although the space cannon's attack was insufficient to inflict fatal damage, it had enraged the giant worms. They frantically hunted the Reaper, every part of their bodies capable of warp drive. Even in normal motion, they could easily exceed 0.6 times the speed of light, an extremely terrifying speed. Combined with the giant worms' immense strength, even if the Reaper wasn't destroyed, it was still disoriented by the enormous impact.
Every part of their bodies had evolved into weapons. A thousand Reaper were like a thousand flies in front of them, and flies with broken wings that couldn't fly fast. The battle lasted only a dozen minutes before the Reaper were completely destroyed.
Around these giant worms Reaper could barely maintain its stance, let alone launch precise attacks. Apart from the hundreds of spatial cannon wounds it had inflicted on them at the beginning, the Reaper could no longer harm them. Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong tried their best to get the Reaper's energy balls into these wounds, but no matter what weapon it was, it would be quickly intercepted and destroyed as soon as it got close to the giant worm, and it had no effect at all.
Aside from spatial cannons and Virtual Matter, any other attack would be like an ant bite to a human—not only would it not hurt much, but it might even feel pleasantly numb.
The Reaper also released many miniature ships, hoping to fly into the giant insect's interior through its mouth and wreak havoc. The miniature ships did indeed enter the insect's mouth, but just as they were about to continue flying into the insect's body, they were torn to pieces by an energy storm. The defense of this high-level insect was far superior to that of the low-level insects that could only travel a few thousand kilometers.
For the first time, humanity truly grasped the terror of these giant insects: their enormous size, immense strength, bio-armor defenses that even Stinger couldn't penetrate, and unparalleled speed—they seemed to have virtually no weaknesses.
Moreover, these are just a few giant worms, and they are not even fighting together. A thousand Reaper cannot even intercept a single giant worm. To eliminate them, it would probably take at least a million Reaper.
Besides the 5,000 Reaper destroyed, the other 25,000 Reaper are in no better condition. Facing tens of thousands of high-level insectoids with lengths reaching thousands of kilometers, they can temporarily repel the swarm by coordinating their formations. However, the swarm's target is clearly not these warships.
They instinctively bypassed the intercepting fleet, attempting to break through from other directions to continue their advance. The Reaper split into hundreds of squadrons, scattered in the air to form a relatively short defensive line to intercept the swarm. These swarms were not significantly faster than the Reaper, and the Reaper ' space cannons could also inflict considerable damage on them.
Enraged, some of the insects launched a fierce attack on the interceptor fleet. The Reaper were quickly thrown into disarray and fell into a disadvantageous position. One Reaper seized an opportunity, charged directly into the insect's mouth, and immediately activated its self-destruct program. The insect's head was blown to pieces, and it finally calmed down. This was the first high-level insect killed by the fleet.
However, such success cannot be replicated, and finding such an opportunity is extremely difficult. With this precedent in mind, the other insects are even more cautious, rarely opening their mouths and instead using other parts of their bodies to attack the Reaper. Biting is merely a habitual action for insects; the other parts of their bodies are in no way inferior to their teeth.
Lacking much speed advantage, the Reaper here can barely keep up with the insects. The Reaper ' main task is to buy time; if they can hold off the insects for an hour, they will never have a chance to catch up with the main fleet again.
" Zhuge Xiong, think of something quickly! These tigers will catch up with us in another hour."
"The only way to avoid these insects now is to split up."
"We need to split the fleet! We only have less than 70,000 Reaper left. If we're going to split up, we'll need to divide into at least 20 groups to have a better chance of preventing the giant insects from chasing our ship."
"No, we'll divide it into 70,000 parts. That way, we'll only lose a few dozen Reaper at most. Once we're in the Matter River, the giant worms might not be able to find us. Then we can reassemble the fleet."
"This is too risky. We don't care about our lives; if we lose them, we lose them. But it's absolutely unacceptable for the academicians to be without the protection of the fleet. I'd rather the fleet suffer even greater losses than have the academicians completely defenseless."
"I have an idea that can satisfy both sides," Academician Zeng said.
"Academician, please speak quickly," Li Zhixiong said eagerly.