Chapter 89-2: Battle The Swarm (2) |
Above the Swarm Hive Mind, Qi Sheng also spotted a narrow fissure, a spatial rift that was nearly closed.
It was certain that the Swarm Hive Mind had just been airdropped here through the spatial rift.
It is unclear whether this low-level Swarm Hive Mind came specifically for the Black Tide, or simply arrived seeking resources and happened to sense the Black Tide’s presence by chance before launching its attack.
Qi Sheng did not dwell on the reason, as it was unimportant.
Both the Swarm and the Black Tide would be enemies of the player legion.
He could see the Swarm near the Hive Mind frantically chopping down nearby vegetation and rocks, transporting all materials to the Hive Mind for smelting and digestion.
The extent of environmental and resource destruction caused by this force was in no way inferior to the Mechanical Overlord. In fact, the ultimate Hive Mind controlling the Swarm behind the scenes might even surpass the Mechanical Overlord in strength.
[Fortunately, the Swarm Hive Mind that arrived has a hunt level that isn’t excessively high, otherwise it would be very difficult for the current player legion to handle.]
Qi Sheng nodded in agreement.
Its strength was well-matched for players, making it perfect for helping them increase their combat power.
When it came to devouring and evolving abilities, players would only surpass both the Swarm and the Black Tide.
At this moment, his perspective zoomed back. The intense war between the Black Tide and the insect swarm continued. During the battle, the Black Tide’s strength kept climbing as it devoured partial remains of the Swarm warriors.
Analysis showed that the Swarm served as an experience pack for the Black Tide’s growth, allowing its strength to rise continuously.
But this wasn’t the important part.
The key was that the Swarm’s battlefront was steadily advancing, and the Black Tide Evil Entities could not halt the Swarm warriors’ steady push forward.
This made Qi Sheng realize the true objective of the Swarm Hive Mind.
Possessing high intelligence, the Hive Mind certainly understood the Black Tide’s characteristic of growing stronger through devouring during war. Thus, it had no intention of engaging in a long and grinding war of attrition. Its core target had always been the Black Tide’s core: the Evil Eye Tower.
In other words, this was a blitz tactic employed by the Swarm Hive Mind.
As long as the Evil Eye Tower was destroyed, the Black Tide’s influence would be drastically weakened.
This was also why the Swarm Hive Mind allowed the Black Tide to continue strengthening itself through devouring during battle.
At this moment, atop the Evil Eye Tower, Dinian’s expression was dark.
The terrifying Black Tide under his control kept growing stronger in its battle with the Swarm warriors, but he too had realized the Swarm’s true objective.
Facing the ever-retreating battlefront, he repeatedly attempted counterattacks with the Black Tide, but was continuously forced back by the frenzied insect tide.
At this rate, the Swarm army would soon reach the Evil Eye Tower.
If the tower was destroyed, he would lose the domain node beneath it, and his control over the Black Tide would be significantly weakened.
By then, it would be extremely difficult to reclaim it.
“Evil Eye, just what are these creatures?”
In response to the question, a slit opened in the Evil Eye floating behind Dinian. After a long silence, it finally spoke.
“According to intelligence shared by other nodes, this force is called the Battle Swarm. It is one of the most troublesome forces our race has ever fought. We’ve clashed with them in multiple worlds over control, and they have severely hindered the speed of our world devouring.”
“Multiple worlds?” Dinian was somewhat surprised.
“That’s correct. Multiple worlds. The Battle Swarm’s power is far more terrifying than you imagine. They possess the racial talent to collect pheromones and acquire information on their targets’ abilities. They can also reconstruct the life structures of their offspring to evolve organs that counter other races’ abilities. They are a world-destroying force very similar to our own. During our invasions of other worlds, we have often discovered that the Battle Swarm had already begun consuming those worlds.”
The Evil Eye’s explanation made Dinian realize the gravity of the situation.
“So the slowed rate of Black Mist feedback, and the inability to fully devour the Swarm corpses, are also due to their racial traits.”
“Exactly. In some worlds, the Swarm has already evolved bodily structures that resist our devouring and backlash. Although they can’t completely neutralize the Black Tide’s traits, they can greatly reduce the pressure our Black Tide puts on them.”
At this point, the Evil Eye shifted Dinian’s consciousness to observe one of the Crystal Wing Strain warriors in battle.
“The crystalline body structure and the emitted sluggish energy… these are all combat adaptations designed specifically to counter our Black Tide. If I’m not mistaken, this batch of Swarm followed the footsteps of our warriors into Monster World, or may have even pursued us into Monster World.”
“Pursued us?” Dinian was stunned, finding it hard to believe.
“Yes. When our race devours a world, the process ends with the world’s annihilation. The warriors participating in the devouring are then reassigned to different worlds. But the Swarm is completely different. Their lust for battle is extremely strong; to them, an end means the absolute eradication of all life.”
“How is that different?” Dinian asked in confusion.
“Completely different. For example, after we released the Black Tide and completely devoured the Purple Rain World, many powerful lifeforms escaped to other worlds by tearing open space. We chose to ignore them, unwilling to waste time on pointless pursuit. Devouring worlds is our ultimate goal; wasting power on pursuit is seen as extremely foolish by our kind.”
“But the Battle Swarm is different. They devour all life. If they discover that life from a devoured world has fled to another, they will not hesitate to launch cross-world pursuits.”
“Our clashes with the Battle Swarm in other worlds have resulted in similar events. After our Black Tide devoured a world, we wanted no further entanglement, but the Swarm refused to let our warriors go, launching continuous pursuit, until we were forced to eliminate them entirely in another world.”
“One thing is certain: the queen behind the Battle Swarm is very intelligent, possessing an extremely high level of wisdom, though their bloodthirsty instincts often drive them to commit foolish acts.”
“Now, with the Swarm following in our footsteps into Monster World, we face a new challenge in our attempt to fully devour it. Let us hope the supreme entity behind the Swarm has not arrived, or our process of devouring Monster World will be severely obstructed.”
The Evil Eye’s explanation made Dinian’s scalp tingle.