Chapter 90-1: The Correct Way to Patch Up Weaknesses (1) |
Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range.
“What the hell is this thing? Its attack power is insane, feels even fiercer than the Black Tide, it keeps chasing me down to bite me.”
“These bugs have pretty high magic resistance. Took me three fireballs to kill just one. Looks like melee might be rising in this patch, kinda frustrating, I wish melee stayed weak forever. Us spellcasters should always be the true gods of every version.”
“The Rolling Thunder tactic is pretty fun though. Just line up with your bros, switch to Thunderburst form, and roll forward. Only downside is it’s a bit fragile.”
—
While the raging insect swarm was furiously attacking the Evil Eye Tower, Swarm warriors on both flanks of the main battlefront crossed the Phantom Swamp boundary and entered the Emperor’s Mound Mountain Range.
Everything along the way was devoured and consumed.
During this process, the swarm had its first encounters with players who were exploring outside.
In the eyes of the players, the frenzied Swarm warriors were no different from the Black Tide Evil Entities.
Among them, it was undoubtedly the melee Star Vein players who were the happiest.
The terrifying Black Tide had already birthed many Evil Entities that were difficult to kill with non-elemental damage, leaving melee players with no advantage unless they paired with elemental Inherited Souls.
For example, Lightning enchantments under the Thunderburst Inherited Soul, or flame enchantments under Inkflame.
However, pairing with magic-type Inherited Souls inevitably weakened physical aptitude.
But when fighting the Swarm warriors, melee players no longer had this problem.
The Swarm warriors were the exact opposite of the Black Tide Evil Entities.
Their crystallized body structure effectively resisted elemental damage, but they were extremely vulnerable to pure physical attacks.
This discovery thrilled the melee players, who all declared that the version where melee finally rose had arrived.
While players were enthusiastically discussing the sudden arrival of the insect swarm, Qi Sheng, behind the scenes, was still spectating the battle between the Black Tide and the Swarm at the front lines.
The intensity of the battle between the two sides was far more brutal than any previous fight between the Black Tide and the players.
During the conflict, the terrifying Black Tide continuously drew on node energy to rapidly birth new Evil Entities, while the Hive Mind behind the Phantom Swamp commanded the Swarm warriors to frantically gather resources and absorb them to rapidly produce new Swarm warriors.
Both sides were pumping out units at high intensity.
Under the light of the Evil Moon, at the center of the main battlefront, two waves of different colors clashed.
To the north, the insect swarm resembled an endless crystal ocean, primarily composed of Crystal Wing Strains as the main combat units. Under the Hive Mind’s command, all Swarm warriors were frenzied and bloodthirsty beyond measure, numbering so many they couldn’t be counted, surging forward like a flood. Every collision brought the cracking of carapaces and sprays of bodily fluids, filling the air with a pungent, bloody stench.
On the other side, the Black Tide Evil Entities resembled demons crawling out of a dark abyss. Once birthed, they immediately charged into battle, and upon death, they would remerge into the Black Tide, which would then birth new Evil Entities.
Both sides had enormous numbers of combat units. No matter how many died, new forces would fill the gaps, continuing the endless slaughter.
What left Qi Sheng speechless the most in this process was what seemed to be a war of attrition, where both sides were constantly depleting their forces, and both sides’ losses should have kept increasing.
Yet according to Guide’s regional sampling analysis, the overall strength of both the terrifying Black Tide and the Battle Swarm was not diminishing under the high-intensity confrontation, rather, both were growing rapidly.
On the Black Tide’s side, Evil Entities spawned by the Black Tide killed Swarm warriors, harvesting their energy and causing the Black Tide’s strength to rise swiftly through devouring.
On the other hand, the Hive Mind behind the insect swarm continuously collected pheromones dispersed from the Black Tide, rapidly evolving its newly birthed Swarm warriors.
In less than half a day, the Swarm Hive Mind had already developed a new combat unit specialized against the Black Tide, the Shield Wing Strain.
Its form was based on the Crystal Wing Strain, but its body was now covered with an additional layer of shield-like carapace, milky-white under the Evil Moon’s glow, radiating a gentle luster. Its body size had tripled, appearing far bulkier.
This was a new combat unit birthed after the broodmother reconstructed life structures, specifically to counter the Doll Fiends. The multiple defensive layers within the milky-white carapace could successively absorb and neutralize the area damage caused by Doll Fiend self-detonations.
The key feature was that the heavy carapace of the Shield Wing Strain could open like wings, forming a protective barrier for the Swarm warriors behind them.
Both sides were rapidly growing through their racial talents.
Qi Sheng watched this scene in stunned silence.
To him, it felt like the Black Tide and the insect swarm were power-leveling each other, leveling up together and growing stronger.
What should have been a war of attrition had been completely broken by these two races with infinite potential, it was like a bug exploit.
In any other game, this kind of behavior would definitely get you banned.
But as the war dragged on, the outcome was gradually becoming clear.
The moment the Swarm was dragged into a war of attrition, victory had already started tipping in favor of the terrifying Black Tide.
When it came to devouring and growing, the broodmother relied on nearby resources and could not grow stronger by devouring Evil Entities, whereas the Black Tide could absorb part of the energy from the corpses of Swarm warriors.
In terms of growth speed, the Black Tide was clearly ahead.
However, what puzzled Qi Sheng was that the Swarm Hive Mind still showed no intention of ending the war, and continued mass-producing units.
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