Chapter 35: Ruling the space
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
Because the Redliner tribe’s Mutalisks were flooding the periphery of the Blackthorn base, their Overlords were all being recalled back in. If the Overlords weren’t behind the protective guard of the Hydralisks, they would definitely be exterminated. As mentioned before, Overlords don’t possess any offensive capabilities, yet they played the crucial role of providing resources for the arachnid lifeforms; hence the Overlords were un-sacrificable units.
Currently, Overmind Mozi had spawned out numerous anti-aerial hydralisks, as they patrolled throughout the surface of the base. Strictly speaking, an extensive large scale of hydralisk would not needed to scare off the assaults of Mutalisks. Moreover, to spawn a hydralisk, the resources of Vespene gas and Pandora crystals were much lower as compared to Mutalisks. But one must note, the flexible scope of range of the Mutalisks who roamed the air was ten folds that of the hydralisks. Hence, roughly 90% of the patrolling hydralisk were rendered useless. Several squads of Redliner Mutalisks had congregated together and engaged in widespread massacre.
The situation had not sunk into a passive state.
But at this moment, Sheyan was reunited with Blackthorn Overmind Mozi; this congregation lasted for roughly 10 minutes, no one knew what they discussed. Afterwards, they dispersed.
Not long later, at least 40 other Overlords had assembled together; as two squadrons of hydralisks escorted them hastily towards the west. It seemed like they were heading over to the Thick-liquid base for some unknown operation. If these 40 Overlords were slayed, then the entire Blackthorn tribe would face an immense shortage of resource (not the raw materials, but the processed minerals), the larvaes would not be able to be bred and spawned to reinforce the fighting strength. They would have to once again spawn out a new Overlord! Undoubtedly, this would greatly delay the development of the base!
Under this alluring aspect, most of the Redliner Mutalisk banded together to unleash a frenzied assault. In order to slay the 40 Overlord, they would first have to take care of the escorting hydralisks. If not, they would face utter annihilation as the Overlord’s defensive capabilities and health were not to be recklessly trifled with. Their own forces would undoubtedly perish under the constant, lethal acidic jets of the hydralisk; this wasn’t a consequence the Redliner arachnids were willing to face.
Just like how they imagined it to be, the two squads of hydralisk ultimately were unable to resist the frenzied onslaught of the scattered and agile Mutalisks. In a short span of minutes, they were reduced to devastating casualties, the remaining survivors couldn’t even post much of a threat anymore. In the end, the 40 Overlords, pathetically retreated back into their main base. The over a hundred Mutalisk were relentlessly pursuing, wildly rummaging from the back. Within a span of 2-3 km, at least half of the Overlords had perished.
But while the Redliner Mutalisk were frantically delivering attacks, they arrived at a spacious region not far from the Blackthorn tribe’s main base. They hadn’t noticed, that the Overlords they were pursuing were subtly lowering the flying height, and finally landed onto the ground. In order for the Mutalisks to slay the Overlords, they had to dive lower in order to attack them.
The Redliner Mutalisks gradually congregated together towards an advantageous attacking position; concentrating their firepower against the Overlords. It seemed like they wouldn’t rest until the Overlords were utterly decimated! But at the exact moment they congregated together to release attacks; within a particularly queer but humongous black Overlord, a figure suddenly leapt out. His hand was shockingly holding onto an unappealing cylindrical-like object. It was indeed that ‘Sample Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’!!!
A majestic azure brilliance flashed out! The Mutalisks had a habit of congregating to concentrate their firepower; yet when Sheyan leapt out of the Overlord Shenxu, he directly aimed towards the nucleus of the Mutalisk gathering! After a violent tremor and blinding flash, at least half of the Mutalisk in the air instantly sunk into a stunned effect! Simultaneously, from the spacious ground, vibrations and tremors became increasingly intense. “Brrr Brr Boom!” At least 6 squads of hydralisk and 5 squads of zerglings burrowed out from the ground. Consecutively, the hydralisks ferociously sprayed their acid into the air! Within these battalion of hydralisks and zerglings, most of them still had traces and marks belonging to the expired Thick-liquid tribe!
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When Sheyan had raided the Thick-liquid base, they unexpectedly encountered several burrowed elite zerglings at the entrance of the Mother nest. If he hadn’t acted fast to utilize the ‘Sample Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’ then they would’ve certainly met with a tragic ending. Hence, he could see from this where the unique research and characteristics of the Thick-liquid tribe was; it was definitely a researched gene that raised their unit’s capabilities. When the 40 Overlords were used as baits, the Overmind Mozi had created a window of opportunity to gather the hydralisks and zerglings from the Thick-liquid tribe. While the Redliners were busy, Mozi dispatched the arachnids had buried them into the spacious region not far from his base…..
The Mutalisks affected by Sheyan’s dazzling ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’ numbered at least 56. They naturally relied on their wings to stay afloat in the sky; when the terrorizing soundwaves of the ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’ reverberated onto them inducing a stunning effect, they straightforwardly crashed to the ground. Of course, these powerful units wouldn’t die just like that, at most they received light injuries. Yet when they crashed to the ground, the ferocious and maniacal zerglings were viciously waiting to pounce onto them!
Within 10 minutes, repeated scenes of bloodlusted zerglings tore through the grounded Mutalisk horde, preventing them from flying back into the sky! Moreover, the hydralisk were focused in sending spurts of acid against the Mutalisks who weren’t affected. Instead of scattering out, the Mutalisk clumped up together as they soared to a higher altitude. In this manner, although they sacrificed some of their comrades underneath, it protected most of their lives instead of scattering out and giving the hydralisk more surface to attack them. It was only like an orange being peeled off its skin.
At this critical juncture, from the rocky hills far away; a peculiar demonic shaped figure surfaced. It was indeed the elite Queen zerg, Jenny! Although her abilities only allowed her to instant kill one Mutalisk, in this very moment; the formidable elite queen zerg Jenny could demonstrate her fullest potential!
Aiming towards the clump of Mutalisk frenziedly fluttering their wings, she released a thick clump of lime green.
In a flash, the green clump started dividing itself as it drifted through the air, 1 into 2, 2 into 4, 4 into 8……. When it reached the frantically fleeing Mutalisks, an astounding radiating with lustrous lime green, gigantic web was formed! It covered the heavens as it bluntly enveloped and entangled in!
Capture!
The awe-inspiring mighty mass-scale ensnaring ability, Capture!
If the Redliner Mutalisks required 5-6 seconds to escape from the effective range of the hydralisk, this time frame had been lengthened by two folds! With this bonus time, that was indeed the difference between life and death……
3 minutes later, the battle had concluded.
The Blackthorn tribe had lost a total of: 31 hydralisk, 33 Overlords, 6 zerglings in addition to one expanded ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’. This added up a 5,775 Pandora crystal worth of units, and 775 units of Vespene gas.
On the contrary, the Redliner tribe lost a total of: 107 Mutalisks. That equated to a total of 10,700 Pandora crystal units, and similarly 10,700 units of Vespene gas!
Comparing the casualties of both parties, it could be determined that the Blackthorn tribe triumphed overwhelmingly!
One must understand, losing so many Pandora crystals was fine; the rarer Vespene gas was a huge issue. Normally, for every 6-8 Pandora crystals, only 1 Vespene gas resource would be obtained. The Redliner tribe’s Overmind in actual fact, didn’t commit any errors in terms of battle strategy and reaction. Even with the intervention of the elite Queen zerg Jenny, at most its casualties would be capped at 30 Mutalisks max. But what caused its total defeat, was the variable of this freak, Sheyan. He actually possessed the skills to instantly neutralize the Mutalisks, causing them to fall to the ground! This led to its disastrous annihilation!
During the battle, the Blackthorn tribe had successfully upgraded from ‘I’ class base to the ‘II’ class base! The two superpowers were now on the same footing. The first advanced organ structure that Overmind Mozi undertook was – naturally a Spire! These organ structures were shaped like a mushroom, suspended around the umbrella of the mushroom head were 10 bulky vasculars. It directly linked the mushroom to the viscous liquid on the ground, supplying the adequate genetic coding; it can allow the larvas to breed and spawn two new categories of units. The first was the former Mutalisks that attacked the Blackthorn base. The second, were the kamikaze bugs, known as scourges.
Seizing the enemy’s sudden decline in aerial prowess, Overmind Mozi rapidly activated his resources; mass producing out squadrons of mutalisks and scourges. From then on, the two sides engaged in multiple aerial warfares. But because a major portion of the Redliner tribe had been utterly crushed by the wildcard Sheyan’s ingenious plans; they suffered a huge blow in their aerial constitution leading to a complete defeat in that area.
Thus, the Redliner tribe Overmind could only give up on the aerial supremacy, changing its strategy to fortifying its turtle defences; by mass producing the multi-purpose hydralisks. Yet the fact was that, even with a over hundred Mutalisk being completely eradicated, the Redliner tribe at most suffered a huge blow; it hadn’t crushed them into a perilous state! In fact, their development could sustain a terrorizing quantity of 1:3 of the Blackthorn tribe forces! Blackthorn tribe 1: Redliner tribe 3. Once the Redliner tribe managed to amass an adequate coalition, that would be the crucial deciding factor; with both party’s existence on the line.