Chapter 50: Danger lurks on every side
Translated by: Chua
Edited by:TN and Elkassar
After arriving at the Spore Highland without a hitch, Sheyan’s expression became heavier on the contrary. It felt like the calm before the storm. The supposed ‘arachnid guards’ were non-existent around the Spore Highland, this gravely emphasised that they have utmost faith in its inner circle of defence! If it didn’t possessed an impregnable defence, then why would its exterior be so brazenly ignored?
Sheyan diligently scanned his environment, willing the loaded Overlord to hover over the ground motionlessly. First, he sent 2 mutalisks and 3 scourges to scout up the precipitous cliff. When they soared to nearly a hundred meters, a tumultuous crackle reverberated followed by an unfolding of a colossal tentacle!
The tentacle was nearly 20 metres, thick creamy mucus polluted its surface. It was much thicker than an octopus tentacle, and had split ends. Its horizontal sweep contained an unfathomable monstrosity! Fragments of rocks dispersed out, as the mutalisks and scourges tried their utmost to evade. Instead, the flexible tentacle formed into a hoop, directly constricting two scourges as it roped them in without a struggle! Instantly, gobbling them up, leaving no chance for Sheyan to even command them to self-destruct! Fortunately, the two mutalisk was more agile, managed to avoid the assault. They successfully flapped their panicky wings, diving down with their last remaining scourge counterpart.
Upon witnessing this frighteningly queer scene, Sheyan ordered his remaining flying units to retreat. He then commander his squad to slowly float up from several hundreds of metre away from the cliff, naturally trying to avoid aggravating those colossal tentacles. After they were parallel to the Spore Highland, he then ordered them to advance in formation. With the Overlords smacked at the rear, they charged bluntly towards the plateau of the Spore Highland; in a desperate bid to infiltrate into the peak.
Although action seemed lunatic, Sheyan was fairly confident. That was because the realm wouldn’t issue out impossibly deadly missions. This Spore Highland had such treacherously steep cliffs, and even guarded by the terrifying colossal tentacles; ascending the cliff by climbing was certainly impossible. Then naturally, the only way was to advance by air. Deducing this method from the situation, the odds were in their favour. Yet if an unexpectedly far-fetched variable appeared and massacred them even before landing, this mission difficult would’ve definitely be an A+ mission!
Amidst the raging breeze, the trio drank down a dosage of Sheyan’s genetic mix, fueling their maximum combat state. Paying close attention as the chunk of land became increasingly larger, closer and closer towards the treacherous fringe. On hindsight, it looked completely like a vast overgrown empty land, the only consideration was a sudden outburst of tentacles. Once that terrifying murder weapon appeared, no doubt, they would have to search for a newer landing spot.
As the Overlord swiftly drew closer, their eyes suddenly popped widely! Because over the surface of the overgrown remote vast land, were countless faint glows of red holes. It was indeed the unique reflection of the arachnid’s burrowing ability. Every Overlord was equipped with the true-sight ability, hence everyone took notice of this abnormal scene!
Astoundingly beneath the ground surface, 30 arachnids were silently awaiting their arrival!
This was an obvious trap!
Sheyan glanced towards Mogensha, because only Mogensha could execute an ‘insight’ ability; wishing that he could provide some relevant information. Instead, Mogensha shook his head.
“Not possible, this place is notifying me that it’s covered by the Blade Empress’s mental powers. I’m unable to execute that ability.”
Sheyan’s pupils contracted, but he defiantly roared out mightily.
“Prepare to land! I’ll go down first to lure them for 5 seconds. You guys descend 10 metres away from me!”
An anxiousness gripped Mogensha’s heart.
“What if there’s a sea of hydralisks below? How about we change location?”
Sheyan refuted loudly.
“No need. If it were hydralisks, we are already within their attacking range! It is currently the optimal time for the hydralisk to burrow out to deal the heaviest blow to use. Only close combat units like zerglings would stay hidden till now! I’m only afraid everything buried are elite zerglings, which I probably wouldn’t even have the time to detonate the Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb! The longer we drag, the harder it’ll get!”
The winds were howling furiously, 3 metres gap between the Overlord and the surface. Sheyan loosened his grip onto the Overlord’s tentacle, leaping down in a flash! His legs stomped down onto the spongy soft soil. A sudden eruption of dust and soil! Followed by 7-8 savage zerglings, tearing wildly towards him!
Faced against this assault, Sheyan covered his chest with his left hand. A zergling swiped in with its murderous claws, ripping a hole through Sheyan’s battle armour; but it wasn’t enough to penetrate through his defence! The damage sustained was only 1 point!
Sheyan reacted swiftly as he grabbed the zerglings neck, ferociously exerting strength. “Crack!” Its neck bone was crushed, as he flung it towards the nearby incoming zergling. These frenzied zerglings, trampled over its comrade while baring their fangs. Anything that obstructed their path would be mercilessly ripped to shreds. Within seconds, their poor comrade was reduced to decapitated chunks of flesh.
Thousands of zerglings had already fallen to Sheyan’s hand. After this preliminary warm up, he could tell that these zerglings weren’t as strong as elite zerglings, but they were at least several folds stronger than ordinary zerglings! They boasted at least 150 more points of HP. Moreover, its body was painted crimson blood red, with a golden line stretching over the vertebra from the apex of its head to the tail. Its offensive speed was at least two times that of the ordinary zergling! Once it struck, it left an afterimage of its swipe, unable to capture with the naked eye!
Fortunately, Sheyan’s ‘Endurance’ was utilized to its maximum, resistively tanking their attacks. But once an explosive strike occurred, it would still be relatively damaging to Sheyan.
When every single zergling had surfaced from the ground, Sheyan’s health had rapidly plunged to half. He roared loudly, detonating his ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’!
A familiar blinding blue flashed out, enveloping these unique blood red zerglings; dealing sound damage while consecutively stunning them. Concurrently, the other 6 Overlords had speedily approached the surface, repeatedly dumping its contents down! Within the 10 seconds of stun, Reef had already hastily reached Sheyan’s side. Roaring defiantly to the heavens, he released a ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’!
His roar contained formidable might. The zerglings had already been injured by the ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’, and suffered the same type of attack by Reef. After a fiery roasting by Sheyan’s flamethrower, they were all slain! This underground ambush dealt zero casualties to Sheyan’s party, it only dropped his life to 350 points. It was only close to a dangerous margin.
Noteworthily, the drop loots of these zerglings were pretty decent. Random junk from the thirty could be sold for roughly 2000 utility points. But the pleasant surprise was an unknown odd object! This object had the shape of a zergling’s stomach, but its mutilated surface was wrapped with a thread of golden resplendent hair; yet it could be used to exchange for achievement points in the realm! Mogensha and Reef both urged Sheyan to keep it, this he bluntly stored it without saying much.
To prevent another of such ambush, Sheyan specially ordered an Overlord to lead the way; with the remainder closely following behind. Although from afar the Spore Highland appeared like a flatland; as they walked on, they discovered tremendous boulders scattered about as tall as 2-3 building floors. There were also numerous deep crevices. It wasn’t significant looking from high altitudes, but walking through it was like navigating through a maze. The terrain was exceedingly complex, the entire Spore Highland stretched out to at least dozens of square-kilometres. Hence, a huge amount of time was spent journeying.
After 50 metres deep into the middle region of the Highland, Sheyan at the front suddenly felt a wave of bone chilling, hair standing threat sweeping in from the front! Instantly, he pushed down the miserable Reef beside him, proning directly to the ground!
A mere split second later, a clump of emerald mucus bullet shot in from the front. “Psshhh!” Directly splattering onto the Overlord, dying the Overlord instantly with green stripes as white fumes steamed out. Corroding rapidly, it collapsed to the ground, turning into a rotten mess within 10 seconds; it looked just like a pulverized grey mushroom.
Sheyan and Reef glanced at each other, smiling bitterly as they shook their heads. Naturally, although this mission allowed for the contestants to ride in a transport to ascend the treacherous Spore Highland, it definitely prohibited them from freely advancing within the transport, not even when they weren’t so deep in yet. If not, that Overlord was the prime consequence. Fortunately, observing the corroding process of the Overlord, it still provided ample time for the passengers to escape. It wasn’t as tragic and cruel as a tentacle instantly swallowing you without room to react.
The bunch of them after witnessing this event, became more prudent from now on. Sheyan dispatched a zergling to scout out 30 metres ahead, while he led the front with Reef guarding the rear. At present, he was left only with 3 ‘Electromagnetic Cloud Bomb’s, hence he had to use it sparingly. If it wasn’t necessary, then he wouldn’t simply detonate it.