The throng dispersed. Hardke looked out, and a tremor ran through him. The very ground before him and the earth itself were obscured by a boundless swarm of insects. Creatures he had never seen before stretched as far as the eye could see. The air was filled with a symphony of horrifying sounds: deep roars, sharp shrieks, clear howls, the rustling of countless limbs, the whoosh of beating wings, and the sizzling corrosion of acid hitting the earth. These sounds merged into a chilling chorus.

"What is this? Who in the blazes are you?" Hardke shouted in shock, his voice booming. What he saw had far exceeded the limits of his imagination. While the sudden appearance of Yang Ying and his five companions had initially shocked him, that degree of surprise now seemed trivial by comparison.

"What this is does not matter," Yang Ying replied. "What matters is that our battle must continue."

Around Yang Ying now stood a protective guard of one thousand Thunder Beasts, precisely that number. Each beast towered about fifty meters high, slightly larger than Hardke currently was. Yang Ying and his five companions were positioned atop the head of each Thunder Beast. Before them stood ten formations of Hydralisks, each square formation one hundred by one hundred, composed of ten thousand Hydralisks. Further ahead, leading the charge, were the quintessential cannon fodder of the Zerg—the very dregs of the expendable—Zerglings, numbering over a million. They had already occupied every visible patch of ground, and any more would find no space.

As the saying goes, an army numbering one thousand stretches across the land; an army of a hundred thousand blankets the heavens. How much more so with a million!

And in the sky, dense swarms of Mutaliscs filled the air, grouped into twenty or thirty clusters, each comprising at least ten thousand Mutaliscs. Their maneuverability was no less than that of fighter jets, forming the backbone of the Zerg aerial forces.

Also present were two evolved forms of the Mutalisk: the Air Guardian and the Devourer. These creatures were enormous, comparable in size to large warships, and boasted thick armor, making them slightly slower. However, their offensive power far outstripped that of the standard Mutalisk.

The Air Guardians resembled flying crabs, somewhat flattened, spanning nearly a hundred meters from claw to claw when fully extended. The Devourers looked like massive, overgrown Mutaliscs, reaching a length of a hundred meters. Together, these two types numbered around thirty to forty thousand, arrayed densely in the sky in neat, layered formations. Protected by the sheer volume of Mutaliscs, they resembled a massive fleet!

Countless Banelings were scattered throughout the air, ready to initiate suicide attacks at any moment, while two hundred thousand Zerg Overlords hovered at high altitudes, directing the entire swarm.

Similar to the ground forces, these aerial units had completely obscured the sky. Yang Ying was not holding back out of choice; there was simply no more room.

"Attack!"

At Yang Ying's command, the sea of insects, both on the ground and in the air, began to move in unison. The front and rear ranks of the swarm activated simultaneously, showing no concern for collision. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, utterly unified!

The million Zerglings in the vanguard instantly encircled the entire mountain upon which Hardke stood. They roared, their numbers generating a sound that shook heaven and earth. Leaping forward on their powerful hind legs, they raised their sharp forelimbs and charged fearlessly toward the summit!

Hardke waved a hand, and a fierce hurricane erupted, blowing the Zerglings away. The wind carried razor-sharp wind blades, shredding the Zerglings in mid-air into tiny pieces that rained down.

This had no effect on the swarm's morale; instead, it stoked their bloodthirsty instincts. The Zerglings in the rear ranks, their eyes burning blood-red, opened their mouths to reveal rows of sharp fangs and continued their charge!

The ten Hydralisk formations also launched their assault, spitting out lightning-fast spikes from their mouths. The greenish-yellow saliva trailing them resembled gunfire. The speed of these spikes surpassed even that of Gauss bullets, and their attack range was immense.

A large group of Mutaliscs swooped down from the sky, attacking targets by spitting out small, bio-luminescent creatures. The power of these projectiles was no less than a Level Three 'Drill Shot,' and these creatures zipped rapidly between targets before exploding.

Tens of thousands of spikes and thousands of clusters of these small organisms hammered down upon Hardke from both ground and air, resembling a torrential downpour. Hardke dared not hesitate; his figure flashed, and he darted from the mountaintop down into the midst of the ground swarm at the base of the mountain. The spikes struck empty air, lost to wherever they were aimed, but the small creatures, seemingly possessing their own awareness, curved their trajectories to pursue Hardke.

Hardke’s method of movement remained 'Space Shrinkage,' but his fourth-level Psionic power had doubled the speed of his shifts. With a single step, he crossed into the heart of the ground swarm.

As soon as he landed, hundreds of nearby Zerglings leapt at him with frenzied intent. Hardke gave a casual push, and those Zerglings were instantly sent flying backward, splattering into paste upon impact. However, the remaining Zerglings advanced relentlessly, while the second wave of creatures spat by the Mutaliscs converged on him, soon joined by the second volley from the Hydralisks.

Hardke reached out and clapped his hands, releasing a burst of Psionic energy that deflected this wave of projectiles, sending them diagonally into the Zerg mass, instantly killing or wounding over ten thousand Zerglings!

Seeing this from afar, Yang Ying remained unfazed. Zerglings were, after all, cannon fodder; their purpose was to draw fire and minimize losses among the main forces. And the Zerglings were performing this role perfectly. The Zerglings' attack power posed little threat to Hardke, but their sharp forelimbs striking his Giant Ape form could chip away at his Psionic energy, however minutely. Yet, if these small losses accumulated, they could certainly cause Hardke headaches. Psionic energy was the foundation of the Giant Ape form; the lower the energy dropped, the more vulnerable Hardke became.

Though Hardke's deflection seemed effortless, Yang Ying privately estimated that deflecting the simultaneous attacks of ten thousand Hydralisks required immense power. Hardke's single strike had exacted a significant toll!

Observing this, Yang Ying mused, "Although the Zerglings are numerous and a few thousand lost are negligible, allowing them to be caught in friendly fire isn't ideal. Right, I still have this move..."

Yang Ying raised his hand, and a flash of golden light erupted as he summoned several thousand Scourge, distributing them across the battlefield. "Cover the entire area with Creep Fog!"

Scourge were Zerg ground-based magical units possessing several useful abilities, though none capable of dealing sufficient damage to Hardke. Yang Ying had deliberately held them back until this moment.

At Yang Ying's command, the Scourge immediately began their deployment. Puffs of reddish-brown smoke rose sequentially, each patch covering a vast area. Several thousand such patches were enough to entirely envelop the ground forces.

Creep Fog was a peculiar type of mist formed by tiny insects. This fog could obscure any form of detection, be it radar, infrared, or even mental probing, drastically reducing the accuracy of ranged attacks. Normally, deploying it would shield Zerg units within the fog from ranged assaults, but given the current density of fire, it was likely some friendly fire would still occur.

Once the Creep Fog was deployed, the fifty-meter-tall, glowing Hardke became a conspicuous target, standing out sharply amidst the gloom.

"Continue the advance! Let's see how much Psionic energy we can drain from Hardke!" Yang Ying commanded, gesturing sharply from atop his Thunder Beast.

Boom, boom, boom...

The Zerg air assault erupted fully. The Air Guardians spat yellowish-green spore balls, equivalent in power to Level Four artillery, crashing down heavily. The Devourers sprayed purple acid. In the game, Devourers couldn't attack ground units, and Air Guardians couldn't target air, but those limitations did not apply here—an attack was an attack, regardless of altitude!

The mental scans of the two hundred thousand Overlords swept the battlefield. The towering, Psionically powerful Hardke appeared to them as a blazing beacon in the darkness. They precisely pinpointed his location, transmitting the information to the entire Zerg host, uniformly directing the onslaught to surround and crush Hardke from all directions!

The bio-spikes, spore balls, and acid rained down in relentless waves. The ground where Hardke moved was completely covered by the Zerg masses. Wherever he landed, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Zerglings would burst forth from the reddish-brown fog, flinging their forelimbs up and swarming him!

The Zerg forces lacked individual consciousness. They neither needed nor could they process thought. All commands were issued by the Overmind, and specific tactics were arranged by the Overlords. Their minds held only the purest, most extreme combat instincts. It was precisely because they did not need to think that they could execute these instincts to their absolute perfection.

In the broadest sense, the entire Zerg race served as the Overmind's cannon fodder—efficient, obedient, mindless tools of war, machines composed of organic matter. This was why Yang Ying summoned the Zerg here, and not the Protoss or Terran races.

The Zerglings reacted with such speed that they needed virtually no reaction time. The moment Hardke materialized, they launched their attacks. The small creatures spat by the Mutaliscs accumulated, forming a dense, grayish-white cloud that pursued Hardke relentlessly. Without looking back, Hardke unleashed a bolt of lightning.

With a loud explosion, the cloud burst into a cloud of yellowish-green smoke and shrank slightly—some of the small creatures had been detonated.

Despite this, the grayish-white cloud persisted. Hardke flashed his form around, dodging frantically. With Zerglings swarming underfoot, he had almost no place to rest. Moreover, wherever he fled, the aerial swarm followed. He thought, What a devastating wave of attacks, leaving me no chance to breathe. And what is this reddish-brown fog under my feet? Even my Level Four Psionics cannot penetrate it. I can’t even see those bugs!

At this moment, Yang Ying dispatched the Melee beasts: one hundred Thunder Beasts formed two lines, their legs churning the ground into violent tremors as they charged Hardke.

The two hundred thousand Overlords immediately reorganized the swarm. Under mental control, the Hydralisks and Zerglings cleared a path for the Thunder Beasts to charge through; otherwise, countless casualties would have resulted from friendly trampling.

The Thunder Beast phalanx reached Hardke. One beast raised its two twenty-meter-long blade-like arms and brought them down to cleave at Hardke. Hardke projected a Level Six energy beam, instantly blowing away nearly half of the Thunder Beast's body. However, the creature's vitality was immense; with a mighty roar, it continued swinging its dual blades at him. The two lines of Thunder Beasts closed in again, encircling him completely. Immediately, the air around Hardke flashed with the glint and shadow of clashing blades!

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