To evacuate these people, the armies of four city states had already formed a defensive line in the distance, their only goal being to hold out for just a single day.
Suddenly, a squad of soldiers ran toward them from afar, drenched in sweat.
“Urgent news! Urgent news!”
The moment the leader reached the city gate, he collapsed directly onto the ground.
He was far too exhausted; had the distance been any longer, he likely would have died of fatigue on the road.
The surrounding civilians made way as a sergeant from within the city quickly ran over.
“What happened?”
“A massive swarm of monsters has landed on the western lakeshore. The gnolls have been completely wiped out, and a large number of them are now fleeing toward us in a rout.”
“What?”
Hearing this, not only the sergeant but also the surrounding citizens were shocked.
“The gnolls certainly won't make it here in time. There are too many enemies; they are existences more terrifying than forest magic beasts. Our various defensive lines have already completely fallen.”
Even as he spoke, a loud roar suddenly echoed from the distant mountains.
On the slopes, several terrifying alien beasts poked their heads out.
They snapped the neck of a grey deer in one bite, tearing off a chunk of flesh before launching a charge down the slope.
“This is bad! Quick, everyone else get into the city!”
The sergeant immediately roared.
Heart-Seeping Valley, a city surrounded by water, was originally a natural barrier against enemies, but at this moment, facing the Swarm, such terrain had become a nightmare.
The Zerg could swim, were incredibly agile, and could charge down from the surrounding mountains.
The towering walls were also meaningless against insects that could climb rapidly.
As for long-range capabilities, the hydralisks of the Swarm could shatter the city walls from several kilometers away.
The crowd squeezed toward the gates in a panic while several hundred soldiers outside the walls raised their weapons, attempting to hold back the currently small number of insects.
There were only a little over 1,000 people left; as long as they all made it inside, the gates could be closed.
However, once those zerglings launched their charge and slammed into those weak warriors, such a thought became entirely moot.
With absolute, crushing force, a hundred men could not even hold back ten zerglings.
Meanwhile, even more insects appeared in the distant mountains, rushing toward the city from all directions.
A few hours later...
The entire city fell.
After the battle ended, aside from leaving over 100 zerglings to garrison the area, the rest of the insects continued their charge toward the east and south.
At the same time, at least 60,000 Zerg had already poured into the entire mountain range.
As more and more insects crawled out of the lake or sprinted from the direction of the City of Darkness, this land would eventually fall completely into Xia Jin's hands.
...
Day 4.
“Faster than expected. Over 200 cities and even more villages have been completely occupied. This region doesn't seem to have the systematic cultivation methods the Kingdom has, and their magic is lacking too. So far, the strongest I've encountered was only a single Tier 7 warrior.”
Now that she knew the city states had fallen completely into her hands, Xia Jin felt at ease.
Currently, the size of the combat Swarm had approached... 160,000, and that was just the number dispatched to the city states.
On the Kingdom front, there were 50,000 insects on the northern battlefield and 20,000 in the south.
Adding the 10,000 scattered across various regions, the total combat Swarm currently reached 240,000 (excluding locusts).
With the addition of 100 swarm hosts every day, they could actually produce 280,000 locusts per day by now.
These cannon fodder-like creatures were treated as single-use consumables and thrown into the Kingdom's territory.
All of a sudden, a Zerg infestation broke out in every region.
Secondary forces in various areas, and even the main frontline forces, were forced to focus their energy on clearing out these pests.
Although the locusts were only Tier 1, their sheer numbers could kill six to seven thousand Tier 2 to Tier 3 soldiers every day, along with even more civilians who tried to resist.
Even Tier 4 and Tier 5 warriors were being ground down by the hundreds or thousands every day.
This had a massive impact on the Kingdom's overall combat strength.
At this time, within the Kingdom's royal court, Gor had already convened meeting after meeting to consider how to deal with the Zerg offensive.
The man was completely unaware that their enemy had already finished dealing with the other battlefield and was currently shifting the terrifyingly massive main force toward the front lines.
A full 240,000 Zerg, plus the addition of over 280,000 locusts every day—for Xia Jin, just thinking about it was exhilarating.
Standing on high ground, she looked down from the cliff.
Across the vast, flat plains, the dense Swarm sprinted through the landscape.
In the distance, the hives pulsed continuously, producing even more insects.
Standing above them as their Queen, she truly felt a sense of absolute control for a moment.
“I can temporarily slow down the reproduction speed now. I need to amass the 120 million units of energy as soon as possible to prepare for the next level of the Zerg base.”
The creep's utility was immense, but the thickness of the soil was always limited. Eventually, the creep's only sources of energy would be sunlight and the flesh and blood dropped by the insects dragging corpses back.
Rate on N.U.
