“Ultimately, we lost a total of 9,235 scourges and 2 mutalisks. Not bad at all.”
Xia Jin was quite satisfied when she saw the casualty report.
The Carrier Bugs were truly a revolutionary strike force. The enemy vessels were far superior to those of the Kingdom of Clear, but in the end, it didn't matter.
Relying on the firepower suppression established on her side, the Swarm had essentially deployed a batch of bombs capable of autonomous flight and tracking. They had successfully sunk 14 ships of at least the thousand-ton class and 16 vessels under a thousand tons.
It was important to note that these were not modern destroyers that sacrificed defense for speed; they were fitted with thick outer plating and reinforced with magic.
Therefore, the results achieved in this battle were anything but poor.
The sacrifice of every scourge was perfectly timed. Given their rank, the mutalisks were naturally much more resilient than the scourges.
Both of the lost mutalisks had fallen to cannon fire.
The enemy's cannons actually possessed homing magic. Combined with their high velocity, it was no wonder even mutalisks found them difficult to evade.
“Time to land.”
Standing atop a Carrier Bug, Xia Jin gave a experimental whistle, and even more scourges began to take flight in a steady stream.
All 798 mutalisks took to the air, letting out terrifying screeches. One after another, they joined the scourges, blanketing the entire sky in a dark, suffocating mass.
Ahead, a massive port city came into view. The countless cannon batteries stationed there would clearly pose a significant threat to the landing fleet.
However, this attack would be nothing short of a total crush for the enemy.
The full force of the Swarm's aerial power was about to descend upon them.
Soon, the civilians in the port area were plunged into a state of panic.
Countless insects dove toward the ground, and explosions erupted across the city in rapid succession. Glaive wurms fell like rain, constantly striking between the buildings.
Under the relentless bombardment, the massive cannon batteries were destroyed in large swathes.
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
The defending soldiers seemed to only just realize what was happening, but unfortunately, it was far too late.
Over 2,000 scourges acted as the vanguard, slamming into vital facilities.
Certain powerful soldiers were singled out for special attention.
Several successive waves of mutalisk attacks covered almost the entire coastal region.
“Accelerate the hulls. Prepare to dock.”
An elf bug shouted toward the distance.
A small number of vessels carrying human soldiers began to approach the shore.
These small boats functioned like landing craft. Some carried one or two zerglings, others carried hydralisks, and a very small number carried elf bugs and human warriors.
In an instant, the number of small boats beginning their landing reached into the hundreds.
They began to establish a landing zone along a ten-kilometer stretch of the coast.
The Mis Kingdom mobilized its forces. Squads of soldiers began to assemble on the shore. Over a thousand men rushed out of barracks that had suffered heavy losses from the initial strikes. While keeping a wary eye on the aerial bombardment, they formed small phalanxes, preparing to resist the Zerg landing.
As far as the eye could see, the coast was filled with small boats approaching, trailing long wakes of white spray behind them.
The warrior Vincent followed the main force as they ran toward the harbor, witnessing the scene on the sea with his own eyes.
Those lines of white spray were slowly drawing closer.
At that moment, whistling sounds frequently tore through the sky. These were the sounds of scourges suddenly using their jet propulsion to accelerate during their final dive, a sound far more impactful than any ordinary flying machine.
Boom!
A phalanx just ten meters away from them was struck by a scourge.
In the next instant, the group of men was sent tumbling by the terrifying shockwave.
Those directly hit were left with mangled flesh and shattered bones; the sight was beyond gruesome.
And it wasn't over. A dozen more scourges dropped from the sky. The horrific whistling caused Vincent to instinctively erupt with all the power in his body, manifesting a vitality wall in front of him.
With a thunderous boom, the shockwave forced him back several steps.
Over ten scourges exploded simultaneously within the adjacent phalanx. Once the attack subsided, everyone there was dead, save for a few exceptionally lucky survivors.
Vincent swallowed hard as he looked at the corpses littering the ground.
It had been a long time since the last war. Stationed at a port in the heartland of the Mis Kingdom, they were truly unprepared for such a sudden battle.
Fortunately, the Swarm generally did not consider ordinary soldiers to be targets worthy of priority attention.
No matter how low the cost of a scourge was, it was still a single-use unit, and mutalisks were specifically used against the enemy's aerial units and important ground targets. Consequently, these warriors managed to survive for a surprisingly long time amidst the scenes of constant raids and explosions.
Horrific sights were everywhere, and by now, a large number of boats had already reached the shore.
“Charge! Hold the line! We cannot let those things break through the port area!”
A commander at the rear shouted frantically.
Over a thousand soldiers began to advance. A massive defensive formation stretched across several kilometers, though it was completely incomparable to the dispersed yet numerically superior scale of the Zerg landing.
“Damn it.”
Mages in the rear began launching attacks at the small boats on the water.
Over ten boats were hit in succession, their wooden planks exploding outward. However, the insects on board were largely unaffected. After falling into the water, these creatures began to swim using their powerful limbs.
Only a very small number of high-tier mages were capable of harming the zerglings, but they were too few and unable to coordinate their efforts, making this wave of resistance very limited.
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