Just as Xia Jin was observing the state of the locust before her, confirming that it was virtually no different from any other locust, a passing boy suddenly witnessed the scene.
Without a second thought, Linya raised her hand and flicked a spell toward him.
In truth, her level of magic was already much higher than before. This was thanks to the breakthrough provided by the World Tree leaves; human-converted Zerg units had also begun to manifest some elven genes.
This process didn't even require a trip to a hive. Now, Linya could release light magic with a powerful piercing ability.
In an instant, the boy's heart was pierced by a beam of light.
It took several seconds for him to react. He looked down in a daze, glancing at the state of his chest.
A through-and-through wound.
Dizziness gradually washed over his mind, and intense pain radiated from his chest.
Because his heart was completely gone, he quickly collapsed to the ground.
“Dispose of the body,” Xia Jin said to the locust.
The insect immediately scurried over, picked up the corpse in its mandibles, and dragged it outside the fence to corrode it with acid.
Meanwhile, another locust rustled in from the outside to clean up the blood on the ground.
“Not bad. Even Tier 1 Zerg can be quite effective when it comes to the details.”
There were no completely useless Zerg; if used correctly, even a locust could produce good results.
“The defenses in this direction of Star Rain Academy are indeed quite weak. Their underground monitoring is almost negligible. I've mobilized about 200 zerglings, and they're approaching the city's underground. I might as well have them all lie in ambush here at the academy. However, there are quite a few strong people in this school, so just zerglings won't be enough.”
Xia Jin pondered for a moment and decided to bring over a few lurkers.
A Swarm of this size was a mere drop in the bucket for a legion-level battle, but it would be easy to control an ill-prepared academy.
If she could suddenly control or, better yet, kill the mages here, it would be a massive loss for the Kingdom.
After all, even student mages could provide an exaggerated amount of assistance on the battlefield.
“Queen, when will our Swarm forces reach this place?” Linya asked curiously.
“It will probably take some time.”
Although the enemy's offensive legions were being defeated one after another, the Swarm still couldn't establish an immediate advantage the moment an attack was launched.
Of course, it was only a matter of time.
With the number of insects skyrocketing recently, Xia Jin basically had no worries left regarding the Kingdom front. Once the underwater passage was cleared, she had already ordered the hive on the shore of Clearwillow Lake to resume production of land-based units. They would then cross the water over a long distance and begin attacking the city states region.
And now, the first batch of Zerg to cross the lake was hatching.
It was estimated that once about 5,000 of them appeared, they would begin entering the water.
By the time they landed on the other side, the first battle they fought might not be against the humans of the city states, but against the gnolls in that area.
At that time, 40,000 locusts would land simultaneously to accompany the main force and deplete the enemy's effective strength.
...
After inspecting the locusts that had tunneled through, Xia Jin had them burrow and hide.
Naturally, a portion of the locusts began to sneak into civilian areas, sewers, and other places to scout the terrain and look for opportunities to launch surprise attacks.
Unbeknownst to anyone, a Zerg infestation was already brewing beneath the entire city.
Meanwhile, at the academy, the staff discovered a boy was missing during the head count the next day.
Following the clues, several guards tracked the trail to the damaged section of the fence.
One of them frowned, crawled through the gap, and slashed through the dense shrubs with his blade.
Even without using vitality, he clearly carved out a large opening in front of him.
A dark, pointed tip was exposed.
The soldier frowned slightly, sensing something was wrong, and immediately walked over.
But just as he was about to test it with his weapon, a glob of green liquid sprayed out.
Splat—
He instantly backed away, but he was too close to dodge it completely.
With a sizzle, a wound appeared on his skin.
Before this Tier 3 soldier could react, a locust leaped out and clamped its two sharp mandibles firmly onto his arm.
“Argh—what is this thing?!”
“I'll help you!” Another man beside him immediately swung his sword. After a flash of red light, the locust was cleaved in two.
Unfortunately, its life force was too tenacious; the creature didn't die immediately and continued to spit venom.
The man had to deliver two more finishing blows before it was finally killed.
“Damn it, what kind of creature is this?”
Judging by its length, it was about a meter long.
Compared to a standing human, it wasn't particularly large.
However, the insect-like appearance and the sinister, grotesque form of the creature were still quite terrifying.
Just as the bitten soldier was enduring the pain and preparing to apply medicine, the last man beside him suddenly had a change in expression.
“This is bad!” he suddenly shouted.
“What?” the bitten man asked, dazed. Seeing his companion's expression, his face also turned pale.
“Zerg?”
“Yes. This creature is the most common monster among the Zerg. They... they've actually made it here.”
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