Reaching the Shore

Regardless, the Zerg continued to produce new underwater species at a steady pace, incessantly tossing them into the sea.

At every moment, zerglings could be seen carrying newly produced insects on their backs, rushing over from the distant hive.

Compared to the Swimmers, creatures like the locusts, which would die in three days anyway, were nothing more than consumables in Xia Jin's eyes. In underwater battles, she always had them charge at the front, letting the locusts soak up all the damage.

Thus, in the azure sea, a sharkman chieftain roaming the area rushed to the front lines. What he saw were organisms about one meter in diameter swimming through the water, filling the sea for kilometers in every direction.

Naturally, there were just as many shrimpmen and crabmen. Both sides fought as soon as they met. Even though they constantly drew more shrimp soldiers and crab generals from the rear, they were still overwhelmed by the ever increasing Swarm.

“Most of the enemies do not seem very agile underwater. Only these two types are suited for the depths.”

The sharkman chieftain quickly confirmed this through observation.

As he was thinking, several exploding needles suddenly flew in from a distance.

These needles were actually very thin and long. If they had not approached so closely and left trails of bubbles, he truly would have found it difficult to notice them in time.

Seeing that a needle was already less than eight meters away, he immediately dodged to the side.

Unfortunately, the needle seemed to realize it could not catch him and immediately exploded.

A shockwave carrying an exaggerated flow of water slammed into him. Due to the high temperature, a large amount of liquid evaporated, instantly creating massive bubbles in the water.

In the turbulence, the sharkman chieftain was tossed around by the impact, flipping halfway over. He then felt a toxin with strong corrosive and paralyzing effects spreading through the water.

The difference between Tier 4 toxins and Tier 3 was the added effect of paralysis.

As a powerhouse of his tribe and an underwater creature, the sharkmen, who had been bitten by sea snakes countless times, naturally possessed high magic resistance. However, at this moment, the chieftain still felt the horror of the Zerg toxin.

This venom, extracted from the strongest venomous snakes of Clearwillow Lake and then concentrated and enhanced, was extremely lethal.

He quickly dodged several more exploding needles and swam two kilometers to the rear. His mood improved slightly when he saw several units of crabmen, each numbering in the hundreds, swimming toward the battlefield ahead.

His allies were numerous.

While he was taking casualties, the enemy was losing even more of those black insects.

“In that war a long time ago, our underwater races only retreated because we could not survive on land. In terms of strength, we are definitely superior.”

The sharkmen were a large race, not just limited to this chieftain.

If he could not win, he could always flee to more distant waters and request the assistance of the Shark King.

The Shark King had even more shrimpmen and crabmen under his command. Although their average strength was low, they were very effective cannon fodder. Furthermore, there were many powerful individuals among the shark race, and he himself had many experts under his command.

In this way, the scale of the battle did not shrink but instead grew larger, to the point where the Swarm, which had finally established a foothold underwater, was pushed back once again.

Primal Brain Bug No. 6, who was in charge of this area, adopted a new tactic: having the locusts charge forward recklessly to intercept the enemy as much as possible.

With them blocking the front, the Swimmers in the rear formed a formation in the three dimensional sea, acting as mobile turrets to provide fire support from a distance.

This tactic undoubtedly achieved great results.

As as many as three hundred Floating Hive Bugs from Clearwillow Lake were transported to this seabed, the long range firepower became significantly stronger.

The insects consistently held a three by six kilometer area of the sea. This region was neither too large nor too small, providing enough buffer space to kill the enemy on a massive scale.

At the same time, the ship carrying Xia Jin's projection finally approached a port city of Kelu marked on the map.

Seeing the large number of sailing ships, wooden ships, and iron clad ships, she realized the prosperity of this region.

Moreover, judging by the shipping routes, some of the large vessels were sailing toward the opposite side of the ocean. Did this mean their routes already extended to even more distant places?

Once the new fleet docked, it was decisively subjected to inspection.

The elf bugs had been temporarily modified; their ears, which had excellent hearing, were changed to a human shape, and their chitinous shells were fashioned into the style of armor.

Seeing this fleet composed of these beautiful girls and over a hundred soldiers, the soldiers in charge of the inspection were also very surprised.

“Very well, you have passed the inspection.”

The goods were common items, many being furs and the like. While they had little nutritional value for the Zerg, disguising them as cargo effectively demonstrated their strength.

Half a ship of furs, plus a large amount of jewelry and jade from the Kingdom, along with many other fine goods, clearly shocked the inspectors.

Additionally, since there was not much heavy firepower on the ship—and the scourges were hidden on a deserted island in the distance—they were determined to be safe.

“Do you need me to contact my superiors?” a soldier asked.

“Yes. I wonder if you sell cannons here? Our ships require some good weapons,” an elf bug asked seriously.

“Of course we do, but that requires contacting specialized merchants. Furthermore, weapon transactions must be reported to the superiors. Please wait while we contact them for you.”