At the city lord’s manor, soldiers were packed densely into the square.
The city’s powerful experts had also retreated here under their respective leaders.
Fires blazed everywhere throughout the city.
On the western wall, soldiers attempted to turn the cannons around to bombard the swarm ravaging the city.
However, such actions were futile. The swarm simply ignored them, and not a single zergling even entered their firing range.
One black zergling after another crashed into the central military formation, joining the terrifying conflict.
Earlier, those one thousand monsters had faced dozens of Tier 3 experts and suffered almost no losses.
By now, they finally began to feel a hint of pressure as they faced the dense spear phalanxes in the center.
But...
The enemy clearly had not anticipated the existence of the hydralisks.
As the large, slithering monsters entered through the south gate and appeared in the soldiers' sight, the true disaster began.
Streams of corrosive liquid rained down from above, and the phalanx was instantly filled with agonizing screams.
The pain and death caused their previously solid fighting will to crumble in an instant.
Atop the city wall, a man frowned as he watched the scene below.
From several kilometers away, his gaze locked directly onto Xia Jin.
The young girl and the middle-aged man stared at each other from a distance.
Instinctively, he felt that this girl was a much greater threat than the Tiger King.
“A Tier 5, huh,” Xia Jin murmured to herself.
At that moment, the drones that had been standing by also entered the city.
Their task was to pillage the areas that had already been captured.
Gold coins, gemstones, and all sorts of valuable objects.
This also included anything else that could be carried away, as well as livestock like cattle, sheep, and horses.
With an energy utilization efficiency of nearly ninety-nine percent, the devoured resources could quickly be used to birth new life, expanding the swarm.
The offensive continued. Several Tier 4 experts joined the fray, demonstrating immense strength.
Yet, the casualty ratio between the two sides still reached twenty to one.
For every hundred soldiers who died, the swarm only lost five units.
And that was even with quite a few Tier 3 experts mixed in.
This exaggerated disparity made the city lord’s heart hammer in his chest.
“Prepare to flee. This city is no longer tenable,” he said, turning to his wife behind him.
Everyone in the manor, high and low, began packing their belongings.
However, to their despair, the swarm had already split its forces to circle around, forming a siege around the city lord’s manor.
Less than five minutes later, the monsters broke through the defensive lines at the point of their heaviest assault.
The City Guard and the various experts, totaling nearly three thousand people, were routed head-on by one thousand zerglings.
Two Tier 4 experts lost their lives in the frantic encirclement.
The black tide flooded into the building.
The defeat was like a landslide. Once the losses exceeded a certain threshold, the entire army collapsed.
Even criminals who had once killed without blinking lost the will to resist when faced with these unfeeling monsters.
The city lord tried to escape through the rear, only to find that the zerglings had already invaded the manor.
These frenzied creatures began to launch waves of attacks against him, regardless of the cost.
Suddenly, one of the monsters killed his wife.
“Damn you!”
Fury allowed him to erupt with terrifying potential.
A fire tornado was unleashed from his sword blade, killing seven or eight zerglings on the spot.
“This guy is a mage too?”
Xia Jin frowned slightly as she watched the scene.
Fortunately, the swarm did not disappoint her.
The combat power of a Tier 5 expert was ultimately limited. Faced with attacks from every direction, he was soon bitten and wounded due to a single lapse in focus.
After a few more desperate outbursts, the city lord was like a boss whose health bar had been ground down to nothing. He finally collapsed in a pool of blood.
The battle that followed was a city-wide hunt.
The swarm’s offensive was swift, but they spent more effort on pillaging.
They did not overlook a single resource that could be taken.
“So many experts, tens of thousands of poultry and livestock... This haul of resources is more than enough.”
Ordinary people without a rank provided a pitifully small amount of energy, so Xia Jin ignored them entirely.
Not only that, but tens of thousands of gold coins were gathered into her hands.
Beyond that, there were some metals she hadn't seen before.
One of them was the mithril Xia Jin needed. She obtained a total of twenty units, which was more than enough.
The swarm continued its slaughter within the city.
The battle lasted until midnight. Then, they left the scene with the day's harvest, departing as suddenly as they had arrived.
As they left, Xia Jin intentionally planted some hidden evidence, enough to lead anyone following the clues to conclude that the source of the attack lay within the kingdom.
After the swarm retreated into the forest, they quietly vanished.
Based on observations, some of the people who fled the city headed toward the city-states.
Of course, some also fled toward the Kingdom of Clear.
But absolutely no one went toward the forest. The forest was the home of magic beasts; aside from the occasional adventuring party out for a hunt, no one was willing to seek refuge there.
Not to mention that the main force of this attack likely came from there as well.
Rate on N.U.
