Madness of Attrition

After this battle, the Empire actually managed to forcibly reclaim the Gexilu United Kingdom region that the Swarm had lost.

Following this engagement, Gexilu had changed hands four times.

The civilians on this land were living in a literal hell.

However, neither of the warring parties could afford to care about the lives of ordinary people.

After the fighting ended, the Zerg vanguard's total scale was less than a million. It was clear that the intensity of the Empire's offensive was high not only on this major battlefield but also in the surrounding areas.

Some humans from the Clear and city states regions who fought alongside the main force felt the cruelty of the battlefield. Deaths numbered in the hundreds of thousands or even millions; a single life was completely insignificant in such a place.

After this battle, because the Zerg's resistance dropped briefly and a large portion of their force had indeed been surrounded and killed, the Empire's side even breathed a sigh of relief. They began to think the Zerg were severely weakened and would likely find it difficult to recover.

Although the overall mood remained cautious, many saw the hope of victory.

Especially after the battle, when forty legions joined forces to launch a follow-up offensive and devoured another 100,000 Zerg, the Dawn Empire's army developed the illusion that the upcoming battles would become easier.

But the Empire never expected that the second main force in the Zerg's rear—an army of as many as 2.4 million combat bugs—had already finished reorganizing.

This wave of the Swarm included 5,000 Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs and 1,000 200mm heavy cannon bugs. In terms of combat power, they were even more formidable than the previous ones.

And after hundreds of thousands of banelings in the air force were killed by a large number of mages in the last battle, this wave of Zerg produced even greater numbers.

In fact, there were many Zerg corpses on the front lines that had not been recovered in time, but there were just as many corpses of Imperial soldiers.

For two days after the war, at least several hundred thousand Imperial soldiers were busy collecting bodies.

The ground was pitted and scarred, and flesh and blood became the nutrients for plant growth.

The Imperial main force re-entered Mia afterward, wiping out over 200,000 bugs there before heading north again, preparing to enter Clear.

So many cruel battles had left many Dawn soldiers with a deep resentment toward the Swarm.

Because they had lost too many people.

Now that victory was in sight, they naturally prepared to enter Clear to celebrate properly and deal a final blow to the Zerg.

Indeed, many soldiers were already setting flags, because no matter how one looked at it, the Zerg's firepower had decreased significantly over these last few days.

Surely they won't just pop up again, right?

However, they were indeed about to pop up.

On Xia Jin's side, Brain Bug No. 1 was preparing to launch a new counteroffensive.

All 2.4 million were committed.

Another offensive was launched, accompanied by massive swarms of locusts.

The result of this battle was similarly devastating, as the Swarm was mostly depleted. Yet the four-day-long battle forcibly pushed the Dawn Empire's coalition back to Gexilu.

Even after the Swarm lost over 1.5 million bugs, the brain bug replenished the front lines with another 1.2 million.

It was from this moment that the Zerg's frontline legions finally entered a state where their numbers grew faster than they could be killed.

When the Dawn Empire realized this, they felt they had still been too conservative and directly issued a national conscription order for all males.

If they didn't put in more effort now, the Zerg's offensive intensity would bring them into the Empire's heartland within days.

Starting that day, they dispatched a considerable number of Tier 10 powerhouses.

These Tier 10 powerhouses indeed possessed an incredible advantage. To deal with one of them, the Zerg needed a massive amount of concentrated fire, and it often happened that the rocket bugs simply couldn't keep up with the movement speed of these experts.

But the Zerg were no pushovers either.

Now that all launch tubes were equipped with cooling devices, they were firing 1.5 million rockets a day.

Several Tier 10 powerhouses were suddenly overwhelmed by tens of thousands of missile bugs and rocket bugs raining down from the sky during battle.

Because the area of effect was too vast, there was simply no way to escape.

A large number of soldiers, including the Tier 10 powerhouses, were buried alongside them.

Sometimes, to kill a single troublesome Tier 10 mage, Xia Jin would deploy over 200,000 scourges.

With constant bombardment in scales of hundreds and thousands, the Tier 10 powerhouse would essentially die of exhaustion before long.

However, the deployment of these experts clearly allowed the Dawn Empire to rally once more.

The Dawn Empire regained control over the entire territory of Gexilu.

But a familiar scene was bound to happen again. Not long after the Zerg's defeat, Xia Jin's projections took the field.

The young girls could be seen walking alone across the battlefield, approaching the enemy experts step by step.

Then, their arms would transform into horrific insectoid fleshy limbs, and with an explosion of psionic power, they would engage in earth-shattering battles with the Tier 10 Imperials.

The aftershocks of their collisions could clear everything within three to four hundred meters.

The final result was often the girl easily resolving the opponent before turning around gracefully to return to the heart of the Swarm.

Every girl wore a dress, looking completely unlike someone going into battle and more like someone out for a stroll.

Some wore princess dresses, while others wore even more eye-catching sailor suits. The projections took various forms, each as beautiful as a celestial being, leading the Imperial high command to wonder if all the Zerg's experts were beautiful young girls.

They were all far too beautiful.

Many warriors were left in a daze.

One's sense of beauty cannot be deceived.

But were such enemies even real?

Why did they have Tier 10 powerhouses?

How much time had actually passed? It was one thing for Clear to fall, but now even the strengthened Empire could not defeat them?