Tens of Millions

After this wave of advancement continued for two days, the mythic kings in the core region of the Border Forest finally completed their preparations.

A large number of Tier 10 magic beasts, along with a staggering number of Tier 8 and Tier 9 beasts, rushed to the front lines and engaged the Swarm.

In truth, no matter the scale of the enemy, Brain Bug No. 1 remained perfectly calm, calculating the losses as they faced them.

For the current Zerg, defeating the magic beasts and unifying the forest was no longer a difficult task.

Even if the opponent were the Dawn Empire, defeating them would not be overly difficult.

The Swarm deployed a massive number of inexpensive rocket bugs in this war.

Most importantly, due to the vitality of the hive, the production costs for units like rocket bugs and missiles had been further reduced. Moreover, some of the innate talents of magic beasts were incorporated into the explosions. For instance, the dragon breath previously mastered by the sub-dragon lady was mixed into the rocket bugs. Every explosion carried a faint trace of dragon tongue magic, which was truly terrifying.

As a large-scale counterattack was crushed by the Zerg, panic finally began to spread among the magic beasts.

The kings could hardly believe what was happening before their eyes.

The vast forest, the home they had ruled for countless years, was now being destroyed by such a strange foreign race.

Old acquaintances like the White Tiger King and the Eagle King specifically ran over to see Xia Jin.

As expected, these fellows—especially the White Tiger King—had rather impure motives. He decided he wanted a matrilocal marriage.

“It is decided! I shall marry into the Zerg! I want to—”

“Shut up!”

The sub-dragon lady, who had long considered Xia Jin her wife, instantly manifested her true body. With a fierce tail swipe, she sent the White Tiger King flying.

Then, the fellow turned his head, drooling with his massive eyes wide open, and looked at the tiny Queen with a sly grin.

“Erm...”

Don't look at me with those eyes.

Xia Jin wiped away some cold sweat.

As expected, it was better to just deal with the White Tiger King. His thoughts were far too dangerous. Even though she already crushed him in terms of strength, he still made her skin crawl.

And so, the White Tiger King was turned into nutrients.

“A pity, but it couldn't be helped,” Xia Jin said, sounding very “apologetic.”

Although the Swarm's scale was massive, when spread across such a vast battlefield, it seemed like a drop in the bucket.

Conversely, there were truly many magic beasts; the biological density of the entire forest was staggering. The large amount of floating energy in the Border Forest allowed this massive number of creatures to survive. Many magic beasts could live simply by absorbing magic elements, even without eating.

This incredible density meant that the unified magic beasts could launch counterattacks on various fronts with scales exceeding 100,000 units.

Although most low-tier magic beasts posed no threat to the Zerg, the constant raids by magic beasts through weak points in the offensive line—entering the Kingdom of Clear and the city states region—still gave Xia Jin a bit of a headache.

To address this, she dispatched more Overlords and overseers, almost forming a continuous line. Once any magic beast broke through, the Swarm could be mobilized immediately to provide support.

Nearly 80 nydus worms also connected the hive to the front lines, with at least two for every 100 kilometers. This way, once an enemy was discovered in an area, the nearby nydus worms would immediately vomit out insects, reaching the front in a short time.

Such combat methods were nothing short of a tactical outclassing for the current magic beasts.

After the battle lasted for over a week, the magic beasts finally collapsed.

At least 2,000 mythic kings had met violent ends.

Initially, the Zerg did not have many high-tier units on the front lines because they were truly too expensive. The hive had only been upgraded for a short time, and simply transforming low-tier units into high-tier units took a staggering amount of time.

But after dragging on for a week, the situation on the front was completely different.

There were over 10,000 insects starting at Tier 10, and nearly 1,000 at Tier 11—and this was despite the heavy losses sustained during battles with the mythic kings.

It had to be admitted that the magic of the magic beasts was very strong.

Stronger than that of humans, some combinations of magic could form large-scale storms that could instantly cover thousands of insects.

Among them, creatures like the locusts died in massive swarms.

If the combat bugs were in the core area of a magic storm, they also suffered heavy losses.

The Zerg had endured at least several hundred waves of such magical attacks.

Fodder truly became fodder in this battle. The omnipresent magic beasts caused the million locusts sent as reinforcements every day to be ground down completely by the enemy.

Of course, the number of magic beast deaths was no less than their own.

After the week ended, statistical results showed that the Zerg's main force losses were as high as a million, while over 19 million locusts had died.

On the magic beast side, losses below Tier 8 were as high as 30 million, while Tier 8 and Tier 9 losses reached over 3 million. According to these estimates, the Zerg would need to slaughter at least 1 billion magic beasts before this war could truly end.

Of course, ninety percent of that billion consisted of Tier 1 through Tier 8.