“Yan Yu, prepare your magic arrows to attack. Target the enemy's mage unit.”
Xia Jin had already arrived at the front lines with the elves.
While the catapults were being set up, the zerglings in melee combat suffered somewhat heavy losses due to a lack of fire support.
Fortunately, the cost of zerglings was now very low. Even with a several-to-one exchange ratio—where it took several insects to kill one enemy—they could barely maintain a break-even point.
Essentially, the resources gained from killing one human soldier of the same level could produce at least two insects.
Furthermore, the current exchange ratio was around 1:1, even with the enemy's magic buffs. Thus, the situation was highly favorable for Xia Jin.
Yan Yu immediately focused her mind, pulled the bowstring, and compressed light element power onto the arrow.
Swish—
With a release of her fingers, the mithril iron arrow shot out at an extraordinary speed. It turned into a streak of light, trailing a long comet-like tail, and plunged into the enemy phalanx several kilometers away.
Boom!
The massive impact instantly breached the magical barrier and landed amidst the mage unit.
After a terrifying roar, forty to fifty people were killed on the spot.
Seeing this through the eyes of an insect, Xia Jin was filled with joy.
A Tier 7 elf was indeed too powerful. For any other creature of the same rank, it would be impossible to have such terrifying lethality at such a long range.
Truly an elite archer.
Commander Hiren was currently overwhelmed.
The terrain was too disadvantageous; the entire legion was surrounded by the swarm from head to tail, severely damaging morale.
Moreover, these magic beasts clearly understood tactics. Their first wave had specifically targeted the mages and magic crystal cannon units.
“They're clearly fighting the vanguard, yet they can still spare troops to set an ambush here?”
This location was 30 kilometers from the edge of the forest, firmly within human-controlled territory.
These insects had silently traveled this far without his legion knowing, and there had been no news from the civilians or adventurers living in the area.
Thinking of this, Hiren broke into a cold sweat.
“My Queen, the catapults are ready,” the brain bug's intent echoed through the mental network.
Using the perspective of a zergling, Xia Jin saw four erected catapult frames. Some bore marks of repair, as most had been damaged during the previous battle against the vanguard.
Fortunately, they were now barely usable after being supplemented with new parts.
“Attack.”
The targets were already identified: the magic crystal cannons within the enemy formation.
In terms of threat level, they were the highest priority after the mages.
Seeing that the controlled soldiers had already loaded ammunition into as many as fifty or sixty cannons, the swarm wasted no time and had the banelings climb onto the catapults.
Thump!
Without a formal command, as the tension was released and the embedded magic crystals provided energy, two banelings were launched from each catapult.
In terms of pure power, the explosion caused by a baneling sacrificing its life far exceeded a single strike from a magic crystal cannon.
In terms of fire coverage, banelings were even more terrifying.
“I wonder how these humans will handle this sudden incoming attack.”
Through Xia Jin's gaze, the human soldiers quickly noticed several small black dots flying through the sky.
“What is that...”
Although they noticed, only two mages cast spells toward them.
Unfortunately, both mages were Tier 3 and used wind blades, which failed to penetrate the banelings' defenses.
As several insects crashed into the dense military formation, a series of terrifying roars drowned out the surrounding sounds of the battlefield.
The shockwave from the violent explosions tore the nearest soldiers to pieces. Corrosive liquid mixed with flesh and blood, spreading in all directions within the raging air currents. Soldiers within a hundred-meter radius fell in large numbers like harvested wheat.
The survivors were caught off guard by the sudden corrosive liquid attack, and most essentially lost their ability to fight.
Seeing the excellent results, Xia Jin had more banelings climb onto the catapults to continue the long-range assault.
The primary targets were the areas where the crowds were most concentrated.
Such attacks directly led to the collapse of the enemy in various directions.
At this moment, some people finally managed to fire the magic crystal cannons.
Over ten consecutive explosions rang out at the rear of the swarm.
Clearly, to avoid hitting their own people, these humans did not dare to fire blindly at the dense front lines. The trajectories of the cannons often drifted, and their magic-guided shell technology was nowhere near as precise as Earth's artillery.
Consequently, those ten-plus explosions only killed about ten to twenty zerglings.
While the two sides were clashing, a massive infestor took the opportunity to approach the enemy's sword and shield infantry line, exhaling a thick, toxic mist.
Countless eerie fungal growths mixed within the toxic mist, quickly spreading across the battlefield.
The affected soldiers' movements suddenly stiffened, and even their speed slowed significantly.
Under the influence of this negative debuff, the phalanx was directly shattered. The swarm secured a breakthrough and began driving their forces into the heart of the legion, cutting the long marching column into front and rear sections.
Subsequently, with the help of the infestors, breakthroughs were achieved in various directions.
The firepower of the hydralisks caused even greater casualties, unknowingly killing six to seven thousand people.
Rate on N.U.
