Chapter 42: Leviathan
On the fungal carpet beside the base camp, a Mantis Armor slowly moved its armored legs, meticulously checking whether the fungal carpet needed repairs. This was not an order from Jila, but a spontaneous act by Mantis Armor·Brew. It seemed it could never stay idle, either tending to the fungal carpet or inspecting the various organs within the insect nest.
Su Xiao sat in a wooden shed near the insect nest. The bio-energy reserve had now reached 327,520 points—it was time to initiate the plan.
According to Baha's reconnaissance, the Tiger Wasp faction had a total of 33 hives, 30 of which were between 40 to 70 meters tall. The remaining three hives were much larger, measuring 135 meters, 154 meters, and over 200 meters respectively.
The tallest hive was the residence of Tamisha. No matter how one looked at it, that thing no longer resembled a hive but rather a strangely shaped black stone structure.
The other two hives were the dwellings of the two Wasp Queens, located to the south and north.
If there was one aspect where the Tiger Wasp faction excelled, it was numbers. Even the smallest hive contained over a million Tiger Eye Wasps and tens of thousands of Tiger Wasps.
Tiger Eye Wasps and Tiger Wasps were completely different. The former could be classified as supernatural creatures, while the latter were alien spawn with a certain degree of intelligence. However, most Tiger Wasps had degenerated in their flight capabilities.
At first glance, Tiger Wasps resembled humanoid monsters covered in carapace. Their forelimbs bore blade-like protrusions, indicating they were specialized combat creatures. Their lower limbs lacked feet, replaced by claws with sharp hooked blades at the tips.
This was the most common type of Tiger Wasp. Some Tiger Wasps, however, had evolutionary structures somewhat similar to the insect race, though such variants were rare.
Tiger Eye Wasps were not too difficult to deal with, but Tiger Wasps were exceptionally troublesome. They had strong attack and defense capabilities and were extremely fast.
Su Xiao's plan was to first attack a hive on the outermost edge of Tiger Wasp territory, aiming to finish the battle within a few minutes. This was also why he chose to cultivate Stingers. A Stinger could fire all 15 bone armor spines from its body in about a minute. As for the Stinger's melee combat ability, it could only be said to be stronger than a Mantis Armor—and that was it.
With 327,520 points of bio-energy, Su Xiao used 300,000 points to cultivate Stingers. Of the remaining 27,520 points, he spent 20,000 to cultivate two Leviathans, and the remaining 7,520 points were all used to cultivate Spore Tanks. Post-battle transportation was crucial and needed to be fast.
The egg-laying tissues within the insect nest began to work. Cultivating a third-stage insect race like the Stinger allowed for batches of 3,200 Stinger eggs. From egg-laying to cultivation, each batch took about 1 minute and 25 seconds. Stingers had a lifespan of less than a month, but they had no infancy or growth period—they could fight as soon as they crawled out of the cultivation sacs.
One by one, Stingers rushed out of the insect nest. Stingers were not large in size. They had four armored legs and a bloated abdomen, resembling spiders covered in carapace. They lacked sharp claws and teeth; their mouths were cylindrical, and their backs were covered in spikes like a porcupine.
During combat, Stingers would inhale the spikes from their backs into their bodies, build up pressure internally, and then fire the spikes through their cylindrical mouths.
After more than an hour, 150,000 Stingers were cultivated, and the cultivation of Leviathans began.
**Stinger (Third-Stage Combat Insect Race)**
- Speed: ★★ (Enhanced by War Lord title)
- Destructive Power: ★★★★ (Enhanced by War Lord title)
- Defense: ★
...
The Stingers had severe imbalances in their attributes. Looking out now, the valley was densely packed with Stingers, waiting on the fungal carpet.
Ten minutes later, two Leviathans were cultivated. These were colossal beings, each over 30 meters in length. Their backs were covered in scale-like carapace, each piece several meters wide. Hidden beneath these carapaces were their weapons: living missiles.
Each Leviathan could fire 120 living missiles in a single salvo. These living missiles were living creatures. Once a Leviathan locked onto an enemy or structure, these missiles had homing properties.
If a Leviathan locked onto a contractor and fired 120 living missiles, an ordinary contractor would die within 15 missiles. A tank plus healer combination might withstand 30. As for over 50 living missiles, Su Xiao felt he would die if he took that many.
After exploding, the living missiles had corrosive properties, significantly increasing the lethality of subsequent missiles. Assuming the first missile dealt 300 damage, by the tenth, each missile would deal at least over 1,000 damage, and it would only get more exaggerated.
Explosion deals damage → Corrodes enemy defense → Explodes again → Corrodes defense again—this process would continuously stack.
**Leviathan (Fifth-Stage Combat Race)**
- Speed: ★
- Destructive Power: ★★★★★★
- Defense: ★★★★
...
A slow-moving war platform. Once its back carapace opened, it unleashed a sky full of living missiles. After each salvo, the Leviathans needed to rest for 5 minutes.
The main purpose of the two Leviathans was to blast the hives to pieces. The Tiger Wasp faction was no pushover. Until the insect race reached a certain scale, one couldn't consider the loot inside the hives.
Stingers likely couldn't do much against the hard hives. If the Tiger Eye Wasps and Tiger Wasps hid inside the hives and refused to come out, it would be disastrous. Other hives would rush to reinforce, ultimately leading to the annihilation of the insect race forces. In that case, they wouldn't even be able to retrieve their own insect corpses, let alone the enemy's.
At the start of the battle, the enemy's defensive fortifications had to be shattered, the fight finished quickly, and then an immediate retreat.
150,000 Stingers, 1,020 Spore Tanks, and 2 Leviathans—this was Su Xiao's insect race force for attacking the Tiger Wasp faction.
Directly ahead of the valley, the narrow, slit-like rock crevice gradually dissolved, expanding to a width of 20 meters. Su Xiao leaped onto the back of a Leviathan. The Leviathan was over ten meters tall; standing on its back, everything below was in full view.
One by one, Stingers surged out of the valley. At first, only the dense sound of footsteps could be heard, but by the end, the entire valley was trembling.
Thump, thump, thump.
The Leviathan carrying Su Xiao advanced step by step, each step steady, as if nothing could stop it. Around it, Stingers charged forward wildly.
Rumble~
Amidst the earth-shaking tremors, the insect race forces burst out of the valley. The scene was like a torrent of water bursting through a floodgate. Armored legs clashed, and over a hundred thousand insect creatures screeched. The Demon Insect Race was showing its ferocious side to this world for the first time.