Chapter 667: Broodmother
|Name- None
Race- Unknown Insectoid
Gender- Inapplicable
Age- 0.48
Level- 899
Existence Level- Undefined
Titles- Swarm Vanguard Broodmother, Vanguard of Triffid, Spawn of the Infernal Verdant.
Class- Swarm Broodmother
Health– X3
Energy- X3
Strength– NULL
Agility– NULL
Durability– X3+
Intelligence- X2
Condition- Normal
Magic Tiers- Plant Tier 6, Life Tier 5
Skills- Kin Control, Swarm Mother Birth, Defence Amplification, Geass (Attack Sacrifice).
Unique Skills- Swarm Creation. |
"This...!"
This thing was no ordinary vanguard, nor was it anything like the swarm mothers they’d been fighting.
This creature was something entirely new—a product of Vonun’s fusion with Triffid. The reason why the Swarm numbers didn’t seem to thin even though they’d cut through hundreds of Swarm Mothers.
This thing was birthing new Swarm Mothers!
It did not have any attack capability whatsoever, but in return, its base defensive power was on par with a Superior Transcendent!
No wonder Artemisia and Beatrix had dealt Zero Damage.
"We’re not getting through with standard attacks."
Arthur said, drawing more energy from his pseudo-origin core. Meanwhile, Evan glanced at the timer on his Blessing of Destruction, calculating how much time he had left.
"Our Destruction Law energies can bypass its durability, but let’s be real—you’re the only one here with a shot at taking it down, Arthur."
Hearing Evan’s words, Arthur gripped his sword tighter in silence.
Evan could indeed bypass a portion of its durability, but the damage he would inflict would be a mere fraction of its immense health due to their Existence Realm differences.
And it was important to remember: Evan wasn’t bypassing all of its durability. Just a portion. The true force behind his attacks would still be severely limited.
In game terms, the Broodmother had tens of millions of HP, while Evan was dealing hundreds of thousands of damage.
Just as the six of them regrouped, new threats emerged.
The Broodmother birthed Sovereign Realm Swarm members that rushed towards Arthur with terrifying force.
Each of them was like a walking fortress, faster and stronger than any other swarm they’d faced so far,
Arthur parried the first blow, his blade clanging against the creature’s armoured limbs with enough force to crack the ground beneath them.
Meanwhile, Legendary Realm Swarm Vanguards, smaller, but still deadly, targeted Evan. It was clear the Broodmother had sensed their destruction powers and wanted to take them out.
Each encounter required Evan’s full attention, his prismatic flames slicing through their shells, but the time it took to break each one down allowed the lesser swarm members to regroup, pile up, and prepare for yet another assault.
In those precious seconds that Arthur and Evan spent locked in their duels, a multitude of swarm members scurried up and over the Broodmother, creating a body shield around it.
These swarm members tangled together, layering themselves over the creature until it was fully encased in a shell of living armour.
Simultaneously, more swarm members piled atop one another in various other locations, forming mounds identical to the one that shielded the Broodmother, a tactic meant to deceive and delay.
But Evan, with his Track Down skill, saw through the ploy immediately. His eyes locked onto the real Broodmother that he had marked when he Appraised it, and he raised his sword, pointing at the true threat.
"Guys, ignore the other mounds! That one—that’s the Broodmother."
The source of the endless cycle; it was the one that birthed the swarm mothers, which in turn spawned the vanguard and common swarm.
Beatrix, hearing Evan’s directive, locked her gaze onto the Broodmother. She raised her hands, weaving her spatial magic around it, preparing to teleport it away from the battlefield entirely.
But just as her spell circle formed, a dozen swarm members lunged at her from all sides, claws flashing and teeth gnashing.
Furious, Beatrix swung her spear, unleashing a spatial slash that bisected the attackers in a single stroke, severing them cleanly in two. The Blessing of Destruction from Arthur drew destruction energy into her weapon, ensuring the finality of her strikes.
But something was wrong.
Instead of succumbing to the destruction energy, the swarm adapted. Nearby vanguard members sent tendrils of woody roots to latch onto the severed halves of the ones she defeated, pulling them together in a grotesque fusion.
The halves reattached, and the reformed swarm members stood, stronger than before, as if creation energy had not only countered destruction but woven it into something new.
In front, Evan and Arthur continued their attacks, tearing through the swarm to reach the Broodmother.
"Hell Unleashed!"
Spinning his blade in a wide arc, Evan released a wave of prismatic flames that scorched all in his path. The flames devoured everything they touched, leaving nothing but smouldering fragments.
However, as the charred remains fell to the ground, some were only half-burned, their lower bodies still somewhat intact.
Evan stepped over these and charged forward.
Beside him, Arthur cleaved through the enemies with a pillar of silver aura surging from his sword.
Like Evan, he ignored the dead swarm at his feet, expecting them to dissolve into the ground like usual.
But that didn’t happen.
Like the ones that attacked Beatrix, they, too, began to fuse. Fragments of bodies staggered upright, limbs and torsos crawling to each other like magnets, merging into larger, stronger swarm vanguards.
The ones the boys hadn’t reduced entirely to ashes as they were conserving power for the Broodmother used what remained of themselves to become even stronger.
Like broken pieces of a puzzle, they reassembled, coalescing into new swarm members whose strength had multiplied with each fusion.
And then they launched their counterattack.
While Arthur and Evan pressed forward, the reformed and fused creatures charged from behind, blind to any danger and single-minded in their assault.
One massive fused vanguard, stronger and more resilient than its counterparts, lunged at Arthur from the side, its hardened body crashing into him like a boulder.
The blow nearly caught him by surprise, but Arthur reacted and blocked with a gravity shield.
Seeing this, Evan instantly summoned his shield, just in time to be met with a similar ambush.
Two fused swarm members closed in from either side, catching him in a pincer and slamming into him with force.
His Elemental Shield was broken from the right, but his physical shield completely blocked the attack on his left side. Still, he staggered, barely able to keep his footing as he swung his sword in retaliation.
Beatrix, having regained her footing after her earlier encounter, tried to focus on the Broodmother again.
She reached out with her spatial powers, beginning to lock it into place for teleportation. But now, sensing her intent, the swarm members targeted her with relentless ferocity.
They piled in, clawing, biting, and lashing at her from every angle, forcing her to break her concentration to defend herself.
She spun, her spear whirling, slicing through them with spatial slashes, but the creatures fused as fast as she killed them, undoing her efforts in real-time.
Artemisia and Crim launched a combined attack from above, Artemisia summoning a tornado of lightning and wind to rip through the swarm, while Crim infused her blood into it, making blades of condensed blood lash out from the tornado and split the swarm vanguard into pieces.
Yet even their powerful, area-clearing attacks only slowed the swarm down temporarily. Severed limbs and broken pieces would re-join, new bodies rising from the remnants of the old.
Up front, Arthur, breathing heavily as he fended off yet another fused vanguard, felt a surge of irritation.
His mind raced as he watched the swarm relentlessly reassemble, fusing into new forms with each slash of his sword. The chaotic tide of bodies crushed together, merging into ever-stronger enemies.
Every time he thought they had made progress, the swarm would simply merge and continue their assault.
They couldn’t keep this up forever.
They had to cut through to the Broodmother—and fast.
"We need one attack that can cut through all of the swarm, expose the Broodmother, and end the Broodmother in one go."
Arthur muttered, as if hoping his own words would provide some clarity. Evan, panting heavily as he wiped the sweat from his brow, shot him a look of disbelief.
"Easier said than done, Arthur."
Evan replied with a grunt, slashing his sword through another wave of the swarm.
And then, it happened. The ground rumbled as the swarm, working with terrifying coordination, began to lift the Broodmother.
They hoisted the creature, dragging it away from them, deeper into the forest. It was as if they were attempting to bury the Broodmother or hide it from their sight.
Arthur’s eyes widened. He wasn’t about to let the swarm increase the distance between him and the Broodmother.
Without a second thought, Evan activated his Harbinger of Ice, downing a potion bottle as he unleashed a wave of crimson-gold ice that froze a vast portion of the swarm in an instant.
Tossing the bottle onto the ground, he clenched his fist and the frozen bodies shattered into countless pieces.
"Arthur."
Evan tossed Arthur a magic potion and teleported with Space Warp, his blade ablaze with prismatic flames. He swung at the Broodmother, unleashing a wave of destructive fire that licked at the massive creature.
But the Broodmother’s durability was in another league entirely. The flames washed over it, scorching a few layers, but didn’t break through.
Even with his flames turning the swarm trying to carry it away to ash, the Broodmother remained unharmed. Evan cursed under his breath.
As his flames failed to breach it, new waves of swarm spawned from the creature. They charged at Evan in a relentless torrent.
More and more joined the fray, and Evan, not willing to be overwhelmed, used Space Warp again, causing a small burst of spatial damage as he teleported out of their reach.
He reappeared next to Arthur, whose sword was raised high into the sky.
Destruction energy surged up the blade, piercing the clouds as he swung it down with a loud shout.
"Continental Split!!"
The power behind the strike could split the average continent in half.
The slash carved through the swarm, cleaving through the mothers and reaching the Broodmother. Arthur’s attack connected, cutting deep into the Broodmother’s defences, slicing past its outer layers and causing the massive creature to bleed.
But the damage was far less than Arthur had hoped. The Broodmother still had a lot of vitality left.
Before he could fully recover from the swing, the forest itself responded. Trees from Triffid’s domain seemed to come alive, crawling across the battlefield, their roots burrowing into the earth.
With unnatural speed, the trees wrapped themselves around the Broodmother, forming a dome of thick wood that shielded it from further attack.
"Damn it."
As Arthur cursed, Evan rushed forward, filling his sword with Destruction Law energy as he swung the blade down.
"World Sunder!"
His sword slashed in a wide arc, slicing through the first two layers of the wooden shield. But the third layer was still intact, unyielding. He gritted his teeth, slashing again and again, but the shield didn’t give.
Arthur, seeing the resistance, swung his sword again, his energy practically burning through the air.
"Continental Split!!"
The attack was weaker this time, though still powerful. It tore through the wooden shield with a thunderous crack, reaching the Broodmother once more. But without the full force of the first strike, it didn’t do enough.
Arthur stumbled and dropped to one knee with heavy breaths. After having fired the two of such attacks in quick succession, his magic power was now virtually non-existent.
The swarm continued to swarm around him, gnashing and biting, with some biting onto his arms and legs.
