The Ultimate Evolution

Sheyan suddenly ran clockwise around the Tanker Bug, taking a few hard stomps from the bug as he did so. However, his sudden change in tactic gave the Tanker Bug a lot of trouble. After spinning around a few times in pursuit of Sheyan, the bug howled in anger and suddenly turned counter clockwise, trying to catch Sheyan off guard.

But Sheyan was long prepared for that; he immediately ran counter-clockwise too. The human body was simply a lot smaller than the Tanker Bug, so Sheyan could shift his direction much easier compared to the bug. The Tanker Bug could only pursue after Sheyan helplessly, as if he was being led by the nose. Less than 40 seconds later, the bug suddenly fell to the ground. It spasmed continuously with its feet facing the sky, foaming at the mouth, as if it had been electrocuted.

Sheyan laughed and immediately ran away. He had expected this to happen.

Back when he was on Planet P, the Blackthorn Zerg had already discovered a congenital defect in the brains of the Tanker Bugs – the grey matter in their vestibular system was severely inadequate, so continuously turning around like the Tanker Bug just did placed a huge burden on its poor brain. It led to inadequate blood supply to the brain, making it faint and spasm like it was having epileptic seizure.

Of course, this method could not be used as a conventional tactic against the Tanker Bugs because they rarely acted alone. Normally, they were either used as the main force of an attack like the Ultralisks, so they would be surrounded by a lot of Hydralisks and Zerglings, or they would move out in a group to make earthquakes in the enemy’s base.

The 1v1 fight this time was a special case. If Sheyan actually tried to run circles around a Tanker Bug under normal circumstances, he would have been ruthlessly attacked by the allies around the bug.

After running more than five hundred metres away, Sheyan finally turned to look back. He found to his relief that the other enemies had not pursued him in anger like he had feared. The Tanker Bug he defeated was still foaming at the mouth. The other Zerg who had been watching ignored Sheyan’s actions and had instead charged furiously at the Protoss base.

The reason for this was simple – the Zerg’s artificial earthquake offensive plan had suffered a great setback!

Following the advancement of the technology tree, another type of powerful Protoss unit was created and quickly deployed to the battlefield. This unit greatly restrained the Tanker Bugs!

This new unit type also looked like a bug. Its name was — Reaver.

( TL: The Reaver is a Protoss unit which houses a micro-manufacturing plant similar to the Carrier, producing tiny robotic drones known as Scarabs. )

( https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Reaver )

Unlike the Tanker Bug that was strong and agile, the Reaver moved and attacked very slowly. It did not even have limbs and moved by wriggling its body, looking fat and dumb. However, by virtue of its only ability, it could rank among the high-level forces of the Protoss.

The Reaver was one of the few creatures that could chew on crystals directly and even devour them. After swallowing 15 units of crystals, it could convert them into some peculiar life-like organisms called Scarabs and store them in its huge, fat abdomen.

( TL: I’m referring to the Starcraft minerals as crystals to differentiate them from other types of minerals that may be present in this world. They’re called crystals in the raws anyway. )

After the Reaver sent the Scarabs out, the Scarabs would perform all kinds of ingenious maneuvers like the most nimble of missiles to attack the target designated by the Reaver. Not only did the Scarabs have strong destructive power, they also caused radial splash damage!

Theoretically, a round of Scarab attack by a Reaver could kill a whole squad of Zerglings without any suspense.

With the Scarabs chasing after them like their own shadows, the Tanker Bugs were having a rough time. Even though they could swiftly drill their way into the ground to escape, they would always leave behind a wide underground tunnel due to their gigantic size. The Scarabs would just keep on chasing them. Each round of exploding Scarabs would cause the Tanker Bugs heavy damage, and the AoE effect would also make the ground collapse. From time to time, pillars of smoke and dust would burst out of the ground across the Protoss territory, accompanied by the grievous roars of the Tanker Bugs. The scattered soil would have the flesh and blood of the bugs mixed within them.

But the Zerg commander had already achieved its tactical objective. The first wave of assault had destroyed more than one-third of the Protoss defensive infrastructures, and the Tanker Bug assault had destroyed another third.

In the distant horizon, yet another swarm of Zerg troops was rushing in like a black tide! And leading the way on the front line were actually a group of Overlords!

(TL: Overlords are vulnerable units that have no offensive capabilities. They’re mostly used for control, detection and air transportation.)

( https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Overlord_(StarCraft) )

Sheyan had personally commanded a Zerg battle before, so he had also dabbled in various Zerg tactics. When he saw this, his pupils abruptly shrank. He could not help muttering incredulously, “The commander is actually putting the defenceless Overlords on the front line… and it doesn’t seem to be for the purpose of making a large-scale airdrop. Is it doing it to hide the real killer weapons behind the Overlords?”

The Zerg’s new assault wave soon reached the Protoss base. Only when they had gotten close did Sheyan see that, among the dense swarm of Overlords hid some strange creatures that had a sinuous head, a stretched skin membrane, and propulsed itself in the air by blowing out air like the bellows. It was yet another Zerg unit with zero offensive capabilities, the Queen!

(TL: One of the Queen’s primary functions is to implant parasites in its enemies. The Queen can also infest other creatures, causing them to expire and Broodlings to emerge from them.)

The Protoss commander instantly realised that something was amiss. He immediately ordered the Reavers and the High Templars to retreat from the front line. Unfortunately, neither of these two units were proficient in speed. It would be difficult for them to escape even if they wanted to!

A large number of Overlords burst into bloody pieces under the attack of the Photon Cannons, but they had won the time for the Queens to cast their spells. Suddenly, black shadows shot out of the Queens’ mouths at high speed, instantly flying hundreds of meters away to accurate hit the fleeing Reavers and High Templars!

The troops that were struck by the shadows immediately rotted and died, falling to the ground. Two hexapod giant bugs sprang out of each corpse and instantly pounced on the enemies near them. This was the insta-death special ability of the Zerg Queens: Spawn Broodling!

Less than one third of the Protoss’ defensive facilities remained by now, and most of the Reavers and High Templars, who were the most effective against the Zerg assault, had been killed by the Spawn Broodling ability. The Zerg army immediately went all out. Together with the ten or so remaining Tanker Bugs, they launched a three-dimensional offensive from the air, the ground and the underground!

It was obvious that, barring any accidents, the fall of the Protoss base was inevitable.

At that moment, the Protoss ship dock glowed, and an aircraft Sheyan had seen before, an Arbiter, suddenly emerged like a heavy, clumsy swallow! The most advanced Protoss aircraft had finally arrived on the battlefield!

(TL: The Arbiter is a high cost Protoss offensive-support psionic unit. Its Cloaking Field passive ability cloaks all nearby friendly units, but not itself. Its Stasis ability can cut an enemy attack wave in half, allowing allied forces to eliminate foes in smaller, more manageable groups. Its Recall ability can teleport allied forces into an enemy base, circumventing any defenses. )

However, this newly-arrived Arbiter possessed only the Cloaking Field ability. Neither of its Stasis and Recall abilities had been developed yet. In addition, it currently did not even have any energy to use an ability. More importantly, the vast group of Zerg Overlords were anti-stealth units, making them the Arbiter’s nemesis!

So what was the use of this Arbiter?

It flew straight towards the Protoss non-standard strategic building!

The building was now fully formed. It had the appearance of a giant claw growing out from the ground. It carried the bright, concise, futuristic style of the Protoss, but its dark red colour, decorative fangs and sharp talons carried a hint of Zerg ferocity!!

The giant claw grabbed the Arbiter. The Arbiter began to disintegrate into spots of light within the claw’s grasp. The spots of light coated the surface of the claw with a smooth, bright glaze, as if a soul had been injected into the claw, making it come alive.

After that, the giant claw performed a strange action, tightening into a fist and immediately loosening itself again. Following this action, one of the twelve Pylons (energy buildings) that were built around the giant claw suddenly exploded, and a blood-red portal emerged!

Protoss warriors stepped out of the portal one after another.

There were not many of these Protoss warriors – only twelve in total – and they were all of different types. But Sheyan instantly realised that these twelve Protoss warriors looked very different from the standard soldiers.

For example, the one at the very front was a Zealot.

As the most basic Protoss infantry units, the Zealots were usually just cannon fodder that rushed at the very front to absorb damage for their allies.

But this Zealot’s appearance was completely different from a normal Zealot. He looked proud and aggressive. Ordinary Zealots were built for agility, while this Zealot was a muscular creature. He wore a red cape on his back and wielded a terrifying two-handed giant warhammer instead of psi-blades!

He instantly charged into the battlefield. The first Zerg soldier he attacked was an Ultralisk, the strongest conventional Zerg ground unit.

The Zealot fell the Ultralisk with just one strike of his hammer! The Ultralisk struggled on the ground, unable to get back up! Such a majestic sight!

Following close behind the Zealot was a Dark Templar, commonly known as the hidden knife. Normal Dark Templars wielded a warp blade, but this Dark Templar wielded two! In addition, he could throw both of them to attack from range! The warp blades would rotate back to him like boomerangs. With every throw of the warp blade, a large group of Zerglings would die!

The third one was a Dragoon who seemed to have a lame leg. Its gait was slow and unsteady, and it looked like it would fall down at any moment.

When a group of Mutalisks flew towards a Photon Cannon nearby, the Dragoon raised its phase disruptor to attack.