Chapter 2626

The full moon hung high, and a jellyfish-like creature floated in the high sky, emitting a faint light in the dark night. This was a split body of the Zerg structure, the 'Lurker', which could sense and interfere with spatial fluctuations.

The entire hive's range of influence was three kilometers in diameter, forming a circle at the edges, with the base, the hive, located at the center, surrounded by various Zerg structures.

Individual Demon Beasts stood guard at the edges of the creep, while all Leviathans remained on standby behind the hive.

In a wooden shed near the hive, Su Xiao was chewing on dried meat. The Zerg did not have a 'Chef' unit; he had made this dried meat himself while in the trial area.

Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were all nearby. As for Benny, she was temporarily out of contact; it was unknown where this cat-star person was at the moment.

Su Xiao closed the hive's data. After two wars, the hive had developed. Although the number of Demon Beasts was not enough to flatten everything, it had formed a scale.

Through the biological energy obtained from the recent wars, the number of Demon Beasts had reached 300,000, with 270 Leviathans. As for the Demon Flame Dragons, they remained at 12; maintaining their activity required a large amount of biological energy every day, and breeding too many was unaffordable unless a war broke out with the enemy.

It was not just the Demon Flame Dragons; Demon Beasts and Leviathans were the same. Daily actions or combat required the consumption of biological energy. They stored a portion of biological energy in their bodies, and once this was exhausted, they needed to replenish it through the creep.

The larger the population, the more biological energy consumed daily. Maintaining the current Zerg troops required a significant amount of biological energy every day, even without fighting enemies.

Just after the ceasefire, Su Xiao felt that the biological energy was not enough. At this moment, the hive stored 4.2 million points of biological energy. If he bred Demon Beasts, he could breed 8,400. Compared to the existing 300,000, breeding 8,000 more was just the icing on the cake.

For the last two days, Su Xiao would not go looking for the Tiger Bee clan, even if they had already gone to ally with the Dia Tribe.

With the current scale of the Zerg troops, charging directly into the territories of those two parties was a very unwise move. Without the hive to replenish the number of Demon Beasts, once the Demon Beast troops were surrounded, they would definitely be annihilated.

In a positional war near the hive, the Zerg were almost invincible, but going out to fight was another matter. Therefore, Su Xiao was not worried about those two sides allying and triggering a frontal war; he was worried that those two sides would lose their nerve.

For the Zerg, as long as there were numerous enemies, the number of their own side was not a problem. Moreover, Zhila had already promoted to the Seventh Tier; starting a war now would only increase the number of combat Zerg.

The contention for the trial area had become particularly important at this time. Su Xiao's main purpose in coming to this world was not to start a war with the Tiger Bee clan and the Dia Tribe, but to obtain resources to become stronger.

Su Xiao risked being expelled from this world by the Void Tree to summon Zhila, mainly because the people on Naji Jia's side were developing local forces. If Su Xiao did not summon the Zerg, it would not be long before he might be besieged by the Dia Tribe or the Tiger Bee clan.

Compared to being besieged, Su Xiao chose to take the initiative. At this time, the hive had already developed to a certain scale; it was time to start reaping the benefits.

Tomorrow would be the sixth day of the survival trial, and the purple supply box would be dropped on the seventh day. Before the purple supply box was dropped, Su Xiao had to take the trial area first.

The method to take the trial area was simple: block the entrance and let a certain number of Zerg enter the trial area, but how to block it was the key.

Once the Tiger Bee clan and the Dia Tribe discovered that a group of Zerg had left the hive, they would likely take the opportunity to annihilate this Zerg troop.

At this time, the territories of the three parties formed a vague triangular confrontation, with the Death Forest located diagonally behind the Tiger Bee faction.

Su Xiao prepared to use his own territory as a starting point to establish a defensive line behind the Tiger Bee faction, cutting off the potential armies of the Tiger Bee faction and the Dia Tribe, and then leading directly to the Death Forest.

Even if this defensive line was attacked and about to be broken, the Zerg troops' defensive line could be retracted into a 'C' shape, eventually shrinking back into their own territory.

Before this, Su Xiao prepared to develop the Zerg's high-end combat power. The Demon Beast leader still needed some time to grow; the Demon Flame Dragon was a better choice.

The Demon Flame Dragon did not have a leader individual. It was not that the hive could not breed one, but it was restricted by the world tier; therefore, the Demon Flame Dragon could reach at most the Elite Tier.

This was enough. The probability of an elite individual being born was much higher than that of a leader level, about 1.5% to 2.7%.

The hive began to breed Demon Flame Dragons. Each incubation tissue required three minutes to hatch a Demon Flame Dragon egg. After the egg entered the incubation sac, it could become an adult in about seven minutes. Three incubation tissues and incubation sacs worked simultaneously, meaning 3 Demon Flame Dragons every ten minutes, and 18 per hour.

There was still some time until dawn. Relying on the remaining 4.2 million biological energy, Su Xiao chose to breed 17 Demon Flame Dragons. In this way, the total number of Demon Flame Dragons could reach 29.

In less than an hour, a total of 29 Demon Flame Dragons were crawling on the creep. Seeing these hill-sized behemoths gathered together, it was inevitable that it would give people a sense of shock.

As soon as the 29 Demon Flame Dragons gathered, they were absorbed by the creep and converted into biological energy. Even if they were converted into biological energy just after being bred, each one would lose 6,000 points of biological energy.

The birth of an elite individual was due to a life-quality change reaction during the breeding process, which the Zerg could not control or simulate. If luck was bad, then it depended on the number of attempts.

One Demon Flame Dragon after another was born, and then decomposed and absorbed by the creep. This process continued in a cycle, just waiting for the appearance of an elite individual.

Time passed quickly. When the hive bred a Demon Flame Dragon for the 193rd time, a 'life-quality change reaction' appeared in the incubation sac.

A claw several times larger than that of an ordinary Demon Flame Dragon reached out from a crack in the hive, and sparks flew out. The elite Demon Flame Dragon was born.

"Roar!!"

With a roar, the elite Demon Flame Dragon's wings spread out. On its lower abdomen and wings, magma patterns were spread.

Name: Demon Flame Dragon · Barbatos

Category: War Creature

Existence time: 129 natural days (Seventh-Tier hive, can carry at most 1 such combat unit.)

Health: 100%

Biological Energy: 72,500/72,500 points

Strength: 185 (Real Attribute)

Agility: 175 (Real Attribute)

Stamina: 186 (Real Attribute)

Intelligence: 157 (Real Attribute)

Charm: Zerg have no Charm attribute.

Skill 1, Superior Zerg (Passive, lv. 75): Health +81,000 points, immune to all Seventh-Tier control effects, Fire and Erosion damage reduced by 37.2%.

Skill 2, Evil Dragon Gene (Passive, lv. 72): Health +25,000 points, Physical Defense +159 points.

Skill 3, Life Conversion (Active, lv. 54): Can restore own health by consuming biological energy.

Skill 4, Dragon Flame (Active, lv. 70): Can spew dragon flame by consuming biological energy. Damage intensity depends on the biological energy consumed and the enemy's stamina attribute. Causes 7 times or more damage to building-type units.

Hint: If burned by this dragon flame for more than 2 seconds, it will suffer an internal continuous burning effect, causing 5.7% of lost health as defense-ignoring damage per second. The burning effect lasts for 10 seconds.

Skill 5, Demon · Dragon Flame (Passive, x): Dragon Flame damage tier +1.

Skill 6, Life Burning (Passive, x): If the enemy suffers the burning of dragon flame, the healing effect received is reduced by 67%. After leaving the dragon flame range, this effect will last for 23–70 seconds.

Skill 7, Sky Demon (Passive, lv. 65): Flight speed increased by 52%, wing defense increased by 56 points.

Skill 8, Dragon's Claw (Passive, lv. 73): When attacking with claws, it will carry an additional 327 points of real damage.

Skill 9, Demon · Purgatory (Ultimate Ability, lv. 23): Demon Flame Dragon · Barbatos immediately consumes more than 90% of its biological energy, turning the surrounding one kilometer into a 'Purgatory of Fire'. All targets within the Purgatory of Fire will suffer 470 points of real fire damage per second + (stamina difference x 8.5) burning damage + 850 points of incineration damage.

Hint: The Purgatory of Fire will last for 12 seconds, and the fire has extremely strong adhesion and continuous burning characteristics.

After checking the data of Demon Flame Dragon · Barbatos, Su Xiao felt that this creature could solo most Seventh-Tier bosses, except for those in the top tier of the Seventh Tier.

Su Xiao was not surprised by Barbatos's strength; this was the strongest single Zerg of the Seventh-Tier hive. Even the hive could not support a second Barbatos, because it might cause Barbatos to lose control. Everything had a limit; the hive was like this, and Zhila, who controlled the hive, was also like this.

With high-end combat power prepared, after the hive bred another 11 Demon Flame Dragons, 3.21 million points of biological energy remained. This biological energy was to be used to breed a low-tier Zerg to break through the Death Forest.