The Ultimate Evolution

The glow around Aldaris had become very weak, looking like it would dissipate at any moment. In a large scale battle like this, the strength of an individual was truly insignificant.

A calculative, cold-blooded guy like Noos would certainly make hitting the target his main priority. As for Aldaris’ survival, it was not within his consideration. Besides, sacrifice was the necessary virtue of a Protoss hero!

Therefore, Aldaris could consider himself very lucky to have survived.

To be honest, Noos’ appearance was beyond the expectations of the Queen of Blades. Noos’ strength level was already at the peak of a heroic unit, only a short distance away from entering the ranks of the leadership figures.

Noos had been unbelievably patient up to now. His sudden appearance had inflicted a heavy blow on the Zerg. At least hundreds of Mutalisks had been affected by his Mind Control, becoming his slaves.

Noos had used his whole strength in that strike, so he had currently fallen into a weakened state. Only now did his information, which had previously been concealed, appear before Sheyan when Sheyan looked at him.

[ Noos (Living Psionic Energy) ]

[ Type: Dark Archon ]

[ Attributes: HP 5, Plasma Shield 35,000 points ( 12,199 points remaining, recovery speed of 3 points / 5 seconds) ]

[ Base Attributes: Unknown ]

[ Ability: ‘Maelstrom’ — Use the dark energy within time and space to freeze time within a certain area, so that all enemies inside the area become immobilised, but still receive damage. Lasts for 12 seconds, cooldown of 600 seconds. ]

[ Ability: ‘Mind Control’ — Use the dark energy within the soul to control the minds of other creatures. This is the ultimate weapon of the Dark Archon. The Dark Archon will possess the power and knowledge of a creature that is under control. ]

[ Under the effort of Noos, this ability can now either be used on an individual unit, becoming strong enough to enslave even the powerful heroic units, or be cast over an area, enslaving all the creatures inside the area! ]

[ The cooldown of this ability is 48 hours. ]

[ Ability: ‘Feedback’ — Burn all of the target’s MP and cause an equal amount of damage to the target. ]

***

The chain reaction brought by Noos’ success was quite astonishing. First of all, the Zerg side lost a powerful force with high mobility and high attack power. Not only that, the force was now actually under the control of the Protoss side!

Noos had not simply eliminated the enemy forces. To give an example, if the power ratio between the two sides before were 8:4 with the Zerg’s strength double that of the Protoss’, then Noos’ strike had weakened the Zerg’s strength level to 6, while the Protoss’s strength level had been increased to 6 as well. A single powerful move from Noos had unexpectedly turned the Zerg’s overwhelming advantage into a level playing field!

The subsequent battle became even more tragic. With the Protoss troops’ strength significantly increased, Noos led the group charging into the darkness again, back towards the Zerg army! His objective was to gather up the Protoss troops that had been separated into several smaller groups by the Zerg.

With a horrifyingly large swarm of Mutalisks blasting open a path for the group with no regards to their own casualties, and the lack of large area-of-effect destructive skills like the Psionic Storm among the Zerg, the Protoss group led by Noos cut into the Zerg army with unstoppable momentum like a hot knife through butter.

Such a frenzied advance was only made possible by the fragile Mutalisks leading the way in front with their attacks, leading to their high casualty rate. Under the retaliation of the Hydralisks, a controlled Mutalisk would die every few seconds. Scourges would also launch suicidal attacks against them from time to time.

(TL: Scourges are kamikaze Zerg aerial units.)

After successfully absorbing two trapped Protoss groups into their team, Noos instantly headed towards the third group, but halfway there, he suddenly made a sharp turn! At the same time, something big was happening at the Protoss base. The heroic Shuttle from before took off and headed straight towards the battlefield, escorted by Divina’s heroic Phoenix warship as well as various high mobility ordinary flying units!

Sheyan initially did not understand the reason behind Noos’ sudden change in target. Being among the Protoss squad that had gone berserk with attacking, he had no choice but to move forward carried by the flow. However, he did feel the resistance in front of them increasing with time.

After a while, Sheyan finally realised the intentions of the powerful Dark Archon commander. He wished to go straight to the core of the Zerg army to take the head of the enemy’s commanding general!

That’s right, Noos’ target was the Overmind who was commanding the battle in the Queen of Blades’ stead! ( https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Overmind )

Although Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, had severely injured Uraki, she did not escape unharmed herself. She must have gone back to the Zerg lair to rest and recuperate. Therefore, as long as the Protoss team could take down the Overmind, a victory over the leaderless Zerg was almost guaranteed.

Noos first pretended to rescue the Protoss’ stranded forces, baiting the main Zerg forces to move in that direction, then abruptly shifted his direction straight at the Zerg Overmind, while the Protoss base sent in reinforcements at the same time. The Protoss was making an all-out offensive!

In response, the Zerg forces naturally tried to fall back to defend with great haste. As a result, the surrounded Protoss troops could now break free from their encirclement. This way, not only would Noos be supported by the reinforcements from the base, he would also be reinforced by the rest of the Protoss soldiers on the battlefield. He had gained the upper hand in this fight.

The Zerg Overmind was defending against Noos’ charge in order to survive, but were the Protoss soldiers not making the charge for the sake of their survival too? If the Protoss could not cause irreparable damage to the Zerg side tonight, having played all the cards in their hand, they would be no match for the Zerg once the Queen of Blades recovered. Therefore, the determination and the will of both sides in this crucial moment had reached an unimaginable level. There was a strong sense that both sides would fight to the last soldier.

The subsequent clash was unbelievably tragic!

Among the heroes Sheyan knew, Red Caped Sokada died during the charge! The heroic Carrier exploded under the bombardment of countless Hydralisks and Scourges! Even the heroic Shuttle was blown up by the Zerg!

Fortunately, the pilot of the Shuttle managed to survive thanks to Sheyan’s timely rescue. Tochego had also survived because he was a long-range fighter. He only lost three of his legs, but he would have died too if Sheyan had not seized an opening to save him. Less than a tenth of the powerful Protoss heroic units remained. There were initially hundreds of Mutalisks under Noos’ control, but less than twenty of them were still alive by now.

But their ultimate target, the Overmind, was finally in front of them.

This Overmind looked almost similar to the Overmind of the Blackthorn tribe, except for the vivid red stripe which extended from his head all the way down his back. That’s right, he was an old acquaintance of Sheyan, the Redliner Overmind who once fought against the Blackthorn tribe on the distant planet P.

(TL: Planet P is the planet on which the plot of Starship Troopers takes place, and also the planet visited by Sheyan waaaaaay back in the story where he helped the Blackthorn Zerg tribe fight the Redliner Zerg tribe. )

It had apparently grown stronger, evolving from a fat, bulky bug that looked like a maggot into a battle unit that was protected by a hard shell all over its body, like a cockroach.

Noos did not shout any orders or words of encouragement. He simply pointed with his finger, and his Maelstrom descended upon the awaiting Zerg troops ahead that had taken up a defensive position. Hundreds of Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Ultralisks, if not thousands, were immobilised by the powerful shackles of time and space, thus prying open a gap in the solid defensive line!

Next came the textbook opening sequence of a Protoss assault, its effectiveness tried and tested.

First, they swept the enemies with Psionic Storms, then let the Reavers bombard the enemies from long range with Scarabs, and finally dispatched the Zealots and Dragoons to clean up the mess. However, the bodyguards around the Overmind were extremely powerful, so the two sides were engaged in a bitter fight.

Sheyan truly envied Aldaris for being sent back to the rear to recover. He himself had to grit his teeth and charge at the front line. He already tried his hardest to choose weaker-looking targets whenever he could, but the soldiers here were all elites that had survived hundreds of battles, so he was still put under great pressure!

To Sheyan’s chagrin, the few times he had tried to lay on the ground, pretending to be heavily wounded, Noos would instantly stare at him with cold, mocking eyes. Sheyan could only climb back up and keep fighting on the front line obediently.

Unbeknownst to Sheyan, Noos was a staunch supporter of the Protoss supremacy ideology, even more so than Sokada. He believed that the Protoss were the most perfect race, but Sheyan, a weak human, had actually lasted even longer than most of the Protoss elites under his watch. Of course Noos would have his eyes on Sheyan!

“Goddammit…” Sheyan had no choice but to pull out ‘Verdict’, sentence a Hydralisk in front of him to be a heretic, and pull the trigger. He was being forced to restore his HP via the healing effect of ‘Verdict’! That showed what a tough predicament he was in!

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the sky. A unique-looking streamlined aircraft broke through the darkness. Rows of transparent windows lined up on its crystal blue body. It had a flashy outer appearance, like an abstract-looking wild phoenix!

That’s right, it was Divina’s heroic Phoenix airship! She had also arrived on the battlefield!

Thanks to the Protoss group’s fearless, frenzied attack, a crack finally appeared among the guards protecting the Redliner Overmind, but only a small crack, just enough for the eyes to see what was behind it. However, at that very moment, a timely blue ray shot out of the tip of Divina’s Phoenix and struck the Redliner Overmind!!