Chapter 539 - 254: Slaying the King Spine Zerg, The First Finisher

Chapter 539: Chapter 254: Slaying the King Spine Zerg, The First Finisher

To move more freely, Lin Feng slung the Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword across his waist. He held Ling Yi’s slender waist with his right arm, raised the Armor-Piercing Cannon in his left, and continued to take part in the battle.

"Why do you feel so heavy!"

His flight felt noticeably sluggish and choppy, prompting Lin Feng to complain.

To him, Ling Yi felt even heavier than the Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword.

Upon hearing this, she simply rolled her eyes.

"Weight Attributes in the Mental Realm World are measured by the materialization of Spiritual Power. My Spiritual Power is the strongest here, so of course I’m heavier!"

"If you can’t fly, just put me down on the edge of the crater’s reverse slope!"

"As long as I’m no more than a kilometer away, my Spiritual Interference will still be effective."

Lin Feng’s mouth twitched as he surveyed his surroundings.

A hundred-meter-wide pillar of smoke billowed upwards, surging thousands of meters into the sky and shrouding all of Ceres under a sun-blotting canopy of gray-black clouds.

The active volcano before them was a thousand meters high, but not particularly large. The entire crater was only four hundred meters in diameter, with the churning lava pool in the center measuring about two hundred meters across. This meant that if Ling Yi were on the back of the crater’s rim, she could still effectively use her Spiritual Interference.

A hundred-meter-class King Spine Zerg could cross the crater rim in just two easy steps. However, if the attacking party could lure it to the other side, the risk of Ling Yi being hit would be greatly reduced.

Amid the howling wind, Lin Feng replied:

"Alright, we’ll see. If we reach a stalemate and I need to step in, I’ll put you down then."

Besides Ling Yi’s considerable weight, another significant factor was the howling gale around them.

The primordial environment of Ceres was incredibly harsh, a fact made exceptionally real by the perfected Laws of this world.

For instance, a thousand meters in the air above the volcano’s summit, the airflow was extremely unstable due to the heat rising from the crater.

Not only was the wind chaotic and erratic...

But Level 8 Great Storms would also strike the area from time to time.

The wind battered the hovering fighters, hitting them like a multi-ton fist and catching them completely off guard.

The storm forced the nearby Genetic Warriors to struggle just to stay aloft. In contrast, it was only thanks to Lin Feng’s equally formidable Spiritual Power that he could carry the "heavy burden" that was Ling Yi while soaring near the volcano.

"Move out!"

Seeing that everyone was in position, Lin Feng gave the order. Countless weapons aimed at the volcano’s crater and opened fire!

Shells rained down, pouring into the churning, semi-solid lava. They shattered the piles of black rock on the crater’s surface and the surrounding layers of cooled Obsidian.

The numerous vents and fissures around the rim of the lava pool, which normally dissipated heat and released toxic gas, were all destroyed and buried by the explosions.

Now blocked, the pressure from the heat inside the volcano skyrocketed at the vent, causing the scorching lava within to roil and churn even more violently.

Bubbles of liquid lava over a meter wide could be seen constantly welling up from the crater.

The crater went from a slow simmer to a boiling kettle in an instant!

While not as violent as a pressure cooker, it was enough to make the dormant King Spine Zerg within extremely uncomfortable.

With the heat vents blocked, the lava began to circulate violently. The semi-liquid lava on the surface, a mere seven to eight hundred degrees Celsius, was exchanged with the scorching-hot lava from the depths, which reached fifteen hundred or even over two thousand degrees.

For a King Spine Zerg, which craved a stable environment, this felt like being at room temperature one moment and plunged into a fiery pit the next. The drastic temperature fluctuations were already disrupting its internal tissues and causing significant Damage.

Soon, unable to tolerate the harassment, the King Spine Zerg rose to the surface of the lava. It thrust two hundred-meter-long, sharp legs into the rockpiles at the crater’s edge and, with a powerful heave, began to hoist its massive body from the pool.

Then, a hundred-meter-class behemoth slowly emerged from the lava. Like a Demon King crawling out of Hell, it looked down upon the small, fragile world of mortals.

The King Spine Zerg’s body was reddish all over. As chunks of lava dripped from its carapace, it cooled in the billowing steam, and its entire form began to radiate a faint golden light.

The markings of a Tier Three King Spine Zerg had evolved from the black-and-yellow patterns of a Tier Two Tiger Spine Zerg. Now, its orange markings shimmered with a dazzling Golden brilliance.

While in the volcanic lava, it not only absorbs Energy to enhance its own power, but also filters out rare metallic elements. These elements then combine with its biological proteins, gradually forming the gilded, cloud-like patterns on its carapace.

"A King Spine Zerg’s Armor, while not as strong as the pure Golden Plate Bone of a Mother Empress, is still much tougher than the Giant Mandible of a Tiger Spine Zerg."

"With the ranged weapons you all have now, like these Armor-Piercing Cannons, it will be very difficult to penetrate its shell, which is over a meter thick."

"You were right before. Someone needs to risk getting in close with a Close Combat Weapon, like the Tiger-toothed Chainsaw Sword, to break its Armor. Only then can the Armor-Piercing Cannons be used to widen the wound."

"Or, for a bolder approach, you could do what you and Shen Jie did last time and get to the King Spine Zerg’s weaker underbelly."

"But that’s even more dangerous. After all, this King Spine Zerg is in a volcano with scalding lava right below it. If your Membrane Wings get damaged, or you make one careless mistake and fall in..."

"Dying that way would be ten thousand times more painful than being devoured by the Swarm."

Ling Yi couldn’t help but advise Lin Feng as she watched the seventy Genetic Warriors before them. They flapped their Membrane Wings to dodge chunks of lava thrown by the King Spine Zerg, all while raising their Armor-Piercing Cannons to fire.