The fight had only barely started, but the hive hill unexpectedly erupted like a volcano even before things could start heating up.
"This is happening way too fast." Liam frowned.
He was willing to bet that the second swarm that was about to show up wouldn't be any less overwhelming than the first one. This time around, things were going to get a lot more difficult.
The next second, another explosive noise sounded amidst the chaos and confusion, and more isons started crawling out of the hive hill. They shot forward to the group of humans with even more speed and vigor.
"Yup, just like I thought." Liam inspected this new wave of isons and saw that they were all around Level 30 and some even crossing Level 35.
This was mostly the same as before when they had faced the other two hive hills, but the numbers here were crippling.
Luckily, the guild had already leveled up a round. Otherwise, they would have instantly been slaughtered en masse. Not even their bones would have been left behind.
Liam watched as the guild members stumbled a little at first, but they were starting to gain their ground once again.
It looked like they were first trying to take down as many of the weaker ones as they could to reduce the overall burden while at the same time holding off against the stronger isons.
This was not a bad strategy but were their current levels enough for them to persevere through this?
Because along with the hundreds of thousands of the mutated isons, there were still the hundreds of thousands of the normal isons.
Liam observed the group for two seconds before he signaled one of the golems to join the fight. It was about time their actual efficiency in combat was tested.
The huge golden monster thudded its way forward into the aggro range of the isons and then, with one single swift motion, jumped into the middle of the fray.
Immediately the isons started pooling around it and attacking it from all directions, but they quickly figured out that, for once, they were out of their depth.
The golem was a true monster that stood out amidst the chaos. With thousands of isons swarming around it, the hulking chunk of orichalcum did not falter.
It waved around its huge limbs, slapping down isons left and right. The level 100 golem did not care if it was your normal standard ison or the mutated version. It simply went ballistic, and to Liam's surprise, he was even getting the entire pot of experience points.
Unlike the undead, the golem had no growth potential whatsoever. While this had its own disadvantages, there were also several advantages, like the full experience point reward.
Liam was receiving 50 exp for each kill, and this was very quickly adding up. Within a minute, the golem had cleared about a thousand of the isons building their very own graveyard.
This gave the guild the much-required break, and they built on this momentum to once again gain a footing in this tornado of bizarre insects.
With just the one golem, the extra isons on the battleground were no longer a threat. The fight was still going to be bloody and challenging, but at least they won't directly sink now without even being able to put up a fight.
"This should be good?" Liam leaned back on the white fox and observed the scene. Once he confirmed that the battle had stabilized, he paid more attention to the functioning of the golem.
Mana swirls gathered around all six cores, keeping the killing machine going at its full capacity. Seeing this, Liam thought of an obvious way to improve these guys further.
"What if I use more cores? Would that make them capable of using stronger skills, perhaps skills that required mana?"
He was now thinking that this was maybe why he did not succeed when he repeatedly attempted to impart mana-related skills while forging the golems by forcing his will on them. The six cores were simply not enough.
"Hmmm…" He thought back to the formation, wondering where to place the newly forged cores. In a star-shaped formation, these six cores were perfectly balanced, so if he introduced any more moving parts, would that simply collapse the whole structure?
He rubbed his temples thinking about it, but he was unable to reach a conclusion one way or the another. With limited knowledge, there were only so many assumptions that he could make. He really needed to try things out to figure out what might work and what wouldn't.
And for that… they first needed to clear this hive hill!
Just as Liam gazed at the huge golden pyramid that was made of precious metal from top to bottom, something inside the hive hill stirred.
Cracks started to form on the eggs in the corridors and also on the eggs in the inner chamber of the huge structure, the ones with the silver pattern on them.
At the same time, Liam watched another swarm approaching the hive hill from the distance.
These were probably the ones that had gone out in search of food, and these isons also joined the battlefield. However, there were some among them who did not join the battle and directly went inside the hive hill.
Liam did not even have to guess what these ones were up to as each, and every single one of them looked chubby and plumped up.
It was as if they were chalked full of stuff and were delivering whatever they had gathered back inside the hive hill.
"This is new." Liam mused to himself. He had not witnessed this type of scene back in the other two hive hills. "Is this because they had two more days' time to set all this up?"
There was only one way to find answers to his question, so he unsheathed his black dragon sword and dashed toward the hive hill directly to take a look inside.
Mass Release Chapter 4~
Please thank Matthias_Schmidt for sponsoring this mass release!