Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

The flying Arachnids were always one of the most problematic bugs to deal with, because they were speedy and very agile. Anything that came from the bugs and could fly, was fast as heck and very troublesome to shoot down manually.

One would either need highly automated systems or powerful abilities that could cause an area of effect on the entire place that would wipe them out regardless of how they dodged the strikes.

Arcturus and Jenaiel were a bit caught off guard by the sheer scale and ferocity of the assault because the bugs were charging straight into the traps and minefields that Zehal prepared as everything went blank in a mere moment.

Enormous explosions that deafened even the two of Highborne Asuryani in a mere moment, when the entire part of the Frostearth Valley was turned into one huge flaming mess that was being covered by dust.

Once, the explosion subsidies took some time because there were too many of them, and they were also pretty powerful. Zehal was going all out in laying down the explosives, as she knew that they needed to be powerful enough to shred even some of the more durable Arachnids apart easily once they were doing the kaboom.

Soon after the explosions quieted down, the gunfire from the automatic turrets that Zehal created through the Super-High Risk Psyker Ability Deus Technicus echoed through the entire Frostearth Valley as they opened fire on the bugs.

The Warrior Bugs and a few Tiger Warrior Bugs charged through the hail of the energy projectiles that were fired on them by the Zehal's turrets, as their bodies were being shredded apart by the plasma.

It wasn't easy, even for the Zehal's advanced turrets and weaponry, which made short work of the bugs. The bugs were stronger than they seemed, and in many cases, their bodies even absorbed the damage as they were hit.

This was something respectable because, due to the material limitations and other things, Zehal wasn't able to create anything more powerful, but even what she managed to make seemed to be enough for the time being when it came to dealing with the average bugs.

The most problematic was the enormous Titan Bug that was barely damaged from the explosions, and the plasma energy turrets were barely doing anything as Zehal was forced to congregate the firepower of several of them together to actually cause some substantial injury on the huge towering bug.

Out of nowhere, the Titan Bug unleashed a torrent of acid spray, melting through the obstructions that were covering the locations of the plasma turrets under Zehal's control, which was slightly problematic.

Or rather...

It was a huge problem.

Once the turrets were visible, they became visible even to the engaged bugs, who, while already in their berserker state with lowered rationality, could, despite all of this, still recognize the threat and would go and destroy it.

At any cost.

Exactly what they were doing right now.

Once several of the hidden turrets were visible for the Arachnids to see, the enraged Warrior Bugs rushed towards their location, with complete disregarding for their very own existence as they had only one sole goal in their mind which was to destroy the turrets.

At the same time, the flying Arachnids swooped from above, attacking the turrets with their claws as they made use that their firepower was being concentrated on the WarriorBugs, Tiger Warrior Bugs, and primarily on the Titan Bug.

Several of the Zehal's turrets were already being destroyed by the frenzied Arachnid swarm that had left the Nest, but that was something within their expectations. Aside from the Titan Bug that wasn't in the plan, everything was going according to the plan.

'Arcturus, if you could... would it be possible for you to use the Dimension Empyrean in its most destructive form on the Titan Bug when you find an opening? It seems that my turrets are too weak to breach the Titan Bug's plating and defenses in a short time, and we don't have really much time for it.'

Suddenly, he heard Zehal's voice in his head as he pondered over the proposal because if they could bring down the Titan Bug as soon as possible, it would be feasible to inflict even greater losses onto the Arachnids that left the Nest without the interference of the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears that they planned to lure here during the next phase of their plan.

'Give me some time.'

He sent her message back as he prepared to attack the Titan Bug.

Even though this wasn't in their plan, it would also risk their position because if the bugs could trace the attack's origin back here, due to leaving a very powerful and distinctive Psionic Residual, it was worth it.

The entire frozen terrain of the Frostearth Valley became a chaotic battlefield where the two distinctive civilizations, one rooted in Psionics and Technology and one rooted in Biology and Psionics, though leaning more toward devouring everything in their power.

The snow and ice have already melted away due to the sheer heat from the plasma fired from the turrets and, most importantly, from the explosions that shook the entire Frostearth Valley and let everyone know that there was a fight right now.

From the outsider's perspective, the Arachnid's numbers seemed to be still strong because, surprisingly, even more of the bugs were being added to the equation. It seemed that all of the fighting and Psionic Anguish that was being generated on the battlefield was due to the death of countless bugs.

This was being registered by the Arachnids still in the Nest, and some of the weaker ones were being drawn to the conflict as they were leaving the Nest in huge numbers to reinforce their brethren above the ground.

"It seems that Zehal's defenses are getting overwhelmed, and the first line of defense that Zehal has built is about to be overwhelmed by the bugs."

Jeniael remarked as they observed how Zehal's began to crumble under the continuous pressure of the Arachnids, who just kept going on and on, completely disregarding everything else in the process as they had already managed to destroy several of Zehal's turrets.

This wasn't something shocking because Zehal predicted that the first line of turrets would be entirely destroyed, even though what was surprising was the speed at which it happened, which was mainly attributed to the interference of the Titan Bug.

The Titan Bug, which attracted a lot of attention and firepower, already complicated the matter slightly, but when it used an acid-like attack on several natural obstructions that were providing camouflage for the turrets, it drastically decelerated the time it was expected that the first defensive line would prevail.

"Well... the Titan Bug has proved itself to be more problematic than we thought... Zehal ready contacted me to launch a surprise attack with the Dimension Empyrean using all of its power to break apart its defenses."

Arcturus said to Jeniael as he prepared the Dimension Empyrean while they were observing how the second line of defensive turrets was being activated in several seconds after the first defensive line was overwhelmed, and the swarm began advancing further while some of the bugs began dragging the dead and dying back to the Nest to be consumed or repurposed.

When the Arachnids fell in the combat, their corpses were brought back to the Nest where they would be broken into the Biomass, and then the Biomass would be used to create and build a new Arachnids.

"What is happening?"

Jenaiel asked as she noticed something strange.

The entire valley fell silent, which was very unusual, as the Arachnids stopped advancing for several moments. One could clearly observe the signs of the battle. Everything from the the scorch marks, shattered ice, and the destroyed turrets that the Arachnids have destroyed when they overran the first defensive line.

"It seems that they had a moment of clarity, but look... it's already gone."

Arcturus pointed at the Arachnids that seemed to be defending their Nest, and soon enough, they returned to their previous engaged state as they continued attacking further, aiming the source of the Psionic Energy signal when Zehal unshaded the second wave of the plasma attacks.

"I see..."

Jenaiel said she then noticed that Arcturus was now holding a very strong ball of Empyrean Power in his hands and inserting more and more Psionic Energy into it, as it was growing more and more powerful with each passing moment.

It was clear that he was preparing to strike at the Titan Bug that started advancing further when Zehal's turrets started shooting down all of the flying Arachnids one by one, because the flying ones were already scouting the entire area and could possibly direct the rest of the Arachnids on Zehal's position or even at Arcturus and Jenaiel.

"Prepare to run once I start hitting the Titan Bug. The power that I am going to unleash should be strong enough to obliterate even Gamma-Grade Warrior from the face of the earth in a mere moment, so once it's out, the bugs would swarm it here in mere seconds."

Arcturus really went all out on this one, especially when Zehal told him to hit as hard as possible. Thus, he decided to use all of his power in this strike as he pushed the Empyrean Power to its limits.

Once it hit the Titan Bug, its strong residual traces would attract the bugs even from several kilometers to their current location, so he told Jeniael to begin escaping as soon as possible and that he would join her the moment he executed the attack.

He, too, didn't have the need to be swarmed by the bunch of enraged bugs.

Not on his to-do list today.

"One."

Arcturus started the countdown as he aimed at the Titan Bug that was slowly advancing while defending against the incoming plasma projectiles as he molded the Empyrean Power into the shape of a lighting bolt that he would throw.

Like the Greek God of Lightning, Zeus.

"Two."

The Dimension Empyrean was pushed to the limits as the Empyrean Power started cracking when it got oversaturated because not even Arcturus was aware of the true extent of his destructive prowess.

"Three."

The moment he finished the countdown, Jenaiel, who was standing some distance from him, bolted away at lightning speed and disappeared somewhere as far as possible while he threw the lightning bolt-shaped Empyrean Power.

Aiming directly at the weaker spot of the Titan Bug that was located between it's heavy plates of chitin armor.

The moment he threw the bolt of Empyrean Power at the Titan Bug, he mimicked Jeniel and disappeared from the place as the Empyrean Power Lighting Bolt hit the Titan Bug exactly in the middle of its joints where there was a slight weakness as it was a small place that wasn't covered by it's extraordinarily thought carapace.

In mere seconds, enormous purple-black energy burst around the entire place as several hundred Warrior Bugs and a few Tiger Warrior Bugs that were in the vicinity of the Titan Bug were obliterated by the Empyrean Power.

Though...

What was even more shocking was the state of the Titan Bug itself.

Almost the entire upper half of the Titan Bug was missing, including half of its head.

That certainly wasn't something that the bug could regenerate from, even with their fearsome regeneration factor. Soon enough, after the explosion of the Empyrean Power dispersed, the humongous form of the Titan Bug fell on the ground, crushing a few tens of bugs that rushed in there under the weight of its corpse.

'Well... it seems that I went a bit overboard. Even though I feel rather tired and also my entire Psionic Energy Reserves are empty, this power should be enough to kill someone at Beta-Grade if they are not careful, even though it would leave me out of cold.'

Arcturus thought, because this was really far above his expectations. The only reason why he was still standing was due to his own willpower and Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants that were preventing him from falling unconscious.

Fortunately enough, with his healing factor and the rate at which his Psionic Energy was being regenerated, he would be in top condition in mere minutes, which was a rather staggering rate of recovery.

The Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants basically biologically prevented him from blacking out while his body was regenerating. At the same time, another effect of the Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants was that they were speeding up the healing, bumbling pain, and other auxiliary effects.

'Are you still alive?'

As he was running from the place, while the bugs were a bit panicking due to the death of the Titan Bug that happened in rather a spectacular manner, he soon heard Zehal's voice in his head.

Zehal knew that Arcturus went a bit overboard because she only asked him to create an opening for her turrets to finish the bug. Yet he used so much power that it killed the Titan Bug, and the power output was so high that it would normally be enough to kill even most ordinary Beta-Grade Warriors.

'I am... just tired and exhausted, but I will be alright within a few moments; you focus on the destruction of the bugs as much as you can. Also, due to the explosion of the Empyrean Power, it seemed a few hundred of them were obliterated so that we can start phase 2 sooner, don't you think?'

Arcturus answered back as he swiftly arrived at the spot where Jenaiel was hiding after she ran away.

'Hmm... that seems to be plausible. All right then, give me another fifteen minutes maximally. I am activating the protocol to attract here the Silver-Horned Tattooed Bears, if we want for the bears to succeed the lesser number of the Arachnids is out there, the better.'

Hearing what Zehal said made Arcturus focus more on the healing because they would have something between ten minutes to twenty minutes before they would infiltrate the Arachnid Nest as Zehal was already in the process of doing her magic.

After this spectacle, the Arachnids were greatly weakened because of the Empyrean Power and disappeared from the Frostearth Valley at all, but it had latched itself onto the Arachnids and was continuing at what it was best.

Corrupting and destroying things.