The fight between the Divine Arsonist and the Ekstrom Goliath was emblematic of the
Voribug War.
Red humanity possessed great strength, but none of it was optimized against this new
kind of opponent.
The Goliaths of the enemy did not possess any miraculous energy shields, nor
possessed the capability to generate an energy field that bent and broke the laws of
physics.
What they did have was the power of pure biology. Their regeneration rates were
astonishing, with the Ekstrom strain featuring the most formidable recovery capabilities.
In hindsight, the matchup between the Divine Arsonist and the Ekstrom Goliath was quite
poor.
The forr simply did not carry the right weapons to damage and kill the latter in a fast
and effective manner.
So long as the Ekstrom Goliath was alive, it could always regenerate its body, including
organs that were deed vital!
The other Goliath strains did not regenerate as fast as the Ekstrom, but they were not
too far behind either.
"Are all Goliaths as difficult to kill2" Ves asked.
Lord Richard Brownstone looked severe as he offered his response. "The Ekstrom strain
trades mobility for defense and regeneration, but that does not an the other strains
are that much weaker in this regard. What you should also keep in mind is that the
higher the Level of the gavoribug, the faster it is able to regenerate. In fact, the
recovery rate is one of the principal variables that determines its threat level. Weaker
Goliaths do not possess exaggerated regeneration capabilities, so they can be defeated
by weaker chs. As for the stronger ones, if our combined firepower or champions are
not strong enough to exceed their high-speed regeneration, then we will fall into the
enemy's rhythm."
The Goliath Hive may have tried to imitate its enemies by developing its own champions,
but the Goliaths still favored attritional warfare when confronting opposition.
"It is strange that they have yet to develop a ans to generate their own spatial
barriers." Gloriana voiced her own observation as she stood behind her own work
station. "Phase lords are biological, and so are the voribugs. The latter have already
demonstrated strong biotech R&D capabilities. As inhuman as they behave and appear,
their race or 'civilization' is clearly led by an intelligence that has transcended the
savagery of beasts. Its demonstrated biotech applications makes it clear that the
mutated voribugs can produce remarkable results. Why haven't they ford their own
form of energy shielding?"
That was an important question. Ves began to wonder about this himself.
"We believe... that the mutated voribugs simply decided not to bother with it" The
Rubarthan Senior ch Designer replied. "Organic ans of replicating energy shields
can only reach the performance of relatively standard units. The cost of inserting them
into ordinary voribugs is uneconomical. They are all cannon fodder. The resources it
takes to produce them are small, but once they are equipped with organic energy
shields, they beco too pricey to sacrifice on a whim. As for larger and more precious
units such as the Goliaths, the scalability and upper ceiling of organic energy shields are
poor to diocre. At best, the Goliath Hive would be able to reproduce the energy
shielding systems of alien warships, but that is not enough protection when confronting
champions.”
The mutated voribugs were not stupid.
They lived and breathed attrition warfare, so all of their bug subspecies were designed
with cost effectiveness as their primary goal.
Even the Goliaths had to be worth the huge price it took to harvest high-grade resources
and grow them over a longer period of ti.
"It is not that simple to replicate the defenses of a phase lord or a phase whale, honey."
Ves told his wife. "What makes phase lords different from other organisms is not that our
bodies are filled with varying concentrations of phasewater, but that we have beco
superdinsional life forms, if only barely. Our bodies, our minds and our souls have
more deeply crossed the barriers between dinsions, allowing us to tap into higher-
dinsional energies and wield strange new powers in a sowhat uniform fashion. You
cannot replicate this effect through pure biotechnological tinkering."
Gloriana did not quite agree with that argunt. "Not every answer has to be related to
systematic cultivation. Haven't we stumbled upon the fish-whale race during our early
pioneering days? The phase whale who conducted those experints made a good
attempt at rging the special properties of his own race into a more reproducible
hybrid race."
"I am not entirely convinced that the fish-whales, at least the more powerful ones, have
co close enough to match genuine phase leaders." Ves voiced. "I do admit that the
existence of the fish-whales may be the future of the mutated voribugs, but I think it will
require a lot more R&D in order to produce such a remarkable result. For now, I do not
think the Goliath Hive or any of the other hives have a compelling reason to direct a
huge amount of resources in this research. They are better off relying on their existing
advantages.”
Phase leaders were special no matter the variety. Ves refused to believe that the fruits of
body cultivation could be replicated without excessive effort by the mutated voribugs.
According to Rubarthan observations, the bodies of transphasic voribugs and
gavoribugs resemble exobeasts that have grown up in phasewater-rich ecosystems.
While that certainly made them stronger while giving them a touch of
superdinsionality, they were still far from leveraging the amazing potential of
phasewater like genuine phase whales and phase lords.
In any case, Ves believed it was safe to assu that the mutated voribugs did not
possess the ability to replicate the more profound capabilities of phase lords.
That did not make them any less scarier, unfortunately.
Ves shifted his gaze over to the other “duels’.
The high-ranking chs dispatched by the Rubarthans struggled a lot less, and that was
not only because their opposing Goliaths were much weaker.
The expert chs hailing from the Brownstone Principality were better equipped and
adapted to fight against an adversary that liked to use swarms of cannon fodder and
relied on fast-regenerating Goliaths to make themselves a strong enough nuisance.
Besides the largest and most outrageous Ekstroms, the other Goliath strains each
possessed their own notable strengths.
Ves found himself particularly attracted to a gavoribug that was much slimr and
more agile in build.
its body was sleek and predatory. The hexapod alien dueled against an opposing expert
light skirmisher. It tried its best to rake its claws across the resonance shield and armor
of the opposing machine.
While the bug was so slim that it did not possess any obvious ranged attack capabilities,
it was able to spit out a deadly spray of acid that the expert ch took pains to avoid. It
was also capable of generating a surprisingly good imitation of the space suppressor
field.
All of these advantages and more allowed the agile Level 6 Goliath to keep up with the
mobility of a powerful high-tier expert light skirmisher!
The fight between these powerful champions appeared like a dance between two
deadly but graceful opponents.
So far, it did not seem as if it would end anyti soon.
The expert light skirmisher still managed to maintain its resonance shield. It was clear
that its pilot tried to conserve its defensive resources as much as possible.
Once its resonance shield broke, the Rubarthan machine would be in for a much tougher
ti.
The slim Goliath on the other hand had suffered repeated strikes onto its body.
The plasma daggers wielded by the opposing high-tier expert ch significantly
hindered the giant insect's regeneration, but by staying mobile, the Goliath was able to
give the damaged sections of its body enough rest ti to recover.
Both of them moved so quickly that the cannon fodder bugs simply had no way of
catching up to their targets!
Lord Richard noticed what Ves was paying attention to. He smiled.
"The Quickdraw is piloted by Venerable Urdred Texis, one of the retainers of our
Brownstone Principality. His expert light skirmisher is least prone to getting sward by
the mutated voribugs, but that only applies so long as it is able to retain its mobility. So
long as it remains in its current state, the Quickdraw can evade many traps. Its greatest
weakness is its lack of offensive capabilities. Since Venerable Texis is not yet an ace
pilot, he lacks a Saint Kingdom that can amplify and extend the range of his attacks. The
plasma daggers alone are at least moderately effective against the smaller Sudfar strain.
The Quickdraw is a much worse match against a atshield such as the Ekstrom strain."
"So this high-speed gavoribug is called the Sudfar strain, eh?"
"Yes. The Sudfar strain is the Goliath Hive's counterpart to light skirmishers. It is a highly
specialized and optimized organic subspecies that is constantly becoming a little faster
and more agile while not trading in as much defensive power. Its acid-spitting
capabilities are fairly recent, and we expect the Goliath Princess to arm the Sudfar strain
with more advantages down the line."
That was bad news. The Sudfar strain's excellent speed and maneuverability could turn
it into a potential nightmare to regular forces. It could charge straight towards a human
fleet and evade many attacks while wearing down the azure energy shields of
battleships and fleet carriers.
Once the Sudfar Goliath broke upon the energy shields of those large and expensive
vessels, the giant insect could quickly wreak havoc at close range!
"Is there anything else that we need to know about the Sudfar Goliath?" Ves asked.
"They are almost unkillable if we do not field our own corresponding expert light
skirmisher or ace light skirmisher." Lord Richard Brownstone said with a frown. "High-
ranking chs with formidable ranged attack capabilities can certainly track and hit the
fast-moving Sudfars, but their regeneration speeds are relatively fast and their
performance does not diminish too much even if they have lost over 30 percent of their
biomass. As long as they can still move at high speeds, they can always abandon their
offensive plans and retreat to safety at a rapid pace. Rember. The mutated voribugs
have no honor. The decision to attack or retreat is purely based on rational decision-
making."
In other words, the Goliath Hive did not care about the lives and deaths of individual
voribugs or gavoribugs.
The Goliaths could be brave to the point of suicidal in one instant, and switch to being
shaless cowards that ran away like scurrying rats in the next instant!
Their lack of pride or genuine fighter spirit disturbed red humanity.
People like Ves and the other mbers of the ch community were simply not used to
fighting against a formidable adversary that purely treated its ard forces like
expendable commodities.
Even though the Goliaths had been proven to be sapient and capable of recognizing
their own individuality, they were still treated as cogs in a very large organic machine.
"Have you managed to capture a living Sudfar Goliath or at least an intact corpse? I
would like to study it and understand why it can be so fast but still possess such good
regeneration capabilities.” Gloriana asked.
She was not well-versed in exobiology, but she could still glean a lot of clues by
applying her existing understanding in ch design.
"I am afraid I must disappoint you, Mada." Lord Richard shook his head. "I have
ntioned before that each Goliath is protected against hostile examinations. As soon
as they are dead or defeated, their molecules begin to separate from each other. Their
disintegration works too quickly. We have employed various ans to preserve them,
but even our best attempts have led to the capture of molten biomass that only vaguely
resembles a Goliath. The best way to study their properties is to observe them on the
battlefield such as today. This is one of the reasons why we are playing along with the
Goliath Hive."
< Chapter 7264 “ N
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