chapter 58 Phoebe's crew vs lesser hive queen army (work in progress)

Phoebe was sitting on the captain's chair, on the Quilin v, and solemnly looking at the 3 big meteor-shaped ships, and just by looking at them everyone on the crew knew what that shape meant, those were hive ships

at the same time Sophia was already smiling evilly the moment she recognized their origin, ready to lay waste on them but at the same time doing her best to hide her aura

moments later a request for communication arrived from the hive ship at the center and Phoebe said "on the main screen"

on the other side of the holographic screen there was a horrific giant spider with a woman's face but this time it wasn't just a princess it was a seventh-stage lesser queen and she was already making her demands "surrender, I don't like to waste food, if you surrender obediently and give me the princess egg, I will ensure you a swift death"

Daniel was spectating and while the spidercrab boss was talking all he could think about was "this spidercrab looks much stronger than the one that attacked me, she must be even more delicious"

the lesser hive queen who had just finished making her demands in a very supercilious manner suddenly felt like a piece of meat on the chopping block, it was a primordial instinct telling her that a vicious predator found her and was ready to eat her

of course, even if he wanted to, Daniel didn't have the ability to fight a figure of such stature, all his maru's and cloudtrain fighters would be destroyed with a sideways glance by a foe such as this one

but at the same time, the freakish abilities Daniel had because of the mutation were still able to make the old and powerful spidercrab shiver, like it managed to trick for a moment sister chaos into thinking that Daniel was an old monster

of course, the Quilin v and everyone on it weren't in any real danger from the start, because Sophia was present and the abyss from the seventh to the ninth stage was unfathomable

this was the golden opportunity Phoebe was waiting for, the hive princess egg gave her crew an opportunity to train against a large number of live enemies in a real situation without the threat of annihilation thanks to Sophia's presence

being a good battle maniac, Phoebe couldn't ask for more than this, in the end, a soldier worth could only be proven on the battlefield, any simulation had its own limit, even if a few of the soldiers fighting will inevitably lose their life

it didn't matter how powerful Sophia was, she couldn't guarantee everyone's safety once they were out of the Quilin v and into the battlefield, the best she could do was protect the ship and consequently everyone in it

Phoebe looked at the now very uncomfortable minor hive queen that was struggling to keep her poker face and said "well see what you're capable of, cut communication"

commander perry immediately cut the communication and phoebe said "red alert, activate defensive formation"

commander perry immediately talked in the ship's public address system "red alert, red alert, all personnel ready for battle" then she turned toward Phoebe and said "the defensive formation has been activated"

Phoebe said "good, let's see what she does"

the lesser hive queen was a seventh-stage expert who immediately used the usual hive technique that consisted in swarming the enemies with numbers

of course, she wasn't as green as the poor princess Daniel defeated, in fact, some bigger male-faced spidercrabs were equally distanced in the cloud formed by the hive army, ready to defend the cannon fodder from powerful A.O.E attacks

with someone as experienced as this minor queen, Daniel's previous tactics were nothing more than a fart, but this time the one giving orders wasn't Daniel

Phoebe started talking in the public address system and said "prepare for impact, mix light and dark, make it solid"

this was a way to inform her crew of the tactic they will be using, preparing for impact meant that rogues and tanks should take the lead

mix light and dark meant that the people who had really powerful moves should hide while letting the weaker ones attract attention

make it solid meant to keep a tight formation so that the enemies couldn't use their high cannon fodder numbers to divide and conquer

this was just the start, from the Quilin v a tight cloud of people came out, the ones in the lead were much tougher looking than the ones in the back forming a clear division, basically, no one was protecting the back of the army apart from the Quilin v but that was more than enough

immediately the two armies were face to face ready to move forward at any time

the lesser hive queen called again, but Phoebe ignored her and said "advance"

immediately the cloud of people started moving while keeping close to each other

many energy shields appeared, made of different elements covering the advancing troops, while hive creatures were already firing different abilities acids, poisons, water, and many other element's rays

if someone didn't know what was going on they might have been amazed by the beauty of the current colorful scenario

soon the two armies were close enough for the first bouts of close-quarter combat, while the shields were still holding on strongly and few had died on either side

at this moment Phoebe shouted "now"

the strong man hiding in the dark immediately attacked the male-faced spiders in an attempt to assassinate them

at the same time from the meteor ship, a clicking sound reverberated through the battlefield and the cannon fodder immediately sacrificed themselves by jumping in front of the strong abilities

alas, most of them were too late, the lesser hive queen had no idea about who she was dealing with because the Sun federation warships were made to look identical from the outside with the purpose of hiding which ship it was to the enemy and avoid targeting

the hive army that had lost most of its protectors was immediately attacked on a large scale by firestorms and thunder tornadoes that merged into a terrifying A.O.E attack dealing high casualties to the hive

sadly if there was something the hive had, was cannon fodder, from the ship a new wave of it came out, this group was less numerous, but also much stronger, these were obviously soldiers the lesser hive queen was training to join the elites

as they joined the scale tipped again, Phoebe's troops fell into a defensive position again, but the number of soldiers she lost was still less than 10

Daniel who was still spectating finally understood something, if someone as amazing and accomplished as Phoebe had lost 10 people already, the reason why the people on verulus weren't living as tight as sardines was that many died every day

with all those people dying, it didn't matter if some elites lived hundreds of thousands of years as they were very few and far in between, leaving space and resources for new elites to raise

this was the first time Daniel had a big revelation about what happened around him and unknowingly to him his soul energy became more pure and powerful than before

a normal person would be thrilled if such a rare thing happened to them, but as usual, Daniel ignored it completely like every cultivation-related thing

as the battle went on Daniel became even more convinced of his newfound revelation, as the hive army that had regained the upper hand was not able to hold it anymore, now that both the soldier in the light and those hidden in the dark were attacking together

soon the lesser hive queen could smell the stench of death and was prepared to flee but the moment she tried a whitish-blue fire wave swept all three ships freezing everything to death, of course, Sophia had already verified that there were no prisoners inside, only hive creature

when Daniel saw this a shiver went down his back, he had no idea his grandmother was that powerful, of course, he didn't forget to send her a message and ask for the strong spidercrab corpse, to which Sophia just responded "ok, I'll take it to you later" without thinking much, as it had no value once it was dead for the Sun federation

the medical personnel immediately joined the soldiers on the battlefield and started treating their wounds and bringing them back, while Phoebe received the action report from commander perry "we have lost 16 soldiers and we have 142 injured the rest just need some rest"

Phoebe nodded and said "these numbers are not bad, but some of the newbies were still not positioned perfectly, or these numbers would've been lower, make an extra hour drill every day focusing on positioning"

commander Perry said "will do, any other notes?"

Phoebe shook her head and said "no, let them rest and recover for now, if we are lucky the bait will attract some again"

normal hive eggs would not attract anyone even if they could feel their presence, but the princess egg was very valuable to every hive creature, it continuously broadcasted a biological signal that every female hive creature could feel in a certain range

of course with Sophia present Phoebe didn't have to worry, the major queens like Blikazeen had been in hiding for thousands of years, and normal queens weren't strong enough to trouble Sophia

they wouldn't come out for an unhatched princess egg, making Sophia a tyrant in the hive territory as long as she didn't go too far

soon the travel resumed, and Sophia brought the lesser hive queen corpse to Daniel who butchered her after taking some samples and analyzing the corpse, but just like the others it was safe to consume and pelletize, he didn't seem to have any problems with treating an intelligent creature as food

Sophia couldn't resist anymore and asked Daniel "are you ok with eating them?"

Daniel said "why shouldn't I be ok?"

Sophia responded "they ate some of our people"

Daniel responded "the same can be said of that marlin, that grandpa cooked for us last year, he also ate some sun federation citizens why should this be different, they're both seafood"

Sophia thought for a moment then nodded and said "what you're saying makes sense, but at the same time I don't like the idea, it's probably just my personal issues with the hive talking"

Daniel said "if you don't like it I can throw them away, or use them as fish pellets but in my eyes, one was a marlin the other is a crab, as I said they're both seafood"

Sophia said "it's ok, if you want them, keep them, but pay attention it will be difficult to farm them like cattle" before turning around and exiting

he didn't really understand what the problem was but for the moment the eggs still had to hatch so it was a problem for the future Daniel

for now, Daniel happily went back to work on the cloaking shield that was really slowly taking shape, in theoretical form, there was a lot to do before coming close to a complete blueprint