I Am The Swarm-Chapter 706: The Fall

he Vulturehawk had climbed rapidly, pulling Sarah and Tella to a height of several hundred meters in just a short time. “That was reckless. Will the Swarm Empress die from the fall?”

“Probably not. We’ve tested the Swarm’s export version of the bio-armor. It has strong shock-absorbing capabilities and can mitigate most of the impact for the host.”

“But those tests weren’t conducted from such a height.”

“Relax, that was just the export version. The Swarm Empress undoubtedly has the best gear. A fall from this height shouldn’t kill her—at worst, she’ll be seriously injured.”

“What if you factor in the weight of that giant bird? Based on the hit location, the Swarm Empress is beneath the bird.”

“…”

As the Vulturehawk plummeted, the Ji found themselves the most concerned about Sarah’s safety, silently praying that the bird would hold on a little longer and at least ensure its Empress landed safely.

As if hearing the Ji’s prayers, the Vulturehawk struggled to spread its wings. With a wingspan of twenty meters, though slightly smaller than the Storm God’s, it still cast an imposing shadow.

The Vulturehawk could no longer flap its wings, but the spread wings provided significant drag, transforming its freefall into a glide toward the ground.

From several hundred meters up, the height was both significant and not. By the time the Vulturehawk adjusted its posture, it was less than two hundred meters from the ground.

Despite its best efforts, the descent remained rapid. When it was just fifty meters above the ground, Tella grabbed Sarah with one hand and, with a firm pull on the Vulturehawk’s feathers, flipped onto its back.

Though still optically invisible, Sarah’s markers allowed the Ji to track her movement. Seeing that she had climbed onto the Vulturehawk’s back, many Ji silently cheered.

With a thunderous crash, dust billowed into the air as the Vulturehawk made a hard landing. After a few twitches, it lay still. Tella, holding Sarah, had jumped off when the bird was five meters above the ground. The powerful exoskeleton allowed her to absorb the impact with a half-crouch upon landing.

After quickly orienting herself, Tella was about to move when a fine dust suddenly rained down from above. The dust, of unknown composition, disrupted the nanoscale layer of their exoskeletons. Flickers of light revealed their forms as their invisibility failed.

The straw on either side was flattened by wind pressure, revealing the shape of something landing nearby. Sarah and Tella knew this stealth technology wasn’t the Swarm’s. Given the circumstances, there was only one possibility: a Ji stealth ship.

They didn’t wait passively. Though their invisibility was compromised, the Swarm had more than just stealth tech. Just as Tella was about to pick up Sarah, the latter jumped onto Tella’s back and commanded, “Go! They won’t dare shoot!”

Without hesitation, Tella obeyed. The Empress’s orders were second only to the Overlord’s. She carried Sarah, who weighed over two hundred pounds, as if she were weightless, sprinting forward.

The Ji special forces commander, who had just disembarked from the ship, sneered at the sight. He coldly ordered his troops to open fire. Their target was indeed Sarah, and they needed her alive, but that didn’t mean their weapons had to be lethal. With the Ji’s capabilities, they had plenty of non-lethal methods to subdue her. The process might be painful, but she would survive.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Gunfire echoed incessantly. Though Tella was fast, she was no match for the Ji soldiers’ AI-assisted targeting.

A special bullet, crafted using primitive techniques, struck Sarah on Tella’s back. The bullet’s metal tip had some penetrative power, but based on the Ji’s previous tests, it couldn’t breach the exoskeleton’s defenses.

The high-speed impact caused Tella and Sarah to stagger. The bullet, of poor quality, shattered upon impact, releasing a strange white gas. The gas contained potent paralyzing agents and emitted extreme cold.

The paralyzing agents were irrelevant; the exoskeleton provided a sealed environment, allowing the host to survive even in space. The gas couldn’t penetrate. However, the intense cold was unbearable. While the exoskeleton could withstand the vacuum of space and extreme cold, the Ji had somehow enhanced the freezing effect, possibly leveraging the planet’s moisture. A visible layer of frost formed on the exoskeleton.

Though the frost didn’t breach the armor, it significantly slowed Tella’s movements. Each step required breaking through the ice, draining her stamina. Additionally, the freezing gas seemed to contain other unknown components, softening the exoskeleton. Subsequent bullets left small dents and even chipped off bits of the armor.

Fortunately, Sarah absorbed most of the firepower. Though the added weight from the ice was a minor burden, it was negligible for Tella.

“Switch ammunition!” Facing the increasingly distant Swarm Empress, the Ji team remained calm.

“Sir, this might harm the Swarm Empress.”

“Who cares? As long as she doesn’t die on the spot, we can save her! The orders only say she must be alive, not how alive. Execute the command!”

“Yes, sir!”

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Red thermal beams, trailing dazzling flames, streaked toward Sarah at several times the speed of the freezing bullets, striking her accurately.

The combined effects of the two types of bullets, along with thermal expansion and contraction, severely damaged Sarah’s exoskeleton, leaving multiple cracks.

“The Swarm Empress’s gear is definitely top-tier!” the Ji special forces commander cursed under his breath. Based on tests of the Swarm’s export version of the armor, it shouldn’t withstand such combined attacks. Yet even after increasing the intensity, he had only managed to crack the Empress’s armor.

“Add some spice!”

“Boom! Boom!” Two grenades launched, flying hundreds of meters to land precisely in front of Tella. The ensuing explosion sent shockwaves, debris, and grass roots hurtling toward her.

While the exoskeleton could absorb the physical damage, it couldn’t fully negate the shockwaves. The two were flung over ten meters, crashing heavily to the ground.