I Am The Swarm-Chapter 743: Encounter

Sarah’s remaining energy was rapidly depleting. Based on the information detected by her sonar system, she still had nearly a hundred meters to go before breaking through this gel-soil layer. Even without interference from the Ji soldiers, Sarah’s energy reserves wouldn’t be enough to sustain her Negative Energy Shield for that distance.

Sarah realized continuing downward was a dead end. She needed to change tactics. The path below had been deliberately reinforced by the Ji race, but the surrounding areas were only partially reinforced, likely no more than fifty meters thick. If she was lucky enough to find an unsealed passage, she had a good chance of escaping this reinforced gel-soil layer.

Once out of here, all she needed to do was continue stalling and avoid being trapped. Eventually, the soil layer she was in would collapse into the depths below.

With her plan set, Sarah immediately shifted tactics. As she fell, her echolocation system activated at full power. Suddenly, the Negative Energy Shield beneath her feet disappeared, and solid ground met her feet, halting her descent.

Though the shield below her vanished, her energy output surged instead. The Negative Energy Shield reappeared, but this time in front of her.

The layers of soil it touched instantly vanished. Sarah pushed off with her legs and charged forward against the shield. The larger contact area caused her energy reserves to drain like air escaping from a punctured balloon.

But now wasn’t the time to conserve energy. When Sarah had pushed the shield forward ten meters and her energy reserves dropped below thirty percent, the obstruction ahead suddenly cleared—she had broken into a tunnel.

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In front of her stood a K2N9 unit and two Ji squads. Though she couldn’t see their faces behind their masks, she imagined they must have looked utterly astonished.

Unfortunately, Sarah miscalculated. Her skyrocketing energy output and the noise of her passage through the soil had already been detected by the Ji race. Thus, as soon as she changed direction, Selina sent a warning to the Ji soldiers.

However, Sarah’s speed was extraordinary. Her insectoid body, enhanced by multiple superior genes, was akin to a superhuman in comparison to naturally evolved lifeforms. Though the Ji soldiers received the warning, their physical reactions lagged far behind.

But their sluggishness didn’t apply to everyone—or rather, everything. Among these two squads were four mechanical soldiers. The artificial intelligence controlling them made preparations just 0.00001 seconds after receiving the information.

Standing three meters tall, the mechanical soldiers’ Vulcan cannons were already primed by the time Sarah burst through the soil. This outdated weapon had long been retired from the Ji race’s arsenal, but due to the unique nature of this mission, high-damage, high-penetration energy weapons couldn’t be used for fear of harming the Swarm Empress. Thus, these old kinetic weapons were given a rare opportunity to shine again.

The Vulcan cannons spun wildly, filling the narrow tunnel with smoke and the acrid smell of gunpowder—an adrenaline-like scent that excited those who smelled it.

The downside of these old kinetic weapons was their reliance on physical ammunition, which required additional weight. Moreover, with the Vulcan cannon’s extremely high rate of fire, even more ammunition was needed to unleash its full potential.

“Pull the trigger for one second, reload for ten”—this phrase perfectly described the Vulcan cannon. Although it had long been phased out by the Ji race, even back then, their technology had increased its firing rate to over two hundred thousand rounds per minute.

Such a high rate of fire meant that even though each mechanical soldier carried a large external ammunition box on its back, they could only sustain firing for thirty seconds.

But that was enough.

While these outdated kinetic weapons couldn’t harm Sarah in her armored state, the metal storm created by the ultra-high rate of fire acted like a solid wall, crashing toward her.

Under Selina’s computational assistance, the four Vulcan cannons locked down every possible evasion route, forcing Sarah to endure the barrage head-on.

The energetic metal storm slammed Sarah back into the soil layer she had just emerged from. Mud, stones, and sand flew everywhere, and some J-Z-901 took the opportunity to stick to her body. In the blink of an eye, Sarah’s frame had visibly expanded, encased in a thick layer of mud armor, dotted with metal bullet fragments.

Sarah instantly calculated that this situation was untenable. Even if the metal storm could only last thirty seconds, being pinned down for that duration would give the Ji forces enough time to surround her again.

Thus, the Negative Energy Shield reappeared, flashing as it erased the encasing mud, stones, and sand. Though the Negative Energy Shield could only defend a maximum 120-degree arc, Sarah achieved her current effect by toggling it on and off across different parts of her body. However, this not only required immense computational power but also a more robust energy output system to handle the repeated energy surges.

This advanced application of the shield was currently unique to Sarah. Even the original configuration of this system in the Red Fang Breakers couldn’t perform such operations due to insufficient energy cycling system’s strength.

After clearing the encumbrance from her body, Sarah reactivated the Negative Energy Shield in front of her and charged toward the Ji forces through the metal storm. Though it seemed like a long explanation, in reality, from Sarah’s appearance in the tunnel, to being repelled, and then launching another charge, less than two seconds had passed. So brief was this interval that some Ji soldiers hadn’t even closed their mouths in astonishment.

Sarah’s figure flashed past, and the K2N9 blocking the way shattered into several pieces. Sarah grabbed the largest fragment and held it in front of her as she continued charging forward.

In that instant alone, the Negative Energy Shield had dissolved tens of thousands of metal bullets along the way, plus cutting through the K2N9. Sarah’s energy reserves had dropped below twenty percent, and she couldn’t afford to waste a single bit more.

Though the K2N9 was merely an auxiliary device and hadn’t seen an upgrade in tens of thousands of years, it was still occasionally useful for tasks like digging tunnels, so it remained in the Ji race’s arsenal.

Surprisingly, the K2N9’s wreckage proved to be quite sturdy—it was even tougher than the Vulcan cannon’s bullets. Though it couldn’t completely neutralize the bullets’ kinetic energy like the Negative Energy Shield, as a shield, it was adequate.

Even with a shield, however, relying solely on the exoskeletal strength provided by her bio-armor, Sarah still couldn’t advance against the barrage. Therefore, despite her energy reserves dropping below the twenty-percent warning line, she had no choice but to activate the electromagnetic acceleration system.

Fortunately, these abilities were a level lower than her built-in Dark Energy Furnace, making them bearable.