BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Chapter 1005: The Outpost (2)

"That's good, Master. But I'm afraid there might be some problems. As I said, the news is not all good."

Erik looked up, his brow furrowing. "Go on, Commander. What's the troubling news?"

The clone hesitated for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. There was a lot to say, to be honest, but it wasn't like he had that much time available to explain the situation. The best he could do was to summarize it as best as possible.

"Blackguards have reinforced the enemy. I think you should know this, sir."

"I am, but without knowing the situation here, I can't make plans or decide on anything." "All right, so explain the situation, then. Why are the blackguards so troubling?"

"Yes, sir. The point is that these guys are making the situation on the front lines increasingly difficult because of these damned dual wielders. Somehow, they got a tremendous boost in power, as if they got a dozen neural links in a short amount of time. Now, we found a massive increase in their numbers in the last two weeks."

Erik's eyes narrowed." So the problem is we might end up facing them? Where?"

Until they were on the side of the country which Frant was controlling, to do that was possible. After all, there weren't enemy humans. The Luminara Serpentis Erik sprouted around was making the thaids stay away from them, so the trip had been relatively calm. But from here on, Erik had to keep Amber, Emily and Mira into account. The Chimaeric Demons were there to protect them, but things might happen at any time, so Erik wanted to avoid too difficult situations, and this was one of them.

Zephyr-71-E pointed to a section of the map, his finger tracing a line of red marks. "Around this area, sir."

Erik looked at the map for a couple of seconds. "Sir, with all due respect, I don't think Amber and the others will be strong enough to fight if that happens. The blackguards basically found a way to get past the 54 neural links mark without having to rely on techniques like the others, and they have multiple brain crystal powers."

The clone paused. "All of us," he said, referring to the Chimaeric Demons, "have your best training technique, but we are in a unique situation than our enemies because it is much harder for us to make neural links, despite the technique."

"I know the situation might look dangerous, but me, June, and three of your brothers are with them. Nothing will happen."

"I know, sir. But I must tell you this, even we are having trouble. Individually, the blackguards are not stronger than us. On the opposite, we are much stronger. The problem is that they also have much better equipment. We have multiple brain crystal powers naturally, but aside from the many dual wielders, they also have brain crystal weapons. Etrium's involvement made it so that the troops got equipped with the finest weapons on the market. It is not infrequent to meet people with 5, even 6 brain crystal powers coming from their equipment."

Erik nodded. "I see. I expected this, but I didn't think the blackguards would have left the south. Honestly, this should have happened after I reached Hin. How is this affecting this sector?"

The commander's expression grew even more serious. "The battles have grown more intense, Master. Casualties on our sides had been inevitable, despite the number of healers on the battlefield."

At that, Erik's face fell. He knew his clones had started dying. The scale of the battles they were in was too big for stray shot not getting them, and that was without considering when they actually lost.

"Besides, our forces are being stretched thin given how few we are compared to them." Erik sat back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the map. "Thank you for the report, Commander, but don't worry, I think we might be able to get past without problems."

Zephyr-71-E bowed his head. "Yes, master..." The clone lingered a couple of seconds too long. It was clear there was much more he wanted to say.

"Speak."

"Yes, sir. There is something I haven't said yet."

"You are making me worry, commander."

"Sorry, Master. It's just that... It's just that the situation is becoming worse from the Thaid front as well."

Erik leaned forward, his brow furrowed with concern. "What do you mean? What's happening with the Thaids?"

Zephyr-71-E pointed to the Eldraith Mountain Range on the map. "Something big must have happened in the mountains, sir. We've seen a significant increase in the number of Thaids coming down to the plains, and they're not the usual types we've encountered before, even without considering a migration was already occurring almost a year ago."

Erik's eyes narrowed, a sense of unease settling in his gut. "That's problematic."

"Yes, sir. They're even stronger than the Thaids that came from the Eldraith mountain range for the past year. Much stronger, master. The rarity of the Thaids we're encountering is also increasing at an alarming rate."

Erik sat back in his chair. It was possible that more Thaids from the Mur continent came to Mannard. They were far more powerful than those found here.

If another beast like the cerulean bird, the one that had killed the black wyvern, came here, that would explain the current situation.

"Commander, I need you to be less vague."

Zephyr-71-E's expression was grim. "The Chimaeric Demons are struggling, sir. These creatures are approaching what we estimate to be the 250-strength point mark, with some even exceeding that. It's making it increasingly difficult for our forces to hold the line. We had to clear the area behind us several times, just to keep the front line intact. That was why there weren't many thaids on the way here, sir, but it had not been easy."

"What about the blackguards? How are they doing against them?"

"They're having problems too, Master, but their sheer numbers give them an advantage. They can take down these Thaids more easily than we can, even if they suffer heavy casualties in the

process."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Erik nodded, his expression thoughtful.

"Besides, sir, even though we are stronger than them in physical terms and have multiple brain crystal powers, their equipment is leveling the playing field."

"Etrium again, uh...?"

Zephyr-71-E nodded. "Exactly, sir."

Erik stood. "Commander, I'm going to be disrupting Hin's supply lines on my way to Hin. This might help you. But if there's anything I can do to help while I'm out there, let me

know."

The commander's eyes lit up. "Actually, Master, there might be something. Our intelligence suggests that Etrium is transporting new batches of weapons and armor to this area. If you could locate these shipments and share the coordinates with us, we could send a team to retrieve them. There might also be manuals and schematics that we could use to improve our

own equipment."

Erik smiled. "Consider it done, Commander. I will find these shipments."

The clone bowed his head. "Thank you, Master."