Its position at the tail end—originally part of the serpent-like body—granted it exceptional flexibility. It could adjust its firing angle at will, even while airborne.
That meant even in a dogfight, if enemies pursued from behind, it could launch fireballs backward without even turning its head.
To make the supernatural genes from the Lava Serpent compatible with this new organ, William had spent nearly six months optimizing it based on the mutated Thunder Drake’s genetic framework.
But in the end, the results had exceeded expectations.
Once he finished inspecting the Thunder Drakes, William teleported to another section of his divine domain—
the underground nest where the new generation of suicide units lay dormant.
This was a brand-new Zerg unit he’d only completed in the seventh year of his project.
And the challenges he faced while developing this unit had far exceeded what he’d encountered designing the Thunder Drakes.
Just figuring out how to integrate fire-element and flame-demon supernatural tumors while also ensuring aerial maneuverability had taken him over five years—a slow, grueling process of endless trial and error.
Inside the spacious hive chamber, the new Zerg units were arranged in concentric circles, lying motionless on the ground.
They looked nothing like the previous generation of Exploding Leapers.
Each was over two meters long, with a distinctively Zerg-like terrifying head.
Gone was the cone-shaped ramming horn—their heads now bore a pair of forward-curving, spiral demon horns.
Their torsos were streamlined and much more muscular and robust.
Large triangular bone plates covered their backs, tapering into tight, sharp spinal spines along the length of the tail—like a natural extension of their vertebrae.
Three pairs of massive wings, optimized by combining membrane wings and bat wings, extended from both sides of their spine.
Their short limbs could fold tightly against the body to minimize air resistance while flying.
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Their relatively wide claws still retained the adhesive structures of their predecessor, allowing them to cling onto surfaces before detonation.
Compared to their torsos, their abdomens were slightly more slender, wrapped in purple scales traced with web-like orange-red markings that pulsed gently with each breath.
They didn’t use the Swarm’s latest three-pair primary eye visual system, but instead retained the older configuration—one primary eye pair and three secondary.
Why? Simple—lower energy consumption.
After generations of refinement, this older visual system was still more than enough for a one-time-use combat unit.
Their overall appearance was that of a heavily built six-winged dragonfly, though William had drawn inspiration from multiple sources.
Since no supernatural gene provided natural flight ability, he had to construct their flight mechanics from scratch.
The main reference? The Venomwing Dragonfly.
He also borrowed some design ideas from serpent-like flying creatures in games from his previous life—particularly the idea of a limbless, airborne serpent with horns at the head.
The final result, once complete, left William thoroughly satisfied.
These new suicide units were dubbed “Explosion Dragonflies.”
Despite their intimidating two-meter size, William had meticulously refined their structure to make them far lighter than they looked.
Their three pairs of wide membrane wings gave them incredible flight power—cruising at speeds of up to 150 km/h, all while maintaining long-range endurance.
Of course, the tradeoff for their lightweight design was their fragility—but that didn’t matter.
They were disposable by nature. William had no intention of wasting resources on defense for something meant to explode.
This, William knew, was the absolute limit of what could be achieved using only common genes—without supernatural enhancements.
After examining these two new Zerg units, William gave a satisfied nod.
With a flicker of motion, his figure reappeared in mid-air above his divine domain, eyes closed as his divine sense swept through the land.
He began to scan and tally the number and types of Zerg currently housed in the domain.
With a casual gesture, a semi-transparent blue screen appeared before him:
Name: Swarm Overlord
Level: Demigod
Divine Flame: Not Ignited
Divine Spark: None
Divine Inscription: None
Divine Traits: Environmental Adaptation, Genetic Tuning
Divinity: 1 Point (granted upon establishing Divine Domain)
Divine Power: 0
Core Followers: Zerg Swarm
Current Brood Summary:
-
Queen: 1
-
Hatcheries:
? Leaper Hatchery ×20
? Mutated Thunder Drake Hatchery ×5
? Thunder Drake Hatchery ×3
? Explosion Dragonfly Hatchery ×1
? Total: 29 Hatcheries
Zerg Population:
-
Logistic Leapers: 400 million
-
Mutated Leapers: 500 million
-
Flying Leapers: 500 million
-
Mutated Thunder Drakes: 150 million
-
Thunder Drakes: 80 million
-
Explosion Dragonflies: 10 million
-
Hydralisks: 300 million
-
Suicide Leapers (original): 5 million
-
…
Looking at the massive swarm listed on the screen, William felt mostly satisfied—
except for the number of hatcheries, which still gave him a bit of a headache.