Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
One shot from the Dragoon and Sheyan was already shocked speechless! A normal Dragoon could only shoot a single antimatter bolt at a time, but this Dragoon hero’s cannon muzzle was like a shower spray. One spin of the cannon and six horrifying antimatter bolts shot forward, bombarding the Mutalisks so hard that they howled in agony!
…
That’s right, it turned out that the function of this non-standard strategic building was to summon powerful Protoss hero units, and it summoned twelve of them in one go!!
(TL: Hero units are unique units that usually represent plot-important characters or constructs, taking part in battle on the field. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hero_unit )
The rest of the heroes marched onto the battlefield one after another like they were being paraded. There were four Zealots among the first summoned batch of hero units, making up the highest composition, while two of them were Dragoons.
Suddenly, Sheyan noticed a white ball of light coming out of the blood red portal – an Archon had appeared!
(TL: The Archon is a Protoss heavy assault warrior formed by merging two High Templars. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Archon_(StarCraft) )
Sheyan was not unfamiliar with the Archon because Aldaris’ trump card was to summon one. The Archon was a huge monster that looked like the genie from Arabian folklore. A large mass of white light surrounded the Archon. Although the light gave off a holy feeling, the creature at the core had the face of a devil.
But Sheyan failed to see what was so special with this Archon except that his energy shield was thicker…. That was, until he released a Psionic Storm with a wave of his hand!
An Archon was formed by merging two High Templars, so logically speaking, Archons should be able to use Psionic Storms too, right? Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking. An Archon was an insanely strong monster that could hover, perform AoE attack, and attack from range, but they did not have an active ability like the Psionic Storm.
But this Archon did. And for some reason, the more Sheyan looked at him, the more familiar his actions felt. Finally, he could not help muttering to himself, “Why does this guy look so much like Aldaris?”
That’s right. Sheyan had had a lot of contacts with Aldaris. As the MT who tank in front, it was necessary for Sheyan to be familiar with his teammates’ habits, because excellent cooperation could save lives.
The actions of this Archon contained Aldaris’ personal style.
An Archon’s attacking posture was reminiscent of a Taoist’s “Thunder Palm”. The Archon would hold his hands together as he collected the destructive particles in the air and released them forward in the form of a psionic shockwave, attacking the enemies in a 5-6 square meters area. However, the attacking range was rather abysmal, only about forty to fifty meters. This range was even shorter than the acid spit of the Hydralisks.
Other Archons would fearlessly rush forward and continuously bombard the enemies with their psionic shockwaves, but this Archon hero was a lot more cowardly. After attacking once, he would immediately take a few steps back. Only after he had confirmed that he was not being targeted would he attack again, once, before he would then change his location again. He did not want the “glory” of being recognised as a formidable enemy at all.
Perhaps because this Archon was a hero unit, he had the ability to unleash the powerful Psionic Storm. But compared to his cowardly attacking style, the timing and coverage of his Psionic Storm was nothing short of impeccable.
The areas covered by his Psionic Storms were always the areas most densely packed with Mutalisks, Hydralisks and Zerglings, and they were often the spots where the Protoss defence was about to collapse. In other words, without his Psionic Storms, those areas would have inevitably fallen to the Zerg.
That gave others the impression that this Archon was constantly rescuing the Protoss side in critical situations. It truly did appear like he was making great contributions.
After witnessing these details, Sheyan was almost certain that this guy was indeed Aldaris. Sheyan wondered why he was summoned here. It probably had to do with his status as an Archon.
But of course, Sheyan was not foolish enough to try and make contact with him under the circumstances. He was sure that Aldaris would not be hostile to himself, but Aldaris was not alone on the battlefield! Would the noble Protoss race let a filthy human approach their base? Sheyan was not so naive as to think so! He did not want to be turned into dust by numerous Photon Cannons. Therefore, he could only continue to watch quietly.
***
As soon as the twelve hero units joined into fight, the Protoss’ tragic situation was instantly stabilised.
It was a widely accepted truth that the individual power of a hero unit could only play a very limited role in a large-scale warfare, but that referred to the power of an “individual hero”. When the number of heroes reached a certain amount, they had the ability to turn the tide. The heroes stood tall on the battlefield like pillars. Although four of the heroes fell in battle, the situation was finally stabilised!
At this time, another Arbiter flew out from the base.
The giant claw once again grabbed the Arbiter and devoured it. A Pylon once again exploded into a portal. Twelve more hero units arrived on the battlefield!
This new batch of hero units were not much different from the previous batch, but there were three units that caught Sheyan’s attention.
The first was a Probe. A Probe hero!
Why summon a worker unit like the Probe to an intense battlefield like this?
The bronze-coloured Probe soon told Sheyan the answer with its strength. It could construct buildings 300% faster, using 50% less resources! And unlike the worker units of other races, the Probe only needed to lay down the micro-beacon, and the building would “construct” itself. The Probe was free to leave and pursue other activities!
Everywhere this little guy passed through, it would leave a row of Photon Cannons and Shield Batteries in its wake, and these buildings would only take a third of the time to build!
After building up a series of defensive facilities, it went to mine for resources. Other worker units needed 10 seconds to fill their storage of eight units of energy crystals, but this little guy returned to the base after only a second, and it actually carried 50 units of energy crystals at a time…
Sheyan finally understood. The little guy may be a worker, the lowest ranking unit type, but to tell the truth, not only was its role not inferior to any other hero units, it was probably a lot more important! Sheyan would take him over three or four other hero units!
The second hero unit that impressed Sheyan was a Shuttle.
(TL: The Shuttle is a Protoss aerospace transport.)
The Shuttle also had no attack power, but it was surprisingly fast. This hero unit was even faster. Moreover, perhaps to make up for its lack of any attacking capabilities, its HP and defence were shockingly high, and the speed at which its energy shield recharged was unbelievably fast.
The Shuttle zagged through the front line like a flash of lightning. Because it had no offensive power and was very hard to destroy, the Zerg troops often chose other targets instead. The Shuttle was responsible for rescuing the Protoss soldiers on the verge of death. It would pull them into its transport cabin with a strong suction force.
The Protoss troops all had a tough plasma shield around them for protection. The Shuttle would send the soldiers that were on the verge of death to the rear of the defence so that their plasma shield could be completely recharged by the Shield Batteries there. They would then rejoin the battlefield.
Do not underestimate the Shuttle’s effectiveness. Sheyan noticed that most of the soldiers it saved were powerful but fragile units like High Templars and Reavers! Sheyan estimated that it had rescued twenty Reavers and nineteen High Templars in just ten minutes! These soldiers should have all died, but they had now recovered and rejoined the battle!
The final hero unit which caught Sheyan’s attention was also a unit that had not displayed any offensive capabilities.
The unit was even more cowardly than Aldaris. Aldaris had at least moved to the front line from time to time, but this unit had stayed safely in the rear from the moment he got here.
The hero was a High Templar. Perhaps because he was a hero unit, he wore a heroic looking red cape on his back despite his cowardly behaviour. Well, okay, High Templars had no close combat fighting power, so it made sense for him to stay at the back to unleash a Psionic Storm once in a while.
The problem was, he had not cast one single Psionic Storm!
He had stood next to the Gateway (Protoss building which warps in Protoss warriors from their home territories) and did only one thing, which was to use the other ability of the High Templar — Hallucination!
When a normal High Templar cast Hallucination, they would create two duplicates of a certain target. The Hallucinations do not inflict damage when they “attack”, do not have any defence, and do not have any skills. They take triple damage from all attacks and have the same amount of HP as the target.
But this High Templar hero created four Hallucinations instead of two when he used the skill! The Hallucinations only took double damage from all attacks and even had 10% of the target’s attack power!
The Hallucinations the High Templar hero produced could be considered excellent meat shields. The hero’s MP recovery was also super fast. He was as good as four Gateways just by standing there!
***
“What a bunch of weirdos…”
Sheyan could not help sighing in admiration as he watched the performances of these heroic units. The Zerg’s crazed assault was being completely contained by these heroes.
Nevertheless, there was still no end to the Zerg soldiers in sight. It seems that they were going to have a long, drawn-out battle of attrition, moving into a contest of will and determination.
Sheyan had not gone far. Although he could not turn invisible, he had the advantage of high Perceptive Sense. He buried himself in the soil on a distant hill and watched the movement of the Zerg army from the viewpoint of a bystander.
“Hmm, based on what I observed, there should be seven or eight Tanker Bugs left, and there must be newly produced ones too…Where have they disappeared to?”
