While a single Lurker's output couldn't kill a Bloodthirster on the spot, their strength lay in their extreme range. They were deployed behind the Spine Crawlers, using overlapping lines of fire to inflict lethal wounds on the Greater Daemons.
Imagine walking down a path and having your feet and heels skewered by spikes as thick as two fingers.
The mere thought brought pain, and the Bloodthirsters felt it too. Unable to find their hidden attackers, they took their rage out on the wall of Ultralisks in front of them.
But against the "fortress wall" of Ultralisks and the "Earth-and-Sky Spike" formation of Lurkers and Spine Crawlers, the Bloodthirsters felt only frustration and stifled rage. This wasn't the glorious slaughter they craved.
Some Bloodthirsters were swarmed and gored to death by the combined efforts of the Ultralisks and defensive structures. Although the Overmind could no longer fully suppress the tide of Khornate reinforcements coming through the portal, the daemons found it impossible to break through the Swarm's encirclement.
"Send in a few Monarchs to anchor the line."
Before long, Monarchs—standing a full head taller than standard Ultralisks—arrived on the battlefield. Though few in number, their combat stats were so high that Bloodthirsters had to crane their necks just to look them in the eye.
"Oh, hell!"
A Monarch's Monarch Blades snapped shut, shearing a Bloodthirster clean in half.
Pure stats translated into pure lethality. The Khornate forces needed multiple Titan-class units just to contend with a single Monarch. Khornate Chaos Titans in the rear poured fire onto the Monarchs' thick skull plating, but the weaponry that could shatter cities failed to breach the bone.
After all, the Monarch was a unit designed to headbutt its way through Terran and Protoss fortifications.
"These bugs are too durable!"
"So what?! My axe can kill any enemy!"
The Bloodthirster who shouted those words was intercepted by two charging Ultralisks in the next second, his body sliced apart by monomolecular blades.
His axe could indeed kill any enemy, but the Ultralisks' blades could also carve through any Titan-class unit. Even the Chaos Titans were not immune. One Khornate Warlord-class Titan was hoisted up by a Monarch and sliced in two mid-air.
However, the Swarm was also paying a price. Over three hundred Ultralisks had fallen in this short span, and even the rarer Tyrannozors and Monarchs suffered losses. Had the Creep not been there to reclaim the biomass, the Zerg would be operating at a loss.
But they fought on regardless. The Overmind intended to establish a terrifying reputation within the Warp, ensuring these daemons would never forget the horror of the Swarm.
Then, the Swarm's "spokesperson" made her entrance.
Theoretically, someone of the Queen of Blades' size shouldn't be able to participate in a battle of Titan-class entities. Yet, she descended from the sky wreathed in psionic energy powerful enough to level a Titan. Her landing sent out a shockwave that knocked back the Bloodthirsters, creating a death zone several hundred meters wide where nothing remained standing.
"Alright, trash."
The Queen of Blades looked at the Bloodthirsters, her yellow pupils meeting their demonic stares with nothing but disdain and arrogance.
"Round two begins."
With her arrival, the Hive Mind connection was bolstered. More importantly, her psionic power was so immense it shocked even the Greater Daemons.
"Who is she?"
"I've never seen her, but her power feels like those point-eared ones."
Because this Queen of Blades contained Eldar genetic sequences, the daemons' first impression was that of a corrupted Eldar. In reality, she was entirely Zerg, possessing only a faint shadow of her genetic precursors.
"What's wrong? Afraid? Since when did the Blood God's lapdogs lose their nerve?"
Her sharp tongue remained consistent, and a single sentence stripped the cautious Bloodthirsters of their reason.
"Kill her!"
"I'll tear her apart and feed her to the hounds!"
The Bloodthirsters charged again. As the second round commenced, the Queen of Blades faced four Greater Daemons alone.
Had they been Lords of Change, she might have been more wary; the combined Warp sorcery of Tzeentchian daemons was notoriously troublesome.
But four Bloodthirsters who only knew how to swing axes?
It was like walking dogs. If she let a Bloodthirster touch her even once, she might as well return to the spawning pool to be remade.
She moved with a fluid grace more rapid than a Keeper of Secrets. The coordinated attacks of the Bloodthirsters consistently missed her by a hair's breadth, as if trying to catch a floating piece of paper with a heavy fist.
The Queen of Blades, utilizing both psionic energy and physical explosiveness, repelled or wounded a daemon with every counterattack. If not for their relentless pressure preventing her from charging a full psionic blast, she likely would have shattered their heads in a single strike.
Even so, she found an opening. Her back-wings pierced deep into a Bloodthirster's skull, and with a surge of strength, she tore the daemon's head in two.
Such raw brutality seemed completely at odds with her slender frame.
"One."
She didn't forget to keep count.
This battle would continue for a while, but unlike the previous fight in the Tiamat system, it wouldn't drag on indefinitely.
The planet was now in motion.
Though the initial acceleration was slow, once the inertia was overcome, the world began to pick up speed. Under the unstable and twisted laws of the Warp, the planet's mass wasn't as prohibitive as one might imagine.
With a little more time, the Overmind would drag the planet near the wormhole. At that point, the gravitational pull of the wormhole would be enough to suck the world inside.
"Time is never on your side, Khorne."
The Overmind intended to prove he could not only sit at the table but flip it as well. Eight hundred and eighty-eight Bloodthirsters? Not enough.
Results were never the most enjoyable part; the process was. Now, it was time for micro-management.
Thanks to the presence of the Queen of Blades, the Hive Mind was reinforced, allowing the Overmind to exert fine control once more.
The Khornate daemons soon noticed clouds of yellow and green mist drifting across the battlefield. These mists weren't toxic, but they severely crippled Khornate long-range fire. The ferocious cannons fell silent.
Even more absurdly, three tentacle-like appendages shot out from the distance, latching onto a Khornate Chaos Titan.
Under the disbelieving gaze of the Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priests, the Titan was physically yanked off the ground and dragged into the heart of the Swarm, where several Ultralisks tore it into scrap metal.
"Vipers and Defilers with micro-management... they are the gods of large-scale battlefields!"
The overwhelming power of the Zerg Swarm left the Khornate daemons with almost no way to fight back.