It was a classic "luring the enemy to strike at reinforcements" maneuver—a tactic frequently employed by StarCraft II players.
For instance, a Battlecruiser might tactical-jump behind enemy lines to scatter reinforcements while they were still gathering. Clearly, this Necron commander had some micro-management skills.
Currently, the Overmind only had this particular cluster of Leviathans at his disposal. The Queen of Blades couldn't reach the location in time, and the Overmind had no intention of opening a direct wormhole to the battlefield.
It was too risky. Opening a wormhole now might result in the Necrons surrounding the Overmind himself. If some Necron noble decided to "die for the King" and ram a battleship straight into the Overmind's massive form, it would be a disaster.
Just the thought of it triggered the Overmind's PTSD, causing his mountain-like body to tremble slightly.
"I am not the original Overmind. Because of that, I will not make the same mistakes he did."
The Overmind refused to underestimate his opponent.
"Produce more Mutalisks and Corruptors. The Necron ships lack broadside firepower—swarm them!"
With the current Leviathan fleet, the Overmind calculated he had about a thirty percent chance of winning this specific engagement.
The remaining seventy percent was a courtesy he extended to the Necrons. In truth, given the current scale of the Zerg Swarm, wiping out this specific Necron fleet was entirely possible.
However, doing so would alert every Necron Dynasty in the galaxy, leading to a coordinated purge that the Overmind was not yet ready to face.
The battle erupted again, larger and more perilous than the last.
The Phaerakh sat upon her throne, silently watching her General secure her victory. Meanwhile, the Overmind personally commanded the Leviathan fleet, channeling the same intense focus he once used to micro-manage StarCraft matches.
"Don't look down on the Zerg!"
The arrogant Necrons would soon learn that these "bugs" could tear through a metal fleet even if they only had claws and teeth.
"Their numbers are vast, but what of it?"
The Necron General remained confident. The Cryptek had failed due to carelessness, but the General would not repeat that mistake.
Squadrons of Necron interceptors were launched. Although they were far fewer in number than the Zerg, the quality of the Necron craft was superior. Neither the acceleration nor the firepower of a Mutalisk could compare.
However, Mutalisks were never the primary air force of the Zerg Swarm; they functioned more as scouts and harassment units. The true backbone of the Swarm's aerial dominance had always been...
The Scourge.
"Hmm?"
Shortly after the interceptors were deployed, the General noticed several units going offline. He looked at the holographic projection of the battlefield and saw brilliant blossoms of plasma fire.
"Plasma explosions... are they those self-detonating flight organisms? They do indeed restrict the effectiveness of interceptors and point-defense systems."
Trading a Scourge for an interceptor was a guaranteed kill. Given that the two were roughly the same size, the exchange rate was a catastrophic loss for the Necron air force.
It was an absurdly poor trade.
The General calculated this quickly. The enemy's self-detonating organisms were clearly designed as low-cost expendables. He couldn't afford to trade his specialized craft for them.
Since the Necron ships did indeed lack lateral firepower, the best solution was...
Atop the pyramid structure of a Necron battleship, a light began to glow. A wave of energy pulses began to ripple outward.
Initially, the intensity of this energy wave was low. The Zerg detected it, but they didn't pay it much mind. It felt like the small spark from a lighter's igniter clicking against a finger—annoying, but harmless.
However, as time passed, the intensity and frequency of the pulses began to rise steadily.
When the energy field, which now blanketed the entire battlefield, destroyed its first unit—a Changeling that had been deployed onto a Necron ship—the Overmind finally sensed something was wrong.
The Changeling's body was disintegrated into its base atoms, vanishing almost instantly.
"Is this... a Disruption Field?"
Because the intensity started so low, the Overmind had originally mistaken it for some sort of radar to track enemy movements. Now he realized it was far more than that.
It was a technology similar to the Protoss Disruption Field. The difference was that the Necron commander was precisely testing the threshold of the energy pulses. He was trying to find the exact intensity that could destroy a Scourge without damaging his own Necron interceptors.
Once the energy shocks began killing the Scourges in large numbers, the Overmind had a sudden realization.
"Crap! He's trying to measure the structural limit of the Scourges! He's going to use that specific frequency to target them specifically!!!"
The Overmind immediately thought of Blackstone Pylons and the Pariah Nexus. Necron technology was extremely specialized in energy manipulation. A field of this scale would normally consume massive amounts of power, but if it were tuned down to the exact point where it only shattered Scourges without affecting other units, the energy cost was much lower than expected.
Sure enough, minutes later, a fresh wave of energy was released. As the pulse swept across the area, Scourges began exploding prematurely, while other units were only slightly buffeted.
An energy pulse that couldn't even kill a Zergling was now perfectly calibrated to detonate every Scourge in the vicinity.
"What kind of super-degraded, low-budget version of the Purifier Beam is this?!!!"
This left the Overmind feeling frustrated, as he lacked a direct counter-measure. The Scourges were effectively locked out of the battle. Until that generator on the battleship was destroyed, the Scourges simply couldn't survive.
A pulse every few minutes... it felt exactly like playing a StarCraft campaign mission where certain units were restricted.
The Overmind was genuinely angry now. He decided to give the Necrons a taste of their own medicine.
A dozen Leviathans suddenly glowed with intense psionic light. A second later, they performed a tactical jump, appearing directly alongside the Necron battleship that was emitting the pulses.
Given the size difference between a Leviathan and a Necron battleship, the scene looked like a small boy being surrounded by a dozen large, predatory older sisters.
"Wait? They can perform short-range tactical jumps too?!" the General exclaimed in shock.
Of course they could. Leviathans could perform both short-range blinks and long-distance interstellar travel. They were only slightly inferior to Protoss technology in terms of precision and cooldown frequency.
In an instant, over fifty massive Leviathan tentacles pierced the hull of the battleship. Even the formidable Living Metal of the Necrons couldn't withstand such a violent, close-quarters dismantling for long.
"Tear it apart!"
Seeing other Necron ships moving to assist, the Overmind immediately ordered the remaining Leviathans to intercept them.
"Luring the enemy to strike at reinforcements, eh? I can do that too!!!"