While the Golden Armada was fighting in space, Artanis was leading the attack on the queen of blades.

A baneling crashed into Artanis’ shield. The corrosive acid was instantly evaporated by the plasma shield. Artanis checked the remaining integrity of the shield. It was at 73%. He was just down here for a few minutes, and his specialized shield was already half destroyed. The standard shields of his fighters were mostly depleted. A few even broke.

The hybrids he bought with him were in a slightly better situation, but they were taking damage as well. To a reaver, ten spines might be fine, but how about a hundred? A thousand?

The zerg just kept on coming. His 2000 men were making their way toward the last seen location of Kerrigan, but they were met with what could only be described as a lot of resistance. Banelings rolled in on the creep. Zerglings sacrificed themselves to buy other members of the swarm a tiny opportunity to attack. Roaches smashed into the templar rank and were melted by the phase disruptors of immortals and dragoons. Hydralisks were the main source of dps.

An elite zealot beside Artanis groaned as a spine penetrated his already weakened shield. The next second three more spines flew toward him. The zealot was experienced. Jumping into the air with the help of his psi energy, he dodged all three spines, but before the proud look on his face could disappear, he sensed something above him. Before he could react, a glave worm went cut its way through his body. The anti fighter projectile had no trouble taking out the armor of a zealot. The warrior faded into thin air.

Artanis growled and formed a psionic blast and the mutalisks in the air. The psi wave teared open the zerg flyer.

The protoss strike team was decreasing in size every second. For every inch they advanced several warriors would fall. Sure, for every Daelaam killed ten or more zerg fell, but the zerg could afford to trade. They had continuous reinforcements, but the Daelaam were on a very tight schedule.

“Hierarch.” The high templar in command of the defenses before Artanis arrived came to his leader. “We need to break through quickly.” Another high templar walked up and joined his brother.

Artanis realized what the high templar was saying. He signed. He didn’t want to do this, but he had no choice. “You will be remembered.”

The two templars moved toward each other. Their physical forms blurred, and their body was transformed into pure psionic energy. When the light cleared, the two had became one.

“The merging is complete!” The archon’s deep voice ringed through the battlefield, and every protoss knew two of the most noble warriors had gave up their lives for their cause.

Artanis closed his eyes in slight pain. Archons were extremely powerful, but there was a reason the Daelaam didn’t just overwhelm their enemies with a couple hundred archons. Archon merging could only be done by high templars of a certain level of psionic power. The archon currently in the field, for example, was formed by the two best high templars in the strike team. When the archons burn out, the two high templars would be lost forever.

Therefore he must use the opportunity the templars bought him with their lives to make his move.

“Follow me, brothers!” Artanis turned around and charged toward where the queens of blades should be. His units disengaged with their foes and followed him, but not the archon. The archon turned around and faced the zerg forces, who were swarming up and trying to stall the protoss forces as long as they could.

Within the zerg cave, Jean frowned at the presence of the archon. She had never seen an archon before, but she could sense the power radiating from the red ball of energy. It was as strong as, if not stronger, than a hybrid destroyer.

This changed things.

Jean opened up a comm to Kerrigan. Previously she didn’t find the need to warn Kerrigan because this team would never reach the queen, but the archon changed her mind. “My queen, a group of protoss units is approaching your location. There are hybrids among them, and they are led by the protoss hierarch, Artanis. I suggest you retreat.” She was saying it to be safe. There was no point in putting Kerrigan in risk.

Kerrigan frowned as she pulled her wings out of a crushed immortal. “Retreat? I thought we are winning.”

“We are.” Jean replied. “But you will be at risk if you remain in your current location. If you fall back to a safe position, the swarm units on Char can eventually overwhelm the intruders.”

Kerrigan smirked confidently. “Don’t worry about me. I have enough units to crush the protoss. You just need to command the overall battle.”

“Very well.” Jean kept her mouth shut. She didn’t care about Kerrigan to warn her more than once.

In the field, the archon stood tall against a swarm of zerg.

The swarm immediately surrounded the archon. Zergling claws. Roach salivas. Hydralisk spines. Mutalisk glave worms. Baneling explosions. Everything smashed into the archon.

The archon didn’t yield. He was formed by the psionic energy of two high templars, and every second he was present he was burning away these psi energy. Without great spending came great power, and the archon was a beast in battle. He was perhaps even stronger than two high templars.

All the damages hit the plasma shield of the archon and were just gone. The shield barely shook from the hundreds of damages.

The archon growled in rage. His arms reached out, and a chain of psionic shockwave appeared. He threw the shockwave into the zerg crowd.

As soon as making contact with the attack, the zerg organic tissues were ripped apart. The rapid degeneration and the thermal energy caused by the attack was insanely effective against biological units. Coincidentally, most of the zerg were biological.

Zerglings were reduced to a pile of rotting flesh. Banelings exploded inside the zerg flank, causing secondary damage to their comrades. Roaches stood a bit longer, but they were heavily wounded as well. They wouldn’t die from the wounds, but they were too hurt to continue fighting. Hydralisks burned.

When the smoke cleared, the area before the archon was cleared.

“Impressive.” Jean commented before turning her attention away from the archon. The archon was powerful and, with proper support, might even change the tide of a battle, but this particular one was surrounded. Without reinforcements and aid, he would eventually perish at the endless zerg. The strength of one was limited at the face of an army. Plus, even if the zerg backed off, the archon would burn out anyways.

Jean turned the attention to the queen of blades. The protoss strike team was cutting its way through the swarm. Small groups of obstacles were cleared by zealots, and large groups of zerg were met with psionic storms. Even if the zerg was too much to be killed all at once, a small group of protoss would leave the main party and hold the swarm back. It was their sacrifice that allowed the remaining strike team to get closer and closer to Kerrigan.

Checking the psionic network, Jean realized Kerrigan had already summoned a large number of zerg units to her side. The queen of blades was confident, but she wasn’t stupid. She had enough forces with her to take down the protoss.

Everything was under control.