If Selendis had the necessary vocabulary she would’ve called Jean a female dog. Jean couldn’t escape anyways. Why would she bother a pointless fight? What was even worse was the situation the Daelaam was in. They had enough firepower to blast Jean to a thousand pieces, but they couldn’t. They needed Jean alive, and Jean was using that as a leverage.

Well, if they couldn’t go for the kill, they would need to capture Jean. This was not exactly the easiest task, considering Jean just killed a blood hunter with her bare hands.

Nonetheless, this was a necessary task.

Selendis silently ordered an attack. Two dozen zealots and the three blood hunters left surrounded Jean. The plan was simple. The zealots would attack Jean and distract her while the blood hunters would find an opening to disable her.

Jean tilted her head. When the battle start, it would be messy, and the mess would give her an opportunity to make her escape.

But just before the battle could begin, a roar came from outside the settlement. Both Selendis and Jean turned around and found primal coming from all directions. Countless beasts charged toward the Daelaam defensive position like a flood.

Selendis immediately turned back to Jean? Her first thought was it was the girl’s doing. Otherwise why would they strike now, of all time?

Jean acted surprised, like she had nothing to do with this. It was, strangely, true. The primal’s attack was not part of the plan.

“Seize her.” Selendis ordered before turning around and leaving to command the defenses. Multiple thousands primal hitting at the same time was not to be underestimated. Selendis needed full attention dedicated to the battle to hold. The majority of the Daelaam around turned and followed their executor. This left just the three blood hunters and dozens of zealots against Jean.

“Huh.” Jean wasn’t behind this turn of event, but she wouldn’t complain either. Less eyes on her meant a greater chance for her to accomplish what she wanted. “Now, shall we?”

The Daelaam around Jean exchanged a few looks before charging forward at the same time. Blood hunters cloaked and lurked around, waiting for an opportunity.

Outside the Daelaam settlement, primal were flooding past protoss defenses. Claws and teeth ripped open plasma shields. All sorts off odd attacks destroyed protoss units.

The primal pack leaders were fighting in the very front. Dehaka knocked over and crushed zealots and dragoons one by one. Psi blades and phase disruptors were ineffective against his mutated carapace.

Yagdra digged his way into the protoss base. As he popped his head out of the ground, he found himself beside several zealots and one dragoon. The zealots charged mindlessly, and were melted away one by one. The dragoon’s extra armor helped him withstand two acid strikes and gave him the chance to fire once. The projectile could only be described as “a nice try”.

Slivan was like an enlarged swarm host. Hundreds of smaller organisms, creepers, dropped down from her body and moved toward the protoss units. Unsuspecting, protoss zealots charged, but as soon as their psi blades made contact with the creepers, those smaller creatures exploded. The melee nature of zealots maximized the damage.

Brakk moved like a tank, running over any opposition. Whatever projectiles sent toward him were deflected. Zealots and dragoons were crushed.

The fact that the primal attacked at the same time as Jean was freed was not a coincidence. The primal leaders were observing the Daelaam camp, and when Selendis assembled her forces at the center of the camp to prevent Jean from breaking out, the leaders sensed an opening. There were only so many Daelaam, and more defenses inside meant less defense outwards.

“Hold the line!” Selendis and several hundred reinforcements arrived. It was sad, but these hundreds of Daelaam might be all Selendis had. Everything that happened, the continuous attacks on outposts, the battle of Char, and the sacrifice to create Amon’s body, had cut the Daelaam numbers into only a tiny fraction of its former might. The once dominating race was near extinction.

“Consume them!” Dehaka growled, despite knowing the Daelaam couldn’t be absorbed by the primal.

A sea of primal overwhelmed the Daelaam reinforcements. The first line of primal fell almost instantly. The second were dropped a bit later. But the primal had more than the numbers. One by one the protoss fell.

Luckily for the Daelaam, they had an advantage the primal could never match.

“Armada! Unleash fire and death upon our foe!” Selendis ordered loudly. She didn't need to, as the khala was silent, but she nevertheless wanted the words to sound in the air.

In orbit, the few carriers and motherships the Golden Armada had left activated their weapons. On the surface, observers located primal masses and calculated the targets where strikes could do the maximum damage. Once the calculations were done, the coordinates were sent to the armada. As soon as they were ready, the armada opened fire.

Dozens of orbital strike projectiles smashed into the clumped up primal horde. Countless Primal were evaporated into ash. Their tight formation, aimed to maximize the advantage of their numbers, made sure they could take the most damage from the bombardment. Pained growls from those that barely survived the field covered the field. When the smoke cleared, one tenth of the primal were gone.

“Alien technology!” Dehaka mummered. “Deploy our flyers! Rip their flyers apart!”

Hundreds of primal mutalisks and primal guardians charged toward the Golden Armada in orbit. They soon realized that, despite how weak it was, the Golden Armada was still a capable fleet. A combination between capital ship firing and fighter manuvers tore the primal flyers apart. Glave worms and corrosive acid, without enough numbers, wasn’t enough to go through the thin layer of shield. On the other hand, a few laser beams or ion cannons could easily melt the mutalisks.

On the ground, the primal continued their assault on the foreigners. Brakk was the most aggressive. He used his larger size and his incredible strength to basically run over any opponent. At least a dozen zealots have been crushed at the beast’s claws. For the Daelaam nowadays this was a huge lost.

Selendis passed down an order, and five immortals took aim at Brakk.

The pack leader noticed the assault striders, but he was a bit too consumed by the lust for battle to think logically, not that primal could really think at all. The beast charged at the immortals. Big mistake.

Five immortals fired tirelessly. One after one the particle disruptor projectiles smashed into Brakk. The weapon designed against larger, more armored, units had met its perfect target.

The first few shots blasted a whole in the carapace. More and more hits opened the wound further and further. The primal growled in pain, but he kept on charging. Sometimes being stupid was not a bad thing. At least in this case Brakk’s stupidness made sure he was able to take an immortal down with him. It was the blast in the head that blew up half his brain that finally ended him.

“Primal beasts…” Selendis smirked at the slain creature. “Armada, deploy another round of orbital strike as soon as you are ready!”

The Daelaam ships recharged their weapons and took aim, and a few seconds later a storm of death was rained down upon the primal. Every shot killed most of the primal within its twenty meter radius and opened a hole in the primal flank. Countless primal were slaughtered. Blood stained the ground.

At this point it was clear the primal were going to lose. Lower foot soldiers didn’t have enough intelligence to realize the situation, but pack leaders have already understood the alliance was a lost cause.

“Retreat!” Dehaka screeched. “Fall back!”

Pack leaders gave the order in a cry, and the primal turned and ran. They lost another fraction of their numbers on the way back. One of the pack leaders, Slivan, was unfortunately surrounded. Several dozen zealots dissected the enlarged swarm host.

Selendis smirked. “These fools have no idea of the power of the firstborn. They have barely even entered space.” But her excitement due to her victory was immediately cut off by her concern of Jean.

What was the girl planning?