The Battleship's Outer Armor

Chu Yunyi immediately activated the Star Track Stabilization System. Energy emitters beneath the hull released six golden stabilizing beams, forming a regular hexagonal stable zone around the battleship. At the same time, he fired all four of the starship's Star Core Purification Cannons. Golden purification rounds exploded among the High-Order Parasites, creating energy shockwaves a hundred meters across. The waves struck the Star Track Energy Crystals on the parasites' bodies, shattering them instantly. The parasites let out pained shrieks, and their bodies began to come apart. But the three remaining parasites suddenly launched a "suicide charge," accelerating toward the Star Dome-IX in an attempt to destroy the battleship's stabilization system by ramming it. Chu Yunyi quickly brought the Star Track Cutting Cannons to bear, and high-frequency energy blades instantly sliced through two of them. The third exploded three meters from the stabilization system. Its shockwave briefly disabled the system, and the hull was once again caught in spatial distortion.

The Star Track Parasite Core sensed the threat. The energy patterns across its surface blazed brightly, and the Parasitic Mycelium inside the hollow surged wildly at a visible rate, streaming toward the Star Dome-IX from every direction. Some strands even evolved into "spiked mycelium" capable of penetrating the battleship's outer armor. Chu Yunyi activated Star Track Thruster Overload, and the hull erupted in brilliant golden light as its speed climbed to the limit. He also concentrated the energy of all four Star Track Cutting Cannons at the bow, forming a massive energy blade ten meters wide that forcibly carved a path through the mycelium.

But the mycelium grew far faster than expected, and the passage soon sealed itself again. More than 60% of the Star Dome-IX's hull was now ensnared. The Anti-Parasitic Coating on the armor had completely failed, and Parasitic