Psychic Parasite

Chapter 431: The Ingenuity of Other Rankers
The moment the Battleship crossed the second coil, the ground in the third coil changed. It was a sandy plain, with tiny dunes that were less than ten centimetres tall. There wasn’t any difference in the temperature though, only the terrain was different. As for the first and second coils, they had muddy ground.

As the Battleship flew through the third coil, Jyorta noticed faint trails moving about in the sands. They were coming towards the Battleship from the opposite direction. Jyorta frowned, ”Are they coming?”

Duvic sensed their heat signatures as he said, ”There are 10 of them approaching us now. Even more are lined up along the path.”

”Then, before they start attacking us, we’ll attack them,” Jyorta said as his teammates nodded and positioned the cylinders with the Tier 2 Spindle Bees accordingly. Each of them depended on their Tier 1 Skill as they aimed at the approaching Steel Porcupines before shooting forth the spindles.

The spindles penetrated through the loose sand before lodging into the bodies of the Steel Porcupines. Most of them managed to hit the body of the Steel Porcupines, avoiding the spikes growing on their backs.

The moment they were attacked, they too appeared out of the sand and launched their spikes at the Battleship. Jyorta tried to create a shield to defend against their volley of attacks as an experiment, sighing when four spikes were all it took to shatter his shield.

Unwilling to waste his psychic energy, he didn’t erect any more shields, using the Battleship to tank the spikes. The spikes contained a lot of force behind them, so they scrapped and lodged themselves into the Battleship from time to time.

Though, most of them only penetrated some millimetres before falling off. Still, they created a lot of nicks in the hull of the Battleship. And soon enough, Tier 2 Steel Porcupines came into the picture, unleashing a powerful hail of spikes towards them.

These spikes almost pierced through half of the Battleship’s hull, causing Jyorta’s heart to thump in tension. For, the power behind their attacks was too much. He hadn’t accounted for such a level of damage. Jyorta shouted as he noticed even more Tier 2 Steel Porcupines emerge from the sand, ”Focus on the Tier 2 Steel Porcupines. Ignore the rest for now.”

Without him saying anything, his teammates directly began aiming at the Tier 2 Steel Porcupines. After all, they too knew which posed a bigger threat. If they tanked too many spikes from the Tier 2 Steel Porcupines, their defences would eventually crumble.

Jyorta also noticed how there were no nests of the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees in the third coil. After all, the Steel Porcupines were capable of long-range attacks. They could simply hide within the sand and sprung up to launch their spikes at the nests on the ceiling.

This way, they wouldn’t suffer any losses while the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees would be annihilated. Indeed, terrain advantage was of the greatest importance.

So, even though the Battleship flew almost near the ceiling, the attacks of the Steel Porcupines still reached them. Thankfully, the spikes had less power than if it tanked nearer to the ground. Moreover, the distance gave the Battleship a fraction of time to prepare against stronger attacks that rained from below.

”Kyaak!” Rishana shouted in alarm as the body-length spike unleashed by a Tier 2 Steel Porcupine penetrated through the hull’s defence and pierced her leg.

”Bilena, help her,” Jyorta shouted as he unleashed his psychic arm, turning it pale blue. Bilena grabbed hold of Rishana’s leg, and yanked the spike out of it, causing some blood to spurt out.

His psychic arm quickly seeped into the wound and instantly healed it. Thankfully, it was only a muscle wound. And, as the spindle was sharp, the wound wasn’t wide. Just the internal pressure of the muscles was enough to make the gap disappear.

His psychic arm focused on the Essence of Frenzy lodged into the wound as it pulled them out, not caring if it pulled out some blood in the process. They were pressed for time, and he had to swiftly heal her. So, Jyorta treated her in a hurry.

As they had quickly acted upon the injury, the Essence of Frenzy hadn’t seeped beyond the wound. So, pulling it out was easy. Within a second, Jyorta was done with it as he began to heal the wounds. The wound wasn’t big, so he was done within three seconds. Moreover, the expenditure of psychic energy was little.

Rishana healed a sigh of relief as the pain in her legs disappeared, ”Sorry for being careless.”

”It wasn’t your fault,” Jyorta replied as he controlled the Battleship to move. As it was a body-length spike, they didn’t throw it out. Rather, they pulled it entirely into the Battleship and stored it. They could use it as a sword once they coiled some silk rope on one end to create a handle.

And, all Jyorta needed for that was a Floating Spider.

The Battleship was made using the silk from Tier 1 Floating Spiders. So, it wasn’t as good as compared to if he had made it using the silk from Tier 2 Floating Spiders.

If that had been the case, even the body-length spikes of the Steel Porcupines wouldn’t have been able to penetrate through the hull like this. Unfortunately, controlling Tier 2 Floating Spiders would have been taxing on his aura reserves.

Besides, he needed a lot of them to finish the Battleship. He also had to consider the weight limit—that they could lift—that would have increased now. For, the silk produced by a Tier 2 Floating Spider was able to lift a greater weight than the silk of a Tier 1 Floating Spider.

That would have proved to be troublesome. And, in the case he didn’t have enough Tier 2 Floating spider silk, he would have had to make do for the remaining with Tier 1 Floating Spider silk. And, that would mean the calculations would have become complex.

That was why Jyorta just went with Tier 1 Floating Spider silk. Moreover, as it functioned as an armour, it meant it would get damaged from the attacks of numerous Frenzy Beasts. And, repairing was easy using the Tier 1 Floating Spiders he came across.

”The spike would have reached my bone if not for this armour,” Rishana sighed in relief as she looked at the white silk armour she wore. It was a slightly elastic armour and was a single piece that had to be worn from the hole in the neck space.

It fully covered them from head to toe, including the eyes. There was a thin layer of silk over the eyes that was carefully made. It was weaker than the rest of the silk, but it was transparent and gave some protection to the eyes.

At present, since they were constantly using their Tier 1 Skills, all of them hadn’t covered their heads with the armour. Now that she was injured once, Rishana didn’t wish to take any more risks, covering her head with the armour.

Jyorta and the others too did the same. It was slightly uncomfortable; their senses were a bit constricted. But left with no other options, they could only choose to wear it.

”Just in case the Battleship is fully compromised, you know what to do,” Jyorta said as he saw the others nod. The domes housing the Tier 2 Floating Spiders and the cylinders housing the Spindle Bees were retractable.

So, in time of necessity, they would take one of each and exit the Battleship, acting as mobile units that flew through the air. This was a contingency measure he had placed in the case the Battleship had been destroyed.

After all, if they had to move on foot, the disadvantages would be too much. So, Jyorta wished to take advantage of the elements he possessed to the best of his capability. He planned to abuse the usage of the Tier 2 Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees.

Duvic and Sreshta simultaneously aimed at the Tier 2 Steel Porcupine that had wounded Sreshta and attacked it. Both the spindles they shot landed accurately on its head, penetrating it. The Steel Porcupine hadn’t died yet, but it was out of commission. And, unless it was treated, it would eventually die.

The Battleship was too conspicuous, so it was painted as a target for everyone. As it continued to fly, Jyorta was surprised to come across the team of Haesha and Esina. They had joined hands as they proceeded together as a group.

Esina acted as the prime damage dealer while Haesha worked in defending and shielding them from harm. She was carried by Esina who strutted around through the sands as her sword flashed, reaping the lives of the Steel Porcupines.

And, whenever the Steel Porcupines launched their spikes at her, Haesha defended them by using a thick blanket of Floating Spider silk. Judging by its structural integrity as it defended against the spike without getting damaged much, Jyorta realised just where it came from.

”So, they raided a Web World first,” He muttered. A Web World was a large sphere created by Floating Spiders to dwell within. And, unlike normal nests, this was a mobile nest with tremendous defensive properties, housing at least 3-4 Tier 2 Floating Spiders within.

As the lift generated by this silk was tremendous, the Floating Spiders weaved a sturdy rope that they attached to some massive boulder. This was to prevent the Web World from flying away. So, to contain the exorbitant tension, the rope had to be rigidly powerful. And, it seemed Haesha had used such a rope to create her blanket after turning it into her Refined Object.

This explained why she was able to use it to defend against the attacks so easily. And considering its levitating capacity, Haesha wasn’t hindered by the weight limitation of her psychic arm. So, she was able to act as the defence of the group and even masked their presence from time to time.

”Incredible!” Jyorta laughed as the Battleship flew into the scene.