Ren furrowed his brow, dialing his mana perception to its absolute limit to study the point of impact.
The obstruction was not made of bone or dead tissue; it was a shell of hyper-concentrated energy, possessing a density far greater than anything else on the creature's body.
The fake heart was shielded by a nearly impenetrable crust of golden hyphae. The parasite had localized its ultimate defense entirely around the single place that actually mattered, operating on the exact same biological logic Mooshito used when forming a protective cyst.
"It is heavily shielded," Ren muttered, executing two short spatial jumps to clear the path of another incoming beam, noting that this blast carried traces of the dark ether it had just absorbed from him. "Incredibly well-defended. It does not care if we butcher the rest of the host, so long as the core remains untouched."
