Commander Jzon stormed back into the cockpit, visibly irritated, his eyes flashing with frustration as crew members scurried to clear his path. He reached the front, staring out through the massive glass window into the void beyond.

“Report! How much longer until we reach the star eater’s previous location?” he demanded.

The ship’s captain glanced nervously at the readings on his monitor. “We’ll arrive in about ten minutes, sir, but… it’s strange. His signal was incredibly high and then… it vanished.”

Jzon’s mouth dropped a bit. “He probably has no idea we’re following. Likely just stopped moving. Keep going.”

An eerie silence lingered as the crew tried to focus, but then a radar technician’s panicked voice sliced through the air. “S-sir! I’m reading… ten unidentified energy signals, massive ones. They're... coming straight for us!”

The whole cockpit descended into chaos from the alarms blaring and red lights flashing. Crew members stared at the screens, some in disbelief. Each signal was a towering 9.1 kilometers in size, more than ten times the size of any ship in the fleet and the immense amount of cosmic energy they released.

In the midst of the commotion, Jzon roared, “Quiet!” The room stilled as he paced, gathering his composure. “Listen, we have a fleet of over two thousand heavily armed ships, each a formidable 0.8 kilometers. We’re ready for them. Let them come—”

A sudden, deafening blast shook the entire ship, cutting Jzon’s speech short. His hand shot out to steady himself against the rail. “What in the hell just happened?!”

A nearby officer’s face was drained of color. “Sir, the fleet’s under attack! We’ve lost ten ships, just like that, and twelve more are severely damaged. They hit us from long range, sir… a single shot wiped out ten of our heavily armored ships the wave released after shaking many of our ships…”

Jzon’s fists clenched as the reality set in. "What? Ten of our ships... gone in one strike?"

Outside, the Shadrax had reached visual range, looming ominously in front of the fleet. One of them’s single eye started to shine brightly, forming a bright-yet-dark red orb, brimming with energy. It shot forward, swelling as it approached the ships, then imploded with a chaotic energy that shattered formations and decimated the ones in range.

Back on Carter’s planet body, his atmosphere shifted, creating a smile from clouds across his atmosphere as he observed the destruction through his Shadrax’s eyes. “Didn’t know you guys could do that,” he mused, amusement seeping through every word. “This is gonna be fun.”

The Shadrax creatures drifted into view, their massive, crimson eyes fixed coldly on the fleet as they seemed to hover in eerie silence. A hush fell over the bridge, each crew member transfixed by the sight.

“Th-those are… Shadrax?” A crew member stammered, wide-eyed. “How are there so many of them? I thought Universe 296 only had one, and it was locked down as a last resort guard in one of our empires prisons.

The captain, Crey, took a shaky breath. “No, these are different. They’re way bigger... and the planetary beings encyclopedia doesn’t say anything about that kind of attack.” His voice was tense, barely masking his unease.

“Enough,” Commander Jzon snapped. “Fury’s here for a reason. I’ll go get him myself. In the meantime, you have your orders. Attack those damned things!” He turned, striding off as the crew nodded in nervous agreement, relaying the order through the comms.

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Outside, the battle began in brutal earnest. One of the Shadrax unleashed a writhing mass of tentacles, each whip-like movement slicing through dozens of ships in an instant, splitting armor and scattering debris. The fleet tried to counterattack, beams and blasts firing from every angle as they took damage, but the Shadrax retaliated with more red energy blasts, compact and fierce. Each pulse of energy swallowed dozens of ships at a time, turning them to little more than dust and twisted metal.

In the chaos, Jzon sprinted down the corridor to Fury’s quarters. As he reached the door, he found Fury already waiting, staring at the wall. He held his spear loosely at his side, the tip resting on the floor, with his other two arms folded behind his back.

Fury turned around, an infuriatingly confident smile spreading across his face. “I know what you’re about to say,” he drawled, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”

The battle was gruesome. Even though the X3X cosmic energy cannons could cause high damage to the Shadrax, their incredible regeneration abilities made them almost invincible as they continued to destroy hundreds, and in only a few minutes, the X3X had already lost over 600 ships.

“Damn it, where's Commander Jzon!?” Captain Crey exclaimed, holding onto a railing to avoid falling from the continuously moving ship.

“Sir, he’s still getting Commander Fury,” a crewmate told him.

“Damn it, even though I thought it was crazy for them to carry that demon, he’s currently the only person we can hope to defeat these entities,” Commander Fury thought, biting down on his teeth.

How long does it take to call one goddamn guy? Hurry the hell up, Jzon, or we’re all gonna die.

The Shadrax were mostly separated; one team would do frontal attacks, the others would do ranged, and a few would go after ships trying to flee. Carter watched as the chaos went down. “X3X bastards, always following me, looking for trouble; let's see how yo—”

Someone there is dangerous.

One of the Shadrax was absolutely wrecking a few fleeing ships, but it sensed something at high speeds coming toward it, and then...

FWOOM!!

With a swift move that no one could see except Carter, he pierced the Shadrax, obliterating it, leaving not a single part behind to regenerate from. Carter watched the being’s demise, not through the eyes of his Shadrax for a first-person view of the carnage, but with his Zone Vision, since their eyes couldn’t keep up with his speed.

“Tch, an annoying bastard has shown up.”

With the Shadrax gone, that annoying bas—I mean, furry—flew where it once was, his spear behind his neck and his four arms resting on it. “Looks like I’m not too late since heaven is already here.” He spun his spear around and took an attacking stance, a huge grin on his face. “I guess I’ll lend a hand.”

SWISHH!!

With a single move, he appeared before another Shadrax. “You guys are so big...” With a massive thrust, another 9-kilometer colossus Shadrax was turned into nothing. “...yet so weak.”

Two other Shadrax, apart from each other, started charging their red decimate blasts, but in an instant, he was gone again. “You guys are just so slow.” He was laying on his side above another.

SWOOSHH!!

And like that, another was destroyed. The other shot its blast, which expanded as it came closer to him.

“Is this the best you so-called planetary beings can do?” CHINNGGG. With a single swing of his spear, he cut it in half. “DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH, YOU BASTARDS. YOU DIE JUST AS EASILY AS INSECTS.” Fury blasted off with a massive grin on his face, charging toward the Shadrax.

“But still, I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

FWOOM!

Once again, another Shadrax fell, but Fury’s reckless attacks were not only killing the Shadrax but also destroying many of his own people’s ships. “Damn it, Fury! You’ve destroyed over 700 of our ships, killing THOUSANDS with your reckless attacks! Will you please—”

Commander Fury was cut off from his comm’s message to him as he took it out and crushed it in his palm.

“Well, since that’s over... there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6—SIX of you guys left.” Fury spun his spear arrogantly once more. “I wonder... which one of you will die next. Anyone wanna take a guess?” His disgusti—ehem, I mean, an evil grin swept across his face as he chose which to kill next.