"Do we have to enter through this spot?" Inala asked as he pointed at the water body before him, leading underground to connect with the Mrutch Sea.
"The place you seek is accessible only once you swim through the Mrutch Sea." The Roshmon said, flinching when Inala stepped towards it slightly.
[Is that the truth?]
Inala communicated with Loya through an Information Slip.
[I travelled through the same route.]
Hearing Loya’s response, Inala vanished, having sped towards the crater. There were sounds of fighting, followed by a surrendering bleat as a Muscl carried Inala into the crater.
His right hand had turned into a Silver Biome Bomb to infuse Prana into the Muscl, healing its injuries slowly. "Let’s go, climb onboard."
It was a tad cramped, but the quartet got on the Muscl’s back and entered the water once the Roshmon jumped into it.
Primary Nature—Infused Kinesis Touch!
After applying the effect on itself, the Roshmon was able to propel itself through the water, able to easily swim through it.
Primary Nature—Spring Ram!
Behind it, the Muscl constantly kept its Primary Nature active to accelerate through the water. They travelled through the topmost section of the Mrutch River where the water pressure was tolerable.
If they were to head deeper, they would be forced to revert to Pranic Beast forms. Otherwise, their bodies will be flattened by the water pressure.
The Roshmon paddled through the water once its Prana was expended. The trip progressed at a snail’s pace.
The Mrutch Sea was dark, due to a lack of a lighting source. The topmost layer had a faint light, radiated from the rocky surface above. But a few metres below them was pitch black.
It was eerie, as if some ginormous existence would crawl forth from the darkness and consume them all.
"Wake me up when we reach our destination." Pitorah struggled with the environment for a few seconds. But upon seeing that he didn’t have any means to mentally overcome the sense of fear he felt, he simply knocked himself out.
"Loya, Leukeu..." Shuwrak Zahara said as he seeped a Tangible Millinger into the bodies of Pitorah and Loya. He watched Inala turn his left hand into Millanir and condense a Tangible Millinger, "Don’t you guys feel something is strange?"
"It indeed is," Inala nodded as he fused the Tangible Millinger into his body. Millingers lived on both land and water. Therefore, relying on it was their best bet to escaping from this situation.
Inala had a Millanir left hand and a Rutham right hand. This kept him prepared against a variety of situations.
"That Roshmon..." Shuwrak Zahara expressed his analysis, "I am pretty sure it is hiding something else."
"I got the same feeling when I terrorised it." Inala nodded, "It has indeed revealed everything it knows. But that’s why I’m getting this strange feeling."
"Right?" Shuwrak Zahara then eyed Loya, "What do you think?"
"It is behaving more obediently this time." Loya said, "But we technically don’t need it to act as our guide."
She patted her chest, "I know the route and am able to navigate even through these waters. I prepared a bit for our arrival at this place, you see."
As the Roshmon continued to lead them through the waters, its figure halted all of a sudden. And then, a soft sound radiated off its body, filled with warmth and compassion, "...he..."
A second later, as if nothing had happened, the Roshmon continued to swim when suddenly, there was a powerful flow through the Mrutch Sea.
The Stromar Cliff had tilted slightly, applying pressure onto a section of the sea. This forced the sea water in the region to be ejected out of the mountains, in an effort to create another flash flood.
And unfortunately for Inala and his group, they were just swimming through the section of water that was sent up through the mountain.
"Dammit!" Loya cursed in anger as she hurriedly increased the strength of Shield of Thorns protecting her and her group.
Shuwrak Zahara churned more Prana into the Tangible Millingers so that they could absorb most of the impact. "Be on guard!"
The group watched as the powerful force sucked them into the stem of a mountain, throttled them through its vertical structure, and finally, gushed them into the skies of the Stromar Cliff, into the ginormous vapour cloud that had begun to gather there.
"The water is pretty hot," Inala uttered as his forehead veins throbbed like squiggling worms. As his group were sent flying through the mountain’s geyser, he had released his Rutham Spirit Weapons to target the Roshmon.
Mystic Sumatra Art—Spirit Weapon Switch!
"You’re not escaping," Inala uttered as he glared at the Roshmon that struggled to break free. But every time it countered one Rutham Spirit Weapon, multiple others targeted it and pulled it alongside Inala’s group.
Initially, the moment the Roshmon paused, Inala was prepared to retaliate in an instant. However, he hadn’t expected a geyser to occur at that exact moment, and that the Roshmon hovered in a section of water right outside the portion that was being gushed into the Stromar Cliff.
"I seriously underestimated this place." Saying so, Inala pulled the group closer to the Roshmon as he intended to revert his ten-storey Storage Lantern to its actual size and switch to a Naran Spirit Weapon.
However, refrained from going through with it and instead changed his build. His left hand now had a Silver Biome Bomb while his right had Rutham. Moreover, he condensed a Billakin Warhammer on his right and eyed in a certain direction, "We have disturbances."
As the group began to fall, Inala’s Silver Biome Bomb condensed its two strings of Prana into a set of gliders. With the boost in Spirit Weapon Range from his Rutham right, Inala could condense strings of Prana to the same length.
Their strength and speed were also boosted thanks to the properties of Rutham.
The group grabbed onto each other as the gliders allowed them to slowly reduce their altitude and glide towards the nearest peak.
Shuwrak Zahara stared in the direction Inala was looking at and groaned, "Ah...shit!"
Greeting them was a thick stream of Quip Clansmen gliding towards their landing spot. Leading the group were three Gold Grade existences. And judging by the Gold Biome Bombs hanging on the side of their hips, they had come prepared.
Those Biome Bombs will supply them with enough Prana to keep fighting for a long time. ’They’ve come prepared for the long run.’
Thud!
Loya was the first to detach herself from the group as she landed on the top of a mountain with force. She softly glared at the approaching stream of Quip Clansmen and silently activated her power.
Splotch!
Suddenly, the skins of a large number of Quip Clansmen exploded, followed by their screams as they began to lose control. Some managed to orient themselves while the rest began to fall.
Chirp!
Strings of Prana coiled around them and assisted them in gathering their bearings. And then, with force, the Zinger Princess Rhonya landed 200 metres away from Loya, with a similarly loud thud as she assumed human form.
A patch of her skin too had exploded, as she had been maintaining her Prana detection means, "Does the Pangers wish to be exterminated?"
"I welcome you to try." Loya laughed. "My race might have been few in numbers, but we have the guts to provoke even the Brimgan Empire repeatedly."
"We are confident in doing the same to the Quip Clan too." She said without hesitation.
"How dare...." Rhonya stopped herself and refrained from arguing with Loya further. She watched Hunsar and Wenka land beside her and then shifted her attention to Inala, "That’s...him!"
She was stunned to see Inala casually wave in her direction, for a moment getting angry, ’Does he not wish to survive? Why is he casually waving around as if he’s greeting a child from the neighbourhood?’
"This is the first time we meet," Hunsar said, for a moment intending to address Inala by his actual name. However, there was a change in the latter’s expression, for an instant, which made him change his mind, "Leukeu."
"I hope you don’t mind being captured." Hunsar fired off some bullshit spontaneously, "The Quip Clan has no need or necessity to reveal its intentions to you. Your only solution is to be captured without resistance or resist and be captured."
"That’s pretty fair," Inala pointed at his chest, "I know you’re here for this, right?"
’Here for what?’ Hunsar was confused for a moment as he wondered why Inala pointed at his chest. However, he didn’t show that and instead maintained his poker face, "Will you allow yourself to be obediently captured? Or will you engage in futile resistance?"
"Seems they figured the fact that I possess the Major Treasure of Weapon." Inala whispered to Shuwrak Zahara and Loya, "A fight seems inevitable."
"No, let’s run away." Shuwrak Zahara interjected as he subtly eyed into the crater, where the Roshmon was being held by a bunch of Inala’s Rutham Spirit Weapons. "We have the means."
"That we do." Without hesitation, Inala turned tail alongside his group and leapt back into the crater.