Lotus Range!
One after another, dozens of golden flashes appeared at the peak of one of the mountains in the range. They became golden Human Avatars, all between 3-4 metres in height. Simultaneously, they reverted to human forms to glare at the unwelcome visitor.
They were Brimgan Royals from the branch families. The oldest among them had recently crossed four centuries. Before the Second Major Disaster, the Brimgan Empire had around 300 Brimgan Royals who had reached the peak of the Body Stage and above.
A hundred of them died to the Mammoth Clan, turned into Nature Weapons. Most of them were those at the peak of the Body Stage. And after the damage dealt to the Brimgan Empire by Brangara, the Empire harnessed its resources to rebuild its strength.
Currently, they had already touched 300 in number, which was occupied by those in the Life Stage alone. Those in the Body Stage were more, as anyone in the branch families with even a semblance of talent was being nurtured.
Brita Brimgan was one of them, aged 414 years. He was treading the peak of the 2-Life Stage, but hadn’t seen much improvement in going beyond. His understanding of Gold Kinesis Art was minimal, which led to a shaky foundation in his Human Avatar. He was stuck partway through the 2-Life Stage.
If the cultivation technique hadn’t been upgraded to Mystic Kinesis Art, he wouldn’t have managed to reach even the peak of the 2-Life Stage. In terms of status, he didn’t have much when compared to the Royal Family.
His branch family were situated around the Lotus Range, in one of the Northern Lakes closest to the border. For generations, they were in charge of the region’s defences. They focused on defence, constantly surveyed the immediate surroundings past the Lotus Range, and organised multiple Raids.
Brita Brimgan was the second strongest in their family. The strongest was his grandfather, an 800-year-old individual who had reached the 3-Life Stage. He was in charge of a lot of matters, and hence, upon learning of the intruder’s arrival, had dispatched Brita Brimgan instead.
"We need reinforcements." Brita Brimgan uttered upon staring at the face-off between two Mystic Grade existences in the Brimgan Sea. "Our Guardian strong, but I’m afraid even she cannot face him."
As a Brimgan Royal, Brita Brimgan was aware of the fight that happened in the Kalahatra Desert. He had seen the Information Slip given to him by the Palace, which directly came from Boul Brimgan himself.
Hence, Brita Brimgan knew how ridiculously powerful Root was, ’Why has the Quip Clan dispatched him here? Are they openly opposing us now?’
"Let me check something!" Saying so, Brita Brimgan assumed his Human Avatar form and rushed towards the port situated at the Brimgan Sea. Grabbing the closest Zinger Aristocrat stationed in the port, he roared at the top of his lungs, "Are you guys gone nuts?"
"Are you declaring war?"
"No...no, no!" The Zinger Aristocrat paled in response and shook her head, feeling the brunt of Brita Brimgan’s presence, "We cannot control Root. He only listens to our Representative, who is rushing here as we speak."
"I hope you speak the truth," Brita Brimgan flung the Zinger Aristocrat away with force, ignoring her form that crashed into a bunch of shipping crates. "Otherwise,"
Prana radiated off him in waves, covering his Spirit Weapon range of 3.6 kilometres and focused on every Quip Clansman within it. His voice reverberated in their ears, "WE will have to take measures."
...
’He isn’t listening.’ Ruvva observed Root’s figure make a beeline towards the Lotus Range and sighed, feeling a resounding headache. "Huff..."
"Pufff..." She inhaled and exhaled once, regulating her breathing as Prana circulated through her body faster.
Thump! Thump!
She accelerated her heart rate through psychokinesis, forcing blood to pump through her body faster and faster, until her body temperature started to rise. Her form morphed to transform into a 72-metre-long figure resembling a pangolin.
The head was more curved, the body more aerodynamic, and the scales covering the body were a bright gradient between gold and magenta. The tip of the tail was shaped like a ’U’, with its tips being close enough to almost make contact with each other.
A total of 12 pairs of legs covered the length of the body, the feet had webbed hooves. The scales were attached to a membranous layer resembling the wings, in that they could curl up around the body.
And when in a curled form, they could stack up on the back. As for what could be considered a back, there was none. All sides could take on that role, for the membranes allowed for a 360-degree movement around the cross-section.
The legs were attached to a ball-and-socket joint, allowing them to twist and turn in opposite directions. It could curl up in any direction and move the scaly layer to the opposite side for protection.
Such a flexible body arrangement required a compatible sensory means, which was provided by the scales that doubled as head, light, and sound sensors. They relayed all sorts of information to the creature through a network boosted by psychokinesis, ensuring there wasn’t even an instant’s delay in transmission.
After all, even the slightest delay was magnified in a creature that delved in the field of speed.
Beginner Mystic Grade Pranic Beast—Apogee Bludder!
The Apogee Bludder stood on the water surface thanks to the webbed patterns on its feet. But that wasn’t the only reason. If seen from close up, a circular disc could be spotted expanding from the feet to maintain the surface tension of the water, enough for it to bear the Apogee Bludder’s weight.
For two seconds, it stood still as Prana accumulated in its legs. In the body close to the leg joint, there were specialised organs that were sacks of blood. They were secondary hearts, whose sole function was to pump all their stored blood to the epidermis instantly.
There were two such secondary organs per leg. One was to pump the blood to the epidermis and the other was to suck it back from the epidermis.
The amount of blood stored in this secondary heart was precisely enough to carry enough Prana to fire off a full-powered Eddy Blade.
With 12 pairs of legs, the Apogee Bludder was capable of firing off 24 Eddy Blades simultaneously, without the need for any accumulation, since that was already completely and carried naturally in its body.
This was its biggest upgrade from its Iron Grade counterpart, other than its bigger, tougher body.
The Apogee Bludder’s two seconds of stillness was only to be fully prepared. It was the first time Ruvva had fully utilised her Apogee Bludder form in battle. Until now, whenever she wanted, she only utilised its smaller versions.
Tertiary Body Stage 1—Eddy!
It allowed her to create a secondary heart in her limbs, which allowed her to promptly unleash her Skills without any prep time. This transformation was so economical and didn’t change anything externally in her appearance that the moment Ruvva feels the slightest alert, she would assume this partial transformation.
With it, she could fire four Eddy Blades at once, if necessary.
Tertiary Body Stage 2—Bludder!
It allowed her to assume a miniature version of herself, which looked no different from a regular Bludder in terms of size and appearance. She could even conceal her presence in this state to appear like a regular Bludder.
Tertiary Body stage 3—Apogee!
This was her complete transformation, which she seldom used, as there was never a need until now. This was her strongest state, for in this form, her ability to mould Prana received an insane jump.
Prime Skill—Prana Flash x12!
The Apogee Bludder rolled into a sphere and sped forward while splitting the water surface alone. Only the layer of water to a depth of one millimetre was displaced as the sphere moved forward at speeds faster than the speed of sound, but didn’t break the sound barrier.
No vapour cones were produced as the air streamlined past it. A second later, the sphere reached three times the speed of sound, having yet to produce a vapour cone.
Boom!
Root plunged into the Brimgan Sea, dived for a few metres, and used Perfect Biome Domination to propel him up into the air. Right as he emerged out of the water, Perfect Biome Domination turned the water into a solid, giving him a foothold to stomp upon and blast forward.
As he moved in such a manner, his successive jumps became quicker. He was wasting less time plunging into the water and was gradually beginning to use the water as a spring during his plunge to propel him farther next.
Root was exceptionally powerful, but was grandly inexperienced. However, he had the trait to rapidly grow by accumulating experience. His movements reflected it.
Boom!
The water acted as a springboard and launched him 200 metres up in the air, allowing him to travel a distance of over 500 metres. At the spot he jumped from, the water there cracked and formed a large wave.
Tracing over the wave was the sphere, which quickly overtook Root from underneath while he was in the air and arrived at his destination.
There wasn’t even a pause as the sphere spun rapidly and flashed once, almost blinding Root from its sheer radiance.
"I told you to...STOP!" Ruvva’s roar resounded as a thick blade of Prana hacked at him.
His senses were triggered as Root naturally defended himself with Perfect Biome Domination, watching the sphere of air protectively embracing him get cleaved by the blade of Prana that reached his head.
Air pushed his head to the side as Root watched in shock, watching is left ear get cleanly chopped off. The blade of Prana then dug into his shoulder and cut through it, stopping only after reaching the hip, not because it had lost strength, but because the air had turned and pushed Root away.
Prime skill—Eddy Blade x12!