Twenty kilometres away from the Abode of the Mystics was a ship boarded by a group of Mystic Humans. They were on a transport ship, meant to head to the Brimgan Empire.
The ship was carrying Parute Fruits, the most common commodity sold by the Mystic Humans. Currently however, the ship had anchored itself, not due to the Death Hour, but due to the fight happening between two pinnacle existences.
"Wait..." One of the Mystic Humans shouted upon spotting a Parute Tree appearing and disappearing, its flickers forming a line heading straight to the Abode of the Mystics, "Isn’t that...?"
Abode of the Mystics!
Ruvva found herself lodged deep inside the floor of the palace, surrounded by rubble from the many floors that had caved upon her. Standing on her legs, rooting them to the ground was Brangara. It seemed like he was simply standing.
But upon closer look, his legs could be seen trembling. An instant, his right leg remained steady while he flexed his left into the ground, for half a centimetre, accelerated through the use of psychokinesis. An instant later, the left leg retracted and remained steady while the right flickered downward.
When the legs moved down, they cracked Ruvva’s busy regenerating bones.
"ARGH!" Roaring with all her might, Ruvva blasted a shockwave at Brangara, only for it to be intercepted by a violet radiance.
Mineral—Tratham!
The radiance curved around Brangara, pushing away everything in his vicinity. The shockwaves too were no different, repelled by the radiance.
Tratham could vary the form of its repulsive force, with red being capable of travelling long distances and having the most penetrative power. Down the spectrum, the wavelength reduces, until violet, where its range was minimal, with immense dispersion. However, this created the most robust level of defence possible for the mineral.
"Now, bear with me for a moment," Brangara said as his right hand became covered with Tratham. Prana surged into it as it shone a bright crimson for a moment and slapped Ruvva’s body deeper into the ground. "Hmm, good power."
A beam of crimson radiance was being emitted from his palm, as the force caused Ruvva to grunt in pain, all while his legs continued to repeatedly damage her leg bones.
CRACKLE!
Brangara shifted the radiance from the entirety of his palm to just his index finger, noticing he was able to concentrate its power better as a large amount of Tratham gathered at the finger tip. He aimed it on Ruvva’s stomach and observed an indentation form in response.
As he moved the finger, so did the indentation, "In terms of toughness, your body is inferior only to mine."
As he spoke, the red radiance almost resembled a laser, constantly bombarding her stomach to form a deeper indentation, "However, it seems even the most concentrated version of Tratham’s repulsive force is unable to cut into your body. I wonder how long you cultivated using my stamp to raise your base toughness to such heights."
"It’s...not yours." Ruvva roared in protest as her body was covered by an ivory exoskeleton.
"You speak as if you care about Virala..." Brangara frowned as an intense radiance almost blinded him for a moment, followed by a sudden jerk. Relying on his Prana detection means, he raised his arm, turned it serpentine, and curved it many times before his face.
Its each curve behaved like a shield as an Eddy Blade cut through it, layer after layer, losing power by the time it reached his neck. His sight recovered as he watched Ruvva making an arc in the air as she had launched herself away using a Prana Shock.
"That’s smart," Brangara stared down at his feet to see the severed legs of Ruvva, "A clean cut using Eddy Blade, and then, you launched yourself...away."
As he spoke, his mouth drooled profusely, until he found himself munching on the legs. "It is delicious."
Unlike when he was the Empyrean Boar King, Brangara wasn’t fully controlled by his hunger. He had complete dominion over his hunger, thanks to a Mystic Human’s characteristic of being resistant to external influences.
It wasn’t as if he was resistant to the notion of hunger itself. Usually, when one is hungry, they might become a bit angry, restless, or display such tendencies until their stomach is satiated. Mystic Humans were just resistant to such tendencies.
They were basically no different from monks who had exercised restraint all their lives, in this case.
While his mouth did the eating, his feet were hot on Ruvva’s trail, unwilling to let go of his opponent. Even though Ruvva used the power of a Minor Treasure, Brangara wasn’t in the least nervous.
Or rather, his confidence in being able to defeat Ruvva hadn’t diminished in the slightest. It was simply, actually.
As the Empyrean Boar King, Brangara engaged most of his fights using his physical might, by taking advantage of his human and Empyrean Boar King forms. The most common Nature he used was Prana Shock.
Only when he was hard pressed did he ever resort to using Internal Inertial Gravity. He always had to worry about wasting his Natures and resisting the influence on his being, which was the biggest issue as to why he couldn’t annihilate the Mammoth Clan even after two millennia.
The moment he engages in a fight for long enough, and his physical and mental states budge even the slightest away from an optimal state, the influences from Natures in his Astral Chart begin to affect him.
That forces him to disengage from the fight, head to safety and recuperate there for a while through meditation. It was something he had to always concern himself with, despite the peerless might he wielded.
And now, his current build was nothing short of perfect in his opinion. He had his human form and Empyrean Boar King form. He could switch forms without issues, had a larger Prana reserve, and most of all, could treat his body as a Spirit Weapon.
For range, he had Tratham, which he felt was decent enough for the current situation. And using psychokinesis, he could disperse shockwaves through his body or even redirect them back to the attacker.
It was one of the aspects of Internal Inertial Gravity that Empyrean Tusks typically employed during fights. They were relying on Gravity for force dispersion. And having endured the influence of twenty-plus Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity for two millennia, Brangara could casually employ psychokinesis to achieve a similar result.
This meant he didn’t have to worry about physical attacks. Thanks to his Mystic Human body’s resistance to external influence, the effects of most Natures were diminished when subjected to him.
Prime Skill—Spirit Puppet!
"It’s great, actually." Brangara uttered as he released a couple dozen puppets of himself within the ruined Abode of the Mystics. The puppets dispersed to search for his Minor Treasures of Mystic Human Stamp and Spirit Puppet Slip.
He could create puppets by himself, since Virala had developed that back at the Varahan Empire while living life as Kvirala. However, the Minor Treasure of Spirit Puppet Slip not only made the process easier, the speed, efficiency, and efficacy of the produced puppets were significantly superior.
The usefulness of the Minor Treasure of Mystic Human Stamp needn’t be specified. Using it, he could refine and strengthen his body further. Its capability to control others, access mind space data, etc. was an added benefit that would make his life many times easier.
Hence, the puppets dispersed to find them.
"Please, stop!" Yoribu shouted as she pushed away a wall pressing down on her. She noticed the figure of Ruvva shooting into the stormy sea of clouds covering the region, spotting Brangara giving chase right after, "This isn’t the time to fight!"
Of course, Brangara paid no heed to her shouts and instead closed in on Ruvva. He slapped the clouds with his foot and unleashed a crimson radiance to compress them into a foothold. His feet stomped upon them and launched his body towards Ruvva, assuming his Pranic Beast form right after to clamp upon the latter.
Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Tusk!
Ruvva assumed her Pranic Beast form, relying on the space expansion to push away Brangara. However, there was a wild snort through the clouds, as strangely, her entire being was wrapped by fear. And then, pushing away the clouds to hurl upon her massive being was one who had evolved to predate her existence.
Beginner Mystic Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Boar King!
Reaching a length of 200 metres, the Empyrean Boar King charged straight at the 1.6-kilometre-tall opponent.
Kurralala!
The Empyrean Tusk lashed with its trunk, making contact to slam the Empyrean Boar King into the thicket of water. There was a flash of crimson, and Brangara shot into the sky like an arrow. He had assumed his human form now.
With a bang, he landed on the knee of the Empyrean Tusk and kicked to move upwards, hiding amidst the grooves as he made his way upwards.
The exoskeleton flowed like ocean’s mighty waves, seeking to destroy him. But to him, this was extremely familiar territory. A dodge, a duck, and a high jump to assume Pranic Beats form.
Bang!
One of the Empyrean Tusk’s knee joints was within the Empyrean Boar King’s mouth. It clamped shut and reverted to human form as Brangara stealthily disappeared into the grooves.
Ka-Boom!
With the knees destroyed, the Empyrean Tusk kneeled, causing a tsunami among the hot vapour. Lightning flashed and struck its body as by the time it had fallen to its knee on the sea bed, Brangara had made his way to the top of its head.
He raised his hands, accumulated a thick layer of Tratham, and brought them down with force. "You would have fared better against me in your human form."
"But in this form," His mouth curled up as he sucked the geyser of blood that sprouted out as a result of his attack, "You’re merely my prey!"