"The easiest way to figure it out is by subjecting you to the same state as before." Brangara said as Prana surged through his arms and flickered a series of punches.
He watched Ruvva tank the attack and repeated the same for a few more times, "That’s the limit in this form."
Tertiary Body Stage 1—Brangara!
Having bought enough time until his body had finished regenerating, Brangara transformed into his form. The moment he switched from Virala’s to his body, there was a difference. His eyes traced the flashing figure of Ruvva, ’In terms of speed, she’s faster than me. Well, makes sense since she can use Prana Flash.’
’She’s faster than Yarsha Zahara.’ He thought and grunted, using psychokinesis to exert pressure across his body and concentrate it upon the blood vessels until they burst and squirted out needles of the same.
Brangara could react fast enough, but in terms of movement, he was a tad inferior to Ruvva, as the latter had both Prana Flash and psychokinesis to employ while he only had psychokinesis. Hence, to even out the field, he radially sent out the blood needles in the thousands.
Over thirty blood needles stabbed into Ruvva’s skin, interfering with the flow of blood in her body. The blood needles behaved as Spirit Weapons and drilled into her body, seeking to invade the blood vessels.
The Prana carried in them formed a clump to generate psychokinesis, built up power, and released it all, forming a mini explosion. This cut off the blood vessel at the spot, impeding the circulation. Until it regenerated, the flow would remain cut off.
Such explosions occurred across her body and ended up cutting off most of the Prana being funnelled to her limbs. The flash of Prana she was releasing ended up flickering rapidly until the traces of Prana in her limbs were expended.
Her Prime Skill of Prana Flash was deactivated, throwing her off balance for a moment. She was confident in recovering quickly. However, time wasn’t in her favour.
Brangara had already finished regenerating from the damage he had sustained to launch the blood needles. He had strategically launched it from spots where recovery was faster. And he calculated it in such a way that after recovering, he would be able to traverse the distance between them and reach Ruvva before the latter recovered enough to use Prana Flash once again.
Aided by psychokinesis, Brangara’s fist struck Ruvva on the stomach, causing her to let out a gasp in response.
She intended to retaliate with an Eddy Blade, which would be extremely destructive from up close, preventing Brangara from growing his arm like a serpent—Mystic Ewworm form—and using it to tank the attack.
Mystic Nature Art—Spirit Weapon Switch!
However, just like the previous attack, Brangara had gathered spit in his mouth and spat out two droplets in the form of a projectile, controlling both using psychokinesis as they drilled into Ruvva’s arm sockets, where the secondary hearts of her Partial Transformation existed.
The two secondary hearts were punctured, which happened right before they pumped all their reserve blood to the palms. And as they compressed, most of the blood was launched out through the puncture holes.
There wasn’t enough at the palms to unleash an Eddy Blade.
Brangara had only targeted her arms. The two secondary hearts in her legs were fine, which resulted in Ruvva unleashing an Eddy Blade from each foot respectively. They curved up and cut through Brangara’s legs.
He had been ready to receive such damage, which was why he had twisted his torso to deliver a punch to Ruvva on the stomach.
"Gah!" Ruvva felt difficulty in breathing as she reeled from the power behind the punch. And then, she noticed Brangara grabbing his severed leg, spotting a glisten in its exposed part, ’Shit!’
It was a Spirit Container cluster, which was the arrangement necessary to use it as a puppet. The realisation just set in her as Ruvva watched the severed leg turn into the tail section of the Mystic Ewworm and coil around her arms.
A tug from Brangara, and they tightened enough to crack her bones. In horror, Ruvva watched an ivory tool in the shape of a knife form on the tail’s end, ’That’s...!’
Bang!
Ruvva found herself being sent flying through the stormy clouds after her limbs were severed. As her figure trailed through the stormy clouds, the surroundings began to cool down. The Death Hour had ended, showing signs of the start of the Cold Shower that followed next.
Her eyes trailed onto the man who had repeatedly subjected harm to her being, watching the latter wield a Mystic Ewworm tail as a whip, while attached to its end was an ivory knife, made using tusk bone powder sourced from her.
It was as tough as the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk, which was how her limbs were so easily sliced. And now, twirling the whip casually, Brangara approached her.
’Nothing I attempt is working.’ She thought as her figure continued to fall through the storm clouds, heading towards the seabed. An outline formed in the place where her limbs were supposed to exist.
The storm cloud within the outline turned jet black for an instant, becoming grey sand and spontaneously turning into her limbs, perfectly intact.
Minor Treasure—Sandy-Grey Deity Assimilation!
It was her Ruthrey Minor Treasure, whose function was to keep a record of her physical being. If she were to get injured and lose a limb, the Minor Treasure would act upon whatever matter was in the space of the lost limb, turn it into grey sand for an instant, and then revert it into the respective limb.
The power of Grey Kinesis Deity allowed one to temporarily turn the targeted region into the Sand Grey Void. Once the effects vanish, the region reverts to its original state.
The Minor Treasure considers this original state to be her body in Ruvva’s optimal condition. It had no offensive means and could only be used to regenerate lost body parts.
But the greatest advantage was in the fact that Ruvva could instantly recover from any level of injury. An added benefit from the Ruthrey Minor Treasure was in being able to hide the rest of the Minor Treasures in her body.
It was the Sandy Grey Void’s power, which was applied to the Minor Treasures in her body, including the Ruthrey Minor Treasure. That was why Brangara couldn’t find them before. Of course, if the latter kept dicing her body into pieces, eventually one of the pieces would have the Minor Treasure.
And the moment they were separated from her body, they would release a pillar of light and become very noticeable.
Ruvva only managed to avoid it because Brangara didn’t intend to kill her. Theoretically, she could have used the Ruthrey Minor Treasure’s effects to harm Brangara.
When he was gorging through her Empyrean Tusk form’s intestines, he was very well within the confines of her body. So, if she had activated the Minor Treasure, it would have tried to turn his body into grey sand.
Against anyone else, this would have been pretty effective. Unfortunately for her, the opponent was a Mystic Human. Even though his resistance wasn’t on Ruvva’s level, he was very well capable of resisting the effects of the Sandy Grey Void for a while.
She would have ended up revealing the inner mechanisms of her Minor Treasure unnecessarily, which was why Ruvva refrained from using it until Brangara had entered the ruins of the Abode of the Mystics.
"Agh!" She groaned upon hitting the seabed, watching the Cold Shower begin as thin ice layers accumulated on her body. A wriggle of her body, and the ice fell off. As water started to condense upon the seabed, Ruvva released Prana from her feet to stand on its surface and rise with the water level.
"What exactly do you need?" She shouted, "Why do you keep attacking me? Haven’t you consumed enough of my body to satiate yourself?"
"My needs are none of your concern," Brangara said as he walked on the water while wearing Tratham shoes. Held in each hand of his was a whip, with its ends sporting ivory knives. "If I wish to eat someone, I eat."
"It’s merely common sense on Sumatra."
"Bastard!" Ruvva growled as she moved the organ related to her Ruthusk Minor Treasure to the back of her body and used her Ruthrey Minor Treasure to begin filling it with her blood. She wasn’t going to use the laser again, since Brangara managed to evade it twice already.
Instead, she planned to use her trump card, the destructive beam, which she could maintain for many seconds in her Empyrean Tusk form, ’But for it to successfully hit him, I need a distraction.’
She only had one chance at using it effectively, and hence, she planned to buy time until then. Her Ruthusk Minor Treasure circulated fresh blood, filled with Prana, through her body as Ruvva began to arm up for a fight, even though she was extremely nervous now.
In contrast, Brangara twirled his whips as they sliced through the water surface casually. And soon, he was 180 metres from Ruvva, at which point, he stopped and stared towards the horizon, "I was wondering when you’d show up."
A Parute Tree flickered from the horizon and rapidly approached him. And then, a sea of roots rose throughout the Dralh Sea, as an angry voice thundered, "Bran...gara!"