A root slammed into the water and displaced a large volume of it. A red streak flashed past it and rode the splash upwards to leap to a height of a couple hundred metres into the sky. His feet dangled in the air as he disengaged from the water to stare at the many roots coming down at him.
Behind him, the wave served as a backdrop as it continued to rise up. Slowly, he craned his legs backwards as Prana surged into his Tratham boots. A crimson radiance gathered upon it and swiftly turned yellow, unleashing a beam of conical light upon the wave of water.
A hole formed in the wave as Brangara was launched towards one of the incoming roots. The Tratham gauntlet on his right flashed crimson as he punched forth to poke a hole cleanly through the root.
Through the gap that formed, he moved past. And right as the root moved behind him, his feet kicked it and used it as a foothold to propel himself further.
Like a string needling together a bunch of sewing pins, Brangara moved through the roots, steadily closing in on Ruvva. The latter was clearly nervous, for the strength displayed by Brangara now was higher than what he had used against her.
Right as he punctured through a root, another swept at him horizontally, making contact as it sent him slamming into the water. But the attack did nothing.
Instead, Brangara unleashed a crimson radiance as he plunged into the water to head deeper and cushioned his impact. He casually kicked the water and propelled himself to the surface using Tratham.
"Did you know?" He suddenly asked, sporting a comfortable expression as he pointed at the flailing roots in the sky, "All three native Pranic Beast races of the Guna Caves are pretty special. Even without a predator, they haven’t gone past the Iron Grade for a simple reason."
"It’s because they never felt the necessity." Brangara uttered, "For around 44,000 years since the formation of the Guna Caves, these three races have remained the same without the slightest change in their genetic makeup."
"What are you getting at?" A carnivorous mouth popped out and uttered while the roots continued to attack. Suddenly, as the roots descended, they lost mass.
A clean cut had appeared in the midsection of them all, splintering them into two pieces. Most of the root section that had protruded out of the water had been cut.
And upon close inspection, one would notice a thin string rapidly coiling around the roots like a python, and it had generated enough pressure to cut through its girth cleanly. This had happened across all the roots, and at the cut section, a small string that had bundled up could be seen.
It was a Mystic Ewworm puppet, which Brangara had left there when he made contact with the root. And even if he didn’t make contact, it didn’t matter.
Minor Treasure—Spirit Puppet Slip!
With it, he could shoot them towards the target, and upon arriving at the target spot, they coiled around the root. The head circled around to touch the tail, and then applied pressure until the root was cut off.
As one after another, the severed roots fell, Brangara chuckled, "Ewworms aren’t just convenient creatures to harness the power of a mineral Spirit Weapon. Just because they don’t kill doesn’t mean they are weak."
Brangara waved his hand to point at the Dralh Sea, "They are apex predators in this region."
"Oh, you must have memories from Earth. Then this explanation will make you understand what I’m getting at," Brangara patted his chin and uttered, while in the background, the roots were silently losing mass, as they were being feasted over by Gold Ewworms, "An Ewworm is a python that could hide underground and can launch itself into the sky like a spring."
"And they don’t make a noise when they move." He grinned, as silently in the Dralh Sea, the Gold Ewworms were rapidly consuming the roots to grow in mass. And once they were full, they burrowed into the seabed to wait for prey.
Once full, an Ewworm will wait underground patiently for as long as necessary until it chances upon a creature in whose rectum it can burrow into. "They cannot eat solid mass. Instead, like a python, they will first crush a biomass and turn it into a sludge before sucking it in."
"An Ewworm would generally stay underground for months, waiting for prey. And if it doesn’t find one, it will die. A Gold Ewworm has enough intelligence to sustain itself." As he uttered, the Dralh Sea grew silent as the severed roots floated on the water, their insides hollow. "See how fast they’ve consumed your roots."
"Now, they are hiding and won’t reveal themselves easily. Even I would have difficulty sensing them if they remained hiding." He spread his arms wide, "I am educating you, Blola."
"At how outclassed you are here." He chuckled and then pointed at the figure of Ruvva who was in hiding 500 metres away, "You were pretty impressive against me, especially in using your Apogee Bludder capabilities. However, you lack battle experience, and your core focus until now seems to have been to boost your resistance, more than increasing your battle strength."
He then raised his arm as on the left appeared a golden lotus and, on the right, appeared a crimson gun, "I have only taken one of each. The rest of them are still with the Mystic Humans."
"Trick question," Brangara stared at the new batch of roots that had begun to grow out of the water, "Why do you think I stopped at two?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Came a voice as over three dozen roots gathered around Brangara.
As they began their descent, the carnivorous mouth next to Ruvva uttered calmly, "You should move out of the way. I am bringing out the heavy hitter now."
"But I don’t see anyone else?" Ruvva looked around in confusion as she used Prana Flash to move farther away. All she heard in response to her question was a chuckle as, for a moment, deep underwater, she noticed a humanoid individual who seemed to be patting one of the roots before a carnivorous mouth swallowed him.
The root descending upon Brangara suddenly grew faster, heavier, bringing down with it enough momentum that it seemed like the sky was collapsing.
Brangara’s expression spontaneously changed as he felt a severe spike in the Transcendent Eater’s presence. Instantly, he used the Minor Treasure of Spirit Puppet Slip to create a Mystic Ewworm puppet that behaved like a bowstring and launched him away.
Kaaa-BBOOM!
The impact resounded as if a volcano had exploded, rupturing the earth and skies. The water didn’t even splash out from the impact but straight up turned into mist. And at the moment of impact, for a moment, due to the sheer energy transfer, there was a flash of heat and light.
It was created simply through physical might, and it alone.
Launched into the air, Brangara watched the water in a two-kilometre radius vaporise instantly upon the impact, which for a moment, created plasma, "So, you’ve used it."
"You’ve grown smarter, Blola." His feet turned into a blur as he raced backwards, while commenting upon the roots that had become extremely destructive now, "The Transcendent Eater is one of the strongest existences outside Sumatra. The army of Transcendents it controls is just for convenience. It itself is as powerful as a Mystic Transcendent."
Secondary Nature—Internal Inertial Gravity!
That was what resulted in such devastating might. It wasn’t Blola’s Nature, however, for the influence from any Nature would mess with his Primary Nature eventually. It was an extremely delicate and complicated Nature.
Instead, what he relied on were Nature Weapons. Blola had two Settlements’ worth of Mammoth Clansmen belonging to Vhalla and Wrunnala. He had been cultivating them in secret.
There were many Weaponisation users among them, but they weren’t the focus. Instead, Blola fed the Mammoth Clansmen enough resources to result in the birth of those with the Fragment Disease. And when they mated, most of them died.
Still, thanks to him supplying them with Parute King Fruits, one of them succeeded and birthed an Empyrean Tusk.
What Ruvva noticed before was a Mammoth Clansman with the Nature of Weaponisation using the Nature to put the Nature Weapon of the Empyrean Tusk into Blola’s Secondary Nature slot. He was then consumed by the carnivorous mouth.
When it is time to remove the Nature Weapon, Blola would revive the Mammoth Clansman and then kill both him and the Empyrean Tusk.
"I have more than enough means to kill you, Brangara." Blola’s voice resounded amidst the roots as they descended with endless fury, "You are already history. And so,"
"Disappear like the relic of the past you are!"
Roots sprouted endlessly as the water level in the Dralh Sea dipped in response, being voraciously absorbed by Blola. They encroached upon a fleeing Brangara and descended upon him. Each root stretched for three to four kilometres in length.
Before them, Brangara was nothing but an ant, even if he were to assume his Pranic Beast form.
"Is that what you think?" As he continued to flee, Brangara wiped the drool leaking from his mouth as his widened eyes took in the expansive sight of roots before him, "You look pretty delicious, you know?"
"So, let me oblige." His figure morphed, turning colossal as Brangara activated both his transformations simultaneously. "Do you care to think about why Virala specifically chose this build?"
"You probably don’t." There was a sudden burst of laughter as Brangara’s presence continued to spike without limits to actually become on par with Blola. And then, in the sky, an aurora began to form.