Once every few hours, he picked up baby Gannala's voice. Based on the tone of the cry, it was a show of pain, worrying the Boar King, 'No! I should be the one to kill her! Not any of the other trash!'
He picked up pace, rushing through faster. From time to time, the Empyrean Boar King would gobble some Pranic Beasts, replenishing Prana in such a fashion.
The targeted Pranic Beasts didn't even know what hit them. One moment they were in their territories. The other moment, they were being digested in the body of the sole Mystic Grade Pranic Beast of Sumatra Continent.
It was so fast the targets barely registered a blur before they were killed.
As long as his Prana was being replenished, the Empyrean Boar King could continue his high-speed sprint, reaching speeds up to 800 kilometres per hour, his optimal pace.
Had this been before when he was at the 3-Life Stage, he would have casually broken through the sound barrier and travelled at hypersonic speeds.
Nonstop, the Empyrean Boar King sprinted, eventually hitting his limit after almost four days. He took an hour's rest and sprinted once again, arriving at an abrupt halt soon after upon noticing the Sandy-Grey Void.
"Is this a trap to lure me to the Sandy-Grey Void?" Reverting to his human form, the Boar King frowned in thought before feeling that something was amiss, "Wait, this Sandy-Grey Void doesn't seem treacherous enough as in my memories."
Intending to solve his doubts, he circled around the Sandy-Grey Void, soon noticing that it formed a circle with a radius of 500 kilometres. "This isn't an enclave. So, there should be no reason for the Sandy-Grey Void to be here, unless…"
He muttered in surprise, "A Mudropper is still alive?"
The Boar King crouched low and activated a bunch of Natures gained from Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, abilities he casually used around. With that, he leapt forth into the Sandy-Grey Void, landing on the other side, muttering in excitement, "It's only a kilometre wide. As I thought, it's a Mudropper."
He was indeed curious about the Mudropper, but that wasn't a priority. The Boar King rushed in the direction of the voice he heard last, which was around six hours ago, soon reaching the mountain walls surrounding the Rooster Tribe's settlement.
Followed by a leap, the Boar King entered the cave, casually swatting around the pile of Slump Lizard carcasses. Before he even landed on the floor, he observed the corpses of Inala and Asaeya there, recalling from memory, 'They were the ones with the newborn Gannala back then.'
A glance at the scene and he could picture what had happened, 'Judging by their direction of flight back then, they would have landed in this region. It seems they had taken refuge in this cave. But unfortunately for them, the Slump Lizards ambushed their weary selves.'
The blunt injury on the heads of Inala and Asaeya indicated that they had slammed their heads into the ground, obviously due to the Primary Nature of Slump Lizards. The sneak attack weakened them. Following that, when the two sides fought, they took each other out.
The Boar King concluded right before his feet touched down on the cave floor. He landed at the entrance, sensing some lifeforce in baby Gannala, excited, 'She's alive! Now, I can kill her!'
He couldn't even become fully excited as the moment his feet came in contact with the cave's floor, copious amounts of his Prana and Lifeforce were absorbed in an instant.
"Tch!" The Boar King clicked his tongue and lifted his legs one after another, ripping out patches of the bone floor stuck to his legs. With a twist of his toes, the bone plates crumbled. He then planted his feet on the actual cave floor, frowning. 'What is this?'
He leaped lightly and landed before baby Gannala, feeling his Prana and Lifeforce be absorbed once again, at a rate many times stronger than before, 'A trap?'
With a flex of his toes, he shattered the bone floor there too, stopping the suction of his Prana and Lifeforce. It didn't matter if he lost a bit of it, as long as he could kill baby Gannala. He glanced at Inala and Asaeya's corpse, "Did they set this trap before they died?"
"How futile,"
He extended his hand and touched baby Gannala, "Now, finally, you're mine to kill…GAHH!"
This time, he actually grunted in pain, for the rate at which his Prana and Lifeforce were being stolen was the fastest.
The Boar King picked up baby Gannala and threw her towards his mouth. His mouth enlarged into a boar's and gobbled her body, swallowing it after a couple of crunches. But a second later, he growled in anger, "It's fake!"
Since he didn't gain her Primary Nature, it meant what he swallowed a merely a fake meant to mimic the original. Now that he had removed the baby Gannala puppet from the picture, he stared at the small platform on which she had been placed upon.
It was a stone slab and carved on it was the following sentence.
[Yo, Brangara! Did you like my surprise? I'm sure the trap I set barely tickled you, but still, the fact that you're reading this means you've obviously fallen prey to my trap. Fret not, my friend. As I grow stronger, I'll set stronger traps for you. I know you wish to kill Gannala. So, I'll keep luring you to my traps. Let's see how long you'll give chase. Yours truly…]
[The Man That Boned Your Ass Once!]
"Bastard!" The Boar King stomped his leg in anger and destroyed the cave, causing part of the mountain to collapse in response.
"Wait, he called me by my name and not my title as the Boar King. How did he come to know that?" Only a moment later did he realise in startlement, looking around in fluster to see that he had reduced everything to rubble, "There was evidence here!"
Had he researched the puppets, he might have gotten a clue about Inala's abilities. But hearing the last line simply angered him to the extreme. He was a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast, the pinnacle lifeform. The fact that a measly weakling dared to insult him triggered him unlike anything.
As a result, he raged, ending up destroying the cave and part of the mountain by mistake. His actions buried everything Inala had set up.
He learnt nothing and instead accumulated anger, having been outwitted by the trap setter. "Bastard, I'll remember your ugly mug! I'll be going after you next!"
"Kya!"
"What happened?"
"Part of the walls just collapsed!"
At first, the Boar King didn't care about them. As he couldn't sense or detect any traces of baby Gannala, he intended to return to the Dieng Canyon and cultivate. He felt the Mammoth Clan too was in this plan.
After all, by distracting the Boar King with baby Gannala's voice, he would always be on the move and hence wouldn't have time to build up his strength. That gave them valuable time to rest and recover their expended strength.
And now that the two herds merged into one, they had enough strength to combat his weakened self directly and kill him.
Hence, the Boar King intended to return. But suddenly, the voices of the people turned strange, filled with chirps and screeches. Wondering what was up, the Boar King peered out and noticed the Rooster Tribe, "A Ravaged Tribe?"
His eyes suddenly glinted in enlightenment upon staring at their transformation as the Boar King muttered, "There's a way to counter their traps."