"Phew," Hanya exhaled softly as she wore a pair of armguards. Her armour was tight-fitting, accentuating her curves. It was smooth and soft to the touch, despite appearing like a condensation of sludge.
In truth, the armour was hardened sludge that was weaved into fabric armour. Hanya spent a decade patiently creating it out of her Human Avatar and refined it with a bunch of Parute Fruits and minerals.
The result was this Sludge Armour that when worn, amplified her Human Avatar, strengthening her greatly. As it was a prized item, Hanya only donned it during the most important battles.
News of the Centingers arriving on the Angan River reached her ears. Her husband, Gudora had already gone to the city walls, alongside all their strong cultivators to engage in a defensive battle.
Based on their battle plan, her role consisted of the city defence, especially against the artillery strikes unleashed by the Centingers. Her job was to erect a sludge dome that shielded the entire city's airspace.
Her children cultivated the same technique as Gudora. Hence, their Human Avatars were made out of Haddlyok. Even though erecting a Haddlyok mist barrier atop Ellora City ought to stop the artillery strike, they weren't as effective as Hanya's sludge.
It was because of the consumption efficiency. It took too much power for the Haddlyok mist to crystallise the artilleries and shatter them into dust. In contrast, the sludge melted through the artilleries and consumed them to strengthen itself.
Moreover, Hanya alone was enough for the barrier. Hence, the task was given to her. Currently, other than a small group of soldiers left behind to defend the City Lord Estate, everyone else had rushed to the city walls.
The citizens had taken refuge in the underground shelters that had been rapidly constructed in the past week. The shelters were created out of Haddlyok and hence were robust enough.
At present, the only sign of human activity in Ellora City apart from the walls was in the City Lord Mansion.
"I'm nervous," Hanya muttered as she carefully placed a bunch of Prana-replenishing medicines in her One-Storey Storage Lantern. Ganrimb Kingdom had Storage Lanterns.
When Fhoong Brimgan fled from the Brimgan Empire, he brought in a bunch of Storage Lanterns with him. Contained in them were resources necessary for his cultivation. Over the centuries, the resources stored in the Storage Lanterns were consumed.
Since he had no other use for them, he distributed them among his children who had become City Lords. Ellora City had three Storage Lanterns, two of them being One-Storey Storage Lanterns while the third was a Two Storey Storage Lantern.
Gudora held the remaining two Storage Lanterns, using them to store the resources necessary for their ongoing battle.
Hanya exhaled softly once she finished preparing herself. Based on their information network, there were two hours left before the Centingers attacked their city. Therefore, she still had some time to calm her nerves, "I don't know how many would die this time."
"Let me predict it for you," A voice resounded from behind her suddenly, startling her as Hanya unleashed her Prana radially to capture the position of the intruder.
She turned in his direction and glared, trying her best to rein in her shock, "H-How did you escape?"
"Don't sweat the small stuff," Inala said and calmly closed the door behind him once he entered the room. He stared at the alarmed figure of Hanya and uttered, "My prediction is this,"
"Ganrimb Kingdom is doomed."
"You…" Hanya seethed in rage as Prana boiled out of her, filling up the room with her strong presence. "What did you do to my Information Team?"
"Take a guess," Saying so, Inala stomped the ground, causing it to web with cracks. Prana Bombs appeared around him in large numbers as he activated the Mystic Bone Art, causing them to converge upon his body like a fluid and cover him like armour.
Mystic Bone Art—Prana Blood!
The thumping of his heart intensified as Inala felt the surge of strength in his being. He condensed a Prana Bomb into a shaft and attached it to another Prana Bomb that acted as a head, creating a mace.
Secondary Nature—Internal Inertial Gravity!
Creak!
The floor deformed like a sponge when his body density crossed four hundred kilograms. It shattered at his kick, causing Hanya to lose her foothold and fall to a lower floor.
Taking the chance when she was falling, Inala condensed a spear out of a Prana Bomb and hurled it at her, increasing its density to the limit.
Boom!
Hanya activated her Human Avatar on all four bodies and stacked them, raising her strength to the limit. She erected a sludge shield to defend against the spear, resulting in a shockwave upon impact.
The spear absorbed all Prana upon the area of contact, causing the sludge in the area to lose all its strength. As a result, it pierced through and stabbed Hanya, stopping after lodging itself halfway into her torso.
The momentum behind the throw slammed her into the floor. The floor caved in from the impact before it was rapidly melted through by her Human Avatar.
"Have another," Inala grunted and spat out a dozen Empyrean Zingers, all of whom activated Mystic Bone Art to condense spears out of their Prana Bombs. Similar to him, they activated Internal Inertial Gravity to raise the density of the spear to the maximum and hurled them at her.
Even the weakest spear among them weighed around a hundred kilograms. Adding onto their projectile speed, they became menacing attacks.
"What the…" Hanya's face paled as her vision was covered by Prana Bomb spears. Every Empyrean Zinger had chucked two Prana Bomb spears, since they were ambidextrous in nature.
"Urrh!" She grunted and shot out sludge balls that targeted the Prana Bomb spears, meeting projectile with projectile. When a sludge ball approached a Prana Bomb spear, the latter swerved around it, as the Empyrean Zinger that had hurled it was controlling it.
The Prana Bomb spear was its Spirit Weapon and hence could be controlled through psychokinesis. As the Prana Bomb spear avoided the sludge ball, Hanya grunted as the latter curved around the air in a helical loop and trailed after the spear, latching onto its rear end.
More than half the Prana within the sludge ball was absorbed by the spear while the remainder melted through half the spear's shaft.
Hanya's mind was stretched to the limit as she was controlling more than twenty sludge balls. Controlling one projectile through psychokinesis was the limit. The greater the number of projectiles added to the mix, the lower the control efficiency.
To offset that, Hanya exerted greater mental focus, as a result ending up exhausting herself at a quicker pace.
"Stop!" She roared and erected a large sludge dome, one that exploded radially and melted through her surroundings.
"Heh, how does it feel?" Unleashing a gust of air to propel himself backward, Inala avoided the range of the sludge dome and commented once it vanished, staring at the melted surroundings, "You've destroyed more than a quarter of your beloved home."