"Kyak!"
"Watch out!"
"Save me!"
Five days after the Millinger Catastrophe started, the battle had reached Ellora City. The city walls had caved in at multiple locations, resulting in the city itself becoming a battleground.
The soldiers resorted to close-range combat while using the large buildings as cover. During one such wave of attacks, a large number of artilleries landed on a part of the ground right above the shelter.
As a result, part of the shelter's ceiling caved in, causing the people within to shriek in fear. The shrieks only ended up alerting the Centingers of the presence of a large number of targets.
Though weak and netting only a few points each, there was enough of them to make up for it. Moreover, they were weak enough that a single artillery strike would kill them all, perfect for gathering some points.
The shelter Inala had taken refuge within was the fifth shelter to be discovered by a Centinger. As the people beside him shrieked in fear, he gathered strength in his limbs and leapt, escaping through the hole in the ceiling.
Upon arriving at the surface, his figure flickered and rushed into a house beside. "Phew!"
He was nervous, because this wasn't an environment he could be calm under. The only reason he was taking the risk was to collect enough data—skulls—that would help him at the Brimgan Empire later and eventually pave the way for him to obtain the Attribute.
It was absolutely important to obtain the Attribute, amongst all the treasures. Gaining it would improve his Primary Nature to a whole other level, making its Grade on par with Gold Grade Natures.
He would finally be ready enough to actively start plotting against the Boar King. But without the Attribute, it would take him two centuries before he could even think about wounding the Boar King.
Only he would make perfect use of the Attribute. In the hands of anyone else, its potential wouldn't be fully realised, as in Resha's case from Sumatra Chronicles.
Since Gudora would target him exclusively the moment his identity gets revealed, Inala couldn't move around in his male form. Inala took a couple of minutes to cover himself with a Life Bomb armour—one that could birth a queen. He became a middle-aged woman as a result of this action.
His Life Hand then shot out and dragged in a wounded soldier, ending up absorbing all his lifeforce. With that, he recovered to his teenage years. And with the excess Lifeforce, he created three more Life Hands.
He then stripped the soldier's armour and wore it, intending to disguise himself as one of the soldiers. He particularly picked a female soldier's uniform to appear natural.
Slinging a bracelet around his limbs that absorbed his Prana emissions, he was ready. Now, it wasn't possible to figure out his identity as a Mammoth Clansman easily. As long as he was careful about it while fighting and did not encounter any master while doing so, his identity would be safe.
Inala placed his pillow in the corner of the house. Within the pillow was the One-Storey Storage Lantern. He couldn't store it in his biome, for doing so would disrupt the space within it. A singularity might be created as a result of conflict between the two spaces.
Hence, he didn't take the risk. As people would recognise the Storage Lantern, since only Gudora and Hanya possessed one in Ellora City, their trademark accessories, it was placed within a pillow.
He planned to take it back later and peered out, staring at the closest Centinger that was two hundred metres away, fighting a group of soldiers that were led by two masters. Both masters were at the 2-Life Stage and were struggling to keep up with the Centinger's attacks.
'I need to be subtle.' Thinking as such, Inala gripped his mace tightly and burst with speed, revving his Internal Inertial Gravity to the limit. His steps barely created a sound as his body was light.
Like a butterfly flying through the air, his figure flickered from one house to another, always avoiding the eyes of the others thanks to his miniature Empyrean Zingers—perched all over his body—keeping watch.
A 2-Life Stage cultivator roared and unleashed a pillar of flames into the Centinger, masking its vision for a moment. A shadow flickered behind him and rushed underneath the Centinger's body.
Inala spun like a spinning top and threw a bunch of Prana Hands and Life Hands on the ground, numbering more than forty. He then slammed the ground with his mace and created a crater large enough for him to hide within.
Following that, he took in a breather and grunted, causing all the Prana Hands and Life Hands to move up and latch onto the underside of the Centinger. Through his Skill of Puppetry, he could control four Spirit Weapons without issues.
But here, he wasn't controlling them. All he did was raise them up by a few metres. Hence, he didn't have to care about the drop in efficiency. As long as they moved up, it was enough for him. Since both Prana Bombs and Life Bombs could stick onto all sorts of surfaces, the same applied to the Prana Hands and Life Hands too.
They stuck onto the Centinger at various locations on its underside, causing it to screech in pain and lose consciousness immediately.
It was very painful when just a single Prana Hand latched onto a target and forcefully stole their Prana. A Life Hand was many times more painful since it forcefully stole Lifeforce. What about dozens of each?
So many signals of pain were transmitted to the Centinger's brain in a second that it short-circuited. Of course, a Silver Grade Pranic Beast's brain was robust enough to recover in a matter of seconds. But that was only if Inala intended to leave it free for that long.
Mystic Bone Art—Prana Blood!
The moment he activated it, the gates of his Spirit Container opened as Prana flooded his bloodstream, causing the rate at which he was stealing Prana and Lifeforce to spike in response.
He used the excess Lifeforce to create more Life Bombs—ones that could birth a queen—and slammed them into the Centinger. The Lifeforce of a Silver Grade Pranic Beast was insanely valuable, especially for baby Gannala. She would stop whining once he gave her these.
He then placed his hands on the Centinger's belly and diverted all the absorbed Prana into it, activating another ability.
Prime Skill—Empyrean Extraction!
It was harder to do it on a large-bodied creature, hence the process required more time and Prana than usual. Thankfully, he was getting more than enough from the Centinger, despite the lowered efficiency from being connected to over forty Spirit Weapons at the same time.
Seeing the Centinger lose consciousness mysteriously, the soldiers didn't care and instead used the chance to bombard attacks with fiercer momentum. And right before they dealt the killing blow, the effects of Empyrean Extraction took effect.
But upon sensing the bone that held all the Centinger's data, Inala was shocked, 'That's the skull counterpart of a Centinger?'