[We need to flee to the top!]
The Empyrean Zinger Queen said in a hurry and perched on Gannala's head in her miniature form.
[We can protect you there.]
"No, it's too risky." Gannala shook her head, "A Shifting Ant only needs to create a cave entrance underneath us and we'll fall deep into the Guna Caves. We'll be trapped there forever. That's precisely what Orakha intends us to do."
Intermediate Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Shifting Ant!
One of the three races that lived in the Guna Caves. The Shifting Ants were the reason for the Guna Caves' notorious reputation.
Primary Nature—Drifting Tunnel!
It can cause the earth to shift in such a way it seems as if a tunnel is moving sideways, like a rocking boat. The structure of the tunnel would be maintained while the earth around it would move. And this moment can be in any direction, as thanks to the environment of the Guna Caves where it was impossible to tell the bottom from the top, these shifting tunnels only made it easier to get lost.
The most common method used by the Shifting Ants to hunt prey was pit traps. When an enemy is chasing them, they would shift tunnels, causing a tunnel entrance to open underneath the chasing enemy, causing them to fall through.
The tunnel would stretch a long distance and at the end of which the enemy would splat upon the bottom as meat paste.
Once caught in a pit trap, it was hard to escape, for the tunnel systems acted like rivers, with the gravity within acting as the stream of water, causing the caught target to be sent flying across a maze of tunnels for hours at a stretch, sometime seven days.
Only at the end of that long journey would they reach the endpoint, by then too exhausted to protect themselves, as a result exploding upon impact.
Guna Caves had existed since forever. After countless generations of endless efforts to build a tunnel network, such a dangerous region was created where a careless mistake might even claim a Gold Grade Pranic Beast's life.
If they were to be on the surface and a cave entrance opened underneath them, it would be hard for them to escape, since they couldn't fly. If they miss the short window of opportunity to leap out, they will be trapped in the Guna Caves forever.
And during a battle, it would be hard to maintain a perfectly advantageous position. Hence, Gannala refused to head to the surface where over five thousand Empyrean Zingers awaited to offer assistance.
At least in their current location, even if she were to come across a trap set by a Shifting Ant, Gannala could unleash a punch radially that would destroy her immediate surroundings. This way, she would open a path to the cliff and be able to escape.
With this initiative, she could ensure to not be trapped within the Guna Caves and instead use the terrain's nature to trap and avoid most of the approaching Pranic Beasts.
Gannala couldn't understand how Orakha was able to draw in such a large crowd of Pranic Beasts towards her, but since the battle was unavoidable, she decided to fight.
Fleeing wasn't an option, for doing so would cause them to miss Inala. They were currently staying at the position he had specified. If they were to run away, with Orakha on the prowl, it would be impossible for their reunion to happen.
Inala would end up wasting many years searching for the duo and hence end up sabotaging his plan for the Major Treasure of Attribute, 'Dad is desperately wishing to obtain it. I can't pull him down.'
Gannala patted Asaeya on the cheek, forcefully waking her up, "The situation's bad! Get up!"
"Wha…why are you here?" Asaeya groggily got up and stared at Gannala. A moment later, her eyes widened, "Where did that bastard go?"
"I'll kill him!"
"Forget him, he has escaped." Gannala propped Asaeya up, "He has lured a group of Pranic Beasts towards us. We need to stop them first."
"Hahahahaha!" Asaeya laughed, "Finally! Something to kill!"
She got up in a hurry and rushed towards the cave's entrance in excitement, her eyes widening as she stared at the sight of thousands of Pranic Beasts rushing towards her. Inhaling a deep breath, she infused Prana into her throat and unleashed a roar, "Come!"
"Get obliterated!"
Her voice boomed radially outwards, causing the shockwaves to slam into hundreds of Pranic Beasts. The shockwaves were so weak that barely the hair on their fur flinched once. That was it. But the shockwaves were merely a medium to transmit her power.
Primary Nature—Linked Rupture!
Of course, if only this was activated, Asaeya would only be able to steal the senses of one Pranic Beast in response to taking out her senses too. Moreover, it would only be maintained until her Prana reserves lasted. After that, the Pranic Beast would regain its senses.
But that was only in the case of a Death Knell's ability. What Asaeya possessed was the Grim Knell's power. As a result, one of the Praic Beasts rushing towards Gannala suddenly felt its Prana being drained quickly as it lost all its senses. In response, the Pranic Beast to its right lost its senses.
In this manner, half the approaching Pranic Beasts had their Prana drained rapidly, using it as a medium to steal the senses of the other half. And in response to that action, a result of Linked Rupture, their senses too were lost.
Secondary Nature—Akashic Transfer!
Asaeya had zero combat capability as both her abilities weren't offensive in nature. But in terms of crowd control, she was unrivalled. Only Life Stage cultivators could endure her ability by rapidly switching up their bodies right as their senses get robbed.
"Holy shit! So that's why you put her as your daughter's guardian." Standing far away and observing the situation at play, Orakha expressed his shock, "She has the Grim Knell's power. That means,"
He frowned, "Swarm tactics wouldn't work against them."
"Then," His eyes darted to the side as he observed the terrain in detail, "I need to personally take action."
He closed his eyes, sensing something he had hidden in the bone house when he entered it before, "I should be careful to avoid killing her. The last I want is to have a deathmatch with Inala."
"Then," His Prana drained sharply as suddenly, a shadowy serpent slithered out of the bone house and rushed towards Asaeya, "Let's rumble!"
"Watch out!" Gannala shouted in alarm upon sensing the clump of Prana—the shadowy serpent—rushing towards Asaeya. She strengthened her arm and punched the shadowy serpent, intending to destroy it.
The shadowy serpent tanked her attack head-on as its upper half was destroyed. But a smaller serpent branched out from its tail and swiftly slithered to a distracted Asaeya that wasn't sane enough to react and instead focused on making the Pranic Beasts' life a living hell.
"Kya!" Asaeya dropped to the ground in shock when the shadowy serpent passed through her body, stealing all her Prana. Its tail coiled around her body and catapulted her outside with tremendous force.
"Asaeya!" Gannala realised that she had been fooled and turned around to leap toward Asaeya's rescue. But in response, the pummelled shadowy serpent before her collapsed and reformed into a tinier serpent that coiled around her leg, preventing her from leaping.
"Leave!" She kicked with force and ripped the shadowy serpent to shreds until it disintegrated. But as she turned around, Asaeya was no more.
Anger seethed in her as Gannala roared, "Bring her back!"
Hundreds of Empyrean Zingers launched themselves from the cliff in response to her roar and chased after the fleeing figure of Orakha.
Things became chaotic immediately after!