Mammoth Clan!
In a vibrating room sat Virala, watching his moustache flail around and clean the place. He then focused, making the two ends press on the ground, applying enough pressure to lift his seated figure.
Slowly, up and down, he began to perform moustache pushups. There was a mild strain on his facial muscles, but he was getting the hang of it steadily, with concentrated effort.
Boom!
Suddenly, the caravan of houses at the end of the herd stopped as all the Empyrean Tusks came to an abrupt halt. Immediately in response, Virala's eyes shot open, his gaze hardening, 'Have we already arrived at that place?'
He exited his house and leapt to the terrace, peering at the terrain that spanned beyond the herd. It was an uneven plateau, with steep slopes running with reckless abandon, coming in all shapes and sizes.
Covering the uneven ground was an algae-like substance, murky green in colour. At first glance, it resembled grass, but upon closer inspection, it faintly wriggled and moved. Algae grew in copious amounts in this location, unfettered, proliferating through everything.
Stick-Slip Plateau!
This was a rather strange region on Sumatra Continent, for it existed in the form of strips. In their current location existed seven strips, with each strip spanning a breadth of 390 kilometres on average.
The problem with this region was how troublesome it was to tread upon. After all, as its name implied, the Sticky-Slip Plateau meandered through the qualities of being both sticky and slippery in nature.
Any creature that sets foot upon the region gets stuck to the region. But this stickiness was spread over the layer itself and not a specific spot, making it hard to extricate oneself from the sticky surface. Moving on the surface wasn't an issue.
This was where its second property came into effect—zero friction. The algae growing here had the property of reducing friction to such a minute amount that it could be considered a surface with zero friction.
Hence, it was damn easy to slip and fall on it. Once a creature falls on it, escape is impossible. It would continue to slip and glide all over the Sticky-Slip Plateau's surface and never break free from it.
It was why the Empyrean Tusks stopped once they came into proximity of the Sticky-Slip Plateau. Even they weren't immune to the region's effects. If they were to slip and fall, too many losses would be sustained.
They would have to consume a tremendous sum of resources to fire up Internal Inertial Gravity to the limit and stop skidding over the region, or at least maintain a consistent sliding pace until they reach the border.
'They decided to go through this place after all.' Virala smirked upon seeing the Empyrean Tusks get ready to take action.
After the merger, the entire herd decided to proceed through the 100-year path created by the Supreme Tusk, understanding that this path was the most efficient and posed them a realistic chance to enter the Mystic Grade.
Hence, they abandoned the other route and stuck to it.
21 Minor Crises and 4 Major Disasters; that was the extent of danger the herd would face in the Supreme Tusk's path in the timespan slightly exceeding a century. There were safer routes out there, especially ones without danger on the level of a Major Disaster.
But in danger came opportunity. Hence, the herd stuck to the current route. Besides, all routes came with their fair share of Minor Crises. So, it didn't matter in that regard.
It was unknown how much Raaha knew about everything, but the fact that he commanded the herd to proceed forward in the same route implied that he had made an informed decision. They'll brave through the danger and forge ahead.
'It means I don't have to worry much.' Virala smirked in relief, casually abandoning his plan to flee from the herd to achieve a certain purpose, 'My knowledge of Sumatra Chronicles will largely remain relevant. Besides, this place is absolutely necessary for my growth.'
Virala equipped his three One-Storey Storage Lanterns and became ready. Right at this moment, Bora Tusk's voice resounded through their caravan.
"All elites, assemble!"
'Time to get to work.' Virala got up and stretched his limbs. He cracked his stiff joints and inspected his belongings, arranging his Nature Weapons in a certain order. He then got out and joined with the group he was assigned toward, taking up position to the side of the caravan, ready to attack.
"Take care of my back, Virala." A fellow elite from his caravan said as she held a Spirit Weapon shaped like a needle.
"Of course," Virala showcased a gentle but confident smile.
Seated on the tip of the 1st Empyrean Tusk's trunk was Raaha, observing a decently flat piece of land meander through the Sticky-Slip Plateau, appearing like an almost flat canyon. This was the route he had picked to traverse the Sticky-Slip Plateau.
Due to the concave curvature, it was a bit easy to maintain balance horizontally to the side, allowing the Empyrean Tusks to focus solely on their front and back. And even in the event of them slipping, they would only go forward or backwards, making it easy for other Empyrean Tusks to stop them.
Otherwise, if they were to skid away randomly, the Empyrean Tusks would lose each other and get too far away from the crowd. That would make it risky, especially due to the Pranic Beast race living in the region.
[The Boar King is coming into our fear range from time to time!]
"It's best we exercise caution then. Our priority is to remain a herd." Raaha nodded upon hearing the 1st Empyrean Tusk, giving out a comment, "Let's open up a path."
"Kurrr-alalala!" All 104 Empyrean Tusks trumpeted in response and used their trunks to suck in large amounts of soil from their vicinity.
The soil was compressed into large boulders under intense pressure from Internal Inertial Gravity to the extent they blazed, turned molten and fused into singular, cohesive blocks. Following that, large tornadoes were created as a result of air being sucked into the trunks.
Intense winds flowed across the plateau as large volumes of air were compressed in the lungs of Empyrean Tusks.
"Ready…" Raaha reverberated his voice across all 104 Empyrean Tusks who pointed their trunks vertically upwards. Once everyone was ready, he shouted, "Shoot!"
Dozens of boulders were shot into the sky from each Empyrean Tusk, travelling for dozens of kilometres vertically upwards. There was a minor, almost negligible inclination along the trunks, causing the boulders to make a short arc.
Once they reached their vertical peak, the boulders began to descend, catching flame along the way due to friction, resembling flaming meteors that rained down from the sky.
Boom! Boom! Kaboom!
The flaming meteors accurately struck home along the path they had determined to traverse through, starting a hundred metres after the 1st Empyrean Tusk to extend until the opposite end of the Sticky-Slip Plateau.
Craters formed at the impact as the algae surface was vaporised by the intense heat. Lava frothed, releasing billowing smoke that spread around, targeting the algae that intended to rapidly fill up the opened space.
But before they could devour the flame, toxic fumes, and lava, the herd intended to finish crossing the Sticky-Slip Plateau.
"Run!" Raaha shouted as the Empyrean Tusk herd traversed through the crater-ridden path, their rhythmic movements causing an earthquake.