Tch!
Jumping out of the corpse of the 104th Empyrean Tusk was Virala, clicking his tongue to see the Boar King survive, 'And I risked my life to create two opportunities!'
As long as the Boar King dies, Virala could lead an unrivalled life. He didn't intend to give his everything towards the cause of killing the Boar King. But when a chance presented itself, the Mammoth Clansman in him took action instinctively.
It was why he influenced the 104th Empyrean Tusk to suck in the Boar King's blood at the perfect time when the Boar King was distracted by devouring the fake Virala, who seemed to be his target for some reason.
The clues were minimal, but Virala pieced them together to weave a trap promptly. But the only ones who were able to perceive the opportunity and take action were Raaha and Resha. Unfortunately, they failed.
Since he made the 104th Empyrean Tusk suck in the Boar King's blood, unleashing an ability that it wasn't supposed to possess, he knew the Boar King would target it next. Hence, he began to influence the sea of blood within the 104th Empyrean Tusk's heart through his two Silver Nature Weapons of Leech.
This way, they would attack the Boar King from his stomach when he swallows the 104th Empyrean Tusk heart. Whenever he went in for the kill, he would take on his Pranic Beast form, drill his way into an Empyrean Tusk's body and swallow its heart.
Doing so would kill the latter while allowing him to obtain its Nature. Hence, every time he killed an Empyrean Tusk in Sumatra Chronicles, the Boar King employed this method.
Virala made preparations towards it promptly, which was how he stole the Boar King's blood—when he swallowed the 104th Empyrean Tusk's heart—while attacking him with blood from both externally and internally.
In his anaemic state, the Boar King was in a daze, not as reactive as usual. There wasn't a better chance than that to kill him. Had the 1st Empyrean Tusk attacked him lightly and swatted his body into the ground, the healthy Empyrean Tusks could have taken turns to stomp him into a paste.
But no, it went with the strongest attack possible, allowing the Boar King to use its attack like a baseball bat and be sent flying far away instead, thereby evading the fate of being encircled by Empyrean Tusks.
'Fucking Noobs!' Virala cursed in the end and glared at the collapsed figure of the 1st Empyrean Tusk, 'You should have followed Resha's lead. With his power, we could have bound the Boar King to the spot and blasted him without rest for a few days to destroy him.'
Stage 2—Exoskeleton!
Virala ended up revealing this form of his to the Boar King. He didn't have a choice back then, but just that fact itself pissed him. He then stared at dozens of Empyrean Tusks collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.
At the sight, he felt irritated before staring at the corpse of the 104th Empyrean Tusk, 'There's no other choice. If I allow them to die, my growth will be affected. I'm still dependent on them to blaze through the ranks of Life Stage in the shortest time possible.'
The Empyrean Tusk herd would gather and store resources in their bodies. Virala would use the power of the Decaleeches to steal their accumulation from time to time and use it to grow stronger, creating as many bodies as possible before the 4th Major Disaster.
In the process, he would also steal data from the Empyrean Tusks, using it to conceptualise powerful Skills that would help him. As long as he steals enough, it would be no different from getting an inheritance.
That was Virala's goal. Towards that, keeping as many Empyrean Tusks alive as possible was for the best. Sighing, he used the power of the Decaleeches to suck in all the blood present in the 104th Empyrean Tusk, sucking it dry.
He heard shrieks from Resha, knowing that the latter was doing everything in his power to prevent their deaths.
"Here! Touch these!" Grehha shouted as he enveloped Empyrean Incubators on the biomes of the collapsing Empyrean Tusks, "The Prana you pour in them would be converted into a form suitable for the Empyrean Tusks."
Right as the Empyrean Incubator covered the heart of an Empyrean Tusk, all Mammoth Clansmen from its settlement converged upon it and poured their Prana by touching it. Once their Prana seeped into its surface, the Empyrean Incubator used it as fuel to generate the essence of an Empyrean Tusk, being absorbed into the heart.
In response, the Empyrean Tusk's heart began to gain some Prana, which fed into its Spirit Container. Soon, there was enough Prana to fire up Internal Inertial Gravity.
"It's working!" The Settlement Leader shouted in relief.
What he wasn't aware of was that at some point in time, a surge of Prana-rich blood poured into the Empyrean Tusk's heart, which was what contributed the most to its speedy recovery.
Jumping out of the Empyrean Tusk's body was an orb that landed on a skateboard and travelled towards the body of another collapsed Empyrean Tusk and seeped into it, immediately pouring in a large pool of Prana-rich blood into its heart.
Virala used up all his reserves, even going to the extent of destroying his biomes to gather enough Prana for the recovery of the Empyrean Tusks.
A team of masters accompanied Blola to a nearby region where he took root and generated Parute King Fruits en masse, destroying the region in the process. The masters took turns to transport the Parute King Fruits to the Empyrean Tusks, hastening their recovery process.
During their most critical time, Resha used External Inertial Gravity to keep their bodies and biomes structurally stable, long enough for the actions of Grehha, Virala, and Blola to take effect.
"Argh!" Raaha grunted as he split himself into ten bodies and encircled the wounded Empyrean Tusks, creating an environment where the air was rich with Prana, allowing the Empyrean Tusks to maintain their conditions as they breathed.
Primary Nature—Thought Condensation!
His thoughts affected the terrain to catalyse the air in such a process the various elements fused to spark the energies of body, mind, and soul, the fusion of which generated Prana. It was a taxing process and had minimal efficiency.
But in this situation, anything helped. Hence, Raaha took action despite his severely injured state.
With the entirety of the Mammoth Clan desperately doing everything they could, the critical Empyrean Tusks were on the path of recovery. With that, they needn't worry about more losses.
In the recent fight against the Boar King, the Mammoth Clan lost an Empyrean Tusk.
And the cause of that was still in the air, his eyes closed as he felt the wind brush against his face. The turmoil in his stomach had stopped long ago when he was sent flying beyond the Spirit Weapon range of Virala.
Hence, his stomach had already begun digesting the 104th Empyrean Tusk's heart, generating a steady stream of Prana for his use. Remaining in the air was the safest in his current situation. Hence, the Boar King remained passive.
It was unknown how far he had travelled, but the Boar King was unable to see the Mammoth Clan anymore, sighing in response, 'Had I been a bit patient, I could have killed many of them this time. For some reason, they were all severely weakened.'
He then recalled the armoured figure who was able to use a Decaleech's power, grinning in realisation, "Loot, you parasite."
"You're using the Empyrean Tusks as a farm for your growth."