A vast forest that stretched for thousands of kilometres, littered with mounds reaching as high as two hundred metres. Each mound was home to a Mud Viper colony.
The forest patch with trees reaching as high as 400 metres was treated no different to grass by the massive legs that seemed to descend from the skies. Clouds covered most of this giant's upper body. Such was its massiveness.
Spanning a length of 2 kilometres, a breadth of 0.6 kilometres and its tallest point reaching a whopping height of 1.6 kilometres, it was a moving mountain.
Empyrean Tusk!
Each of its footsteps thundered the ground, flattening large patches of the forest. A herd of Empyrean Tusks was now marching through this forest, leaving behind a wasteland in their wake.
There was at least a kilometre gap between two Empyrean Tusks, as such a distance was necessary if these massive bodies wanted to arrive at a halt without colliding with each other. Every creature shuddered at the thunderous sounds they released every time they trumpeted, causing heaven and earth to rattle in response.
But even these mighty creatures took great pains to waddle between the mounds, rerouting their path if the gap between the mounds was too narrow for them to pass through. Such was the danger posed by a Mud Viper's nest, for even a single nest contained a million of them.
If all the Mud Vipers in the forest region were provoked, not even the bones of the Empyrean Tusk herd would remain. Hence, these mammoth creatures exercised extra alertness.
But the weakest of the group, and the oldest had a failing eyesight. And hence, it had set foot on a nest, causing the Mud Vipers to crawl out of it en masse and swarm the 44th Empyrean Tusk.
As the 44th Empyrean Tusk was fighting off the Mud Vipers, the rest of the herd had already travelled a dozen kilometres. If it continued to delay, it would soon lose sight of the herd. Once stranded, it would be picked apart by the vicious Pranic Beasts that littered the territory.
It was why even Empyrean Tusks moved as a herd.
Mud Vipers continued to crawl over the 44th Empyrean Tusk's legs. The cultivators of the settlement began a series of bombardments along the stomach region, swatting away thousands every few seconds. But the enemy numbers just didn't seem to stop.
Many Mud Vipers began to reach the top as they swam like water through the grooves that traversed throughout the carapace on the Empyrean Tusk's back. Defensive units of cultivators were positioned in pivotal regions, but the numbers were too much for them to handle.
Some of them made their way to the Academy of Refinement, entering through the broken entrance as they swarmed the corpse of the instructor and gobbled him up. There was a lot of Prana in his body. It served as valuable nutrition, better than the students with fledgling amounts of Prana.
Until the instructor was consumed, the students wouldn't come under direct harm. Of course, that didn't apply to the Mud Vipers that didn't get a share of the instructor.
The situation was dire. Resha couldn't set his attention aside to focus on the reincarnates. 'This is a training opportunity. Using their toxins, I can quickly accumulate Prana. I won't get a better chance.'
Resha only had 12 Prana. It was a paltry sum and served no use other than to unleash some minor attacks. 'As long as I accumulate enough toxin, I should be able to reach 40 Prana by the end of this crisis.'
He was too weak to worry about others. Hence, raising his strength took priority. The moment Resha focused on fighting the Mud Viper stragglers, the reincarnates disappeared among the crowd of students.
'This is where Resha helps Ruvva.' Inala thought as he observed the faces of the panic-stricken students. He was looking for a particular girl based on the description in the novel. Ruvva was the first love interest to Resha in Sumatra Chronicles.
That ship never sailed as Ruvva ends up dead during the Second Minor Crisis. But she herself wasn't that important. The focus here was her grandmother.
Known as Granny Oyo among the Clansmen, she was the oldest surviving cultivator affected by the Fragment disease. She had plenty of knowledge regarding the disease itself. And when Resha saves Ruvva, Granny Oyo concocts various tonic that allowed him to increase his Prana.
She was an important character during the initial phase of the story and opened one of the most important routes in curing the disease. Therefore, it was apparent that the reincarnates were searching for Ruvva.
'Tender face, swan-like features, shoulder-length hair, and a tiny mole on her chin.' Inala soon found the person in question. But just as he intended to approach her, he noticed her hugging Virala nervously. 'When did this fucker become this close with her?'
Inala was stunned. But once he recalled the events, he understood what had happened. When Orakha targeted Resha to lick the tonic, Blola, Grehha, and Yennda were nearby. They were only a second late to act as compared to Orakha.
And when Resha knocked out Orakha and caused the Mud Vipers to catch him, the trio were stunned.
Inala hadn't moved from his original spot as he had other plans and only intended to observe Resha in action. But Virala, this acting coward was already on the move. After locating Ruvva, he used his slick tongue to get her to rely upon him.
At first, Inala intended to fight Virala, but he changed his mind at a second glance, 'No, all I would do is waste my time here. It would just seem like a scheme. Ruvva wouldn't trust me enough for Granny Oyo to assist me. Besides, the other three will try to approach Ruvva too. Change of plans then.'
There was more than one way to get Granny Oyo's assistance. It was something he had thought about years ago, during one of his daydreaming sessions about Sumatra Chronicles.
Inala waddled through the crowd slowly as he took out the rugged bone sphere from his pouch. Once he infused his Prana into it, the rugged bone sphere awkwardly floated in the air. Even though the necessary memory and experience were in his body, this was his first time, so there was a bit of awkwardness.
But even that was enough as he slowly brought the rugged bone sphere to the ceiling of the room. He then positioned it to the back of a Mud Viper that had latched onto a student's leg.
He waited patiently, for some reason grinning like a psychopath even when the student's flesh was ripped apart by the Mud Viper. As it gobbled up the flesh, a window of chance presented itself.
"Go!" He brought down the bone sphere with force and slammed it on the Mud Viper's back, knocking it into a state of concussion and delirium. As the Mud Viper struggled to recover from the attack, Inala rushed towards it and grabbed its forearm.
He lifted it like a water hose and twisted its arm, causing it to reflexively launch a mud ball. 'Success!'