A route formed between them and the grasshopper-like Attributed Creature for the duration of a second. Immediately in response, the group of eight cranked their Internal Inertial Gravity at full strength and rushed forward.
The Attributed Creature stabbed Inala with its whip spear, going for the kill. By changing his centre of gravity, Inala cranked his body backwards and evaded the attack. He extended four strings to coil around the arms of the Attributed Creature, binding it in response. "We only have room for one attack!"
"That'll be enough." Rhanalla condensed a bone hammer and slammed into the Attributed Creature's head, seeing a ripple course across its head from the impact. But other than that, nothing else happened.
Nitalla appeared behind the Attributed Creature and similarly unleashed a hammer attack, causing ripples to form across its head. All six Empyrean Tusks attacked, resulting in various ripples across the Attributed Creature's body that clashed with each other to form minor hurricane-like vortices.
Asaeya condensed six cylindrical Spirit Weapons that stabbed into a vortex each, keeping them spinning for an instant.
"We're leaving!" Inala shouted as he saw rain trail across the path they had taken; he retracted his strings of Prana and continued to run through a route that formed forth.
"We're done!" Rhanalla said as she dropped a Prana bomb in the cylindrical hole, joining the rest of the Empyrean Tusks who had done the same as the group sped forward.
"Keuk!" Asaeya grunted in the strain as the Attributed Creature's body applied pressure to close the six vortices, causing her Spirit Weapons to crack in response.
Prime Skill—Gravity Bomb!
The six Prana Bombs sucked in air, compressed it to the limit, and once they were charged up, exploded promptly. Droplets of water spilt out of the Attributed Creature and fell to the floor, revealing large holes across its body.
But in a matter of seconds, the holes closed up as its body was just made out of water. As for the water that had spilt on the ground? It gradually flowed into the Attributed Creature's feet and was absorbed into its body, causing its size to recover.
"It's not enough," Rhanalla said as she stared at the fracture on her left arm after a splashing droplet from the Attributed Creature fell on her. Thankfully, the momentum behind it wasn't strong enough to destroy her arm.
As she healed her wound, the group ran through the open path and traced back to their original location. And then, they waited for another path to open up.
This was the most frustrating part about the Attributed Region. The window of time to move was short. Hence, they would have to erupt with their strongest attack in that short duration.
Secondary Nature—Kinesis Lantern Deity!
Rhanalla activated the Nature gained from Maroppa fusing a Nature Weapon containing a Brimgan Royal's power into her. under the influence of Mystic Bone Art and Internal Inertial Gravity, the Secondary Nature of Kinesis Lantern Deity was created.
Currently, all Empyrean Tusks had equipped a Nature Weapon—with the power of an Empyrean Zinger—to their Tertiary Nature, for it would be useful for Prana recovery. But they didn't influence it to become their Tertiary Nature through Maroppa.
If they were to do that, then Gannala would no longer be able to enter their body and allow them to have a human form. Hence, leaving it empty was a necessity for strategic value.
Rhanalla's size increased by another three metres as she transformed into a creature of bone, humanoid in appearance, donning the same exoskeleton armour as an Empyrean Tusk. Immediately in response, Prana surged through her being and condensed a Spirit Weapon beside her which was in the shape of a Storage Lantern.
Originally when thinking of ways to influence their Secondary Nature, the Empyrean Tusks were deep in discussion. Merely having a Kinesis Deity form with an extended Spirit Weapon range wasn't much of use to them.
After all, why would they need to use a Spirit Weapon to attack afar when they could straight up unleash a meteor strike? They had precisely used that in the Dieng Canyon to target the Boar King.
Hence, range wasn't their priority. In terms of close combat, they excelled. Thanks to Internal Inertial Gravity, they trumped all in the field.
Therefore, when they began to explore other means, they decided on a certain aspect upon recalling Resha's actions from Sumatra Chronicles after he obtained the Major Treasure of Attribute.
He allowed it to influence Internal Inertial Gravity and as a result, transformed his Prana into it. With that, he was able to create Storage Lanterns that could hold more than a cubic metre in volume per floor and remain stably functional, without needing Prana.
A Storage Lantern was created from the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk. So, it was already the toughest material on Sumatra, which is why it could stably hold space that had twisted within it.
Twisting space to form a biome—big or small—was the greatest application of an Empyrean Tusk's power. Hence, being able to wield Storage Lanterns would further extend their power, which became the goal of their Secondary Nature.
Kinesis Lantern Deity boosted their Spirit Weapon Range by only two times. The remainder of its power was used to strengthen the stable volume holding capacity of the Storage Lantern.
The result was the creation of a volume capacity of 8400 cubic metres per floor. This was a cube with its sides measuring a bit over twenty metres. It was an insane increase, resulting in the creation of a Nature at the peak of Gold Grade, the same as Internal Inertial Gravity.
In human form, Kinesis Lantern Deity transformed Rhanalla into a giant exceeding five metres. It added an increase in height of three metres for all Empyrean Tusks, the same as what Kinesis Deity did to Brimgan Royals at the peak of the Body Stage.
"I refined this for a month." Saying so, Rhanalla poured Prana into her Storage Lantern, causing it to revert to its original size as its entrance opened. Air was sucked inside at a tremendous rate while the space within continued to bend.
Sweat dripped down her forehead as she was experiencing the strain in her human form, 'This would have been child's play in my Empyrean Tusk form.'
The sheer difference in the size of their brain in both forms evidently affected their processing power. But soon, she managed to succeed, having created a Gravity Bomb using a Storage Lantern.
"Protect us," She stared at Nitalla who brought out a one-
storey Storage Lantern and reverted it to its original size, a cube with sides slightly over twenty metres. Its entrance opened as everyone entered it, hiding in safety within it.
Rhanalla's one-storey Storage Lantern flew towards the grasshopper-like Attributed Creature once a path opened up, decently fast in its approach. Once it was close enough, the Attributed Creature attacked it with its whip spear, forming a dent with its attack.
But once it retracted the whip-spear, under Rhanalla's orders actuation, the Storage Lantern slammed into it and exploded. The resounding explosion unleashed a compressed gale, splattering copious amounts of water droplets from the Attributed Creature.
Rata-tata-tat!
Resounding impacts echoed within Nitalla's one-storey Storage Lantern, with holes forming in some places. The group hiding inside hurriedly evaded the water spill, for it had slowed down enough after breaking through the walls of the Storage Lantern.
"Quick! It has revealed itself!" Rhanalla shouted upon seeing a large enough hole had formed on the Attributed Creature. The key within was now revealed. In response to her shout, Asaeya's Spirit Weapon in the shape of a hand blasted forward and grabbed the key.
It turned around and threw it towards them with all its strength before a raindrop fell on it and shattered it into pieces.
"Catch it!" Inala shouted as he shot Prana Bombs into the air using a Sumatra Zinger, targeting the raindrops falling towards the key's flight path. All his actions did was stall the raindrops for the fraction of a second.
The other Empyrean Tusks did the same too, equipped with both the Nature of Prana Bomb and the Prime Skill of Sumatra Zinger. Hence, they too could effectively shoot heavy Prana Bombs while in human form.
The barrage of Prana Bombs stalled the raindrops long enough for them to barely miss the flying key. At the end of its flight path, the key fell into Asaeya's hands. Only then did everyone relax, and a moment later, collapse to the floor in exhaustion.
"How…much Prana did you spend?" Inala gasped as he stared at Rhanalla who had the highest consumption of them all.
"6550 Prana," Rhanalla gasped as she closed her eyes and focused on recovering the expended Prana, "The Gravity Bomb using my Spirit Lantern was the most expensive of them all."
Letting out a sigh, she good up quickly after, "How did Resha manage to obtain it before? He wasn't even a tenth close to my strength back then."
"It took him months and a lot of suffering." Inala said, "And a good majority of the time, he simply stole the keys from the hands of the exhausted Brimgan Empire Free Humans."
"It's more stressful for us because we're planning to obtain it before the Boar King arrives in eight hours," Inala said and watched as Asaeya used a Spirit Weapon to shed the mineral coating on the key, revealing a key of water inside.
Embedded in its centre was a sediment of minerals forming the word '10-L'. Upon seeing it, everyone on the ground groaned. After all that effort, they obtained a key that would take them to an adjacent compartment in the Tenth Layer.
"Let's target the next one," Inala pointed at an Attributed Creature situated six hundred metres away from their location. He held a Bone Slip and recorded the sequence of opening for the path leading to it and the timings for connecting to other paths for their return trip. It was impossible to perfectly remember everything.
And hence, they had Bone Slips for the same. By constantly referring to it, the information that floods their mind would remain fresh, allowing them to make instantaneous correct decisions. The moment Rhanalla was ready, they took action, targeting the second Attributed Creature in hopes that their resources would last long enough until they reached the Major Treasure of Attribute.