The powerful fart was toxic on their sensitive noses as the Pranic Beasts jumped away from the cause. They jumped around, circling around the female Pranic Beast, irritated by the interruption.
They unleashed grumpy growls, roaming across the place. They were quadrupedal creatures, resembling canines at first glance, sporting three pairs of ears that gave them enhanced hearing. Their tail was short, shaped into a large leaf capable of expanding in size to cover them, which is what they used to camouflage their positions when asleep.
Intermediate Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Zincuar!
Primary Nature—Aerodynamic Stability!
Their leaf tails were capable of generating faint wind that assisted them in producing lift and drag as necessary, allowing them to pace swiftly through the forest, make sharp turns, and run for prolonged distances without tiring out.
They were nomadic and moved about in groups across the blessed land, ambushing weaker prey swiftly to gorge upon and flee. They primarily targeted the newborns of other Pranic Beasts, including Silver Grade Pranic Beasts.
Their Primary Nature allowed them to move about stealthily, as silently as possible while maintaining top speed. They had limited combat capability and relied upon targeting only the weak. Along the centre of the leaf-shaped tail, in what seemed like a vein grew a thorn, protruding out.
It was barbed, reaching ten centimetres in length, sporting multiple spikes. This was what it removed and used as a Spirit Weapon, hooking onto its target when unleashed. Its only function was to cause the target to bleed.
When its Prana tries to heal the wound naturally, the hook gets stuck within the muscles, making it hard for the target to run, since they'll be targeted at the thighs, ankles, and other locations across the legs.
Zincuars will latch as many Spirit Weapons as possible onto their target and keep pace from afar, using their numbers to intimidate their target to continue fleeing, forcing it to exhaust its strength. Once it had been weakened enough, they'd swipe in for the kill.
Their exceptional hearing allows them to keep track of the footsteps of their fleeing target, no matter how faint it might seem. Moreover, their remaining senses were sharp like a canine, ensuring they didn't lose sight of prey once locked on.
And obviously, even during the commotion, the Zincuars hadn't lost sight of their target, the duo of Inala and Virala hiding in a bush. As they roamed around the place emitting disgruntled growls, their eyes tracked the bush, keeping watch.
While they moved, thorns protruded on the underside of their leaf-shaped tails, gradually increasing in number. They were using Prana and muscular strength to grow these thorns, preparing for the assault.
While the Zincuars made their preparation, three Silver Grade Pranic Beasts were lying in wait nearby. They weren't keen on targeting Inala and Virala due to their size differences. The duo wouldn't even be considered a decent snack to Silver Grade Pranic Beasts whose bodies ranged in length from multiple metres to even dozens of metres.
These Silver Grade Pranic Beasts were instead wary towards the Zincuars, as they weren't from the same species. They intended to attack any creature that dared come close. However, they were close-range fighters, able to attack only within their Spirit Weapon range.
As a result, all they could do was to keep watching warily. The cunning Zincuars were tethering right outside their Spirit Weapon range, keeping them on edge while focusing on the weakest prey first, the duo of Inala and Virala.
"I'm pretty sure we're screwed." Virala commented as he gasped, peering out of the bush to see the actions of the Zincuars, his face twisted in pain, "This hurts more than I expected."
"We can only try," Inala nodded, "If we're killed, we can send another batch of bodies to repeat the process."
"It's easy for you." Virala grumbled, "But I spent a lot of resources to grow this body."
"Then you better think of a way in which we could survive."
"Why don't you run out like a good little bro and act as bait while I flee?" Virala let out an innocent smile, "I promise to mourn for you for three…no two…even that is too much, maybe one second every day?"
The fact that Virala could joke around in this situation meant that they weren't in a worst-case scenario yet. He observed the Zincuars gearing up for the hunt, coming to and fro their position in an effort to alarm them.
He was alarmed but tried his best to keep his wits about himself, 'I'm no longer the Royal Zinger. I'm no longer the Royal Zinger.'
"I'm no longer the Royal Zinger." His eyes shot open, now more attuned to his reality. Prana surged into his throat as he inhaled a deep breath and activated his Piezo Slip Skill, emitting them through Tangible Piezo Slips.
Piezo Slip Skill unleashed a concentrated shriek that slammed into a target and carved an Information Slip on its surface. This worked in a straight line and lost a lot of power the longer it travelled.
Moreover, it was just a soundwave that he couldn't control. So, if any material were to obstruct its path, it would be dispersed or unleash the Information Slip prematurely, causing a failure in carving out the necessary information.
Therefore, the better option in the current situation was to load it up on a Tangible Piezo Slip, which spread around as a pocket containing the soundwave, acting as a Spirit Weapon until his Spirit Weapon range.
Packets of shockwaves rushed out of the bush, causing the Zincuars to react as their Prana detection means detected the clump of Prana within the packets. As the packets travelled at the speed of sound, they slammed into the target right as they had begun to react.
Aiee!
A Zincuar yelped in surprise as the impact from the packet of soundwaves caused a portion of the shockwaves to pierce through its hide and rattle its insides. It then noticed a circular carving had appeared on its skin, unleashing loud Zinger shrieks the moment it released Prana.
Piezo Slips weren't encrypted like other Information Slips. Not only were they visible to the naked eye, but they could also be accessed by seeping Prana into the carving. The only mode of encryption was the fact that the information stored in the Piezo Slips was using Zinger Shrieks. So, only Zingers could make sense of the information.
To anyone else, it would simply sound like a shriek. Normally, they were completely useless in terms of combat, which was why Inala hardly used them and instead relied on his Biome Bomb.
The Biome Bombs were effective even against Brangara, so it needn't be said that he wouldn't rely on anything else, considering their strength and versatility. But now that he couldn't use any of his original abilities and only had to rely upon Mystic Royal Art, he began to think of ways to use them.
Upon activating his Skill of Piezo Resonance, Inala detected the position of all the Zincuars and then targeted them with Tangible Piezo Slips, carving out Piezo Slips on their bodies. And when the Zincuars activated their Prana detection method, Zinger Shrieks resounded from their bodies.
They couldn't understand what was happening, terrified by the shrieks that were not only loud but also disoriented their hearing. Two Zincuars approached each other and scratched on the engraving, hoping to be rid of it.
However, even when damaged, Zinger Shrieks continued to resound from their bodies, scaring them even further. They didn't detect any difference in the Zinger Shrieks. However, to Inala, the content had changed from a coherent sound to garbled static noise.
[I'm Here!]
[!# $5#!]
The undamaged Piezo Slips released his voice through a Zinger Shriek while the damaged ones unleashed a garbled, broken voice of his. It allowed him to detect which Zincuars were alarmed enough to harm each other and which ones hadn't taken action yet.
In a matter of seconds, Zinger Shrieks covered the place, rendering the hearing senses of the Zincuars useless.
"Thank goodness," Inala muttered, managing to achieve his objective after using fourteen more units of Prana. He had used almost half his reserves, so if they didn't manage to gain something from this, they wouldn't be surviving to see the next daybreak.
"Pull your weight," He turned around to stare at Virala, saying upon seeing the latter had healed his injury fully.
"I know." Virala sighed as he observed himself, clenching his hand into a fist as Prana accumulated in the region, generating psychokinesis on himself, 'I see, so that's how Mystic Humans are meant to fight.'
He flinched in pain, biting onto his arm to control his urge to scream as he twisted and broke free his index finger. Prana surged into the wound and began to heal it while the severed index finger hovered above his arm, treated as a Spirit Weapon.
The body of Mystic Humans was their Spirit Weapon. To date, Virala hadn't figured out the ingenious ways he could take advantage of this one fact and instead relied upon the tool created by his Mystic Ewworm as a Spirit Weapon.
He applied psychokinesis on the index finger, using the force to dent its front, watching the bone within crack in response. However, he supplied Prana into it and mended the damage. In this manner, he could modify its shape.
It wasn't as fast as using Mystic Bone Art. However, he could control shape, and modify his entire body, and wasn't just limited to bones as Mammoth Clansmen.
Right after he had finished making the changes, Inala observed it with inspiration, immediately carving a Piezo Slip onto its surface. The tip of the index finger now resembled a needle, deadly sharp. Virala controlled it and sent it flying out of the bush, deftly swerving through the air as loud Zinger Shrieks resounded from it whenever any trace of Prana touched it.
It rapidly flew towards a Zincuar but was blocked by a thorn. But when the two came into contact, the index finger bent, just as fingers do, and latched onto the thorn. It applied strength in its lateral section and snapped it in half like a twig.
Once damaged, the Zincuar was only able to control one half, and the response was lacking from the thorn, slow, losing precision in its movements, and expending more Prana than usual. Before the Zincuar could let go of it and take out another Spirit Weapon that it had prepared under its leaf-
shaped tail's underside, the index finger landed on its body, beginning to scratch it.
Virala didn't have enough Prana to penetrate through its body and harm it. He had to reserve a portion to use psychokinesis and carry Inala to flee in a hurry. Hence, he resorted to scratching the Zincuar.
"That…is supposed to do something?" Inala frowned, "Just send it into its mouth. The shockwaves it'll emit upon getting into contact with Prana emanating from it would rattle its insides and kill it over time."
"They'll be on guard once I use it, so I'll keep it as a last resort." Virala said and flashed a twisted smile, "I thought of something good, so just watch it."
The index finger scratched, causing the Zincuar an itch. Unfortunately, it didn't have the means to scratch itself like a human, prompting it to rub its body on a nearby tree, similar to animals. But right as it did that, the finger scratched its other side upon quickly disarming its second thorn.
Whenever it intended to accurately detect its position—to target with its Spirit Weapon—using its Prana detection means, intense sound echoed from the index finger, momentarily disorienting it.
Using that window, the index finger scratched many spots on its body until the skin turned red and began to itch, urging it to scratch the spots for relief.
Grrr! Grahh!
The Zincuar lost its mind soon enough, having dozens of spots on its body that were itching profusely. Adding onto the constant Zinger Shrieks that were unnecessarily loud, it turned mad and rammed its head into the tree.
It tumbled into a couple of Zincuars in its maddened rush, eventually ramming its head nonstop into the tree until it bled. As it collapsed to the ground, the index finger gently poked into its nose and sent another Zinger Shriek inside, directly targeting the head until blood dripped out of its orifices.
"We killed one." Virala inhaled a deep breath and bit his arm before snapping off the thumb and middle finger, saying upon seeing Inala's gaze of confusion, "Chopsticks to pull out its heart. Consuming it is the fastest way we can recover our Prana."
The duo had changed bushes during the chaos. This way, the Zincuars lost track of them. But before they figured out a way to disarm the Piezo Slips, they all had to be neutralised. With that thought in mind, the two began to move stealthily, approaching the Zincuar they had neutralised.
However, they had to stop in their tracks, promptly realising their mistakes as they stared at the faces of each other, "We didn't plan against those three."
With a sigh, they stared as one of the three Silver Grade Pranic Beasts swiped in and gobbled up the neutralised Zincuar, forcing the disorganised remainder to flee. Now, the duo of Inala and Virala had not only lost their prey but had also consumed half their Prana reserves with no gains.