701 That’s Fear, Child
"He…hehe…finally!" Virala burst into laughter like a deranged person, his expression long within the realm of insanity. Veins jutted on his arm as he dragged the corpse of a Zincuar towards the cave, leaving no traces of blood, since the wounds were faint and had already been healed by the Zincuar's Prana.
It had been a month since they began their survival in the wilds, facing dangers in every corner. Even now, they hadn't managed to succeed in killing a Zincuar. Instead, they used Zinger Shrieks to disorient the senses of the predator that had killed the Zincuar and caused it to flee.
Immediately in response, Virala rushed to the Zincuar's corpse and dragged it to their cave. He stared at it while drooling, "Finally! Something that I can call food that isn't poison."
He took out a knife that he had refined using his fingers. The grip was covered by a thick layer of his muscles. It was weird to hold something extracted from him, especially since the sensation was eerily the same.
However, beggars can't be choosers. As a result, Virala forced himself to adapt to the sensation, wielding the knife as he began to extract a large portion of the Zincuar's thigh, ready to eat. But right as he bit onto it, Inala appeared in the cave, observed his action, and slapped him on the back of his head.
"What the fuck?" Virala turned around in anger and glared at Inala, "I'll kill you, bastard! Don't touch me!"
"Never learnt the concept of sharing?" Inala snorted and kicked Virala in the face, "Is waiting for my return that hard for you? Then why don't you eat the dirt on my foot? That'll put you in your place."
"Tch!" Virala spat out blood from his mouth, noticing that two of his teeth had been broken from Inala's kick. His expression turned bloodthirsty as he slowly got up, churning Prana through his body and accumulating the force generated by psychokinesis in his muscles, "Last time I checked, you're not in charge of the two of us."
"Is that so?" Veins popped all over his forehead as Virala was incensed. He got up slowly and tightened his hold over his knife. It twirled on his palm, controlled through psychokinesis. He stared at the piece of thigh flesh that he had prepared for himself, now grabbed by Inala, "I have been putting up with your crap for a month now. No more!"
"You're the weaker one of the two of us!" He roared and rushed forward, churning psychokinesis in his legs as he leapt, spun once, anchored his body on the floor with his left leg, and kicked out with his right, aiming at Inala's face.
Inala brought his palms forward and caught onto his kick. He leapt backward lightly, causing the momentum behind Virala's kick to only send him flying by a couple of metres. As he had executed the preparatory motions already, his body didn't experience any shock from the attack.
He then noticed Virala's knife was stabbed into the piece of thigh flesh he held, feeling a tugging sensation. Veins popped on his arm as he tried to hold it, but was unable to anymore as the thigh piece flew into Virala's hold.
"Do you get it now? I'm stronger…" Virala was just about to grab the thigh flesh when a rock slammed into his face, bloodying his vision. Followed by a growl, he curled up in pain, noticing his knife fall beside him, extracted from the thigh flesh.
Blood dripped from the piece as Inala held it and leapt once, avoiding the knife flying his way. It swerved in the air and changed directions, aiming for his behind when a pocket of shockwaves slammed into it, ricocheting it into the cave wall.
"Damn you!" Virala wiped the blood off his face and rushed towards Inala, converging psychokinesis in his arms for a punch, hitting the piece of thigh flesh that Inala used as a shield, "That's my food, dumbass! Don't waste it!"
"I'm only letting out its blood. That's not a waste…" Inala said when his expression trembled, sensing through Piezo Resonance another knife flying his way. He dodged it in a hurry, barely landing when a second knife appeared, targeting his ankle, and nicking him a bit. "Urgh!"
"I can't control multiple Spirit Weapons like you, but I can do something better," Virala said as he held all the Spirit Weapons he had created. Followed by a grunt, he hurled them at Inala, changing their directions through psychokinesis.
He raised their speed and power of impact through psychokinesis, repeating in them the same that he could perform on his body. As these Spirit Weapons were made from his body and still retained a portion of his Prana, he could use them as if they were an extension of his body.
Mystic Nature Art—Spirit Weapon Switch!
Spirit Weapon Switch was an exclusive Skill of the Brimgan Royals, refined to its extremity over thousands of years, and was the most versatile Skill present on Sumatra. It resulted in a monster like Brandal Brimgan who was capable of controlling a hundred Spirit Weapons seamlessly, which to the naked eye, looked like he was controlling them at the same time.
In truth, he was only controlling one Spirit Weapon at an instant but was switching his control through the Spirit Weapons at such speeds, that an average cultivator wouldn't even notice.
Virala had all of Brandal Brimgan's information. And the moment he figured out that he could use his body parts as Spirit Weapons, he immediately thought of Spirit Weapon Switch and had been working on emulating its effects through Mystic Nature Art instead of instead of Gold Kinesis Art.
In the past month, he had laid down the necessary groundwork to unleash the Skill, though it was a far cry when compared to the Skill unleashed by the Brimgan Royals. But in their current, low-level battle, it was a game changed.
"Argh!" Inala grunted every time a Spirit Weapon nicked his body, despite his best efforts to dodge them. He had a clear perception of his surroundings through soundwaves, thanks to Piezo Resonance. That was why Virala couldn't ambush him.
However, his body wasn't fast enough to dodge a flurry of Spirit Weapons coming at him at the same time. Spirit Weapon Switch allowed Virala to instantly switch the target for his psychokinesis and move it at the same momentum he was controlling the previous Spirit Weapon with.
Following a flurry of incessant dodging, Inala clicked his tongue when a hand-shaped Spirit Weapon grabbed him by the ankle and pulled his leg, collapsing his balance, using which two knives stabbed into his back, targeting his shoulder blades.
"I know you can throw things that pack a punch." Virala approached Inala and stomped onto the latter's back, "Now that your shoulder blades are damaged, you've just lost your greatest advantage."
"Give up, Inala." Virala snorted as he increased the force behind his stomp upon detecting resistance from Inala, "In a one-on-one battle, I'm superior."
"Greatest advantage?" Inala chuckled as his body began to vibrate at a high frequency. Prana surged into his throat, transformed into shockwaves, and coursed through the rest of his body. In response to his vibrating body, Virala's right leg—that was stomping him on the back—began to tremble faintly.
But a second later, his legs trembled at a rate dozens of times Inala's, stunning Virala, "What the…fuck is that?"
He suddenly realised that he was unable to exert strength through his right leg anymore. Even with the aid of psychokinesis, his right leg's muscles were unable to contract, twitching like they had gone bonkers.
"Argh!" Inala shouted and sent out four Tangible Piezo Slips containing the strongest shockwaves he could amass. They curved in the air and targeted the shin on Virala's right, fracturing the leg bone into five pieces.
"What have you done?" Virala muttered in shock as he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Mystic Royal Art—Resonant Shock!
It coursed through the body's target a shockwave matching the body's natural frequency, causing its vibrations in response to reach their highest, turning its material structure brittle. Physical contact was necessary since he was generating the shockwave from his throat and could only be transferred from his body.
If he were to send it through the air as a shockwave, too much of its power would be lost during the medium transfer from air to body, making it less efficient than he wanted it to be. Once the Skill of Resonant Shock compromises the structural integrity of the target, he would send shockwaves through a Tangible Piezo Slip and shatter it.
Virala couldn't understand it fully, observing that he was staring at the ceiling now. He was just about to crane strength in the other leg and get up when Inala dragged himself on the floor with his chin and bit onto Virala's left leg, activating the Skill of Resonant Shock once again. He followed it up with a shockwave and bit hard, shattering the left leg too.
He was unable to use his hands after the shoulder blades were destroyed, but upon rolling on the ground a bit, he accumulated enough momentum to kick the floor with his leg and got up. A knife flew his way when he evaded it, using the momentum behind his spin to cause his arm to flail about.
He relied upon that to ensure the knife came in contact with his palm, smiling in response. Immediately in response, Virala hollered at the severity of the headache he experienced as the Prana he was pouring into his knife was sucked in at a faster pace, stressing his Spirit Container.
A circuit had appeared on the knife, from which jutted out a string of Prana and latched onto Virala's stomach. It contracted, pulling the knife at tremendous speeds, and plunged it into his stomach.
"Aah!" Virala screamed as he grabbed the knife with his hand, using psychokinesis on all three—the knife, his two arms—in an effort to pull them out, shrilling as the Prana he poured into the knife was used by the circuit there to heal the string of Prana being ripped apart from the force he exerted.
A dozen seconds later, Virala collapsed on the floor, exhausted both physically and mentally. His Prana reserves too were at rock bottom. As the last unit of his Prana was consumed, the string of Prana was unable to maintain itself anymore, dissipating immediately after.
Blood leaked faintly from the stab wound on his stomach as Virala gasped in exhaustion, cursing in anger, "F-fucking bastard!"
"What the heck was that?" He groaned upon seeing Inala slowly walk in his direction, "I thought you couldn't use any Natures, just like me. Then how the fuck did you create that string of Prana?"
15:50
"It's a Skill," Inala stared at Virala's bloody self. He wasn't any better either, having multiple rib fractures and a pair of shattered shoulder blades. Blood dripped out of his back where two knives were still stabbed into.
Inala wanted to eat the Zincuar flesh as soon as possible and work on recovering from his injuries. But first, he had to establish something, glaring at Virala coldly to say, "If I tell you to wait, you better follow it religiously. Otherwise, I don't mind putting you in your place, as many times as you want."
"Hahaha!" Virala burst into laughter in response, "You barely managed to win this time. Now that you've revealed all your cards, you cannot take me by surprise the next."
"Let's see who is laughing the next time." He roared.
"Wounded dogs tend to bark and wine nonstop." Inala stared at Virala and expressed with an enlightened countenance, "I have come to witness and verify that claim today."
"So, the legends are true." Inala laughed tauntingly at Virala, "You're a sore loser."
"I'll kill you!" Virala raged.
"Yeah, I'm standing right here." Inala taunted as he stood a couple of metres from Virala, "If you have as many balls as you claim, who don't you come here to punch me? Oh, my bad. It seems age is getting to me that I forgot…"
He stared at Virala's shattered legs, "You unfortunate soul. Want your dad to bring you a wheelchair?"
"Don't feel shy. I know you have it in you to be a humiliating son." Inala said and walked towards Virala and nudged his feet, "Can't react, can you?"
"That's fear, child."