710 Wool Weaver Inala
Petrichor Savannah!
It was a decently large region on Sumatra, somewhat similar to the Sticky-Slip Plateau in terms of size. The vegetation was decent but not enough to satisfy the needs of large group of herbivore Pranic Beasts.
Migration was common across this place, with herds of Pranic Beasts moving about from one part of the region to another every few days. The most prominent group among them consisted of a bawling creature that emanated the scent of fresh milk.
A quadrupedal creature that reached a height of two metres and a length of four metres. Thick, bow-shaped horns formed on its forehead, similar to a mountain goat, powerful enough for it to ram into its target.
Its frontal body was built with closely-packed clusters of muscles, enabling swift acceleration in the forward direction. The rear body muscles though weren't the same, resulting in its weakness of being unable to take backsteps.
It had two sets of hooves that could retract and emerge from the bottom of its limb. The first set was similar to the hooves of a mountain goat that allowed it to move about on hard surfaces, especially rocky hillscapes that it fled towards at the sight of a predator.
The second set of hooves was soft, resembling that of a feline, allowing it to sprint across the savannah for short distances at top speed to flee from a predator. The thick scent of milk it released registered it as a newborn in the senses of external parties.
Even if the external party could see that they were grown adults, the scent would make them subconsciously let their guard down and consider these Pranic Beasts weaker than they were. That provided them plenty of chances to escape from their predators.
Advanced Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Balghat!
With a Prana capacity of 740 and a lifespan of 60 years, a Balghat wasn't powerful in the grand scheme of things. Even in the Petrichor Savannah where it primarily lived, this race was labelled a prey.
Balghats only had a single eye on its forehead, lodged in the centre of its bow-shaped horns, protected by a thick layer of keratin that surrounds it like walls. This, while protecting its eye, also limits its vision.
Balghats had a tunnel vision, which prompted them to move about as a herd. Otherwise, they had too many blind spots to be targeted by predators.
Currently running about along the edges of the Petrichor Savannah was a herd that numbered close to four hundred. It was one of the smaller herds, releasing a dense scent of milk while occupying a rocky hill as their territory for the few days they planned to stay there.
With the rocky hill as their base, they moved about in the region, primarily consuming the leaves of the shrubs and trees that grew nearby.
They moved about in a circular formation, with all Balghats facing outwards to minimise their blind spots as much as possible. One of the Balghats approached a tree and rammed into it, collapsing it after a few consecutive rams. As the tree collapsed with a thud, it approached its foliage and began to munch on its leaves.
A Balghat could leap up to a height of fourteen metres, but the action strained its muscles. It only resorted to it while fleeing from a predator.
While grazing, if a Balghat comes across a large tree, it would jump once and ram into a branch with enough leaves for its consumption. If there were no such branches, it would ram into the trunk of the tree and collapse it.
As the quantity of leaves on this particular tree were limited, the Balghat felled it, beginning to consume the foliage soon after. But while it was in the middle of its eating session, it heard bleats from its brethren, promptly leaping high into the air to watch a humanoid figure rush past its prior location.
It landed a couple metres behind the humanoid figure and assumed a battle-ready position. The humanoid figure was a head shorter than it, appearing thin. It had never seen such a creature before this either.
However, the fact that such a thin-looking creature targeted it meant that it was a predator, though seemingly lacking the necessary muscle mass to threaten the Balghats.
Even among Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, Balghats were inferior in intelligence. So, it acted on its instinct and performed the same action that it did always when confronted by an enemy.
The greyish-brown layer of wool growing on its body expanded in response, separating from its body like a wave that latched onto the target at rapid speeds. It acted as a net and latched onto the target, constricting them in the fraction of a second.
The Balghat was bare now, having lost the wool it had been growing all along. It took a moment to glare at the predator that had been wrapped into a mummy and huffed once, spiking the intensity of the milk sent it released.
It dug its hooves into the ground and rushed forward, ramming into the wrapped target. Bone crunching sounds resounded in response as the wrapped target slammed into the trunk of a tree farther away.
Immediately in response, a second Balghat rammed into it, crushing even more bones. It stopped and struggled a bit, barely angling its body to the side to walk away, making enough room for a third Balghat to ram into the target.
By the third time, the wrapped figure had been crushed completely, leaking blood through the wool that had soaked the same. Once the predator had been neutralised, the Balghats resumed their eating process.
Primary Nature—Wool Expansion!
When threatened, the Balghat would launch the layer of wool covering it like a net that would capture and constrict its target, giving it the opportunity to ram into the captured foe.
Balghats were able to accelerate only on a straight line. They were horrible at making turns, taking significant time to do so, not to mention being unable to walk backward. Hence, their Primary Nature worked perfectly for their needs.
If the predator was weak enough, the Balghats would ram into it enough times until the bones in its body were crushed into a pulp. But if the predator was too strong, they'd flee after unleashing their Primary Nature onto the target.
The herd of Balghats would climb upon the closest rocky hill to remain in safety. All the predators in Petrichor Savannah were flatland types, unable to climb rocky surfaces. As a result, the rocky hills served as a safe zone for Balghats to survive.
However, no trees grew on these rocky hills and even if they grew, they were too scarce, which forced the Balghats to descend down and expose themselves to danger.
The wool they launched would coil upon itself through individual strands to instantly tighten their hold over their target.
Breaking out of it took time for the predators living in the Petrichor Savannah. Their best-case scenario would be to evade Wool Expansion on time and resume their hunt. But once they were caught, their lives were under the hands of the Balghats.
Since they had taken care of the only predator in the region, the Balghats continued to eat. One of them opened its mouth and chomped upon a large number of leaves, for a moment feeling that something was wrong, as the taste of the leaves seemed different from usual.
It didn't notice the thick blood bursting out of the leaves as its teeth munched on them. The blood flowed down its throat and suddenly expanded, blocking its windpipe.
The Balghat let out a soft bleat and collapsed to the ground, suffocated. A couple minutes later, its body began to twitch, dying soon after. The Balghats were confused as to what had happened there, unable to figure out the cause.
They observed a faint stream of blood leaking out of the dead Balghat's mouth, but that was it. there didn't seem to be anything else that was amiss. But right at that moment, a second humanoid figure rushed at them from a farther location.
11:34
One of the Balghats evaded the humanoid figure's lunge by jumping high up in the air and unleashed Wool Expansion. Once the humanoid was trapped in the layer of wool, the Balghats rammed into the target, taking turns until it was presumed dead.
There was no more danger following that. One of their brethren had died to mysterious causes, but other than that, everything else was fine. Hence, once they had their fill, they returned to their home, leaving the corpse of their fallen behind.
They had no tradition to care about their fallen, but instead left it behind to fill the stomachs of the predators. This way, they won't be targeted by the satiated predators. This was the logic with which the Balghats operated.
Once the herd left the place, two humanoid figures crawled towards the corpse, their eyes red, their teeth dripping saliva, and their bodies covered by mud as a form of camouflage. They were none other than the duo of Inala and Virala.
"Finally, some good stuff." Inala said as he approached the beaten-up humanoid figure and touched the wool constricting it. He began to tug the strings, gradually opening up an entrance. He widened the gap and pulled out the mashed corpse inside, addressing Virala, "Here's your puppet."
"It is damaged pretty badly."
"Shit!" Virala grumbled as he observed the corpse which resembled him. He had created it using his body parts after all. By taking off an arm, he supplied it with Prana until it began to regenerate the rest of the body.
It was a painstaking process, consuming a lot of Prana, but the result was a Spirit Weapon that he could expertly control like a puppet. After all, Virala was controlling his own body, one detached from himself.
"How much Prana do you think will it take to heal it?" Inala asked as he shot a glance at Virala.
"At least around two hundred." Virala sighed as he stared at the corpse of the Balghat, "We'll barely be able to replenish ourselves after the expenditure."
"That's pretty good then," Inala said and began to trail his hands across the wool, soon pulling out a long string. He grinned as he began to form a roll using the extracted string, "Once the Balghat unleashes Wool Expansion, its layer of wool takes the form of strings to better constrict its target. And that makes it easy to gather a roll of thread that is uniformly long and unbroken."
As the puppet controlled by Virala didn't resist and was quickly rammed to death, the wool barely sustained any damage. In an hour, Inala had two large rolls of wool beside him, stating happily, "I'll weave a strong suit for the both of us through this."
"Thank you," Virala said as he worked on recovering his two crushed puppets, "I'll scout out the place until then."
"Sounds like a plan," Inala nodded and asked, "So, which Pranic Beast are we targeting next?"
"Let's gather as much wool as possible." Virala said and pointed at a direction, "There's a nomadic Free Human Kingdom in Petrichor Savannah. They have recently aligned themselves with the Varahan Empire."
"We'll enter them as merchants selling intricately crafted wool clothes." He said and stared at the speed Inala's hands danced in awe, "Yeah, no one else can exceed your craftmanship."
"So, we'll be making bank."