Kalahatra Desert!
A group of over 100 hungry Forest Boars were fleeing in panic, experiencing fear as a blur of ivory chased after them. One of them bleated in horror and collapsed to the ground, headless.
A Forest Boar turned to its right and noticed the Forest Boar accompanying it was now running headless. It kept pace for a few seconds as its head began to regenerate. However, its regeneration speed wasn't enough to regrow the head fast enough. Halfway, it died.
"What is that monster?" The Forest Boar running at the very front of the group screamed in fright, ignoring its rumbling stomach's growing sense of hunger. Its eyes then lit up in relief upon seeing the Kalahatra Border twenty kilometres away, forming a small, but wide line over the horizon in its vision. "A bit more, and we'll be free..."
Suddenly, the bodies of all the Forest Boars stopped moving, as if electrocuted. Their hearts thumped with all its might, circulating Prana in a frenzy in an effort to resist the pervading influence. However, the ability was too powerful, and in a matter of seconds, their senses blanked out.
Weaponisation-Dance of Annihilation!
Gannala's human form danced on the ivory sands, watching the Forest Boars transform into Nature Weapons one after another. Soon, the over 100 Forest Boars had been reduced to Nature Weapons.
With a thought from her, the Natures Weapons flew into her grasp one after another, pulled in by her psychokinesis. Opening her mouth, Gannala swallowed all except four. She threw a Nature Weapon on the ivory sand before her and began to dance once again.
Weaponisation-Dance of Recovery!
The Nature Weapon reverted into a Forest Boar that looked around in confusion, as if it had just woken up from slumber. Right as it had gathered its beings, Gannala's figure blast past, puncturing its head as she lithely landed on the other side.
Blood dripped from her body as with a wave of her Prana, she cleaned herself and turned around in one whole action, hearing the thud of the headless Forest Boar, 'This isn't enough!'
The second Nature Weapon revered into a Forest Boar as Gannala latched onto its face and brought down her fists, pummelling the latter into a paste in a matter of seconds, "Not enough!"
She reverted the final two Nature Weapons into Forest Boars and kicked the first. The sheer strength behind her kick shattered its body and sent it crashing into the second Forest Boar. As the two figures flew across the ivory sands, crashing through a couple of sand dunes, a figure kept pace and landed on them.
The two Forest Boars were plastered onto the ivory sands as Gannala applied her actual weight during the stomp, cratering their bodies until everything forming them splattered out like a rain shower.
"Heuk...kuk..." Her breathing was slightly ragged, not due to the fight, but due to the emotion of anger she was unable to bottle up, "Argh!"
Roaring in anger, she noticed another group of Forest Boars and pounced upon them, engaging in a dog fight. She took hits to the fae most of the time, but her sheer recovery speed kept her going without any issues as she ripped apart one Forest Boar after another.
And when she was about to be overwhelmed, she used Dance of Annihilation and turned the attackers into Nature Weapons.
Boom!
Her fist slammed into a sand dune and splattered it. Her ragged breathing steadied gradually as Gannala slumped within the crater she had just created, shedding a tear, "Harrala...!"
Ever since that day during the Third Major Disaster, Gannala had searched everywhere possible but was unable to find Harrala. Even though she didn't wish to believe it, Gannala knew the reality.
Harrala was dead!
That day, when she was trapped in an Attributed Water Cage, even though Gannala couldn't hear what Inala and Harrala were talking about, she observed their lip movement. That, coupled with Harrala's varying facial expressions was enough proof of her conjecture.
She still denied the possibility and tried to look around, hiding from the Quip Clan while tailing them in secret, using the skill of Empyrean Extraction from time to time. She had targeted hundreds of Quip Zingers and dozens of Zinger Aristocrats, gaining a lot of information. However, none of them had any idea about Harrala's state.
Eventually, she sneaked into the Kalahatra Desert, hoping to gain some, any leads possible here. But the moment she saw the Forest Boars, even if she didn't wish to understand, her brain naturally completed the puzzle.
Yennda refrained from using it, no matter what, fearing the consequences would eventually come to kill his daughter too. However, the fact that Forest Boars were roaming around in endless numbers and pouring out of the Kalahatra Desert nonstop was enough proof.
Yennda had been pushed to the limit, and he no longer cared about the consequences of his actions. For someone who didn't even flinch at the notion of death or the most brutal form of
torture, there was only one situation that pushed him over the edge.
Harrala's Death!
That was why she was angry, venting her anger on the Forest Boars. She hated Inala for doing something so despicable. However, what she hated even more was that she perfectly understood why Inala had done so.
'That resulted in Brangara's death.' Her face scowled in response, morphing from calm to explosive rage in an instant before returning to calm once again, looping erratically. Irrespective of her emotional state, her logical self perfectly analysed and applauded Inala's actions.
'If I wasn't so weak, Inala wouldn't have been forced to become the Royal Zinger in the first place.' Tears streamed out of her eyes as she stared at the sky, "Now, he's dead..."
"You should have talked to me at least once," She sobbed, raging a moment later to unleash a gale that formed an expansive canyon before her, "I...would have listened."
The Royal Zinger would revive in the Quip Clan eventually. That much she could piece together after accumulating the data from hundreds of Quip Clansmen. Moreover, she had accompanied Inala throughout his journey, until he became the Royal Zinger.
She could retrace his steps and obtain a greater understanding of the logic behind the Royal Zinger's build, which made it all the more clearer to her, 'The next Inala I encounter won't be my father.'
Climbing out of the canyon, Gannala headed deeper into the Kalahatra Desert, intending to
investigate the source of the Forest Boars and other variants rapidly filling up the Kalahatra Desert. She spotted a Forest Boar from afar and raced towards it, spurring the latter into
retaliation.
However, upon getting close enough, she kicked the ground with force upon making her body
light, evaded the Forest Boar's attacks, and made contact with the latter's body. Swiftly taking seat in the Forest Boar's Secondary Nature slot, Gannala erupted with her influence.
The eyes of the Forest Boar turned cloudy as its Secondary Nature's influence overwhelmed its mind. In a matter of minutes, its body fell under Gannala's control, causing her to use it as a vessel to move around.
The Forest Boar steadily sprinted in the direction of the final conflict between the Royal Zinger and Celestial Boar, coming across a forest where even the shortest trees had crossed a kilometre in height.
They had yet to hit their limit and were steadily growing, mutating in accordance to their size and density to better their structure. They were adapting to the height and changing to be able to grow further beyond.
The moment she set foot in the forest, Gannala felt her body tremble in fright, 'What the fuck
is hiding here?'
Her forest Boar body trembled nonstop, as if a prey that had encountered a predator. Everywhere her eyes could see, there were Forest Boars, in the tens of thousands. And mixed amidst them, emanating stronger presences were other variants that even Gannala had to be
cautious against.
'I need to be careful.' Thinking as such, Gannala carefully manoeuvred through the forest, inching her way towards the centre. However, she had barely traversed a dozen kilometres in such a fashion when suddenly, her body arrived at a stop subconsciously.
Casually latched onto the branches of the trees like koala bears were a new breed of Pranic Beasts, a boar variant obviously, but not the mobile kind.
They resembled a boar at first glance, but had spines that were thrice longer, giving them a somewhat centipede-like form. Their hooves had pointy thorns across them, meant to dig into and latch onto the trees.
At their largest, they spanned a length of 34 metres, pretty small for a Gold Grade Pranic Beast. These creatures latched onto their respective branches and hibernated for most of their life, consuming nothing but the produce of their respective trees.
They were herbivores, and strangely, that was what made them eerie, as they had a loose
lower jaw, like snakes, capable of expanding beyond the size of their head. One of them yawned, opening its mouth twice larger than the size of its head, the picture creepy.
These creatures seemed nocturnal and didn't react when Forest Boars moved on the ground beneath them. However, the eyes of every single one of them, numbering over a thousand amidst the foliage shot open and gazed at the Forest Boar controlled by Gannala.
Drip! Drip!
'Ah, fuck!' Gannala groaned almost simultaneously, realising that even though these Pranic
Beasts couldn't sense her, their hunger was stimulated for some reason. And they didn't think much about it and intended to target the cause that stimulated their hunger, 'These creatures must have been born with such a genetic trait. Only that explains how they could sense the mild traces of my influence pervading this Forest Boar!'
Gannala had underestimated their senses too much and became careless. The Prana circulating the Forest Boar's blood had traces of influence generated by its Secondary Nature
-which was her.
This was what stimulated the hunger of the creatures before her. Had she exercised caution,
she would have equipped in the Forest Boar's Tertiary Nature slot either the Nature Weapon
of Bloody Affection or Inhibition Dome. That would have prevented this trace from leaking
out.
Mutated Intermediate Gold Grade Pranic Beast-Murky Boar!
Primary Nature-Voracious Pit!
Secondary Nature-Astral Vomit!
It had a Prana capacity of 5800 and a lifespan of 1280 years. Murky Boars were nocturnal creatures with slothful characteristics. They would spend their lives not moving beyond a few kilometres from their birth position, unless they couldn't find a place to latch onto.
They consumed food nonstop and lived only to eat. Voracious Pit created a robust stomach in
their body, an organ whose toughness paled only before the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk. The
food consumed by a Murky Boar was compressed to its limit in its stomach. Small portions were digested when necessary.
The stomach of a Murky Boar contained enough food to last its consumption needs for a few
years. And the more they used their Primary Nature and trained, the more they were able to eat and store in their stomachs.
Voracious Pit compressed and preserved the food in a pristine state, and according to the
Murky Boar's will, only shaved off the necessary parts to aid in digestion while the digestive juices avoided reacting with the rest of the food substance in the stomach.
Murky Boars were territorial in nature, unwilling for their spots to be taken by anyone else. If
they spotted anyone they judged as a threat, they'd launch an attack, which was to vomit the compressed food in their stomach in a single, powerful blast.
The compressed food would be ejected out with enough force that it could pierce through the
tough bodies of even Gold Grade Pranic Beasts. It was a pure physical force, as the power of Astral Vomit was involved in how fast the stomach could be compressed to gush out the stored food substances through the mouth.
As to how Gannala came to learn this information? It was by tanking it firsthand!
The Forest Boar was vaporised by a laser of compressed food, revealing her Nature Weapon form that next became the subject of bombardment.
Boom!
Gannala activated Dance of Annihilation and caused the bodies of the Murky Boars to stiffen
up temporarily, which stopped their food lasers partway. Even the resultant force was too much, damaging her Nature Weapon form as Gannala made it as light as possible, and used
the momentum to be sent flying away. Only by this could she negate as much damage as possible.
"Dammit, I messed up!" Reverting to human form, Gannala clutched her chest and churned Prana into her heart, healing the damage done to her Nature Weapon form as she switched bodies to a healthier one.
She was just about to focus on recovery when Gannala flinched and turned around in a flurry, noticing the Infinite Divine Soldier within her line of sight. However, it was unresponsive. Latched onto its head was the Mystic Human Stamp, extracting everything of worth from it while the consumer was a tall woman.
The process was right about completed as the Infinite Divine Soldier collapsed to the floor with a soft thud, reverted to the human form as Yahard Tusk and melted into a sludge. Pocketing the Mystic Human Stamp, the tall woman stared at Gannala, "You are a fine mess
now,"
"Ganala!"