"For the unconcerned parties, speak your mind now," Danhral said, looking around and eyeing the beings located on hills far away. "Or forever hold your silence."
Secondary Nature—Kinesis Mist Deity!
An armour of mist covered him as Danhral’s size increased by three metres. He extended his hand, formed a spear of mist in it, and then pointed it towards the two armies standing before him, "I will face your leaders alone!"
The spear pointed at the figure of Yoribu on the Varahan Empire’s side and KalTara on the Wean Clan’s side, "Come at me, the both of you."
His words implied that the Cooter Clan didn’t recognise the split between the Free Humans at the Wean Clansmen at the Varahan Empire. Rather, they were regarded as one entity by the Cooter Clan, and labelled the subject for hatred.
After all, they belonged on Brangara’s side, from ideology to power, including the Free Humans. The war between the Varahan Empire and the Wean Clan wasn’t treated as a war between two forces, but rather a civil war.
That was the Cooter Clan’s outlook on the matter.
"It hasn’t been long since we were trading blows." KalTara smiled wryly as he walked forward, staring to his right to say, "And now, we’re fighting side by side."
"We will revert to killing each other the moment this threat passes by," Yoribu said, "Of course, if the Wean Clan surrenders to our rule, things will be different."
"Wow, such baseless confidence." KalTara chuckled as he eyed Yoribu’s stomach, "Are you that confident in your child? You think he would lead the Varahan Empire to glory?"
"He’s His child," Yoribu stated, her expression staunchly confident, "Narkahamy had to carry the entire Varahan Empire on his back, which was why he was forced to make that decision. But now, every Free Human has a chance to reach the State of Harmony on their own."
"His son will inherit this Empire and lead it to new heights." She had a zealous expression, bordering fanaticism as she eyed KalTara, "You better pray you become the Empyrean Boar King by then. Because my son will be gunning for the Mystic Grade soon after birth."
’Crazy woman!’ KalTara thought and didn’t bother speaking to Yoribu. Instead, he stared at Danhral who stood four kilometres away, thinking upon sensing the latter’s strength, ’He’s at the 2-Life Stage. That’s not an issue. I have a higher cultivation and have prepared better...!’
Unknowingly, a droplet of sweat dripped down his temple as KalTara became nervous, even more than when he faced Narkahamy. After all, even though it was a two-versus-one, even though the opponent was only in human form, even though an Empyrean Boar Aurora had begun to form in the sky, he was nervous.
Deity—Empyrean Snapper!
After Yamahara’s birth, Brana became the Boar King, reaching Expert Gold Grade status. At that time, he vowed to slaughter the Empyrean Tusks. However, Brangara simply told him he was being delusional, and that in a one-on-one fight, a Boar King would never win against an Empyrean Tusk.
The reason was simple. Exert Gold Grade they might be, but they had maximised every ounce of strength that was possible and wielded Natures that were so strong they made every other Gold Grade Nature seem lacking in comparison.
A Deity was one who had quasi-Mystic Grade strength, with its Nature so powerful that simply training it to its extreme would allow them to enter Mystic Grade—such as Wally controlling the Sandy Grey Void or Resha creating a biome in his body large enough to be considered a world.
A Deity was one whose physical traits were so elaborate and refined that a cultivation technique created upon it was a Mystic Grade cultivation technique. And most of all, a Deity was one whose body alone was enough to kill a Gold Grade Pranic Beast.
In recent times on Sumatra, quite a few Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts had appeared. However, the Deity status remained unchanged. Only two Races had that.
At least many Races witnessed an Empyrean Tusk’s might, for they were nomadic in nature and had plenty of opportunities to reveal their strength.
However, Empyrean Snappers weren’t like that. The only one who had properly fought them was Brangara. No one else knew how strong an Empyrean Snapper was.
"Is it just me, or are you sweating?" Yoribu’s voice resounded with sarcasm. Her eyes moved from top to bottom, scanning KalTara’s drenched state.
"This isn’t the time to make jokes..." KalTara snapped to the side, only to notice that Yoribu was in the same state, nervous, sweating buckets. Her limb muscles twitched faintly, a sign that her body was in an extremely alert state.
Danhral had simply crouched a little to poise his spear in their direction. However, there was a shift in the environment, enough for hairs to stand on the ends for the two leaders. The region in a radius of 1080 metres around him was under his authority.
At the 2-Life Stage, Danhral’s Spirit Weapon range was 360 metres. Empyrean Mist Deity multiplied his Spirit Weapon range by three times, which brought the total to 1080 metres. This formed the space where he could do whatever he intended to, which he exuded through his sight, expression, body language, and the gradually building presence.
There was silence for an entire minute as both sides gauged each other. And then, Danhral’s presence billowed as he roared, "Come!"
"Go all out!" KalTara roared as he activated his Boar King Transformation and sprinted towards the opponent.
Astral Chart—Shredded Lunge x10!
"Tch!" Yoribu grunted as she too transformed into the Boar King, reinforced her legs with psychokinesis and sprinted at her top speed. Four seconds later, there was a sonic boom as she crossed the speed of sound.
KalTara arrived first, stopping right at the border of Danhral’s Spirit Weapon range. He flickered in and out of his human from, using the space expansion of his transformation to gather strength and reinforced the wind blades of Shredded Lunge with them.
It was something he grasped after his fight with Narkahamy, understanding that the space expansion of his transformation could pretty much be considered on par with a Nature, as the versatility was unbelievable. He could also harness the force generated during a transformation to either attack or defend.
Eight expansive wind blades, stacked to the brim with wind so compressed they appeared like a liquid launched out, projected faster by harnessing the space expansion of his transformation repeated over a dozen times in a second.
They curved through the air and flashed towards Danhral, aiming for the neck. A droplet of blood dripped out of KalTara’s eyes from the strain as they widened in shock.
The wind blades were revolving around Danhral. And the most shocking of them all was the fact that the person in question didn’t even appear to have used much strength.
"Do you know what was holding back the Empyrean Snappers all along?" As he spoke, the wind blades revolving him began to compress further, becoming significantly more deadlier as Danhral eyed KalTara, "It’s experience."
"What?" KalTara gawked for a moment when suddenly, the wind blades slammed into him, cutting deep, forcing him to rapidly switch up the bodies in his stack to spread the damage thin. As he endured the attacks, the ground underneath Danhral churned and moved him a few metres forward, causing KalTara to enter his Spirit Weapon range.
A fist jutted out of the soil and slammed into KalTara, sending him reeling away, in Yoribu’s direction.
"Did you not do your homework?" Yoribu grunted as she leapt over KalTara’s skidding body and rushed forward, trailing her voice behind, "There’s a rule you need to follow when facing these Deities."
"Ranged against Tusks, close combat against Snappers." Right as Yoribu’s figure touched the boundaries of Danhral’s Spirit Weapon range, she reverted to human form, creating a vacuum in the shape of her Pranic Beast form that caused the air to rush inside.
Right as the gushing air was about to touch her, she reverted to Boar King form, doubling the pressure on the air using the space expansion. This pressurised air slammed into the air under Danhral’s control, behaving like a bullet shot into ballistic jelly.
As the bullet of air penetrated through Danhral’s Spirit Weapon range, Yoribu kicked her legs into high gear with the use of psychokinesis to closely follow the bullet’s trail. And as it lost power, she reverted to human form and assumed Boar King form promptly after, unleashing a second bullet.
The space expansion and contraction shattered Danhral’s control over the pocket of air surrounding her, allowing Yoribu to maintain and travel through the pocket as she quickly closed in the gap. She arrived before Danhral, severed her tusks and turned it into a hammer.
Reverting to human form, she churned Prana into the hammer, using psychokinesis to crank its speed to the upper limit as she slammed it on the target.
Boom!
Danhral raised his mist shield and tanked the blow, kneeling in response. He grunted once and thrust forward with the mist spear, as suddenly, a thunderclap resounded, following which a bolt of lightning shot out of the mist spear.
The bolt melted through the shaft of the hammer amidst Yoribu’s desperate attempt to block and slammed into her shoulder. It melted through the shoulder and flickered across her body, releasing a scorched scent.
The flickering arcs of lightning made her healing slower as Yoribu severed the arm and stepped to the side, using her other hand to throw a punch. As the arm drew closer, Prana surged into it as the arm turned into a blur.
In a second, Yoribu fired off four transformations, clearing the pocket of air around her as she managed to freely land a punch.
Danhral grunted as his shield tanked the punch. Subtle Terrain Domination was applied to the mist which absorbed the shock behind the impact. However, a second later, he found himself sent crashing into the ground.
’The severed hand?’ His eyes widened in surprise as Danhral saw the severed hand moving about like a Spirit Weapon. It was the one that had hit him, squarely in the jaw.
"You are strong!" Danhral uttered as the armour of mist fully covered his body. And then, lightning bolts drowned Yoribu.