Intermediate Gold Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Megatrice!
Yoribu took on her Empyrean Megatrice form and drilled into the ground, managing to avoid most of the lightning bolts. Her hands shot out and bombarded Danhral from all sides, pressuring his brain.
Two seconds later, the hands vanished as Yoribu jumped out in human form and rushed out of Danhral’s Spirit Weapon range, panting as the charred marks on her body healed rapidly. "Damn, he’s strong!"
’And he has yet to use his Pranic Beast form.’ She thought in worry and then gazed at the figure of KalTara who had been observing the fight in silence.
’So, that’s the strength of a Mystic Human.’ Danhral thought and wiped off the line of blood trickling down his nose. For a moment, he was overwhelmed when a hundred hands bombarded him from all sides.
He was merely controlling the air to resist, which strained him a lot. Thankfully, instead of being locked into a defensive position, he instead targeted the Empyrean Megatrice’s body in the ground.
Subtle Terrain Domination was stronger underground, forcing Yoribu to retreat. That’s how he managed to buy some time for recovery. He only needed a couple seconds, following which he was ready for round two.
"I think I got it," KalTara muttered a few seconds later, speaking upon landing next to Yoribu, "He controls the entire space surrounding him. No matter what attacks we throw at him, they will only give him more cards to play. Hence, we only have one choice."
"We’ll repeat what you did." She eyed Yoribu to say, "Our Pranic Beasts forms are strong enough to tank his attacks for a few seconds. We’ll keep transforming multiple times until he’s overwhelmed. I’ll try to wrestle with his mind while launching my attacks. You just alternate between your two forms and rampage around in his domain."
"Got it," Yoribu said and crouched into a sprinter’s position, waiting a second as she bolted forth at KalTara’s shout.
The duo synchronised their speeds upon assuming Empyrean Boar forms, soon ramming into Danhral’s Spirit Weapon territory.
Human form! Boar King! Human form! Boar King!
They alternated between each form at least five times a second and blazed through all obstacles hindering their paths. Sounds akin to glass shattering resounded nonstop as the layers of air barriers erected by Danhral were shattered by the repeated space expansion of two Boar King transformations.
Tertiary Body—Empyrean Megatrice!
Yoribu suddenly disappeared into the ground as her hands shot out and punched at Danhral, shattering his aerial defences. Right upon landing the punches, the hands vanished, causing a vacuum in the air as Yoribu jumped out in her Boar King form and rushed Danhral.
Astral Chart—Imprison x4!
New spheres of Vara in his stomach melted and took spots on his Astral Chart. KalTara unleashed its effects on the dust in the region, causing them to accumulate on Danhral’s legs. As they accumulated, he could control them as a Spirit Weapon, allowing KalTara to rip apart Danhral’s legs.
Primary Nature—Subtle Terrain Domination!
Danhral grunted and diverted a good portion of his control to the layer of dust covering his legs. As he began to remove the layer of dust, more appeared. The two sides wrestled for control, keeping engaged a good portion of their mental faculties.
"Urgh!" Blood dripped out of his orifices as KalTara felt searing pain throughout his body as he activated a second power.
Astral Chart—Bloody Affection x4!
Astral Chart—Eddy Blade x2!
Mystic Sumatra Art—Eddy Blood!
Ripples of blood flowing out of his body turned into crescent blades and began to accumulate over Danhral’s body, twisting and turning like factory rotors. They ground through Danhral’s mist armour, drew out blood, and used it to reinforce itself.
And once Danhral’s blood seeped into the swirling blood blades, they developed resistance to being subjected to the control of Subtle Terrain Domination. KalTara used Mystic Sumatra Art to imprint the characteristics of Danhral’s blood into the Prana forming the Eddy Blades.
This gave the crescent blades better resistance, allowing them to damage more. KalTara did this while constantly running around the place while switching forms nonstop.
Snort!
Yoribu transformed her head into the Boar King’s and lashed forth, aiming for Danhral’s head. The latter ducked to the side and watched his arm get torn off. A tenth of a second later, KalTara slammed a punch into his face, hitting squarely in the jaw.
"Now!" KalTara roared as he appeared on one side of Danhral while Yoribu appeared on the other. They assumed their Boar King forms and crushed Danhral using their bodies, ’That should have shattered his skeleton...!’
Boom!
"Urgh!" KalTara groaned as he was sent flying for over a dozen kilometres, stopping only after crashing into a faraway hill, his skeleton structure rupturing from the impact. The hill then collapsed upon him, crushing the body fully.
"Shit!" He assumed Boar King form and used the space expansion to push out a pile of boulders and climbed out, bleeding from head to tow as he glanced within the pile to see the remains of a Boar King there, "I lost a body..."
5-Life Stage!
"That was the strongest hit I ever received!" He wearily turned in the direction of the Varahan Empire and saw blood mist forming over the air. A large number of Free Humans simply vaporised when Yoribu’s body was sent flying.
Far behind the army were the Decodus Trees of the Varahan Empire. There was a clear outline of Yoribu’s body on the trunk, tree after tree. The clear lines blurred, as the impact resembled a crater more and more upon subsequent trees, until on the final Decodus Tree, there was a splatter of blood and flesh.
Yoribu’s body had been crushed mercilessly too. "We...lost!"
Rain poured from the skies, thunder reverberated while lightning flashed incessantly. The ground turned hot as lightning struck repeatedly until a pool of lava had begun to form. It then rose to the skies and transformed into a spear.
A hand, covered by a thick shell grabbed the lava spear. Its feet were half-buried in the ground while its head was hidden amidst a thundercloud that had formed in a matter of seconds.
There, it stood, a being that reached 1.2 kilometres in height, and sported a two-kilometre-long neck that slithered amidst the thunderclouds like a celestial serpent.
"This...what the fuck is this?" KalTara muttered in a daze, for the first time seeing such an existence, "Is that...is that an Empyrean Snapper?"
"It’s completely different from our records!"
Every creature in the region remained too fear struck to respond. Whether to fight or flee, they were unable to decide, their brains short-circuiting in the face of overwhelming presence.
Secondary Nature—Empyrean Mist Deity!
Danhral had finally unleashed its full power upon assuming his Empyrean Snapper form. He didn’t use his Empyrean Snapper form and instead directly switched to using this form, because he wanted to strike absolute fear in the hearts of everyone witnessing him.
’This is what it means to be a Deity!’ The Empyrean Mist Deity thrust forth with its lava spear once and created a gale of hot air, targeting the Empyrean Boar Aurora in the sky.
It dimmed down in response when a thundercloud loomed overhead, and from it descended the serpent head, bringing forth with it a festival of lightning. Lightning rampaged and the Empyrean Boar Aurora dissipated fully, destroying the Varahan Empire and Wean Clan’s home-ground advantage.
Astral Chart—Shredded Lunge x6!
KalTara rushed forth at top speed, intending to face the monstrous creature that had terrified the region. He had just made a few leaps when suddenly, the ground quaked, revealing deep cracks and large pieces simply flung out.
The Empyrean Mist Deity had taken a step forward, and just that was enough to cause such damage.
"Argh!" KalTara’s figure flickered as he rushed forth and rammed into the Empyrean Mist Deity’s feet, causing it to slide in response.
Astral Chart—Bloody Affection x4!
Blood gushed out of the Empyrean Mist Deity as he sucked like a mosquito to replenish his Prana reserves and spontaneously jumped into the 6-Life Stage. However, the feet he had pushed away didn’t topple the Empyrean Mist Deity.
Instead, the ground moved around like a heel and supported the displaced feet.
"Shit!" KalTara grunted, reverted to human form, and circled the feet, hearing crackles as lightning bombarded his previous spot. He was like a mosquito fighting a human, having to use his all to barely keep up.
While Danhral’s body targeted KalTara, his head slowly peeked down from the thundercloud and hovered above the Free Human army. Saliva dripped out of its mouth and fell down like rain, causing the people to scream in pain as their skin festered.
It was an acid rain, with the substances in the saliva being formed using acidic substances extracted out of the earth just moments before.
"Phew!" It then turned its head in the direction of the Wean Clan army and spewed forth a geyser of the same acidic saliva.
"A-Attack! Attack it!" Mesupoh quickly managed to recover as he wiped the acidic liquid covering him and roared with all his might. "Artillery Squad! Take Action!"
His men assumed Human Avatar forms, pointed their hands at the Empyrean Mist Deity and unleashed an artillery strike.
Nature—Bone-Melting Artillery!
Another group quickly took formation behind them, and unleashed shockwaves that propelled the artillery strike with greater momentum.
Nature—Prana Shock!
"Go! Fight!" The Wean Clansmen roared one after another as they charged at the Empyrean Mist Deity, launching a variety of long-distance attacks.
The artillery strike blazed through the skies and approached the Empyrean Mist Deity, causing a cacophony of bombardment sounds. However, this happened a couple hundred metres away from the Empyrean Mist Deity.
The artillery strike had lodged itself into the layer of air that had blocked them, crumbling a moment later as the spikes forming the artillery strike rained to the ground, having lost their momentum. Another layer stood a metre later, made evident by the Wean Clan’s attacks.
[Heh!]
There was a chortle from the Empyrean Mist Deity that poised its lava spear in a throwing stance and chucked it towards the Wean Clansmen, eliciting countless screams as the region was set aflame once the attack landed.
Flesh melted, screams arose, and flames blazed. As it happened, the Empyrean Mist Deity casually created a second Lava Spear.
"Stop it!" KalTara roared as he had managed to climb up its hip by now and bombarded with a series of wind blades after alternating his transformations. Pieces of shell covering the rib section, hips, and arms fell off, causing KalTara to gawk in shock upon seeing what lay underneath, "Those are...?"
[Hehe! I learnt from our previous mistakes, thanks to our fight against the Quip Clan!]
Underneath the shell were Spirit Pools, dozens. Each Spirit Pool seemed unique, created for various scenarios, accounting for as many possibilities as possible.
The Empyrean Snappers had come prepared this time!