Royal Zinger, Celestial Boar, Transcendent Eater, Empyrean Supreme, Empyrean Mystic Tentacle, and Brood Mother; so many Mystic Grade existences had appeared on Sumatra. However, since two millennia ago, a new era had begun, recognised by Sumatra Continent.
That was the Empyrean Boar King’s era.
The existence that had terrorised Sumatra Continent with his hunger since his era began was none other than Brangara. When he appeared, the two Clans had a flee on sight order, because they were all prey to him.
And until a bit over six decades ago, that hadn’t changed. Only after the Mystic Seven appeared did things start to change. Even then, only during the period between the Second Major Disaster and the Third Major Disaster was when they could actually contend against Brangara.
The Cooter Clan was never part of that contest. And hence, their perspective still remained the same as in the past. Since they never fought Brangara, in their minds, he was still the ultimate predator. The Empyrean Snappers that faced him all ended up in his belly.
Fear!
The Empyrean Snappers shuddered as they stared at the figure of Brangara calmly standing on the ground before them. The aspect that struck fear in them was the fact that Brangara stood within the Empyrean Mist Deity’s Spirit Weapon range, displaying the confidence of a predator.
"Calm down!" Danhral roared as he stomped with his leg, "That’s not Brangara! It’s a mere imitation!"
"Well, you’re right about me not being my dad." Barla’s voice resounded coolly. It took a tenth of a second for the Empyrean Snappers to realise from where she was speaking. It was on the Empyrean Mist Deity’s shoulder, casually wrapping her arms around two Empyrean Snappers, "If you’re not aware, I’m Barla."
"Brangara’s oldest daughter, the current generation Empyrean Boar King, and..." She trailed for a moment before stating in absolute pride, "I am Sumatra’s Spear!"
Astral Chart—Shredded Lunge x25!
Right as she finished speaking, eight ginormous wind blades, stacked twenty-five times each slammed into the Empyrean Mist Deity, its sheer power cutting through the defensive mechanisms erected by the group.
’She targeted exactly the spot that was reinforced the least!’ Danhral thought in a fluster and harnessed his power, causing bolts of lightning to slam into Barla. His expression brightened for a moment when the attacks made contact.
However, a moment later, his expression collapsed, followed by momentary light-headedness. Barla hand tanked the attack and then used Bloody Affection to absorb Danhral’s blood to recover. Her physique’s sheer robustness meant the damage she sustained wasn’t anything worth being concerned about.
"Unless it is lightning unleashed by the Cooter Clan Chief, I don’t have to bother defending myself." Barla said and then stomped hard, shattering a portion of the shell covering the Empyrean Mist Deity’s shoulder.
Astral Chart—Rocky Intimidation!
Astral Chart—Mud Ball!
Astral Chart—Prana Bomb x2!
She activated the three Natures in a spree and condensed the respective products before her. Following that, she unleashed waves of shockwaves.
Astral Chart—Prana Shock x26!
She used all her Natures of Prana Shock to turn the broken shell pieces into dust along with the rest she spawned. Once everything was turned to dust, she followed up with another arrangement.
Astral Chart—Imprison!
The powdered particles were pulled towards her through psychokinesis, beginning to form a layer over body. They compressed and turned into a solid armour. And as it was an armour made using the Nature of Imprison, she could control it as a Spirit Weapon, which was used at the joints to allow freedom of movement.
"Hehe!" Barla chuckled as when another bolt of lightning struck her, a portion of Prana forming it was absorbed by her armour, thanks to the power of the Prana Bomb.
The combination of a Prana Bomb and Bloody Affection allowed her to treat blood and the fluid within the Prana Bomb as the same. Coupled with Mystic Sumatra Art, the absorbed Prana was directly infused into her blood, which quickly reached her heart and was added to her Spirit Container.
She supplied Prana to her armour and used psychokinesis to crank up the intimidating effects of the armour—emerging from Rocky Intimidation.
"Urgh!" The two Empyrean Snappers she was holding tried to desperately free themselves. When they used Subtle Terrain Domination on her, she overpowered their control by the sheer strength of psychokinesis applied to her armour through the Nature of Imprison.
When in contact with them, she steadily absorbed their Prana, chuckling as she stared at the group of Empyrean Snappers, "I’ve yet to move from this spot."
Boom!
The Empyrean Snappers quickly made a move and reinforced their Spirit Weapon ranges, combing it over Barla’s spot to strengthen their absolute domain. Right as they had done so, Barla assumed her Empyrean Boar King form, using the space expansion to stress their minds.
Right as her form expanded, she coupled it with Prana Shock, stacked 26 times. "Your absolute domain is strong, but if you intend to face me, you better harness an absolute domain in your Pranic Beast forms. Only that can threaten me."
She was on the ground when she spoke, having moved to a weaker spot in the absolute domain that had just appeared when the Empyrean Snappers moved to reinforce her previous spot.
And as she moved, she scooped the clouds covering the Empyrean Mist Deity, shrunk them to the limit and layered it to her armour, causing lightning sparks to form over it.
"Shall I go on the offensive next?" She asked as her figure flickered. When she arrived at a stop, her body was rapidly spinning, having used a Prana Shock atop Shredded Lunge to give a spin to her body.
The moment her body began to spin, Danhral’s expression collapsed as he shouted in a hurry, "Quick! Strengthen our defences!"
Astral Chart—Shredded Lunge x30!
She had activated all her Natures of Shredded Lunge. As he spun towards the end of the lunge, the generated wind blades were gathered right before her, pointing towards the Empyrean Mist Deity. And at the exact moment before they were launched at the target, her body spiked in presence once.
Astral Chart—Eddy Blade x26!
A Blade of Prana, reinforced to the absolute limit appeared, carrying the wind blades with it as it targeted the Empyrean Mist Deity.
Astral Chart—Kinesis Deity!
The length of the Eddy Blade increased from 180 metres to 1.8 kilometres and vanished a second later as Barla stopped spinning. She cooly turned around and eyed the Empyrean Mist Deity, "Afraid now?"
As she spoke, the Empyrean Mist Deity collapsed, severed at the hip. Danhral was forced to revert to human form and swap to his second body, which had recovered by now. When he treated himself, the Empyrean Snappers spread mist across the region, all while glaring at Barla, mildly in hatred, but mostly in fear.
When combined, the Empyrean Snappers had more than enough strength to kill the current Barla. However, they lacked experience, which Barla had lots.
She had participated in the Third Major Disaster and was an active member throughout the fight. Even before that, she had repeatedly faced the Mystic Seven. Even though she never won those fights, she had still experienced such events.
And after the Third Major Disaster, she had been constantly using a variety of Natures in various ways. Blola’s sole task was to find information that helped her train better. Therefore, from time to time, he sneaked into the Wean Clan, acting like a Parute Tree to find valuable info.
This included the ingenious ways the Wean Clansmen used Iron Grade Natures. That was why Barla was able to use Shredded Lunge similar to KalTara.
Her experience vastly dwarfed the Empyrean Snappers it looked like she was having a comfortable time whooping their asses. In truth, she was merely leading the Empyrean Snappers towards one situation and targeting the opening they created in response to her prior move.
Strength, speed, recovery, and most of all, versatility; Barla overpowered them in all factors thanks to her battle experience.
Boom!
Having moved to assist the fleeing army, KalTara arrived at a halt and turned around, gawking in shock to see a series of flashes go off on the Empyrean Mist Deity’s body, following which it collapsed to the ground, severed in two.
And for a moment there, he saw the figure of an Empyrean Boar King, "That’s...impossible!"
"What is?" A voice resounded next to him, in that moment when he blinked. Thanks to Kinesis Deity, Barla could reinforce her Prana Shocks with greater strength of psychokinesis. Thanks to that, when she used Shredded Lunge, she could easily enter hypersonic speeds, travelling over two kilometres every second.
KalTara heard the voice from behind as he hurriedly used Prana Shock to clear the metallic cloud around him and turned around, blurting out in shock momentarily after, "...M-Mother?"
"Mother, is that really you?" He asked with hope, becoming disappointed upon hearing the answer.
"Treat me as if I’m dead." Barla said curtly and vanished, "After all, I’ve been revived by the Transcendent Eater and am under its control."
As KalTara turned upon seeing her vanish, his lips perked up into a smile as her vice resounded, with pride.
"I’m confident you’ll lead the Wean Clan to greater heights. You’re the best leader it could ever have."
"Thank you, Mother," KalTara revealed a faint smile as he watched Barla arrive at a stop before the Empyrean Snappers. He noticed Yoribu nearby and beckoned for her to follow him, "Let’s watch from closeup."
"This is our only chance to observe an Empyrean Boar King in action."
"I’m already running," Yoribu said, having begun sprinting the moment KalTara called her. The duo quickly closed in the gap and eyed the scene from nearby, watching Barla coolly face the Empyrean Snappers.
"Party’s over, so shoo." Barla waved at the duo and then nudged towards the sky where a team of Zinger Aristocrats were gliding. In the centre of their formation was a seat created by coiling strings of Prana. Seated on it was Wally, who landed a couple minutes later.
He glanced between Barla and the group of Empyrean Snappers, expressing in confusion, "It’s done already?"
"Yes..." Danhral represented the group and spoke.
"Well, thank goodness." Wally heaved a sigh in relief and bowed towards Barla, "Thank you for going easy on them."
"You know what I’m capable of?" Barla pointed at herself in surprise.
"Yes, I witnessed the Third Major Disaster completely," Wally said, trying his best not to reveal the cold sweat he was oozing from his back, ’I was there when Astral Puncture was created and when you were slowly changed to your current self.’
He didn’t comment anything else, waved his hand in a hurry, and began to push the Empyrean Snapper group away from the region, "If there’s nothing else, we’ll take our leave."
"Thank you for accommodating us."
"Mother, are you letting them leave?" KalTara asked in a hurry upon seeing Barla’s unresponsiveness to the Empyrean Snapper group’s departure.
"It’s not like I have a choice," Barla said, lightly slapping KalTara on the back of his head, "Before you say anything, see what that brat is holding in his fist."
"There’s nothing there, it’s just dark..." KalTara paused, realisation setting in a couple seconds later as he stared at Barla in horror, "Is that...?"
"Indeed," Barla nodded, for a moment eyed in Blola’s direction to see if he would take action. Upon seeing his unwillingness to make a move, she shook her head, "It’s grey sand. So, there’s nothing we can do about it."
"I’m afraid he’s close to reaching the pinnacle." Saying her piece, Barla patted KalTara and Yoribu before disappearing from the place.