Chapter 655: Tip Him Over The Edge
"What?" Brangara was stunned when his wind drills were snuffed out, 'That was created through three Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination!'
The Millinger was a Mutated Beginner Gold Grade Pranic Beast. Its Secondary Nature of Inhibition Dome was only at Beginner Gold Grade. In contrast, Subtle Terrain Domination was an Expert Gold Grade Nature.
Both the Natures ran counter to each other, vying for dominance. One intended to inhibit Prana and all abilities unleashed through it within the range of its effect. The other intended to dominate everything within range.
Typically, Millingers avoid encountering Empyrean Snappers. In a hundred battles between each other, the Empyrean Snappers win all hundred. There was a significant difference in their physique.
And even among their Natures, Subtle Terrain Domination was capable of working, albeit with significantly lowered efficiency even within Inhibition Dome. Hence, Gannala's Inhibition Dome shouldn't have suppressed Brangara's wind drills, which were condensed through the effects of three Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination.
On paper, the wind drills should have emerged victorious. But in reality, there was a steep skill issue between the two.
It hadn't been long since Brangara obtained Subtle Terrain Domination. His control over the intricacies of the Nature was minimal at best. Even Wittral, the Empyrean Snapper born with the perfect genes hadn't come close to mastering Subtle Terrain Domination after decades of training.
This was despite him being born as an existence geared perfectly to wield the power of Subtle Terrain Domination.
In contrast, the Celestial Boar wasn't as well equipped to wield Subtle Terrain Domination, whether physically or mentally. And the time he spent training with it was scant. In terms of knowledge regarding the usage of Subtle Terrain Domination, he had just begun gathering it through experimentation and the Tangible Natures of Empyrean Snappers from his Astral World.
On the other hand, Gannala had been wielding Inhibition Dome for years, not to mention possessing the entirety of a Millinger's data. Moreover, she had equipped herself onto a Millinger's body and had unleashed Inhibition Dome through it.
Therefore, she emerged victorious in the exchange, ending up piercing the bone spike into Brangara's chest, 'It's tough!'
She grunted, using psychokinesis to rotate the bone spike and drill it further into Brangara's chest, proceeding for a couple more centimetres when Brangara assumed Celestial Boar form and sent her flying through the expansion of his physical size.
A Transcendent Eater branch coiled and formed a helical slide for Gannala to cushion herself. She slid down the slide and landed on the ground, staring up to see the Celestial Boar. There was silence between the two for an instant, following which nonstop punches rained down.
A dome formed above Gannala and tanked the punches. The various branches forming it trembled violently, rapidly shredded through by the wind blades accompanying each of Brangara's punches.
The range of the Inhibition Dome was only 180 metres around the caster's body. It was incapable of encompassing the Celestial Boar's bipedal body that reached a height of 800 metres. Even if Gannala's skill level was superior to his, it mattered naught as he was still the stronger one.
"Again?" His eyes darted to the side and observed a dome form rapidly, encompassing him within it. In the meantime, the dome protecting Gannala parted to the side, revealing her in full confidence.
Followed by a leap, Gannala approached him, startling him once again, for he was currently in his Celestial Boar form. But he didn't care about her reason, for it worked in his favour that she decided to approach him first.
The Celestial Boar extended its hand and grabbed Gannala. A loud boom later, its fingers exploded, revealing a bloody Gannala who seemed to have grown significantly stronger than before.
"Take this!" Followed by a roar, she raced across his hand and stomped hard with every single step, cracking the Celestial Boar's arm bone with every attempt. Bone armour covered her body, one that allowed her to ignore the defensive layer of air around the Celestial Boar's body erected by Subtle Terrain Domination.
The Celestial Boar targeted her with his other hand, intending to swat her like a mosquito. A resounding boom reverberated from the impact, but Gannala evaded it easily, her figure a blur now, going even faster.
She ran up to the Celestial Boar's neck and leapt, punching the side of its jaw with all her might, one powerful enough to rock the head to an alarming extent. The neck bone fractured as the fragments lodged themselves into the brain, resulting in a concussion.
Brangara switched bodies and reverted to human form in an effort to evade her subsequent attacks. He kicked the ground and erected some distance between the two, 'How the heck did she do that? That level of physical strength is only possible by using around ten Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity! It's impossible unless she has Astral Chart!'
He was in a state of shock, failing to understand how Gannala had become so strong. That wasn't all. His second body didn't seem like it could recover as easily as usual, since his Prana had to either bring the broken neck bone fragments to the original place or expel them out of the body to begin the recovery process.
But as some of the pieces had entered the brain, there was a necessity to take things slow. Otherwise, if the brain were to get damaged, it might throw off the sync between the minds of the two bodies and disrupt the stack.
The Celestial Boar was a terrifying existence, but like every single living being, its strength wasn't uniformly distributed across the body. There were sensitive regions, similar to what Gannala had targeted just now.
A simple neck injury would have healed in a matter of seconds. But Gannala used the impact from her punch to distribute the fragments of the neck bone strategically across the region, ensuring the Celestial Boar took the longest possible time to recover.
She was trying to discover as many possibilities as possible to prevent the Celestial Boar from exerting its full strength. And the source of confidence allowing her to experiment was her current body, one that she had switched into while protected within the dome against the Celestial Boar's punches.
Mutated Beginner Silver Grade Pranic Beast—Empyrean Zinger!
This was one of the many Empyrean Zingers Inala had left in the hands of the Mammoth Clan before the Second Major Disaster. And since they could live in her biome without causing issues, they were all taken into Gannala's custody.
Created by Inala before he left the Dralh Sea when his female form was still a Mammoth Clansman, these Empyrean Zingers had the Secondary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity.
Gannala equipped herself onto its Tertiary Nature slot and became able to wield two Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity. As the Supreme Tusk's successor, and a powerful Empyrean Tusk herself, Gannala was able to harmonise the two Natures and combine their might to an extent the Empyrean Boar King could only achieve the result of by activating ten such Natures.
On one hand, the Empyrean Boar King was barely harnessing the strength of Internal Inertial Gravity, since it had no experience using it. And on the other hand, Gannala had a tremendous volume of experience. She was using the two Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity close to their full potential.
The result was such overwhelming might. Unfortunately, Gannala couldn't assume Empyrean Tusk form, for she was inhabiting the body of an Empyrean Zinger. Otherwise, she would have been even stronger.
Even her armour was created through a Prana Bomb, which absorbed Brangara's Prana—that carried the effects of Subtle Terrain Domination. It was what allowed her to ignore his air defences and rush him.
'She's strong!' Virala thought as he observed from the side. And upon seeing that the turn of events mentally shook Brangara, he jumped upon the latter, 'This is the best opportunity to understand his strength and weakness better. We'll be unable to do anything to him once he activates multiple Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination. But we can keep pressuring him until then.'
For a moment, he thought of using his Minor Treasure of Mystic Human Stamp but decided otherwise immediately after. Brangara had the Tertiary Nature of Major Treasure. That in itself could pose plenty of problems.
If Virala misjudges the situation and ends up losing the Minor Treasure, he can only blame his foolishness. Minor Treasures weren't invincible. The Celestial Boar's physical might was more than enough to crush it.
Therefore, unless he had enough guarantee that the Minor Treasure of Mystic Human Stamp could significantly damage the Celestial Boar, he wasn't planning on using it.
He only had to insert the data of Mystic Nature Art in the minds of regular opponents to cripple them from the inside—as they'll begin turning into Mystic Humans and die the majority of the time. But, Brangara might have Tangible Natures to protect him from the cultivation technique.
He'll be able to use this tactic only once. So, Virala wished to have better odds before using it. 'This isn't the Fourth Major Disaster. I'll become significantly terrifying once I reach the 10-
Life Stage.'
'I can significantly overpower even him by then in terms of physique.' Virala thought and attacked Brangara.
Brangara switched between human and Celestial Boar forms as he endured attacks from Gannala and Virala. And every time Gannala intended to change tactics, Blola would provide her momentary cover, during which she could change her body.
She also had Empyrean Zingers which had the Secondary Nature of Subtle Terrain Domination, relying upon it to absolutely rattle Brangara. After all, only Empyrean Snappers had that Nature. And all the Empyrean Snappers that had died were thanks to him. Their Natures were in his possession.
So, Brangara was unable to understand just where the fuck Gannala obtained Subtle Terrain Domination from. It was as if she pulled it from thin air. Unable to understand the cause, the more he fought her, the more bewildered he became.
Moreover, even after using three Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination, coupled with three Natures of Bloody Affection, and over a dozen Natures of Shredded Lunge, Brangara hadn't managed to kill Gannala.
His confidence was getting hacked at the more he fought, inching him closer and closer to activating five more Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination to enter that state of absolute control, which he used to destroy the Cooter Clan branch at the Dralh Sea.
Bone-Melting Artillery, followed by Subtle Terrain Domination, and Satellite. By switching three bodies one after another, Gannala created powerful items with terrifying corrosiveness. Through Subtle Terrain Domination, she increased their sturdiness and corrosiveness to an extent surpassing the Millinger's.
And upon entering the body of an Enran, she turned the items into Satellites and Comets, thereby having an arsenal of powerful items constantly protecting her and attacking Brangara respectively.
She wielded the Millinger's body and engaged in close combat with Brangara, using Inhibition Dome to prevent him from using both Subtle Terrain Domination and Bloody Affection.
Even when he used Shredded Lunge, he was only able to leap a distance. The wind blades that would typically be unleashed at the end of his leap were inhibited. Her actions pressured Brangara to the limit, making him almost activate five more Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination.
But right as he intended to do so, an ink-black substance gushed out of the ground in a large volume, possessing adhesive properties and an affinity to all living beings. The substance targeted everyone in the region.
"Finally!" Virala laughed as the ink-black substance layered him in a matter of seconds. Gannala and Blola too were similarly covered by it. The trio were unharmed by it. Or rather, the ink-
black substance served as an armour.
It was selectively dangerous to only one individual—Brangara!
"Argh!" Brangara used Subtle Terrain Domination to keep the ink-black substance at bay. But once the effects vanished as his body came within the range of Gannala's Inhibition Dome, the substance latched onto him and began to burn him.
Primary Nature—Human Avatar!
Human Avatar—Selectively Permeable Plasma!
Orakha had been preparing it for so long, ensuring the generated heat was strong enough to harm even the Celestial Boar, having been improving the potency of his Human Avatar through the Sumatra Gold fused into it.
He had been making changes by observing the battle, trying out multiple formulae until he found one that could burn through Brangara's skin. Once he was ready, he launched his attack.
'Now, I should make preparations to flee.' Gannala thought and began to increase the pressure in the biome of her lungs, intending to unleash a powerful thrust to flee. They had tipped Brangara over the edge. So, the moment he taps into the reserve of strength that he had been saving up, she'll flee the place.
Orakha could revive while Blola had a body in safety at the Mammoth Clan. Virala would flee deep underground in his Mystic Ewworm form at the first sign of danger, since he had been training to react promptly to such situations.
So, Gannala had to focus on protecting herself, since she would be Brangara's primary target. With that in mind, she touched a Transcendent Eater branch, accessing Blola's memories, 'Have the two of them still not broken free yet?'
'We're running out of time!'