Chapter 541: Mystic Royalty: Biome Bomb
Sporting a monkey's face with a mouth resembling a bat, one reinforced to resemble the stunted jaws of a crocodile was this menacing creature, sporting a bird's eye, capable of looking far and wide. Its fur glistened with a mixture of orange and grey, forming stripes similar to a tiger.
Three elongated stripes traversed its back, just like a squirrel. Trailing from its wrist to the ankle was a membrane, similar to a flying squirrel, one capable of folding onto itself and occupying barely any space.
The difference between it and a flying squirrel was the existence of eight arms in total, four on either side, with the membrane connected to each pair of arms in folds like a paper fan. When unnecessary, the membrane could stretch like rubber and attach itself to the girth of the body, making its existence discrete.
This allowed the creature to flail its hands without any air resistance. And when necessary, the membrane would stretch to fill up the gap and allow the creature to glide.
The hands attached to the end of the eight arms were made out of tough, reinforced bone, one resembling the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk. The feet resembled the hands in shape and appearance, meant primarily for grabbing onto things rather than running.
Unlike the Zingers that could sprint for short distances and had feet supporting such a moment, this existence seemed to have evolved primarily to glide and perch onto things. Of course, it was rare for there to be things large enough for it to perch on.
As the Prana Bomb shattered, its form was revealed in all its glory, reaching a height of 1152 metres. Even though it was tall, it didn't appear as such at first glance.
After all, two hundred metres of its height was occupied by its neck alone, unnaturally long, seeming to have inherited some of the characteristics of an Empyrean Snapper. This flexible, elongated neck allowed it to twist its head in every which way, which came in handy.
Dangling at the bottom of its body was a fifty-metre-long tail, sporting a tiny fin, whose sole function was to behave as a rudder and stabilise its massive body while in the air.
Mutated Beginner Mystic Grade Pranic Beast—Royal Zinger!
Technically speaking, it wasn't part of the Zinger Race, for their end evolutionary path was to become an Empyrean Zinger. But as this creature sported more than seventy percent of a Zinger's characteristics, its race was named the Royal Zinger.
It could be renamed as the Zinger Race with a path to the Mystic Grade. In this form, Inala possessed a Prana capacity of 10800 Prana and a lifespan of 10000 years. And thanks to his preparations, he had become a mature Royal Zinger.
Basically, he now wielded the entirety of its Prana reserve, also wielding a fully grown body of the Royal Zinger.
Using the opportunity of his evolution, right as the Prana Bomb shattered, Inala assumed his Royal Zinger form, ambushing the Boar King by stabbing him into his chest.
Cough!
The Boar King was in a state of shock at the attack before instinctively assuming Empyrean Boar King form. The increase in his body's toughness prevented the nail from reaching his heart.
Even in his human form, thanks to being aided by over twenty-plus Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity, the nail would have failed to reach his heart. After all, the Royal Zinger wasn't a brute-force type of Pranic Beast.
And obviously, Inala was aware of it, having been prepared for it since the beginning. Stabbing into the Boar King was just to put him on guard. His real attack didn't need him to injure the Boar King.
Primary Nature—Mystic Royal!
It was a complex Nature that allowed Inala to absorb both Prana and Lifeforce, similar to a Prana Bomb and Life Bomb respectively. But there were a few differences.
First of all, he no longer created a Prana Bomb or a Life Bomb. Instead, he created a Biome Bomb, one capable of absorbing both Prana and Lifeforce. Even in his male form, Inala could absorb Lifeforce using a Biome Bomb.
Surpassing the gender restriction to simultaneously wield the power of both genders was the prerequisite for becoming a Royal Zinger. Of course, it wasn't without its share of restrictions.
In his male form, Inala could absorb Prana with a hundred percent efficiency. But for the same effort, he'll only be able to absorb Lifeforce at ten percent efficiency. Similarly in his female form, absorbing Lifeforce was at a hundred percent efficiency while Prana could only be absorbed at ten percent efficiency.
It just meant that Inala could switch genders based on the requirements of the situation. In either gender, he could absorb both Prana and Lifeforce, which meant that he could conserve Prana in transformation and didn't have to waste time and effort in doing so.
Biome Bomb was merely the process through which Mystic Royalty unleashed its power. Its true purpose was towards evolution and resource—Prana and Lifeforce—collection.
Mutated Expert Silver Grade Pranic Beast—Royal Zinger!
That was Inala's base form. Once he had collected 4800 Prana and 1000 years of Lifeforce through his Biome Bombs and consumed it, Mystic Royalty would elevate his strength.
Mutated Beginner Gold Grade Pranic Beast—Royal Zinger!
Upon consuming another 6000 Prana and 1300 years of Lifeforce, he'd reach Intermediate Gold Grade. 7200 Prana and 1700 years of Lifespan later, he'd reach Advanced Gold Grade. From that stage, he would have to consume 8400 Prana and 2000 years of Lifespan to reach Expert Gold Grade.
Finally, once he consumes 10800 Prana and a Lifespan of 10000 years, he'd reach Beginner Mystic Grade.
Depending on how much Prana and Lifespan he consumes, Inala could control the level of strength he attains. Therefore, he could vary his strength according to the necessity.
Even though the Prana and Lifespan needs seem unattainable, considering the Royal Zinger's base state, all the Prana and Lifespan requirements were Silver Grade.
Inala could even subsist with the Prana and Lifespan of Iron Grade Pranic Beasts. His Biome Bombs would accumulate enough and naturally refine them to the Silver Grade for efficient storage.
And as his Grade increases, the quality and functions of his Biome Bombs increase too.
At the Silver Grade, his Biome Bombs can store Prana and Lifeforce. At the Gold Grade, his Biome Bombs could consume the stored Prana and Lifeforce to generate a terrain—land, water, air, light, etc.
And finally, at the Mystic Grade, his Biome Bombs could generate life. Of course, they were limited to only Trees and Zingers. Inala was unable to birth anything else. The trees were limited to the ones that grow in the Dieng Canyon.
Basically, everything necessary to sustain a Zinger's life could be grown in his Mystic Grade Biome Bomb. That was the limitation. But that limitation was pretty much irrelevant.
After all, at the Mystic Grade, Inala could birth all varieties of Zingers. As long as he had enough reserve of Prana and Lifeforce, he could churn them out in large numbers.
And as the Major Treasure of Attribute had been fused into him, Inala was capable of unleashing the effects of his Biome Bomb through his Prana alone.
"Keuk!" The Boar King grunted as he was aging rapidly, losing four years of his Lifespan every second. This was the Lifespan of a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast and hence was slow.
Inala would have wrung the Lifespan of a Silver Grade Pranic Beast—while at the Mystic Grade—in a matter of seconds.
Through his index finger as the contact point, the Boar King's Lifespan flowed into him. Inala was capable of absorbing the Lifespan and Prana of anyone within his Spirit Weapon range.
Best of all, he could also donate it to others in the range. Basically, he was a walking, talking support unit.
"Tch!" In his Empyrean Boar King form, Brangara flexed his muscles at the contact point, applying pressure onto the nail before shattering it two seconds later. But, despite breaking it, he could feel a stream of Lifeforce flow out of his body and into the Royal Zinger.
Fierce winds were generated as Inala's remaining seven arms swung at the Boar King, starting to absorb Lifeforce through them all once they were in the range of 180 metres from the target.
Inala's Skill of Puppetry influenced his evolutionary result the strongest among his Skills, causing his ability to wield Spirit Weapons to be integrated into his evolution.
At the Silver Grade, he had two arms, and hence could only wield two Spirit Weapons, with his Prana and Lifespan absorption being the strongest through his arms. At the Gold Grade, he had four arms, able to wield four Spirit Weapons.
And finally, at the Mystic Grade, with eight arms, he could control a whopping eight Spirit Weapons without a loss in efficiency. Inala took measures to convert his abilities and split them across the different Grades according to his mental capabilities.
As a Mammoth Clansman, even though he was able to control four Spirit Weapons, it placed a severe burden on his mind, which he usually endured using Life Hands.
Asaeya was able to use six Spirit Weapons, but couldn't fight in such a state for more than a couple of minutes before requiring to rest for extended periods. It was because the strain on her mind was enormous, since she was efficiently controlling six Spirit Weapons with the mind at the Silver Grade.
Hence, Inala split it according to the capability of his mind. At the Mystic Grade, with the mental capabilities of a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast, the giant brain in this form allowed him to control eight Spirit Weapons without issues.
As a result?
"D-Dammit!" Despite being physically stronger than his enemy by multiple folds, the Boar King was unable to move much due to pain as from eight directions, his Lifespan was being stolen. Each arm stole four years of his Lifespan per second.
Multiply it by eight, and the Boar King was losing 32 years of his Lifespan every second. At this rate, in a bit over three minutes, he would die of old age.
'A being that has evolved specifically to counter me!' The Boar King controlled the sense of fear forming in his heart as he craned strength to his fist and blasted the Royal Zinger away, causing the latter to slam into the wall of the Attributed Region.
Two of its arms had been destroyed by the attack, but a Biome Bomb hovered at their ends and pulsed like hearts, supplying the Boar King's rich Lifeforce to the wounds to rapidly regenerate them.
A couple of seconds later, the Royal Zinger stood up in a pristine state, having not expended a single unit of his own Prana for recovery, and calmly gazed at the Boar King, "Unless you kill me in a single hit, I'll recover using your Prana and Lifespan."
Inala flexed his eight arms, "Considering how big I am, I can endure a full-powered hit from you without getting killed. Now, come at me, Brangara!"
"Let's see how long you can last!"