Due to the effects of Rocky Intimidation, Inala felt difficulty moving. His body was sluggish, late to react while his Prana flowed at a rate twenty percent slower than usual. This caused his combat capability to drop.
Rocky Intimidation was unleashed from all over the settlement walls. Hence, the region countered his combat abilities, turning him a lot weaker than usual.
Using the chance when Rocky Intimidation was unleashed, the Rockatrice took action before Inala could grow accustomed to the drop in fighting power. Its hundred hands slapped the water, causing splashes with sharp edges.
The Rockatrice was aware of its limited range. Hence, it had worked extensively to modify the effects of its Rocky Intimidation and trained extensively, creating a skill in which it could slap the water in the lake and unleash blades of water at its enemies.
That covered its weakness somewhat.
Three water blades flew his way as Inala intended to dodge them. Usually, once he activated his Secondary Nature, he would have been fast enough. But now, his Secondary Nature was a lot slower in accumulating strength in his limbs.
As a result, he wasn’t able to dodge it on time, ending up receiving the three water blades head on. Inala flew back for more than twenty metres from the impact and slipped over the peak, beginning to roll down the slope on the other side.
He activated his Prana Bomb armour and caused it to stick to the slope, stopping as a result. He got up and shook his head and stared at the impacted region on his armour. There were three scratches, but that was it. “Good. I can proceed without any pressure now.”
Since the Rockatrice’s ranged attack wasn’t strong enough to destroy his Prana Bomb armour, Inala had nothing to worry about. After all, thanks to Internal Inertial Gravity, his internal organs would never sustain any damage no matter how far he gets flung by an attack.
He would never feel any shock on the inside.
“Kriek!” An Empyrean Zinger shouted as it was sent flying. A gash opened on its chest, bleeding blood. But it didn’t care about it and instead focused on its four Prana Hands.
One after another, the Prana Hands accelerated and hurled the Prana Bomb spears at the Rockatrice, forcing the latter to use more of its hands to stop the spears.
One of its hands managed to stop a Prana Bomb spear before it reached its body. But catching it wasn’t the correct way to defend against it. After all, through the contact point, the Prana Bomb spear absorbed the Rockatrice’s Prana.
Four Prana Hands approached its main body, intending to latch onto it. The Rockatrice’s hands slapped them away. But every slap meant a contact. And in that short contact, it lost a Prana.
With one exchange, the Empyrean Zinger gained four Prana. Its Prana consumption barely reached a unit of Prana, so it was a profitable exchange.
“Roooo!” The Rockatrice let out a cry as its hands grabbed the Prana Bombs stuck to its body and ripped them out fiercely, grunting in pain as its skin came off in patches along with the Prana Bombs.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Inala shouted as the Rockatrice stuffed the Prana Bombs into its mouth. It had a robust dental structure. Even though it couldn’t shatter a Prana Bomb with a single bite like a Zinger, it was capable of breaking it eventually.
As long as it does that, it would recover Prana by ingesting the fluid within the Prana Bombs. Inala didn’t want that to happen and hence used his psychokinesis to pull the Prana Bombs. He grunted, ending up in a tug of war.
Phak! Phat! Tata!
Using the chance, Prana Hands latched onto the Rockatrice’s hundred arms, beginning to constrict their movements. Each Prana Hand was heavy thanks to the effects of Internal Inertial Gravity.
Once they had latched onto an arm, the Rockatrice had difficulty moving it. There were twenty-eight Empyrean Zingers attacking it, with each holding four Prana Hands.
Each Empyrean Zinger targeted four hands and kept them occupied. There was a fierce exchange for less than two minutes, at the end of which all one hundred hands of the Rockatrice were weighed down by a Prana Hand each.
With that, it wasn’t able to unleash its water blades, making it easy for Inala to latch Prana Bombs onto its lower body. And once they were full, he retracted them.
A minute later, the Rockatrice let out weak shrieks, unable to bear the phantom pains from its Prana stolen from various locations. It had lost all its Prana.
It tried to attack the Empyrean Zingers, but its hands moved too slowly to create any water blades. And as the Empyrean Zingers used their psychokinesis to apply force through their Prana Hands, the Rockatrice’s arms faced even more difficulty moving.
Taking on his feminine form, Inala threw a Life Bomb—one capable of birthing a queen—on the Rockatrice, hearing its screeches grow sharper in response to pain.
He latched a Life Hand on its body and used the absorbed Lifeforce to ensure his age was maintained at seventeen years old. He slammed a bunch of Life Bombs on the Rockatrice until most of its Lifeforce was stolen.
Its body became shrivelled up as it was experiencing the side-effects of old age, feeling weak all over. The moment its Prana was expended, the suppression effect caused by Rocky Inhibition subsided greatly.
Only the weak suppression effect inherent in the rocky walls were unleashed, which wasn’t anything worth mentioning for Inala and the Empyrean Zingers, all of whom had Internal Inertial Gravity to rely upon.
Staring at the Rockatrice that was in the final moments of its life, Inala recalled his interaction with baby Gannala when she said he had the means to defeat the Rockatrice. ‘That brat!’
He spat out the Empyrean Zinger King that perched on his head as a defensive measure. Following that, he leapt with force and landed on the Rockatrice, placing his hand on its head as he seeped his Prana into its body.
Prime Skill—Empyrean Extraction!
The twenty-eight Empyrean Zingers drilled into the Rockatrice’s corpse, extracted its skull, cleaned it using the lake water, and presented him with its cleaned skull.
Inala was just about to relax when he sensed a powerful emission of Prana from afar, ‘The Centingers are here!’
He hurriedly swallowed all his gains and barged into a cave beside the lake, staring at the two people huddled there. They were the sole survivors of the Rooster Tribe, the most evolved of them all. And due to their insane lust, they were currently copulating.
Placed in the same cave, they couldn’t hold back, having been at it for three days already, only taking rest when it was time to sleep.
“W-Who are you?” The man among the couple shouted in a fluster upon seeing Inala. But a moment later, a Prana Bomb slammed into his chest and knocked him unconscious. The woman followed suit.
Using Empyrean Extraction on the two, Inala stored their skulls in his biome, tossed their corpses into the lake and closed the cave’s entrance. He dug a hole and hid deeper, encasing himself inside a Prana Bomb to ensure no trace of his existence would be leaked outside. 𝒩𝑂𝚟𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t
A minute later, two female Centingers approached the settlement, making a beeline towards the lake.