“Hmm, will this work?” Inala activated his Skill of Puppetry and used psychokinesis to lift four Empyrean Zinger Scouts in the air, watching them glide around him while maintaining a consistent altitude.
Each of them created four Prana Bombs, converting them into Prana Hands. Following that, while keeping its Prana suction deactivated, each Prana Hand grabbed an Empyrean Zinger Scout and lifted it into the sky, at its maximum Spirit Weapon range.
Zingers were unable to control when their Prana Bombs absorbed Prana. Hence, their Prana Bombs could even be used against them. But Empyrean Zingers weren’t subject to this rule. As the pinnacle evolved form of their race, they could control when their Prana Bomb absorbed Prana. The same applied to their Prana Hands too.
“Keuk…” Inala felt a sharp mental strain for some reason, even though he was only controlling four Empyrean Zinger Scouts, ones that had reduced their weight to the limit and remained in their miniature forms.
Tertiary Nature—Spatial Immune System!
He observed that since there was contact from the Empyrean Zinger Scouts in the extremity, despite them only touching the Prana Hand of the four Empyrean Zinger Scouts propped up by his psychokinesis, it was considered as a legit contact.
Hence, his Tertiary Nature was active and extended to the Empyrean Zinger Scouts in the extremity, which somehow caused a burden on his mind.
“Let me shift this,” He dropped three Empyrean Zinger Scouts and focused on only propping one up. That scout used a Prana Hand as a Spirit Weapon and hovered it towards the end of its range, carrying an Empyrean Zinger Scout.
Resting its miniature body on the Prana Hand, the Empyrean Zinger Scout created a Prana Bomb and transformed it into a Prana Hand, grabbing another scout from the ground. But right as it had done this, the energy streams of Prana used for psychokinesis dissolved, causing all Empyrean Zinger Scouts to fall to the ground.
They spread their wings wide and glided toward him, landing on his head. Reading their thoughts and memories, Inala made an observation, ‘This is somewhat similar to the stress-strain relationship in a cantilever beam. The farther the part of the beam is from the joint, the larger the strain it causes.’
‘In that vein of thought, there’s a limit to the size and length of the network of Empyrean Zinger Scouts I can control at a time.’ He concluded, ‘When I spread them out, the network collapses in the second generation. But in a single file of connections, I could stabilise four generations. This is worth experimenting about in the future.’
Optimistically, he had hoped to create a connecting line of Empyrean Zinger Scouts that would consecutively hold each other up by using a Prana Hand as a Spirit Weapon. Thereby, he would be able to create a long transmission line and possibly reach the Transcendent World.
Even though the Empyrean Zinger Scouts employed Internal Inertial Gravity to keep their weight to a minimum and used their gliding abilities to glide in a uniform circular pattern, there was still an impossibility to his thoughts.
Prana was a fusion of the energies of the body, mind, and soul. Therefore, even though Inala thought the only strain he would feel would be to physically hold the Empyrean Zinger Scout directly controlled as a Spirit Weapon by his psychokinesis, there was a strain on both the mind and soul generated from this network, which were all transmitted to him.
“Kiek!” The Empyrean Zinger Scout he propped up as a Spirit Weapon shrieked in pain, for it too felt the mental load.
“Seems I cannot infinitely build a staircase of Empyrean Zingers yet.” Inala shook his head and then focused on the next aspect of his experimentation.
Stage 1—Jaw!
He flicked his wrist as a miniature Prana Bomb appeared in the palm of his hand, melting rapidly to layer his claws. Inala grabbed the Iron Grade Pranic Beast captured by his Empyrean Zinger army and dug his claws into it, watching it twitch in pain while its Prana flowed into him.
Mystic Bone Art—Puppetry!
A stream of Prana connected the Prana Bomb layer on his claws to his body. This way, it was treated as a Spirit Weapon. Hence, when the layer absorbed Prana, it was naturally transmitted into his body through his claw.
Inala grunted at the potent stream of Prana entering his body, overwhelming his blood vessels. The amount of Prana streaming into him was beyond his natural capacity.
Mystic Bone Art—Prana Blood!
Once he activated it, Inala eased up, for his body was now able to handle the surge in Prana flow. Two seconds later, he deactivated them all and frowned, “It takes me three seconds to add the Prana Bomb layer on my claws.”
That was more than enough time for any onlookers to notice what he was doing. He wanted to make them simultaneously so that by the time his claws finished forming, the Prana Bomb layer would already be covering it.
He added that to his training list. Using a Prana Bomb would be an immediate giveaway of his identity as a Mammoth Clansman, as the powers of Free Humans consisted of primarily changing their bodies, using Human Avatars.
They wouldn’t have abilities that appeared separately like a Prana Bomb without affecting their body—Human Avatar.
To completely pull off his claim of being a Free Human, Inala must exercise the relevant abilities first.
A Mammoth Clansman would transform into their Pranic Beasts wholly. They couldn’t transform into parts like Resha and the reincarnates. Hence, the Cooter Clansmen wouldn’t know about it.
But other than being sharp, his claws had no other use. That shouldn’t be the case as even Human Avatars made out of iron were on such a level. Unless someone had no choice, they wouldn’t fuse with such a useless mineral.
Inala intended to act as a merchant who lost everything. For his identity, acting like he possessed a Human Avatar made out of an Iron Grade mineral was foolish. Hence, by layering the Prana Bomb on his claws, he could showcase that his Human Avatar could absorb Prana by touch.
His rate of Prana absorption would easily classify his Human Avatar at the Silver Grade. With that, his disguise would be perfect.
He was too slow in doing that at the moment. But Inala wasn’t frustrated, knowing that as long as he kept training and accumulates sufficient experience, his Mystic Skill Creator would condense that experience into a Skill.
With that, he would be ready.
The Bludders invaded only for a short duration, making a quick retreat following that. Inala slept during the afternoon and woke up a bit before the Death Hour.
Taking advantage of the Death Hour using his hordes of Empyrean Zingers, Inala accumulated lots of Prana Bombs and Life bombs—filled with Lifeforce. He also hatched dozens of Empyrean Zingers daily.
The majority of them were Empyrean Zinger Scouts, with a smaller portion being Empyrean Zinger Captains. Occasionally, when the opportunity presents itself in the form of an injured Silver Grade Pranic Beast that had lost the fight to stay at the bottom of the Dralh Sea during the Death Hour, Inala hatched some Empyrean Zinger Commanders.
Preparations were going in full swing. And two months later, he was ready.