Inala wasn’t wasting his time while getting close to Wittral. No, he was also spying for information about the rest of the Cooter Clansmen on the island.
As he observed them, through his attention to detail as an artist, he noted how they moved and behaved while talking to each other, their body language and facial expressions regarding various topics, etc.
Scattered across Fral Island were his Empyrean Zinger Scouts hiding within stones, listening to their every conversation. All these data were transmitted to him by a series of shrieks at opportune moments.
Inala then relayed this information to the Empyrean Zinger Scouts who began to build puppets for every single Cooter Clansman.
When he enveloped two of them in a Prana Bomb, shrunk it, and swallowed it, the Prana Bomb returned to its original size once it was in his biome. It shattered to reveal two unconscious Cooter Clansmen.
Immediately in response, the Empyrean Zinger Scouts ganged upon them, peeling off their eyes, hair, throat, and skin to complete their puppet.
One of them then used the Skill of Prana Domination, losing fifty Prana in the process permanently as it had unleashed this Skill through the Mystic Mist Art. Before it lost all Prana, the Empyrean Zinger Scout succeeded in transforming the Cooter Clansman into a Spirit Weapon.
It then consumed a bunch of Elixirs, forcibly elevating its Prana capacity in order to control such a powerful Cooter Clansman. With a thought from it, a stream of Prana surged into the Cooter Clansman and actuated his Spirit Container, causing his body to release Prana which was influenced by his Primary Nature, generating a colourful mist.
A group of Empyrean Zinger Scouts grunted in pain as they activated Mystic Mist Art and refined this mist into their Spirit Weapon, for that was the ability granted to those who cultivated this cultivation technique.
Mammoth Clansmen controlled bones they refined as a Spirit Weapon. Similarly, Cooter Clansmen controlled clouds—any fluid—they refined as a Spirit Weapon.
After generating enough of the colourful mist, they stored them all in Prana Bombs, compressing them to the limit. Following that, these Empyrean Zinger Scouts consumed some Elixirs and took position within the lungs of the puppet they had finished refining.
Both the puppets had containers of Prana Bombs with the mist specially generated by the respective Cooter Clansman’s Primary Nature. They would be able to control it like a Spirit Weapon and play off as the original.
The two Cooter Clansmen were still in the biome, unconscious, bound by Prana Bomb coffins. If there was a need for more of their exclusive mist, it would be extracted from them. Inala would then supply it to the respective puppet.
He stared at the two puppets and observed them working perfectly. Their actions, voice, body language, and Prana signature were all perfect. As a demonstration, one of them brought out a small cloud and controlled it before retracting it.
“It looks good enough.” Inala nodded and left behind a word of caution as he disappeared, “Only do the bare minimum necessary.”
Exiting the stone house, his figure jumped from one place to another like a piece of cotton candy, generating no sound as he quickly approached another house and sauntered into it.
Two seconds later, the three Cooter Clansmen within were unconscious. Like before, he stored them in his biome and replaced them with their puppets. It took less than twenty minutes before Inala dealt with all 16 Cooter Clansmen.
‘Even their leader is weak.’ He thought, understanding how strong he had gotten once he decided to go all out. Since he only took action after completing his preparations, there was no room for error. When he struck, he won, immediately.
The Cooter Clansman acting as the Fral Island’s leader was at the peak of the Body Stage. After he was replaced by a puppet, Inala observed that the battle between Wittral and the Gold Grade Pranic Beasts was about to end.
He hurriedly returned to his stone hut, swallowed the puppet acting as him, took on his female form, and sat pretty. He began to brew tea, making a lot of it this time, smiling brightly as a bloody Wittral sauntered in, “You’re beaten up pretty badly this time.”
“Those damn cowards are stronger than I had expected.” Wittral grumbled, “They stopped fighting once I dealt serious injuries to one of them.”
“Are you…alright?” Inala asked, worried, “You’re dripping blood all over the place.”
“These wounds? They are nothing.” Wittral laughed as his injuries healed in a matter of seconds, “I’m an expert in terms of recovery.”
“Your Human Avatar equivalent must be either at the peak of the Silver Grade or even…” Inala muttered, solemn, nodding in realisation after staring at Wittral, “I see, no wonder Nurnur called you special.”
“Your powers are at the Gold Grade.”
‘Nurnur and her loose mouth.’ Wittral’s eye twitched for a moment upon realising that he too hadn’t taken much care in masking his abilities. He then patted his stomach and slumped at one corner, “Anyway, I’m starving.”
“Gimme some tea.”
“Right on time,” Inala poured him a cup, “I made extra after seeing your fight.”
“You were able to see from this far away?” Wittral raised an eyebrow.
“As if,” Inala rolled his eyes, “Nothing was visible through the ink-black sea. But I could see the violent splashes and the occasional sounds produced from your fight.”
“Say,” Wittral expressed his curiosity once he emptied an entire jug of tea, “How did our fight compare to your Empire’s Princes and Princesses?”
“It was okay, I guess?” Inala tilted his head, “I mean, a Brimgan Empire’s Royalty is labelled a Prince or Princess only after they have killed a Gold Grade Pranic Beast.”
“That’s our customary tradition. So, all of them are very strong.”
“That’s interesting.” Wittral nodded as he thought of something all of a sudden and slapped his thigh, saying, “Oh right, I forgot to mention.”
“The ship will be arriving in two days.” He said, “I received word from my Settlement Leader that the ship would be ready to set out for the Brimgan Empire once you receive your share of Influence Easing Elixir.”
“Really?” Inala became excited at the news, “Thank goodness. I was starting to miss home already.”
“Is that so?” Wittral laughed and asked, “Since you’re leaving early, why not tell me more stories before you set off?”
“Sure,” Inala nodded and began speaking, “There was a time when my grandfather went to the Dieng Canyon. He faced off against four Zinger Kings alone…”
It was late into the night by the time Wittral left the house. He calmly walked down a beaten path, feeling a pair of eyes on him. He eventually walked to the shore and entered a stone house. But right upon entering it, he tapped the ground, creating a tunnel in which he jumped.
The ground parted way for him to run through as Wittral used his Primary Nature to quickly scale up the mountain from the underground tunnel, soon surfacing at an altitude of two kilometres. He walked out of the tunnel to stare at the figure of the 6-Life Stage Nurnur beside him, asking, “Did you find out anything?”
“Yeah,” Nurnur nodded, “While handing out rations today, I noticed the eyes of the Free Humans shine with hope. They glinted with a lustre I have never seen before.”
Right as she spoke, she stared down at the stone house situated at an altitude of six hundred metres, watching the figure of Inala stealthily sneak out and scale down the mountain, “As I suspected.”
“Her true objective for coming here is our Free Humans.”