“How much do you know, Grehha?” Resha voiced out his suspicions.
“Only as much as I’ve been informed by Gannala, the 44th Empyrean Tusk.” Grehha responded calmly, “And the last she informed me was to ask Inala when he returns. It seems he inherited a good chunk of her memories. So, he’s aware of everything, including the Boar King’s origin.”
“Alright, communicate with the 43rd Empyrean Tusk for me,” Resha said and whispered something in Grehha’s ears, stunning him.
“Are you serious?” Grehha asked in a fluster, “Even for you, it’s reckless. Of all people, you should be the most aware of how suicidal that is.”
“It’s not entirely suicidal.” Resha said and pointed at the figure of Boar King blasting shockwaves at the Empyrean Tusks, immobilising them, “If I don’t take action, we’ll lose more of them.”
“Besides, we only need to buy some time,” Resha stated in seriousness.
“Alright, I’ll trust your judgement.” Sighing as such, Grehha grunted as blood dripped out of his orifices. He made another green bubble touch the 43rd Empyrean Tusk’s trunk and communicated Resha’s thoughts to it. 𝒩𝒐𝚟𝑙𝒩xt.𝑐𝒐𝐌
There was silence for a moment before half the length of the 43rd Empyrean Tusk’s tusks fell off, shocking the Mammoth Clansmen. They were aware that something was happening. Upon seeing Grehha being able to communicate with the Empyrean Tusk, they were stunned and gathered around him.
“This will do.” Muttering as such, Resha placed his hand on the two broken tusks and transformed them into a pool of milky liquid that revolved around him like a river. Slowly, just as how a Storage Lantern shrunk in size, the volume of milky liquid reduced before soon, it condensed into a hammer.
Resha grabbed the hammer and stared at the 43rd Empyrean Tusk, stating, “Shoot me as high up in the air as possible. I need to be vertically above us to pull this off.”
The leaders of the 44 Settlements gathered and watched in shock as the 43rd Empyrean Tusk sucked Resha into its trunk and launched him into the air at hypersonic speeds. He became a dot for a couple of seconds before vanishing from view.
As he flew up, Resha calmly kept track of the Boar King’s position. Or rather, he attached a string of gravity to the Boar King. And as he flew up, his position gradually aligned itself to be vertically above him.
Resha passed through multiple layers of clouds until he was too far up, capable of observing the entire Dieng Canyon and beyond. Once he stopped, he began to freefall towards the Boar King.
A couple dozen seconds later, he attained terminal velocity, no longer accelerating after that. When that happened, he used his Primary Nature to increase his density, once again able to accelerate.
Following that was a cycle of raising his body density constantly until he hit his limit, realising in response, ‘I would have obtained the same result with half the height. I’m wasting time and burning through excess Prana to shield myself from this fall. This is a lesson for the future.’
“But,” He glared, clenching the hammer tighter as he churned his Primary Nature to the limit, intending to transfer all his momentum to the Boar King at the moment of contact.
As he approached closer and closer, his skin burned, despite being reinforced by his abilities. Resha didn’t care about that and remained patient. At the moment of contact, he swung the hammer with all his might and slammed it into the Boar King’s chest, transferring all his momentum into his target.
‘Perfect, his ribs shattered from the attack.’ Resha thought and bellowed as the Boar King was buried deep underground, “I’m your opponent!”
He then slowly landed on the ground, lithe like a feather after reducing his weight to the limit. His Prana surged throughout his body and healed the damage sustained from the fall.
“I felt that.” A terrifying wave of killing intent wafted out of the crater as the Boar King walked out. His caved-in chest began to heal as he wiped the blood dripping from his head. But before he could fully recover, Resha grunted aloud.
Suddenly, the bodies of both flew towards each other, like non-orbiting celestial bodies in space attracting each other into collision.
When in range, Resha slammed the hammer into the Boar King’s head, raising its weight to the limit upon contact. The Boar King was sent flying, but a mysterious force of gravity connected him to Resha, pulling the two closer once again.
Just as the Boar King gathered his bearing after the impact, Resha was above him once again, slamming him with another full-powered strike from the hammer.
But immediately in response, a sphere of pulsating Prana hovered before Resha and exploded, sending him flying away. A layer of bone spilled out from the hammer and formed a shield before him, protecting him from the impact.
Resha clenched his hand into a fist as the gravitational flux emerging out of his body strengthened, with the target being the Boar King and him alone. He flew towards the target and slammed another hit, quaking the ground in response.
“I’m getting used to your hits.” The Boar King commented as his chest injury finished healing. He grabbed the hammer and exerted strength in it, shattering it.
“So?” Resha growled as the shattered bone fragments coiled around the Boar King like snakes and began to tie him up, “Stay put for a moment!”
As thousands of thinly compressed ropes of bone, each weighing as much as a hill coiled around his body, the Boar King stopped smiling, seriously treating Resha as an enemy, “Now I see why I’m getting a disgusting feeling from you.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Resha condensed the shaft of his hammer into a sword and swung it towards the Boar King’s neck, “Die!”
Clang!
Suddenly, scales covered the Boar King’s neck, causing the sword to merely make scratch marks. The ropes binding him snapped one after another as the Boar King activated his eleventh Nature, causing his power to leap once again.
He extended his hand and condensed a giant Prana Shock, compressing it to the size of a fingernail before shooting it towards Resha, blasting the latter into a mountain.
The power was twice greater than what he used on the 1st Empyrean Tusk, severely injuring Resha, knocking him unconscious. The moment he recovered from the sneak attack, he could easily deal with Resha.
“You…” The Boar King walked towards Resha as a suffocating amount of Prana condensed in his palm. He was preparing to deliver the killing blow, activating another concentrated Prana Shock, “You’re just like me, a ruler. I never thought another individual could pull it off, but I can feel it in your presence.”
“You’ve become the Empyrean Tusk King!”