Chapter 170 Throw and Catch
The Empyrean Zinger King leaped with all its strength, taking flight while carrying the massive load of Prana Bombs. After reaching its maximum altitude, it unfurled its wings and glided.
It was accompanied by twenty Empyrean Zinger Scouts, all carrying their respective load of Prana Bombs. All these scouts were created by Inala. Hence, they too possessed the Secondary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity, allowing them to carry such weights and glide fast.
These Prana Bombs were filled with Prana, accumulated over time from the Slump Lizards every night. This was the excess in their reserve. Each Prana Bomb contained 100 Prana.
Now, they were being transported to Ellora City. After all, Inala couldn't freely hunt around anymore for fear of leaking his identity. Hence, he had to be sneaky with the Prana Bomb accumulation.
He needed them for baby Gannala. Otherwise, it was impossible to handle her voracious appetite. She was consuming so many Prana Bombs that the number of Slump Lizards attacking the cities was reducing slowly but surely.
The reduction wasn't at a noticeable level yet. But in a few years, anyone would be able to observe the difference. The Empyrean Zingers were hunting the Slump Lizards for Prana, both to accumulate Prana Bombs and for the Empyrean Zinger Queen to birth more of her kind through Life Bombs.
An hour's travel later, the Empyrean Zinger King arrived at a location three kilometres away from Ellora City walls. There was a secluded spot with a high vantage point here.
Once they arrived, the Empyrean Zinger Scouts formed a perimeter and hunted the Slump Lizards in the vicinity. In the meantime, the Empyrean Zinger King gathered all the Prana Bombs.
It stood on the elevated platform and waited, letting out a series of high-pitched screeches at a frequency inaudible to the human ear. A few seconds later, a screech arrived at the same frequency.
The Empyrean Zinger King adjusted its body accordingly, facing a certain direction towards Ellora City. It grabbed a Prana Bomb and took on a throwing position, calm, collected, and focused on the target.
"Skeree!" Followed by a shout, it hurled the Prana Bomb with all its strength, watching it bolt away at tremendous speeds. The projectile arched through the air and flew deeper into Ellora City's airspace.
Standing at the Theatre's terrace was Inala, bracing himself for impact upon hearing the Empyrean Zinger King's screech. Four Prana Hands floated around him, controlled through his psychokinesis.
Mystic Bone Art—Puppetry!
Currently, his Spirit Weapon's optimal range was 100 metres. Therefore, in a radius of a hundred metres around him was the target area.
As he waited, the Prana Bomb came hurling in. A Prana Hand shot forward in response and grabbed the Prana Bomb. It was pushed back dozens of metres in response before the momentum behind the Prana Bomb was expended.
Successfully catching the Prana Bomb, the Life Hand arrived before the open pipe and dropped the Prana Bomb into it.
The Prana Bomb rolled through the tunnel network as the Empyrean Zinger Scouts within it navigated it, eventually pushing it into a storage room deep underground. The Prana Bomb landed atop a pile of Prana Bombs.
It was the reserve that Inala was steadily accumulating over the past three years, prepared for all events. Upon knowing his reserves was why baby Gannala claimed he could hunt down the Rockatrice.
The Prana Hand had just dropped the Prana Bomb into the tunnel network when another Prana Bomb flew towards the Theatre, slightly off the mark. But it was still within his catching range as Inala sent his second Prana Hand to grab it.
Soon, his four Prana Hands were working in full swing, grabbing the thrown Prana Bombs continuously. In the meantime, Inala assumed female form and created a Life Bomb, losing a decade's lifespan in the process, since it was a Life Bomb that could birth a queen.
Loading it in the Sumatra Zinger, he fired it in the general vicinity of the Empyrean Zinger King, taking measures to not result in friendly fire.
The Life Bomb slammed into a Slump Lizard and pulverised it, absorbing all its Lifeforce. Upon seeing its arrival, an Empyrean Zinger Scout approached it and smacked it with a wood branch, sending it flying like a golf ball and into the face of a Slump Lizard.
Once all its Lifeforce was absorbed, the Empyrean Zinger Scout continued to hit it with a wood branch and make it land on the bodies of Slump Lizards until it was brimming with Lifeforce, unable to absorb any more.
Once it was full, the scout presented the Life Bomb to the Empyrean Zinger King who threw it back to Inala.
After an hour, Inala told them to rest a little, since the Empyrean Zinger King's arm ought to have been hurting like mad. He commanded it to drink the Lifeforce in the Prana Bomb they had just begun to fill up.
While it was recuperating, Inala returned home to check whether or not baby Gannala was asleep. But upon seeing that she was wide awake, doodling on a wooden slab, he scolded her, "Go, sleep!"
"Dada!" Baby Gannala happily leaped into his embrace. And upon coming into contact, she read his memories, knowing what he was up to, asking, "Can I also come and see?"
"No!" Inala stated grumpily.
"Please, I won't make trouble." Baby Gannala pleaded, "I'll remain quiet and will just watch. I cannot sleep anyway."
"Alright," Inala carried her as he leaped from one floor to another on the Theatre and reached the terrace, "But if you disturb me even the slightest, I'm not bringing you here ever again."
"I promise!" Baby Gannala said and placed a finger before her mouth, expressing that she would be obedient.
A minute later, Inala resumed the process. Every ten minutes, a Life Bomb would return. He poked a hole in one and drank its contents from time to time, ensuring he maintained his current age of 27 years.
His actual age was 17, but to interact freely, he masqueraded as an adult who was a decade older. While he was catching the Prana Bombs and the occasional Life Bombs, ten Empyrean Zinger Scouts arrived at a forest patch with a lot of flora remains. Just the hydrocarbons formed a layer twenty centimetres thick on the soil, created by years of leaves, grass, and tree parts decomposing.
The scouts took out broken shells of their Prana Bombs, activating the Mystic Bone Art to refine it, creating a shovel. They began to dig the soil rich with nutrients, piling them up in a corner.
After digging enough, an Empyrean Zinger Scout created a container resembling a Prana Bomb, filling it up with this soil. Once it was full, the entrance was sealed.
They stopped digging after filling up thirty such containers, feeling that it was sufficient for the night, and transported them to the Empyrean Zinger King who hurled them towards Inala.
The process concluded two hours before dawn as the Empyrean Zingers made their way to the Rooster Tribe settlement, intending to rest.
Inala finished collecting a large reserve, smiling in satisfaction. Since there existed no enemies that could fly in Sumatra, no soldier or citizen had a habit of keeping watch over the skies. The soldiers were busy fending off against the Slump Lizards from the walls.
It was why no one knew such a large transaction between a human and Pranic Beast had taken place. It was Inala's exclusive secret.
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