Chapter 380: The Steel Porcupine’s Feast

Even Jyorta was surprised by the speed at which they killed a Tier 2 Frenzy Beast. It was a Rigordile, a Frenzy Beast specialised in the aspect of defence. To counter it, they directly swatted it using the River Whale's weight.

The Steel Porcupine would harm it and force it to focus its attention on the injured area. He would use his hallucination to daze it for a moment while the River Whale slammed onto it. It was a simple but effective tactic.

The Steel Porcupine jumped out from the film of water, falling into the shallow waters as it slithered towards the flattened body of the Rigordile. It hissed once, using its spikes to poke a hole. It retracted its spikes, aligning them along its body, enacting a streamlined appearance.

Followed by a hiss, it drilled through the hole it made, entering the Rigordile as it flailed around. Seeing that it was still following his orders, Jyorta heaved a sigh of relief. Had he controlled it solely through his hallucination, it would have broken free of his control the moment it entered the Rigordile's body.

Thankfully, he was only giving it inputs through his aura. The source of the hallucination was its own aura, thanks to the tattoo he had induced in it.

Ten seconds later, the Steel Porcupine drilled out of the Rigordile, holding a Heart Crystal in its mouth. It then curled its body into a sphere and released its hold, springing forth like a spring as it entered the film of water.

As the River Whale didn't forbid its entry, it could swim freely through the film of water before arriving beside Jyorta. Jyorta used his weaker psychic arm to grab hold of the Heart Crystal and remove the layer of flesh and blood on it.

The River Whale ejected the contents—the flesh and blood he removed—out of the film of water, and sent it falling to the ground as Jyorta stored the Tier 2 Heart Crystal in his cuboidal bag. He smiled, controlling the River Whale to proceed forward.

On layer 3, there only existed three races: The River Whales, the Rigordiles, and the Shoe Fishes. So, of the three layers he had been in, it was the least populated, followed by later 2 and finally layer 1.

In layer 1, the Frenzy Beasts were small, so they were more in number. In layer 3, two of the three races had large statures. So, the limited space meant only a few lived in here.

Jyorta noticed two River Whales flying further ahead, harassing a Rigordile as they used their water films to bump into it constantly. They danced through the air, with each flap of their tails pulling and pushing water from the ground. They displayed their prowess in manipulating the water.

The Rigordile was a species that didn't have any Traits, so it could only rely on its two Skills to fight back. It used its Tier 2 Skill to make long leaps and evade their attacks, trying to retaliate when spotting a chance.

But, it was clearly losing its ground. Its enemy had a greater territorial advantage than it. Jyorta and team arrived right at this instant, targeting a River Whale. Without any hesitation, he unleashed an aura beam towards it, also infusing his aura personification into it.

Aura Personification—Betrayal!

The River Whale behaved like a tremendous impact had blasted its side as it toppled over, the place of impact sporting a large indentation. The skin in the area came off in patches while blood oozed out without stopping.

The River Whale spun in the air twice from the impact, even confusing Jyorta as he looked at his hand while panting. "Was my aura beam really that strong?"

He then noticed that his target had only recently become Tier 2, judging based on its presence. He then understood the reason, it was thanks to the sheer difference in their auras. The aura he unleashed in his aura beam was twice its total, so the effect was obvious.

The River Whale stumbled in the air a couple more times before falling on the ground with a thud. It struggled to get up once again, emitting powerful screams due to the pain. Its scream caused the water to ripple outward, with the waves reaching as high as two centimetres. Such was the intensity behind its scream.

The film of water protected him against most of the scream while his psychic arm barrier shielded out the remainder. Jyorta wiped the sweat on his forehead as his heart thumped faster and faster. Noticing the Rigordile jump in to finish off the fallen River Whale, he set his sights on the other one, controlling his River Whale to slam into it.

The slam between two massive beings splashed out a lot of water from the films surrounding them. The resulting sound was akin to the sound of waves in the sea during a low tide. The two used the films to absorb and negate the impact, coming out unscathed as they brushed off against each other.

"Again!" Jyorta shouted, turning his River Whale to slam into the other party once again. Through his soul domain, he noticed a couple of wisps slowly float towards him. He sent a mental cue to the River Whale, making it eject the portion of water the wisps were in.

'Dammit, so there are some shoe fishes in the film of water surrounding it. In our clash, they were transferred over.' Jyorta thought, not daring to retract his soul domain for the time being.

The two River Whales crashed into each other, spilling forth a lot of water from the impact. It was a scene of two celestial bodies colliding into one another, the resulting exchange of water making it more so.

Two lakes collided in the air, eating away at one another to end up as the winner. When their water reservoir reduced, they pulled in more from the water flowing below.

When the two River Whales clashed once again, the Steel Porcupine swam through the film of water, arriving at the front before poising its back towards the foe.

Activating its Tier 2 Skill, it shot forth a body-length spike straight at the River Whale's head. The spike contained tremendous power, puncturing through the film of water that had weakened from the clash. It pierced the River Whale's head, burrowing a massive hole as it got lodged deep in its head.

Just when it seemed like the attack was over, the body-length spike exploded like a piece of dry wood that had dried out too much and had faced some sudden external force. Pieces of the spike flew as shrapnel and pierced everywhere in the River Whale's head.

The River Whale lost its senses one after another, found its organs failing while it began to fall towards the ground. It slammed on the ground with a massive thud, the shock from the impact causing blood to spurt out of its injury like a geyser.

The Rigordile had managed to kill the other River Whale by now and was just about to feast on it when Jyorta's hallucination sent it into a daze. Before it could come to its senses, the River Whale slammed on it. Jyorta then controlled the River Whale to slam on it once again, killing it.

The Steel Porcupine jumped to the ground and drilled into their bodies one after another, fishing out their Heart Crystals before bringing them to Jyorta. Jyorta used his psychic arm to remove the layer of blood and flesh coating them before storing the pure Heart Crystals in his bag.

Through the faint fluctuations in its aura, he judged that the Steel Porcupine was feeling hungry. It wished to regrow the spikes it had used up. After all, it had already used two of the four body-length spikes it had. So, unless it ate its fill, it wouldn't be able to grow them again.

Jyorta had no qualms about the matter, watching it freely drill into the Rigordile's body. He wondered about the body part it would feast on first, even if the scene turned out to be gruesome. When he noticed what the Steel Porcupine did, Jyorta was stupefied before breaking into a laugh.

The Steel Porcupine had drilled into the Rigordile through its mouth and severed through numerous muscles along the way, grabbing hold of something. Jyorta first saw its tail peak out as it flailed out, failing to find any grip. It used the viscosity of the water to crane itself, pulling out bit by bit.

Finally, when more than half its body emerged out, it coiled itself around the Rigordile's head, using the grip to pull out the upper portion of its body. Held in its mouth, and dragged ruggedly was the Rigordile's spine, or rather its Frenzy Parasite.

The Frenzy Parasite struggled to survive but failed to escape from the clutches of the Steel Porcupine. The Steel Porcupine pulled out the entirety of the Frenzy Parasite, shaking its head as it slammed the Frenzy Parasite on the hard scales of the Rigordile. Each attack weakened it further and further before it could no longer persist, losing all signs of life.

The Steel Porcupine swallowed it whole. It then burrowed into the River Whale, pulling out a massive spine. But, this Frenzy Parasite could hardly move due to its large form. Unlike its host, it seemed to be weighed down by its size, unable to move.

After pulling it out, the Steel Porcupine left it out in the open as is, doing the same to the other River Whale. After that, it swam in the water and burrowed into the first Rigordile they had killed, swallowing its Frenzy Parasite. Done with that, it arrived back to the area, enlarging the girth of its body to ten times the previous, displaying insane elasticity.

It then swallowed both the remaining Frenzy Parasites; its body bulged like a balloon because of it. But, the Steel Porcupine didn't seem bothered, letting out a cute cry as it rolled on the floor once.