Their movements were slow on land, lying solely on the slithering of their rear halves to move through the ankle-length water that covered the Academy of Accumulation.
They seemed to be experiencing a visible strain, brought about by the weight of the water stored in their scales. When underwater, buoyancy allowed them to handle the extra weight.
However, while on land, they were using psychokinesis to push against the weight of the scales, which was why they limited their movements. Their progress was slow, as they only moved to kill a student and gorge upon the latter’s flesh.
When the flesh gets digested, it generates a steady stream of Prana, allowing them to move for short whiles without worries.
A large group of students had huddled at the Canteen, which was now getting besieged by more than 100 Troitails.
The Troitails were invading from every possible direction. At present, forming the first wave to arrive at the dorm were 20 Troitails.
About 2800 students lived in the Academy of Accumulation, aged between 10 and 15 years. Their dwelling was in the Academy Dorms, a twelve-storey monolith carved out of stone. It had a wavy shape and extended along the island’s border.
The island was naturally occurring, but had been artificially extended to conform to the dorm’s design. The monolith stone forming the dorm was constructed the toughest in the Academy.
Perceiving its toughness after a couple of failed attacks, the Troitails intended to invade from the dorm’s side of the sea circled around, intending to enter through easier pathways.
The dorm had two entrances, positioned at either ends, which were situated close by, as the wavy structure appeared no different to a gentle pair of arms wrapping around someone. The distance between the two entrances was less than 50 metres.
Huddled in this space were the Troitails, calmly poising themselves to attack. The first Troitail used psychokinesis to move a scale towards a window on the tenth floor. The scale latched onto the window and exploded, flooding a bit into the room.
A second scale flew into the window as the Troitail focused all its senses into the room, detecting the student huddled at a corner within it.
Prana enabled a detection means, whereby a cultivator dispersed one unit of Prana radially into their surroundings across their Spirit Weapon range to cast a Three-Dimensional net of sorts.
Since Prana was dispersed radially from the body, the feedback was delivered through the skin, which the brain recognised as prickles. When a creature saunters into this range, depending on their spatial position, a feedback would be generated on the cultivator’s skin.
Depending on the position of the skin prickle and its intensity, a cultivator was able to determine the position and strength of the creature. This detection means worked by reacting to the presence of an individual.
The stronger an individual was, the stronger their presence was. Even if they were purposefully hiding it, the Prana dispersed through detection means typically tried to influence all living beings in their surroundings.
And since any creature with Prana would naturally resist this external influence, the degree of resistance they displayed determined their strength, which was registered as a prickle on the skin of the cultivator using the detection means.
It was an universal application that any individual was capable of unleashing. The most effective way to avoid detection was to hide within a solid container without any gaps. Prana wasn’t capable of penetrating through solids, hence rooms made of stone worked as natural barriers.
It was why the Troitail blasted open a hole through the window, which had spots of vulnerability, such as the hinges. Once a hole formed in it, the Troitail’s Prana was capable of reaching the insides of the room, through which its detection means picked up the student hiding in the corner.
Promptly after detection, a scale flew in through the gap and stuck to the student’s forehead. It didn’t explode, however, as through detection, the Troitail picked up on the fact he was weak.
The student was aged 10, and had only joined the Academy a couple months ago. He had a Prana capacity of 8 and had barely begun his journey.
"N-No..." He screamed in fright, not even fully versed with the basics in order to defend himself.
The scale stuck to his forehead and applied a torque. Basically, it twisted his neck, ripping apart the skin on his forehead while doing so. The scale circled around once and then stuck to the exposed skull.
Click!
The Troitail was happy when the scale flew out of the window, carrying the student with it. Seeing its success, the rest of the Troitails targeted the windows.
Some of the rooms were empty. But in the rooms where a student was hiding, the Troitail exploded a couple scales within, which not only killed the hidden student, but also flushed his body out through the hole in the window.
By the time they managed to kill around forty students in this fashion, there was a mild stirrup in their Prana detection means.
Instinctively, the Troitails swerved their bodies towards one of the entrances, sensing a figure rushing towards their position. There was a point of concern among a few of them, for usually, when something rushed at them, it meant the other party was a predator.
The presence picked up by their Prana detection means wasn’t strong. It was on par with some of the prey they had already consumed, so they weren’t entirely worried.
Still, they focused on the location, startled to see the figure of Boiboi Pet rush out fluidly. The water shoes on the Boiboi Pet accelerated its body, moving it at speeds on par with the body’s typical sprint.
"There’s my prey!" Boiboi Pet announced, watching a scale fly his way immediately after. And then, the scale slammed into his forehead, exploding promptly after.
The Troitail that had attacked him slithered forward, intending to consume him, startled a moment later to realise there was no splatter of flesh and blood this time. Instead, steam burst forth and covered the region, rapidly dropping the visibility down to zero.
The one that had rushed forth was just the skin of Boiboi Pet, filled with compressed mist. Once the skinsack exploded, the mist expanded to cover the region.
Then, Boiboi Pet skated out of the entrance, making a beeline towards the Troitail that had targeted him, ’You can’t sense me.’
The mist that had covered the region had traces of his Prana mixed in it. This meant his presence was ever present throughout the mist. And when the Troitail used its detection means, its skin prickled all over, as if it had been consumed by a humongous entity and now lay within the other party’s stomach.
"And boom," Sneakily, the Boiboi Pet reached the Troitail and touched its scale to explode it inward, causing water to flood out of its orifices, "You’re dead."