Splotch!
The Narlakk named Nirrkarrlarr splattered Captain Trotro's head and spontaneously tanked a series of smaller vapour cones aimed at its stomach. The vapour cones seemed to be losing their structural integrity upon coming into contact with its body, which ended up wasting most of their power.
But the barrage of attacks ended up causing some damage, forming a mild scorch mark on the impact location, which healed up a couple seconds later.
Captain Trotro's headless corpse remained standing in its original spot. The same individual appeared an arm's distance away, now dropping to 5-Life Stage cultivation. With a tug of his will, a stream of Prana surged through his corpse and applied psychokinesis to extract all the blood.
The withered husk of his corpse collapsed to the deck as a sphere of blood hovered before him. Captain Trotro promptly refined the blood and shed off most of its contents, retaining only the nutrient-rich parts with traces of Prana that were originally being circulated by the blood.
It also contained fragments of his shattered Spirit Container and the Prana once within it. Captain Trotro gathered as much as he could within the sphere and promptly refined it and consumed it.
It allowed him to regain some of his expended Prana, watching Vice Captain Quoquo take charge in attacking the Narlakk to buy time for his recovery, "I've recovered now."
"Captain," Vice Captain Quoquo expressed nervously, "My attacks aren't effective against it."
"Scared?" Narlakk Nirrkarrlarr suddenly opened its mouth to speak, stunning the Cooter Clansmen facing it. "I am one who will destroy the Cooter Clan?"
"Oh, really?" A single vein popped up right on Captain Trotro's eyelid. He still maintained his calm, despite the fact losing a body reduced his strength by a concerning margin. He slammed a vapour cone into the deck, used mist to yank out a piece of the floor, and used a second vapour cone to blast it right into the Narlakk's head, "Say it again."
"My Deity," Captain Trotro whispered to Runthral, "Somehow, that Pranic Beast is resistant to our abilities. But my latest attacks proves this resistance is only towards wind and water. Solids still deal the expected levels of damage to it."
"I got your point." Runthral nodded, "I might not have the experience to keep up with this battle…"
"Don't worry about it," Saying so, Captain Trotro revealed a trace smile and charged up another attack, "Just focus on compressing whatever projectiles I launch at it."
"Won't it drain your Prana reserves faster?" Runthral expressed his worry.
"I'm confident we can kill it before that happens." He said and condensed a sphere of water under his feet which exploded into mist and promptly launched him towards the Narlakk.
Narlakk Nirrkarrlarr clapped its hands, generating a gale that targeted Captain Trotro. The gale glided past the latter, as if skidding upon his skin.
"Seems you can control fluids," The mist under him morphed to form a cushion that softened his landing. The momentum behind his landing was absorbed by the cushion, which he promptly compressed and released as a ray of water.
The ray targeted the Narlakk's feet, splattering uselessly upon impact. Then, it compressed into a sphere and was released as a ray, targeting Captain Trotro instead.
The ray similarly dispersed upon coming into contact with Captain Trotro, who turned silent in response. The splattered water turned to mist and pushed him towards his subordinates.
'The exact same abilities.' His eyes stared at the floor underneath him, rapidly flashing through his memories of the recent exchange with the Narlakk, 'And the awkward way in which it wields it, which shouldn't have been the case if it was born with it.'
A Pranic Beast naturally wielded its abilities as if it was breathing. That was exactly what its Nature signified, as in essence, it was its natural state of existence expressed through Prana.
"I'm not sure how this is possible, but…" His expression hardened as he addressed his subordinates, "That Pranic beast is using Mystic Mist Art."
"I-Impossible!" Vice Captain Quoquo gasped in horror, "Only we can use it. If any other existence uses it, they will suffer from devastating consequences to their Spirit Container."
"But it is using it currently, no matter how." Captain Trotro pointed at the Narlakk Nirrkarrlarr that seemed to be casually poised on a collapsed portion of the deck, standing upon a pillar of water that extended from the sea, "And it is currently familiarising itself with the cultivation technique by fighting us."
Cooter Clansmen wielded Mystic Mist Art since young, gaining plenty of insights into the cultivation technique's uses. Simply seeing them in action gave Narlakk Nirrkarrlarr plenty of inspiration.
Moreover, since its body presently contained all characteristics of Mystic Mist Art, once it had enough information about the technique, it could wield all Skills naturally, for to Narlakk Nirrkarrlarr, unleashing a Skill was no different from flexing one of its muscles.
"Are you ready?" Captain Trotro asked Runthral, "Without your assistance, I can attack it for hours and still fail to injure it."
"Yes," Runthral nodded, internally sweating buckets, 'I felt Boiboi siphoning my powers for a while. Why did he stop? Did he die? No, with my power, there's no way he can die that easily.'
'Then, what is he doing at the moment?' He grew nervous the more he thought about it, 'Is he planning to exact revenge by taking advantage of this situation?'
He tried to kill Boiboi plenty of times until now, so it was perfectly natural to expect a retaliatory response, especially in such a dangerous situation. While grew more and more worried, something pricked his chest, from under his clothes.
The cold draft he felt through his clothes meant someone was using wind upon him. However, unlike when a Cooter Clansman manipulated the wind, the one he felt wasn't detected by anyone else.
It felt…natural, like wind that was commonly generated by the environment. That was why no one else at the scene felt it. However, even though Runthral wanted to deny it, he knew by a fact that only his kind was able to unleash this.
Primary Nature–Subtle Terrain Domination!
'I don't feel my Prana being consumed. Then, how is Boiboi unleashing my power?' This terrified him the most, for things had stopped making sense anymore. However, before he lost his marbles out of fear, the wind he felt in his clothes tickled his chest.
No, it drew across his chest a word, followed by an arrow.
[Here!]
The arrow provided the exact direction and head tilt he had to do, upon which Runthral noticed a tiny piece of coral floating on the sea water, unassuming as it was being rowed by the waves.
Gentle Coral!
His expression stuttered for a second before growing calm. Just as he was about to use his power to pick up the piece of Gentle Coral, the wind faintly rustled in his clothes, performing an 'X' mark, advising against using his power on the coral.
"Vice Captain," Runthral whispered to the man who, despite his growing fears, maintained an unbreachable defence all along. He was why Runthral was safe even on the battlefield, "I need you to make chaos around the ship."
"And then," He subtly motioned towards the piece of floating Gentle Coral, "Pick it up while not being noticed by our enemies."
'I think this is his intention.' He clicked his tongue in disgust, 'I despise the fact that I can glimpse into his train of thought.'
'If only I could do this in the past, I would have killed him already…' He shook his head, 'No, to a certain extent, I can understand his thoughts. But…I never wanted to acknowledge him.'
Because, if he were to acknowledge Boiboi's existence, it meant he had to accept the fact that he was extremely lacking as a Deity.
"With pleasure," Vice Captain Quoquo blasted a series of vapour cones into the surroundings, using the excuse of targeting the approaching Nirclicks to turn the place chaotic. The heat released by the vapour cones produced mist that blanketed the region, turning visibility zero.
A second later, the piece of Gentle Coral was in his possession. Using a blade of water, he severed it and uttered in surprise, "It's an Information Slip."
Runthral promptly consumed it, comprehending the stream of information that followed suit. His face turned into a mixture of concern and anger, "So, that's its identity."
He promptly made copies of the information and fed an Information Slip to the two veterans beside him.
"I understand now," Captain Trotro huffed as steam surged out of his body, "To dare use my people as a farm,"
"The Nirclicks will pay!"