Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis teleported for another couple of minutes and arrived at his destination. Obviously, Gravis had been mistaken when he had thought that the Immortals and Immortal Kings were deeper in the territory. After all, if they were, Gravis wouldn't have arrived in simply a couple of minutes.

Yes, the beast territory was smaller than the human territory, but it was still gigantic. If Gravis wanted to reach the core of the Great Forest, he would need to travel for over a week. Right now, Gravis was still at the edges of the beast territory, but there were already powerful Immortal Kings here. This meant that they were everywhere in the beast territory.

Gravis landed in the clearing and created a powerful explosion thanks to his big size.

In front of Gravis was a small rock of metal ore. It wasn't much, but this ore was at the Major Circulation Immortal King Rank. This meant that it was worth quite a bit of money.

Where was Spear Mountain?

Spear Mountain sat on top of this small ore stone, and he wasn't even a meter tall.

How did an Immortal King beast that called itself Spear Mountain look like?

It looked very different than one thought.

On top of the rock of ore sat a small, grey tortoise. When Gravis had heard the name Spear Mountain, he had expected a pangolin with big claws or a cat. However, it was a tortoise.

A head came out of the shell and looked with a bored expression at Gravis. However, the expression quickly turned cold when it saw that Gravis didn't show subservience with his posture. Instead, Gravis radiated aggression.

"You will be my tempering," Gravis said directly and coldly.

CRRRK!

Gravis moved one of his arms to one of his scales on the side of his body and tore that scale off. Then, Gravis put his claws into the wound and pulled out several small metal needles.

After doing this, Gravis shrunk down to his usual size.

The metal things that had seemed like small metal needles previously now seemed much bigger after Gravis shrunk.

SHING! SHING!

These small metal needles had been Gravis' sabers and spears.

As soon as Gravis had arrived in the territory of the beasts, he had realized that he couldn't just summon his weapon. After all, beasts didn't have a Spirit Space. Because of that, Gravis had grown bigger and had put his weapons below a scale. Like this, it would appear like Gravis was carrying his weapons on his body.

Gravis' upper pair of arms held two spears. His middle pair of arms held one saber, and his lower pair also had a saber. Against a beast, Gravis needed to put as much power behind his weapons as possible. Using them with one hand would not be effective.

The tortoise watched Gravis' performance and looked at him coldly.

"Why talk?" Spear Mountain asked. "If you want to fight, fight."

Gravis found it ironic that someone else was saying these words to him. Normally, Gravis was the one that said these words.

However, Gravis had a reason for talking.

"I am informing you because I don't want you to underestimate me," Gravis said. "I have fought several beings four levels above me before, and nearly all of them always underestimated me."

"I don't want you to die too quickly because you felt like I'm not a danger," Gravis said coldly.

The tortoise looked at Gravis evenly.

CRRR!

The tortoise grew taller until it was two meters high. Then, it stepped down from its ore rock and looked at Gravis with a severe expression.

When Gravis looked into the eyes of this tortoise, he got reminded of a distant memory.

In a red cave, a young man with a black saber looked at a tortoise with an imposing head. The tortoise slowly walked over to the young man, and the young man charged at the tortoise. However, the young man suddenly stopped his charge in fear, and the tortoise nearly bit his head off.

This was the memory of Gravis' first fight.

Back in the practical exams, Gravis' first opponent had also been a tortoise, and it had been similarly big as Spear Mountain.

Over 45,000 years had passed since that event, and Gravis lived in an entirely different world now, literally.

This scene reflected Gravis' first fight, but it couldn't be any different.

"Prove to me your power, and I will take you seriously," the tortoise said. "Unleash one attack at my shell, and if your power is sufficient, I will go all-out against you."

It was normal for the tortoise to be skeptical. No beast had ever managed to fight four levels above themselves, and this beast claimed that it could? Sure, Black Demons were all very powerful, but a jump of four levels was simply far too much.

Going all out against an opponent so much weaker would feel like a humiliation to such a proud beast. The tortoise didn't even want to kill Gravis since it would only be a waste. It wouldn't gain anything out of their fight, but the beasts would lose a Black Demon.

Gravis immediately accepted this proposal. Beasts wouldn't lie about something like that or betray their word.

The tortoise wanted to see Gravis' power? Fine!

BZZZZ!

Lightning runes appeared beside Gravis as he put a spear in them. The spear slowly moved backward as the runes rotated.

Then, Gravis pointed at the shell of the tortoise.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

A concentrated beam of Inferno was shot at the shell of the tortoise. This beam used the Laws of Inferno's Heat, Inferno's Efficiency, Inferno's Decomposition, Inferno's Explosion, and Inferno's Concentration. Five level four Battle Laws had been put into this beam, and it exploded with apocalyptic might.

BANG!

Gravis kicked his spear forward and infused it with a soul. This soul would allow his spear to seek out its target perfectly.

CRK!

Gravis hadn't used Mortality with his spear. After all, he didn't want to kill the tortoise directly. Killing it because of a free shot was not what Gravis wanted.

Instead, Gravis had infused his spear with the Frost Element. He had used the Laws of Frost's Cold, Frost's Concentration, Frost's Efficiency, and Frost's Power. Four level four Battle Laws had also been used with this attack.

The smoke from the explosion had vanished, and Gravis could now see the tortoise again.

The tortoise had a surprised look on its face as it looked at the spear.

The spear was about ten centimeters inside its body. It barely broke past the shell and touched the tortoise's muscles.

This mere Early Minor Circulation Immortal King had managed to break through its shell.

The spear also radiated a terrifying cold.

CRACK!

The head of Spear Mountain clamped on the spear and pulled it out.

Clank!

Then, he threw the spear over to Gravis.

For the first time, Spear Mountain was looking at Gravis as a genuine danger.

"Four hours from now. Regenerate your Energy," Spear Mountain said.

Gravis grabbed his spear and noticed that its tip was broken.

BZZ!

Gravis used some lightning and quickly reforged the broken spear.

This exchange had only been a test. Gravis had far more attacks and even had more powerful attacks, but Spear Mountain hadn't even fought back. Spear Mountain could have distributed Gravis' Inferno Beam over a larger surface by slightly rotating his body, reducing its effectiveness.

Additionally, even if it was a tortoise, it was four levels above Gravis. This meant that it was still incredibly fast just due to its overwhelming physical power in comparison to an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King.

Spear Mountain would never allow Gravis to stack his powerful attacks like that.

Additionally, Spear Mountain might even have several defensive Laws that increased his defense even more.

One had to look at this situation objectively. Spear Mountain had not moved, not defended, and had not used even a single Law. Meanwhile, Gravis had been able to build the acceleration aspect of Mortality and stack two attacks on the same spot.

Yet, Gravis' spear had only barely gone through Spear Mountain's defense.

This fight would definitely not be easy.

CRK! CRK! CRK!

A cacophony of sound appeared around Gravis. It sounded like a mountain of earth was being destroyed.

Gravis didn't want to appear suspicious and only looked at what was happening with his Spirit.

What was happening?

The many-kilometer-tall trees were shuffling away from them. Some trees retrieved their roots and walked away, while others created ditches as they moved. Some even began flying into the distance.

The small clearing was quickly becoming bigger and bigger.

'So that's how all these trees survived,' Gravis thought. 'As soon as two beasts start fighting, they simply move away. Additionally, the most powerful trees travel slower than the weaker ones. The more powerful trees probably block the weaker plants from any shockwaves.'

BANG!

Suddenly, one of Spear Mountain's feet enlarged and trampled on the ore rock. The ore rock was far more durable than the earth surrounding it, which meant that it got buried in the earth by Spear Mountain's stomp.

Spear Mountain didn't want his ore rock to be damaged, which was why he had decided to bury the ore rock in the earth. It was durable enough to resist some very powerful shockwaves and elements, but Spear Mountain didn't want the ore rock to be thrown into the distance. It would be troublesome to find it again.

As long as the explosions came from above the ore rock, it would only be pushed diagonally down or straight down. Like this, it wouldn't be hard to find it again.

Gravis and Spear Mountain waited in the ever-growing clearing. Gravis was regenerating his Energy while Spear Mountain was healing his wound.

Only the sound of trees moving away could be heard.

Gravis had been surrounded by a forest teeming with life, but now, he was inside a dead wasteland.

Peaceful vitality had given way to cold desolation.