Lightning Is the Only Way

BOOM!

Red exploded forward with all his power, and his speed was unreal. Gravis looked at him without a change of expression and dodged.

Red missed the attack and felt a little surprised. He was sure that his speed was fast enough so that Gravis couldn't react to the telegraphing of his attacks. Red had only lifted his sword for an overhead slash shortly before he reached Gravis. Logically, Gravis shouldn't have been able to react to this attack so adequately.

How did Gravis manage to dodge? For the first time in a long while, Gravis had to use his pre-dodging again. The last time when he had needed to use this was when he had still fought demonic beasts. That was a full cultivation Realm ago! At that time, the demonic beasts had been too fast for him to react to their attacks, so he had to anticipate and guess their attacks preemptively. Yet, if even one guess were wrong, he would get severely injured, at least.

Gravis used the surprise of his opponent to his advantage and used a full 50% of his Energy to empower his attack. If he only used his physical power, Gravis would never be able to penetrate Red's defense.

CLANK!

Red stopped the slash with his free hand, using a fire explosion inside of his hand to weaken the attack. Normally, if he wanted to block such an attack, he would have needed to use about 20% of his Energy reserves. Blocking a physical attack empowered by an element with a hand took way more Energy than using such an attack. Yet, with this small explosion, he only used 5%. The saber slowed down a bit and hit his hand, yet due to the explosion, the attack only broke the skin.

'Terrifying!' Gravis judged. Red had managed to block his attack with way less Energy than normal due to the ingenious method of using an explosion in his hand. Like this, Gravis had used up 50% of his Energy while Red only used a little more than 5%. Gravis was wholly outclassed.

Red grabbed the saber with all his power and didn't let it go. Red smirked. Gravis had lost his weapon!

BZZT!

But who was Gravis? He quickly used his lightning to disturb the hand of Red, which made him able to pull his saber back. Lightning had the ability to slightly stun the opponent. Of course, if the opponent had a way stronger body, they wouldn't be majorly stunned. Yet, even with a strong body, a slight bit of the stun effect would remain.

Red's eyes widened as the saber left his hand without his control, and his eyes narrowed. Gravis' brain grew incredibly hot as he thought about many different circumstances at once. He had to grasp the whole battle situation in the blink of an eye to correctly dodge his opponent. Like this, Gravis ducked.

SWOOOSH!

A saber barely missed the top of his head, cutting some hair. Gravis quickly used another 45% of his total Energy to attack Red's arm. The speed of Red's body was superior to Gravis' so, in comparison to Gravis, Red had the ability to react to Gravis' attacks. Like this, he grabbed the saber again, this time, using a smaller explosion.

SHING BOOM!

Gravis' saber went deep inside of Red's hand, and the lightning exploded, blasting the front half of his hand off. Red's eyes widened, and he quickly jumped back, keeping watch on Gravis. Why did the attack work this time when it didn't before? The reason was that Red actually had too much fighting experience instead of too little.

An inexperienced person would have used the same amount of Energy as before, but Red was sure that Gravis would not use the same amount of Energy again. Red knew a lot about Energy, and he guessed that earlier, Gravis had used a whole 50% of his Energy to injure him. If Gravis used the same amount again, he would be out of Energy. Yes, he might be able to sever the front of his hand, but that would make him helpless for the future fight. Gravis obviously wouldn't be that stupid.

Yet, Gravis had done just that. He had emptied a total of 95% of his reserves to sever the front half of Red's left hand. Red's eyes widened because this seemed incredibly stupid. He had seen how Gravis fought, and he was sure that Gravis wouldn't do something this idiotic. Gravis would have no way to damage Red anymore, now.

Yet, without hesitation, Gravis ran forward and slashed again at Red. Red only smiled in disdain. Gravis was helpless now without any Energy. The fight was over. Red could also only see a tiny amount of lightning on the saber. This was Gravis' last remaining Energy, and even if he let the saber hit him, it would do nothing. Red just let Gravis slash his shoulder without a care.

Yet, as the saber closed in, Red suddenly felt an inexplicable, deep terror. For some reason, he grew incredibly afraid of that slash, and he quickly used his arm to push the saber away.

SHIING BOOM!

The saber went into Red's lower, left arm and suddenly exploded with lightning. The explosion was as intense as the previous two attacks, which shocked Red to the core. Where did that Energy come from? Weren't Gravis' Energy reserves empty? Like this, the front half of Red's left arm was also exploded off.

Gravis grimaced. 'I'm pretty sure that he didn't notice me refilling my Energy with an Energy dot from my mind. First, he looked like he wanted to do nothing, but suddenly his face changed, and he decided to block either way. This doesn't make sense. Did Heaven interfere?'

Yes, Heaven had created fear inside of Red's mind. It had done the same to Gravis when it killed that one bandit with the meteor. This was the best chance it had in getting rid of Gravis, and it wouldn't miss it!

Red quickly overcame his terror and slashed horizontally at Gravis. He didn't know why Gravis still had Energy, but that was not important right now. One of his arms was entirely useless now, and he couldn't allow himself to grow careless any further. Gravis quickly ducked under the attack again, and Red's eyes widened again. How had Gravis avoided the attack again? Slowly, Red began to see a pattern, and his eyes sparkled.

Gravis slashed at Red's torso from below Red's attack, but Red would no longer allow any errors.

BOOM!

Red used the stump of his left arm to place a big explosion in front of his torso. Like this, both combatants shot back due to the shockwave. In this short amount of time, Red had not been able to make the explosion strong enough to injure Gravis, but he had managed to gain some space. Without waiting, he immediately shot forward again, readying a fireball on what remained of his left arm.

Gravis also immediately ran at him and then ducked to the left of Red. Judging by the readied explosion on his severed arm, he would attack diagonally to force Gravis to the side of the explosion.

Yet, a horizontal slash came instead.