Lightning Is the Only Way

Silvio's eyes were full of rage, hatred, and panic. He saw the big bird following his leader and gaining ground extremely fast. The two other disciples in the Formation Array panicked and used everything they had to destroy the Formation Array, even though they knew that they couldn't break it.

When he heard Gravis' shout, his rage exploded, and he released an enraged roar with all his power. He released a massive lightning bolt that shot at Gravis, but Gravis only sidestepped. Silvio was blinded by rage, and his attacks were fueled with his anger. He used his whole body to attack, which only made him telegraph every attack very clearly.

Silvio continued shooting his lighting at Gravis, and he moved with all his speed. His hatred exploded to the sky, and he was wasting all his Energy. When he saw Gravis dodging everything, his rage grew even more, which didn't help at all. Every attack from him left a vast area of destruction on the tree, while Gravis wasted as much time as possible, not counterattacking.

The tree got involved and tried to stop Silvio, but his violent lightning destroyed everything that got close to him, which wasted even more Energy. Gravis didn't want to see the tree getting hurt and charged down the tree. "Come, let's fight on the ground!" he shouted with mirth, and Silvio chased him, blinded by rage.

Gravis had killed his love! Gravis had used Silvio's inadequacy to doom his senior brothers! Gravis had dodged all his attacks, which enraged Silvio even more! In Silvio's eyes, there was nothing but Gravis.

Silvio was faster than Gravis, but whenever he released a lightning bolt, he stopped for a second. One couldn't release a fully powered Energy attack while simultaneously using their element to move. A fully powered attack required the concentration of every last bit of Energy, after all.

They both left a colossal ravine of lightning and destruction behind while moving down the tree. Luckily, the tree noticed that they were moving away, so it decided against sacrificing more branches to stop them. The sooner they left, the better. It had just recovered from the earlier calamity, and now it was close to death again.

When they started closing in on the ground, the parent bird returned with a bloody beak and some remaining body parts in its claws. The leader hadn't survived for even a minute. The bird noticed Silvio following Gravis, and killing intent shone in its eyes.

"He's mine!" shouted Gravis at the bird and shot a small lightning bolt at the Formation Array. The bird followed the lightning bolt with its eyes and saw how it shot into the Formation Array and hit a disciple, who was trying to break out of the Formation Array.

A light of understanding shone in its eyes, and it understood multiple things. It saw how the attacks of the disciples were blocked, while Gravis' attack went through. It guessed that its own attacks probably won't be blocked and that it could reign havoc inside the Formation Array. It looked one last time at Gravis and saw his battle intent.

The bird released a casual caw to show that it understood. Gravis had shown his battle intent, and the bird understood that he wanted to fight with Silvio. The bird shot off and charged towards the Formation Array. The captured disciples saw this, and their faces turned white. Death was coming.

The pressure the bird released when it had looked at Silvio made him sober up. Fear replaced his anger, and he grew incredibly agitated. A glimpse of death made him forget all about his anger.

"Don't worry. It won't interfere with our fight," Gravis told him while looking at him. Gravis' lightning movement didn't require him to look forward while moving since it was equally as fast, no matter in which direction he moved.

Silvio narrowed his eyes and calmly readied himself for the coming battle. His Energy reserves were already down to under 50%, and he saved it for the upcoming fight. He shot no more lightning bolts as they both charged to the floor.

They quickly arrived, and they continued running for about a kilometer. When Gravis judged that the tree wouldn't get injured anymore due to their battle, he slowed down and readied his saber. "This seems good. Let's go!" he shouted to Silvio.

Could Gravis use the bird to kill Silvio? Of course, but Gravis knew that he needed to temper his will further. Opportunities to temper his will were rare for Gravis since Heaven always only sent enemies to Gravis that made him nearly helpless. When Gravis was hunting for Energy Beasts the last couple of days, he had never met a middle-grade Energy Beast, because Heaven refused to send him enemies on his level.

He had to use every opportunity for tempering, and Silvio was a more than formidable opponent. Gravis knew that his chances of winning were not very high, but if he didn't use this new opponent as tempering, then he might lack the last bit of strength to survive his next encounter with Heaven's schemes. Gravis was prepared to risk his life, because only by continually risking his life, would he have the ability to reach the peak. The will was the most important!

Silvio also stopped and looked at Gravis seriously. Gravis had gotten one over him before, and he wouldn't underestimate Gravis again. He looked at Gravis like he was the strongest enemy he had ever faced!

Silvio readied his spear in a battle stance. He completely calmed down as he took a deep breath to ready up. Yet, just when he had finished, Gravis was already directly in front of him, slashing with his saber.

"Relaxing in a fight? How stupid are you?" Gravis asked while attacking, and Silvio's eyes widened. He had only lost his attention for a split second to get into the right mindset for a battle. He hadn't thought that Gravis would be so dirty to attack him while he was still readying up.

Silvio barely blocked the attack with his spear, but he completely lost his balance. Gravis continued attacking like crazy, and in order to stop Gravis from injuring him severely, he used one hand to stop Gravis' physical attack with lightning.

Blocking an Energy attack with lightning was no issue, but blocking a physical attack with only lightning ate up a significant amount of Energy. Gravis' saber was stopped in Silvio's hand, but it retreated quickly before he could clasp his hand around it. Silvio shot one last stab at Gravis while he was retreating, but Gravis parried it. Even though Gravis had parried the attack, he still got thrown back.

Silvio looked at Gravis with more hatred as their distance increased. He had lost his attention once, and it wouldn't happen again.

WHOOSH! CRRK!

Suddenly, a humongous storm appeared in their surroundings. Yet, instead of attacking them, the storm completely cleared the surrounding kilometer of forest. Only a big clear area of earth remained. Shortly after that, the big bird landed at the edge of the newly created makeshift fighting arena and watched.

The bird had already killed the other two disciples and wanted to watch the fight. This would surely prove to be entertaining.