Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis saw the attacks coming, and he quickly thought of a plan. Gravis could control his Will-Aura very delicately, and he was able to quickly distort both wills in the attacks. The second attack wouldn't be able to hit them while they had to evade the first one.

BZZZT!

A long line of lightning connected Gravis and his earlier thrown saber, which was still shooting away with a lot of force. Gravis grabbed Skye as best as he could and then used the power of his earlier throw to pull Skye and himself to his saber, which quickly pulled them higher. The first lightning bolt missed them, while the second one flew wildly away.

Gravis' saber came back into his hand, and their ascent stopped. It was hard for Skye to fly at this height, and it quickly plummeted to its old height. Skye was breathing heavily due to its exertion. Flying on that speed, on that height, was difficult. The higher the height, the lower the density of the air.

"Skye, use your wind next," Gravis said to Skye, who understood what he meant. They had kept the flexibility of its wind element a secret so that they could evade more attacks. If Skye had used it since the beginning, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore.

The expert saw his attacks missing again, and his eyes narrowed further. A sea of lightning appeared around him, and he finally stopped underestimating Gravis. He shot eight lightning bolts at once and filled all of Gravis' surroundings with them. Gravis couldn't possibly evade those, right?

"Now!" shouted Gravis, and Skye's speed increased by 30%. The lightning missed, but the expert quickly controlled one lightning bolt after another to shoot at Gravis' new location. The bolts had not reached a distance of 60 meters before, so Gravis hadn't been able to distort their will.

The lightning chased Skye, and Gravis quickly distorted its will when it came close enough. Then, Gravis jumped off Skye with his full power, violently throwing Skye down while he soared upwards. Skye had issues to get its balance back, but the lightning missed both of them. Skye used its wind element to stabilize its flight and to also throw Gravis back onto its back.

The lightning continued flying forward for a whole second due to its distorted will. The expert screamed in rage and used all his spiritual power to showcase his control. The lightning bolts hit each other and then exploded into a gigantic net of lightning, a hundred meters in size.

Gravis looked at it with narrowed eyes, and Skye tried to avoid it by diving below it. The net followed Skye's height, and when they started getting closer to it, the net shot forward. By now, the expert had realized the area of effect of Gravis' Will-Aura, and he made the net shoot towards them before it reached the area. Even if Gravis distorted the will of that attack, the net was still too big to evade. He had him!

Gravis grabbed one of the spears on his back and threw it forward, while it released lightning violently. Gravis, of course, also distorted the will of the net. Skye dove further while the lightning in the spear hit the lightning in the net. The whole net quickly shot into the spear, and the spear got reduced to ashes. An Energy Weapon was not able to keep so much lightning.

BOOM!

A big explosion took place, and lightning ravaged the sky. Gravis jumped a little to absorb part of the lightning explosion since Skye didn't have such a great lightning resistance. His whole body burned, and he could feel the lightning ravaging his body. Luckily, the lightning was not concentrated. Gravis' body was ravaged, but he managed to protect his organs with the attack's absorbed Life Energy.

Yet, the shockwave hit both of them, and they were thrown down violently. Skye used the full power of its wind to keep Gravis by its side, and they started falling towards the ground in an arc. They looked like a big meteor, which was about to hit the earth. Thankfully, they were pretty high up, which meant that they wouldn't hit the ground anytime soon.

The expert gasped in surprise when he saw that his net didn't stop them. Even worse, their speed increased due to the shockwave, and they were plummeting to the Heaven Sect. The other disciples watched with fury, surprise, shock, and hatred. The betrayer had to die!

The expert quickly shot lightning like he was crazy, making more nets. Sweat started pouring down the expert's face since controlling so many attacks was taxing to his newly evolved Spirit. He had never used his Spirit so much before. His concentration started going down while his eyes reddened. If he let Gravis escape, then his death was inevitable in the future!

Skye had gotten its balance back and started flying around in zig-zag-patterns, while Gravis distorted the wills in all the singular lightning bolts. When a new net was created, he would throw over another weapon to make it explode. The difference this time was that Gravis made Skye fly over the explosion to gain more height and speed.

Another explosion occurred, and, this time, Skye received the brunt of it. Skye's flesh exploded in some parts of its body, and it slowly lost its feathers. Remaining in the air became more difficult. After this explosion, they couldn't fly above any explosion anymore since Skye probably couldn't tank another hit.

Another explosion occurred above them, and Gravis used the last of his backup weapons, which also promptly exploded. His body received another hit, and some flesh also exploded from it. Gravis was heavily injured, and he could, maybe, only take one more explosion.

The expert was breathing heavily and sweating buckets. Gravis and Skye were so close to the Heaven Sect, and his Spirit was also slowly getting used up. By now, Skye's height was only around two kilometers, but due to Skye's higher speed, the distance between it and the expert was just as big as before. Skye lost some height but gained some distance.

The expert used one last net to shoot at Gravis, wasting the last bit of his Spirit. After this, he couldn't remotely control any more attacks. Seeing the approaching net, Gravis was forced to use his saber. He threw it away, just like the other weapons, and its fate was the same as all the backup weapons. His saber exploded, and Gravis' body got ravaged one last time.

All his muscles tore, and most of his organs were severely burned. Gravis quickly used the absorbed Life Energy of the attack to heal his most vital organs. Without the Life Energy from the attack, he wouldn't have survived. Gravis and Skye plummeted uncontrollably towards the ground, and the expert grew panicked.

Gravis and Skye were only a couple hundred meters above the ground, and they were about to hit the ground like a meteor. The expert released nearly all his Energy and shot another ten bolts at Gravis and Skye. His Spirit was used up, and he couldn't control his attacks anymore, but he could still shoot his lightning, like people in the Energy Gathering Realm.

Skye used its last wind to keep them from crashing too hard on the ground, but that also meant that they were sitting ducks. Most of the lightning bolts would miss them, but there was one lightning bolt that was about to hit them. Gravis couldn't take another explosion, and he also didn't have any more weapons to throw. If he wanted to stop the lightning, he had to stop it outside of his Will-Aura's area of influence. He only hoped that the Spirit Forming expert had used up all his Spirit.

Gravis took his ring off his finger. The ring had been given to him by his father, and Gravis knew that it wasn't some supreme treasure. It could only show his status to other people, nothing else. Yet, the ring had been created in his homeworld, and Gravis could only gamble on its hardness.

Gravis threw the ring at the lightning bolt, and the lightning bolt exploded. His ring survived the encounter, but it shot widely into the distance. Luckily, the explosion was far away enough that Gravis didn't get hit by the explosion. His gamble had worked, and the Spirit Forming expert hadn't been able to control his attack anymore.

BOOM!

Gravis and Skye hit the ground and rolled for a while. Skye had stopped their fall enough for them to survive, but it was still painful. They stopped after some meters, and both laid on the ground, a hundred meters away from the Heaven Sect's building. Yet, Gravis released a sigh of relief. They were inside the Heaven Sect's walls, which meant that they were also inside its territory. No one would dare to be arrogant here.

Gravis relaxed and nearly lost consciousness, but he kept himself awake just with his willpower. Skye and Gravis laid there for several seconds until…

"Die!" shouted the expert as he jumped over the wall and shot a lightning bolt at Gravis. Gravis' mind stopped working as he saw death approaching. The Spirit Forming disciple of the Lightning Guild dared to attack him inside the Heaven Sect? Gravis had not expected that, and only a deep fear of death remained in his mind. There was nothing he could do anymore but hope that the Heaven Sect was not empty right now.

SHING!

A gigantic spire of ice appeared in front of Gravis and redirected the lightning into the ground. Shortly after that, an absolutely apocalyptic pressure encompassed the expert of the Lightning Guild. His face whitened, his breathing stopped, and his eyes shrunk to pinpricks. He was not able to move anymore!

"What guts, to attack someone in my Heaven Sect," commented Aion nonchalantly, as he walked out of the door.