Lightning Is the Only Way

BANG!

The ground exploded as Gravis charged forward. The priest was injured and couldn't use his full power anymore, and even a shield slam wouldn't be that damaging to Gravis anymore. He needed to press the priest before he managed to regain his Energy.

When they neared each other, Gravis suddenly jumped and grabbed the top of the shield with one hand.

Whoop!

The shield vanished and was replaced by a spear that shot right at Gravis, who was still in the air.

Puchi!

Gravis summoned multiple body parts to weaken the spear. One shouldn't forget that Gravis' body was pretty powerful, and such a relatively weak spear strike couldn't obliterate all of his prepared body parts. The spear strike slowed down as it met resistance, and Gravis summoned another of his previously severed arms as a foothold. With the help of these, Gravis managed to evade the spear. Like this, Gravis stabbed his saber forward.

Bang!

The priest couldn't summon the shield between the saber and his body anymore since there wasn't enough space, so he summoned it closely beside the saber. With his full power, he slammed it into Gravis' arms from the side.

Shing!

A significant cut appeared on the priest's torso, as he wasn't fully able to block the attack.

Crack!

It just so happened that the shield hit the previously cracked arm, breaking it completely. Due to this, one of Gravis' arms was unusable now. On top of that, nearly no time had passed since Gravis has used all his Life Lightning to regenerate himself, so he didn't even have enough to repair one single bone.

BANG!

The shield might have pushed Gravis' saber and arms aside, but his body was still in the air, a perfect target for another shield slam! The shield hit Gravis' body, cracking his upper arm in the process.

The slam threw Gravis for around 150 meters, and he landed shortly before he reached the wall.

BANG!

The floor exploded again as the priest shot forward with his shield. Just like Gravis didn't want to give the priest time to regenerate, the priest also didn't want to give Gravis any time. In fact, the priest was even more fervent than Gravis in this regard. They immediately charged at each other again.

BANG!

Contrary to expectations, Gravis didn't evade the shield. Instead, he slid on the floor, in front of it. The shield angled downwards, and Gravis kicked it with all his power while using his functioning arm to push off the ground. Only his arms were injured, and with the help of the ground, he had enough power to resist the single arm of the priest. Legs were more powerful than arms, and with Gravis having the ground as leverage, he mustered enough power to shoot the shield upward a little.

Instead of becoming panicked, the priest's eyes showed excitement, and an incredible fire of victory rush burned inside them. "It's over!" he shouted.

Gravis was motionless on the ground and was just about to kneel to get closer when he felt the air vibrate violently. Gravis felt an incredible amount of earth element being gathered on the shield. The amount was simply unreal!

At the same time, the priest fell to the Tree Stage. He had used the Energy in his Spirit to infuse his shield with as much earth element as possible. Lasar had done the same in his fight against Old Darkness. A Self Stage cultivator had so much Energy in their Spirit that falling a whole Stage would be equivalent to 200% of their Energy. The shield vibrated and shook as it reached a weight of over a thousand tons.

The priest didn't feel the weight of the shield as he slammed it downward at the unmoving Gravis with all his power.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The shield hit the ground and exploded, shooting into the surroundings. The shield wasn't made to resist such a massive infusion of earth element. Yet, it did its job as a massive hole appeared below the priest.

Puchi!

The priest's eyes widened as he felt incredible pain coming from his butt. With his Spirit, he saw Gravis coming out of the ground behind him, his saber being up to the hilt in the priest's butthole.

"H-how?"

BANG!

The priest exploded in an explosion of lightning.

The fight was over.

What had happened?

Many factors came into play here. First of all, Gravis absorbed a lot of his own lightning back when the double Lightning Crescent exploded. That had refilled his lightning storage to around 40%. Yet, he had acted like he had no lightning left. With the priest's stressed attitude, he would probably forget that Gravis could absorb his lightning back.

Then, when Gravis saw that the ground under him exploded when he had burst forward earlier, he realized something. Why was the ground five meters lower while the walls only lost around a meter of stone? The reason for that was that the walls were multiple meters thick, while the ground wasn't. It had only been a little less than a meter thick. This meant that they had not been fighting on the sturdy stone anymore but on the mountain stone.

The last factor was the priest's unrelenting aggressiveness. Gravis knew that the priest wanted to kill him as quickly as possible. So, after having one exchange to make the priest believe that Gravis couldn't use lightning, he created an "opportunity" for the priest. If Gravis were unmoving at the ground, the priest would surely use his most powerful attack to destroy him.

What if he didn't? If the priest wouldn't use that attack, Gravis would just kick the lifted shield again while being on one of his knees. With that, the fight would continue. Yet, the priest had fallen right into Gravis' trap.

When the shield came at him, Gravis used his lightning to destroy the, relatively, fragile stone beneath him. Then, he used his lightning movement to shoot himself downward. Gravity wouldn't be fast enough on its own. Like this, the shield would hit the surrounding earth instead of the lowered Gravis. The priest's full attention had been on his shield when he used it, and for the first time, the priest had paid no attention to Gravis.

So, Gravis immediately used his lightning movement in the destroyed underground to move beneath the priest. After that, he just stabbed upward and unloaded all his lightning. This was how he had won.

Gravis sighed, but before he could finish his sigh, a massive mouthful of blood left his mouth. Even though the shield hadn't hit Gravis directly, its incredibly powerful shockwave had traveled through the earth. Luckily, the earth had distributed its force over a wide area. If it hadn't, Gravis would be an unrecognizable pulp right now.

Gravis came out of the underground and lay on the floor, exhausted. "I'm still alive," he said to himself.

After a couple of minutes of rest, he noticed the loot beside him. The priest had died, and all his belongings had appeared beside him.

"Tch," Gravis spat to the side.

All his belongings? You mean all his belonging! It was just a single fucking spear. Nothing else. Gravis grimaced in frustration.

"Fuck you, Heaven," he groaned in frustration.

Yet, Heaven was even more frustrated than Gravis right now.