Lightning Is the Only Way

For a short moment, silence reigned as both combatants didn't immediately attack. Gravis had to plan how to win against the Tornado Emperor. Killing him wouldn't be easy at all, especially since he had comprehended the Law of Disguise. This Law could change his body and give him many chances to evade any decisive attack from Gravis.

Meanwhile, the Tornado Emperor felt waves surging inside his being. He still couldn't believe that he was actually fighting a King and not a level three Emperor. Gravis was not as fast as him, not as resilient, and his attacks were not nearly as powerful. Yet, Gravis' incredible amount of fighting tactics and Laws allowed him to seemingly counter everything the Tornado Emperor threw at him.

By now, the Tornado Emperor knew exactly who Gravis was. A King that was able to fight a level three Emperor? That was absolutely impossible, except for one beast. This could only be the elusive Gravis that he had never seen before. The Tornado Emperor couldn't imagine anyone else that could achieve such a ridiculously powerful Battle-Strength.

The Tornado Emperor regretted that he had jumped the gun. He had wanted to find an excuse to kill Aris, Cera, and Yersi for many years now, and when he had seen Gravis, he hadn't even thought about the fact that this beast was Gravis. At most, the beast could have been one of Aris' offspring.

Yet, he just had to attack Gravis, and now he was having a lot of issues. Gravis was not someone the Tornado Emperor had wanted to mess with, but that had been in the past. Now, he couldn't let Gravis survive. At this moment, the Tornado Emperor could still kill Gravis, but if Gravis became an Emperor himself, the Tornado Emperor would only die.

He had accidentally stepped upon a perilous path, and now he had to walk it to the end or die.

By now, the watching beasts also came to the correct conclusion. In the beginning, they had believed that it was some kind of sea beast invading, but after they had seen the appearance of Gravis and his unreal Battle-Strength, they realized that all of this had only happened because of a misunderstanding.

Yet, the fight had already begun, and both of them had unleashed several killing shots by now. There was no way to salvage this situation. If they were human, maybe someone would jump between them and say that it was a misunderstanding and try to even the tides, but that was not how beasts were. If someone tried to kill them, they would not rest until the enemy was dead.

Meanwhile, many kilometers away, Aris sat inside a cave as he clenched his fists and gnashed his teeth. "This is my prey, father!" he said to himself with anger. "This is my enemy!"

Yet, there was nothing that Aris could do. He was still a level one Emperor, and he could not fight two levels above himself. His plan had been to bide his time until he had become powerful enough to kill the Tornado Emperor. Sadly, his bothersome father had to turn up now!

"Fine, you are more powerful, so you deserve to pick your prey first, but that is not how it's always going to be, father," Aris said silently with battle intent.

Even though Gravis' Spirit Sense could reach Aris, he had no time to be distracted right now. One moment of carelessness, and Gravis would die.

'I need to find out more about his Laws,' Gravis thought. 'I need to know which Laws he knows so that I can plan my attack around them.'

BANG!

Gravis exploded forward again as he readied his saber with another Lightning Crescent. Yet, even if that Lightning Crescent perfectly hit the Tornado Emperor, he would probably still be able to heal himself. This meant that Gravis had to play this smartly.

The Tornado Emperor saw Gravis shooting at him with his full speed, and his eyes shone. This was a chance!

WHOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, a powerful pressure assaulted Gravis. It was like the surrounding air had gathered and constricted his movement. Yet, surprisingly, it didn't stop his movement forward and only made it impossible for him to stop or evade. This meant that he was now a sitting duck.

'This is probably one of his level two Laws,' Gravis immediately thought. 'The Law of Pressure, an element neutral Law, which has a connection to the wind element. His other level two Law should be that powerful wind blade, which even when weakened, has still managed to destroy half my body.'

The Tornado Emperor also charged forward as one of his humongous bone claws swiped at Gravis. With his Law of Pressure suppressing Gravis, Gravis couldn't possibly evade this attack.

BZZZ!

Suddenly, Gravis transformed into lightning, surprising everyone. Then, something even more shocking happened. The pressure around Gravis seemingly lost its target as the wind gathered in one spot and then dispersed again. It was like the wind couldn't interact with the lightning.

Yet, that wasn't the end of the surprises. Seemingly defying all physical concepts, Gravis immediately stopped in the air without any inertia. This movement looked surreal and unnatural.

Whooosh!

The bone claw missed since the Tornado Emperor couldn't have predicted such an instantaneous stop from Gravis.

What had Gravis done?

He had transformed into lightning and had then used his Law of Lightning Stasis to bring himself into a stasis. His whole being gripped the surrounding space as it kept itself stationary in the air. Gravis' Lightning Transformation was no longer his primary way of battling, but it still had its advantages.

Gravis immediately transformed back and slashed at the Tornado Emperor with a Lightning Crescent. The Tornado Emperor looked at the approaching Lightning Crescent in shock, gritted his teeth, and unveiled his last trump card.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The Lightning Crescent exploded onto the ground as it missed its target. Yet, instead of feeling frustrated, Gravis' eyes shone. 'I knew that you still had a trump card hidden away!' he thought.

Many kilometers away, the Tornado Emperor had reappeared. Yet, parts of his body had been destroyed, and he looked very exhausted. The reason for that exhaustion had been his last trump card.

This was the level two Law of Wind Speed.

Wind was traditionally seen as the fastest element, but that was only true in the earlier Realms. As soon as someone reached the Immortal Realm, light would become the fastest element. Yet, that wasn't all. As soon as someone started comprehending the speed-related Laws of Lightning, Lightning would also be considered faster than wind.

This level two Law of Wind Speed was the last and most powerful burst of speed that the wind element would ever achieve. Out of all speed-related level two Laws in existence, this Law was by far the fastest. Yet, every advantage came with a disadvantage.

Using this Law made it nearly impossible for the user to even react. Its speed far outclassed the user's own mind. Additionally, the instantaneous acceleration put a severe burden on the body. Lastly, creating such an insane speed cost a ton of Energy.

Beasts had far less Energy than humans, which was also the reason why they didn't use their level two and level three Laws as much. Right now, the Tornado Emperor only had around 30% of his Energy and 40% of his Life Energy remaining. Yet, he could still fight with his peak Battle-Strength.

On the other hand, Gravis was low on lightning again. With this small amount of lightning, Gravis couldn't unleash another Lightning Crescent for quite some time.

Yet, Gravis had gotten what he had wanted. He had unveiled the last relevant Law, which the Tornado Emperor had comprehended. With this new knowledge, he could plan something.

'This is more troublesome than I initially had believed,' Gravis thought. 'I need to immobilize him for quite some time to unleash my killing blow, which will be hard with the Law of Wind Speed and Disguise.'

'I don't see a way that will help me to immobilize him now, but I have to try either way. If I succeed, I survive. If I fail, I die. Isn't that what tempering is all about?' Gravis thought with narrowed eyes.

CLANK!

And suddenly, the Tornado Emperor was encased by a terrifying amount of armor. Gravis was using his destroyed and spare armor sets to immobilize the Tornado Emperor.

Yet, this would be immensely difficult since Gravis couldn't fuse them without expending nearly all his lightning. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing Gravis could try.