Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis spent the next couple of weeks forging his new equipment. He had always only used weapons and hadn't even considered using armor before. What was the reason for that?

The reason for that was that he always fought enemies that were way more powerful than him. For example, an armor would do wonders against an opponent in the same Realm and Stage as the armor wearer. If the enemy were one Stage higher, the armor would still be useful, but the blunt force of the attack would still injure the body behind it.

Yet, Gravis had always fought against opponents at least two Stages higher than him. If any of these attacks hit him, his body would just get completely destroyed. An armor wouldn't have made a difference. So, he never had a reason to consider buying or forging a set of armor.

But by understanding the Law regarding the materials, he finally had the ability to create a customized set of armor for himself that could actually prove useful. Though, the reason for creating such a set of armor was different than one would initially believe.

People wore armor in order to increase their defense. Yet, Gravis went about this topic with a different approach. After all, he was about to fight a beast three levels above him. One attack from his opponent would injure him severely.

So, instead, Gravis decided to create armor that would help in his evasion and attack. If he wanted to defend himself against an attack, he could just summon a shield. The shield would break after one attack, but it would severely weaken that attack.

Gravis' new armor set consisted of a pair of boots, a pair of gauntlets, a tail-armor, a chest piece, and a helmet. Every piece of the armor had a different specialty and different Formation Arrays.

His boots had the same Formation Arrays as his sabers. This allowed him to save up a Lightning Crescent inside them. Gravis knew that his enemies would always be careful of his saber, his hands, and his teeth. After all, his enemies were beasts, and most beasts used their claws and fangs to injure their opponents.

So, his enemies wouldn't be able to anticipate his foot suddenly shooting forward with an attack that was as powerful as his saber's. After all, all their attention was drawn to the upper half of his body.

His tail-armor was spiky and looked incredibly intimidating. Yet, Gravis had designed that whole look with misdirection in mind. His enemies would believe that this was also one of his primary weapons when, in reality, it wasn't.

His tail-armor only had Formation Arrays on them that increased the impact of an enemy attack. At first glance, this seemed utterly contradictory. Increasing the impact of an enemy attack would make the attack stronger instead of weaker. Why would he do that?

The reason for that was that if he blocked an attack with his tail, his whole body would get thrown away before the sharp claws or teeth of his opponent could injure his torso. Sure, his tail would probably explode after receiving that attack, but it was better to sacrifice his tail than to receive a mortal injury.

The enemies he would fight in the future would have such a ridiculous power advantage that, if he increased the tail's defense and defended with it, their attacks would destroy the tail and injure his torso heavily. If he got hit, he would get injured either way. Like this, he could, at least, mitigate the damage so that it only destroyed his tail.

If someone hit his tail, Gravis' body would receive the impact, and due to the Formation Arrays, he would get thrown away with speed faster than the opponent's attack. The blunt force would still injure him, but that was better than being gored by a claw.

His gauntlets were filled with Formation Arrays that built a powerful connection with whatever he was carrying in his hands at the moment. If he carried a saber in his hands, these Formation Arrays would make it impossible for the enemy to disarm him without literally "dis-arming" him.

If he carried a shield and the shield was destroyed in an attack, Gravis' arms would receive his enemy's blunt force. What exactly did this mean?

Usually, if an attack were powerful enough to completely decimate a shield, the user standing behind it would be hit by the powerful attack too. After all, the force would break the shield and continue going forward, eventually hitting the person behind it.

With these gauntlets, the force that the shield received would fully hit his arms, even if it broke apart. Like this, his arms would break, but similarly to his tail, his torso would remain safe. After all, the force would have thrown him away before the actual sharp weapon could hit him.

His helmet was filled with similar Formation Arrays to his boots and saber. Of course, they weren't completely identical. Instead, Gravis could release a kind of Lightning Blast from his head. This Lightning Blast wasn't nearly as powerful as his Lightning Crescent, but it had enough physical force to create a shockwave that would create space between him and his opponent.

Gravis couldn't just sacrifice his head like his arms, legs, and tail. Because of that, if an attack managed to close in on his head, he would need to sacrifice some of his lightning to blast himself away. Such a weak attack wouldn't injure his powerful opponent, but it would bring Gravis to safety.

The last part of Gravis' armor was his chest plate. By knowing the purpose of all the other parts, one could guess the chest plate's effect.

The chest plate was all about diminishing the force of an impact. By having the option to sacrifice his legs, tail, and arms, Gravis could deal with his opponent's primary weapon. So, the only dangerous thing left was the blunt force that his chest would receive.

That's where the chest plate came into play. Gravis' whole fighting style was based around countering his opponent's attacks by concentrating all the damage into an unessential part of his body. The chest plate would be able to resist the majority of the blunt force.

Gravis created this entire armor in a couple of days since he needed to use a lot of his lightning to manipulate such powerful materials. So, his progress wasn't that fast. He could have simply unloaded a Lightning Crescent to make it faster, but there was no reason for haste. He had to wait for three years anyway. Also, a Lightning Crescent would destroy parts of the surroundings.

Gravis also created several sabers and shields. The shields were filled with Formation Arrays that lessened the impact. An attack powerful enough to break the shield would throw Gravis away due to the Formation Arrays in his gauntlets, but by lessening the force via the shield, there was a chance that Gravis' arms might survive the impact.

Also, if the shield didn't lessen the impact, Gravis' arms would break either way by blocking an attack, even if the attack didn't break the shield. Thanks to his Spirit Space, Gravis never needed to carry both the shield and his saber at the same time. If he wanted to attack, he would use his saber with both hands. If he wanted to defend, he would summon the shield and also use it with both hands.

That was the advantage of having a Spirit Space.

The new sabers he created were no different from the previous ones, just harder. It was a weapon, and the more powerful its attack, the better.

After a couple of weeks, Gravis had used up all the Late Unity Rank ore. He had created several sets of armor, shields, and sabers. Nearly everything could break with just one attack, so he needed plenty of spares.

After finishing everything, Gravis stood up, decked out in his new equipment. The armor had nearly no openings and snugly fit his body. It didn't look bulky or heavy. After all, Gravis needed as much of his flexibility and agility as possible.

Sadly, Gravis had only found a single vein of Late Unity Rank ore. This meant that he couldn't choose the armor's color. So, he was stuck with an armor that was completely emerald green, not a color he preferred. Gravis preferred black, white, and silver over the green.

'Well, beggars can't be choosers,' Gravis thought.

'Guess I'm stuck looking like some green nature boy.'