Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis quickly stepped forward to get away from Sary. "Hey, listen," he said as he lifted both of his hands. "I have no interest in mating or starting a relationship with anyone right now. My goal is supreme power, and every additional connection I make is a threat to my path."

Sary was surprised that her charms didn't work. She was the most desirable female beast in this world. Her power and Life Energy pulled every beast to her like a magnet.

"Huh," she said in a flat tone. "That never happened before."

"Hah! Get fucked, Sary!" Meadow shouted from the side with mirth.

Sary frowned at Meadow. "That's what I'm trying to do right now!"

"Shit," Meadow said in frustration. "My insults have been countered too easily in the past years. I really need to check my wording."

Then, Sary turned back to Gravis and looked at him weirdly. "Okay, I mean, this hasn't happened before, sooo…" she said as she stumbled on her own words. Apparently, she was really unused to getting rejected.

Awkwardness reigned its head and ruled the atmosphere, and no one could resist its mighty pull.

Clap!

Sary's tail hit the floor as she remembered something. "Oh, right, what about that one grey elephant?" she asked as she turned to Meadow. "Wasn't his promise the whole reason why all of this even started?"

"Oh, right!" Meadow exclaimed as she also remembered the grey elephant.

In the distance, the grey elephant shivered. This wasn't how all of this was supposed to go!

"Hey, Gravis," Meadow said as the flower turned to him. "You still want to fight him?" she asked.

Gravis looked at Borro, the grey elephant. The Lightning Ultimate also glared at the grey elephant. This guy was the whole reason why the Plant Ultimate went against him! Of course, the Lightning Ultimate didn't notice that it had been his own hubris that brought Meadow's wrath upon him.

"Yes," Gravis said coldly. "He gave his word, and I said I wanted to fight him. In comparison to him, I keep to my words."

"Alright, everyone!" Meadow shouted as two roots came out of the earth that clapped three times to get everyone's attention. "We have a fight on our hands, claws, roots, or whatever! Everyone make space for our two opponents!"

Gravis flew up as he summoned his saber and returned to his true size. Borro, the elephant, hesitated but complied in the end. It wasn't that he felt like he would lose. He just didn't want to fight for no payout. Yet, this time, he had no choice. Their ruler had ordered him to fight. If he defied her orders, he would die. At least, by killing Gravis, he could survive.

"On the right side, we have ya boy, Gravis," Meadow announced. "On the left side, we have the cowardly elephant! Let's get some excitement into this shitshow of a competition!"

"You're supposed to announce the sides from the perspective of the audience, Meadow," Sary said from Meadow's side. "Otherwise, beasts might start thinking that the elephant is Gravis."

"Eh, fuck that," Meadow said dismissively. "They know what I mean."

Sary only rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Azure!" Meadow shouted. "Who's gonna win?"

Azure flew over and stopped beside them. "Gravis, obviously," she commented like it was no big deal. Then, she turned to Sary and bowed a little. "Greetings, Life Ultimate."

"Oh, Azure," Sary said with a friendly voice. "I haven't seen you in a while. So? Is my technique of comprehending the Life Laws working out for you?" she asked with a chuckle.

Azure nodded. "Seeing the development of my own offspring as they grow up gave me a lot of insights into the Life Laws. Your advice has helped me immensely."

"Aw, shucks," Sary said as she waved her tail in a dismissive wave. "You're making me blush. Creating new life is just part of our life."

Then, Sary looked with more interest at Azure. "So? Did you have some good offspring?" she asked with a quiet voice.

Azure nodded. "Yes. One of them even became an Emperor already, but he left my Empire."

"Oh! Tell me all about it, darling," Sary said with interest.

Meadow groaned when she heard them talking about such unimportant stuff. So, instead of listening to them, she concentrated on Gravis. This was bound to be an interesting fight!

Meanwhile, Gravis looked at Borro. "Now, you can't run anymore," he commented.

Borro remained silent as his body transformed into metal. Then, he charged forward.

WHOOOOM! SSSHHHHHH!

Suddenly, an incredible pressure pressed into Borro, which slowed him by over 70%! Gravis' Will-Aura had made tremendous leaps forward since his last fight with Morus. Additionally, Borro's body started turning into dust.

"I would advice you to return to your flesh-form," Gravis said. "I've comprehended the Composition Laws of all kinds of metal. If you remain in your current form, you will die."

Usually, Gravis wouldn't be so powerful to completely turn the element of an Emperor into dust. Yet, since the Composition Law used the Spirit and Will-Aura as a medium, its strength had increased tremendously.

Borro couldn't believe what he was hearing. Gravis was telling him that he could turn him to dust!? Yet, even if Borro didn't want to believe Gravis, he couldn't ignore the facts. Right now, his body was truly dissolving.

CRR!

Borro returned to his usual body, but a layer of skin was missing. He wasn't bleeding yet, but the old skin on his body had vanished.

Gravis only coldly looked at Borro.

BANG!

Gravis charged forward with his full speed as he closed in on Borro. Borro had been suppressed to a ridiculous degree, but his body was still several times more powerful than Gravis'. Gravis slashed at Borro, but Borro blocked Gravis' saber with his tusks.

BANG!

Then, Borro used his trunk and attacked Gravis' chest. Gravis summoned his armor towards the end but still got thrown into the distance due to the strength difference. Yet, the trunk of an elephant couldn't use all the power in the elephant's body. Due to that, Gravis' armor survived the clash.

What was going on?

Gravis normally didn't fight like that!

Usually, Gravis would have immediately unleashed a Lightning Crescent from such a close range to end the fight quickly. Yet, instead of unleashing a powerful attack, he had only attacked physically with his saber, without any lightning.

The reason for that was quite simple. Actually, there were three reasons for Gravis' weird fighting style.

First reason: Gravis' Will-Aura was already too powerful. He had been able to temper himself against Morus, but with the increase of his Will-Aura, Borro would only give him a bit of tempering. He wasn't in true mortal danger.

Second reason: Tempering wouldn't increase Gravis' Will-Aura by much. His Realm was limiting his current Will-Aura. Because of that, the biggest gain of tempering was lost. First, Gravis had to become a level five King and fight a level two Emperor to continue tempering his Will-Aura.

Third reason: If he couldn't increase his Will-Aura by fighting, he decided to take advantage of the next best thing he could gain, which was comprehending Laws. Gravis wasn't in mortal danger, but he could focus more on the body's Laws by fighting a more powerful physical body.

Due to all of this, Gravis didn't want to end the fight. Usually, Gravis thought that not killing an enemy immediately was playing with one's life, but in this case, he wanted to do it regardless. He knew that he was playing with his life like that. After all, an Emperor still had enough power to kill him.

If the enemy wasn't powerful enough to pose a real danger to his life, he had to make the enemy powerful enough to pose a danger. As long as Gravis fought like this, his enemy would take advantage of a chance to kill him. This would give Gravis an opportunity to comprehend more Laws. He had to put himself in danger to expedite his comprehension of Laws!

Gravis hadn't done this before since that wouldn't increase his Will-Aura. After all, he wouldn't feel like he was in genuine danger if he didn't give his best. Yet, since the Will-Aura wasn't important right now, he could, for once, fight in such a reckless fashion.

This time, Gravis' goal was to comprehend as many Laws regarding the body as possible. In order to fight Borro in close combat, he needed to comprehend more Laws regarding physical power.

If he didn't, he would sooner or later die.

As usual, Gravis was very masochistic in his training.