Lightning Is the Only Way

Arthur pulled out his saber.

WHOOOOOM!

His Will-Aura broke the earth as the guards barely managed to flee. Yet, some of them were still caught up in the Will-Aura and couldn't move anymore. This spelled their doom if the other guards didn't act correctly. As soon as Liran and Arthur clashed, they would be reduced to dust. 

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

All guards that managed to flee immediately cracked an emblem.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

A ton of powerful Immortals appeared. These Immortals were not there to rescue the already fleeing guards but to rescue the suppressed guards. The Sects had an interwoven network of alliances, friendships, trade agreements, rivalries, and enmities. The allied Sects called their powerful Immortals to get their captured allies out of there. 

SHING!

These powerful Immortals threw one glance at the sky and quickly retrieved the suppressed guards from their allied Sects. Like this, 90% of all guards escaped unscathed.

The last 10% didn't have allies that were currently free. This meant that they would only be left to die. Even worse, no one would avenge them. The winner of the fight would only need to pay their Sect for their lives. 

They were Immortals! They were supposed to be powerful! Yet, their lives could be bought off just like this!? Why had they even cultivated to this Realm if they would simply die like mortals?

WHOOM!

Liran also activated his Will-Aura and directly confronted Arthur's Will-Aura, pushing it just far away enough to allow the captured guards to escape. Liran didn't do this because of some empathy for them, but because he hated it when others were suppressed. He had been suppressed for a long time in his life, and he didn't want others to feel this pain, at least as long as they were not his enemy.

All the guards immediately fled, not even looking at Liran or thanking him. They only wanted to save their own hides.

Yet, Liran didn't mind. He wasn't doing it for them but for himself.

Right now, only Liran and Arthur remained. No one else was there.

Even the son of Liran had seemingly vanished into thin air. 

"Do you think that your Sect will be able to escape my wrath, Liran?" Arthur asked coldly. "I will hunt down each and every last one of them. Your so-called Sect won't see another tomorrow. You have killed my child, and I will kill all of your children."

CRRR!

Liran's bow pulled taut with another Suppression Arrow. "Put your saber where your mouth is, Arthur. First, you need to get past me."

"Pff," Arthur spat in arrogance. "Do you honestly believe you can hold on for more than ten exchanges?"

"Maybe," Liran said with a smirk. "Maybe I have a surprise for you."

"Empty boasts!"

BANG!

With that, Arthur shot forward in a lightning explosion. 

TWANG! TWANG!

Liran immediately released several arrows, but Arthur destroyed all of them with just the correct amount of lightning. Something like this was incredibly difficult and wasn't possible without the level three Law of Lightning Manipulation. 

Liran fought from a distance, but Arthur had the superiority in speed. Arthur easily blocked all attacks and reached Liran after a brief moment.

BANG!

Arthur attacked Liran, and Liran blocked with his bow, but Liran got shot into the distance. They were on the same Realm, but Arthur had a vastly superior body.

Humans generally had similarly powerful bodies. So, how was it possible that Arthur had the edge in physical power?

The answer was one of his two level four Laws. This was the High-Tier Law of Muscle Strength. This allowed Arthur to increase his speed and physical power. 

Arthur's other level four Law was the High-Tier Law of Lightning's Explosiveness. This Law boosted his Punishment Cleaver to incredible heights of destruction.

Against humans, Arthur was extremely powerful, but against beasts, he was average. The High-Tier Law of Muscle Strength worked wonders against humans but was basically useless against beasts. If a human went into close combat with a beast, they would lose devastatingly. It didn't make a difference if they lost a little bit or a lot. A loss was a loss.

If Arthur only knew the High-Tier Law of Lightning's Explosiveness, he would only be average. Yet, his High-Tier Law of Muscle Strength made him superior among humans. 

Liran was helpless.

With his bow, he needed to fight from a distance. Thanks to the wind element, Liran was also a bit faster than average for an Immortal King, but not by much. The speed advantage of the wind element already started to vanish in the Immortal Realm.

Luckily, Arthur's Will-Aura was only a little bit stronger than Liran's. With Liran's Law of Major Suppression, he managed to slow Arthur by nearly 40%. Sadly, this was still not enough to close the speed gap. 

After several losing exchanges, Liran already became injured. In comparison, Arthur hadn't even received a single scratch.

Liran's eyes showed determination. "If I'm going to die, I might as well take you down with me!" he shouted.

WHOOOOM!

Liran put all his Energy and Spirit into his arrow, which started to warp the surroundings. This was his most powerful attack, Sky Suppression! 

"Tch," Arthur spat. "You think your pitiful attack can kill me? You know exactly of my power. I wouldn't have taken you for such a fool, but once again, you surprise me with your stupidity."

"Very well," Arthur said as he readied his saber.

BZZZZZZZZ!

Arthur's saber broke out in an unreal amount of Punishment Lightning. He was also readying his most powerful attack, the Punishment Cleaver.

CRACK!

Suddenly, the lightning on the saber crackled with far more intensity as he also infused it with the High-Tier Law of Lightning's Explosiveness. 

Usually, this would be a clash between two level four Laws, the Major Law of Suppression and the High-Tier Law of Lightning's Explosiveness.

Yet, Weapon Cultivation was different from normal cultivation.

Elemental Cultivators could only infuse their attacks with Energy and Spirit, but Weapon Cultivators could also add their physical power to an attack. Not even Gravis was able to do this with his Lightning Crescent or Mortality. This was something entirely new.

Sadly, this meant that it was now two level four Laws against one. 

"We can clash as much as you want, Liran," Arthur said coldly. "No matter how much Energy you use, I will match it, and I will always come out victorious. Just give up and accept your death."

"Might be," Liran said with a relieved smile like he just felt a weight leave his shoulders. His determined look seemed to have vanished after hearing Arthur's words. 

Right now, Liran showed the expression of someone who had given up.

This was the look of someone who had already accepted that they would die.

Liran looked to the side in a forlorn expression. "Yet, if I don't try, I will never know, right?" he said with a smile as he turned back.

"The last desperate gasp before death. You don't realize your own situation even when you stare death in the face," Arthur said coldly. "It seems you need to feel death first to realize your weakness."

Arthur lifted his saber and readied himself for a slash. "In your next life, don't be foolish enough to offend me!"

Silence.

Several seconds passed.

Arthur only glared at Liran with his raised saber while Liran only smirked.

"What? You think I will directly attack after your grand shout?" Liran asked with a smirk. "No, I'd rather watch you hold this pose for a while."

Arthur felt his rage going wild. How dare this weak savage mock him!?

"Ah!" Liran released a brief shout as he let the string of his bow go.

Arthur's body tensed up, and he slashed-

And he stopped again.

Liran had caught the string and arrow of his bow with a smirk, stopping the attack. 

"Ah!" Liran shouted, and the same thing repeated itself.

Liran chuckled a bit as the veins on Arthur's forehead nearly exploded.

BANG!

Arthur released his attack first. Originally, he wanted to wait until Liran unleashed his attack to guarantee that Liran wouldn't be able to evade, but he couldn't deal with this mockery anymore!

The attack came with incredible speed and destroyed the space around Liran. 

It was too fast to evade.

'Let's see what you can do, little friend,' Liran thought.

BANG!

And released his own attack.

The two attacks shot at each other and hit.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The surroundings were turned into nothingness as everything was hidden in a storm of destruction.

Arthur looked calmly at the storm. His attack was more powerful and would exit this storm of destruction, hitting Liran directly. 

He had won.

SHING!

Suddenly, a weakened arrow came out of the storm of destruction, shooting directly at Arthur.

Arthur's eyes widened in shock.

HOW!?

And then, the arrow hit Arthur in the chest!

BANG!