Lightning Is The Only Way

The lion and Gravis stood in the middle of the mountain, merely looking at each other. The lion was absolutely gigantic compared to Gravis, and if Gravis wanted to look at the lion's face with his eyes, he would need to crane his neck quite a bit to look upwards. Yet, since he had his Spirit Sense, this was unnecessary.

"Hey," Gravis suddenly said, "want to see a trick?" he asked.

The lion simply looked at Gravis with disdain. "No," he said.

"Too bad, you're going to see it anyway," Gravis answered.

BZZZZZZ!

Suddenly, a powerful ball of lightning appeared in front of Gravis. Yet, just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished again. Right now, Gravis was not wearing his armor. He also didn't have his saber in his hands. Because of that, he appeared just like any other beast.

The lion was first shocked about the appearance of this powerful ball of lightning but grew even more shocked when it simply vanished. Where did the powerful lightning ball go? It looked around, but it couldn't see the ball anywhere.

The other level four Lords also hadn't noticed what had happened. Yet, the level five Lords and everyone more powerful than them had seen what had happened. Gravis had summoned some kind of long and sharp stick, which absorbed the lightning ball. Then, the sharp stick simply vanished again.

This sharp stick was Gravis' saber, obviously. He had created a Lightning Bomb with around 50% of his power. The lion's body was only around ten times as powerful as his, and a Lightning Crescent with 50% of his power was enough to kill it.

All the powerful beasts were surprised by this display, but one beast, in particular, was shocked beyond comparison. It almost couldn't believe what it had just seen.

Why was this beast so surprised?

It was because of Gravis' lightning. None of the other beasts were able to feel the peculiarity of Gravis' lightning, but it knew this lightning very well.

The shocked beast was the white ape. He almost couldn't believe it, but Gravis had just summoned Punishment Lightning! Their Empire had an area where Punishment Lightning gathered, and only Emperors were able to withstand this lightning.

The white ape had tried for many years to understand the Law of Punishment Lightning, but it hadn't managed to understand it until now. Yet, this mere level three Lord managed to summon the powerful lightning that the ape wasn't able to understand.

The white ape took a deep breath in shock, surprising the Empress. Usually, her Grand Elder never lost his calm. Yet, now, she noticed that he was incredibly distressed. She didn't have a lightning affinity, so she couldn't feel the peculiarity of the lightning.

"Why are you so distressed?" the Empress asked the white ape with a Voice Transmission.

"Empress," the white ape transmitted back with a shaky voice, "this was Punishment Lightning."

If the Empress hadn't had so many years of experience, her eyes would have widened. Yet, her shock was just as strong as the shock of the white ape. This level three Lord was able to summon Punishment Lightning? If she didn't trust her Grand Elder fully, she wouldn't have believed him.

Then, the Empress looked at Gravis with burning eyes. 'No wonder he's so confident in his power,' she thought. 'Punishment Lightning is incredibly powerful.'

Gravis hadn't met anyone that was able to understand his lightning in the middle world until today. He had comprehended the Punishment Lightning by fighting the lower Heaven, and for the lower world, Punishment Lightning basically didn't even exist.

Yet, the more powerful one became, the more normal extraordinary elements became. There had been no way to come into contact with this lightning in the lower world, but that wasn't true for the middle world. In this world, Punishment Lightning was a natural phenomenon and could, therefore, be comprehended by beasts.

Of course, only the most powerful Emperors were able to withstand the Punishment Lightning, and even fewer were able to comprehend it. Yet, there were some Emperors in this world that understood Punishment Lightning. Gravis was no longer the only one in the entire world that could use Punishment Lightning.

"You can start," the Empress said.

Gravis only smirked as he simply stood casually on his spot. When the lion saw that, it grew even angrier. This level three Lord was taking the lion way too lightly!

CRRRRRRR!

Suddenly, the legs of the lion changed shape, surprising Gravis. He hadn't seen a beast change their body like this yet. He wondered what was up with that.

The lion's legs became many times bigger while its torso shrunk a little. Now, Gravis realized what the lion was doing. 'Incredible,' he thought as he scratched his chin with a claw, 'the lion can increase the power of his legs by moving muscle mass from his torso to his legs. Is that a Law?'

It was a Law.

Nearly everything had a Law associated with it, and legs also had several Laws associated with them. By understanding such a Law, the lion was able to increase the power of his legs many times, which would increase his speed by a lot.

BANG!

A loud bang thundered throughout the surroundings as the lion shot forward with all its speed. It was even faster than an average level five Lord, which was incredible. Gravis could only push his speed to be over a level faster than him during his Lightning Transformation.

SHING!

Suddenly, the front-right claws of the lion grew to several times their size. On top of that, they became way harder and sharper.

These seven level four Lords were the strongest in their level. Every single one of them had comprehended two Laws. Even though the Golden Dragon had been at the same level as this lion, it wouldn't have had any chance to win.

The second Law that the lion had comprehended had something to do with its claws. It was able to increase their power and reach with this Law.

One Law increased its speed, while the other Law increased its power. This was an incredibly effective combination. No wonder the lion could fight two levels above itself.

Gravis had appeared relaxed the whole time, but he had never dropped his guard. He knew that these Lords were outstanding. Yet, even with this terrifying combination of Laws, the lion didn't even pose a small danger to Gravis.

Why was that?

The lion's speed was faster than Gravis.

The lion's attacking power would even be able to destroy Gravis' armor.

Yet, Gravis had an unfair advantage over beasts with higher Battle-Strength but a lower Realm. If there were a Realm like a Half-Step King, Gravis would find it much, much more difficult to fight an average beast in that level than this lion, who had the same power in theory.

The beasts looked with bated breath at the charging lion. Surely enough, the contestants were incredibly powerful. They believed fully that this lion was one of the most powerful level four Lords in existence.

They saw the lion swipe at Gravis, but suddenly, the lion became many times slower. Its speed had dropped by nearly 90%! Was the lion taking Gravis lightly? Why was it becoming slower?

Of course, this was Gravis' Will-Aura. Since he concentrated his Will-Aura onto the lion, the other beasts weren't able to feel it.

This was Gravis' unfair advantage.

When it came to beasts, only a level advantage would weaken the effect of his Will-Aura. The lion could have comprehended five additional Laws, and it wouldn't have made a difference to Gravis. In regards to beasts, Gravis' Will-Aura was the ultimate counter to Battle-Strength.

With humans, it would be different. After all, humans with incredible Battle-Strength also had incredibly powerful Will-Auras, which would be able to suppress Gravis' Will-Aura. Sadly, beasts didn't have this weapon.

The lion had no idea what was happening. It just felt some kind of incredible pressure pressing into its body, making it nearly impossible to move. Why was it suddenly this slow!?

The other beasts watched as Gravis easily jumped over the claw-swipe. Then, the sharp stick reappeared inside Gravis' hands. After that, Gravis simply swiped at the head of the lion.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

A many-kilometers-wide explosion appeared, which completely consumed the lion's head. Additionally, some Kings hadn't been ready to protect their candidates, which resulted in some level three Lords dying to the explosion. Luckily, most of the Kings had been prepared to block the attack for their participants. Only nine level three Lords died to the Lightning Crescent.

The explosion vanished just as quickly as it appeared. The mountain was still fine since it was far beyond Gravis' ability to damage it, but the lion and the dead level three Lords had vanished. As soon as the lightning killed them, it consumed their corpses.

One of the shocked Kings saw a flying lightning bolt at the place where his candidate had been previously. He grew angry and swiped a claw at the lightning to destroy it.

Whooop!

Yet, contrary to expectation, the lightning bolt jumped upward, evading the claw. The King hadn't taken the lightning bolt seriously and had only casually swiped.

BZZZZ!

Then, all the lightning bolts flew into the middle of the arena and entered Gravis' body. Gravis hadn't expected that some bystanders would die because of his attack, but he didn't really mind. In Gravis' mind, since he didn't want to kill them, he simply shrugged it off as an accident. Beasts die. Shit happens.

By absorbing nine level three Lord Divine Beasts and absorbing one level four Lord Divine Beast, Gravis' lightning became much more powerful. Right now, his lightning was a little over three times as powerful as when he had just reached the Middle Unity Realm. One more level five King should be enough to reach the Late Unity Realm.

"He has killed my contestant!" one King shouted in rage, while others quickly followed up with more outrage.

Killing a contestant without the Empress' consent was a great disrespect to her!