Gravis charged upwards, right to the battlefield of Escura, the bird and the tree. His Energy reserves were at only about 20%. He could not use much more in a fight since he still had to keep up his lightning movement. It was better if he ended the fight very quickly.
Escura initially had trouble fighting the bird and the tree at the same time, but the tree was slowly losing strength. Its attacks were not as vigorous as in the beginning anymore. The fire, on the other hand, was getting wilder and wilder. Gravis was nearly exclusively charging through fire by now, on his way to the battlefield.
The bird and Escura were also starting to feel the heat, and their battleground was moving upward, away from the fire. Gravis finally arrived after several seconds of charging. The bird noticed Gravis and immediately used its wind so that Escura would lose her balance just when he arrived.
SHING!
Gravis saw his chance and buried his saber deep into Escura's torso. The bird's timing was just too perfect, and with Escura only having so much concentration to spare due to the bird and the tree, she couldn't defend properly. At least, she was able to stop the saber from completely bisecting her by using a lot of her lightning.
"Finally, you're here!" she shouted with hatred, seemingly not noticing the saber in her torso. She immediately used her lightning to force the bird away and then took out a jade token. Without hesitation, she broke the token, and a Formation Array was created around their battlefield with a diameter of ten meters.
Gravis' eyes narrowed. He had used a similar Formation Array against the centipede, and he knew that this Formation Array could keep things out or keep them in. Gravis could also judge that he could probably not break it. Escura wouldn't be so stupid as to use a Formation Array that would break under his attacks.
"You bastard!" Escura shouted in rage. "I wanted to use this Formation for a while, but you never got close enough!" Escura lifted her spear and pointed it at Gravis. "Now, you can't escape anymore."
Gravis lifted his eyebrows in confusion. "Why didn't you use this earlier?" he asked calmly. He was in an incredibly dangerous position right now, but he was used to life and death struggles. This was nothing different.
Escura clenched her teeth. "This Formation Array is for protecting our disciples from a calamity so that we could wait for reinforcements. It was not worth it to use on you since it is incredibly expensive and the only one we have." Escura's eyes shined in hatred. "But I should have used it. The others would still be alive then."
Gravis looked at her neutrally. "Do you honestly think I wanted to fight you? I told you that I don't want to kill you guys! You just had to retreat!" he shouted again.
Escura gnashed her teeth so hard that blood flew out. "Shut up!" she shouted as she charged at Gravis. Escura couldn't admit her mistake. If she had known how all this would end, she would have either retreated or used the Formation Array from the start. She regretted it so much that she hadn't used the Formation Array right at the beginning.
Gravis carried deep regret due to his killing of Gorn, and Escura carried deep regret due to the death of all elite disciples of her guild. Both people were regretting something they had done. It didn't matter who came out victorious. The victor would still be regretful for what they had done.
Gravis killed the whole Lightning Guild from Earth Town, but did that mean that he wanted to do that? Absolutely not! He wanted to repay the Lightning Guild for their help and for Gorn's death, but he couldn't offer his life to them. Kill the Lightning Guild's disciples or die. Both choices were full of regret for Gravis. Ever since they met, there was no outcome but regret for both sides.
The bird was trying to damage the Formation Array, but it couldn't break it. The tree had stopped attacking and was concentrating on stopping the fire, which was slowly claiming its life. The bird looked at Gravis and Escura fighting and got an idea.
Gravis managed to defend himself, even if just barely. Escura was incredibly exhausted, and she couldn't use her full strength anymore. Her lightning bolts grew weaker, and Gravis used his last remaining Energy to block the lightning bolts. They weren't even fighting on the walls anymore but were walking at the bottom of the Formation Array.
Both were running out of Energy, yet there was a stark difference between the two. Escura's strength stemmed entirely from her Energy, but Gravis still had his physical power. In sheer combat power, Gravis' physical body rivaled someone at the fourth level of Energy Gathering, and it was not so easily exhaustible. Gravis could use his full physical strength for hours on end.
Yet, Escura's attacks were still more powerful, and Gravis had already received multiple injuries. Half his shoulder was blown off, and a big hole was burned into his intestine. His lightning resistance would make the lightning attacks from someone at the fourth level of Energy Gathering, which was one level higher than himself, useless. Someone at the fifth level could injure him lightly with their lightning, yet Escura was on the sixth level.
The lightning was a genuine threat to Gravis, and he had to continually think about which body part he could sacrifice to continue fighting. Escura kept getting more and more shocked as Gravis' fighting strength wasn't reducing at all. To her eyes, his fighting strength was even increasing, but that was only due to her own fighting strength weakening.
She had hit two vital spots already. One was in the middle of Gravis' chest and another one at his liver. Theoretically, Gravis should have trouble breathing already, but she couldn't see any of that. This confused her immensely and increased her desperation. She had hit multiple parts of his limbs with her lightning, and a lot of flesh had been burned off already.
Unbeknownst to her, Gravis was using her lightning the same way as the lightning in the Lightning Tower. He let the Destruction Energy destroy the non-essential parts, while he manipulated the Life Energy to gather at his chest and liver. Due to all the injuries, his fighting strength slowly started to lower, but not as quickly as Escura's.
Escura was sweating profusely, and her breathing grew increasingly heavy. The physical exertion took its toll, and she felt like her body was about to burn to a crisp. She hadn't been this exhausted in forever. Gravis was also breathing heavily and sweating, but it didn't seem as exaggerated as her.
She shot at Gravis with her spear again, and he blocked. This time, he was only thrown away for a little bit since her attacks were starting to be less and less effective. She had to end this quickly. Suddenly, her eyes widened in shock as she saw her hand, which carried the spear.
She gasped as she saw blisters on them. Escura quickly looked at the rest of her body and noticed that everything had burns, and they grew more severe. She quickly realized that the immense heat she was feeling was not due to her exertion. Escura looked down and saw an intense blaze happening right below her feet.
The bird had already seen that Gravis didn't seem to mind the fire and had started to fan the flames, with its wind, directly below them. A majestic bonfire was cooking the underside of the Formation Array, where they were fighting. This was the same trick Gravis had used to kill the centipede, yet it was now used by a bird to kill their enemy.
Gravis had noticed it long ago. Escura didn't have nearly as much fighting experience as Gravis, so when she was in a genuine life and death situation, she didn't think about watching her surroundings. She was fully concentrating on killing her enemy. For a soldier, that might be a good mindset, but was it really conducive for a cultivator?
Gravis had enough experience to watch his surroundings. Winning was not important. Finishing a mission was not important. Only survival was important! He had been biding his time and trying to waste as little Energy as possible. He only had to wait for her to burn to death.
Escura grew more horrified as the blisters on her body seemed to imitate bubbling water, in her mind. This was a horrifying visual, and her fear won over her hatred. She quickly shot upward with her last remaining Energy. The Formation Array was under her control, and she could leave it if she wanted.
WHOOM! SHING!
Suddenly, an incredible pressure appeared, and she froze. Gravis had kept his Will-Aura hidden for just the moment when Escura lost her Battle Intent. It would only work once as a surprise, and he had to make that one chance work. All this patience had finally paid off, and Gravis severed her lower body. If she had looked at him with battle-intent, she might have been able to block.
Sadly, she didn't look at him and was only running away in fear. There was nothing she could have done. Her body started falling, and Gravis watched her as she fell through the Formation Array's floor, right into the fire.
Gravis took a deep breath and sat down in the Formation Array. He had to wait until it was over before he could do anything. He had just calmed down when…
"It's not over yet!" shouted Flern as he used his sword to attack Gravis.