DONK!
Flern bounced away as his body hit the Formation Array. He hadn't seen the Formation Array due to the fire obscuring his vision. Flern rubbed his nose, and tears involuntarily came out of his eyes. He had faceplanted into the Formation Array wall, and if one got hit in the nose, tears would involuntarily appear in their eyes. It was instinct, and it couldn't be suppressed.
Meanwhile, Gravis took out some pills from one of his sacks. He had earned a lot of money back in the Proxy-Lightning Guild, and he had, of course, also bought some medicinal pills to treat some of his injuries. Taking them during a fight wouldn't help much, because he had to actively concentrate on making the compressed Life Energy in the pills rotate around his body.
Escura and all the other disciples also had such pills, but taking them during a fight was meaningless. Gravis simply sat down and concentrated on healing.
"Coward! Come out of your Array and face me!" shouted Flern, full with battle intent. When the bird had seen Flern attacking the Formation Array, it started flying away from the tree, loudly screeching the whole way. It knew that it couldn't stop Flern, and if it remained, it would die to him. It could only fly away, for now.
Gravis ignored him and the bird and continued concentrating on his healing while he sat in the natural fire, which had reached the inside of the Formation Array, by now. Flern grew angry as he saw how Gravis disregarded him and shot fireballs at the Formation Array.
BOOM! BOOM!
They all hit the Formation Array, but nothing seemed to work. Escura had explained that the Formation Array was to protect the disciples in a calamity and to stall for time. If people managed to attack through the Formation Array, wouldn't the Formation Array be completely useless?
Yet, what about the natural fire below Gravis? The Formation Array only cared about attacks and living beings. It didn't let anything come through its walls that had a will behind it. The bird would be blocked, just like its wind attacks. Flern would, of course, also be completely blocked. Even Gravis was imprisoned in the Formation Array and could do nothing but wait.
Natural elements without a will were ignored. How would one keep the air fresh inside the Formation Array if it even blocked the airflow? The creators of the Formation Array were not stupid and thought about all eventualities. The best distinction between attacks and nature was the will, and that was how the Formation Array distinguished attacks.
Of course, the Formation Array could also be used as an impromptu prison and execution ground. The controller of the Formation Array could leave it and could will their attacks to hit the inside, while blocking all other attacks. The person inside could then only be a living target for everyone outside. Of course, the controller needed to still be alive for that.
Escura was dead, and without her control, the Formation Array shifted to its default operation mode, which was stopping everything from entering and exiting. Gravis simply ignored Flern and concentrated on healing. Escura said that the Formation Array was for stalling for time, so it would probably hold for a long time.
"Come out and face me!" Flern continued shouting as he threw more fireballs at the Formation Array. He didn't know that this was the protection Formation for the Lightning Guild in Earth Town. He believed that it was a Formation Array that Gravis deployed, and he doubted that Gravis could have a strong one. Flern thought that if he continued attacking, the Formation Array would surely break.
Unbeknownst to him, the Formation Array wouldn't care, even if people at the peak of Energy Gathering attacked. If such a person attacked, it might reduce the duration by a little, but the Formation Array wouldn't break. Gravis didn't answer Flern. Flern might as well use up all his Energy. That would be even better for Gravis.
"You coward! Face me like a man!" Flern continued shouting while attacking the Formation Array. "Stop hiding behind your Formation Array!"
Flern had long abandoned his fire wheel and stood on top of the Formation Array. By now, he was using his fire in a concentrated beam of high temperature to burn a hole through the Formation Array. In his mind, he would burn through the Formation Array at some point.
Multiple hours passed.
Flern had started sweating in exhaustion by now due to his Energy sharply decreasing during that time. The tree had wholly extinguished the fire by now. The tree was nearly entirely burned, and it was missing half of its trunk. The Formation Array, which had been close to the tree before, now stood in the middle of the air since many meters of the tree had burned away.
The tree was nearly dead, but it could still keep its life. It didn't care about the two people still fighting on the Formation Array. It just wanted to rest and not fight anyone, anymore. It would be hard enough to survive the following time. Luckily, many dead cultivators lined the floor around it, and it used them as nutrients. Without all these nutrients, its death would have been guaranteed.
One could see how new bark appeared all around the crooked tree, but its majestic self couldn't be seen anymore. Before the fight, it was towering, stable, and broad. It looked sturdy and reliable and seemed to be able to support the heavens. Now, a lot of holes and parts on its trunk vanished, and it looked crooked.
The trunk was wider at some parts and thinner at others. It looked like the growth of the tree had been utterly chaotic. Nearly all of the gigantic leaves were burned off, and one would think that this was a sickly, old, nearly dead tree. This whole fight had proven to be a calamity for it.
Flern stopped attacking after a while. With all his exhaustion and the hours of nothing else happening, his battle intent had vanished. By now, he had realized that he couldn't shake the Formation Array. He could only wait.
"Hey, where did you get this Formation Array from?" asked Flern in an exhausted voice as he sat down. "It's really strong!"
Gravis looked up at Flern and thought about some things.