"We'll go with plan B," said the leader of the disciples. Even though two others were also at the eighth level of Energy Gathering, he was their leader for a reason. The reason was that he had a Will-Aura. It had just recently condensed, yet that made him nearly invincible in his level. On his level, the others could only release 80% of their fighting strength while he activated his Will-Aura.
"Silvio, it all depends on you now," said the leader as he passed something to the disciple at the seventh level of Energy Gathering. "We won't be able to kill the bird, but we can keep it at bay for some seconds. Follow the plan!"
"Don't worry! I won't make a mistake. The betrayer will die today!" shouted Silvio as he looked at Gravis with thick killing intent. Silvio had been romantically interested in Escura, and he wanted to court her, yet the betrayer had killed her. His fury had exploded when he heard about it, and he had screamed to the heavens in hatred.
When the hit-squad was prepared, Silvio was absolutely adamant in coming with them. Initially, due to Gravis' danger, no disciple under the eighth level was allowed to participate, but Silvio went mad when he had been denied. He turned everything over and even ignored all the people who tried to suppress him. He even accepted heavy punishment and debt, just to convince everyone to let him come along.
Originally, the three other disciples were not happy with him tagging along, but when they saw the bird, they were thankful. It would need all three of them just to occupy the bird for a couple of seconds. Without him, they could only return in failure.
"We're going in!" shouted the leader and shot forward. The others followed closely behind him, and they all charged up the tree with their full power, leaving a trail of destruction along the tree. They had been informed about the tree, but the tree couldn't compare to even the weakest of them.
Escura, who was at the sixth level of Energy Gathering, could already kill the tree in a one-on-one if she weren't disturbed by others in her fight. The tree tried its best to stop them, but just their lightning movement already tore all the branches apart. The tree couldn't even delay them.
The parent bird screeched loudly, while Skye flew away, to safety. It couldn't get involved in this fight, even if it wanted to. The parent bird took to the air and charged at the congregation of eighth level disciples. Silvio split off from the other three and charged towards Gravis.
Gravis saw this and readied himself. He had an idea of what they were planning, and to stop them from succeeding, he would have to gamble with his life. This could go wrong very quickly, and a single mistake or missed timing would spell his doom. But if he managed to succeed…
Gravis charged down, running straight at Silvio. Silvio grew excited when he saw that. If Gravis reached him, Gravis would die 100%!
Gravis and Silvio came closer, and just before Gravis reached a ten-meter distance from Silvio, Silvio took out a jade token. "You're dead!" he shouted and crushed the token.
WHOOM!
At least he tried to, but suddenly an intense pressure appeared out of nowhere. He knew Gravis was a Heavenborn, and he was prepared to receive Gravis' Heavenly Pressure, but this pressure was way stronger than he had expected. Silvio froze for a split second due to the shock.
Gravis shot a lightning bolt at Silvio's hand, which loosened the jade token, and it left his hand. Gravis quickly caught it and ran towards the other battlefield.
"Stop!" shouted Silvio and shot his strongest lightning bolt at Gravis. Gravis already expected that and loaded his weapon with 20% of his whole Energy reserve and blocked it. He managed to block the attack, but his arm, carrying the saber, was still scorched black.
Silvio, who had been sure that this lightning bolt could severely injure Gravis, was shocked when he saw that. He hadn't even started charging forward because he had concentrated everything on that lightning bolt. His eyes opened wide, and his jaw dropped as he saw Gravis getting closer to the other disciples.
"Flee!" Silvio shouted with all his might, but the others couldn't hear him over the apocalyptic wind around them. The parent bird was proving to be a more than formidable opponent, and they couldn't spare even a single glance. The bird took up their full concentration. They were all entirely unloading their lightning on the bird, and their Energy reserves were already starting to get low. Without using absolutely everything, they couldn't keep it at bay.
They all shot another fully loaded lightning bolt at the bird, but only a single one reached it, and that didn't even leave an injury. The other two lightning bolts got blocked by a sudden Formation Array.
"Silvio, you idiot! Why are you…" the leader shouted. He was outside of the Formation Array as he turned to the others, but stopped when he saw Gravis inside the Formation Array. His eyes grew wide, and he immediately started running down the tree.
The other two disciples saw Gravis and unloaded all their lightning on him, but Gravis had quickly left the Formation Array and willed it to block the attack. "Kill the other one!" Gravis shouted with all his might, as he shot a weak lightning bolt at the fleeing leader.
The bird quickly saw what was happening and realized what Gravis wanted. It ignored the two captives and flew straight at the fleeing leader. Trying to flee alone from a high-grade Energy Beast bird with the wind element? Gravis only smirked in disdain.
Gravis knew that the Lightning Guild took him seriously now. They would probably use everything in their arsenal to stop him. When Gravis saw that the disciples didn't flee earlier, even when they saw the bird, he knew that they probably prepared a Formation Array to contain him.
Would they contain the bird in the Formation Array and attack him? Gravis doubted it. If they could, they probably would do that, but the last Formation Array he had seen only had a diameter of ten meters. Such a small space couldn't even contain the bird's torso.
Gravis already expected that such Formation Arrays were supremely expensive. The whole Lightning Guild in Earth Town only had a single one, which was only meant for emergencies. One Formation Array to protect a whole congregation of disciples? That showed its immense worth.
How expensive would a Formation Array be if it had the size to contain the bird? If such a Formation Array were easily produced, there wouldn't be any high-grade Energy Beasts anymore. Gravis knew that they took him seriously, but to use such an over the top Formation Array that could contain a high-grade Energy Beast? Gravis doubted that.
Of course, a lot of that was only speculation, and there was still a significant risk for Gravis. He could only gamble. Gravis presumed that if the disciples didn't have an Array Formation, they would have never engaged the bird. It was just too powerful.
The big bird chased the leader of the disciples, and Gravis turned to Silvio, who was angrily charging at him.
"Let's have a proper life and death battle!"