The big bird watched from the side while Skye stood beside it. They were both very interested in this fight. There were not many occasions where they could watch a battle to the death. The parent also wanted its child to learn from the fight. It knew that both Gravis and Silvio were stronger than Skye, so its child could surely glean some tactics from watching the fight.
Silvio didn't shoot a look at the birds even once. Gravis had taken him by surprise two times already, and he couldn't afford a third time. Did Silvio completely believe what Gravis had said about the bird not getting involved in their fight? Usually, he wouldn't believe that, but this time, he had no choice.
If he considered the possibility that the bird would get involved, then why was he even fighting? His death would already be a certainty. So, in order to not lose hope, Silvio could only believe in the possibility that the bird wouldn't get involved. If it did, his mindset would be drowned in a sea of terror and helplessness.
His Energy reserves were already down to under 40%. Blocking Gravis' earlier physical attack has eaten up an entire 10% of his total reserves. He couldn't afford to let that happen again.
Gravis shot forward at Silvio in an attack. The initiative was essential, and if he got hold of it, he would be at an advantage. Gravis used a chop with his saber, his Martial Arts fully integrated into every attack of his. Silvio didn't block passively but used his own attack to stop the saber. With his superior Energy, he could completely destroy Gravis' balance.
BANG!
The two weapons hit, and Gravis' saber was shot upwards, while Silvio still had his weapon under control. Without waiting for another second, Silvio's spear thrust towards Gravis' torso.
BANG!
Suddenly, Gravis' saber hit the spear again and redirected the attack. Silvio's eyes widened. How was this possible? Gravis had utterly lost his balance, and it should be impossible for him to regain it that quickly.
What Silvio hadn't seen was that Gravis knew that he would lose a direct exchange, so he had already prepared a backup plan. When his saber shot upward, a lightning bolt left it and hit the ground. Similar to the principle behind lightning movement, the thick lightning bolt pulled the saber downward in another slash. His usage of lightning was brilliant.
Gravis had thought a lot about potential usages of lightning back in the Proxy-Lightning Guild, and he had also seen the ingenious usage of wind from Skye. Only using lightning as an attack seemed a waste of its potential. There were undoubtedly more uses for it.
After the saber redirected Silvio's attack, his torso was wide open, and Gravis stepped closer to him and slashed with his saber. Lightning came out of his saber and hit the ground behind Silvio. Silvio couldn't retrieve his weapon in this short time frame, so he could only lift his hand and block the physical attack again with his lightning.
BZZZ! BANG!
Silvio blocked the attack with his lightning but surprisingly lost only 5% of his total Energy reserves. This didn't make him happy but more worried. Why was this attack only half as strong as the previous one? Silvio suddenly felt an incredibly strong impact on his chest. Gravis had used the lightning, which had hit the ground behind Silvio, as a powerful string to guide his saber in an attack.
While the lightning was using the saber as an attack, Gravis let go of his weapon and unloaded his full physical power into a punch. Silvio's attention was preoccupied with the saber, and he hadn't put up any other defenses. Which idiot would let go of their weapon in a fight?
Silvio flew backward for several tens of meters. When he finally managed to stabilize himself, he vomited a mouthful of blood. While Gravis' body was slowly losing its advantage in a fight against higher tier opponents, it was still incredibly powerful.
The bodies of cultivators in the Energy Gathering Realm would also increase with every level up, but the increase was negligible in comparison to the growth of their Energy. If Silvio hadn't been three levels higher than Gravis in the Energy Gathering Realm, he would have died to this attack.
Yet, he was still heavily injured. Several of his ribs broke and stabbed through his lungs. A cultivator wouldn't die to that since they had tempered their organs and blood previously, but it was still incredibly painful and bothersome to heal.
Gravis immediately charged after him. His enemy had been stunned by the attack, and he needed to take advantage of that. All these attacks were ingenious and surprising, but they would only work once. If Silvio had seen his attack coming, he would have attacked with his spear. He would have known that he wouldn't die from such a hit, but Gravis obviously would.
Gravis released his saber again and let it shoot to Silvio, while he quickly circled him so that Silvio couldn't keep watch on both Gravis and his saber. Silvio clenched his teeth and extended his hand to block the saber with his lightning, while he shot his spear at Gravis.
Contrary to his expectations, Gravis didn't go in for an attack but jumped back. Silvio felt the saber hit the lightning on his hand, which meant another 5% of wasted Energy, but without Gravis there to retrieve it, he could grab ahold of the saber. That would doom Gravis.
Silvio kept watch on Gravis, so he couldn't also look at the saber. When he felt the attack weaken, he grabbed to the approximate location of the saber. Yet, he felt nothing. A cold shudder went down Silvio's back, and he turned to the saber.
It laid on the ground, still. That made no sense. Their fight was so fast that it wouldn't even have fallen 20 centimeters in the time where all this happened. How was it already on the ground? Suddenly, out of nowhere, the saber shot at Silvio with unreal speed.
'What?!' Silvio couldn't even formulate a proper thought in this scenario. It was absolutely impossible that Gravis had pre-planned that action because lightning couldn't be placed with a timer. When it got released from the body, it would immediately do what it was supposed to do. Delaying it, was impossible.
It was also impossible that Gravis had given the saber a new "command". There had to be a medium for lightning, so Silvio would have seen lightning creep from Gravis' body to the saber. It couldn't just teleport to the saber. There was no lightning connecting to the saber, so how did it move by itself?
In order to achieve this maneuver, Gravis had made use of his Elemental Synchronicity. If lightning went into the earth, under normal circumstances, it would get swallowed up. Yet, with Gravis' Elemental Synchronicity, he could control the earth under him and create a tunnel for his lightning. This allowed him to hide his actions from Silvio's senses and move his lightning to his saber, undetected.
Out of carefully honed reflex, Silvio blocked the saber with his spear. Not forgetting Gravis, Silvio also shot a nearly fully-powered lightning bolt to his approximate location. That wasted more of his Energy, and Silvio slowly started to feel the panic set in as his Energy reserves started dwindling due to his wasteful actions.
CRACK!
Silvio easily blocked the saber, but a humongous impact hit his left knee. Gravis had charged over and slid on his behind while Silvio's lightning bolt shot over his head. With a fully-powered kick, Gravis decimated Silvio's kneecap.
Due to his kneecap getting destroyed, Silvio started falling over, right on top of Gravis. He turned to him while falling and saw another kick quickly approaching his face. Silvio managed to barely block the kick to his face with his spear.
SHING!
Silvio only had the kick in his eyes and failed to see the lightning coming out of one of Gravis' hand. The saber, which had still been in the air due to Silvio's block, got pulled to Gravis' hand and severed Silvio's dominant arm on its way.
Silvio couldn't formulate a coherent thought in that situation, and the last thing he saw in his life was Gravis grabbing the saber and it quickly approaching his face. Silvio had died.
Gravis looked at half of Silvio's head flying away and sighed in relief. Silvio had much more power than him, and every collision threw Gravis violently back. Gravis was outclassed in speed, power, and defense. The only advantage he had was his fighting experience.
Gravis was also surprised that he didn't even need to use his Will-Aura. In comparison to beasts, humans didn't have nearly indestructible bodies when they were on the same level. Gravis only had to hit something to deal damage. This made it possible to injure people who were even multiple levels higher than him.
Gravis slowly stood up and dusted off his robes. He looked at Silvio's corpse and got reminded of his first fight with a low-grade demonic beast. He still remembered the lion from the practical test and how it had also outclassed him in speed, defense, and attack. Back then, he won thanks to his experience and his Will-Aura.
The same thing had repeated itself. Yet, just like that time, a single mistake could have cost him his life.
"This is really just like back then," Gravis sighed as he remembered his homeworld.