"I will," shouted one disciple at the seventh level of Energy Gathering. Gravis was quite surprised because he had been sure that, after his display, no one on that level would want to fight him. Wasn't it evident that he would just crush the people on that stage? Yet, when Gravis looked closer at the disciple, his eyes shined a little.
'He has a Will-Aura. That's probably a supreme genius of the Fire Guild,' he concluded. After all this training with his will, Gravis achieved some kind of feeling for the wills of others. Gravis expected that, at some point, everyone would be able to tell the strength of will of others just from a look. Gravis was probably just very early with that ability. 'But what could a Will-Aura even change?' he thought.
The disciple saw that no one else at the seventh level stepped forward and promptly threw a pill at Gravis. Gravis looked at it and nodded to the disciple. "Before we start, let me ask you something," Gravis said to the disciple.
The disciple nodded like it was no big deal.
"Why do you still want to temper your will even though you already have a Will-Aura?" Gravis asked, and the watching disciples took a deep breath in shock. How did Gravis know that he had a Will-Aura?
The disciple lifted his eyebrows in surprise, but they quickly furrowed again in concentration. "My will might be superior in my current cultivation Realm, but it won't stay like this forever," he explained. "I need to keep my advantage if I want to rise!"
Gravis could only sigh. So the reason why the disciple was tempering his will was the same as Gravis. This was actually the first person that Gravis had met, who was similarly superior in will to others but still wanted to temper themselves. Others were happy with their advantage and wouldn't care about the far future. Wasn't being at the Spirit Forming Realm already enough?
"Alright, let's go," said Gravis as he beckoned to the disciple. The disciple felt insulted. Gravis obviously knew that he already had a Will-Aura, so why was Gravis still not taking him seriously? Gravis didn't even take out his weapon.
This disciple had already seen how strong Gravis' body was and wouldn't run straight into his death. Instead, he made some fireballs in his hands and readied them. Gravis lifted an eyebrow. The disciple should know that fire would not do much against him. Why was he using just fire? The only way to get through his defense was with a combination of fire and physical attacks.
The disciple charged at Gravis while keeping both fireballs ready. When they were rather close, the disciple threw one fireball at Gravis, who quickly punched it with his fist. Usually, Gravis would just evade, but he wanted to see what the disciple was planning. The fireball exploded with a loud bang, but Gravis didn't get disoriented by that. Gravis also heard another small noise and smirked.
WHOOSH CLANK!
Gravis smirked as he caught the saber of this disciple too. The small noise he had heard was the second fireball. Why would the second fireball be quieter and further away than the first one? An average cultivator at that level might not be able to guess the attacker's plan this quickly, but Gravis had a lot of battle experience.
Gravis had guessed that the disciple used the shockwave of the other fireball to increase his speed. Together with the literal smokescreen in Gravis' front, the disciple would break through the smokescreen with a faster speed than Gravis would have anticipated. 'Quite a smart way to fight,' Gravis praised.
The disciple grew shocked, but he had way more battle experience than the last one. Instead of waiting for his death, he quickly made the fire around his saber explode to get some space. Surprisingly, Gravis' hand got blasted away due to the impact. The explosion might not have injured his hand much, but the shockwave overpowered his physical strength. 'Interesting,' he thought.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, an aura pressed down on Gravis. Gravis never fought against another person with a Will-Aura, and he felt surprised how heavy it felt. 'Is that how my enemies feel?' he thought to himself with interest. It felt like he was deep underwater and all surroundings pressed into him. The pressure didn't just come from the top. It felt more like it was everywhere and tried to press and get into his body.
WHOOSH CLANK!
The attacker tried to use the moment when he released his Will-Aura as a surprise to catch Gravis off-guard. Of course, Gravis wasn't encumbered even in the slightest. This was a newly created Will-Aura and wasn't even close to his own. Gravis' Will-Aura had already been as strong as the attacker's when he hadn't even arrived in this world yet. Gravis easily caught the saber again in his hands.
This time, the attacker wasn't as calm as before. He had used everything in that attack, including his Will-Aura. Anxiety appeared in his heart. He had to do something!
BOOM BANG!
His saber exploded again, but before he could retreat, a huge hole appeared in his torso, lightning still flickering around it. The disciple looked at his torso in shock. "Don't use the same trick twice," said Gravis as he walked through the smoke of the explosion, lightning still flickering on his right hand. "I said that everyone at the seventh level is only looking for death by fighting me."
The disciple looked at Gravis in horror as Gravis pointed at him. Two small bolts of lightning came out of his finger and shot through the disciple's eyes, killing him instantly. Just like that, a genius, who was bound to be a Spirit Forming expert, died.
Gravis absorbed the Energy and went through the valuables of the corpse. He was 40% on his way to the seventh level of Energy Gathering with the absorbed Energy from the two seventh level disciples he had killed.
Gravis found a sizable amount of Energy Stones and also took a closer look at the disciple's weapon. It was about as good as his current weapon, and he decided to keep it as a spare. Who knew? Maybe he would lose his weapon again. Then, he grabbed the corpse and threw it over the river without looking. Of course, Skye quickly ate it.
Gravis stood up again and cracked some of his joints. "Someone else at the seventh level wanna have a go?"