A couple of seconds after Gravis had killed the last disciple, the defense line parted for a new disciple to step forward. This obviously showed that the disciples of the Fire Guild approved of this opponent. Gravis looked at the new arrival, and his eyes narrowed. 'Ninth level of Energy Gathering," he concluded. 'Now, the real fight begins.'
The disciple stepped forward and looked at Gravis in rage. "Why did you kill the last two?" he asked with anger. "They have already lost all their will to fight and only wanted to flee."
Gravis' expression didn't change. "If I let them live just because they gave up, this wouldn't be genuine life and death tempering anymore," Gravis answered. "You can't just run from a fight and expect that your enemy doesn't attack anymore. At least, you have to survive until you are safe."
The new arrival narrowed his eyes too. "Your reasoning is sound, but that is only if you don't have any compassion for the lives of others. I couldn't do what you just did, because I am not an emotionless monster," he explained with disgust.
The statement didn't impact Gravis' will. Obviously, the new arrival hadn't gone through experiences where sparing an enemy's life came back to bite him in the ass, compared to Gravis. Gravis had spared his enemies' lives two times, and both times a stronger force returned to kill him. Gravis didn't like being this cruel, but it was a necessity for survival.
WHOOSH PACK!
Gravis caught a pill bottle and looked at it. His eyes shone when he saw the pill because it was one of the more expensive ones on the banner. Gravis looked up and nodded at the new arrival.
SHING!
For the first time today, Gravis took out his saber and readied it. His enemy was at the ninth level of Energy Gathering. His enemy had a genuine chance of killing Gravis if Gravis took him lightly. The breathing of the onlookers quickened, and their eyes narrowed. This would be the first real fight!
The disciple also took out his weapon, which was a humongous halberd. Gravis looked closer at the halberd, and his eyes narrowed even further. 'This halberd looks incredibly heavy. Either this guy uses a special fighting method that requires such a heavy halberd, or he also trains his body. Judging by the expensive pill he threw at me, it is probably the later.'
BOOM!
The earth under the disciple exploded as he shot forward with incredible speed. Gravis was already prepared for such speed. A strong body not only increased attack and defense but also speed. The disciple lifted his halberd and readied himself to strike.
BOOM!
The earth under Gravis also exploded as he shot forward. The eyes of the attacker slightly widened. He knew that Gravis had a powerful body, but he had expected Gravis to stay on his spot, like all the other times he had fought. Yet, the disciple didn't lose his focus, and he quickly slammed his weapon down.
BOOM!
Gravis blocked the slash, and the earth under him exploded into many pieces that shot into the distance. Gravis' arms trembled due to the powerful force of the attack. Usually, he wouldn't passively block like this, but he had to find out how powerful his opponent's body was.
'He uses a heavier weapon than me, and he also had the initiative in the attack. Judging by the power, his body should be at around the sixth level. My lightning won't be able to kill him directly without sufficient Energy. Quite impressive," Gravis thought.
Suddenly, the attacker smiled ferociously, and Gravis saw fire building up on the halberd. This was the same move that the guy with the Will-Aura had used previously. That guy had only been at the seventh level of Energy Gathering, while this one was at the ninth. The power of this explosion would be quadruple of the power of the earlier guy. Gravis had to do something, or he would get injured severely.
BZZ BOOM!
In a split-second decision, Gravis used his lightning to detonate the fire before it could reach its highest density, weakening the explosion. Gravis got thrown to the ground by the explosion, and the top of his head, as well as his back, received severe burns. Due to the explosion, Gravis got pushed into the ground until he lay face-down on the earth.
On the other hand, the disciple wasn't prepared for the early explosion and hadn't readied himself yet. Because of the shockwave of the explosion, he got thrown back for a couple of meters but remained uninjured. He quickly got his bearings back and looked at Gravis, who was lying on the ground right now and readied himself for another attack.
BANG!
The earth under the disciple exploded as a thick mass of lightning shot towards his right leg. The disciple screamed in pain and decided to jump back, instead of attacking. This attack had come out of nowhere, and he had not seen any lightning creeping across the floor. How did Gravis manage to bring his lightning over to him?
Gravis had, of course, used his Elemental Synchronicity to create a tunnel for his lightning. Like this, the enemy wouldn't see the lightning creeping towards him. Gravis knew that his enemy's body was powerful, so he had used a full 20% of his whole Energy reserves in this one attack. If he didn't commit fully to this attack, he wouldn't be able to leave a heavy injury on his opponent.
The disciple landed a couple more meters away and looked at his leg. The colors black and red dominated his leg, and the disciple felt that it was incredibly difficult for him to use his injured leg. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth clenched. This will be troublesome!
BOOM!
Gravis had noticed how the focus of his opponent had shifted to his leg and used this opportunity to stand up and shoot towards his opponent. The explosion came from Gravis, shooting himself forward with all his power. Gravis' back and head might be injured, but that didn't impact his fighting ability much. Those were only superficial injuries spread over a big surface.
The disciple quickly looked forward again and noticed that Gravis was only three meters in front of him, bursting with lightning. Gravis was readying himself for a mighty overhead strike. The disciple's eyes shrunk to pinpricks due to the shock, and he quickly tried to block the swing with his halberd.
Gravis smiled in disdain. 'Idiot,' he said in his mind. The saber came down at the halberd.
Clank.
Only a quiet clank rang out as the halberd threw the saber away into the distance. Yet, the disciple would have preferred a loud boom over this quiet clank. Something was not right! His eyes quickly went from the saber to Gravis, as he felt two warm hands touch his chest. The disciple's eyes widened in shock, panic, and fear as he looked into Gravis' smiling face, just 30 centimeters in front of his own. "Bye!" he heard Gravis say.
BOOM!
Gravis' two hands released over 40% of his Energy storage into the chest of the disciple, completely incinerating everything in front of them. Earlier, Gravis made the disciple fully focus on this saber, and then simply ducked under the raised halberd and arms.
Gravis had called the disciple an idiot because blocking was often the wrong decision. If the disciple had the guts to put his life on the line, he would have counterattacked with one of his own slashes. Like this, if Gravis went through with the attack, he would be killed, while the disciple, if he moved his head slightly, would at most lose an arm. In that situation, Gravis would have had no other choice but to abort his attack, giving the disciple the initiative.
The disciple fell over onto his back, and his eyes looked with shock into the sky. All the organs in his chest had been completely obliterated, and there was no way for him to survive. Slowly, his consciousness disappeared, never to reappear again.
The onlookers had watched the fight with shock. Someone at the sixth level of Energy Gathering had actually killed someone at the ninth. Not even the geniuses of legends had been able to do that! They could barely believe their eyes, as fear took hold of them. This was insane!
Gravis only had a single healing pill, which had been a spoil from one of the earlier disciples fighting him. Since the injury didn't impact his fighting strength, Gravis decided against using the pill. Instead, he kneeled down and looked through the belongings of his opponent. Gravis' eyes widened as he saw many more body tempering pills. This one guy had given him more pills than all his previous opponents combined.
Gravis smirked as he threw the body over to Skye. Then, he dusted his robe off and took back his weapon, which had been thrown far away by the disciple's block. Of course, Gravis also took the halberd with him, sticking it into the ground near his usual spot. Gravis walked back to his spot, turned around to look at the audience, and spoke.
"Next!"