The surroundings outside the smokescreen were loud with discussion. After the initial explosion, the onlookers had not seen anything of the fight anymore. They had only heard several clanks and explosions for a while, but after some seconds, everything had calmed down inside the smokescreen. Now, people were discussing who the winner was.
Most of the disciples guessed that Gravis had probably won, but they couldn't be sure. Crimson had been incredibly powerful, and he had been acknowledged as the strongest disciple under the elders. That said a lot about his power since someone could only be considered an elder after remaining at the peak of Energy Gathering for many years. Most of those elders had already fully tempered their bodies.
The only reason why they still remained in the Energy Gathering Realm was that they didn't have a Will-Aura. Yet, with age came complacency. Many of those elders started feeling complacent with their current status. Everyone inside the guild and in the Middle-Continent respected them and their strength. Why was there a need for more power?
Yet, there were still a small few elders that were ready to put their life on the line to step into the Spirit Forming Realm. The Fire Guild had a total of around 20 elders, and only around three of those were actually interested in more life and death tempering. Yet, how difficult was it to find tempering for someone that powerful in the Energy Gathering Realm?
They were too strong for middle-grade Energy Beasts, yet they didn't have the strength to kill a high-grade Energy Beast solo. Humans that were a danger to them would only be people in similar situations. Due to that, there were also only a select few of those around. On top of that, one first needed enmity to fight with another human on that strength, under normal circumstances. For example, what would the Lightning Guild say if an elder from the Fire Guild killed one of their elder in a fight? The situation would be difficult.
What about going to the Core-Continent? Spirit Forming Realm experts ran rampant in the Core-Continent, and those elders would be helpless against those. The chance of death was even higher than fighting a high-grade Energy Beast solo. So, all in all, the only will tempering, that those elders could find, were hunts for high-grade Energy Beasts together with other people. Sadly, it was hard finding one of those.
The teacher of Crimson looked at the smokescreen, took a deep breath, and sighed. He had heard the last slash before everything went quiet. The elder had heard the sound of his disciple's weapon hundreds of times, so he could distinguish that the last slash was not from his disciple's weapon. Crimson was dead.
Yet, the elder continued to wait. Was he angry about his disciple's death? Of course, but his will was strong enough to suppress his anger. Gravis was surely injured, and killing him like this would not pose a challenge. He wanted his opponent to be in top form because, only then, would Gravis be strong enough to strengthen the elder's will.
Some time later, the smokescreen cleared, and the onlookers could finally see the battle scene. They saw Gravis standing in the middle, his weapon ready. Surprisingly, Gravis had also taken the weapon of Crimson and had slung it over his back. Why would Gravis carry such a long weapon on his back when it could impact his flexibility and mobility? The onlookers didn't know. The onlookers could only sigh as they saw the headless corpse beside Gravis.
Gravis only needed about two more minutes to fully heal, but he still looked at the elder with narrowed eyes. Gravis couldn't rule out the possibility that the elder would attack him furiously, as soon as he saw Gravis.
The elder also looked into Gravis' eyes. "How long?" he asked neutrally.
"Two minutes," Gravis answered.
The elder nodded. "I want you to be at your peak when we fight," he explained. "Your Magic reserves are low. Take this," he said as he threw a pill over, which Gravis quickly caught. Gravis looked at it and felt a lot of Energy inside of it. Without waiting, he ate it.
If the elder only wanted to kill Gravis, he wouldn't need something like poison. He would only need to attack Gravis while he was injured. Gravis could guess how badly that elder wanted to temper himself, judging by the fact that he was middle-aged and very close to condensing a Will-Aura. The elder wouldn't throw such a supreme tempering opportunity away for revenge.
"I go by the name of Red inside the Fire Guild," the elder commented and then pointed at his dead disciple. "His name was Crimson, and I found him when he was only a small, homeless boy in some village. I raised him as my son and as my disciple. I named him after a fiercer version of the color red, hoping he would become fiercer and stronger than me."
Gravis lifted one eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked.
The elder closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I want you to know whom you have killed and who will kill you," he explained with a calm voice.
Yet, inside he was anything but calm. His rage was furiously ravaging around his insides, trying to find a release. How could one remain calm in front of their child's murderer? It also didn't help that Heaven was trying its absolute best to increase those emotions of rage inside of him.
Heaven was always active behind the scene, even if it was not apparent. Most times, its plans wouldn't even happen because of some circumstances. It had tried to increase the emotions of the upper echelon of the Lightning Guild when Gravis went there. It had tried to move some high-grade Energy Beasts in the Wind Guild to attack him, and right now, it was trying to make Red attack Gravis.
Luckily, Red's will was already too strong to be influenced by his emotions, even if they were incredibly intense. This was just one of Heaven's attempts to kill Gravis that would never see the light of day.
After Red explained his reason for telling Gravis about his background, Gravis didn't say anything back. Words were meaningless in this situation. Either he died or Gravis died. Like this, some minutes passed until Gravis had fully recovered.
POCK!
Red took out a pill-bottle and threw it at Gravis. Gravis looked at it and saw that it was another costly pill. After he had inspected the pill, Gravis looked back to Red and nodded, taking out his saber. Red also took out his weapon, which was also a saber. Both of them readied themselves, and the onlookers felt like the fighting arena was about to explode. They jumped further back, for safety, and then watched without blinking.
Gravis' most challenging fight was about to start!