The earth disciples started closing in while Gravis waited calmly. Yet, after another minute, Gravis grew impatient. "This is taking too long. I'm coming to you," he said.
BOOM!
Gravis pushed himself forward with his physical body, assisted by some of his lightning. He wasn't fully loading his feet but only using it to go a little faster. After all, he had to be prepared for the "fight".
Even while only using a slight bit of his lightning, he was already double as fast as the earth disciples. As they saw him closing in, they grew more nervous and fearful. This wasn't how this was supposed to go! They wanted to keep their beliefs and their lives! If this continued, they would just die. Yet, they had already committed to it and couldn't just back out now.
After a couple of seconds, both sides finally met each other. When 100 meters was between them, they stopped.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
Their huge shields hit the ground with mighty sounds. They built a fortification with their shields with impressive speed. After that, they waited for Gravis to approach.
"What's up?" Gravis asked. "Why did you stop? Don't you want to kill me?" he asked.
"Go ahead! Attack us!" the older person shouted. "If you attack us, you will see what will happen!"
Gravis saw this and got reminded of his fight against the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild. This was exactly the same.
"But isn't it you guys who want to kill me?" Gravis asked. "Isn't waiting like this without attacking already a betrayal of your beliefs?" Gravis asked with amusement in his voice.
The people gritted their teeth. On the surface, they didn't want to admit that, but their emotions begged to differ. They felt rage and frustration at Gravis' words. Not because he was provoking them, but because, in their eyes, he was forcing them to kill themselves. Why couldn't that stubborn guy just leave? In their minds, Gravis was simply too cruel.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
The shields cluttered as the fortification decided to move forward. They did this one step at a time, and they were moving even slower. Yet, this time, Gravis didn't mind that. They could move as slow as they wanted. Even mortals were able to cross a distance of 100 meters without taking too much time.
Gravis waited for a couple of seconds as they steadily got closer. After around 15 seconds, they reached a distance of five meters. Even with their slow speed, attacking from such a close range wouldn't be an issue to them. Yet, they just stopped again, not attacking at all.
Gravis snickered a bit and took some steps forward. The shields wavered a little as Gravis walked closer. After taking a couple of steps, Gravis stopped. Right now, only half-a-meter was between him and the shields. He was well within the range of their attacks. Still, no attack appeared.
"What are you doing?" the voice of Old Man Lightning suddenly appeared inside Gravis' mind. Old Man Lightning had come into the area of Gravis' Spirit, so Gravis could finally talk with him without having to shout everything.
"I want to see if their beliefs or their lives are more important to them," Gravis transmitted with amusement.
"You know," Old Man Lightning answered. "That is kind of cruel. After all, their beliefs are their cultivation. As soon as they break them, their Spirit will break, and their element will leave. They would fall back into the Body Tempering Realm."
"I know," Gravis answered directly with no change in emotion. "The Earth Guild in the Middle-Continent told me as much."
"Then why are you still doing this?" Old Man Lightning asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad or anything. I also don't disagree with that. After all, they have said that they would kill you. I am just interested in the reason."
"Well," Gravis answered. "To us, life is obviously more important than our so-called beliefs. Yes, lying or deceit would be bad for our cultivation, but as long as we stay alive, we can always recover. So, while they probably value their beliefs as much as their lives, I don't. Right now, they have only said that they are going to kill me. Yet, saying that and actually attempting it is a huge difference, in my opinion. If they only say it, they will lose their cultivation, but if they go through with it, they'll lose their lives."
"Hmm," Old Man Lightning hummed a little. "That actually makes sense. Then, sure, go ahead. I'm also interested in how this will go down."
Old Man Lightning and Gravis had been talking calmly for a couple of seconds while the earth cultivators remained still. "I'm still waiting!" Gravis said.
"Attack and see what happens!" one of the Seed Stage cultivators said. In fact, that was precisely the disciple that stood directly in front of Gravis.
Gravis laughed a little. "Alright! Don't mind if I do," he said, and the shield wall shivered a little again.
Gravis slowly lifted his right leg. "I am going to kick your shield now. No worries, you won't die. I'll do it very slowly, okay? You can counterattack whenever you want!"
"Go ahead!" shouted the disciple. He tried to sound imposing, but panic and fear coated his voice.
"Here I go!" Gravis said.
BANG!
Gravis kicked the shield, and the person behind it got shot away. One had to remember that only very few people had a body equally as powerful as their cultivation. All the present Seed Stage cultivators had, at most, bodies equal to the initial stage of Spirit Forming. The kicked person shot over all the people behind him. Luckily, he was an earth cultivator and had a powerful shield. Thus, he didn't receive any injury.
No counterattack came, even though Gravis' attack was very telegraphed. This was the perfect opportunity for a counterattack. When Gravis saw this, he snickered a bit. "Still no counterattack?" he asked.
The shields rustled again as another person replaced the previous spot. They also didn't answer. Slowly, Gravis lifted his right leg again.
"Another kick is coming. Please be careful, okay?" Gravis said with a mocking tone.
BANG! Whoosh!
Gravis kicked, but surprisingly, the person's spear in front of him also shot at him. Gravis, of course, was ready for that. He was playing with them, but he had never lowered his vigilance. Gravis summoned a bit of lightning in his left, outstretched hand, making the spear move to the side. The spear missed, while Gravis' kick shot the person away.
BANG!
Suddenly, a concentrated lightning spear shot out of Gravis' right hand and shot at the flying disciple. Gravis had been prepared for anyone that valued their beliefs over their lives. The power of his kick made the shield go to the side, creating an easy path for his concentrated lightning spear to hit him. The spear hit, and the disciple got incinerated.
Gravis felt the dead disciple's Energy enter his body, refilling his lightning a little bit more than what he had used for the spear. The people behind the shields shook in nervousness. A brother of theirs just died. By now, they had abandoned the possibility of keeping their beliefs and lives.
"The first idiot that values his beliefs over his life has died," Gravis said mockingly. "By the way, I'll be right back. Just wait here." Gravis said and then ran past the barricade. The barricade didn't attack or stop him.
The first disciple that Gravis had kicked stood a hundred meters away from the barricade, very slowly walking back.
Whoop!
Gravis appeared right in front of him, making the disciple halt his breathing. He froze and wasn't sure how to react. He had been singled out! Why was it him?
"I'll now move my hand very slowly towards your neck. You can counterattack if you want. You can, of course, also flee. Don't worry. I won't chase you," Gravis said with a smirk.
Gravis' hand slowly inched towards the disciple's neck. "Life or beliefs. Decide!" Gravis said.
The disciple's mind stopped working with a cacophony of emotions. His beliefs told him to attack, but his instincts told him to run! The two sides inside of him pulled him in two different directions. He felt like his own mind was tearing him apart. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't decide!
Pack!
Gravis reached the neck of the disciple. "Too late."
CRACK!
The neck of the disciple broke, and Gravis tore off his head for good measure. "Indecisiveness is bad," Gravis commented. The items inside the dead disciple's Spirit Space popped out of his corpse while Gravis absorbed the Energy.
Whoop!
Gravis quickly ran back to his old position before the barricade.
"Alright, I'm back. Let's continue!" With that, he lifted his right leg again.
The disciples behind the shields shivered in fear.