"Oh, yeah," Gravis muttered to himself as he remembered something. "That one Lord that I have killed before invading the Sand Tribe said that she was from the Stone Tribe. If I recall correctly, the Leader of that Tribe should be a level four Lord."
"Oi, Liza," Gravis transmitted to Liza, who was over a hundred kilometers away. Gravis' Spirit didn't reach that far, but thanks to his Lightning Fork, he could talk to her anyway. "A level two Lord is standing above our Spire. You want that?" Gravis asked.
Liza was a bit surprised. "Already? That was fast," she said and then hummed a bit. "I would rather see your power than eat them myself," she said.
Gravis chuckled a bit. "You don't believe that I can make myself more powerful, eh?" he asked.
Liza only smiled a bit. "I assume that you didn't lie, but that's quite a bold claim anyway. So, yes, I would rather see it," she said.
Gravis chuckled a bit. "Alright, sure. Just stay at the sidelines and watch. It's time I showed the Tribe my technique anyway."
Meanwhile, Gravis flew out of the Spire until he stood before the giant shark. The giant shark was quite surprised by Gravis. He had never seen a beast looking even remotely like him. On top of that, this beast felt incredibly weak. This was, by far, the weakest body of a Lord the shark had ever seen.
"Hey, I'm Gravis, the Leader of this Tribe. I was also the one that killed your officer. So, I think it's me you're looking for," Gravis said with a smirk.
The shark only scoffed in disdain.
Whoooosh!
A powerful, concentrated beam of water shot at Gravis with incredible speed. Gravis was flying, which meant that he had already moved all his power into his Spirit. As soon as the beast showed an inkling of attacking, Gravis activated his Will-Aura and shot to the side.
The beam slowed down due to Gravis' Will-Aura, and Gravis was quickly pushed to the side by his Spirit. Humans could fly faster than beasts since they didn't have to move such a ridiculous amount of weight with their flying technique. Therefore, it wasn't hard for Gravis to evade such an attack.
SHIIIING!
A hole was created that penetrated the whole Spire. The water beam had been quite powerful. Probably no one but Liza could evade such an attack. On top of that, this attack had only been a casual one.
The shark was shocked. Not only did this weak beast successfully evade his attack, but it also exuded some kind of pressure that made the shark move slower. The shark estimated that it could only use around 80% of his speed now.
"Oh, you want to get right to the action, eh?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "Sure, I can come to terms with that. But first, why did it take you so long to get here? I killed your officer like nearly two and a half weeks ago."
The shark regained his calm and looked at Gravis with interest now. "Our Tribe isn't close. It takes me about a week of travel to get here, quite a waste of time, in my opinion. That's also why I don't want to hear any bullshit from you. Is this pressure the reason why you can keep so many Lords under your rule?" he asked.
Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "Not entirely. It's just one of my weapons," Gravis said and then smiled at the shark, "but thank you for giving us a timeframe for when your colleagues arrive."
The shark only looked at Gravis with boredom. "Are you insinuating that you are able to kill me? Don't joke around like that. The only Lords that can jump an entire level are Divine Beasts, and you're not one of them."
"Divine Beasts? What's that?" Gravis asked. He hadn't heard about this concept yet.
The shark only huffed arrogantly. "Stop wasting time. No one will save you," the shark said and then readied himself to charge at Gravis. "Just accept your death."
BANG!
A powerful explosion could be heard as the shark shot at Gravis. This was not a casual attack anymore. As soon as Gravis would evade, the shark could change his trajectory and follow after him. With his faster speed, he would only need to chase Gravis to kill him.
Gravis saw that and sighed. 'Man, I really can't temper myself like this. Even if my Lightning Fork weakens me, I still don't feel any pressure. That's probably because my life isn't actually in danger and that I can deactivate my Lightning Fork whenever I want. Well, time to give the Tribe a show.'
Gravis flew upwards, and the shark followed after him. In less than a second, the shark would be able to swallow Gravis, even if he flew at his full speed.
WHOOOOM! WHOOOM!
Two other pressures appeared and pressed into the shark, shocking the shark to no end. They felt identical to the first one and were just as intense. Yet, they appeared from each of his sides. Shouldn't they come from his opponent?
The shark quickly noticed where these two pressures came from and stopped in shock. What did he just see?
Gravis was in front of him, but there was also another Gravis to his right. On top of that, a third one was to his left. They all looked and felt identical. What the fuck was going on?
The watchers looked with shock at the sky. Why were there three of their Leader? Where did these other two come from? Shira only looked at the Gravises with narrowed eyes. 'I knew that something was up,' she thought.
Silva was impressed by what he was seeing, while Morn showed an incredible interest in what was happening. Even with his incredible amount of experience, he had no idea what was happening. Orthar only watched calmly.
Meanwhile, Liza finally understood what Gravis meant when he had said that his power was only a third of his peak. She also grew a bit bitter as she realized that she had been helplessly suppressed by only one of these Gravises.
"Thank you for visiting," all three Gravises said at the same time. "We're the rulers of this land, the Gravis Force!" they shouted as they all lifted one finger in the air in a heroic pose.
The reactions from the Tribe were mixed as they heard Gravis. A few of them felt like this was embarrassing, but most of them were impressed by Gravis' heroic speech. This was their Leader, and their Leader had just declared his dominance!
"Anyway, it's time for you to scatter," the Gravis above the shark said. Then, he started falling as he concentrated half his power into his Punishment Lightning. Meanwhile, the other two Gravises kept the Will-Aura active to slow the shark down.
BZZZZZZ!
A powerful lightning bomb was created on Gravis' hand. With his additional control, he could choose how much lightning and Spirit went into the Lightning Bomb. This time, he decided to fill it with nearly everything he had.
The shark roared in anger and shot at Gravis. He couldn't believe that something as ridiculous as this was happening. There had to be a trick to it, and he wouldn't believe that a level one Lord could be a danger to his life. If he used all his force to attack, Gravis would surely collapse.
Whooom!
The Lightning Bomb was thrown into the shark's mouth and then exploded violently.
BOOOOOOM!
A two-kilometer-wide explosion took place. Luckily, they fought high in the sky. Like this, the explosion wouldn't damage their territory or kill members of their Tribe. The explosion was incredibly bright and blinded most of the onlookers, and the shockwaves hit the lands and shook them with their power.
The shark exploded into many pieces. Gravis only smirked with a laugh. "As I said, it's time for you to scatter, get it?" he said. His Lightning Bomb had weakened to only 10% of his power by the time the shark died, but as soon as the shark had died, no will was keeping its Energy condensed anymore.
Therefore, the explosion quickly transformed into some lightning bolts that shot at the scattered parts of the shark. The lightning bolts quickly burned the parts into dust, making the lightning even more powerful. In less than a second, the whole body of the shark had vanished.
The lightning had grown many times more powerful after absorbing everything. Then, it simply shot at Gravis and was absorbed. Gravis took a deep breath as he felt power course through his body.
Then, Gravis clenched his right fist and looked at it with a smirk. "Eating will be way less bothersome like this," Gravis commented.
When a beast ate another beast, they would absorb all the Energy and power inside their body. What Gravis had done just now was no different. His lightning simply absorbed everything and returned to his body, where it distributed the harvested power.
After seeing how easily their Leader had dealt with a level two Lord, nearly every beast was shocked into submission. This was the most incredible power they had ever seen! On top of that, they all were part of this mighty beast's Tribe. Nearly all beasts were incredibly proud of being in the River Tribe. Even Orthar was surprised by Gravis' power. Hearing and seeing were two entirely different concepts.
Yet, one question was upon every beast's mind.
How were there three Gravises?
This was Gravis' Lightning Fork. After seeing that even his foundation was liquidized when he transformed into lightning, Gravis immediately thought about his clone that he had met in the Heaven's Trial.
Why not do exactly that, but different?
Why not just make three bodies with a third of his power?
Gravis tested it out and noticed that it worked without a problem. There was one Gravis but three bodies, Spirits, and lightning. These bodies were not autonomous entities but were more akin to limbs.
He had one awareness that controlled these three bodies like they were arms, only more complicated. When Gravis saw the result, he grew incredibly excited.
Why?
Because he had to waste a lot of time in the past because he only had one body. Gravis needed to increase his power, battle, control the Tribe, learn smithing, search for materials, and watch the CMO. Nearly all these things required him to be in different places.
So, after Gravis activated his Lightning Fork for the first time, he sent one body to search for materials with the fungus. When that body found materials, it would directly forge with them to get more experience. On top of that, he was getting some nice stuff out of these materials.
Another body was simply keeping a check on everything. Every Unity Beast could reduce their size by a factor of ten. Gravis was already small with a height of "only" two meters, but as soon as he reduced his size even further, he would only be 20-centimeters-tall. Like this, he could walk all around his property without anyone noticing.
Nearly all powerful beasts were over 50-meters-tall. No one would notice a 20-centimeter-tall, tiny lizard-thing. On top of that, Gravis' weaker body became even weaker by 50% when he was that tiny. No one noticed him as he just traveled around his territory.
The third Gravis sat on standby inside his cave. Everyone else was confused about what he was doing there all the time, but Gravis knew. He was simply looking at the CMO with interest.
Everyone else only thought that Gravis was staying inside his cave all day, but that couldn't be further from the truth. With one body constantly roaming around and the other body digging through their whole territory, he traveled more than any other beast.
To stop the Lightning Fork, Gravis only needed to convert two of his bodies into lightning and shoot them into the third one. Then, all his power would be condensed into one body.
This was the power of the Lightning Fork!