The Golden Dragon looked at Gravis, but it quickly grew confused. What was he doing?
All the liquified ore of the Golden Dragon's body was gathered above Gravis' hand as he concentrated on it fully. Some lightning encased the liquid metal, and Gravis stared at it intently.
'I need to successfully forge this metal on my first try! I don't have enough Energy to try it another time! I must succeed now!' Gravis thought crazily as the metal started changing shape.
CRK!
Yet, it started breaking apart. Gravis grew panicked as he saw that. This was a sign of failure! Why? Why wasn't he able to smith new materials on his first try!?
Fueled by the pressure, Gravis' mind went into overdrive. His concentration reached a peak it had never reached before. Gravis remembered all the diagrams about the different materials' makeup, and, slowly, he realized several patterns between them.
He remembered what had happened with all the materials he had tested previously and instantly recognized some patterns, which he hadn't seen before.
BANG!
As if struck by lightning, Gravis suddenly realized why the materials all acted in such unforeseen ways when he had tried to forge them previously. The whole makeup of the different materials fused together into a single concept in his head.
The ore stopped cracking as it quickly morphed into the shape that Gravis envisioned.
By now, the Golden Dragon realized that Gravis was using its own body to create something abominable. The Golden Dragon was able to shape the metals in the earth into whatever shape it wanted, but this weak ant was now doing this to the Golden Dragon's body.
Rage exploded inside the Golden Dragon. This was the most disrespectful thing that had ever been done to it! It wasn't some material that some weak ant could manipulate however it wanted!
The Golden Dragon shot forward with unreal speed and attacked Gravis with one of its claws.
BANG! BANG!
A loud noise erupted, but that wasn't the noise of the attack. This was made by the metal that had been compressed together into a new form. This was what the Opposer had shown Gravis. This was the second way of tempering a weapon, something that Gravis would only be able to learn later.
The second loud sound was the attack of the Golden Dragon. Its claws hit something incredibly hard, and Gravis was shot into the distance by this attack. Gravis' body smashed through more mountains until he finally managed to stabilize himself.
The attack injured his body, but the injuries were only minor. Most of the damage had been absorbed by the thing Gravis currently carried in his right hand.
Was it a saber?
No!
Gravis carried a massive, golden shield in his right hand. He knew that if he made a saber, he would only be helplessly suppressed. He would have never gotten a chance to regenerate his power like that. Instead, he decided to make a shield.
As soon as the droplets of the Golden Dragon's body left it, they became their own entity. They still had the Golden Dragon's will on them, but as long as they didn't touch the Golden Dragon's body, Gravis could easily wipe that will away with his Will-Aura.
Like this, these droplets had truly transformed into Late Unity Rank materials. As soon as Gravis understood the Law about these materials, he also immediately realized how he could compress them. He simply needed to move the Energy that made up the materials in a peculiar way to press it together.
Thanks to that understanding, Gravis managed to create a shield with a hardened layer. If Gravis hadn't hardened that shield, it would break apart with a powerful attack from the Golden Dragon. Only by being hardened would it be able to resist the Golden Dragon's attacks indefinitely.
When the Golden Dragon saw that Gravis wasn't even that injured, it grew furious.
BOOOM!
It charged at Gravis with all its power, destroying the earth under it in the process. Then, it summoned more spears, which it quickly threw at Gravis.
Whooop!
All the spears vanished immediately, infuriating the Golden Dragon even more.
BANG!
Gravis got shot into the distance again, but the shield absorbed most of the damage. Yet, Gravis still got injured by this hit. Gravis also quickly realized that his injuries accumulated even faster than the regeneration of his power. This meant that he would still die.
BANG!
The Golden Dragon attacked again, but this time, Gravis evaded the attack. The Golden Dragon had been too straightforward with this attack, allowing Gravis to evade it. When the Golden Dragon saw that, it grew even angrier.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
It started going absolutely crazy as it used its claws, legs, teeth, and even its tail to crazily attack Gravis. Gravis only managed to evade some of the attacks, which was already a miracle in and of itself. Sadly, several attacks still hit him.
Luckily, these attacks didn't have the earlier power since the Golden Dragon distributed its power among multiple attacks instead of concentrating it into one. This attack didn't even injure Gravis at all.
"RAAAAAAHHH!" The Golden Dragon released a primal roar as it charged crazily at Gravis. Then, it transformed parts of its body into metal to make its attacks stronger. This would increase the power of the attacks again, allowing it to continue its onslaught.
Gravis started becoming injured again as these attacks rained down on him. He had only regenerated a minuscule amount of lightning during this onslaught. This couldn't continue!
Gravis narrowed his eyes as he infused his shield with some of the Spirit and lightning that he had managed to regenerate.
BOOM!
Lightning exploded out of his shield as an attack from the Golden Dragon hit it. Yet, this explosion was enough to liquify more of the Golden Dragon's body. It wasn't nearly as much as when the Lightning Crescent had hit it, but it was still a good amount.
Gravis retrieved the droplets into his Spirit Space as his body smashed through more mountains. Then, he immediately resummoned them and started forging again. His knowledge about the material had allowed him to release just enough lightning to heat the material to its optimal temperature.
The Golden Dragon had lost nearly all its rationality in its fury. The fact that Gravis still managed to hold on infuriated it to no end. Why wouldn't this weak ant just die!?
BANG!
Another hit, but Gravis only received some very minor injuries. The reason for that was the new pair of shoes he had just created. Gravis knew all the basic Formation Arrays for forging, which included Formation Arrays for armor.
Gravis hadn't fought someone with a real set of armor yet, but that didn't mean that those didn't exist. Gravis had made shoes filled with Formation Arrays that absorbed shock. As long as he managed to land on his feet, he wouldn't get injured as much.
Many more attacks rained down on Gravis.
BANG!
But after some minutes, Gravis had regenerated enough of his power to release another Lightning Blast from his shield. On top of that, this blast was even more powerful than the one before.
More droplets fell from the Golden Dragon's body as Gravis used them to create gauntlets. He filled these with Formation Arrays that allowed the gauntlets to connect with the shield. With this, he would have more control over his body's position.
It had happened a couple of times that Gravis hadn't been able to stop his fall with his feet due to the Golden Dragon's power. Whenever that happened, he had received heavier injuries than usual. Gravis saw this as the biggest issue and quickly rectified that.
Yet, since Gravis was using all of his power to injure the Golden Dragon and smith, his body was quickly becoming increasingly injured.
Some of the Golden Dragon's rationality returned, and it stopped transforming its body into metal. It couldn't allow Gravis to accumulate more of its body.
Sadly, this decreased its attack power again, and with the new gauntlets and boots, Gravis didn't even get injured in the slightest. Now, Gravis simply saved up his power without using it.
The fight dragged on for another two hours. The Golden Dragon was absolutely sure that Gravis couldn't keep going! Being tossed around like this would reduce his stamina crazily!
Sadly, the Golden Dragon didn't know that Gravis' stamina was basically endless. Yet, that wasn't the Golden Dragon's fault. It simply had no idea about how Gravis' Spirit and lightning worked. On top of that, Gravis was losing control over his body more frequently. This could only come from exhaustion, right?
Wrong! Gravis wasn't in full focus anymore and used this time to exchange some injuries to allow his concentration to regenerate. He had been running on fumes in that department for a while now. His eyes lost some of his focus as he now reacted mostly on instinct.
The Golden Dragon interpreted that as exhaustion, but Gravis simply became more relaxed. As long as this kept going, everything would be fine.
After some more minutes…
BANG! BANG!
Gravis transformed into lightning and then transformed back. His body was now fully healed again, but his Realm dropped slightly. Luckily, he had managed to regenerate all his lightning and Spirit during that time, so his Realm only dropped a little bit.
Yet, since Gravis' lightning was still more powerful than his Spirit or body, only his lightning decreased. This was the concept of balance, and only the most powerful aspect became weaker. This meant that his body was just as powerful as before.
When the Golden Dragon saw that Gravis was fully healed again, it exploded with anger. It wanted this ant to die, no matter what!
BOOOOOM!
Suddenly, an incredibly powerful beam of golden light shot out of the Golden Dragon, right towards Gravis.
Gravis saw this beam and nearly felt his heart stop.
This beam was way beyond everything that the Golden Dragon had used previously. This attack wasn't even on the same level as all its previous attacks!
Gravis knew that, even with his shield, if that beam hit him, he would die!