The ten black panthers immediately charged at Gravis, eliciting quite some nervousness from him. He had seen how Jessy replaced her body with a shadow body before, and he knew that these had to be fake. If they weren't fakes, she would not be an average level four King.
Additionally, she would have used that ability before she got as heavily injured as she was now. She was only trying this approach since the others haven't worked up to now.
Yet, this approach proved quite effective. Gravis had no way to discern the real one. The copies emulated even the dripping blood from Jessy's exposed flesh. By all intents and purposes, the copies were flawless. There was only one real body, and any attack from a fake wouldn't injure Gravis, but that was never Jessy's intent.
All ten copies charged at Gravis from different angles, and they all used the same attack, which was a swipe with her remaining claw. If Gravis couldn't block the real attack, he would receive a devastating injury.
BOOOM!
Gravis summoned several shields around his body and protected himself. One shield on his right was hit, and its fragments bounced off Gravis' body. Yet, since he hadn't used his hands to block, the claw wasn't stopped by the shield.
BANG!
Gravis turned to the real one and summoned another shield between himself and her. Gravis transformed his arms into lightning and barely managed to grab the shield with that move. Sadly, he couldn't put much strength into that block and was thrown into the distance.
Gravis shot through one of the copies while his arms broke. He hadn't been able to get a stable grip on the shield in such a short amount of time. The only thing Gravis could do was to restore his arms with his lightning, which decreased his power.
All copies of Jessy fused together and then split apart again. With this, Gravis wasn't able to discern the real one again. Then, they charged at him. This method had proven quite effective on him, and Jessy finally saw an opportunity to win this fight.
Gravis gritted his teeth as he made a decision.
BZZZZ!
Minuscule bolts of lightning swept over the surroundings and hit the black panthers. His lightning bolts shot through the copies, but the slight darkness Energy inside them destroyed a lot of lightning. Yet, with this method, Gravis was able to spot the real Jessy.
BANG!
Gravis charged directly at the real one, but instead of attacking, Jessy retreated. It was almost like she had expected such a move from Gravis. Luckily, thanks to Gravis' fast acceleration, he reached her before she could run too far.
Jessy immediately stopped and simply looked at Gravis with cold eyes. Then, several more copies appeared. Gravis had been prepared to unleash a devastating strike, but he couldn't be sure which one was real again.
Obviously, creating these copies took up a bit of time, which was why she had retreated instead of directly summoning new ones. Yet, by retreating, she had gained enough distance to ready more of them.
BZZ!
Gravis unleashed more lightning as he charged at her. A lot of his lightning was used up again, but instead of retreating, all the copies charged at him. Gravis saw the real one and readied himself to dodge.
Whoosh!
Gravis dodged the attack, but something didn't feel right. It was almost like Jessy wanted him to dodge.
BZZZ! BANG!
Out of instinct, Gravis transformed into lightning and made himself as long as possible. One of the presumed copies swiped its claws through Gravis' lightning form, destroying a lot of it by absorbing the lightning.
Gravis had been sure that this Jessy had been a copy, but the power of this attack had proven real. 'She can switch places with her copies!' Gravis thought in panic as he felt half of his being vanish. His body was currently lightning, and half of his being had been absorbed by Jessy's claws.
Yet, absorbing so much lightning still took its toll on Jessy's remaining front leg. The front half of it had been turned into dust, leaving her with only a bloody stump.
Gravis transformed back as the attack passed, but he felt frail. By having had so much lightning before his breakthrough and by absorbing the silver wolf, Gravis had been at the cusp of becoming a level two King. Yet, right now, he was only barely a level one King. If he lost some more Energy, he would become a level five Lord again.
'Fuck! I have barely any Energy left, and if I don't use it wisely, I will die!' Gravis thought. His mind was going crazy with trying to find a way out of this. Jessy had lost her front legs and tail, but she could still use her fangs to attack him.
She hadn't done that up to now since that would bring her head too close to the enemy. If Gravis managed to counterattack by evading a swipe from her, she would only lose a leg, but if she used a bite, she would die. Yet, there was no other way left since attacking with her hind legs would be too cumbersome.
Meanwhile, Gravis was also with his back to a wall. He only had enough Energy to unleash a single attack powerful enough to kill Jessy. If he judged incorrectly, his attack would get wasted.
What about a wide range explosion with a Lightning Bomb? That was also too risky since Jessy could simply decide not to attack at all and only send copies.
What about summoning weak copies of Gravis to attack all copies? That would weaken him too much, and if Gravis' copies were too weak, they wouldn't even be able to destroy the darkness bodies. Additionally, Jessy had a way bigger storage of Energy than Gravis due to her level advantage.
Using the environment was also a no-go. The stones or metals would simply bounce off the copies since there was not enough power behind them.
Gravis was thinking crazily about all his options, but reality didn't wait for him. Jessy immediately summoned more copies and charged at him. Gravis also charged at them.
Whoosh!
All attacks went through Gravis as the copies were all destroyed by his saber. Gravis had taken a gamble and bet on the fact that Jessy would feel him out with this attack. His gamble had succeeded, which forced Jessy to sacrifice ten of her copies without any result. Summoning ten of such copies took a lot of Energy.
Jessy gritted her teeth as she realized that she had made the wrong decision. If she had decided to attack, she would have killed Gravis. She was running very low on Energy, and she only had enough Energy left to summon another eight copies. She would have liked to use another feint, but she simply didn't have the Energy for another one of those anymore.
Gravis and Jessy both were low on Energy, and they both knew that the other one knew that. Both of them knew that this next strike would decide everything.
Jessy sent four of her copies at Gravis. If she used all of them, Gravis could unleash a large-scale attack that would kill her. Like this, Gravis couldn't be sure if this was another feint or not.
'It's a 50/50!' Gravis thought with frustration. 'I absolutely hate betting on my luck!'
Gravis tried to find a way to discern the real one, but there was just no way. He also couldn't use his Will-Aura to destroy the will upon them for some reason. It seemed like all the copies were connected to Jessy. There had to be a way to sever this connection, but Gravis just couldn't feel the connection!
In no time at all, the four copies reached him. They all tried to bite him, and Gravis just couldn't decide if he should unleash an explosion now or save it for later. 'Will I die?' Gravis thought with gritted teeth. 'I don't feel like I'm about to die.'
Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened. He simply stopped moving as all copies bit him.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!
All four copies had been fakes. 'Why don't I feel any danger? My instincts should have plenty of experience with danger,' Gravis thought.
WHOOOOM!
Gravis suddenly understood something as many experiences from him fused together into a single concept.
Whoooom!
Suddenly, Gravis felt a feeling of danger from his left. The remaining four copies had shot at him simultaneously. Yet, Gravis only felt a feeling of danger from one of them.
'The Law of Danger!' Gravis thought as his mind exploded with battle-intent. 'Now I've got you!'
"Your left!" Commander Rime suddenly transmitted to Gravis.
BOOOOOOOM!
Gravis unloaded all of his Energy into his saber and shot a Lightning Crescent at the Jessy to his left. He had felt the danger of her, and he knew that this one was the real one! Jessy's eyes widened as the lightning consumed her entire being.
A huge explosion echoed throughout the surroundings as the squad shielded their eyes to not become blind. The sound reverberated throughout the horizons, but the explosion disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
After the bright explosion vanished, silence returned to the land. Jessy's body was consumed and entered Gravis. Luckily, her body was still complete enough for Gravis to achieve an immediate breakthrough.
Gravis had managed to comprehend the Law of Danger and also managed to become a level two King.
The badger looked with a smile at the evolving Gravis while Commander Rime sighed in relief. Gravis was still alive.
One minute later, a ten-meter-tall Gravis looked at his hand in interest as he felt the power.
WHOOOOOM!
Suddenly, the surroundings turned grey as Gravis turned to Commander Rime.
Commander Rime felt a cold shiver run down his carapace as he saw Gravis' eyes. With Gravis being a level two King now, his Will-Aura was powerful enough to suppress a level four King to less than 50% of their power.
Hatred.
Pure essence of hatred and anger radiated from Gravis' eyes. It was like the cold feeling of hatred hit the hot feeling of fury as they became a single, unstable whirl.
Commander Rime had endangered Gravis' tempering. If he hadn't already known which Jessy had been the real one, Gravis' whole path forward could have become unstable. By interfering, Commander Rime had stepped between Gravis and his path to power.
This was absolutely unforgivable!