Blood and body pieces flew through the air as the fire lines passed Gravis' location. Gravis seemingly vanished as his body was blown across the Formation Array. The fire lines passed Gravis' spot and hit the Formation Array, exploding violently.
Stella's brother released a sigh of relief. His sister had won! For a second there, he had worried that Gravis was even more powerful than he had believed. Gravis had been a freak. That was undeniable.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, an explosion of lightning and fire appeared that consumed nearly the entire area of the Formation Array, shocking Stella's brother out of his relief.
What happened!?
BANG!
Suddenly, two bodies shot out of the storm of destruction, one fleeing and one chasing.
Nearly half of Stella's face was burned, and she was missing an entire arm. However, instead of nervousness or fear, her face only showed cold determination and severity.
A half-dead Gravis chased after her with a lightning-filled saber. He had to win now! Stella was too powerful, and he had just barely managed to claim the initiative. If he failed now, he might not get a second chance!
What had happened?
When Stella completely countered Gravis' defense against her attack, Gravis had to unleash his Avatar. Gravis had to be careful what he wanted to show of his power since he was now among humans. Seeing such an Avatar might invite unwanted attention.
However, Gravis would have died if he hadn't used his Avatar.
His Avatar of Freedom allowed him to ignore any kind of suppression, which meant that Gravis could accelerate his personal time. Sadly, the Avatar of Freedom only worked for him and not for external things. This meant that Stella's attack couldn't be slowed.
Due to that, Gravis could only survive by sacrificing nearly his entire body. If he had been able to also slow the attack from Stella, he would have dodged the attack unscathed, but like this, he had only been able to save his head. He had to regrow his entire body in the blink of an eye by spending a ton of Energy to convert it to Life Energy with his Law of Energy Healing. However, even then, he was still injured.
Then, Gravis had charged at Stella and unleashed a Lightning Crescent.
However, Stella had never dropped her guard. As soon as she felt a feeling of danger approaching, she readied her saber again and performed several profound movements. This was definitely another kind of Weapon Technique.
Instead of creating one overpowered attack with a long wind-up, she created an instantaneous attack with a lot of power. It was like she had unleashed a single slash of fire that split space apart. Of course, none of the two were powerful enough to actually split space apart. However, this attack made it appear so.
Their attacks had clashed, creating a powerful storm of destruction. Gravis had been the one in the initiative, which meant that he had received lighter injuries than Stella. His half-dead appearance was mainly the damage that Stella's earlier attack had caused him.
Gravis chased Stella, but he felt her Spirit becoming active.
SHING!
Gravis immediately swapped out his saber with another one. Stella had just tried to destroy the Punishment Lightning on Gravis' saber with the Composition Law of Punishment Lightning. If she accidentally hit Gravis' body and realized that Gravis was also made out of Punishment Lightning, Gravis would most likely die. Gravis had to attack in such a way that she wouldn't use the Law of Punishment Lightning.
'What is this Avatar?' Stella thought as her mind was going wild. 'I have never seen anything like it!'
Gravis closed in on Stella. He had to stay as close to her as possible so that she couldn't recover her balance and positioning. Right now, she was under severe stress and was forced to defend herself from a suboptimal position, making her attacks and blocks very rough and hasty.
In this situation, Gravis' weaker body could triumph.
SHING!
A searing fire slash barely missed Gravis' body, leaving behind intense sounds of fire. Gravis immediately slashed at Stella before her slash had even ended.
Clank.
A second saber appeared in Stella's free hand, blocking Gravis' slash.
As soon as Gravis noticed the new saber, he weakened his attack until it only lightly tapped Stella's saber. If he had unleashed his full power, Stella would have been pushed into the distance, allowing her to regain her balance and positioning.
Stella changed her plans and tried to kick Gravis.
PACK!
A third arm came out of Gravis, which quickly caught the foot. Some bones in Gravis' arm broke when he received the impact, but he quickly healed it.
PACK! PACK!
Two other arms came out of Gravis, which quickly grabbed Stella's arms. One of his feet sprouted sharp and aggressive claws, and Gravis kicked Stella's remaining leg, hooking his leg to hers.
Gravis' beast body was finally showing its advantages.
Back when Gravis had been a Nascent Nourishing Cultivator, he had realized that the combat-oriented body he had created wasn't useful in the least in the middle world since it was filled with beasts. It would only show its true power against humans.
Now, Gravis was fighting a human, and his body was finally unveiling its incredible power. All of Stella's limbs were locked down, leaving her completely open.
For the first time, Stella felt fear. This was bad! Why had she wanted to test Gravis!? If she had directly followed up her attack with another one, this would have never happened! This was not her style normally! How could she commit such a rookie mistake!?
This was true. Stella had unleashed a single powerful attack without any follow-up attacks. This was definitely not her style since Stella was incredibly careful and never underestimated her opponent. She would have readied subsequent attacks against even weaker opponents than Gravis.
So, why hadn't she?
The Major Law of Control!
Gravis hadn't unleashed his Major Law of Control directly with his Will-Aura but had kept it hidden. With this Law, Gravis had elevated Stella's feeling of control to a higher level than it should be. Stella's mind realized that Gravis was dangerous, but her feelings told her that she was the one in control.
To her, it felt like she couldn't possibly die today. She consciously took note of Gravis' power and realized that he was a danger, but today just felt like nothing could go wrong. She felt good! She felt like Gravis had no chance against her.
The Major Law of Control was by far the biggest weapon Gravis had against Stella. Without this Law, she would have readied several other attacks. As long as Stella remained careful, Gravis would, quite frankly, have no chance against her. Stella outmatched him in every department.
Stella was definitely more powerful than Gravis right now, thanks to her Realm advantage. If they were at the same level, this wouldn't even be a fight, but Stella's Battle-Strength was so powerful that Gravis would have no chance against her normally.
The physical reality was that Stella was more powerful than Gravis.
However, perceived reality can influence physical reality.
After all, had the middle Heaven not also been far more powerful than Gravis?
'I'm going to die?' Stella thought in shock.
She tried to free herself, but Gravis had her firmly in his grasp.
Then, he brandished his saber.
And struck.
SHING!