Gravis looked as the two experts grew more and more panicked. Sadly, the earth was stalwart and would not bend. Of course, sad for them, lucky for him. Gravis wouldn't want them to just give up and run away. He had more things to test!
Step. Step. Step.
Gravis moved closer again, and the two experts' anxiety grew. They were running out of ideas. They couldn't think of any way to win. The power difference was just too vast!
Gravis walked until he stood two meters away from them. "How about this?" Gravis asked. "You can attack me once with your spear. I promise that I won't dodge or block. I wanna test something."
The eyes of the two experts shot open in shock. Not dodging or blocking? Wasn't this just suicide? The further the fight progressed, the more confused they grew. Wasn't Gravis taking them too lightly? They were in the same Realm, after all.
"You won't break your word?" asked the Vice-Guild Master from the back.
Gravis nodded. "I won't. You can unleash one attack, and I won't block or dodge."
The Guild Master looked at the Vice-Guild Master and nodded solemnly. "I don't know what he's planning, but I doubt that he will break his promise. Also, don't kill him. We have no life and death enmity, yet. If his plan succeeds and he has seen that you tried to kill him, we might actually die. This guy said that no one would die today. Remember?"
The Vice-Guild Master sent an affirmative answer back. The chances of killing Gravis were not 100%, and if this strike wouldn't kill him, they would most likely die. They had to stay cautious and not create a life and death enmity.
The Vice-Guild Master readied himself for a strike and infused a whole 30% of his Energy into the spear. The spear's weight became impossibly high, yet the Vice-Guild Master, as the manipulator, didn't feel it. Since his weapon was infused with his Spirit, he could ignore the added weight. If that weren't the case, he wouldn't even be able to lift his weapon.
The Vice-Guild Master pulled back his spear, ready to strike. Then, with all his power, he shot his spear forward.
SHING!
The eyes of the two experts widened in disbelief. The spear had stabbed through something alright, but it was not Gravis. They looked at the spear, as it stabbed diagonally into the earth below Gravis. What had happened?
Gravis smiled. "It works, hehe," he laughed.
What had Gravis done?
When they had both attacked him earlier, Gravis was surprised by the power of their strikes. He knew that they didn't have bodies at the Spirit Forming Realm, yet their attacks had been nearly as powerful as a physical attack of someone with such a body. By then, Gravis had thought about the usage of earth.
The Earth Guild was able to temper and compact materials. How did they do that? Gravis had thought about that and thought of a possibility. The only way they were able to release such powerful attacks without having such a powerful body was that they had somewhat influenced their weapons. It probably had something to do with the weapon's weight.
Gravis also remembered how he could manipulate his weapon with magnetism. So, why not use the magnetism to manipulate the weapon of his enemy? He had to test that! Of course, there was a gamble in trying that. If the weapons were not affected by magnetism, his planned method wouldn't work.
If his plan didn't work, he would have just released his Will-Aura. They would be unable to move then. And even if the weapon hit him, as long as he didn't die instantly, he could just heal himself with his Life Lightning. Gravis had never been in danger.
So, what exactly did Gravis do?
When the Vice-Guild Master had pushed forward with his strike, Gravis summoned a lot of lightning on his feet, creating a magnetic field. The weapon moving forward got influenced by the magnetic field and changed its trajectory. The stab changed from a horizontal one into one going diagonally down. If his opponent had been prepared for that, he might have been able to counteract the magnetic pull. "Luckily", he wasn't.
Gravis also realized that, due to the added weight, this method was even more effective. The cultivators of the Earth Guild, obviously, weren't affected by their weapon's weight. Yet, when an external force pulled on the increased weight, that didn't matter since it affected the increased weight, not the base one. It could be summarized into one stupid phrase: The more spear there was, the more magnetism affected it.
If the spear hadn't been that heavy, the trajectory might have only been lowered slightly. In that case, it would have probably stabbed through Gravis' abdomen. Yet, that also didn't matter. He could just release his Will-Aura, retreat, and then heal himself.
"Luckily", everything went according to plan. What was even better was that Gravis didn't even use any Energy. The lightning had never left his feet. He just reabsorbed it into his dantian when he was finished.
The two experts were still absolutely shocked by what just happened. After some seconds, the Guild Master finally figured out what had happened. "Magnetism," he sent to the Vice-Guild Master, who then also understood what had transpired just now.
They had never fought anyone from the Lightning Guild, so they hadn't known that one could utilize lightning like this. By now, they lost all hope of winning. Yet, their unbending temperament didn't allow them to concede.
"Thank you for your cooperation," said Gravis with a smile. "We will now commence with the next test. Please put all your power into defending. If you don't, you might actually die." Then, Gravis jumped back so that he was at a distance of 50 meters again.
The two experts quickly went back into a defensive position. The Vice-Guild Master didn't even ready his weapon anymore. He had been gifted a free shot and still hadn't been able to hit Gravis. There was no point in readying his weapon anymore. He just braced himself for impact and supported the Guild Master from behind. This next attack could only be more powerful than the previous ones if Gravis warned them.
"I'll begin now," Gravis commented from a distance. After Gravis had tested some things, he had gotten even more ideas. The close-range explosion of his lightning spear made him realize that he could absorb part of his own attack, cutting the cost significantly. On top of that, his body wouldn't get injured, even if he made his lightning explode all at once inside him. This gave him a great idea.
BZZ BOOOM!
Gravis used his body's full acceleration to move forward, yet also concentrated lightning into his feet. He had gathered around 20% of his lightning into his feet, and when he burst forward with his body, he made the lightning on his feet explode too. Half of the lightning was immediately reabsorbed, while the other half exploded into the earth, accelerating his body even more. His instantaneous acceleration was unreal.
In the blink of an eye, he reached his opponents before they could even react. If he hadn't told them to ready themselves, they would've been completely open right now. When he arrived, Gravis kicked the shield with a flying kick.
BZZ BOOM!
Just like he had used the lightning in his feet to explode as a means for faster acceleration, he now used the lightning in his feet to augment his kick. His speed, physical power, and lightning exploded all at once onto the shield.
CRACK!
The shield got obliterated into many fragments, some of them shooting into the body of the Guild Master behind it. The sound of the explosion reverberated for kilometers, destroying many trees in the process. The two experts flew for over half a kilometer, several bones already broken.
With this instantaneous acceleration and additional kick, Gravis had used around 20% of his whole lightning. This was the second most powerful attack Gravis could make, only surpassed by concentrating lightning into his weapon.
Meanwhile, the two experts landed, throwing up multiple mouthfuls of blood. Several of their bones had been broken, and fragments had even buried themselves into the Guild Master's body. By all intents and purposes, they couldn't move anymore. The only positive thing was that they were still alive.
Gravis saw this and nodded. "Alright," he transmitted to them, "I'm finished! I'll be going to the Earth Guild now. Bye!"
The two people were too preoccupied with the states of their bodies to care about that. They had nearly died. The only thing on their mind was surviving right now.
They were only happy that this nightmare was finally over.
