'It's time,' Gravis thought as he felt his body itching. This was his second most important evolution, the one where he would eat the scale to get a more powerful defense for his body.
Whoop!
Gravis summoned the scale and grabbed it, but his body was still weaker than his previous one. Carrying it was quite hard, but nothing unmanageable. He looked at it with burning eyes and shoved it into his stomach with his Spirit. A stomach wasn't as powerful as an arm, so Gravis kept the scale levitating inside his stomach. If he let it fall, it might break his stomach.
Gravis watched his stomach go to work, but the scale wasn't being digested at all. Slowly, Gravis grew worried. This scale was obviously way out of his league. Could he even digest it?
Whooom!
Suddenly, the scale started shining, and Formation Arrays appeared on it. Gravis was shocked when he saw these Formation Arrays because there were just so many. Every Formation Array was as small as the letters he had read on the booklet about forging materials. He also only recognized about 5% of them.
It was insane to him that this one scale had so incredibly many Formation Arrays on it. Their complexity baffled Gravis, and he couldn't even begin to understand the concept behind them. 'Father has probably put them on there to make the scale digestible,' Gravis thought. 'Father wouldn't forget the fact that I wouldn't be able to digest the scale.'
Sure enough, the scale quickly dissipated into some kind of gas that charged through his body without his volition. The gas went through his entire body, but Gravis felt none of it. It was like it just existed inside a separate plane. Yet, Gravis trusted his father. Gravis' eyes burned with ambition as he quickly changed the image in his mind.
He thought of his whole body being covered in scales similar to the one he had just eaten. The image inside his mind quickly solidified, and just as expected, Gravis felt like he could change something else too.
Gravis tweaked the image inside his head until he felt happy with the changes. He felt like he could change a little bit more and also changed the shape of his tail. The fin on his tail vanished, and the tail now looked like a reptile's tail.
This tail might not be as useful in swimming, but it was flexible and powerful. A tail-whip would be quite devastating, another weapon for Gravis. With this tail, he would be able to keep his balance better and also protect his back at the same time.
Gravis finalized the image, and his body quickly started changing. It shrunk down until it was only about two meters tall. While it shrank, his torso widened into a broad chest. Gravis kept his waist slender for more mobility and flexibility, but he required his arms to be powerful, and that required a broad chest.
After Gravis had gotten his broader chest and new size, his skin started changing. His slimy skin fell off and revealed the blackest scales imaginable. They slowly appeared, and it almost looked like they absorbed light. They were so black that one would think that their eyes wouldn't work properly when looking at them. The color just didn't seem natural.
After a couple of minutes, his whole body stabilized, and Gravis finished his third evolution. Gravis looked at his body and smirked. With his powerful fangs, dark scales, and alligator-like head, his smirk looked incredibly menacing. It was like a powerful predator looking at his prey.
"I don't look shit anymore," Gravis said. While he had been at it, he also gave him some lungs to enable him to speak. Not being able to speak irked him to no end.
Gravis lifted one of his arms and clenched his hands. His claws tried to dig into his palm, but it was impossible. His scales were more powerful than his claws. Then, Gravis looked at Orthar.
Orthar's body shook for a bit as Gravis' eyes fell on him. The weird, tasty looking, and weak appearance he had before had been completely flipped by the addition of the scales and broad chest. Yet, Orthar wasn't stupid and knew that Gravis' temperament and personality didn't change.
If one met Gravis for the first time with his new appearance, they might be cautious and nervous in front of him. Yet, when they got to know him better, they would see his honest and principled personality behind the threatening appearance. Orthar already knew Gravis. So, the change only had a very momentary effect on him.
"You look threatening," Orthar slowly said. "You look like a beast that slaughters out of bloodlust, not necessity. I'm not sure if that is conducive when talking with beasts you don't want to kill."
Gravis' smirk vanished, and he started scratching his chin with one of his claws. Finally, he didn't need to be careful anymore that his claws would injure his skin while scratching. That had annoyed him more than necessary.
When Orthar saw Gravis' thinking-pose, all of his hidden worries, which he hadn't even realized existed, vanished. Gravis was still the same.
"I think it's because my outer appearance spells danger and invokes fear due to its effectiveness for hunting and killing," Gravis transmitted. "My scales can hide me in the dark. My chest shows the power of my arms. My fangs and claws are strong weapons. Lastly, my tail can also defend my back."
Gravis stopped scratching his chin. "I think that the menacing appearance comes from the instinctual fear of beasts."
Orthar thought about Gravis' word and agreed. "I think I agree. Your whole body is a weapon, and that might intimidate beasts that aren't as ready to commit all their life to combat. When I saw you, I felt that my body was inadequate. My tentacles are powerful, but I need to pull my enemy to my beak to injure them if they are powerful."
Gravis looked at Orthar and nodded. "I think so too," he transmitted. "You could use a smaller size to be more mobile. You could also use powerful claws or spikes at the end of your tentacles. Like this, you could injure your enemy without pulling them to your beak. Your fleshy outer layer also isn't as hard as it should be."
Before Orthar met Gravis, he felt like his body was perfect. After all, he had followed his instincts while building it, and he felt most comfortable in this body. Yet, now, he felt that Gravis was right. His instincts went against Gravis' words, and Orthar even felt himself get angry. Luckily, Orthar was smart enough to realize that his instincts were wrong.
Another beast might get controlled by their rage, but Orthar was different. He was incredibly smart and realized the truth of the matter. The body he had prided himself in was inadequate. He needed to change it in the future.
His disguising ability was just that, a disguise. He wasn't able to create true weapons with it. He was only able to create the appearance of a powerful weapon.
"Hit me," Gravis said to Orthar.
Orthar was pulled out of his thoughts as he looked at Gravis. "Hit you?" he asked.
"Yes," Gravis said. "I need to test these scales. Slap me with about 25% of your power."
"Judging by what you have told me previously, that would be an attack at the level of a mid-rank Spirit Beast, a full rank higher than you. Are you sure that you want that?" Orthar asked.
Gravis nodded. "These scales should be able to let me survive an attack like that."
"Okay," Orthar said and lifted a tentacle. Then, he used a casual slap to hit Gravis. It was casual to him, but Gravis felt the power of the slap as it traveled through the water. It was also quite fast, but Gravis was sure that he would be able to evade an attack like that.
BANG! BOOM!
The slap hit, and Gravis' body was shot into the ground. A massive cloud of sand whirled around, making it impossible to see.
Gravis felt some pain, but nothing he couldn't handle. This had been a blunt-force attack without anything sharp. He felt how the power of the attack had been distributed along his scales, protecting his insides. The only thing that happened was that his organs were a bit injured, but that wasn't much at all. This small injury would only take 1% of his Life Lightning to heal.
Yet, Gravis found another problem. Something that he had completely forgotten about.
Gravis hadn't been hit with an attack before in this middle world. This meant that all his movements had been voluntary up to now. This was the first time he moved involuntarily, and that had shown a devastating oversight.
There had been an explosion when Orthar hit him, and that explosion wasn't something that injured Gravis.
Orthar's mind transmitted incredible pain to the surroundings. A full tentacle of his body had vanished into ash, and if Gravis hadn't reacted quickly enough, Orthar would be dead right now. Gravis' insides shook in fear and nervousness as he realized how close he had been to accidentally killing another one of his friends.
A small ball of lightning hovered at his previous position. Gravis had always moved his lightning with his Spirit, but, as said before, these were voluntary movements. Gravis hadn't moved his lightning while being slapped.
His lightning had burned through his stomach and hit the gigantic tentacle, annihilating it in the process. After that, it had moved towards Orthar's body. Luckily, Gravis had reacted quickly enough and made it retreat into its ball-form.
Whoop!
The ball of lightning went back into his body through the hole it had burned. After that, Gravis healed his body.
"I'm deeply sorry, Orthar! I forgot about my lightning! Let me try to heal you," Gravis said with urgency.
BZZZZZ!
Gravis transformed all of his inherent Energy into Life Lightning and hit Orthar with it. Luckily, one tentacle wasn't even 10% of his total mass. So, even though Orthar was two ranks higher, Gravis managed to heal almost the entire tentacle.
Orthar looked at Gravis with rage. He had been injured, and his combat instincts awakened. Yet, Orthar was smart enough to realize that this had been an accident.
"I require repayment," he said.
Gravis sighed. "What do you want?" he asked.
"Tell me more about the concept of psychological warfare and how to use emotions to win against your enemy," he stated.
When Gravis heard that, he sighed. Orthar was angry, but he obviously didn't intend on attacking or leaving. He had only cleverly used this opportunity to siphon more knowledge out of Gravis.
"Alright," Gravis said.
Orthar "sat" on the ocean floor as he waited for Gravis to start explaining.
Obviously, his anger had already mostly vanished.
