Gravis had been continuously dodging for over three hours now. He slowly started to feel the drain while the Golden Dragon seemed to be as relaxed as ever.
Originally, Gravis had intended to wait for an opportunity when the Golden Dragon became careless, but that opportunity never came. Even though the Golden Dragon looked relaxed, Gravis felt that he never took his guard down.
Gravis had already gotten an idea some hours ago, but he wanted to use that opportunity to kill the Golden Dragon. If he didn't manage to kill it, he would have committed too many resources into the attack and would be disadvantaged for the remaining fight.
The longer this fight dragged on, the harder it would be for Gravis to make a comeback.
At least, that's what Gravis wanted the Golden Dragon to think.
In actuality, Gravis was simply moving the power of his lightning into his body as soon as it lost stamina. Because of that, the used-up lightning would quickly regenerate. The body's stamina didn't regenerate as quickly as it was used up, but his lightning would completely regenerate in a couple of hours. Like this, he had basically infinite stamina.
Additionally, Gravis could also use his Spirit and regenerate that at the same time. This meant that as long Gravis had enough concentration, he could go on forever. Of course, the drain of concentration couldn't be ignored. This was something that he couldn't easily fix.
Gravis had enough experience to know that the drain of his concentration was more significant than the drain of the Golden Dragon's power. Gravis knew that it was usually impossible for a beast to manipulate something outside their body, even if it conformed to their element.
Beasts with an affinity towards metal normally only were able to transform their own bodies into metal. The manipulation of external metal wasn't part of their power.
So, how did the Golden Dragon do that?
There was only one answer that Gravis came up with, and he didn't like it one bit.
The Golden Dragon had comprehended a Law related to metal. Otherwise, it would be completely impossible for the Golden Dragon to manipulate the metal this easily.
On top of that, even though the Golden Dragon only used external metal to attack him, Gravis never forgot the actual ability that a beast with metal affinity had. Gravis knew that if he managed to get close to the Golden Dragon and attack, his opponent would simply transform his body into metal.
At that point, his opponent's body would transform into a Late Unity Rank material. Even if Gravis used a fully powered Lightning Crescent, he would still not be able to injure the Golden Dragon in any significant way. At most, he could create a flesh wound. Yet, what then? Gravis would have nothing left after that.
Gravis was thinking all these things, but it didn't matter what he came up with. He never found a way of dealing with the eventual transformation of the Golden Dragon's body. Its defense would just be too powerful at that point.
Fleeing also wasn't an option. The Golden Dragon was faster than Gravis in his Lightning Transformation. Another option would be to quickly find other beasts while evading the Golden Dragon until Gravis had enough food to become a level three Lord.
Yet, that option was also thrown out. The issue was not the Golden Dragon but the Red King. The Red King wanted to see him under some real pressure, and if Gravis just fled until his Realm became higher, the Red King would probably just find a new opponent. That one might actually be even more powerful than this one.
Even after hours of thinking, Gravis found no other way. He was truly out of options and could only bet his life on a gamble. For the first time in a long while, Gravis felt like he had no control over the battle. Continuing like this would only spell doom for Gravis. Sooner or later, he would make a mistake and get hit.
Gravis took a deep breath as he evaded another spear. Then, he made up his mind and started putting his plan into motion. The only way how Gravis could win was if the Golden Dragon became careless. This would be a lengthy and time-consuming plan, but it was his only option.
Like this, several more hours passed in which Gravis tried to get closer to the Golden Dragon from time to time. He was using these opportunities so that the Golden Dragon thought that Gravis still had an ace hidden away. After all, no experienced fighter would continue charging in mindlessly like that. Experienced fighters would only do this if they wanted to achieve something.
So, ironically, even though Gravis was doing the same useless thing, again and again, the Golden Dragon only became warier. The Golden Dragon knew that Gravis was planning something. Even though the Golden Dragon looked down on Gravis, he didn't believe that Gravis was that stupid.
And sure enough, after several more minutes, Gravis did something new. He transformed into lightning and split himself into multiple bolts. After that, the bolts scattered into different directions but still charged at the Golden Dragon.
The Red King and the Golden Dragon were surprised by that. Gravis had surprised them multiple times by now, but being able to split his body like this was on a whole different level. Yet, the Golden Dragon noticed something and smirked.
Shing! Shing! Shing!
Since the lightning scattered into multiple bolts, the power also got scattered. Because of that, the lightning bolts slowed down somewhat. The Golden Dragon noticed this and shot a whole spread of spears again. While fighting, it had summoned a lot more ore, and it wouldn't run out of ore anytime soon.
As soon as the spread of spears arrived, the lightning bolts transformed into multiple Gravises again. Then, they blocked the spears with their Spirit.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
But not before the Golden Dragon shot more spears. The Gravises quickly switched into lightning and back into their bodies successively. It seemed like they wanted to take advantage of the higher speed of the Lightning Form. Yet, some lone spears managed to penetrate several Gravises. A lot of holes were created in their bodies during that.
The Gravises gathered together and fused again as they saw that their plan had failed. Yet, Gravis' new body had several holes scattered across his entire body with blood flowing out of them. Apparently, all the injuries of the spears had gathered in one body.
Gravis seemed to sway as his body became weaker. Every onlooker would believe that he was heavily injured.
Yet, that wasn't the case. In actuality, Gravis wasn't injured in the slightest.
The reason why he continually transformed into lightning and back wasn't because of the speed advantage. Every time he created a new body, he could make some small alterations. As long as they weren't too big, the feeling of estrangement with his body wouldn't appear.
So, he acted like the spears had hit him. Yet, whenever a spear "penetrated" him, it merely flew through an already created hole inside Gravis' bodies. These small holes were the little changes that Gravis had made to his body. He had not been injured in the slightest.
As soon as he fused together again, he acted like the injuries were transferred to his new body. After all, the enemies didn't know how his Lightning Form worked. As far as they knew, an injury was an injury and wouldn't just vanish. Making the holes bleed also wasn't difficult for Gravis.
Yet, the hard part would start now. Now, he needed to actually get injured. The Golden Dragon wouldn't believe that these fake injuries were enough to kill him. It would make sure and injure Gravis more.
So, as more minutes passed, Gravis seemed to slow down and become sluggish. From time to time, he was hit by some spears that remained stuck inside his body. To make his act realistic, Gravis couldn't consciously decide where the spears hit him. After all, he would need to take some injuries to his vital areas to make it convincing.
Gravis slowly collapsed as his body filled with more spears. These injuries were serious, but Gravis could still fight. As long as the Golden Dragon came closer, he could surprise it with an instantaneous Lightning Crescent. By now, Gravis had gathered nearly all his power into his saber. This had the effect of making his act even more convincing since the Golden Dragon felt Gravis' power weakening.
Gravis' body hit the ground, and blood flowed out of his entire being. When the Golden Dragon saw that, he stopped attacking. Gravis was definitely at death's door.
"How truly pathetic," the Golden Dragon said with disdain. "You didn't even manage to make me move from my spot. I knew that I was more powerful than you, but your display hasn't even managed to fulfill my already low expectations."
Gravis just continued lying on the floor and didn't answer.
When the Golden Dragon saw that Gravis didn't answer, it simply huffed. Then, it readied several more spears from a distance.
Meanwhile, Gravis was becoming nervous. He had invested so much in this plan. If the Golden Dragon remained at its current position, everything would be for nothing!
"Go die," the Golden Dragon commented as it shot a spread of spears again.
When Gravis saw that, he became genuinely fearful for his life. His plan had failed!
BZZZZZ!
Gravis immediately transformed into lightning and dodged the spears. Then, he materialized at a different position with a fully healed body. Yet, the injuries had taken their toll, and Gravis' foundation had fallen. By now, his lightning was no longer double as powerful, but only one and a half times more powerful than when he had reached the Early Unity Realm. Nearly all the Energy of the previous level four Lords had gone to waste.
The Golden Dragon looked a bit surprised. "I was kind of suspicious about your sudden weakness, but I wouldn't have thought that you could directly heal yourself like this. Truly impressive," it commented.
Meanwhile, Gravis' mind was going insane.
He had no idea what he could do now.
Now, he was truly out of options!
