After some minutes, the group arrived beside some sort of arena. In comparison to the last one, this arena wasn't nearly as big or ostentatious. The last arena had a size of about 50 kilometers, while this one only was 30 kilometers wide.
Additionally, the ground wasn't made of some powerful ore. The ground inside the arena was just normal earth, as far as Gravis could tell. Some Earth Movers probably repaired the arena after every use. The only thing not made out of earth were the walls that surrounded the arena, which were instead made out of some King Rank ore.
Yet, even though Gravis realized all these things, he didn't care about them. Right now, he was completely focused on his own emotions. This whole situation with this stupid rule had frustrated and enraged him to no end, and he wanted nothing more than to just vent right now. It was just the crocodile's bad luck that it had decided to provoke him during this sensitive period.
Was it fair to vent all his emotions onto a beast he didn't know?
It depends.
If Gravis simply attacked someone like this, one could argue that Gravis had no right to attack them. Yet, by issuing a challenge, the decision fell back onto the crocodile's back. By declining, Gravis wouldn't be able to do anything to it without getting killed by some elder.
The crocodile had accepted the duel, which conveniently transformed Gravis' venting of rage into some life and death tempering. The reason why life and death tempering took place wasn't important. Beasts fought and killed each other all the time to become more powerful.
BANG!
Gravis hit the middle of the arena with quite some force, destroying a lot of earth in the process. He only looked towards his empty front with rage-filled eyes. As soon as the crocodile would enter the arena, he would be able to vent some of his frustration.
"Go in," the monkey said to the crocodile. "As soon as you enter the arena, you can't exit without killing him."
The crocodile only smirked. "I'm looking forward to the fight. I know that all breeders can fight against beasts two levels higher than them. I'm not so arrogant to think that this battle will be easy, but that's even better. I've been through a lot of difficult fights in my life, and I enjoy the challenge."
Gravis grew more impatient as he waited for the crocodile. This whole thing was taking too long!
After lowering its head a little bit towards the monkey, the crocodile flew forward into the arena with a leisurely pace. After some seconds, it reached the middle of the arena, in front of Gravis, and softly landed on the ground.
"Today will-"
BANG!
Gravis' feet exploded with lightning as he accelerated with insane speeds. He hadn't used that technique in a long while since his Lightning Transformation was just faster in general.
The crocodile hadn't been ready at all, and just when it wanted to evade, a powerful pressure appeared and pressed into it, slowing it down by around 20%. Due to that miscalculation, it messed up its timing.
BANG!
Gravis punched the crocodile's snout with his fist, lightning violently exploding out of it. The snout of the crocodile broke, and it got shot towards the distance for several kilometers.
Gravis' lightning had already reached 393% of its initial power when he had become a level three Lord. In relation to the general power of a level three Lord, his lightning was only 7% weaker than the power of a level four Lord.
Gravis had moved his centers of power around crazily during all of this. He made his body weaker and lightning stronger to accelerate as fast as possible. Then, he moved everything into his Spirit to make his Will-Aura as powerful as possible. Lastly, he distributed his power into his body and lightning to increase the power of his attack.
So, even though Gravis was only a level three Lord, this attack was still easily powerful enough to injure a level five Lord. After this attack, Gravis simply looked at the crocodile, which was still flying away from him due to his punch.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the watching monkey widened in shock. That was some incredible acceleration for a level three Lord! Additionally, the attack had broken the crocodile's snout in many places.
Near the Mountain of Pride, the white ape also nodded in praise. Gravis hadn't been able to display his full power during the earlier battles a week ago, which made his specific Battle-Strength still a mystery to the white ape and the Empress. The white ape looked forward to seeing more of Gravis' power.
Instead of following up with another attack, Gravis just waited for the crocodile.
After some seconds, the crocodile managed to regain its bearings after the initial shock. Then, it grew furious. It quickly stood up again and looked at Gravis with burning rage.
Gravis looked back from a distance. "Normally, I would have already killed you with a more powerful attack," Gravis said coldly, "but today, you're not tempering for me. You're just an outlet for my rage. I don't want to kill you with a single attack. Come!" Gravis shouted.
What Gravis had said had been the truth. If he so wanted, he could have unloaded a pre-loaded Lightning Crescent into its face. If he had done that, the crocodile would have died already.
Underestimating one's enemy was the biggest mistake one could make in a fight. Many people and beasts had died to Gravis because of that reason, and if Gravis so wanted, the crocodile would have become one of them already.
When the crocodile heard that, it grew even angrier. Not only has this puny level three Lord destroyed its snout, but this little shit was looking down on it! Yet, the crocodile realized that Gravis was powerful. Now, it would use everything in its power to kill him!
Whoosh!
The crocodile flew into the air, but for some reason, its flight looked different from how other beasts flew. Other beasts always hovered in the air like there was some invisible, moving platform underneath them.
Meanwhile, the crocodile's body was bobbing up and down slightly, with its feet and tail distorting some air around them. By all intents and purposes, the crocodile looked like it was submerged in water, not air.
The distortion around its feet and tail reminded Gravis of small currents of water. It was like the air was behaving like water around the crocodile. Gravis was absolutely sure that this was the doing of that Law that the crocodile had comprehended. He remembered that the monkey had said that the crocodile knew a Law.
Whooosh!
The crocodile shot forward at insane speeds. Its speed was even faster than an average level five Lord Divine Beast. Thanks to Gravis' Spirit Sense, he was able to take note of all the peculiarities while the crocodile shot forward.
The air around it only behaved like water behind its feet, arms, and tail. The front of its appendages and body had no sign of these currents. Gravis immediately realized how the crocodile could become that fast.
Water was many times denser than air and therefore also had a lot more resistance. If a mortal flailed their arms and legs in the air, they would only make some very minor headway in their desired direction. It was difficult to push themselves forward with only air resistance.
Water was different in the sense that a mortal could easily swim in it and move forward. The human might not be as fast as on land, but they could definitely swim faster in the water than they could "swim" in the air.
By making the air behind the crocodile act like water, it could use the higher resistance to push itself forward. Additionally, since the front of its body still behaved like normal air, the crocodile gained the positive aspect of water movement while ignoring the negative aspects. This allowed it to become this fast.
Gravis was sure that this Law had something to do with water movement. Laws were able to alter the world around the user. He might not have seen a Law that had been used like this, but it made sense.
Luckily, the crocodile had been far away, which gave Gravis enough time to react. If it had been closer, he might not have been able to react to such insane speeds.
The crocodile quickly reached Gravis.
