Chapter 198: Close Combat

After some seconds, Gravis finished thinking. His attention returned to the two people from the Earth Guild, who still stood in the same position. Gravis admired their patience in some way. Even when he showed complete disregard, they had still waited patiently. Others would have gotten so angry that they would have attacked by now.

"Anyway..." Gravis said and trailed off.

BZZZZZZ!

Gravis condensed another lightning spear. Every condensation of such a spear cost Gravis around 10% of his lightning and 20% of his Spirit. Together with the upkeep of the earlier spear and the miscellaneous attacks at the beginning, he had used up around 25% of his lightning and 45% of his Spirit. Yet, he didn't care.

"I'm coming," said Gravis with a smile.

BOOM!

The explosion did not come from the lightning spear, but from Gravis bursting forward with all his power. His body had become incredibly powerful, and when he used his full acceleration, he would destroy the surrounding ten meters of earth. If his lightning spear would dissipate when it left him, then it just had to remain inside his hand. He reached the two people in no time at all.

The eyes of the two experts widened in shock. 'Fast!' they both shouted in their minds. Yet, they were prepared for Gravis. They had waited for this for several minutes by now. After Gravis threw his attack, they would counterattack!

Yet, Gravis never threw his spear. He came closer and closer until he was only five meters away, but he didn't throw his spear even then! The eyes of the two people widened again. Was Gravis suicidal? Resisting one's own element was a prerequisite of using it, but that didn't hold true for concentrated attacks using Spirit. A concentrated explosion of one's element still damaged the attacker severely.

Sadly, they didn't know that Gravis was utterly immune to lightning. Even worse, he was not only immune to lightning but actually absorbed it. This was the same ability that the physical manifestation of lightning had had. Yet, in comparison to the manifestation, Gravis wasn't able to control lightning, which had a will inside it.

The reason why this manifestation had been so threatening was, for one, its ability to absorb lightning, but that wasn't the actual danger. The real danger had been that the manifestation could command all lightning in the world to come towards it. Gravis didn't have this ability. Without this, he couldn't steal Heaven's lightning, as long as it didn't attack him first with it.

By exploding the spear close to him, he could even absorb around half of it, basically cutting the cost in half. Gravis closed in, and the two experts braced for impact.

BOOM!

Gravis slammed the lightning spear into the barrier, and it immediately exploded, destroying the surroundings. The sound of the explosion damaged the two experts' ears since it had been so close, but the sound was the least of their worries right now. The explosion was way more powerful than they had thought, even if their Will-Auras had weakened it.

The barrier immediately crumbled, which allowed the lightning to directly attack the Guild Master's towering shield. The Vice-Guild Master pulled his weapon back and was entirely focused on holding the Guild Master's back, infusing Energy into him. Using the shield to block an attack was way more expensive regarding Energy than using the barrier.

CRK!

The shield cracked, which actually surprised Gravis. Yes, his saber would probably also crack if it stoically blocked such a powerful attack, but this was a shield! It was supposed to be able to handle something like that!

What Gravis didn't know was that this shield was only supposed to block attacks of the initial stage of Spirit Forming. Making a shield was supremely expensive, and why would the Earth Guild Master of the Middle-Continent require a shield to block something so powerful? Cultivators at the Seed-Stage didn't exist in the Middle-Continent, after all. There was no reason to spend so much money on something like that.

Gravis' fully concentrated attack, together with his Destruction Lightning, had reached the power of a concentrated attack of someone at the Seed-Stage. The shield was not made for something like that. Thus it cracked. Some of the Formation Arrays got damaged, which required the use of even more Energy from the user to counteract.

After around two seconds, all lightning vanished. Gravis had initially been stopped at a distance of around two meters from the two people, but they got pushed back so hard that they now were at a distance of about 50 meters again. Gravis rubbed his chin in interest. 'I expected a stronger defense.'

Meanwhile, the Guild Master was breathing heavily while the Vice-Guild Master was frozen in place. If the barrier hadn't been broken, the Guild Master would have "only" needed around 25% of his Energy to resist that attack. Sadly, with the barrier broken and his shield damaged, he had used up over 55% of his Energy. On top of that, him needing to distribute the Energy to counteract the Formation Array's failing also cost him a lot of Spirit.

He looked at the casually standing Gravis with a shocked gaze. "What... are you?" he asked. He was sure that Gravis wasn't in the Seed-Stage. He would have felt that from his Spirit. On top of that, the Energy inside of Gravis had never moved, not even when he had condensed the Lightning Spear. From what the Guild Master had seen, it looked like Gravis just created lightning out of nothing.

Of course, that wasn't true. The Energy that the Guild Master felt was only the inherent Energy inside Gravis' body. Naturally, Gravis didn't use that Energy but the lightning inside his dantian. Sadly, the two people weren't able to feel the lightning inside of him.

Step. Step. Step.

Gravis started walking over to the two shocked people with a grin. "I think I have tested my Energy attacks enough. Let's see how good you are at blocking melee attacks," he said.

They both narrowed their eyes. Gravis was getting closer, which also opened an opportunity for them to counterattack. They only had to hit him once.

Gravis stopped when he was only one meter away from the towering shield. Yet, nothing happened. "Even now, you're not attacking?" Gravis asked.

Both experts said nothing. Yes, Gravis was inside their range, but as long as he kept being vigilant, they wouldn't be able to hit him. They had to hit him when he attacked.

Gravis remained there for a couple of seconds until he smirked arrogantly. "I know what you're planning," he said slowly. "You're waiting until I use my saber as an attack so that I can't block with it, right?"

The two experts weren't shocked by this. It was rather obvious, but it didn't matter that Gravis knew what they were planning. He had to attack them to win. There was no way around that.

"But I wonder..." Gravis said and trailed off. "There is a fatal flaw in that tactic. Have you tho-"

SWISH!

The Vice-Guild Master's spear suddenly stabbed at Gravis, who swiftly and casually stepped to the side. He went through too many life and death fights to fall for such a surprise attack. Normally, Gravis would immediately counterattack since a dodged attack would create an opening, yet he didn't. He wanted to play with them some more.

"Don't interrupt others. It's rude!" Gravis said with a sneer.

The Vice-Guild Master gritted his teeth but readied himself again for another strike. He had to wait for an opportunity.

"Anyway," continued Gravis. "As I was saying, that tactic has a fatal flaw. You counterattack when I attack with my weapon, right?"

They didn't answer.

"So, what if I don't attack with my weapon?"

BANG!

Gravis kicked the shield with his full power, keeping his saber ready for a block. A thunderous sound reverberated into the surroundings as the experts were pushed back for over a hundred meters. Gravis had an incredibly powerful body. Judging by how far they have been shoved with this kick, Gravis found out that neither of the two had a body at the Spirit Forming Realm. Gravis was actually a little disappointed in that fact.

The two people were shocked again, something that had happened quite a lot today. This youngster had a body at the Spirit Forming Realm? Slowly, their confidence vanished. Judging by how energetic Gravis still was, they could infer that he still had a lot of Energy and Spirit. On top of that, he also had a powerful body.

Who were they kidding? Their tactic might have worked against someone normal at the Spirit Forming Realm, but not against someone who also had such a powerful body. Even if Gravis used up all his Spirit and Energy, he could still fight them easily with his body. On top of that, a body's stamina was vastly superior to one's Energy or Spirit storage. Gravis could fight with his body on full power for hours.

They would have emptied their whole Energy storage multiple times over before Gravis' stamina was used up even once. What were they supposed to do?

"Let's continue!" Gravis shouted and then burst forward again.

BANG CLANK!

Gravis kicked the shield another time while blocking a stab from the spear with his saber. Earth cultivators had the ability to increase their weapons' weight, but that didn't even come close to counteracting Gravis' physical strength. Gravis got pushed back for five meters, while the two experts flew for another hundred meters. On top of that, the more someone increased their weapon's weight, the more Energy they had to invest, and the Vice-Guild Master had given his best, just now.

Gravis burst forward again.

CRK!

When Gravis came close, the earth under him suddenly gave way, making him lose his balance. This was one of the fighting techniques of the Earth Guild. The opponent would lose their balance and show an opening. After Gravis lost his balance, the Guild Master's gigantic club, which hadn't been swung until now, came crashing down on him.

CRRRR!

Gravis angled his saber above him, making the club slide to the side, creating an ugly grating noise in the process. If he hadn't had the advantage in physical power, this parry would have gone wrong. A block used the whole body's power, including the placement of the bones, to be as stable as possible. A parry, on the other hand, required finesse.

"Oho, not bad," said Gravis with a grin, "but what now? That only works once, you know?"

The two looked at Gravis in panic.

They were running out of options quickly!