Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis knew how his body, lightning, and Spirit worked the best. Therefore, he could also deduce what had happened. The growth process of his Spirit and body went through something that Gravis called hard breakthroughs, while his lightning grew via soft breakthroughs.

He had come up with these terms after learning smithing with his father and remembering how he had grown in the lower world. When his Spirit and body received some tempering, their power didn't increase immediately. It always required them to amass enough resources to break through into the next level in one motion. This was what Gravis dubbed as a hard breakthrough.

Meanwhile, ever since Gravis got his lightning, it never went through these kinds of hard breakthroughs. It just grew autonomously. There were no boundaries, borders, or direct Realms that he could assign to his lightning. It simply became more powerful. This was what Gravis dubbed as a soft breakthrough.

Gravis estimated that his lightning's power had gone from 100% to about 230%. 400% would be the boundary for the Early Unity Realm. Yet, how had a beast two entire levels above him only given him so little? The reason for that was that two-thirds of the power went into his body and Spirit. Yet, since these two went through hard breakthroughs, he hadn't noticed that before.

Gravis had also started calculating in something that he called Power Units. One Power Unit was equivalent to a corpse in the same Realm and level as the combatant. Normal beasts required eight Power Units to breakthrough, which was equivalent to eating eight beasts at the same level as them. Of course, Power Units would always adapt to the Realm of the beast.

Gravis' body required double of that, which meant that he needed 16 Power Units for his body. Yet, that had only been true up until he had achieved Unity. After all, his Spirit and lightning already had had the power of Unity, which didn't require them to grow more powerful.

But now, all of this had changed. Now, it wasn't only his body that required resources to grow. Now, his Spirit and lightning also needed to grow. Gravis estimated that his lightning was special and that it also required 16 Power Units. This bumped up the total to already 32 Power Units, quadruple of what an ordinary beast needed.

His Spirit, on the other hand, just became more powerful by feeding off of his lightning. Therefore, it shouldn't require more than a normal beast. With these clues, Gravis guessed that his Spirit only needed eight Power Units. This would bump up his total to 40.

Gravis had guessed these things by thinking about what he had been eating in relation to what he had gained. He had eaten a level two Lord and a level three Lord, which would equate to 20 Power Units. This should cover half of his level-up-cost.

Yet, his lightning had only grown by 130% instead of the estimated 150%, but Gravis knew how that had happened. When he had been fighting the shark, his Realm had decreased by liquifying his foundation when he transformed into lightning. Yet, he was back at his old peak now with more powerful lightning.

This meant that part of the absorbed power went into restoring his foundation immediately. Therefore, his Realm was only a third of its way to the next level instead of half. That was also how Gravis deduced that his Spirit didn't require as many resources as his body and lightning. If it did, his lightning wouldn't have grown by so much.

"So, I need about three beasts, two levels higher than me, to achieve a breakthrough. Sixteen times three is 48. Yet, since my foundation may require repair, some of my food will go to waste. That's a lot of food, but I'm actually quite happy with that. I don't like wasting resources, and if it takes that much for me to become more powerful, I get more opportunities to temper myself," Gravis muttered as he looked at his right hand.

Then, Gravis sighed. "I think I can count myself lucky, for once. If I needed to meditate and filter the Energy in the air into my lightning, a breakthrough would take forever. Like this, I, at least, can always walk forward."

Gravis looked at the world around him as he floated in the sky. "So, not only are beasts more straightforward, but my cultivation in this world is also more straightforward. I only need to eat to raise my Realm."

But then, Gravis smirked. "But of course, it isn't as easy as it appears to be. After all, this doesn't take Laws into account. I still need to understand some of them to raise my Battle-Strength. Additionally, they probably become a requirement for my Realm later on."

Gravis quickly shook his head. 'I should check up on the others,' he thought.

BZZZZ! BANG!

Gravis transformed into lightning and shot into the distance with a mighty thunder. He was a bit faster than before, thanks to his more powerful lightning.

After traveling for around half a minute, Gravis split into three again. Then, two of them retreated while the third Gravis stayed and shrunk to a height of 20 centimeters.

Why was he doing that?

Because the fight was still going on.

If any of the combatants noticed that Gravis had already won, things might change. The crab might start fleeing at that point, and Gravis didn't want that. He wanted to keep that crab here, even if it meant killing all his companions. They deserved this supreme tempering opportunity.

Gravis watched the fight with narrowed eyes. Right now, his companions were all being torn apart one by one. On top of that, Orthar was completely missing. Yet, Gravis didn't jump to conclusions immediately.

Morn had incredibly vast crevices running through his body. One could see that these were the spots where the crab managed to grab him, judging by their form. Morn probably decided that it was better to sacrifice a huge chunk of his body than to remain inside the crab's grip.

Silva had a deformed head, and one of his arms was missing. On top of that, one of his fangs had broken off. The fight looked incredibly bitter. Yet, the crab also had some injuries, but they were minor in comparison.

The crab had some cracked parts on its carapace, but nothing too big. Yet, one of its eyes had utterly vanished. Silva had probably managed to bite the eye, which forced the crab to get rid of it entirely. Otherwise, the venom would tear through its entire body.

Silva's chipped fang probably came from a time when he had tried to bite the carapace, or a part that he had assumed was softer. Morn was probably tanking most of the incoming damage with his huge body. His body might not be more powerful than the others' bodies, but he had more body to waste than them.

The crab was swinging at Morn crazily. It was almost like it was pressed for time. Morn barely dodged most attacks but got still hit occasionally. When that happened, another huge part of his body would get torn off.

The terrain as far as the eye could see was completely destroyed. Vast holes and craters had appeared as many weaker beasts and Spirit Plants died. Their fight had also spanned over a massive territory since they didn't just stand still. It was almost like the apocalypse had arrived.

Gravis looked at their eyes and noticed that they still held glimmers of hope and fighting intent. Apparently, they thought that they could win now. Gravis looked at the crab and noticed something interesting.

The hole where the eye had been had some black flesh coming out of it. Yet, this was not rotten or dead flesh but something entirely different. Gravis narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin in thought.

'Interesting,' he thought as he watched. 'This almost looks and feels like some kind of metal. Yet, this isn't something that has been created by smelting some material. The flesh of the crab itself seems to have transformed into metal. Huh, apparently, metal is also an element.'

Gravis was right. Cultivators and beasts with the metal affinity could transform parts of their bodies into powerful metal. Such a body part was way harder and more powerful. This increased their attack and defense substantially.

Yet, it also cost a lot of Energy to keep the transformation going. Metal beasts had an edge in attack and defense but had a weakness in sustainability. That was also the reason why the crab seemed so pressed for time.

Gravis had also guessed why that eye-hole was always in a state of metal. The missing Orthar was probably in there, wreaking havoc. The crab was then forced to isolate Orthar by making its eye-hole impenetrable.

Orthar probably knew about metal affinity and decided to keep attacking to force the crab to continue using its metal element. As long as the others could keep the crab distracted, it couldn't deal with Orthar. After all, this would reveal an opening for them to exploit. If Silva managed to bite it again, it could prove even worse than its current situation.

Like this, the fight continued for several more seconds. After some time, Morn was near death, but Silva continually risked his life to save Morn. The crab also grew more panicked and then did something that no one had expected.

The crab lifted one of its powerful shears and slammed down with all of its power. Yet, it didn't slam down on the others, but onto its own head!

BOOOOM!

Nearly half its head caved in as the eye-hole was completely destroyed and buried. Everyone took a deep breath of shock as they watched.

Orthar had still been inside that hole, and they hadn't seen anything leaving that hole. On top of that, Orthar wouldn't be able to dig fast enough to escape the collapse.

There was no way that Orthar could have survived that.