Lightning Is The Only Way

As soon as Gravis reached a distance of ten kilometers, the Ogre woke up. 'Interesting. Spirit Beasts don't have a Spirit, but they have some kind of sense that makes them feel danger. All the previous Spirit Beasts I killed had only reacted when I reached a distance of five kilometers. So, high-grade Spirit Beasts have a range of ten kilometers. Good to know,' Gravis thought.

The Ogre looked in the direction of Gravis and started punching its chest in a show of dominance. The pounds were thundering, and Gravis could even hear them very clearly from such a distance. 'That's a powerful body. Its body is probably multiple times stronger than mine. I need to use my lightning to make up for the speed difference.'

"UWAAA!" the Ogre shouted aggressively and started charging at Gravis. Surprisingly, the ground beneath its feet didn't explode even though it was shooting itself forward with incredible power. Gravis didn't evade and took out his saber. He knew that he couldn't match the Ogre's power, even if he added his lightning. Yet, Gravis had a plan, and that required him to collide head-on with the Ogre.

Gravis and the Ogre quickly closed in on each other, and Gravis used his preloaded saber to attack back. The Ogre punched with its right fist, while Gravis attacked said fist with his loaded saber.

BOOOOOM!

The surrounding 100 meters exploded as a shockwave annihilated everything. Blood splashed as a huge crevice was torn into the Ogre's fist. Its middle finger was destroyed while the saber went halfway into its hand. The Ogre shouted in rage and pain while Gravis was shot into the distance with unreal speeds, barely retrieving his saber into his Spirit Space.

BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Gravis destroyed a massive amount of trees and boulders as he shot back. His saber was still fine, luckily, but his right arm was basically annihilated, along with his shoulder and some torn muscles. All in all, Gravis' injuries were way more severe than the Ogre's.

Gravis rolled a couple of meters more until he finally stopped.

BZZZ!

He used about 40% of his body's inherent Energy to reach his peak condition again.

"RAAAAA!" The Ogre shouted in rage as it shot at Gravis with bloodshot eyes. "DIE!" It transmitted to Gravis with an incredible amount of fury. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" it continued transmitting.

Gravis smirked when he saw that. His plan was a success. The Ogre had gotten an injury, while Gravis only used 40% of his inherent Energy.

Gravis' goal had been twofold. First of all, he wanted to injure one of its hands, which would make it act in one of two ways. Either it would not use that hand as much anymore, or it would be blinded by rage and make the injuries on its hand more serious. Both were good outcomes.

The second goal was the Ogre's mental state. Beasts didn't have powerful wills. After all, they were mostly controlled by their instincts. If such a beast got injured by its opponent, it would either become apprehensive or enraged. Both mindsets would make the beast weaker in combat. Either it would hesitate in attacks, or it would attack more directly to vent its rage. Just like with the injury, both outcomes were beneficial to Gravis.

Obviously, the Ogre was enraged. Its pain was completely forgotten as it abused its right hand to accelerate, leaving bloody fist-prints along its way. The Ogre quickly closed in on Gravis' position while Gravis resummoned his saber. Gravis readied himself and stood in a battle-position, waiting for the Ogre to reach him.

"RAAA!" the Ogre shouted in anger as it punched with its left fist. Gravis had already been prepared for that attack. His pre-dodging appeared again after a long while. He hadn't been that outclassed in speed for a long while, which hadn't required him to use such a risky maneuver. After all, one wrong dodge could become fatal. Gravis still remembered his incorrect dodging against Elder Red, back in the Fire Guild.

Whoom! BZZZZ!

Gravis barely managed to sidestep the massive fist with the help of his lightning as the attack's mighty wind blew his hair back. After sidestepping, Gravis didn't actually attack but passed the Ogre instead, using more lightning on his legs to make him as fast as possible. Why was he doing that? Wasn't that a good opportunity? The answer to that came swiftly.

BOOOOOM!

Gravis had placed a Lightning Bomb behind him when the Ogre had charged at him. His Spirit had become more powerful with his breakthrough, but it was still not as dense as his lightning. Gravis had used 30% of his Spirit for the Lightning Bomb, and it only managed to absorb around 20% of his lightning before it exploded. The Ogre, blinded by its rage, had attacked with its full power. Of course, that punch directly hit the Lightning Bomb, making it explode violently.

"RAAAAAA!" the Ogre cried in rage as it shot backward due to the explosion. Yet, surprisingly, its left fist wasn't that injured. It only showed some red marks and some cuts. One had to know that the Lightning Bomb was one of Gravis' most powerful attacks. That it didn't even manage to majorly injure the fist would appear surprising to the untrained eye.

'As expected,' Gravis thought. This had confirmed Gravis' suspicion.

Yet, even though the Ogre wasn't really injured, the shockwave still threw it backward, right into the waiting Gravis. Instead of attacking with his saber, Gravis made his feet explode with lightning as he jumped up with all his power.

BANG!

The Ogre was ten meters tall, and even though it shot back, it still flew over Gravis. After all, its center of Gravity was pretty high off the ground. Just as the Ogre passed over him, Gravis kicked its body with all his physical power. His foot exploded with lightning, but the Ogre wasn't injured. Though, that wasn't Gravis' plan. He had something else in mind.

"RAAA!" the Ogre shouted as it shot into the air. Gravis might not have been able to injure the Ogre, but his powerful kick had enough power to shoot the Ogre into the air. Gravis had gained a lot of experience in fighting Spirit Beasts in the past year, and he also noticed how effective it was to throw them into the air.

Beasts generally didn't use their inherent elements in a smart way since they lacked creativity. Of course, Skye had been an exception. Instead, most beasts used their element to empower their attacks or to defend themselves. Gravis had already realized the Ogre's element as soon as he saw it.

Fittingly enough, the Ogre had the earth element. That was why the ground beneath its feet didn't explode when it accelerated, and also why the explosion didn't injure its left fist. A stable ground made for better acceleration, and the earth element also hardened its fists. On top of that, the only reason why Gravis even considered matching the first attack was that the Ogre hadn't taken him seriously at that point. If it had, Gravis' body would have been distributed onto the surroundings.

The Ogre reached a height of fifty meters and was completely cut off from the ground. Without the ground, it was more difficult to use the earth element. As long as it touched the ground, it could use the earth to empower itself, but if it didn't touch the ground, it could only use its inherent Energy, which was not much. Beasts had pitifully little Energy inside their bodies.

BZZZZZ!

Gravis summoned a gigantic Lightning Bomb above himself. Before using it, he had about 40% of his Lightning and 70% of his Spirit remaining. One had to remember that every usage of lightning on Gravis' leg to accelerate cost a whole 20%, while 10% of that was quickly reabsorbed every time.

Gravis had used 62% of his Spirit in this Lightning Bomb, which was just enough to barely hold all his lightning without exploding. After all, the Lightning Bomb always absorbed as much lightning as it could. After summoning it, his lightning was empty while he only had 8% of his Spirit left.

SHING!

Gravis jumped upward with all his physical power and moved his saber through the Lightning Bomb, absorbing it immediately. Without waiting, Gravis slashed forward, destroying his saber in the process. This high-grade Spirit Weapon had enough hardness to resist his Lightning Crescent when he had been at the initial stage, but now, the Lightning Crescent was too powerful.

Luckily, such a strike didn't create a counterforce for Gravis since it just cut the air. Due to that, Gravis' jump wasn't halted.

Whoop!

Gravis summoned a sheet of metal before him and held onto it. The violent magnetism of the Lightning Crescent and Gravis' jump pulled him upwards, making Gravis fly right behind the crescent. In nearly no time, the Lightning Crescent hit the Ogre as it was still flailing helplessly in the air. Unfortunately, it didn't have the wind element.

BOOOOOOOM!

A gigantic explosion out of lightning, over 200-meters-wide, appeared in the sky. It vanished just as quickly, but the shockwave destroyed the whole mountain on which Gravis and the Ogre had fought. Even the people inside Quake City noticed the distant, white light, even though the city was nearly 200 kilometers away.

The mountain was blown into smithereens as debris and giant boulders flew for kilometers. Any living thing that had been in the surrounding kilometer got annihilated, while the flying boulders destroyed stretches of land like meteors.

Gravis had closed his eyes and blocked them with his hand before the explosion happened. After all, he knew his own attack. After the explosion vanished, Gravis opened his eyes again. He needed to use his eyes right now since the shockwaves in the surroundings made using his Spirit impossible.

Gravis saw the remains of the Ogre and realized that it was still barely alive. It had used its wide arms to block its torso, neck, and head. Due to that block, it managed to barely stay alive.

There was nearly no skin left on its body, and only brittle bones remained of its limbs. Even its torso and head were severely injured. The arms hadn't been able to block the whole explosion, after all. Bits and pieces of burnt skin, muscle, and bone fell down, passing Gravis' body.

'Good thing I have a contingency plan!' Gravis thought. The reason why Gravis had jumped after his attack was twofold. Firstly, the closer he was to the explosion, the more lightning he could reabsorb. Secondly, if the Ogre still had some movement ability after that attack, it might be able to escape. Gravis wanted to be absolutely sure about his victory.

PACK!

Gravis hit the remaining bones of the Ogre's arms and grabbed them. After that, he used them as a foothold to shoot himself at the Ogre's neck. It was still too stunned and shocked to react to anything. The muscles and skin on its neck were nearly completely destroyed, and Gravis saw some holes in its arteries and trachea. Gravis grabbed everything that looked like a tube in the Ogre's neck and pulled with all his power.

Pssssshh!

Blood and air violently shot out of the Ogre's neck as both tubes were torn apart. Then, Gravis kicked the Ogre with all his power to gain distance. After all, if it somehow managed to move a part of its body in a desperate attempt to hit Gravis, he could die. Its body was still many times more powerful than Gravis'.

BANG! BOOM!

Gravis and the Ogre fell for several hundred meters since the Lightning Crescent had annihilated nearly the whole mountain. Gravis immediately jumped up again and shot towards the place where the Ogre fell.

After some seconds, he arrived and saw it. It tried to move around as its survival instincts kicked in, but without much luck. Its flailing destroyed some of the surroundings, but it wasn't doing much. Gravis simply watched it flail around. It was about to die, and there was no sense in endangering himself by coming closer.

Like this, Gravis watched the Ogre coldly as it slowly lost its life.