Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis' next opponent was a dark humanoid shadow with a short sword. It was slower and weaker than him. Yet, it was challenging for Gravis to defeat it since it was incredibly cunning and kept on surprising him. This was the first fight where Gravis could not sit back and plan out his strategy. Every time he thought he saw an opening, the shadow countered immediately as if it had planned everything.

Gravis received multiple cuts across his body. If he hadn't had tempered organs and blood, he would have already bled out. Luckily, tempered organs and blood substantially increase the body's recovery, especially when nothing else was tempered. A stronger body needs more energy and nutrients to heal. In this case, his lower cultivation level was an advantage. Though, if he had tempered skin, the shadow wouldn't even be able to scratch him.

After a while, Gravis finally realized that planning and strategizing would only make him lose. In the end, Gravis decided to grip the shadow's sword with his hand and slashed him with his saber. The shadow's sword cut Gravis' hand to the bone. Luckily, the plan worked, and the shadow died. This was another essential skill for survival: Trading injuries to kill your opponent.

Gravis' hand would need at least a day to become usable again. So, he went into the next fights with just one hand.

The next opponent was a cheetah. Its speed surpassed Gravis, but everything else was weaker. With the experience of killing the mountain lion, the cheetah was quickly defeated. That he could only use a single hand didn't change the outcome.

The next opponent proved problematic. It was a rhinoceros. It had heavy armor, and in a straight line, it out sped Gravis. Luckily, with the experience of fighting the tortoise, he quickly noticed that the rhinoceros also had issues with turning. The fight took a long time, as Gravis could only use a single hand to swing his saber, and the rhinoceros's armor was thick. After some hours, Gravis got the idea to stick his saber up the rhinoceros's bum. It felt weird, but this was definitely the best way since the rhinoceros slowed considerably and bled profusely. After some time, it finally died.

There was nothing that stood out with the next two enemies, and Gravis quickly overpowered them. After those, he received his food and water again. This time, the food was a living fawn. Gravis finished the deed as humanely as possible and ate some rhinoceros meat.

Gravis noticed a pattern with the enemies. All enemies only had one or two strong points that outclassed him, but at least one major weak point to exploit. This practical test was probably there for getting the research assistants used to fighting different kinds of opponents, and to quickly spot weaknesses.

Like this, a couple more cycles of fighting and resting passed. Gravis got the hang of things, and with his added experience and healed hand, he overpowered everything. He did not know how much time had passed, but it had to have been at least a couple of weeks. With every passing cycle, two additional fights were added before the next rest period.

in two. He picked it up and threw it onto his corpse mountain, which had grown to an impressive size. "Toad tastes like shit," he nonchalantly commented. He had become used to killing by now, as

environmental challenge,' he thought. True to his word, the air began to whirl and quickly took up speed. After some time, Gravis had problems keeping his eyes open. The wind soon grew into a storm, and finally into a tornado. If

CLANK!

bounced off without even leaving a

powerful, and Gravis could not hold himself on the ground anymore. He began to whirl through the air furiously. He could still breathe, but

THOMP!

his whole body, as the storm smashed him into a wall. Fortunately, he only broke his shoulder. Unfortunately, the storm hadn't ended yet. As he continued flying through the air, he

THOMP!

received a couple of bruises. With all the pain and the

injured him, but it was only a minor injury. As he neared another wall, Gravis raised his arms and 'parried' a flying corpse, using its momentum to his advantage. This time, the impact on the wall was even easier

at mitigating wall-hits. After some minutes, he calmed down as he finally got the hang of it. He also didn't receive any more injuries. Additionally, he also started predicting when corpses or walls hit him. It seemed like he could feel the rhythm of the storm. In his eyes,

coming. He just felt it. It was like the

pose any danger to him anymore. Gravis felt more and more as if he were standing still, and everything else simply circled around him. Corpses stopped hitting him, and he didn't smash into any more walls from then on. His body also stopped spinning, and he

this strange feeling again. It's like I am part of the storm." Gravis looked around and watched

was no eye in the storm. The tornado whirled even in its middle, probably so that no one could bypass this challenge. Gravis slowly descended, and his feet hit the ground. He looked up and saw that most of

be one last fight after the storm. Additionally, he also had a broken shoulder, though he wasn't really worried

rained