Lightning Is the Only Way

Some hours after Gravis left the Hunting Guild, he arrived at a destroyed village. All the wooden huts were broken into pieces and piled into a hill. This was The Demon's lair. No one could afford to place a bounty for a medium-grade demonic beast around these parts. So, most of the villagers had fled the village, while only the old, stubborn villagers remained. Sadly, by the looks of the destroyed village, their end was not peaceful.

The Demon had made its nest out of the remains of the village to demonstrate its dominance. Humans had exclusive living space and were the overlords of this world. Only in the wilderness, could beasts thrive. By occupying an exclusive living space of the humans, The Demon was demonstrating its dominance.

Gravis spotted parts of The Demon poking out from beneath the rubble. The Demon was a gigantic centipede, about 30 meters in length. Hooked legs grew from the centipede's segmented body, which they could use to stab and grip their prey. Their relatively small front, together with their many legs, made them incredibly fast. On top of that, every section of its body was encased in thick armor. Their bite was also incredibly venomous.

Speed, defense, power, and venom. All of this made The Demon a fearsome opponent. It was probably very powerful, even for a medium-grade demonic beast. All parts of its body were made to kill. At the start of their lives, centipedes were small and weak, which meant that this specimen had to work hard to get to its current strength. So, its will would also be very robust.

Under normal circumstances, Gravis couldn't even hope to scratch the centipede. It would outspeed him and surround him with all its legs. At that point, only death would await him. There were only two things he could rely on: His Formation Array, and his Elemental Synchronicity.

Gravis quickly retreated to the nearby forest and began his preparations.

About an hour later, he came back to the village. He could not win against The Demon in a fair one-on-one fight. This time, he had to use his smarts.

Gravis slowly entered the village's vicinity. When he felt that he was close enough, he instantly released his Will-Aura and ran away as fast as possible. His Will-Aura would provoke The Demon into attacking him since he had so arrogantly displayed his killing intent in its nest.

Just as he had thought, the mound in the village grew restless, and a big head with two humongous mandibles rose. The Demon felt the direction the Will-Aura was coming from, and sprinted to it, not making a single noise.

Gravis ran with all of his power, but The Demon was about three times as fast as him. If it caught him before he reached the forest, he would die. Gravis felt The Demon coming closer, and cold sweat came rushing down his back. He hadn't been this afraid since his fight with the tortoise, and he felt like he would die soon.

The Demon was only 20 meters behind him, and it was gaining ground, fast! Gravis continued

reached Gravis and

shouted and jumped upward with all his strength. The bite barely missed him, and the centipede quickly surrounded the landing spot of Gravis, its legs ready to strike.

jade token exploded, and many lines and drawings encompassed the surroundings in a ten-meter diameter. The centipede was completely boxed in since it had curled itself into a ring while

and a shrill screech left its mouth. Gravis quickly took the chance, while the centipede was confused, and jumped through a gap between two of its legs. One leg completely bisected his left triceps, while the other

hurt and couldn't release his full power anymore, but that didn't matter now. The

The Demon was busy trying to break through the Formation Array and ignored the wood. Over a couple of minutes, Gravis

some more trees and laid them beside the formation. That took him

led to the Formation Array. Now, all preparations were finished. Gravis looked around and saw that a couple of trees had started burning already. In the hour, where

more ferociously. He expedited their fire, which made the flames grow hotter and bigger. He willed the flames to start burning the "streets" of trees he had created, and slowly, the fire

started igniting the wood inside the Formation Array. The centipede grew frantic as the heat increased, and started thrashing around its body to throw away all the burning wood. It

Array, like they were in an intense storm. The Demon tried everything to throw those logs of burning

this. He did not know how effective the surrounding heat was, but the centipede did not touch the

another idea and started digging up the dirt around the Formation Array. Just as he had thought, the Formation Array was enclosing the centipede not in a dome, but in a ball. The Formation

his incredible strength, it still took him about an hour to remove the soil completely. Now, the Formation Array looked like a flying ball. Half of the ball was filled with dirt, and

he could decide what could leave. His newly dug hole was nearly full of dirt again, but now, the centipede was the only thing left

underside, and it was not hard to push the dirt up the slope again. Gravis grew more frantic, as he only had about 30 minutes left until the

When he had finally filled the pot, only 20 minutes remained on the Formation Array. Gravis was breathing heavily. He had used all his strength for over 1.5