Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis continued running after the bandits. Along the way, the bandits picked up lots of other bandits. At the beginning, the new bandits didn't believe the old bandits and attacked Gravis. Yet, after their weapons broke, they immediately joined the makeshift bandit caravan.

Now, every bandit that saw the caravan immediately joined them in running away. Gravis smiled while watching the bandit caravan growing bigger and bigger. Chasing those bandits was a lot of fun.

Suddenly, a cold shudder went through Gravis. He nearly fell for Heaven's trick. He had started enjoying the feeling of superiority. If he hadn't noticed Heaven's intentions, his will would grow weaker. Gravis realized that he could not relax. Heaven was treacherous and used every kind of scheme to stop him from growing.

"Even this innocent bit of fun could be weaponized by Heaven," Gravis clenched his teeth. "You really won't allow me any kind of happiness," he muttered to himself as he continued running.

"Why are we running? We are over 20 people by now! With that many people, we can even take down a low-grade demonic beast!" one of the bandits shouted to the others.

"Are you kidding?" one of the first bandits of the caravan shouted through intermittent pants. "My full power spear thrust didn't even break its skin!" Gravis had already been degraded to an 'it'. "If we can't even break its defense, then how are we supposed to kill it?"

"There must be something we can do! I'm not sure I can hold out much longer!" the same bandit who proposed the attack said.

"Quit whining. I've been running way longer than you, and I can still keep going," shouted the very first bandit. "You're going to be impressed when you see how far your body can be pushed in this chase. We only need to run! The closer we get to Body City, the stronger our fellow brothers get."

"But it's so far," one of them whined. "Why don't we just scatter?"

"And get picked off one by one? Are you insane? There is safety in numbers," another one immediately shut down the idea.

"Hey! You just said that our numbers don't matter, so how is there suddenly safety in numbers?" the bandit seemed annoyed.

their numbers, many of them survive. I doubt the monster will kill every single one," one of

he left the street and ran

a bandit spat on

the fleeing bandit. Surprisingly, the monster seemed to ignore the bandit. When others saw how it ignored the bandit, they immediately took their chance and also scattered in

bandit, and continued running along the path. "Who will warn our brothers, if you all run for your lives?" he shouted at them, heroically. It seemed like this bandit had quite the loyal heart.

selfish bastards! We'll warn our brothers!" he stated heroically as they

situation, it would only help Heaven. After all this running, Gravis finally decided to take a break and slowed down. Also, he started getting hungry. He didn't bother to bring any rations since he could

giving up the chase. Yet, they continued running. They had to get away as far as possible. After some minutes, they ultimately left Gravis' vision. He didn't care and just rested for

He searched for some minutes until he heard a loud roar echoing throughout the forest. "Interesting," Gravis

clearing in the middle of the forest. There were no animals and no grass. This seemed

was probably around two meters high, and its grey fur was glistening in the sun. It calmly lay in the middle

towards beasts. Just by watching a beast, he could roughly gauge its strength. "Just what I needed," he muttered. Finally, something that could put his new tempered skin to the test. On top of

always stayed close to human territory. Those monsters were using humans as a food source to keep growing. Yet, the monsters in the wilderness always took

its feet. Normally, it would just roar

of its claws at him. Gravis wanted to try out his tempered skin and blocked the claw with

CRSH!

some shallow gashes in his arm that bled. It didn't use its full power, and its claws were not its primary weapon. Gravis knew that and concluded that a normal attack would not injure him heavily. That was a

skin, he only needed to evade the really strong attacks from low-grade demonic beasts. The pressure had lessened immensely. Yet, everything had its advantages and disadvantages. While surviving grew easier now, the tempering of his will grew harder. If the pressure lessened, his will could not

middle-grade demonic beast. Their attack power and speed was just too overwhelming. Tempered skin or normal skin, it literally didn't make a difference. He would get severely injured or