Lightning Is the Only Way

Ever since that day, Gravis started training in Martial Arts. In that time, Gravis had learned a lot from William. William even considered Gravis as one of his students, but whenever William tried to close the distance between them, Gravis blocked. Gravis also had never accepted any Martial Art for free, except those he had earned himself.

Sparring for free Martial Arts was different than William just giving them to him. As long as everything went down like a reasonable trade, Heaven was fine with it, but as soon as William tried to close the distance between them, Gravis felt like he had seen Heaven's shadow behind William. If Gravis accepted, Heaven would not spare William.

In the beginning, it was tough for Gravis to reject William. His frustration towards Heaven soared, and his bitterness ate him up inside, yet after multiple days, he started getting used to it. Now, it was not so hard anymore to decline William. He had grown used to it by now.

Jeros had also visited from time to time and wanted to spar with Gravis, yet Gravis always declined. He had to keep his Will-Aura sharp, and sparring would only dull it. If someone sparred too much, they would get 'fighting experience' in sparring, which was an issue because spars were never fought to the death.

If Gravis sparred more, he would get too used to his enemies, and he would also get used to using non-lethal attacks. Maybe he would even start doing risky maneuvers because he knew that he was not in danger. If he got too used to this, he might make those mistakes in a real battle.

Another person also frequented the garden where Gravis was training. It was the young man who had gotten angry at him before. He was, apparently, William's sole student. Gravis also got to know that all the other workers at the Martial Hall were just employees and didn't take Martial Arts that seriously. They just knew some of them and how to sell them.

On the other hand, the young man had trained under William for multiple years and had soaked up nearly all of William's knowledge. Gravis also got to know that the young man was going to attend the entrance exams as well.

could not accept that the Martial Styles, he had learned, could be useless. Yet, even if he didn't recognize that fact, he still

man wanted to practice a Martial Style, he involuntarily thought back to Gravis' spar with his master. He also thought back to the explanation Gravis gave, and every time he thought of that, it felt like a

in his Martial Styles. This had frustrated him more, and he grew even

but Gravis declined. Gravis wanted to spar as little as possible. The young man then announced that he would attack

man had slashed at Gravis, who just continued sitting, and the young man's sword bounced off of Gravis' skin. The young man didn't have tempered muscles, so he had no way to penetrate Gravis' skin. He

"What's the point of Martial Arts when your enemy outclasses you greatly with their body? What's the point of Martial Styles, if your enemy sees through its weakness

couldn't even penetrate Gravis' skin. The young man retreated and apologized to Gravis, not sure what to think. This

after a full week, and the first thing he did was apologize to Gravis for his disrespect. He had cast away

to increase someone's strengths at the cost of some disadvantages. Martial Arts and Styles were no longer divine things in

was Vasil. Vasil had thrown away all his preconceived notions of power and started to watch Gravis, Jeros, and William earnestly. When Jeros and William sparred, he paid extra

could not change a life full of experience, but he could start mixing his

to teach him some things. When William had seen that, he didn't grow jealous, but proud instead. His student was finally free from the shackles that had bound him to Martial Styles and started learning from others as well. People

whose face had promptly whitened. William had also seen that Vasil and Jeros were impacted

concentrate your aura onto a single person?" he