Lightning Is the Only Way

The day had finally arrived.

Finally, Gravis' goal was in reach. Did he not chose an elemental lower world just to practice in elemental cultivation? Finally, after all these fights and Heaven's schemes, Lightning was in Gravis' reach. Soon, he would take his first true step towards opposing Heaven.

Outside of Body City was a humongous arena, nearly a full kilometer across. The floor of the arena rose nearly five meters above the ground, and there were no seats for an eventual audience. Apparently, the Elemental Guilds didn't care about onlookers. In the middle of every side of the arena were luxurious white stairs leading to the arena with several guards placed at each one.

Those guards were no ordinary guards judging by their outfits. Instead of wearing the usual armor and weapon of regular guards, they were wearing different colored robes. Some of them wore fiery red colored robes, while others wore robes as blue as the deep sea. Gravis could guess that those guards were not from the city, but probably from the Elemental Guilds.

It was still early in the morning, and not many people had arrived, and Gravis was one of the first participants who came. He walked to one of the stairs, which had four guards and stopped some meters before them. "I am here to register for the entrance exams," he announced.

The guards all smiled at him friendly, which seemed unusual in Gravis' eyes. Why would guards care about participants? Yet, what Gravis didn't know was that the guards were instructed to act very friendly. Every participant was a potential new asset to one of their guilds, and a good first impression may push a participant to join their specific guild.

"Welcome!" a guard with earthen-yellow robes walked forward and welcomed Gravis. "First of all, we must test if you are eligible to participate." Then, he pointed at a stone table beside the arena. "Please put your hand on the table. It will verify if you are in the eligible age range," he explained patiently.

"Thank you," Gravis said plainly and walked over to the table. The table was gray and made out of stone, but Gravis could see some signs of a Formation Array. Before the guards could tell him what he should do, Gravis placed his hand on a round stone in the middle of the table.

the mechanisms and Formation Arrays doing their work. After some seconds, the table shone in a green light. Gravis retrieved his hand and

skin." A guard in fiery red robes walked forward and unsheathed his sword. "Let me warn you. We don't have an easy way to verify this, so we are using a basic attack. If you have tempered skin, everything will be fine, but if you don't, your arm will

arm so the guard could strike him, without a

CLANK!

its blade, and the guards looked shocked. They were using quite some strength when testing the participants. Usually, someone with a tempered skin would receive a slight cut,

started laughing. "Serves you right for using your own weapon. This is exactly why we have the testing blades," shouted one with

his sword in dismay. "My Fire Blade," he whimpered in agony. That sword had cost

something from this experience, so Gravis just looked at the other guards. "So,

nodded. "Welcome to the Elemental Guilds' entrance exams," they all

Gravis thought as he jumped up to the arena, skipping the

looked grim. "He jumped the stairs," one said to the others, and they nodded. "He might have tempered muscles," another one said. "Should we revoke his participation? We all know that it is forbidden for people with tempered muscles to sign up for

"That is not our task. We are only here to judge the participants on their age and their skin. If he truly has

in the arena. Most of them seemed to be around 16 years old, and they had all gathered in small groups and talked with each other. Gravis ignored them, walked to

the affected space further. His practice in Martial Arts had already finished,

other participants looked at the newcomer, but before they could greet him, he had already turned away and sat at a corner. After they saw that, most of them ignored him, but some tried to strike up a conversation with Gravis. Yet, when they got closer to Gravis, they

retreated. They shot a look at Gravis, not knowing what was happening, but they all started giving Gravis a wide berth and continued talking with each