Lightning Is the Only Way

Skye's parent listened to Gravis' story patiently. It was happy to hear about what its child had gone through. When it heard that Skye reached the stage of a high-grade Energy Beast after only a couple of months, it felt pride. Skye's parent also thought that it was the right decision to let Skye go with Gravis.

Why did it think that this was the right decision? Skye and its parent had always lived away from civilization, so they hadn't known about the humans' superior knowledge, battle techniques, and political systems. It had stayed inside the Wind Guild for the past couple of months, and with its incredible ears and its new Spirit, it had learned a lot about and from humans.

It had listened in on conversations between disciples and elders. Many conversations metaphorically opened its eyes to new ways to get stronger. Beasts usually only followed their instincts, which was to fight and kill other just-as-powerful beasts. Yet, when such a fight happened, it nearly always ended with one of the two parties dying and becoming food for the other.

Retreat? In their instincts, that was only something that a weak-willed beast would do. Some of Gravis' earlier beast-opponents had tried to flee, yet those beasts had all been weak-willed. A strong Energy Beast wouldn't retreat, no matter how overwhelmingly powerful the enemy was.

Yet, as Skye's parent heard about the upper echelon speak of times when they fled from a fight, it started thinking. Those were all very powerful people, and even the Spirit Forming experts have spoken of a time where they had to flee with pride instead of shame. For humans, retreating was not a shame. It was just another way to fight.

Skye's parent had thought about these things and realized that retreat wouldn't halt its path forward. It had learned many valuable lessons by being with humans, and it knew that Gravis had probably also taught a lot of those concepts to its child. Because of this, it was happy that it decided to leave it with Gravis.

Yet, when Gravis told it about how he killed experts from the Fire and Darkness Guild and fed them to Skye, Skye's parent grew angry. It had way more experience than Skye, and it had learned a lot from humans. It had realized that this could bring Skye's future prospects into jeopardy. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let this human take Skye, after all.

But when Gravis told about his decision to leave Skye, it sighed in relief. That was the best decision that Gravis could have made in that situation. Judging by what it had been told, Skye's parent realized that its child had grown dependent on Gravis. Luckily, Gravis had cut this dependency apart.

the distance. It heard about how Gravis taught it many things and how strong and smart its child was. Its worries disappeared entirely. With Skye's power, it wouldn't be in danger in this Middle-Continent. Only someone in the Spirit Forming Realm could kill Skye, yet Gravis had

it," finished Gravis as

thank you was the most direct method of

some mistakes, but I'm sure that

parent said with confidence. Then, it turned to

into its eyes and felt a

again. "Human too strong, too fast. Human slow

already knew about this. He had been swimming against the current, trying to increase his power as quickly as possible, but was that a good thing? Gravis was not dumb, and he knew that he had to

to increase his power, he would gain even newer powers without having the chance of getting used to

Gravis was so surprised that Skye's parent knew about that. Gravis smiled. "I know. That's

the Middle-Continent, he never could truly relax. First came the fight at the tree, then he had to keep his identity secret in the lair of his enemy for multiple months, and then he had to increase his power in just seven days, or he would die.

of freedom? Right now, I can do what I want without fear. Though...' Gravis looked to the ground with a bitter smile. 'The Heaven Sect will find me at some point. I think this counts as a free-trial

Days," Skye's

parent could finally let go and continue on its path.