Lightning Is the Only Way

'It's time,' Gravis thought as he felt his body itching. This was his second most important evolution, the one where he would eat the scale to get a more powerful defense for his body.

Whoop!

Gravis summoned the scale and grabbed it, but his body was still weaker than his previous one. Carrying it was quite hard, but nothing unmanageable. He looked at it with burning eyes and shoved it into his stomach with his Spirit. A stomach wasn't as powerful as an arm, so Gravis kept the scale levitating inside his stomach. If he let it fall, it might break his stomach.

Gravis watched his stomach go to work, but the scale wasn't being digested at all. Slowly, Gravis grew worried. This scale was obviously way out of his league. Could he even digest it?

Whooom!

Suddenly, the scale started shining, and Formation Arrays appeared on it. Gravis was shocked when he saw these Formation Arrays because there were just so many. Every Formation Array was as small as the letters he had read on the booklet about forging materials. He also only recognized about 5% of them.

It was insane to him that this one scale had so incredibly many Formation Arrays on it. Their complexity baffled Gravis, and he couldn't even begin to understand the concept behind them. 'Father has probably put them on there to make the scale digestible,' Gravis thought. 'Father wouldn't forget the fact that I wouldn't be able to digest the scale.'

Sure enough, the scale quickly dissipated into some kind of gas that charged through his body without his volition. The gas went through his entire body, but Gravis felt none of it. It was like it just existed inside a separate plane. Yet, Gravis trusted his father. Gravis' eyes burned with ambition as he quickly changed the image in his mind.

He thought of his whole body being covered in scales similar to the one he had just eaten. The image inside his mind quickly solidified, and just as expected, Gravis felt like he could change something else too.

Gravis tweaked the image inside his head until he felt happy with the changes. He felt like he could change a little bit more and also changed the shape of his tail. The fin on his tail vanished, and the tail now looked like a reptile's tail.

This tail might not be as useful in swimming, but it was flexible and powerful. A tail-whip would be quite devastating, another weapon for Gravis. With this tail, he would be able to keep his balance better and also protect his back at the same time.

Gravis finalized the image, and his body quickly started changing. It shrunk down until it was only about two meters tall. While it shrank, his torso widened into a broad chest. Gravis kept his waist slender for more mobility and flexibility, but he required his arms to be powerful, and that required a broad chest.

After Gravis had gotten his broader chest and new size, his skin started changing. His slimy skin fell off and revealed the blackest scales imaginable. They slowly appeared, and it almost looked like they absorbed light. They were so black that one would think that their eyes wouldn't work properly when looking at them. The color just didn't seem natural.

After a couple of minutes, his whole body stabilized, and Gravis finished his third evolution. Gravis looked at his body and smirked. With his powerful fangs, dark scales, and alligator-like head, his smirk looked incredibly menacing. It was like a powerful predator looking at his prey.

also gave him some lungs to enable him to speak. Not being able to

clenched his hands. His claws tried to dig into his palm, but it was impossible. His scales were more powerful than his claws.

for a bit as Gravis' eyes fell on him. The weird, tasty looking, and weak appearance he had before had been completely flipped by

Yet, when they got to know him better, they would see his honest and principled personality behind the threatening appearance. Orthar already knew Gravis. So,

like a beast that slaughters out of bloodlust, not necessity. I'm not sure if that is conducive when talking with beasts you don't want

need to be careful anymore that his claws would injure his skin while scratching. That had annoyed him more

which he hadn't even realized existed, vanished. Gravis

outer appearance spells danger and invokes fear due to its effectiveness for hunting and killing," Gravis transmitted. "My scales can hide me

"I think that the menacing appearance comes from the

as ready to commit all their life to combat. When I saw you, I felt that my body was inadequate. My tentacles are powerful, but I need

more mobile. You could also use powerful claws or spikes at the end of your tentacles. Like this, you could injure your enemy without pulling them to your beak. Your fleshy outer layer also

body. Yet, now, he felt that Gravis was right. His instincts went against Gravis' words, and Orthar even felt himself get angry. Luckily, Orthar was smart enough

by their rage, but Orthar was different. He was incredibly smart and realized the truth of the matter. The body he had prided himself in was inadequate. He needed to change it

that, a disguise. He wasn't able to create true weapons with it. He

me," Gravis said

as he looked

these scales. Slap me with about 25%

attack at the level of a mid-rank Spirit Beast, a full

be able to let me survive an attack like

used a casual slap to hit Gravis. It was casual to him, but Gravis felt the power of the slap

BANG! BOOM!

hit, and Gravis' body was shot into the ground. A massive cloud of sand whirled around, making it impossible to

protecting his insides. The only thing that happened was that his organs

Something that he had completely forgotten

had been voluntary up to

had been an explosion when Orthar hit him, and that explosion

ash, and if Gravis hadn't reacted quickly enough, Orthar would be dead right now. Gravis'