Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis immediately noticed a beast standing just a couple of meters away from him. He hadn't noticed that beast at all with his Spirit, but he managed to see it just fine.

It was a harmless-looking red hawk. It wasn't even a meter tall and looked like the pet of someone. It simply didn't look dangerous at all. On top of that, Gravis felt no danger and no power radiating from the hawk. Yet, this made him nervous.

Usually, Gravis only wouldn't be able to feel the power of someone else if they were either much weaker than him or way more powerful than him. Sadly, the fact that Gravis hadn't noticed the hawk showed that the second case was true this time.

When Gravis had been back in his homeworld, he had been able to feel the power of someone at the Early Nascent Nourishing Realm. By now, he had risen by one Stage, and his Will-Aura had also become more powerful. Yet, he felt absolutely nothing from this red hawk. This meant that this hawk was, at least, in the Late Nascent Nourishing Realm. That Realm would also be called a level four King in this world.

"Why is someone as powerful as you interested in me?" Gravis asked directly.

The hawk only smirked and gently flew closer to Gravis. "You reacted very quickly and noticed my power. Tell me, how powerful do you think I am?" the hawk asked with interest.

"You're probably a level four or level five King," Gravis said with narrowed eyes.

The hawk was a bit surprised. "Not bad. Yes, I am a level five King. Quite impressive that you can place my power with such accuracy. Tell me, how did you manage that?"

"When I was weaker, I was able to feel the power of a level two King once. By now, I have become more powerful, and I guess that I would be able to feel a level three King too. Yet, I can't feel your power. I don't think that an Emperor would come to this place just for me, so you had to be a level four or five King," Gravis explained.

The hawk laughed a bit. "Impressive, really," it said. "I am the Red King, Leader of the Red Kingdom. The two beasts you just killed were part of my Kingdom," it said.

Gravis had a sinking feeling. He had just killed this hawk's underlings. Would it want revenge? Yet, Gravis realized that it could have saved them if it wanted. Right now, Battle-Strength wouldn't help him to survive.

"You wanted to test me, right?" Gravis asked.

The hawk smirked as it circled him slowly. "Yes," it said. "One of our associated Tribes has received some news from a two-headed snake around two months ago. It said that there is a beast leading a Tribe made up of sea and land beasts."

"Originally, I didn't care about that. Let the weaker Kingdoms deal with that. Yet, I was interested in the news about your Battle-Strength. Apparently, you are able to jump two whole levels. Something like that is only possible for some very rare Divine Beasts."

noticed a very one-sided fight between you and a wolf. After that, the agent returned to me and informed me of what was going on," the

as he listened. The wolf that the hawk was talking about was the second level three Lord that Gravis had killed. He had fought against that wolf a couple of

end. She also couldn't be sure that she could kill me. So, as a backup plan, she spread some news about me. Like this, I would

are Divine Beasts?" Gravis asked. One of the sharks he had killed had said something about some Divine Beasts too, but the shark hadn't bothered

are beasts with an incredible affinity for battle. Additionally, their

things. "So, Divine Beasts could be considered as powerful, young geniuses. Yet, as soon as they become Emperors, all their advantages would

Of course, there

listened to the hawk's words and nodded. Then, he looked at it. "I presume you

only continued smirking. Then, it hummed for a bit. "It depends on how you define 'right now' and how you define 'kill'," it said with a

that easily. The fact that such a powerful King arrived in front of him showed

now, Gravis was so incredibly weak in front of this hawk that he could probably only act as a toy for the King. Gravis gritted his teeth in

want?" Gravis asked with annoyance. He knew that it wasn't the smartest choice to sound rude, but the lightning

"I like that aggressive tone of yours. Maybe you can entertain me some more." Then, the hawk leisurely flew to a big stone and stood on it. "You're probably interested in the reason why I've come so far

Gravis only nodded.

in peculiar and powerful beasts. You could say that's one of her hobbies. If I bring such beasts to her, I will be rewarded. So, as soon as I heard about you, I grew interested. The Empress would

him like he was some slave or commodity, and he absolutely hated

I sent two of my soldiers to test you out. Of course, they didn't know what the reason for their mission was. As far as they knew, they only needed to kill

if I died?"

have died, but I was pretty sure that you would

He wasn't even sure if he would win, so how could this hawk,

higher than you. This means you see a good chance of victory in such fights. So, I wanted to

complacent? He had managed to kill two level four Lords, but he had

released a sigh. Then, he turned to the hawk and slightly bowed. "Thank you. You have made me realize that I have unconsciously grown complacent. I have searched for a beast that was two levels higher than me but

actually meant everything he said. He still remembered how he had pushed Morn, Silva, and Orpheus into an incredibly dangerous fight. Yet,

hawk was quite surprised when it saw Gravis'