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."

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

he listened. The wolf that the hawk was talking about was the second level three Lord that Gravis had killed.

her probably annoyed her to no end. She also couldn't be

he had killed had said something about some Divine Beasts too, but

front of Gravis. "Divine Beasts are beasts with an incredible affinity for battle. Additionally, their bodies

as soon as they become Emperors, all their advantages would vanish. After all, if their progenitor was an

smirked. "Right. Being a Divine Beast is like having a shortcut to the Emperor Realm. Of course, there are still a lot of Divine Beasts out there that will

it. "I presume you don't want to kill

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

expected that this situation wouldn't resolve itself that easily. The fact that such a powerful King arrived in front

only act as a toy for the King. Gravis gritted his teeth in frustration. He had no control over his life right now. This meant that he was being suppressed,

sound rude, but the lightning inside of him was angry, and it didn't care about the power

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

Gravis only nodded.

Empress is very interested 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 love

gritted his teeth again. The Red King was looking at him like he was some slave or commodity, and he absolutely

speaking. "So, 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

I

would have died, but I was pretty sure that you would survive,"

wasn't even sure if he would win, so how could this hawk, which didn't even know him, be so sure

for fights against Lords that are two levels higher than you. This means you see a good chance of victory in

two level four Lords, but he had only wanted to fight one of

I have unconsciously grown complacent. I have searched for a beast that was two levels higher than

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

quite surprised when it saw