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."

sent an agent to keep watch over you. The agent 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,"

narrowed his eyes as he listened. The wolf that the hawk was talking about was the second level three Lord that Gravis had killed. He

away, she had, apparently, not only tempered herself. 'My constant suppression of her probably annoyed her to no end. She also couldn't be sure that she could kill me. So, as a backup plan, she spread

killed had said something about some Divine Beasts too, but

for battle. Additionally, their bodies

be considered as powerful, young geniuses. Yet, as soon as they become Emperors, all their advantages would vanish. After all, if their progenitor was an Emperor, they probably already had these

"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

looked at it. "I presume you don't want to kill me right now?" he

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

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

hawk that he could probably 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

it wasn't the smartest choice to sound rude,

Then, the hawk leisurely flew to a big stone and stood on it. "You're probably interested in the reason

Gravis only nodded.

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

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

sent two of my soldiers to test you out. Of course, they didn't know

what if I died?" Gravis

but I was pretty sure that you would

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

see a good chance of victory in such fights. So, I wanted to see how powerful you would be under genuine

Had he truly grown complacent? He had managed to kill two level four Lords, but he had only wanted

for a beast that was two levels higher than me

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

hawk was quite surprised when it saw Gravis' actions. Then, it started laughing