Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis was happy that he could finally talk to Orthar again. Orthar had been his first friend in this world, and he still remembered how alone he had felt when Orthar and Silva had left. Back then, he had felt quite lonely again since he hadn't had any other friends or comrades.

Of course, ever since then, he had managed to make a lot of new friends. Azure, Styr, Ferris, and Meadow were all beings that Gravis counted as his friends. Additionally, he also had three wonderful children now.

"You have lived quite a high-profile life, Orthar," Gravis said. "I've seen your influence basically everywhere."

"The warfare amongst beast is simple, crude, and inefficient regarding the greater collective," Orthar answered. "Proving the effectiveness of my strategies was easy and had little noteworthy opposition, except for the Light Ultimate."

Gravis chuckled a bit. "Makes sense. After all, for beasts, an individual's power has the same importance as the greater collective's goal."

"Different strategies have their appropriate times to be used," Orthar said. "The sea beasts were outnumbered and still managed to survive due to them being valuable to the land beasts. However, betting their survival on the fact that this situation might continue is foolish. Therefore, following the traditional strategy is more akin to stagnation than progress."

Orthar had always talked very logically and absent of emotion, which was something that Gravis quite enjoyed. It felt good to hear him talk again. "So, tell me. What happened after we parted ways?" Gravis asked with interest.

Right now, Gravis sat on the floor with Orthar standing or sitting in front of him. It was hard to judge if an octopus was sitting or standing.

"After the River Tribe split up, I have taken most of the sea beasts to the ocean outside the continent. I still remembered the map you have shown me of this world, so I knew that there should be a part of the ocean stretching into the continent. I led the group to that stretch," Orthar said.

"We met heavy opposition from the Tribes when we arrived, but that was only a minor hindrance. The power of the members of the River Tribe was beyond any Tribe we met, which allowed us to create a stable foothold."

"My Tribe rapidly expanded, and I became more powerful along with it. This had gone on for five years until I was leading a level four Tribe. We wanted to expand further into the continent, but we met a powerful roadblock."

said, excited to hear

the Life Ring. "Access to the deeper regions of the ocean had been blocked by an association comprised of several level five Lords and their Tribes. No new Tribe was allowed to expand inward. The only way to

far-reaching roadblock couldn't have happened if the Kingdoms or Empires didn't

After splitting the Tribes up into individual beasts, they would get a lot of new members. I expect that this roadblock mainly existed to get Lords to live in the contested

Lords for tempering, but if I attacked one of them, the other level five Lords

ordered my Tribe to wait and left it. Joining one of the Tribes wasn't an issue with my power, and as soon as I had secured my spot, I challenged the Tribe Leader and killed

the Tribe Leader and joined the association. Then, I fused my old Tribe

three of the level five Lords to force me to hand over 80% of my forces. Of course, all of this was within my calculations. They didn't have the freedom to send many members to negotiate with me. Sending two Lords would have already been enough in

managed to comprehend a second level one Law and managed to emerge victoriously. By consuming the level five Lords, I have also become a level five Lord myself. With my newfound power, the association

killed half of the level five Lords, and forced the others into servitude. Then, I abandoned 90% of my territories to keep the Tribe as small as possible.

had chosen a different path to Gravis. Back then, Gravis had let his Tribe attack anything wildly, while Orthar kept

difficult situations and complicated wars that Orthar told Gravis about. With Orthar's knowledge about advanced warfare, he was winning every war. Yet, there was something that

battle instead of tempering your members?" Gravis

tool to increase my

realized that you were basically forcing them into mediocrity. Inexperienced beasts don't know the negative effect that only fighting against

danger was sent on a suicide mission

times. "Including the previous members of the River Tribe?" he

River Tribe before I even met the association," Orthar

deep breath and released