Lightning Is the Only Way

Silence came over the area as everyone tried to process the fact that Orthar had died. His body was simply not powerful enough to survive such a shocking attack from the crab. Yet, Silva and Morn only had burning eyes as they looked at the crab. Then, they directly charged at it again. Such a wound was devastating to it, and it would surely weaken its Battle-Strength.

Orthar had given his life for this opportunity, and they wouldn't waste it!

Meanwhile, the crab started laughing loudly as it went into a defensive position. Its shears blocked all the attacks as it slowly retreated. It intended to gain some time to get some Energy back.

"Hahaha!" the crab laughed as it transmitted its laugh to everyone. "The annoying octopus is dead! I don't feel any attacks hitting my head anymore!" it transmitted to everyone.

Silva and Morn grew frustrated as they realized that it would become even more difficult to kill the crab. Now, it only needed to pay attention to them. They attacked with fervor, but as soon as the crab went into a defensive position, it was incomparably hard to hit it.

"AAAARRGGHHH!" the crab suddenly shouted in pain and panic.

"Do you feel it now, crab?" A transmission rang from inside the crab. To everyone's disbelief, that was Orthar's voice. But how?

"Impossible! You couldn't… have… sur…" the crab tried to say, but it seemed to grow more confused and abject as it continued. That was because Orthar had started attacking the crab's brain. Its mind stopped working, and after some more seconds, it fell over to the side.

The crab was dead.

Silva and Morn were still shocked. They had survived? Orthar had also survived? Were they dreaming?

Puchi!

A tiny hole appeared between some parts of the broken carapace. After that, a long and thin worm came out of the hole. After the worm left the hole, it transformed into Orthar. Yet, Orthar looked horrible. His whole body was deformed, and all his tentacles only hung loosely off of his body.

BOOOM!

Morn also collapsed as he just lay on the ground. He had been stressing his body immensely, and after the pressure had vanished, he collapsed to the ground. He was breathing heavily, but his life wasn't in danger.

Orthar also fell to the ground. He was nearly as heavily injured as Morn. Silva was the only one that could still move, and he quickly checked on Morn. After seeing that Morn wasn't in life-threatening danger, he went over to Orthar.

"What happened?" Silva asked in disbelief. "How did you manage to survive that attack?"

Orthar only laughed weakly. "Honestly, I don't know," he said. "I only saw him raise his shear and knew that my death was about to come. In order to reduce the impact, I used my disguise ability to increase the area of my body. Like this, I wouldn't receive the entire brunt of his attack."

Orthar laughed bitterly again. "Yet, that was only an empty dream. I knew that my death would arrive. Yet, as I saw my death come, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought about everything in my life and also thought about my disguise ability. It was then that I realized something."

"What did you realize?" Silva asked in interest.

"I have never used my disguise ability to its true potential. A disguise is more than just acting as something else, but becoming something else. As soon as I realized that, I used this new knowledge to flatten my entire body. I moved all essential parts to the side, where the strike wouldn't be that powerful. And, who would have thought, I managed to survive, somehow," Orthar explained.

"When fighting more powerful opponents, your mind is under immense pressure," Gravis said as he appeared in front of them. "I have seen a cultivator that managed to achieve a breakthrough in his Will-Aura in the middle of a fight before. Something similar happened to you."

The three beasts looked with shock at Gravis and then sighed in relief. The fact that Gravis was here meant that the shark was dead. On top of that, Gravis looked completely uninjured. At least they didn't have to deal with another powerful opponent now.

"The shark is dead?" Silva asked.

Gravis nodded. "Yes. I've been watching your fight for a while now. You managed to go through a rebirth with this fight."

The three beasts sighed again.

"Could you tell me more about what happened to me, Gravis?" Orthar asked.

Gravis nodded again. "Back when I was in the Middle-Continent in the lower world, I was tempering my Will-Aura. I had a brief run-in with some Darkness Cultivators from the Darkness Guild. Yet, they weren't my opponents at all. I simply suppressed them with my Will-Aura and killed them."

"Yet, one peculiar disciple managed to achieve a breakthrough under my suppression. Of course, I still killed him," Gravis said as he had a heartfelt smile on his face. "You can't achieve a breakthrough in your Realm while inside a battle, but your will, experience, and Law comprehension can increase."

"A deadly battle pushes all of your being to its absolute limits. When that isn't enough, there might come an opportunity for you to realize a new truth." Then, Gravis shrugged. "Sadly, I never had had that opportunity myself."

"What did I understand?" Orthar asked in confusion.

Gravis only smiled happily at Orthar. He was happy that Orthar had survived and also happy that Orthar managed to take a step that even Gravis himself hadn't been able to take yet. "You managed to comprehend a Law," Gravis said.

"A Law?" Orthar asked in confusion. "We haven't talked about that yet. What is that?"

Gravis laughed a bit. "Laws are what define how the world works. For example, you know that water always flows down, but you don't know enough about water to manipulate it in very complex ways. In order to do that, you need to comprehend the workings of the world. When you understood something, and when you can use this understanding to increase your power, you have comprehended a Law."

Orthar remained silent for a while as he thought about his new understanding regarding disguise. "I think I get it," Orthar said. "I think I know more about changing my body's shape and its makeup. Somehow, I feel like I can manipulate my body in more ways than before."

Gravis nodded. "This probably also allows you to change your shape faster. Like this, you could evade attacks by changing the shape of your body. Maybe you could also appear many times weaker or as more than one creature. A Law can increase your Battle-Strength significantly."

Orthar didn't answer anymore as he continued thinking about his new comprehension. Gravis didn't bother Orthar anymore and turned to Silva. "This is the difference between fighting something more powerful than you and fighting many equally powerful opponents."

"By fighting many opponents, you see progress and know that the battle will become easier the more you manage to weaken your opponents. By fighting against a more powerful opponent, you feel life-threatening danger until the very end. This can push you much harder," Gravis explained.

Silva remained silent for a while as he also thought about the fight.

"By fighting against many smaller opponents," Gravis continued explaining, "you learn how to use your resources more efficiently and how to win against many opponents. Yet, that experience only partially carries over when you fight a more powerful opponent."

"A more powerful opponent is faster than you, which is a significant advantage. If you're not used to dodging attacks that are way above your class, you will go through hell. Yet, you can only learn how to dodge such attacks by going through this hell. Going through this hell is the first and most important step to being able to jump a level."

"Jump a level, huh?" Silva mused as he looked to the horizon in thought.

The concept of jumping an entire level felt foreign and like a dream to Silva. One level increased the body's power by four times. Something like this seemed impossible to overcome.

Gravis only laughed a bit. "You're already halfway there. The three of you could count as half a level two Lord. As long as you keep at it and gain more experience, you can overcome this hurdle."

Then, Gravis grinned. "If I can jump two levels, you can, at least, manage to jump one, right?" Gravis said as he playfully hit Silva on the side.

Silva's body swayed a bit from the punch, but his eyes widened when he heard Gravis. "Yes," he slowly said. "You can jump two levels, so why can't we manage to jump one? If jumping two levels isn't impossible, then jumping only one level is definitely possible."

"That's right!" Gravis shouted. "Keep at it and keep gaining new experiences. As soon as we get to the level three Tribes, you guys can do the same thing again. Then, you can try it with only two of you, and before you know it, you feel confident enough to try it alone."

"He's right," Morn said as he sat up. "In the beginning, I thought that I would die. That thinking had also not changed when we had already started fighting. Yet, the more the fight progressed, the easier it felt for me to evade the crab's attacks. Near the end, I felt like I could see the crab's entire power and what it was capable of."

Silva nodded as his eyes burned with battle-intent. "Yes. I felt the same thing," he said severely. "At the beginning, the crab looked like an impossibly tall mountain that I couldn't climb. Yet, as the fight continued, I was finally able to see the peak. I saw hope and victory on the horizon. I didn't know if I would be able to reach it, but, at least, I knew that there was a chance."

"Same thing for me," Orthar said from the side.

Gravis nodded with a smile. "I knew that you three had a chance. If you didn't, I would have forced Shira or Liza to fight with you. As long as I threaten them, they wouldn't dare to disobey me," Gravis said with a smirk.

Orthar and Morn felt Gravis' trust, but Silva narrowed his eyes.

"Where is that cowardly snake?" he asked with rage.