Lightning Is the Only Way

"That's him, right?" a 500-meter-tall ape with powerful muscles asked the beast beside him.

The other beast was a skinny and long lizard, just a bit longer than the ape.

"According to the description, yes," the lizard answered.

Right now, they both looked down at Gravis, who was still sitting on top of the Spire. The two beasts were outside of Gravis' Spirit's range. Luckily, since they were level four Lords, their awareness reached further than Gravis'. Because of that, they could see him, while Gravis couldn't see them.

The ape looked around with furrowed brows. "I see no other beasts. Wasn't he supposed to be the Leader of some River Tribe or something?" the ape asked.

The lizard sneered. "According to intel, yes, but we received that intel several weeks ago. Some things might have changed. We can just ask him before we kill him."

The ape furrowed his brows further. "Don't forget what the Commander has ordered. According to what the two-headed snake has said, this beast has the ability to fight two levels higher than itself. I don't believe that shit, but our Commander wanted us to test it out."

"Sure, sure," the lizard commented nonchalantly. "We just need to test it and then kill him. After all, that's why both of us have been sent to this shitty backwater place."

The ape sneered and huffed. "Yeah, we're so far away from our home that the beasts here don't even know about our Kingdom. It's been a long while since some weaklings dared to question me. If our Commander hadn't said that we shouldn't waste food, I would have annihilated these weaklings."

The lizard only rolled his eyes. "Why do you care what some ants think about you? That's exactly what the Commander meant when she said that this is your biggest weakness. We stand above them. After all, only power matters."

The ape huffed again and crossed his arms. Yet, he seemed to have accepted the lizard's words. This showed that they respected their Commander quite a bit.

"Anyway, let's greet him," the lizard said with a bloodthirsty smirk.

The ape nodded.

Then, they both shot at the Spire with quite some speed. Soon, Gravis noticed them too and narrowed his eyes. Several things surprised and impressed him.

The first thing was that both beasts were relatively small for being level four Lords. This meant that they knew the advantage of having a small body, which showed that they weren't inexperienced. On top of that, they would have needed to decide on their size as soon as they became Lords.

According to his calculations, the beasts should have been only about ten-meters-tall when they became level one Lords, quite small in comparison to other beasts. This showed that they knew the importance of size even before becoming Lords.

Most Spirit Beasts didn't know about the advantage of having a small size. This also means that they have been guided in their past. They probably came from a power that had established itself for a long time and had a lot of experience.

The other thing that surprised Gravis was the ape. It wasn't his body that impressed him, but what he carried in his hands. The ape carried a thick and powerful tree-trunk in his hands, which was quite impressive for a beast. After all, this showed that the ape realized that he could use weapons.

Only very few beasts realized that they could use something other than their body to fight. Using something external like ore or a tree-trunk was basically a completely unknown concept to these beasts.

The tree-trunk was a hundred-meters-long and quite hard. Gravis felt the power of the tree and guessed that it was the trunk of a Late Unity Plant. This meant that the trunk was probably even harder than all the saber's that Gravis had crafted. Gravis had a lot of sabers, but none of them would be able to withstand or damage that tree-trunk.

'Interesting,' Gravis thought with narrowed eyes. Then, he slowly stood up and readied himself. Two level four Lords had arrived, and both of them seemed to be quite experienced and skilled.

"Weren't you supposed to have a Tribe?" the lizard directly asked Gravis. "According to our intel, you should be the Leader of some abomination called the River Tribe."

"I disbanded the River Tribe a couple of weeks ago," Gravis said slowly. "I knew that I had offended enemies above our ability to withstand. So, to protect my beasts, I disbanded the River Tribe and let them scatter all over the world."

The two beasts looked at each other in uncertainty. Then, the lizard turned back to Gravis. "Have they created another River Tribe somewhere else?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Gravis bitterly laughed a bit. "They aren't as reckless as me," Gravis said. "The sea beasts and Land beasts have split into several camps."

The ape looked at the lizard again with a questioning look. In answer, the lizard only waved one of his claws dismissively. "I think we can consider the first part of our mission complete then. After all, our mission was to destroy the River Tribe. As far as I see, the River Tribe doesn't exist anymore. So, less work for us, I guess," the lizard transmitted to the ape.

The ape huffed a bit. In comparison to the lizard, the ape had actually looked forward to showing his power to a Tribe of weak beasts. Sadly, the Commander had said that the lizard would make the calls during their mission. It wasn't that the lizard was stronger, but that he was smarter. The lizard had a cooler head than the ape.

"Anyway," the lizard said as he turned to Gravis with a grin. "That only leaves the second and third part. I'm guessing you want to take the honors?" he asked.

The ape grinned maliciously as he also looked at Gravis with bloodlust. "Gladly!"

Gravis felt the ape's battle-intent and knew that it was about to attack him. He only hoped that they took him lightly and that he could kill the ape before the lizard got involved. If they both attacked together, Gravis would likely die today.

BOOOOOM!

In an instant, the ape shot forward and slammed the tree into the Spire, right onto Gravis. The Spire completely broke apart with a mighty explosion since it couldn't withstand such a powerful attack from the ape.

Whooosh!

Suddenly, the lizard moved to the side of the ape and opened his mouth. A second later, the lightning bolt that had been there a second ago transformed into Gravis. Gravis only narrowed his eyes at the lizard, but inside, he was nervous.

Gravis wanted to kill the ape with an attack from the side when it didn't pay attention, but the lizard had been too careful. His best chance at winning the fight was gone.

"You've been careless," the lizard said to the ape as he looked at Gravis. "You didn't take your opponent seriously."

The ape grew angry when he heard that. "No one would believe that a beast can jump two levels," the ape said in his defense.

The lizard only smirked as he didn't let Gravis leave his eyes. "I know, but the Commander said that the intel was rather reliable. You should trust the Commander more."

"Anyway," the lizard said as he stretched his body, "this concludes the second part of our mission. The fact that this beast managed to nearly sneak-attack you shows that it can threaten you. So, this proves that the intel had been true."

The ape narrowed his eyes but then only grinned maliciously again. "So that leaves only the third part, right?" he asked.

The lizard also grinned. "Correct."

"Good!" the ape shouted.

"Then, let's kill this abomination!" the ape transmitted.

After that, the lizard and ape flanked Gravis on both sides.

Gravis only looked at them with narrowed eyes.

"Sorry," the ape said in a sarcastic tone, "our Commander doesn't like gambling. So, we're supposed to use everything in our power to kill you, even if we believe that one of us can take you on alone."

"So, just lay down and die, okay?" the ape said as he lifted the tree trunk.

The lizard on the other side opened his mouth, and some green mist escaped it. Both of them were readying powerful attacks.

Gravis only summoned his saber.