Chapter 347 - 347 – Grass And Ground
Gravis was trapped in a perilous situation. He had to harden his body to survive these shockwaves, but with this strengthened body, it would become too heavy to lift. If he wanted to escape the area, he would need to lighten his body, but then, a single shockwave would reduce him to dust. But if he strengthened it, he would fall! After all, there was no gap in the wall to keep him steady.
Gravis quickly realized that there was only one way to survive. If he remained in the air like this, he would die. So, Gravis decided to shoot towards the ground.
BANG!
Another shockwave arrived, but with Gravis' previous experience, he was able to protect himself better. Instead of being hit across his whole body, he angled himself so that his feet were pointing at the shockwave.
If the power came from a fall, it would be better to distribute his body's weight onto a broader surface, but the power came from the air. The smaller the affected area, the better for him. The shockwave hit his feet, making some of his muscles tear, but he was able to stop himself from crashing into the wall with his arms. Of course, his arms also took some damage.
Fortunately, since the majority of the force went into his feet and arms, he could slightly bend them to reduce the force. Like this, Gravis continued falling, tanking one shockwave after the other. In the intervals between the shockwaves, Gravis lightened his weight to slow his fall with his Spirit. He had no idea how hard the ground was, so he wanted to be careful.
After around half a minute, Gravis touched the ground gently. He was directly beside the wall, and the grass didn't touch it. The grass grew about ten meters away from him, barely being inside his Spirit's range.
'What powerful grass,' Gravis thought in shock. 'It's harder than even my fully strengthened body. On top of that, since it's so small, it doesn't feel much of the shockwave. The other grass also filters the shockwaves further. This makes it so that every piece of grass only has to feel a slight amount of the shockwave. That's how it's able to grow in this environment.'
Yet, Gravis found another huge problem. 'Since the wall is perfectly vertical, the shockwave travels down and up along the wall. Since I'm at the walls foot, parts of the shockwave also hit me from above now.'
Gravis was smart, but he couldn't foresee every development. He had simply not thought about the wall when he was falling.
Yet, there was also something positive. 'Since the grass is slightly stronger than my body, I should be powerful enough to dig into the ground.'
With that thought, Gravis took out his Void-Stone Saber and started digging into the ground, but it was hard. With his fully strengthened body, he had to use nearly all his force to dig. Yet, it was still difficult. A saber wasn't a good shovel, and progress was slow.
The shockwaves also continued, injuring Gravis further, and Gravis had to concentrate on staying alive. After a while, Gravis saw that his efforts bore nearly no results. It would take too long to make a hole for himself. 'On top of that, the shockwaves will probably become more powerful later. Two powerful beasts are probably fighting, and these are only the shockwaves from the beginning of the fight. If they get serious, they will become many times stronger. I need something else.'
Gravis noticed that the shockwaves moved the dirt around a bit, and some of the surrounding dirt was pushed into his created hole again. That opened up a completely new possibility for him.
Gravis' eyes shone as he started digging directly at the wall. Since the shockwaves traveled down along the wall, they should also enter the small hole directly at the wall. After that, the shockwave needed an outlet for its power since more of its power was continuing to push down. The shockwave was unable to destroy the wall, so it could only push on the ground.
As Gravis dug, he also realized another problem. Summoning the dirt into his Spirit Space wouldn't work. The roots below the ground were alive, and the dirt they touched was infused with their will. He could only pocket the dirt that he had dug away.
To top it all off, since every piece of grass was at the Unity Realm, Gravis would probably only be able to get one piece of grass into the Life Ring. Yet, that would probably waste nearly all his Spirit.
Luckily, his plan paid off. The shockwave entered the small hole and started pushing the dirt to the side. It was quickly getting bigger. Sadly, it was only getting wider but not deeper. When he saw that, Gravis' gritted his teeth.
'I'm running out of options! I can only try my lightning now!' he thought. Using his lightning was risky. After all, his body's stamina was nearly limitless, but every use of his lightning would use up a considerable amount of it.
BZZZZ! BOOM!
Gravis threw a Lightning Bomb into the hole, and it quickly exploded. Sadly, the result was that the hole only grew deeper by a couple of centimeters. Gravis didn't have enough lightning to create a hole deep enough for him like this.
Yet, Gravis' eyes widened in surprise. Energy entered his body at a rapid rate. 'Fuck! I totally forgot about the high Energy density! Since I'm disconnected from the Energy, I forgot about it!'
Then, Gravis' turned around and looked away from the wall with shining eyes. 'On top of that, this Energy doesn't all come from the atmosphere,' Gravis thought as he saw that some pieces of grass had been transformed into dust.
The grass was hard and great at resisting shockwaves, but lightning was something different. The lightning had entered their roots and had traveled along with them, destroying some pieces of grass. When they died, the Energy in their bodies came back to Gravis.
When Gravis saw that, his eyes shone.
Whooop!
Immediately, he pocketed as much earth as he could into his Spirit Space. There were no more roots in his immediate surroundings, so he was able to pocket quite a lot of it. Yet, the hole was still not big enough for him to fit in.
'Well, if I regain Energy that quickly, I can stop being frugal.'
BZZZZ! BOOOOOOOM!
Gravis summoned a Lightning Bomb with nearly his full power and chucked it into the hole. It immediately exploded, making the hole nearly 20 centimeters deeper. By now, it was around half a meter deep.
Gravis saw a lot of grass dying and pocketed as much earth as he could again.
BOOM!
Gravis spat a mouthful of blood as he was pushed to the wall again. He had been lying on the ground the whole time to resist the shockwaves, but this one had been way more powerful. His Life Lightning had also run out by now.
'Fuck, the shockwaves are becoming more powerful. I need to hurry!'
Gravis pocketed more dirt and gritted his teeth. 'I wanted to make a hole where I could sit in, but it seems like that won't be possible. Well, I can only do this!'
The hole was not that deep but very wide and angled like a slope. When the shockwave entered it, it would push the dirt outward, away from the wall. Due to that force, it had created a slope that allowed the shockwaves to exit the hole.
Gravis quickly crawled inside and then summoned his pocketed dirt above him. He summoned the dirt to create a slope, but this one was above the ground and angled so that the shockwaves wouldn't hit him.
The shockwaves from the front would travel upwards while the shockwaves from the top would travel away from the wall. Like this, Gravis waited inside his hole.
PUCHI!
Only to get impaled by a root. The tiny root started absorbing his Life Energy, but Gravis immediately summoned his lightning. The root was destroyed, but others quickly took its place. 'The grass is treating me like fertilizer!' Gravis realized.
Luckily, for once, there was enough Energy around to keep his lightning topped up. Every root that came near him was spotted by his Spirit and promptly destroyed.
This whole situation continued for nearly an hour.