chapter 31:

Hidden because of his haunting march, Luke tried to sneak attack from the left but Lion smiled, always looking at his direction " You know what is cool with my ability? It's that nothing can hide from me. " Enraged by the smugness of his words, Luke simply sent multiple dark blasts his way, which all got repelled.

Still sporting a smug smile, Lion once again provoked Luke " My friend, if it continues like this, your death will come early and brutally. "

While saying that, he used his repelling power on Luke's chest once again, making him cough out blood.

Being in a dire situation, Luke, as expected of him, was calm, calmer than he looked at least. He knew that Lion was either trying to agitate him or was just really confident. Either way, it doesn't change his situation, or at least, that's what Lion thinks. This time, Luke mentally smiled, what he was experimenting succeeded.

Since he became tier two and that his spatial storage evolved, or more like unsealed a little, Luke knew he could do more things. He always tried to find what, only to fail each time. Honestly, he knew from a long time that his ability was overpowered, it was quite blatant, but he always felt like his ability belonged to the late bloomer abilities.

These are the kind of abilities that only show their might in the later stages, yet, he could already do things that immediate results abilities couldn't. This time, what the evolution of his ability brought was that it absorbed 50% of the enemy's attack, at least from the same tier. The blows he received from Lion attacks were now twice weaker.

Looking at Lion deeply, Luke stayed in the same place and began chugging down potions. Seeing him not only motionless but also healing, Lion wouldn't just let him be. Furthermore, for reasons unknown, his smile turned somber. With a serious look, he began dashing towards Luke with his spear raised and once again, Luke felt the gravity around him increase, this time, trying to crush him.

Then Lion's spearhead trembled and Luke felt the repelling blast hit his raised arms, which he used to protect his head. He head was jerked back while coughing blood. but the gravity around him still held him in place. Lion, with a speed that was much faster than Luke ( Who invested heavily on agility ), appeared in front of him and had his spear pulled back, ready to launch a devastating killing blow.

Luke, now within Lion's striking zone released a thousand dark blast all around him, which hit Lion hard, but the guy wasn't even heavily injured, he just slid a few tens of meters. He looked savage with dark elements still corroding parts of his charred skin, mane and with his predatory look.

Not willing to stay near that monster, Luke used both haunting march and space run at the same time. He fled a little distance away and reappeared. He was shocked.

He just couldn't understand why Lion was in such a 'good' condition after taking a literal nuke head on. He knew the difference in stats within the same tier could be absurd, even more so at tier 2 but Lion was just too much. They both just got to tier 2, most likely with a few days of difference at most.

So, he ruled out the possibility of Lion just having way higher stats. Instead, he concentrated and with the help of his intuition, he could somehow feel a kind of cloak around Lion. A gravity cloak. Thinking back to what he knew about gravity, he deducted that this cloak not only increased speed to the extreme, but it also increased defense, thanks to the absurd properties the gravity element brought.

While Luke was thinking about him, Lion also observed Luke. He was honestly shocked. The moment he saw Luke motionless, his greatly overpowered instincts told him to quickly finish him off. Having relied on his instincts all his life, he immediately acted and went all out. But the guy not only didn't die, even more so, his instincts were getting more frantic by the second.

With a wry smile, he spoke: " I say, it's a quite dangerous attack you had in stock ". With the same wry smile, Luke replied " You're the one to talk? " Both shaking their heads at the same time, they got back to fighting stances.

Having a staring contest, Lion ended it by once again dashing towards Luke, this time, attracting him towards his spear. Not expecting the contrary of what he always experienced so far, Luke was taken off guard but he swung both his daggers towards the ground, which sent dark slashes towards Lion ( basically getsuga tensho).

The reason why he could do this was thanks to Lion's gravity attacks he stored. He used them to roughly shape his dark beams to make them some kind of energy slashes.

* Congratulations soldier Luke on creating a new spell. You have been awarded 4000 PTS

Please name it. * Hearing the system prompt, Luke was quite surprised but he brushed it off, deciding to deal with it after the fight.

Lion, not expecting something different from the usual beams was also caught off guard. Moreover, his instincts screamed at him to dodge, so he did, letting Luke free from his gravity.

This got them in another stalemate, and incidentally, in another staring contest. Quickly debating his options, Lion once again used his gravity to hold Luke in place while he shot another repelling beam. Taking the brunt of the now twice weaker attack, Luke responded by sending multiple dark slashes, the name he came up with.

Lion once again had to dodge and let Luke go.

Frustrated, he annoyedly spat " You've created a spell, haven't you? " Seeing the stunned look on Luke's face, he snickered and continued " I also did, and you will suffer from it. "

Blasting Luke the farthest away from him possible, Lion began to concentrate, with his spearhead vibrating like crazy. Luke who was repelled back didn't let his surprised feelings get to him.

Not knowing what Lion would do, but still having his intuition scream at him to do something, not flee, he brought out his tweaked gun in front of him and used all remaining stored gravity powers to shape more than a thousand dark blasts in a ball, inside the barrel.

Finished, he immediately shot, creating a sort of laser beam, which destroyed his gun and traveled towards Lion. On the other hand, Lion shot a compressed gravity beam that can pierce anything from the tip of his spearhead.

Both beans met in mid-air and because of the wild and uncontrolled nature of both attacks, an explosion which engulfed both Luke and Lion was created. The ambient energy resulting from it created a kind of smog, hiding anything that is within it.

Afterward, the only sound that was heard before the system prompt was " thank you "