Aris directly charged at Cera without any fanfare. His speed was incredible, and even though Cera had been prepared, it was still difficult for her to react to Aris' ridiculous acceleration. The only thing she could do was use the same acceleration technique to evade the attack.
Yet, this gave Aris the initiative, and he immediately charged after her. Cera realized that she couldn't continue like this. If she did, she would run out of Energy first. After all, Aris could simply feign an acceleration without using it. Due to the potential attack, Cera would need to use her own acceleration either way if she wanted to evade.
So, for the next attack, Cera decided to charge at Aris too. Both of them charged at each other, but it was hard for both of them to mount an attack because of their speed.
BANG!
Yet, Aris had made a gamble and attacked either way. If Cera decided to evade, she would be too far away to make use of that opportunity, but if she attacked, he would be able to hit her. Sure enough, Aris swiped Cera to the side with his claws.
CRRRR!
Cera's scales were powerful, and the claws could not penetrate them, but the attack still shook her insides. Aris followed up with another attack.
BANG! BANG!
Yet, Cera recovered quickly and rammed directly into Aris with her body before he could attack. Both of them were thrown into the distance due to the force of the collision.
BANG!
Another collision happened as both of them hit each other again. Then it happened another time and another time.
CRK!
But now, something happened that changed the dynamic. Cera had always charged at Aris with her shoulders while Aris charged forward with his claws to injure her. Yet, due to their defenses, Aris' claws and forearm broke. Bones were not as hard as the scales, and Cera managed to come out on top.
When Aris felt the broken bones, he sneered. In the next collision, he used his legs, hitting Cera on the shoulder again.
CRACK!
Cera's shoulder broke, making one of her arms nearly useless, while Aris could still use his arm somewhat. By now, they had used up a lot of their Energy. Every acceleration cost a huge amount of Energy, and both of them were running low now.
Due to that, the fight became a scuffle, with both of them using all their weapons to injure the other. Their usual tactics didn't work anymore due to their scales. Normally, in order to break the defense of more powerful beasts, they would use their lightning. Of course, both of them knew that their lightning wouldn't work on the other.
Like this, an ugly scuffle happened with both of them rolling around, trying to injure the other with everything they got. Both of them hadn't fought like this before, but that was when the difference in their combat experiences showed.
CRRR!
Cera tried to claw out one of Aris' eyes, but he barely managed to move out of the way. Then, he gave up on the other parts of her body and grabbed her extended arm with everything he had. His claws grabbed her wrist while his legs wrapped around her upper arm. Then, he bent backwards.
'Is that an armbar?' Gravis thought in surprise.
Such typical mortal techniques like an armbar were rarely seen in the cultivation world. After all, beasts had different sizes, and using such a technique would leave them open for an elemental attack. Yet, in this case, this technique worked wonders.
CRR!
Cera's arm was close to being broken, and she used her tail to attack Aris' head.
SNAP!
Aris had been prepared for that and bit the tail with his teeth, not letting it go. In a matter of seconds, the scales on Cera's tail started cracking apart as Aris used more and more strength. If Cera didn't do something, she would lose her arm and tail.
CRACK!
Instead of fighting the armbar, Cera decided to break her own arm and awkwardly twisted herself to get her other arm into the range of Aris. Then, her claws moved towards Aris' groin. She grabbed the things that were there and yanked with all her power.
"AAARRGHH!!!" Aris shouted in pain as he jumped away. Rage and pain mixed, and he charged at Cera again.
Cera quickly stood up again, but one of her arms was completely useless now. Additionally, her tail hurt like hell, and her bones were already exposed.
Consumed by rage, Aris violently used all his power to injure her in as many places as possible. Right now, he was no longer fighting smartly. He only wanted to kill her as quickly and violently as possible.
Cera was on the defensive again as she used different parts of her body to block the attacks. Of course, she still got minorly injured with every attack. Yet, she had a plan.
Puchi!
As Cera defended again, she used her working arm and tore out one of Aris' eyes. This shocked Aris, and his rage was replaced by nervousness. In a split-second decision, Aris bit her functioning arm and used one of his legs to kick the bitten arm.
CRACK!
The bone inside the arm broke into pieces as several fangs of Aris also got torn out of their sockets. Yet, Cera used this opportunity to bite Aris' head.
BANG!
Aris had regained his rationality and used his last remaining lightning to jump away before Cera could do anything.
Right now, Aris had a broken forearm, broken teeth, and the parts in his groin had been torn off.
Meanwhile, Cera had lost the use of both of her arms. One arm had been broken into pieces, while the other one had a broken shoulder and broken elbow. Additionally, her tail was also close to being torn off.
Aris and Cera looked at each other with narrowed eyes. Some rage appeared in Aris' eyes again, but surprisingly, he only took a deep breath. Cera watched him carefully.
Then, Aris smirked. "I haven't had such an intense fight in a while," he said. "Yet, the winner is obvious. You have lost the use of both of your arms, and your tail is also nearly useless."
Cera didn't answer him, but she could only agree. Her main weapons had been destroyed, and with Aris still having a functioning arm, he could counter her other attacks. The only correct decision she could make right now is to flee.
Aris relaxed as he stood up straight to crack his spine. "You're powerful enough to be my sibling," Aris said as he smirked again. "But I have won. This means that I am the leader!"
Cera had realized by now that Aris had no more intentions of attacking her. Yet, she didn't feel happy or relaxed. Instead, she gnashed her teeth violently as frustration took over.
She had lost!
Additionally, she had lost against a beast at the same level as her! Something like this had never happened before, and she hated this feeling!
She had thought that her Battle-Strength was the most powerful. She had believed that no one would be able to resist her if they were at the same level. Today, she had been confronted with reality. She wasn't the most powerful beast on her level.
Cera looked at Aris with hate. "For now, I will accept that, but don't become complacent. We will fight again in the future, and then I will be the leader!" she said coldly with a threatening tone.
Aris smiled with arrogance. "I wouldn't have it any other way! I don't want weaklings in my presence," he said with confidence and disdain.
Both of them hadn't realized what had just happened. Normally, such equally powerful beasts would kill each other no matter what. Yet, to them, it felt natural to band together. It was very rare that fighting beasts became companions later on.
'Is this because of my human mindset?' Gravis asked himself. 'If there is a big strength difference, one beast will become subservient to the other. Yet, if beasts are equally powerful, they will never follow the other one. After all, killing and consuming such a powerful opponent would do wonders for their Battle-Strength.'
'Humans are different. Humans want to be close to others by nature,' Gravis thought with narrowed eyes. 'It seems like my human mindset has somewhat influenced their mindset.'
After this fight, both of them sat down to recover. The fight had taken everything out of them, and if they wanted to become more powerful, they needed to hunt some more High-Rank Spirit Beasts.
After a day, they left together. They had already formed a kind of small Tribe with this action. None of the two questioned this development. To them, it felt natural to travel together, unknowing of the fact that this was very atypical for beasts.
They quickly found some High-Rank Spirit Beasts. Aris allowed Cera to fight them since she needed more food than him. He didn't do this out of kindness but because these beasts were too weak for him. He wanted his last opponent to be a powerful one.
After some days, Cera had fought multiple times again. Sadly, the opponents were too weak to offer good tempering. The fact that she had learned a lot from her fight against Aris didn't help in that regard. Her opponents were nothing more than fodder.
Cera grew more frustrated as time progressed. She needed a powerful opponent to temper herself! She needed this to fight Aris again.
Right now, her goal was not to become more powerful for the sake of power.
Right now, she only wanted to put Aris in his place!
