Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2154: You’re Next

The three Ninth-stage Necromancers went all out. Humiliation and rage burned in their eyes as they attacked Grey together, determined not to let him slip away again.

Darkness, earth, and wind elemental energies surged toward him from three directions at once. The combined pressure of three experts of the same cultivation would have forced most Ninth-stage Sovereigns into a desperate defense. Grey remained unfazed. Blue flames erupted around his body, mixing with crackling lightning and sharp wind as he met the assault head-on.

He did not retreat. Instead, he stepped directly into the attacks.

A dense wall of earth smashed toward his left side. Grey’s left hand formed a spinning drill of wind and lightning that punched straight through the center of the wall, shattering it into flying chunks of rock. At the same time he twisted his torso, allowing a whip of pure darkness to pass only inches from his ribs. His right fist, coated in concentrated blue flames, drove toward the chest of the nearest Ninth-stage Necromancer. The man reacted in time, throwing up a last-second defense of layered darkness and earth.

The impact still sent him flying backward with a muffled grunt. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth as he struggled to stabilize himself mid-air. Before the other two could close the distance, Grey’s figure flickered. He appeared above the second Necromancer and brought both hands down in a heavy overhead strike. A brutal combination of condensed earth and roaring fire crashed onto the man’s hastily raised barrier, cracking it deeply and driving him down onto one knee.

The third Necromancer tried to exploit the brief opening, sending a dense spear of darkness straight at Grey’s back. Without looking, Grey swept his hand behind him. A curtain of blue flames erupted in an instant and melted the spear before it could reach his body. He turned and unleashed a rapid series of lightning bolts that forced the third man to abandon his follow-up attack and focus entirely on defense.

In the span of only a few breaths, the clean coordination between the three Ninth-stage Necromancers had been broken. One struggled to steady his breathing, blood still leaking from his mouth. Another remained on one knee, his barrier on the verge of complete collapse. The third had been forced into a purely defensive stance.

The trio’s faces showed clear disbelief. How could one person retaliate so effectively under the combined pressure of three opponents of the same cultivation realm?

Across the hall, Reynolds and Void continued to press their advantage.

With the earlier encirclement broken, Reynolds no longer fought only to survive. His lightning armor flared brighter as he and Void moved in smooth, practiced coordination. Whenever two or three Sixth- or Seventh-stage Necromancers tried to surround him, Void would distort the space around their feet or weapons, creating small but critical openings. Reynolds exploited every one of them with ruthless efficiency. Lightning bolts punched cleanly through chests. Wide arcs of crackling electricity sent groups of enemies tumbling across the cracked floor.

The Eighth-stage Necromancer whom Reynolds and Void had wounded earlier attempted to rally the remaining weaker fighters. Void appeared behind him in a flicker of black fur and swiped his claws across the back of the man’s legs. The sudden attack collapsed the Necromancer’s stance at the worst possible moment. Reynolds’s condensed lightning orb crashed directly into his face, sending him sprawling across the stone floor. His condition was unknown, but he did not rise.

The second Eighth-stage Sovereign saw the danger and rushed forward to stop Reynolds from delivering a finishing blow. His hasty intervention blocked Reynolds’s follow-up attack, buying the downed man a slim chance at survival. Even so, several of the remaining weaker Necromancers began to hesitate. Their numerical advantage was evaporating before their eyes, and the coordinated assault from Reynolds and Void was growing harder to withstand with each passing exchange.

While the battles on Grey’s and Reynolds’s sides shifted rapidly, the rest of the hall remained locked in heavy combat.

The Mayor and Elder Harrington had taken their fight high into the skies above the city. The destruction that two Peak Sovereigns could unleash at ground level would have been catastrophic for Cinderloch. Only the continuous flashing of elemental light among the clouds revealed that a fierce battle was taking place overhead. The exact situation of that fight remained unknown to those still inside the underground hall.

On the far side of the ruined chamber, Elder Voss’s flames had grown even more intense. Liora and the Ninth-stage Necromancer protecting her were now clearly on the defensive. Their movements became increasingly desperate as Voss refused to give them even a moment to breathe. Her attacks carried more weight and heat than they had at the beginning of the battle.

Back on Grey’s side, the three Ninth-stage Necromancers tried to regroup. The one who had taken the flaming fist to the chest wiped blood from his mouth and snarled in anger. The three of them spread out once more, attempting to recreate their previous encirclement.

Grey did not give them the chance.

He shot forward toward the most injured of the three. Lightning and wind exploded beneath his feet as he closed the distance in an instant. The wounded Necromancer raised both hands, pouring darkness and earth into a thick defensive barrier. Grey’s blue flames roared louder in response. He thrust his palm forward, and a concentrated spear of blue fire mixed with sharp lightning pierced straight through the center of the barrier.

The spear drove deep into the Necromancer’s shoulder, burning through flesh and bone. A raw scream tore from the man’s throat as the force threw him backward. His right arm hung loosely at his side, barely functional.

At that exact moment the remaining two Ninth-stage Necromancers launched their attacks.

Grey attempted to use his space element to teleport out of range, but the combined force of their strikes disrupted the spatial fluctuation and forced him back into physical form. The timing of their attacks was perfect. There was no room left to dodge.

He threw up a hasty, multi-layered defense of earth, wind, and flickering flames. The two powerful strikes slammed into the barrier at the same time. The defense held for only a fraction of a second before shattering. The residual force sent Grey flying across the hall. He crashed hard into one of the remaining stone pillars, shattering it completely and adding to the heavy damage the underground structure had already suffered. Dust and debris exploded outward from the point of impact.

On Reynolds’s side, the last organized resistance among the weaker Necromancers finally collapsed. Several bodies lay unmoving across the cracked floor. The few who remained began to back away, their earlier confidence replaced by open fear. Void hovered near Reynolds’s shoulder, tail flicking as he watched for any sudden movement.

Grey climbed out from the rubble of the destroyed pillar, wiping a thin line of blood from the corner of his mouth. He raised his head and stared at the two still-standing Ninth-stage Necromancers. Blue flames and lightning coiled calmly around his arms once more, as if the previous exchange had done little to diminish his presence.

His voice was quiet, yet it carried clearly through the noise of the ongoing battle.

”You’re next.”