Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2158: Trapped With Me III

’Oh no.’

The look in Grey’s eyes when they locked onto him was that of a predator staring at its prey. The second Necromancer recognized that expression all too well. He had worn the same look countless times while ending the lives of others.

Without hesitation he tried to twist mid-air and escape the incoming flames. He was too slow. The smoke and fire swallowed him completely, hiding him from view.

A moment later the roaring flames that filled the entire inside of the barrier were suddenly blasted apart from one region. When the array master looked in that direction, his eyes widened in panic.

’He tricked me.’

The flames had been dispersed by the force of a direct clash between Grey and the second Necromancer. The impact was strong enough to clear a wide area of the residual fire from the puppet’s self-destruction.

When the array master saw them clearly, the second Necromancer was barely holding on against Grey’s relentless assault. The array master immediately mobilized the power of the formation, sending multiple golden tendrils shooting toward Grey in an attempt to force him back.

Grey had already taken the full brunt of the Seventh-stage puppet’s self-destruction at close range. His dragon scales were cracked in several places, a few had even been completely blasted off, and his clothes were scorched and torn. A deep ache spread through his side and his ears still rang faintly from the explosion, yet he refused to let the second Necromancer escape. A three-colored fusion orb formed in his hand in an instant and slammed into the Necromancer’s hastily raised defense.

The defense shattered just before the golden tendrils arrived, giving Grey the opening he needed.

His palm struck the second Necromancer squarely in the chest. He expected the man’s chest to cave in under the force. Instead, the golden tendrils reached them at the exact moment of impact. Rather than attacking Grey, the tendrils wrapped tightly around the second Necromancer and yanked him backward. The clear sound of ribs cracking rang out for a split second before the man was dragged out of range.

The array master’s timely intervention saved his companion’s life, but it was not enough to prevent serious injury. The second Necromancer coughed up a mouthful of blood, his aura fluctuating wildly as he struggled to stay upright.

The array master stared at Grey in surprise. The second Necromancer felt pure dread. In the moment Grey’s palm connected with his chest, he had clearly felt the aura of death. The aftershock of the puppet’s self-destruction had left him unable to move freely. Only pure combat experience and a desperate will to survive had allowed him to sense the incoming strike at the last instant. Even the hasty defense he managed to form had been far from enough. Without the array master’s rescue, he would already be dead.

Grey tried to press the attack further, but the array master forced him back with another wave of golden light. Frustration flickered across Grey’s face, yet he did not lose focus. Several of his silver scales were missing and his clothes were badly burnt, but his eyes never left the injured Necromancer. He knew that without the array master’s intervention the man would have died from that strike.

Grey steadied his breathing. Four inscriptions appeared behind his shoulders, each glowing with a different element: water, earth, fire, and wind.

The inscriptions flared to life and began raining continuous attacks down on the two Necromancers. Streams of water, spikes of earth, balls of fire, and blades of wind aimed at the duo.

Understanding that his companion was badly wounded, the array master stepped fully in front of him. He combined the power of the formation with his darkness element, creating a two-layered defense. The outer layer was a thick barrier of flowing golden array light, while the inner layer was a dense wall of corrosive darkness that clung to the golden surface like living armor. Together they formed a sturdy shield that blocked the first wave of elemental attacks from Grey’s inscriptions.

Grey’s plan was never to use the inscriptions to take them down. While the inscriptions continued to rain attacks, he attempted to use a space elemental technique to create an opening in the array master’s defense, but the formation’s isolation of space caused the attempt to fail.

”This formation really is annoying,” he muttered under his breath before changing his approach.

Two four-colored fusion orbs appeared in his hands, each one slowly rotating as they drew in water, earth, fire, and wind elemental energies. He let them float forward toward the array master’s dual-layered defense.

When the array master saw the two incoming multi-colored orbs, a sharp tug of warning pulled at his heart. He could clearly sense that the power contained within each orb already exceeded the normal limits of the Ninth stage of the Sovereign Plane. It was an attack that only those at the Peak of the Sovereign Plane or higher should be able to wield.

Looking at his heavily injured partner, the array master gritted his teeth and drew even more energy from the golden barrier. The bright glow of the formation dimmed noticeably as he poured everything he could into reinforcing his defense.

Boom!

The two fusion orbs struck the barrier at the same time. A massive explosion erupted inside the sealed space, shaking the entire formation violently. The ground outside the barrier cracked further, and the golden walls trembled under the concentrated force.

When the light and shockwaves finally settled, the array master’s two-layered defense was barely still standing, and was in terrible condition. Large sections of the outer golden layer had been blown apart, and the inner darkness wall was full of gaping holes and rapidly dissipating energy. The array master himself had been forced back several steps, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His face was pale and his aura had clearly weakened from the massive amount of energy he had just expended.

Behind him, the second Necromancer was in even worse shape. The residual force that had leaked through the damaged barrier had aggravated his already broken ribs. He was on one knee, coughing up more blood, and could barely keep himself from collapsing completely. His eyes were wide with genuine fear as he stared at Grey through the thinning smoke.