Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2182: End Of The Seige

Grey gave no time for the enemy to recover.

The moment the bunny army appeared, he, Reynolds, and Elder Varis pressed forward without hesitation. The nine Ninth-stage bunnies spread out in coordinated pairs, intercepting the fleeing Ninth-stage Gnomes before they could open any real distance. Lower-stage bunnies poured into the broken ranks of the remaining Gnome forces, overwhelming isolated groups with sheer numbers and relentless elemental attacks. The night sky above the mountain range filled with fresh flashes of light as the counterattack intensified from every side.

Reynolds’s lightning spear flashed as he chased down a Ninth-stage Sovereign Gnome who had broken toward the southern peaks. He thrust the spear toward the Gnome’s back. The enemy hastily raised a darkness barrier to block the strike, only for Grey to appear behind him in a short-range spatial shift, already swinging a sword of condensed blue flames. The Gnome reacted quickly and twisted to the side. Even so, he was not fast enough. The flaming blade sheared cleanly through one of his arms, sending the severed limb spinning away into the darkness.

The Gnome grimaced in pain but did not slow his attempt to escape. Reynolds gave him no opportunity. When he had first attacked he had not yet entered his merged state. Now his Elemental Warrior materialized directly in the Gnome’s escape path. The wounded Ninth-stage Sovereign, still reeling from the loss of his arm and the sudden appearance of Grey, flew straight into the lightning spear held by the Elemental Warrior. Although the construct only possessed the strength of an Eighth-stage Sovereign, it was more than enough to kill a Ninth-stage opponent who had no defenses prepared. The Gnome died under the coordinated assault of Grey and Reynolds in the span of only a few breaths. The two of them turned at once toward the remaining escapees.

Elder Varis, meanwhile, continued to direct his flaming bird as it wrecked havoc among the weaker Gnomes while he himself pursued another fleeing Ninth-stage Sovereign. He cut off the Gnome’s path with a wall of fire. Realizing escape was no longer possible, the Gnome turned to fight, but the difference in cultivation was absolute. Elder Varis, as a Peak Sovereign, overpowered him within seconds. Concentrated flames and precise elemental strikes reduced both the Gnome’s defenses and his body to drifting ash.

Across the battlefield the collapse of the Gnome forces accelerated. Lower-stage Gnomes, abandoned by their stronger companions and stripped of any puppet support, fell in large numbers under the combined pressure of human experts and the bunny army. Human Sovereigns who had been fighting under heavy pressure only moments earlier now surged forward with renewed confidence, their earlier fear replaced by sharp, focused aggression. The previously skeptical Ninth-stage Sovereign, still half in shock from everything he had witnessed, joined the pursuit with gritted teeth. He cut down several fleeing Sixth- and Seventh-stage Gnomes in quick succession, as if trying to erase his earlier public doubts through decisive action.

The few surviving Ninth-stage Gnomes, seeing their peers cut down in seconds and realizing they could not escape individually, attempted to form a temporary alliance in the hope of creating an opening for themselves. Their effort failed almost immediately.

Thanks to the speed with which Grey, Reynolds, and Elder Varis had eliminated the first group of Ninth-stage opponents, only three Ninth-stage Sovereign Gnomes remained. They were already outnumbered by the human Ninth-stage Sovereigns alone, and that was before counting Elder Varis, a full Peak Sovereign.

Grey used his space element to teleport Elder Varis directly into the center of the three Gnomes. The sudden appearance of a Peak Sovereign in their midst sent all three flying in different directions from the force of his opening strike. The surrounding human Ninth-stage experts and the nearest Ninth-stage bunnies closed in at once and finished them without giving any chance for recovery. The last top experts of the local Gnome force disintegrated under the concentrated assault, and with their deaths the final organized resistance on the enemy side collapsed completely.

Within a short time the once-dense encirclement had fully broken. Scattered survivors fled in every direction, only to be hunted down by bunnies or human experts who now held every advantage of strength, numbers, and momentum. The mountain range, which had echoed with the roar of thousands of combatants only a short while earlier, gradually quieted as the final Gnomes in the vicinity were eliminated one after another. The heavy pressure that had filled the night air began to lift, replaced by the sharper sounds of pursuit and the occasional dying flare of elemental energy.

The Mayor rose above the battlefield and surveyed the scene with a hard, assessing gaze. His spiritual sense swept across the peaks, valleys, and broken ridges until he confirmed that no significant enemy presence remained capable of regrouping. When he was satisfied, he raised one hand and gave the clear signal to regroup. The human experts and the bunny army pulled back in orderly fashion, gathering in the open sky above the scarred peaks. The first light of approaching dawn had not yet appeared, but the darkness no longer felt as oppressive as it had during the height of the fighting.

Casualties on the human side were limited. Fewer than twenty-five experts had fallen, most of them from the lower ranks during the initial encirclement when the Gnomes still held numerical superiority and the full use of their puppets. In exchange, the entire local Gnome force had been destroyed, including their Peak Sovereign and every Ninth-stage expert present. This was exactly the outcome the leadership had hoped for, and given how limited their own losses were, the returning experts were openly elated.

Elder Varis flew over to the Mayor. Grey and Reynolds joined them shortly afterward. At a quiet signal from Grey, the bunny army and the bunny leader vanished as if they had never been present on the battlefield at all. The human experts stared in renewed astonishment at the sudden disappearance. Many of them were still processing the earlier revelation.

When the Ninth-stage Gnome had shouted Grey Dawson’s name across the battlefield, the majority of the human force had been just as stunned as the enemy. They had not known that the masked figure in black was the famous young genius whose reputation had spread across multiple regions. Still less had they expected that he traveled with an entire hidden army of Sovereign-level bunnies capable of shifting the balance of a major battle in moments. More than one expert quietly thought the same thing: no wonder he dared to travel alone so often.

After a brief discussion, Elder Varis ordered the return to Emberlyn City. The flight back under the night sky was far quieter than the journey out. Many of the experts remained silent, still in shock as they processed the speed and completeness of the victory. Others spoke in low voices about Grey and the sudden appearance of the bunny army that had turned the battle so completely. The weight of months of defensive struggle had been lifted in a single night, and the realization of that fact settled over the returning force in a heavy, almost disbelieving calm.

By the time the force reached Emberlyn City, the first traces of dawn were beginning to lighten the eastern horizon. Soft shades of pale gold and blue touched the edges of the sky and spread slowly across the rooftops. The guards at the gates were the first to learn of the successful assault, as they were the ones who received the returning group. Relief and celebration spread quickly through the streets once the Mayor gave orders for the news to be announced. Citizens who had lived under constant threat for more than a year stepped out of their homes to watch the returning experts, their faces showing a mixture of excitement and long-suppressed hope.

That evening the Mayor hosted a large banquet in the main hall of the manor to mark the victory. The atmosphere was lighter than it had been in many months. Long tables were covered with dishes and jars of wine, and the gathered Sovereigns, still carrying the exhaustion of battle, raised cups in repeated toasts. Conversations that had once been dominated by defensive reports and casualty lists now turned toward the future of the region and the chance to finally reinforce the surrounding towns.

Grey and Reynolds attended for a time, accepting the respectful nods and brief words of gratitude offered by various experts. All of the surviving Ninth-stage Sovereigns approached Grey in turn to offer formal greetings and express their thanks. He was, after all, both a top expert in his own right and the primary reason they had been able to wipe out the local Gnome force without suffering catastrophic losses. A few of them clearly wished to ask why the Gnomes had been so terrified of bringing out their puppets in his presence, yet they refrained. They understood that some matters were not appropriate to question openly.

As the banquet continued into the later hours, Grey sat near the side of the hall with Reynolds, quietly observing the shifted mood of the city’s experts. The immediate threat to Emberlyn City had been removed. The local Gnome camp was gone, its Peak Sovereign dead, and its Ninth-stage ranks entirely eliminated. The surrounding region would finally have room to breathe and begin the slow work of recovery. For the first time in over a year, the defenders of Emberlyn could look toward the coming days without the constant pressure of an overwhelming enemy force camped in the nearby mountains.