Affinity: Chaos

Grey bolted straight at the Space Elementalist, striking with full force.

A dense lightning ball formed in his palm and shot forward. The Space Elementalist reacted instantly. A small portal opened in front of him, swallowed the lightning ball whole, then another portal tore open behind Grey and spat the same attack back at his spine.

Grey shifted at the last possible moment. The redirected lightning grazed past his side. Even though the attack had originally been his, once it left his control it became no different from an enemy’s strike. He had learned that lesson years ago while refining his fusion orbs. Anything that escaped his command could harm him just as easily as it could harm others.

He did not slow down after the dodge. In the same breath he closed the remaining distance.

The Space Elementalist’s expression hardened. He activated a domain-like technique that made the surrounding space thick and resistant, as if the air itself had turned into dense mud. The moment Grey entered the range, his speed collapsed. What had been a blur of motion dropped almost to a walking pace. The sudden resistance caught him off guard for a fraction of a second.

That fraction was enough.

A thick pillar of pure darkness erupted beside him and smashed into his side. With almost no time to prepare a proper defense, Grey forced his Dragon scales to the surface and poured elemental essence into them, hardening his body as much as possible.

The impact still sent him flying.

He crashed through several large trees, snapping trunks and tearing up earth before he finally killed his momentum. Pain flared along his ribs, but the scales and his reinforced body had kept the damage from being critical.

The Space Elementalist did not press the attack. Instead he swept his senses back toward the main battlefield. His companion was fully pinned by three Peak Sovereign bunnies. Both puppets were in the same desperate state, barely able to defend themselves. There was no realistic chance of saving them.

Without hesitation he turned into a streak of light and fled. There was no point continuing a losing fight. If he escaped, he could at least report that Grey Dawson traveled with a hidden force of Peak Sovereigns. That information alone would be valuable to their masters.

Grey recovered mid-air, twisted upright, and locked onto the fleeing figure. In the next instant he performed a short spatial shift and reappeared exactly where he had been struck. His hand shot out and clamped around the Space Elementalist’s ankle just as the man tried to accelerate away.

The sudden grip shocked the Peak Sovereign. An immense, almost beast-like strength locked his leg in place. He immediately swung his free leg, aiming a precise kick at Grey’s elbow in an attempt to break the joint and free himself.

Grey saw the incoming kick and smirked. Instead of pulling away, he drove his own elbow forward to meet it.

Bone met reinforced bone with a sharp, ugly crack. The Space Elementalist’s leg broke under the collision. A pained grunt tore from his throat, yet he still refused to yield. Even while the pain hit him, dozens of darkness pikes formed only inches behind Grey and stabbed toward his back.

Grey had no choice. He released the ankle and flashed sideways, letting the pikes tear through the empty air where he had been standing.

The entire sequence, from the grab, to the elbow strike, to the forced retreat, lasted barely two seconds.

The Space Elementalist immediately widened the distance between them. For the first time since the fight began, clear disbelief showed in his eyes. In a pure one-on-one exchange against a Ninth-stage Sovereign, he had come out worse. He had not merely been pressured. For a short stretch he had been overpowered.

*Is he even human?*

The thought flashed through his mind as he stared at the dragon-like scales still covering parts of Grey’s body. The physical strength behind that elbow strike had been closer to a Magical Beast’s than a human Elementalist’s.

He finally understood why those who had faced Grey before spoke of him with such caution. Most people who had never met him believed his reputation rested only on the mental attack that crippled Gnomes and Necromancers. Earlier, when four Peak Sovereign auras had pressed Grey at once, the Space Elementalist had already been privately surprised that the young man survived as long as he did. Only a Peak Sovereign should have been able to last under that kind of coordinated assault. Grey had managed it anyway.

Even after witnessing that, he had still underestimated the true depth of Grey’s combat strength.

He forced the shock down and spoke, voice steady despite the broken leg. ”So you trained your body to this extent. Impressive. For a human to reach this level... it must be the Dragons’ doing.” His eyes roamed over Grey’s scaled arms. ”You would make a fine puppet.” He paused, then added, ”But I’m not in the mood to capture anything right now. Turn around and leave. You might still live.”

Grey did not waste a single word on a reply.

Four inscriptions bloomed in the air behind him, water, earth, fire, and lightning. They locked onto the Space Elementalist and released a coordinated barrage. Compressed water spears, dense earth spikes, blue-white fire lances, and crackling lightning bolts poured forward at the same time.

The Space Elementalist’s expression tightened. He tore open several small portals to swallow the most dangerous projectiles and wrapped himself in thick layers of darkness armor to tank the rest. Explosions lit the sky as the attacks that got through slammed into his defenses. He was forced to give ground again, face growing darker with every step.

Grey gave him no time to reset. The moment the first wave of inscription attacks landed, he was already closing the distance once more, lightning coiling around his legs and blue flames wrapping his fists. The Dragon scales across his arms and shoulders gleamed under the residual light of the explosions.

The Space Elementalist clicked his tongue in irritation and pain. His broken leg slowed him more than he wanted to admit. He tried to open a larger portal behind himself for another escape, but Grey’s spatial pressure pressed against the forming gate, distorting it before it could fully stabilize.

”Persistent brat,” the man growled.

Grey’s only answer was another surge of speed as he drove forward, fist cocked back, the combined force of his tempered body and multi-element power gathering for the next strike. The fight between them was still far from finished.