Affinity: Chaos

Boom!

Grey was sent flying by a concentrated blast of darkness and spatial force. He smashed into the ground hard enough to carve a shallow crater, dirt and shattered stone exploding outward. Before the dust could settle, thick tentacles of pure darkness stabbed down repeatedly at the impact site, hammering the earth and raising an even denser cloud.

A figure shot out of the dust almost immediately. Grey’s clothes were torn in places and a thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes remained cold and focused. He flew straight at the Space Elementalist without pause and sent a long, coiling snake of pure blue flames racing ahead of him.

The Space Elementalist raised a layered darkness barrier. The flame snake slammed into it and exploded, forcing the man to slide several meters backward through the air. He had no time to reset. Grey was already closing in, a four-colored fusion orb spinning rapidly in his right hand.

The moment the Space Elementalist sensed the power packed inside the orb, a genuine chill ran down his spine. The longer the fight continued, the clearer it became that their information on Grey Dawson had been incomplete. In the short time they had been exchanging blows, he was certain he had already seen Grey use six different elements. The last reliable reports had only mentioned five.

He had no chance to dwell on the thought.

The fusion orb left Grey’s hand.

The Space Elementalist tore open a portal in an attempt to swallow the attack, but the orb’s unstable multi-element structure distorted the spatial gate before it could fully form. He was forced to abandon the portal and pour everything into a dense, multi-layered darkness shield instead.

Boom!

The orb detonated at close range. The explosion lit up the sky in a violent flash of mixed colors and sent visible shockwaves rolling outward for hundreds of meters. Trees far below bent and snapped. The Space Elementalist’s shield held, but the residual force still punched through enough to make him grunt in pain and tumble farther back, darkness armor cracking in several places.

When he looked up, his eyes widened slightly.

Black tendrils, almost identical to the darkness tentacles he himself had used earlier, were now coiling and writhing around Grey’s arms and shoulders like living vines. Grey pointed, and the tendrils shot forward with clear killing intent.

The Space Elementalist felt a second, deeper shock. That was a seventh element.

Seven.

Wielding five elements already placed an Elementalist among the absolute geniuses of any race. Seven was something he had never even heard of, much less witnessed.

He formed a complete spherical barrier of darkness around his body. The tendrils slammed into it, boring and twisting as they tried to drill through. While the barrier held, he performed a rapid spatial shift and reappeared more than a hundred meters away, just outside the tendrils’ effective range.

He had barely stabilized when three inscriptions flared in the air above him. Lightning, fire, and ice arrows rained down in a coordinated barrage. The Space Elementalist clicked his tongue in irritation and weaved between the projectiles, using short portals to redirect the most dangerous ones while darkness armor absorbed the rest.

By now he had stopped treating Grey as a talented junior who relied on tricks. The young man in front of him was an opponent who had to be faced with full seriousness.

Grey gave him no time to adjust his mindset. Lightning, wind, and light elemental energy surged through his body at the same time, pushing his speed to a frightening level. He crossed the distance between them in a blur and the two clashed again at close range.

Fists, elemental blades, and spatial distortions collided in rapid succession. Each exchange sent fresh cracks through the surrounding space. Because both of them were Space Elementalists, neither showed fear when the fabric of reality began to tear. Even if they were pulled into the void, both believed they could find a way back out.

The fight grew fiercer with every passing breath. Grey pressed forward with a relentless combination of physical power and multi-element attacks. The Space Elementalist answered with darkness spears, spatial cuts, and sudden portals that tried to redirect Grey’s own strikes back at him. For a time they were almost evenly matched in pure combat speed, but the cumulative injuries and the constant pressure were beginning to tilt the balance.

The Space Elementalist could feel it clearly. If the fight continued like this, he would neither defeat Grey nor successfully escape. Worse, he could still sense the distant battle through his remaining link to the lightning puppet. His companion and both puppets were being completely suppressed by the nine Peak Sovereign bunnies. They could only defend, and even that would not last much longer. Once those bunnies were free, any remaining chance of survival would vanish.

He needed a way out, and he needed it soon.

His eyes flickered toward the unstable spatial tears that their continuous clashes had created around them. An idea formed. It was risky, but it was better than waiting for the bunnies to finish the others and join the hunt.

He deliberately left a small opening in his defense during the next exchange.

Grey, fully immersed in the fight and unwilling to let any chance slip, took the bait at once. He drove forward, hand shooting out to seize the man’s neck.

At the last instant the Space Elementalist twisted his body in a way that should have been impossible with a recently broken leg. He caught Grey’s wrist, used the young man’s own momentum, and hurled him straight toward the largest spatial tear nearby.

Grey felt the chaotic pull of the void seize his body. Instead of panicking, he reacted with pure combat instinct. He twisted his captured wrist, locked his fingers around the Space Elementalist’s forearm in return, and yanked hard.

Both of them tumbled into the spatial tear together.

The moment they entered the chaotic void, Grey’s senses were flooded with violent spatial currents, hidden tears, and destructive energies that could erase an unprepared Peak Sovereign in seconds. He did not hesitate. He oriented himself toward the still-open exit they had fallen through and shot toward it with everything he had.

The Space Elementalist had expected this. While still being dragged, he formed a massive hand of pure darkness and clamped it around Grey’s torso, trying to crush him and slow him down long enough to escape alone. The darkness hand squeezed with enough force to make Grey’s Dragon scales groan.

Grey smashed an elbow coated in earth and lightning into the wrist of the darkness construct, cracking it, but the delay was enough. The Space Elementalist poured his remaining spatial power into the exit, slipped through, and immediately sealed the tear behind him.

The spatial rift closed with a final, sharp distortion.

Grey was left alone inside the chaotic void.