Affinity: Chaos

The young man continued attacking, it had been over five minutes now, and without the inscriptions, Grey hadn't been able to attack the young man. The young man had neutralized him.

An attack soon came flying in that sent Grey in another direction.

Grey's figure slammed into the ground and the aura of an Eighth stage Elementalist started to fade from his body, before long, he was back to the Fifth stage.

"Admit…"

"Not yet." Grey interrupted the young man through ragged breath. It was obvious he was already at his limit.

The old man didn't interfere any longer. He was trying to help Grey, but Grey seemed to be foolish for some reason. He even went as far as somewhat disrespecting him.

"Haha, I like your type. Now I can kill you with pleasure." The young man laughed.

Grey stood up and looked at the young man, "You really think you can kill me?"

The young man laughed before releasing an attack that sent Grey flying again.

Grey spat out a mouthful of blood as he slammed into the ground.

"To think I was starting to get worried." The young man scoffed when he saw Grey lying on the ground.

He walked closer to Grey, to him, Grey was finished. He was a bit cautious, but he also didn't think Grey would be able to hold on much.

Everyone could tell that this last attack took a lot out of Grey, who was bleeding from his mouth, nose, and in multiple places on his body.

When he was around five meters away from Grey, his expression changed drastically.

Not just him, but everyone watching the battle noticed something off as well and their eyes turned to Grey who was previously lying on the ground. He was no longer there.

'A trap!'

This was the only thing that ran through the heads of everyone.

The young man tried to move but he noticed his movements were a bit sluggish.

Grey appeared behind him, a smirk on his face.

"You really think you could kill me?"

Before his voice died down, he had already thrown a punch that connected cleanly on the back of the young man. This punch was enforced with his fire, lightning, and earth element, so the strength it packed was on another level.

Being struck so closely by the attack, the young man spat out a mouthful of blood.

When everyone looked at Grey, they noticed that he was back to the Eighth stage of the Sage Plane, and he looked to be as strong as before, if not stronger.

Just as the audience were still thinking of something, Grey moved again. This time, he was faster than he previously was.

A fire orb shot at the young man. As he tried to block it, he was sent flying by it.

Everyone noticed the visible change in Grey's attack power. It was on another level.

Only after inspection did those above the Sage Plane realize what was going on.

"He has been creating an array. Such a cunning fellow. Even I didn't notice it." The old man muttered to himself.

For Grey to hide something like this from the eyes of so many experts, showed how cunning he was. Not just that, but his skill in terms of array creation was on another level.

"Such a young and talented individual. He's…" The leader of the Burchard Family sighed as he looked at those youngsters from his Family. He couldn't even compare them to Grey.

Not just them, even most of the Elders couldn't be compared to this youth.

Grey was only around twenty to twenty-two years old, yet he was already a master at arrays, had great judgment when it came to battles, and he made the best decisions.

From his inscriptions, everyone knew he must be good with arrays, but none of them expected him to do something like this.

The young man who attacked Grey on the side of the Nether Faction felt the deepest regret he had ever felt. Had he killed Grey at that time, then he wouldn't have had to face such an opponent in the future.

'I'll have to kill him, no matter what.'

Now, he felt Grey had shown if not all his cards, he must have used his important ones.

They all felt Grey wouldn't be able to keep this state up for long. It was common knowledge that using a technique to boost your strength was the same as causing self-harm, especially one of Grey's level. Most of these techniques only boost an Elementalist's strength by a stage or so, but Grey's own gave him a three stage boost which was unheard of.

Back on the platform.

Grey was still attacking the young man. He wasn't giving him any chance to even recover.

He moved close after sending him flying with a punch and kicked him into the air. His figure vanished and appeared above the young man. A large earth mace appeared and he grabbed it by the hilt and slammed it into the body of the young man.

When it connected with the body of the young man, the young man crashed straight to the platform, and for the first time since the competition started, the platform shook.

The impact of the attack exceeded everyone's expectations.

Grey didn't stop there, this young man wanted to kill him, and of course, he would return the favor.

Large boulders covered with blue flames appeared in the sky and crashed toward the ground.

The young man was just getting to his feet when he saw them raining down on him.

He was about to move when he felt his body slow down, not just that, but a figure appeared in front of him, holding onto a large lightning sword that he used to stab him in the chest.

After Grey stabbed him, he vanished, letting him face the attacks of the boulders.

Despair appeared in the eyes of the young man as he could only watch the boulders slam into his body. He didn't even have the time to admit defeat.

From when Grey used his array till now was not more than a minute. In the space of one minute, the battle seemed to be decided.