Affinity: Chaos

Grey's figure dried up once again, this time, his situation seemed worse compared to the first time. Now, he looked to be all bones covered by skin.

Bill retreated as he sent the Summon after Grey. His biggest chance of winning now was with the Summon. He already tested Grey's strength, on the same level, even he was a little lacking compared to the monster known as Grey.

Seeing the Summon charging at him, Grey didn't shirk away, he did a slashing motion with his hand and the Summon was cut in two by an invisible attack.

Only after the attack passed through and was heading in Bill's direction did it come to light, it was his spatial slash.

Bill scurried away from where he was standing as he could feel a frightening power coming off the attack.

While Bill was dodging, the Summon which was cut in two merged back and became one. It continued its charge at Grey.

Grey paused and sent a fireball at the Summon.

Boom!

The fireball exploded on impact and the Summon staggered back. It couldn't keep its footing and fell on its back.

Grey set his sights on Bill since he was his target from the start.

Bill sent a lightning strike at Grey. But Grey didn't move and the attack phased through him. He continued closing in on Bill who was a little startled.

This was not the first time he was fighting against someone on the same level, but Grey was a freak. It was as if he was fighting against a skeleton which terrified him.

Grey stretched out his dried up hand and pointed at Bill. A small orb started to form at the tip of his finger.

Before long, a light beam shot out from the finger.

Bill rushed to dodge the attack. He managed to dodge it at a hair's breadth, but he couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. The aura from the attack was something that he had only felt from those above the Sage Plane.

One has to know that the difference between a Sage Plane Elementalist and an Elemental Venerable was by no means small, yet Grey seemed to jump that gap with nothing but a single attack.

Bill started to thank his stars that he didn't agree to Grey's request of fighting a death match. In a normal battle he was already like this, how far would Grey go to kill him in a death match?

He didn't even want to find out about that.

Grey didn't stop after that attack. Four inscriptions appeared mid-air and attacked Bill from four different directions. He was trying to force Bill to take one of the attacks head-on if he wanted to escape from it.

However, just as the attack was about to get to where Bill was standing, a large figure appeared in front of him and blocked all four attacks simultaneously.

Roar!

The Summon roared loudly as lightning sparks flew mid-air.

Grey squinted his eyes as he looked at the Summon which had recovered.

As long as Bill could continuously feed it, then this thing was practically immortal.

'I'll see how long you can last.' He thought with a smirk as he attacked once again.

This time, he used a fire blade to cut apart the Summon. But before the Summon even tore in two places, it already started to merge as a lightning orb shot at Grey with insane speed.

Grey blocked the attack with an earth wall, but he was forced to take a step back.

Bill used the opportunity to move forward with the Summon in front of him. The Summon was the one taking all of Grey's attack while Bill focused on attacking Grey.

Grey blocked the attacks coming his way, but he was soon covered in lightning.

Grey felt his entire body go numb from the lightning strikes and also, his clothes were slowly ripping apart.

He moved a step forward and his figure vanished. He appeared behind the Summon, where Bill was unprotected and struck.

A large lightning bolt shot from the sky and struck where Grey was standing. The force of the lightning was far stronger than anything Bill had used since the start of the battle.

"I've been waiting for you to do that." Bill said with a proud smile.

"And you think that would stop me?"

Grey's voice came from the place where he was supposedly engulfed by lightning.

Bill was shocked and took a step back, moving closer to the Summon.

He looked at the place and noticed a pale blue light glowing within the lightning. Without even thinking twice, he rushed to the side, making sure the Summon was in between himself and Grey.

Boom!

The Summon standing behind him exploded.

Bill was shaken when he saw this as he pumped essence into the body of the Summon so it would rematerialize. Grey's attack destroyed the Summon, and the only way to bring it back was through either summoning it again or making sure before it was completely destroyed he could pump enough essence into it. He couldn't take the risk of the former since it would take some time before the Summon would be ready, the latter was the choice that was best.

Grey strolled out of the lightning covering him as he walked over to where Bill was standing.

He raised his head to look at the Summon that was slowly fading off.

He stretched out his hand and a repulsive force spread out.

Bill was pushed back by the force as he looked at Grey with serious eyes. He couldn't believe this was the same person that struggled against the young man at the Peak.

'I just need to make sure I outlast him.' He soon came up with a new plan.

He could already see that he was not a match for Grey, so he wanted to see if he could fight Grey till he couldn't use the technique he was using to increase his strength.

'Can I?'

Doubt flashed through the eyes of the always confident Bill.