Affinity:Chaos

Five minutes later.

'It's here.' Void said as soon as he sensed Aetonth.

'*Sigh* Let's get this done with. If we can escape from it this time, then we're free.' said Grey.

They were still in the open field, just ahead was a forest. After going through this forest they would appear before the hill that leads to the mountain where they first appeared.

'Why don't we fight against it here?' Void suggested.

'I feel fighting against it in the forest would be better.' Grey voiced his opinion.

'No, it would catch up as soon as we get into the forest. We should take this time to prepare.' Void urged.

'Hmm, okay.' Grey nodded thinking the idea wasn't bad.

Previously, Aetonth would always catch up to them while they were still running. But this time, they wanted to wait for him. Grey created an attacking array while they were waiting. He also made three inscriptions.

'Shit! I'm running out of essence stones.' Grey complained after putting the last stone on the array.

He got the stones from Quinn's group, but rarely used them in cultivating, rather, he always used them whenever he was making arrays. Since he couldn't make a strong array without them.

Aetonth soon came in sight, and Void was staring at Grey's hand with big round eyes. He still couldn't figure out how Grey always does this thing.

Grey immediately started creating the fusion orb when Aetonth got within the range of his senses. He planned to use it during their first barrage of assault. Calculating the time, he felt he would be able to form it before Aetonth arrives. And luckily for him, Aetonth came just in time.

To Grey's greatest surprise, this time though, he managed to keep the orb under control for almost ten seconds.

'That's a new record.' He thought excitedly before noticing the orb was losing control after just getting to the ten seconds mark.

But that was all he needed since Aetonth had already gotten close to them.

Void was the first to attack, disappearing from Grey's shoulder and appearing some distance away from Aetonth, he stayed mid-air before sending out fire and darkness element attacks. This was part of the plan they had, he would distract it for the first second or so to give Grey time to attack properly. After all, Aetonth wouldn't just stand there and allow the orb to hit it.

Roar!

Aetonth swung its claw at Void and a large ice claw appeared before him.

Void quickly vanished once again before appearing behind it. He decided to follow in its footstep and also formed a claw made of the darkness element.

Aetonth turned around to block it. It couldn't rely on its ice sphere against this since it would be able to corrode it.

Grey threw the orb the moment Aetonth turned around. He not only attacked with the orb but the three inscriptions, as well as the attacking array. The array was of the fire element, as well as the inscriptions.

'Void!' Grey yelled but to his surprise, Void was already on his shoulder.

The duo retreated since Aetonth was only fifteen meters away. If the orb exploded and they were caught up by the blast, even though they might not die, it would definitely hurt them.

Boom!

Being forced to block Void's attack, before defending against the attacks from the inscriptions, Aetonth was unable to evade the orb. He hated it a lot, this was the second time he was going to be blasted by it, and to be honest, he didn't like it.

Grey looked at the explosion as he retreated further. He recalled it was able to stop Aetonth the last time.

'Haha, this time it didn't even touch us.' Void said happily.

For the first time since they were fighting against Aetonth, they managed to quickly put it down. They couldn't even call this a battle, it ended too quickly.

'Yeah, preparing wasn't really that bad.' Grey nodded.

Had they not prepared, then they would've had to go through a long though battle before they would be able to strike it. The duo had always made sure that whenever they got the opportunity to attack it, they gave it their strongest attacks.

They ran into the forest, heading for the hill. Grey couldn't wait to leave this place. He had been running all this time, at least once he leaves here, he would finally be able to rest.

Twenty minutes later.

Grey appeared at the foot of the hill that led to the mountain, he saw the purple bamboo tree patch that was on the hillside. It still had the faint mist that wreathed around it, while giving one an ethereal feeling of a unique realm.

'What are you standing here for! Have you forgotten what's behind us?'

Void's yell woke Grey from his state of reverie and he quickly started ascending the hill.

He got here at least ten minutes faster than the time he estimated, the reason for this was because...

Roar!

Aetonth roar came from behind them.

Grey and Void looked behind them and he tried to push his speed further. Unfortunately, he was already at his limit.

At the peak of the mountain.

Three youths could be seen sitting idly close to an array, they were Klaus, Alice, and Reynolds. They stood up simultaneously when they heard Aetonth's roar. This was the second time they were hearing it today, so they recognized it.

"Grey's almost here." Reynolds said.

"We should move closer to the array." Klaus said moving a little bit closer to the array but not entering it.

If he places his foot on it, then it would suck him in, transporting him outside the trial land. He didn't know if he could enter again after leaving, so he didn't dare to try it.

It took Grey almost three minutes to get to the peak of the mountain, and Aetonth was already very close to him. If not for the fact that Grey never stopped running even when Aetonth attacked, they would've already been fighting.

"What are you guys standing there for? Get in!" Grey yelled as soon as he saw the others.