Affinity:Chaos

Gareth calmly walked into the arena, unagitated by the cheers of the crowd. Even though he was sort of famous, he was still a prisoner, that was something that won't change until he wins his freedom once again.

….

Grey stared at Gareth, surprised by his somewhat youthful appearance. Gareth seemed to be someone who was around his mid-twenties.

'Hey, do you have some stones?' Void's voice echoed in his head.

'Yes, why?' Grey asked.

'Good, now place a bet on that guy, bet as many stones as you have,' Void urged.

'Betting? You haven't even seen his opponent, are you that confident in him?' Grey couldn't help but ask.

'Of course, don't forget that he's won fifty battles straight, and I've watched him fight these past days, he's really powerful,' replied Void.

'Hmm, we'll wait until his opponent appears. I'll only be sure once I've seen them,' Grey said, not convinced by Void's words.

He wasn't underestimating Gareth or anything, but he recalled the sight of the Barbarians he saw when he first came to the Aurora continent, and compared to other Elementalists, he could sense they were more powerful.

'Hmm, fine, but no matter what, place your bet on him,' Void said.

'Why are you so persistent on him?' Grey stared at Gareth once again.

'The thing is this, I overheard the people hosting this event saying that the battle would be rigged. Although the Barbarian would be stronger than Gareth in terms of cultivation, he would be extremely weak. Most people would naturally bet on the Barbarian once they sense his strength, making these people earn a ton of money,' Void explained.

Grey was shocked by the revelation, he never thought something like this would go on behind the scenes. It was just like what they said, even he would prefer to bet on the Barbarian once he finds out he's stronger than Gareth in terms of cultivation stage.

It would be difficult for Gareth to defeat a Barbarian on the same stage, much less one that would be ahead of him.

'A brilliant plan, most people here would definitely fall for it,' Grey applauded the smartness of the people organizing the event. Luckily for him, Void overheard them.

'Where's the betting stand then?' Grey asked.

Although he hadn't been here for long, he could already tell that essence stone was the major currency here, so when an opportunity to make free stones came up, of course he was going to take it!

'That's the spirit! Head to the fifth row by your left,' Void directed.

Grey stood up, after following Void's direction, he easily found the place where the bets were being made.

At the same time he got there, a cage was rolled towards the arena, inside the cage was the Barbarian who was going to fight against Gareth.

When the crowd saw the Barbarian, they all gasped in shock, not expecting the Barbarian to be this powerful.

"Oh no, looks like this is the end for Gareth,"

"I feel sorry for him, after coming this far,"

Some people felt a wave of pity for Gareth, while others didn't care, as long as they were entertained, they were good.

Gareth was in the Third stage of the Overlord Plane, while the Barbarian was in the Fifth stage of the Overlord Plane. Most people didn't even think it was a contest, the Barbarian would be able to easily kill Gareth.

Those who wanted to place a bet all moved towards the location where they were making bets, all trying to at least win something from it. The odds of the bet was obviously in the Barbarian's favor, having an odd of one to two, while Gareth had an odd of one to ten.

Grey placed a bet of one thousand high-grade essence stones on Gareth which stunned most of the people there. Some even mocked him while laughing at him.

Of the entire people who went to bet, over ninety percent of them bet on the Barbarian while only a small percent of them bet on Gareth. There were even some who placed bets on both fighters.

…

After the cage was rolled to the arena, it was opened and the collar on the neck of the Barbarian was removed. To Grey's surprise, there was also one on Gareth's neck.

'Oh, they said he was a prisoner,' He thought in realization.

The Barbarian attacked the people around him the moment his collar was removed, but it was easily subdued since the people were stronger than he was.

After they subdued him, the people left the arena, leaving only him and Gareth.

"Don't struggle, the only way to leave this place is through battles," Gareth said coldly.

The Barbarian turned to look at him, "I'm not interested in fighting against you, I only want to return to my homeland,"

"We all do, but unfortunately, we can't. I'm sorry, but I'm attacking now," Gareth bowed before attacking.

He was a Fire Elementalist, his attack erupting with unprecedented power.

The Barbarian was forced to defend against Gareth's fire attack, raising an earth wall to block the attacks.

The fire attack was easily stopped by the earth wall. The Barbarian didn't try attacking Gareth after it blocked the attack, rather, he looked around, seemingly searching for something.

"Don't attack boy, we should find a way to leave this predicament," The Barbarian said.

"There's no way to leave this place, there's a Sage Plane expert watching over here," Gareth said.

From his words, one could see that he had given up all plans of trying to escape from this place, he wasn't even trying.

"Boy, this isn't the time to act like this, the sooner we try to leave this place the better," The Barbarian said.

Unfortunately, his words fell into deaf ears as Gareth attacked once again, not even bothering to hold back.

Boom!

The fire attack slammed into another earth wall that appeared in front of the Barbarian.

"Stop this, boy," The Barbarian said.

The Barbarian's behavior surprised people since they were known for their brutal nature. But this Barbarian in front of them didn't behave in such ways, other than the first time he attacked the people who released him, he hasn't tried to do anything else.

Boom!

Gareth continued attacking, not giving the Barbarian a single chance to continue speaking any further.

"Alright, I guess I have no choice," The Barbarian said helplessly.

Compared to Gareth, he didn't want to fight since he didn't want to go ahead with the plans of the people who bought him, but Gareth was forcing his hands.

Bang!

The earth wall in front of the Barbarian exploded, and he sprang forward, charging quickly towards Gareth.

Standing over seven feet, the Barbarian was by no means slow, he was even faster than most people.

….

'Do they train their bodies?' Grey thought curiously.

Given the speed of the Barbarian, it was amazing that he could move this fast without the help of the wind or lightning element, but he's clearly doing it without any problems.

'And here I was thinking I was the only one. But… since there is something like this, why don't other Elementalists do it?'

Multiple questions ran through Grey's head, but he didn't know the answer to any of it. He once again focused his attention on the battle.

The fighting style of the people in the Aurora continent wasn't different from that of the people in the Azure continent.

….

"Ah…"

Bang!

The Barbarian screamed and an earth hammer that had lava running around it appeared, almost smashing into Gareth.

Gareth dodged to the side, making sure to escape the range of the smash. Just when he thought he had escaped, his expression changed when the place the hammer smashed spread out, causing debris that was on fire to shoot towards him.

He hastily created a fire wall, while taking out a bow from his storage ring. He shot an arrow upwards.

Boom!

The arrow exploded in the sky, causing a rain of fire arrows to start.

A shield appeared in the hand of the Barbarian, and he used it to block the fire rains.

After blocking the attack, he stamped on the ground heavily, causing a shockwave to spread out.

Gareth lost his footing, staggering back in a hurry.

Just as he regained his footing, he saw a large shadow above him. He couldn't help but raise his head hurriedly, above him was the Barbarian who had already prepared his hammer for a strike.

Gareth was a little surprised, but he managed to regain himself, using the fire element as a boost, he leapt off the ground, jumping in another direction.

They soon started to exchange moves, with Gareth being completely suppressed by the Barbarian.

….

In the stands, most of the people already expected this, so they weren't surprised.

Grey on the other hand was left in awe of the strength the Barbarian was displaying.

'If I have the chance, I'd like to train with them,' He said to himself.