Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 62: Fourth Round II

Grey headed to the valley, with the success he had the previous day, he wanted to use the momentum to at least send out a single attack with the symbol.

After they were done eating, he started his training. Chris was slightly taken aback when he first saw the symbol appear.

‘This is faster than I expected’

Grey’s learning speed was incredible, he remembered it took him over two months before he was able to inscribe. But Grey has already made the symbol appear just within a week, and with the way it’s going, he should be able to successfully use it to attack within the next two days.

Chris started pointing out some of the mistakes he was making. With this help, Grey was able to make the symbol appear more frequently, although he still sometimes failed, his success rate is well over sixty percent. His only problem now was attacking with it, if he could do that, then he could be called an inscriber.

He wasn’t far from success though, within a day or two he should be able to make it. Once he’s comfortable attacking with it, he would then focus on reducing the time needed to inscribe the symbol mid-air. He didn’t forget to practice his arrays.

Practicing both at the same time had increased his experience in them. Grey stayed till after sunset before he headed home, today he wanted to focus fully on comprehending the wind element. If he could increase its grade to orange, it would boost his strength once more.

He was currently stuck in a bottleneck in his comprehension of the earth element, so he hasn’t been able to improve the grade to purple. Hopefully, he would get enlightenment on it soon.

After getting home, he entered into the chaos space immediately and started comprehending the wind element.

The next day…

Grey went for his physical training after waking up, although the time spent was short, it was still better than not going at all.

He had already battled with four of the other thirteen students. From the remaining nine students, six were in the Eighth stage, Reynolds, Klaus, and Damian were the other three. It can be said his upcoming battles should be interesting, although he was only interested in two of the six students in the Eighth stage, the others won’t be that easy.

The student he was most interested in among the two was a Dual Elementalist, he is the strongest among the other participants. All his battles have been simple and quick, he hasn’t had any eye-catching fight. But Grey could feel he would be his biggest challenge in the tournament.

The battles started and his first opponent was one of the six Eighth stage students. The battle lasted for about seven minutes before Grey defeated him. This victory drew the attention of Sheila and the Dual Elementalist in the Eighth stage.

Even the instructors and students had taken note of him. Grey had already defeated three students in the Eighth stage since the tournament began. He defeated the first one in the third round, before defeating one the previous day. The addition of this student made it three.

Reynolds and Damian are the only other students who have defeated a student in the Eighth stage while being a stage behind. Reynolds has defeated one, the same as Damian. Damian lost both of the battles he fought with students in the Eighth stage yesterday.

Reynolds also won his first match of the day, while Klaus unfortunately lost. It wasn’t unexpected, but he gave his opponent a tough time before losing. Getting another victory would increase his chances of grabbing a spot, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

One more win and he should be able to grab a spot, hopefully. His next battle was against a student at the Eighth stage, which he didn’t waste his time on and quickly admitted defeat.

Grey and three other students at the Eighth stage are the only ones who have won all five of their battles. His next battle was also against a student in the Eighth stage which he also won. With this win, apart from the Dual Elementalist, no one else has defeated more students in the Eighth stage as much as he has.

Reynolds lost his second match, with three victories, he should be able to get a spot since there’s a student who still hasn’t had a single win.

Reynolds next match was against Klaus.

They both walked side by side towards the platform, laughing on the way. On seeing them, the instructor knew there was no way both of them would fight, given how close their friendship seems.

“Begin,” He said anyway.

“Hey Rey, who do you think will win in the battle on the next platform?” Klaus asked with a curious look.

“I think Alan will win, although Sheila is strong, Alan is a Dual Elementalist and that gives him more attacking options,” Reynolds said.

Currently, Sheila and Alan were in a heated battle. None have been able to gain the upper hand, but the battle just started, so it’s still too early to judge.

“You know one of you can just admit defeat and watch the battle in your seats right?” The instructor said with a long face, he can’t chase them out of the platform since, technically, their battle was ongoing.

“We’ll watch for some time here before going back to our seats, watching the battle here is more thrilling, right Rey?” Klaus walked over to Reynolds and threw a hand across his shoulder.

“Yeah” Reynolds nodded.

The instructor sighed, ‘Forget it, even if they leave the platform now, it’s not like another battle would start immediately’.

He also turned his attention to the fight between Sheila and Alan.

“Bang”

A fire snake clashed heavily into a wall made of ice. The wall immediately started cracking, but it managed to hold on.

As soon as the fire snake was blocked, Sheila sent out ice arrows towards her opponent. Alan utilized the wind element to quickly dodge the attack.

They exchanged some more moves. This had been the most exciting battle since the tournament started. It got everyone’s attention, the few who were still battling even took peeks at it.

“Lotus,” Alan said calmly.

A three-petaled lotus appeared in the air, it was entirely made of scorching flames.

“Look, he has been able to make three petals appear”

“Wow”

Different conversations started when the lotus appeared. This was a powerful technique that both the Fire and Water Elementalists could use, if used by a water Elementalist, it would be made entirely of ice.

The more petals the lotus has, the stronger it is. Only after reaching the fifth petal can one make another lotus appear, but it wasn’t that easy since congealing the petals increases in difficulty after each petal.

“How many petals can you make?” Grey asked Alice who was sitting beside him.

“Same as him, but I should be able to make the fourth petal soon” Alice replied.

Grey nodded before he continued watching the battle.

“Let’s see who has the strongest lotus,” Sheila said seriously.

“Ice lotus”

A chilling wind came with the appearance of an ice lotus floating at the front of Sheila. Just like Alan, her lotus also had three petals.

“Go”

“Go”

They both sent their lotus towards their opponent.

*BOOM*

Both lotuses crashed against each other and exploded, one part of the platform was covered in ice while the other side was covered in fire. It was a spectacular sight. A war of ice and fire has always been a spectacular sight.

They were clearly in a stalemate, none was able to get the advantage.

“Hurricane” Alan’s calm voice was heard once again.

The flames immediately started raging with the boost it got from the wind. Alan ingeniously used the wind element to increase the intensity of his flames thereby giving it the advantage in the war between ice and fire.

The fire soon started gaining the upper hand.

A short while later, the instructor in charge of the platform dashed into the platform and suppressed the attack, Sheila could barely stand straight since she was using all her strength to fight against the fire. She placed her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath..

“Alan wins”