Affinity:Chaos

"To think you would dare to attack her"

On hearing the voice, Alice smiled lightly, her friends were here.

Klaus and Reynolds walked towards her slowly. The attack that connected previously was done by Klaus who instantly attacked the Darkness Elementalist on seeing he was about to strike Alice.

He heaved a sigh on seeing they came in time, had they faced the path Reynolds chose, they would have never come here. After spending almost four hours here, he met up with Reynolds on one of the paths, they had been traveling together since.

When they got to an intersection, Reynolds said they should head to the path on the right, but he was adamant they followed the path on the left, according to him, it was his gut feeling. After they argued like usual for some time, Reynolds finally agreed to follow his lead. Who knew they would see something like this?

The Darkness Elementalist on the other hand was fuming currently, at first he wanted to kill both youths, then Alice showed up, now he wanted to kill Alice, then two others showed up as well.

Being pushed back by Klaus's attack annoyed him even more.

"Hey Rey, what do you think this guy deserves", Klaus asked while giving Alice some tonic to help with her injuries.

"Death!", Reynolds said clenching his hands.

He was angry, really angry. Not just him, even though Klaus was still showing a smiling face, beneath it was a terrifying demon waiting to explode. The life of the only girl in their group was being threatened, they will not accept it.

"*Sigh* If only Grey was here, then killing him wouldn't be a problem", Klaus sighed softly.

He was angry, yes, but not stupid. For someone to be on the verge of killing Alice, and two other youths who were in the Third and Second stage respectively wasn't a fluke. It meant he had the strength to suppress them, even though the fact that he was able to injure Alice to this extent was quite surprising, it also showed how strong he was.

"Rey, full power", Klaus said before turning serious.

"I know", Reynolds nodded.

"Hmph! More fries seeking death", the Darkness Elementalist snorted coldly.

Although he was pushed back by Klaus's attack, he only attributed it to the fact that he was attacked unaware and had to defend quickly. His disdain for them increased further when he noticed their stages.

'One on the Second stage, and the other on the First stage. This is going to be easier than those buffoons', he thought.

But his expression changed the next second.

"An Elemental Warrior", he said in a small voice.

His head was currently aching, how can these people be a group of friends. One was a Dual Elementalist whose strength was insane for her stage, another was a summoner who can summon an Elemental Warrior. Now, he didn't dare to look down on Klaus, for him to be part of such a group, there was definitely something terrifying about him also.

Had he known there was an even more terrifying fellow who wasn't present, he would definitely curse his bad luck for clashing with such a group. Given how vengeful Klaus and the boys were, they will definitely never let the matter rest.

The battle started off quickly.

Boom! Bam!

One minute later…

Bang!

For the first time since he was battling previously, the Darkness Elementalist slammed into the wall by the side.

The Elemental Warrior wasn't giving him any chances and was attacking him from both a close distance and far distance, added to Klaus's insane attacks, he was quickly put in a passive state.

'I can't delay any further. Although I can't defeat them, they can't keep me here if I want to leave', he quickly made up his mind to escape.

Had he been facing the Elemental Warrior alone, he would have been able to hang on without fearing he might sustain any injuries, but with Klaus around, there was no way he could.

Klaus was like a terrifying monster, he attacked so ingeniously that defending his strikes means creating an opening for the Elemental Warrior most of the time. Klaus also attacks just after he had finished defending or dodging the attack of the Elemental Warrior which makes defending harder.

He hadn't acquired the Great Earth Essence Liquid yet, if he were to be injured fatally in this battle, his chances of acquiring it would reduce greatly.

That was his initial goal, if not for taking a fancy of the elemental weapon, he wouldn't have wasted so much time here.

Coming to a decision, he quickly retreated but was met by an evil grin from Klaus.

"Hehehe, I knew you would take this decision. But I won't let you leave without any injuries", Klaus laughed evilly.

After the battle started, he had guessed the Darkness Elementalist would try to escape the moment he realizes he was in a difficult position. He knew too well they shouldn't engage in a prolonged battle since Reynolds couldn't keep the summon for too long, so he had been brainstorming on how to ensure even if the Darkness Elementalist escapes, it wouldn't be without any injuries.

And the idea came to him quickly, it was a technique he acquired in one of the ancient paths. It was a water technique but it was quite difficult to execute. He had to congeal a small ice needle while storing a terrifying amount of ice in it.

After the needle comes in contact with the human body, it dissolves before releasing a bone-chilling cold into the body causing hypothermia. If congealed to an even more terrifying state, it will freeze the target instantly from the inside-out causing death. But Klaus can't get it to that stage yet.

The name of the technique was 'Sub-Zero'.

Swoosh!

The needle pierced through the air at a terrifying speed.

The retreating Darkness Elementalist who had just used a movement technique to escape from the barrage of attacks from the Elemental Warrior was left with no way to dodge the attack.

Pu-Chi

The Ice needle pierced into his shoulder and dissolved in his body.

The second the needle dissolved in his body, his body started going numb.

'I knew this guy wasn't simple', he thought while trying to remove the effects of the cold.

Having the fire element as one of his elements made things easier, he quickly circulated it around his body which reduced the effect of the cold effectively while he was also retreating completely from the path. He didn't dare to stay any longer.

"It's a shame he also has the fire element, or even if he escaped, it would be hard to rid himself of the cold so quickly", Klaus shook his head in disappointment.

Reynolds on the other hand quickly dissipated his summon before it drains him completely of his elemental essence.

"Are you okay?", he asked while walking closer to Alice.

"Yeah, better than before", Alice nodded.

"You see, never doubt my gut feeling", Klaus said arrogantly while glaring at Reynolds.

"Yeah right, and we nearly died because of this so-called gut feeling of yours previously", Reynolds scoffed before replying.

"That was coincidental, who knew that beast would accidentally walk there?" Klaus retorted.

"You moron, how can a sleeping beast walk? The beast had been sleeping there before you decided to chose that path, waking it in the process because of your loud voice", Reynolds didn't back down.

The two youths from the Lunar Academy who had managed to stand up were about to thank the duo when they started arguing. They were stunned, they never expected the two guys who they felt were powerful to have such traits.

Alice on the other hand didn't even bother with them and just laughed lightly while focusing on healing herself, this wasn't her first time being around Klaus said Reynolds, so she knew their characters all too well.

After almost two minutes of cursing at each other, Reynolds finally praised Klaus's gut feeling. Because if not for it, then they might have lost Alice.

"Have you guys seen Grey?", Alice asked after feeling a little better.

Compared to the first time they arrived, she was better now and could stand on her own properly, her bleeding shoulder had also stopped bleeding.

"No, the chances of meeting at these paths is quite low. It's already a miracle, and thanks to my gut feeling we are able to reunite", Klaus said, not forgetting to praise his gut feeling as well.

Alice and Reynolds both rolled their eyes on hearing his answer.

"You should heal up, we can't delay any further, we need to reach the end of the paths as soon as possible", Reynolds said to Alice.

While they were still speaking, the other two youths came over.

"Thank you", they both bowed in appreciation.

They even offered to give them the elemental weapon, but they were refused by the group. After staying for some time, they left the group and continued on their journey.

……

Back at the Volcano…

'I'm finally about to break through', Grey thought excitedly when he noticed the changes happening in his body.