Affinity:Chaos

'If they went after Void, then what's coming towards me?'

Grey stood up and squinted his eyes, peering through the trees, trying to see what or who was coming towards him.

It didn't take long for him to catch a glimpse of a human figure, he felt a little more relaxed seeing that it was a person that was coming towards him, at least this meant he wouldn't need to fight an unnecessary battle.

"Who's there? Come out!" He yelled towards the person who for some reason was still hiding.

"Ah!"

Accompanied by a powerful yell was a one and a half meters long earth spear that shot at Grey at a terrifying speed.

Being caught unaware by the attack, he was slow to react, but he was still able to dodge the spear by a hair's breadth.

He sidestepped to the side and the spear brushed by his side, ripping a hole in the pants of his left leg while also slightly scratching his skin.

'Shit! My last pair of pants are ruined! Who the hell is this?' Grey felt like beating the hell out of the person.

He had been so careful all this while, and even when he found against the quasi dragon, he somehow managed to keep them from getting damaged. Now, a moron came from nowhere and destroyed it, even wounding him in the process.

He was infuriated!

Just as the first attack was dodged, three earth arrows shot at Grey once again at breakneck speed.

Grey immediately created a wind dome around him that easily deflected the arrows coming his way. After deflecting it, he shot straight in the direction where the previous attacks came from.

"Come out now! And we can still settle this…if you're not an enemy." Grey yelled but the last part of the statement was so low that only he heard it.

But he was met with silence, the person who attacked him didn't make a sound, nor did the person attack any further. The person also concealed their aura, making it difficult for Grey to find them.

Grey looked around for some time but was still unable to find the person. He even did a wide fire attack on the area, but other than scaring the magical beasts in the vicinity, nothing else happened.

With no other option, he was forced to give up, while gritting his teeth hatefully. This person attacked him without warning and destroyed his last pair of pants, now he would have to walk around with it. Luckily, the place torn wasn't that large, so he could manage.

'I need to get some pants.' Grey declared inside.

'Where are you?' He asked Void who was currently dashing through the trees on the mountain agilely.

'I'm almost at the second mountain.' replied Void.

'Forget about it for now, come in my direction, and if you see any humans on the way, inform me. Also, when you get here, don't immediately show yourself.' Grey said.

He wanted to find who attacked him, and he felt Void was the best guy for the job. Given how sharp Void's senses were, he might be able to pick up this person who seems to be quite good at hiding.

'Is anything wrong?' Void couldn't help but ask when he heard Grey's words.

Grey went on to tell him about his ordeal, and his quest for revenge.

After telling Void about it, he looked around vigilantly then walked away from the place, but he didn't go too far, only about a kilometer from there. He walked towards a big tree that was able to perfectly block the sun and sat in a crossed leg position.

'How did the expert put a sun in this personal space?' Grey asked as he stared at the sky through the leaves of the tree.

Even after being here for almost one hour, Grey was still dumbstruck by the fact that this was a space created by someone, it was almost like the real world! In fact, had Void not said it was a space created by an expert before they entered the place, he would've thought there were only transported to somewhere else in the trial land.

Rustle…

Grey instantly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the rustling sound, but he didn't make any movements, he sat in the same position and if not for the frequent movement of his chest when breathing, one might think he was dead.

This was the reason he left his previous location, given how good the person was in hiding, he was unable to tell if the person was still there or not. But here, no matter how good the person was in hiding, the person would walk past some leaves which would certainly make a small amount of noise. Now, he knew he still had a chance of revenge, but he still didn't know who would be attacking him.

He sat down patiently while conversing with Void who was already close to where he was sitting.

'The person is here, so no need to look around for other humans, just head straight towards my location.' He informed Void.

'Okay.'

Another minute went by with neither Grey nor his stalker making any move, made of the two, Grey seemed to be the most unbothered, it was like the situation was reversed.

'I'm here.'

'I know, I can sense you. Try to find out the location of the bastard.' Grey stood up.

"I know you're here! What's your motive of attacking me?" Grey questioned, but it was like his words fell into deaf ears.

He looked in the direction he heard the rustling leaves, and slowly approached it.

Swoosh…

Grey jolted at the sound of something breaking through the wind and sharply turned. An earth arrow was speeding towards him, even though he was prepared for an attack, he never expected it to come from this angle.

The arrow was headed straight at his heart, he threw his right hand at the arrow with the hope of catching it, even if he couldn't catch it, he should at least be able to change the course of its movement. But because of the speed, he was only able to move slightly, before the arrow hit him.

Bam!

Thud!

With the arrow connecting, Grey fell to the ground, he laid sideways without making any movements, even his breathing seemed to have stopped.

One minute went by with no one taking any action, it was only on the second minute did a figure slowly walk out of the trees. When the figure emerged fully, it was surprisingly the youth from the Starlight Academy who was in the Twelfth Prince's group.

He had a smirk on his face as he slowly approached the body of Grey. When they entered the castle, just like Grey they were all disheartened on seeing the small door, but because they couldn't leave, they slowly started examining the hall. It was only after one of them mysteriously disappeared did the others started swarming towards the small door.

Of his group, he was the only one to enter this place, and even though he saw the building, he had been unable to head there due to his strength. He had been slowly making his way closer to it, and even after a day, he had only managed to get to the foot of the mountain, after taking multiple detours trying to avoid the stronger beasts he sensed on the way.

He was resting when he suddenly heard movements, following where the sound was coming from, he found Grey. Before coming to the trial land, the instructors of the Academy told them to kill the students from the Lunar Academy if the opportunity arose, Grey especially, due to his involvement in the last incident that led to the death of one of their instructors.

"This cocky bastard is finally dead, the Academy would reward me handsomely." He laughed out loud in delight.

At first, when he saw Grey, he wanted to fight against him, but he halted when he sensed Grey was not one, but two stages ahead of him. He remembered being the one who was two stages ahead when they entered the trial land, now, the situation was reversed.

On getting to Grey's body, he was about to kick it when Grey turned to look at him with a smile.

"Oh! It's you." Grey sharply stood up and threw the arrow that was held in his right hand away.

The arrow unexpectedly didn't pierce into his body, rather, if one looks closely, one will see a hole in his shirt, and behind that hole, was a glistening almost silvery colored earth armor. Grey had prepared this beforehand, just in case things took an unexpected turn.

The youth took a step back while staring at Grey with horror-filled eyes, he saw his arrow hitting him, yet why was he perfectly fine?

"Don't be surprised, if not for the fact that I wanted to see you, you would have been dead by now." Grey patted the terrified youth on the shoulder.

He recognized the youth was from the Starlight Academy and recalling that he saw Neil here previously, he was about to connect the dots.

Void soon mysteriously appeared on Grey's shoulder, which sent chills down the spine of the youth. He didn't know when this small black cat came here, but from Grey's words, it looked like the cat was what would've killed him.

"I… I… I was…only…playing around." The youth stuttered, hoping for Grey to let him go.

"I must say, you do have a nice pair of pants." Grey said with a mysterious smile.

"Huh!" The youth was taken aback by Grey's statement.

'What do my pants have to do with this?' He thought.

A minute later, a dead pantless youth could be seen on the ground, with eyes filled with sadness and regret.

"It's not very comfortable, but it'll do for now. When we leave here, I need to go pants hunting." Grey said as he disappeared into the trees, heading towards the building.