Affinity:Chaos

Boom!

Grey's first four attacks collided in the ice sphere, exploding on impact, but it didn't even get as much as a glance from Grey and Void, the reason for that was because his secret fifth attack appeared above Aetonth at the same time as well.

The third array he made which he used in secretly unleashing the fifth attack was larger than the previous two, since his target was large, he wanted to use a big attack that might cover over half of Aetonth's body. Of course, he made sure the attack was of the fire element since he thought it was more effective against the Aetonth, the Ice Dragon.

Aetonth who was running in Grey's direction while still sending out ice streams immediately sensed the attack that appeared above it, it immediately stopped attacking and tried to dodge to the side, but when it wanted to move, it realized that moving actually became quite difficult. It looked below it only to realize that at least one-fourth of its leg had sunk into the thick mud which formed all of a sudden beneath it, it couldn't struggle free quickly given the time, so it spread out its wings, hoping to fly away in the crucial moment.

Aetonth managed to flap its wings twice, but it was unfortunately not enough to get it out of the mud before the attack landed fiercely on its back.

Boom!

A large explosion rang out, but that wasn't all, Void attacked as well, sending out a lightning, fire, and darkness element attack all at the same time, aiming for one place.

Seeing this, Grey also attacked as well, he didn't know if these attacks could kill it, but he hoped they should at least wear it down.

After almost twenty seconds of continuous attacks, the duo stopped and Void returned to Grey's shoulder, panting. Even Grey wasn't having an easy time as well, it had been over twenty minutes since Aetonth was chasing and beating them up, and since then, he haven't had time to rest.

Void on the other hand managed to rest during the time they spent running, it's just that, compared to Grey, he was the one who had taken most of the beating.

'Do you think we got it?' Void asked looking at the smoky and dusty place where they unleashed barrages of attacks.

'No, we…need to leave here.' Grey wasn't optimistic about their chances if killing Aetonth from those attacks, but he wanted to find a place to rest, hopefully, Aetonth wouldn't chase after them anymore.

Grey breathed in a large amount of air like someone whose air supply was cut off from his lungs, before sprinting away from this place.

According to his calculations, his friends should get to the array within three hours or so, and he's currently about four hours away from the array.

He ran following the route he planned out, while also hoping to find a secure spot to rest, he didn't wait to confirm if their attacks damaged Aetonth, but he hoped it did, even if it was by a small amount.

Four minutes after Grey and Void left the forest, the dust and smoke still hadn't completely died down, but Aetonth's figure could properly be seen now.

It was currently sprawling on the muddy ground, and letting out slight painful groans. It was thoroughly stumped by the duo's attacks, and he nearly had the impulse to kill them, it didn't remember when last it was hit by this much.

"Clever human, annoying cat, you're lucky my power is restrained, or else I'd have beaten you so bad for this that you wouldn't even recognize yourselves. If not for that old man, I wouldn't even go easy on them. Hmph!" Aetonth's voice could be heard coming from the dust.

"I'll let them rest for one hour, I need to recover from their attacks." Aetonth's figure moved, and it soon walked out from the dust.

When it came into sight, a transparent ice scale-like armor could be seen covering its scales, but some parts of it were missing and its scales had multiple black spots.

Of Grey and Void's attacks, the one he hated the most was Void's darkness attacks, followed by Grey's fire element attacks. Both attacks were so powerful that even though its present strength was five stages ahead in Grey's case and six stages ahead in Void's case, they still managed to break its defenses.

After Aetonth came out from the dust and laid down at the side of a tree, the old man appeared in front of him once again.

"To think they would be able to break your defense." The old man said with a soft smile.

"If they were by themselves, they wouldn't have a chance." Aetonth said disapprovingly.

"But you have to admit, they're quite strong, and clever as well, even I didn't expect them to trap you in such an ingenious way. If you were facing any other duo, I don't think you'd be in such a sorry state." The old man said.

"Hmph! Stop praising the brat, if not for you saying I shouldn't kill him, he would've been long dead." Aetonth scoffed before saying.

"But you have to give them credit, they tried." The old man said.

"Fine." Aetonth nodded.

"So why are you here?" The old man asked while staring in another direction.

He could currently see Grey and Void running away, they've even left the forest, and were currently heading in the direction of a building.

"I'm giving them a one-hour break, at least they should rest a little, or they might truly die from my attacks." Aetonth said before closing its eyes.

With how powerful it originally was, it didn't have any problems with locating the duo with his spiritual sense. Although its true strength was restricted, it could still easily use its original powerful spiritual sense.

"Okay, try to push him harder this time, you're beating the cat too much." The old man said.

He had been watching the battle, and compared to Grey, he noticed Void was the one who was getting more beat up by Aetonth.

"I feel the brat wants the cat to be beaten up, so I'm just helping him." Aetonth said.

"Oh, I also noticed his physical defense was amazing when I struck him previously." It added.

"Just like him, hmm, okay, try to push him harder, I want to see how strong he truly is." The old man said before disappearing.

"Oh! I already have your crystal" The old man's voice rang out from the void, but he was nowhere to be seen.