Affinity:Chaos

'I can't take this anymore, we need to escape!' Void yelled after slamming into the ground for the eighth time.

'You can still go on.' Grey sneered while blocking the advances of Aetonth to give Void time to regain himself.

'No, no I can't. Look at all the pits I've formed on the ground. Look! There's even one that draws for almost two meters! I'm not even close to half a meter in length.' Void complained while showing Grey all the little craters his figure had made after he slammed into the ground.

There is one that was particularly eye-catching since it drew over a distance of nearly two meters. It was from the time when Aetonth's tail connected with Void, sending him crashing into the ground.

Regardless of the fact that Void had been the one receiving most of the beatings, Grey hadn't been particularly lucky as well. Whenever Void was out of the picture, he had to face Aetonth alone to try and cover for Void.

It had been over five minutes since Aetonth caught up with them, and they haven't even been able to strike him once. All their attacks had either been destroyed by Aetonth's attacks or stopped by the ice sphere which appears only when an attack gets close to it.

Grey currently had three inscriptions set up which were frequently attacking, as well as his personal attacks, this was the only reason they were still alive. Distracting Aetonth was the only thing Grey could currently do. Without Void's space element, it was almost impossible for him to get past the ice sphere, since even when he manages to destroy it, Aetonth would be able to easily escape and create another one.

He thought of using his physical strength, but he realized that getting closer to Aetonth would put him in more danger, so, he decided against it. Also, after recalling how painful the tail strike he got from Aetonth was, he knew it was a fool's wish to think his physical strength would be on par with its or even stronger.

'Looks like I'll have to use that again.' thought Grey.

Without wasting time, he quickly started channeling water essence through his legs, to different parts of the battlefield, he hoped to once again trap Aetonth before he and Void attacked with their strongest attacks. But he was left stunned when he realized once his water essence got within two meters of Aetonth, he would suddenly lose the link with it, it was like it was suddenly frozen.

Grey tried again, and the result was just like the first time, he couldn't help but stare at the eyes of Aetonth, and from its eyes, he could tell it figured out what he wanted to do and stopped it.

'I'll have to use the Fusion State for a little while then escape, as quickly as possible.' Grey thought.

He was left with no option, he had to use the Fusion State so they could have an opportunity to escape, hopefully, he might even get to hit Aetonth more, after all, they would be in the same stage.

'Void, buy me some time, I'm going to use that technique now.' He said to Void who was just managing to stand from the new pit he had formed on the battlefield.

'Ah, finally!' Void exclaimed in delight before vanishing and attacking Aetonth the moment he came into sight again.

Grey created an earth wall to block any possible attacks that might come from Aetonth and focused on fusing his elemental beads since it wasn't the first time he was doing it, it was faster than before.

His only concern was that he used the Fusion State about a month or two ago, so he didn't know if it might be harmful to him or not.

The elemental beads quickly fused, sending out a shockwave with Grey at the center, soon, his stage increased from the Fourth to the Fifth stage, and then all the way to the Ninth stage before it stopped.

Boom!

The intense activity quickly alerted Aetonth who was having a good time beating Void up, it sensed the sudden spike in Grey's strength and couldn't help but be stunned.

How could the human improve by so much? It wondered.

Aetonth knew of techniques that increased the strength of their users, but not by this much, especially given the Plane Grey was on.

'Looks like the old man knew of this. Fine, things would become a little more interesting now.' thought Aetonth. It had gotten a little tired of beating the duo up, but since Grey could actually improve his strength to this level, the battle wouldn't be boring anymore.

It stomped on the ground, and from where its forelimb touched, the ground slowly started being covered in snow. In ten seconds, it covered the area within a thirty meters radius.

Grey was within that thirty meters radius, but the spot he was standing on still looked the same way. He took a step, and before his foot got to the ground, the ice quickly melted off, showing the green grass below.

He quickly picked up speed, and soon appeared before Aetonth. Being in the Fusion State gave him more confidence to get close to Aetonth, he knew Aetonth's body was far stronger than his own, but he still wanted to try it out.

He clenched his right hand into a fist and threw a punch at Aetonth.

Aetonth retreated three meters back and the ice sphere appeared once again, blocking Grey's punch.

Crack!

Cracks quickly spread across the ice sphere, but it managed to hold on.

Grey didn't seem bothered as he quickly withdrew his hand to throw another punch with lightning speed, this time, his fist was covered in blue flames like a flaming glove.

He got this idea from a technique he picked up during the first time he headed out of the Lunar Academy, lightning gloves. It was a technique he went on to regret picking since he never really got the chance to use it.

Boom!

The already cracked ice sphere exploded and the flaming glove in Grey's hand shot from his hand, heading straight for Aetonth.

It turned into an almost two meters large fist.

Aetonth didn't have enough time to evade the attack, so it quickly improvised and its claw at the flaming fist.

Boom!

Ice and fire exploded out in two directions.