Affinity:Chaos

The leader of the expedition confronted the young man as he walked towards their camp.

"He's gone, you don't expect him to stay here after obtaining the lightning tree, do you?" He asked the young man with a calm voice.

"Hmph! There's something of mine that he has," The young man snorted coldly.

"What does that have to do with us?" The leader of the expedition asked, this time, releasing some of his aura.

"Nothing, but can you tell me where he came from?" The young man changed his approach.

"I don't even know him, he only accompanied us by chance. And besides, even if I did know him, I wouldn't tell you a thing about him," The leader of the expedition said.

The young man looked at the leader, and then at the couple. Seeing their attitude, he knew he would be getting nothing from them. With nothing else to do, he walked back to his camp.

Back at the cave.

Reynolds had successfully broken through to the Fourth stage of the Origin Plane, but he didn't stop there. There was still quite a lot of essence in the tree, so he wanted to improve further.

Grey was currently standing outside the cave, looking into the silent forest. The thought of searching for the young man came to his mind, but leaving Reynolds here alone was a little too dangerous. Although he made some arrays around the cave as well as its entrance, he wasn't sure if it could shield off those beasts at the Peak of the Origin Plane.

It was soon daybreak, but Reynolds was still in the middle of his strengthening. With nothing to do, Grey decided to practice the Great Void technique. It was a powerful skill to begin with, so gaining better mastery of it would bring a lot of advantages to him.

Just the switch skill that came with it already made him almost unbeatable in fights.

'The danger levels will decrease by some margin now. I really need to see that guy,' Grey thought while looking at the cave.

He guessed the young man would be searching for him, even more so after he duped them. He couldn't take the risk of not seeing the young man since he needed to know where and how he got that liquid.

After setting up a few more arrays around the cave just to be sure, he vanished into the forest, heading to where the groups camped.

It took him ten minutes to get to the place, it wasn't really far from where they were hiding anyway, but he was sure the people wouldn't go through that area.

On getting there, he saw the groups had already started to pack up, preparing to leave the area.

'Luckily, I moved early,' He heaved a sigh of relief, but he stayed hidden.

He knew some of the people there would attack him if they saw him, after all, the appealness of the lightning tree hasn't decreased by even the slightest.

It didn't take long before he saw who he was searching for, now all that remains was how to get the attention of the young man.

'*Sigh* Forget it, what's the use of hiding anyway, it's not like they can kill me,' He thought before taking a step out of the forest.

Just as he took a step out, he hastily turned around, heading back into the forest.

'That's too risky, I'll need to think of something,' He climbed onto the branch of the tree at the start of the forest, while monitoring the movements of the people.

Ten minutes later, the group started moving out. Other than the cores they obtained in the expedition, they got nothing else. Some of them even had it worse, dying.

Rustle!

A silent rustle caught Grey's attention. The sound felt exactly like when someone was sneaking through the woods, silently.

'Huh? Someone's here,' He thought before turning his head around to look behind him.

Just as his head was still turning, he caught sight of a lightning arrow shooting towards him. The lightning arrow was already within three meters of him, drawing nearer even while his head was still turning.

The arrow will surely be able to pierce his head before he turns around completely.

Buzz! Boom!

Grey vanished from the tree, dodging the arrow by a slight margin.

The arrow crashed into the tree, destroying it in the process.

The commotion attracted the attention of the groups who just started to move away from where they camped.

"What's that?" Lukka asked, looking in the direction of where the sound came from.

"It's a lightning based attack," The leader of the expedition said.

Although they were over seven hundred meters away from the tree, he could still see the silvery flash of lightning from the explosion.

Lukka squinted his eyes, looking at the area of the explosion.

"Stay here, I'll be back shortly," He said to his wife.

"Okay," His wife nodded.

Lukka was the only one who decided to head in that direction. The reason for this was simple, no one wanted to get involved in a fight that had absolutely nothing to do with them. There's a chance that two powerful magical beasts were fighting, so going near the area might incur the wrath of both beasts.

'I didn't think the moron stayed behind,' Lukka thought with a smirk as he headed closer to the forest.

He guessed it correctly, it was the attack of the Lightning Elementalist from the triplet. When he chased after him, he managed to slip away due to some tricks. But he never thought he wouldn't go far.

'But, who is he attacking? He's not stupid enough to attract my attention when he fully knows I would come for his head,' He paused, but only for a few seconds before continuing.

He thought of the possibility of this being a trap, but he just couldn't stop himself from not checking it out. After what the triplet had done to him and his wife, he couldn't stand to let this chance go.

At the forest.

Grey appeared on the tree close to the one he was previously standing on. He didn't know who attacked him, or where the attack came from.

He looked in the direction of where the arrow came from, but he couldn't see or sense anyone.

'Dammit! How could I have been so careless?' He said a little angry at himself.

If not for the space element, then he would've either died from that attack, or would've been severely injured.

"Who's there? Come out!" Grey called out.

"Boy, there's something strange about your movement technique,"

Grey heard a voice coming from every angle. It was like the person was speaking from different places, making it difficult to pinpoint his location.

"Come out, and I might tell you about it," Grey spoke calmly.

He felt the voice was familiar when he heard it, but he didn't know where he had heard it before.

"How did you switch places with me?"

The voice asked another question.

"Oh! It's you! I knew the voice was familiar. Haha, now I don't have to worry," Grey laughed out while using his hand to rub his chest.

The fear of the unknown was something that affected anyone, not knowing who was attacking him scared him a little, but now that he knew it was the Lightning Elementalist from the triplet, he felt unbothered.

Grey's behavior annoyed the Lightning Elementalist. It was like he didn't take him seriously after finding out he was the one speaking.

"What insolence! Do you think I can't kill you from where you stand?" The Lightning Elementalist said angrily.

"Hehe, if you aren't scared, why are you hiding?" Grey laughed in an annoying way, further infuriating the Lightning Elementalist.

Swoosh! Buzz! Bang!

Another lightning arrow shot towards Grey from the right, but he was able to quickly see it this time.

He moved to the other side, before sending a fireball in the direction the lightning arrow came from.

Boom!

The fireball exploded, covering a wide range, but there was no reaction from the place.

"If you think I am in the position where the arrow comes from, then you still have a lot to learn, boy," The Lightning Elementalist's voice spoke out steadily.

"Hmm, come on out old man. Oh wait, I forgot, you're scared of a little boy, that's why you ran away the last time," Grey said while laughing out loud.

When the Lightning Elementalist recalled how Grey used the Leopard to attack him and his brothers, he was annoyed.

"You little brat is the reason why two of my brothers are dead," The Lightning Elementalist said angrily.

"And here I am, the reason even you are going to die as well," Grey spread out both hands.

Swoosh! Bam!

Another arrow shot towards Grey, but he was able to dodge it, while attacking where the attack came from.

"Why are you still here?" Lukka's voice came from behind Grey.