Affinity:Chaos

Bang! Boom!

Gareth was sent flying by the Barbarian, slamming heavily into the ground.

The battle has been ongoing for almost ten minutes now, and the Barbarian has completely suppressed him since the start of the battle. He could barely even dish out an attack.

His battle suit is currently unrecognizable, luckily, he is still alive.

Other than Grey and a few others who might've found out about the plans of the organization, no one else had even as much as a single thought of Gareth winning this battle.

"He's put up a good battle, I hope he isn't killed,"

"Yeah, it's not a must to kill your opponent after defeating them,"

"Do you think this Barbarian will let him survive, he'll kill him once the chance presents itself,"

While the crowd was speaking about the battle, they also noticed something, Grey was still sitting on his seat with a straight face.

"Hey, how come he hasn't run away yet?" Someone pointed at Grey.

"Yeah, although this battle has been conservative due to the fighting style of the Barbarian, it's still very violent. Just the aftershocks of the battle are enough to kill some people in the Origin Plane," Another person said.

"Guess he's not that simple," Someone else pointed out.

Since Grey could stay there comfortably, it meant he wasn't someone weak. There's also the chance that he was being protected by a treasure or so, but either way, they didn't want to bother with him.

The battle went on, with the Barbarian being the one on top of the battle.

After almost twenty-five minutes, Gareth was already bloodied from the fight, barely able to stand properly.

….

'Void, are you sure you heard right?' Grey asked a little worriedly after seeing the condition of Gareth.

'One hundred percent, the Barbarian will soon start exhibiting signs of weakness while Gareth will slowly start gaining the upper hand in the battle,' Void explained.

While Void was still in the middle of his explanation, something unusual happened in the arena, one of Gareth's attacks landed on the body of the Barbarian, forcing him back.

The crowd cheered in excitement when they saw this. No one enjoys watching a one-sided battering, a battle is only entertaining when both sides are attacking each other.

Boom! Bam!

Gareth struck again, this time the Barbarian used his earth shield to block the strike. But he was surprisingly pushed back by the impact of the explosion.

After noticing he was starting to gain the upper hand, Gareth who was previously looking worn down was immediately revitalized, attacking with new vigor.

The Barbarian was left dumbstruck by the sudden increase in Gareth's strength, he couldn't believe what was happening. His fighting spirit was provoked, and he started to glow with red and brown lights. His height suddenly saw an increase of almost five inches, to the amazement of Grey who was seeing something like this for the first time.

"It's the special skills of Barbarians, rage, I never thought this one would actually be able to do it," Someone from the crowd exclaimed in shock.

When the rest of the crowd heard the statement, they gasped in shock. The skill displayed by the Barbarian came as a surprise to them.

"Looks like Gareth's last-minute counter-attack will be futile,"

"Yeah, I really had some hopes of him being able to get back from those attacks, who knew it would be meaningless,"

Grey swallowed heavily when he thought of his essence stones which were about to be lost. He noticed the change in the expression of the man who spoke before the fight started. This only meant that this wasn't something they planned against, from how things were going, Gareth was supposed to kill the Barbarian, but since the Barbarian is currently in a rage state, it's impossible for him to do so.

….

"What?!" Gareth yelled when he saw the Barbarian entering this special state.

"I warned you, boy, but you didn't listen, now you'll pay for your foolishness," The Barbarian said emotionlessly as he walked towards Gareth.

Gareth took a step back in fear, they didn't tell him something like this would happen, if he knew, there was no way he would fight this battle.

"Stop, don't move you stupid Barbarian," The man at the side of the arena said while walking into the arena.

The Barbarian sent a powerful attack towards the man, but it was stopped by the wave of a hand.

The man slowly started to lift off the ground, after reaching just above the Barbarian, he stretched out his hand.

A powerful gale suddenly blew across the arena, forcefully suppressing the Barbarian. The gale also reached the first few rows in the stands, almost blowing the people away.

Grey was one of the first people to react when he saw this, using the earth element to forcefully implant his leg into the ground, making sure there was no way this gale would take him away.

The people around were once again left dumbstruck by his unfazed appearance. This wasn't something someone in the Origin Plane could withstand, yet there Grey was, sitting calmly.

"I'm sorry everyone, but this is a battle I can not allow to take place, special Barbarians like this one here are not allowed in these battles." The man explained, "As for those who made a bet, you can go back and retrieve your essence stones,"

The man motioned for someone to come with the cage before placing the Barbarian inside, he didn't forget to put the collar on the neck of the Barbarian.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience everyone, the battles will continue as planned," The man bowed to the crowd before leaving.

He looked at Gareth with a disappointed gaze before walking away from the arena, heading towards a special room.

Gareth bowed his head but left as well.

The crowd watched everything unfold in surprise, those who placed a bet on the Barbarian were left furious since they would've been able to at least double their essence stones, but now they had nothing. The few people who placed their bets on Gareth breathed a sigh of relief, especially Grey.

None of the people here could refute the man since he was someone in the Sage Plane.

The battles went on as usual, and the other participants came forward to fight. Grey got to find out that people other than prisoners could also participate in the battles. He felt a surge of regret since he would've tried to test his hand against someone at the Peak of the Origin Plane just like himself.

He wanted to see the difference between the Elementalists here and those in the Azure continent, especially now that he found out that he couldn't use the space element here cause his grade is too low.

While Grey was still feeling a wave of regret, the man who spoke at the start of the show stepped forward once again.

"Alright, so for the special event today, we have some representatives from the Abyss Faction who are looking to recruit some strong fighters, no matter the stage of the Elementalist, as long as you can show that you're powerful when compared to others in your stage, you can step forward and take the test," The man announced.

The crowd was thrown into an uproar when they heard the man speak of the Abyss Faction. Never in their wildest dreams did they expect that the organizers of the event had ties with the Abyss Faction.

"The rules of the battle are simple, anyone from the crowd can step forward, after saying your cultivation stage, you'll be challenged by someone from the Abyss Faction in the same stage, if you can defeat that person, then you have the chance to become a student of the Faction," The man explained.

After hearing this, the crowd was exhilarated by the news. Joining a faction like the Abyss Faction was an honor for them, it would greatly boost their status, as well as their strength since they will have a better cultivation ground.

….

Grey was a little taken aback when he heard this, he knew of factions, instead of Academies, the Aurora continent had factions but they play the same role just like the Academies in the Azure continent.

'Hmm, a chance to test my strength against one of the people here. Since it's a contest of some sort, I shouldn't be in too much trouble if I win,' He thought to himself.

Although he had not exchanged blows with any of the people here, he was still very confident in his abilities. While he was still in the Azure continent, he didn't have an opponent in the Origin Plane while he was still in the Seventh stage, much less now that he was at the Peak.

'Hey, will you attempt it?' Void's voice echoed in his head.

'Yeah, I'd like to see how powerful the geniuses here are,' Grey replied confidently.

'Nice! If only I will be able to bet on you,' Void said sadly.

'Haha, no need, I might lose, you may never know,' Grey chuckled softly.

Although he said this, Void could still sense the total confidence oozing from his voice. The thought of losing doesn't even seem to be in Grey's head.