Affinity:Chaos

"I think you're their target." Alice whispered to Reynolds. 

"It's understandable, I'm the only one below the Fifth stage." Reynolds shrugged, not feeling pressured by the gazes he was getting. 

At most if things go out of hand, he'll summon his Elemental Warrior and send these guys packing. 

"Leave the platform peacefully." A youth walked up to Reynolds and said. 

He didn't say it in a haughty manner, it was more like an advice. 

"If I didn't want to take part in the competition, I would've registered for the competition in the first place, don't you think so?" Reynolds asked. 

The youth sighed before attacking. It was a competition, he didn't know Reynolds, so there was no use in trying to force him to accept his advice, the best thing was the eliminate him from the platform. 

The youth was in the Fifth stage of the Overlord Plane, just like Alice, and he was a Water Elementalist. 

Boom! 

Alice stepped in front of Reynolds and blocked the attack with a fire attack. 

Steam rose into the air after the attacks collided. 

"You don't need to worry about him, your opponent is me." A young lady in the Sixth stage walked forward and said to Alice. 

With four people already engaged, the remaining sixteen people picked an opponent and started battling. They couldn't sit and watch as the others fought. 

Boom! Bam! Bang! 

Attacks moved from left to right with twenty people focused on trying to eliminate each other. 

This was the first time Alice was fighting against someone above her stage since they came to these high leveled Regions, and after the first few attacks, she was left gasping for air. 

Her opponent was powerful, definitely well above her. If she were to bring out her Seelie, then she would be able to get an advantage since she would be attacking from two places. 

Reynolds was also having a tough time with his opponent. The young man who attacked him didn't give him any chances to recover as he attacked continuously. 

Reynolds' body was coated with lightning as he dodged the attacks coming his way. The few he was unable to dodge, we blocked with his elemental attacks. 

'These people are on a different level!' Reynolds exclaimed internally. Even after the warning from Grey and Kyle, he never thought the difference would be this big. 

His current opponent wouldn't have a problem with fighting against someone in the Eighth or Ninth stage back in the Azure Continent. 

"Wow…" Klaus was stunned. 

Seeing both Alice and Reynolds being suppressed by people who were only a stage above them was a sight he never thought he would see. Of course, if the duo went all out, then they wouldn't really have any issues with fighting against their opponent.

"Shocked?" Kyle asked. 

"Not really, I just didn't expect I'll see them suppressed this much." Klaus smiled wryly. 

Now he was starting to worry for himself and his chances of getting into the Faction he wanted. 

'Why am I bothered, at most I'll trick my opponents.' He thought to himself. 

If he couldn't beat them, then he would annoy them till they give up. All is fair in war. 

"This really isn't surprising, they haven't gone all-out." Kyle said. He had seen the duo in full power, so he knew they were stronger than this. Furthermore, there are also the trump cards they might have hidden from him. 

"How are you sure their opponents have gone all-out?" Klaus asked. 

"Simple." Kyle pointed at the young lady fighting against Alice, "From her expression, you can easily tell that she wants to make sure she eliminates Alice. 

She would want to do it in a domineering fashion." 

"Alice wouldn't lose to her even with her hiding most of her strength." Grey commented. 

"Naturally, but I want them to win in style. Well, they would do it when they challenge members of the Faction." Klaus said. 

While the group were talking about the battle, the battle raged on. 

Alice was slowly started to get used to fighting against the young lady. Just like Alice, the young lady was a Dual Elementalist, wielding both the fire and earth element. 

Powerful attack, complemented with powerful defense. She was a tough opponent. 

When the young lady saw that she couldn't take care of Alice as easily as she thought, she slowed her pace of attacking. Since Alice focused on defending, it was impossible for her to force her way through. The best option was to think of a plan. 

Reynolds was exchanging attacks with his opponent, but he was still suppressed by his opponent. Luckily, he was faster than his opponent, so he could dodge most of the attacks. 

The young man fighting against Reynolds created multiple ice shards that shot at Reynolds with incredible speed. 

Seeing the ice shards, Reynolds, who was covered with lightning, moved around quickly. To those in a lower stage, all they could see was a flash of lightning moving around in the platform. 

The young man gritted his teeth in frustration, Reynolds barely traded blows with him. Once he counters once, he would turn tails and run. Then whenever the opportunity presents itself, he would counter once again. 

The young man has been able to block all of the attacks so far, but he knew there is a possibility of him being unable to block one. The second he was hit by an attack, then he was defeated. 

Reynolds would take advantage of it and send him out of the platform, eliminating him. 

Bam! 

A lightning bolt struck the ice wall that the young man made in front of him. 

Cracks started to appear on the wall, and with another attack, the ice wall shattered to pieces. The young man's pupils dilated when he realized that immediately the ice wall was destroyed when another attack came at him. This meant that Reynolds had already predicted that the previous attack would be able to destroy the ice wall, so he hid an attack behind it. 

The young man didn't panic, a water dome appeared before him as he tried to use the water to slow down the lightning bolt, giving him the time he needed to evade the attack. 

After sending out the stream of water, the speed of the lightning slowed down significantly. 

Seeing this, he moved to the left, away from the lightning and also the water stream. 

When Reynolds saw this, he smiled before moving two steps back. 

Crash! Bang! 

A lightning bolt fell from the sky at breakneck speed, before the young man could even sense the attack, it had struck him in the head. 

Reynolds had been preparing this attack for some time now. He had already guessed that the young man would move to the left.

He had been watching the young man since they were fighting and realized for some reason, the young man prefered dodging to the left most of the time. 

'All according to plan.' He thought to himself with a chuckle. 

Before the young man could recover from that attack, Reynolds charged towards him and sent him flying, sending him off the stage. The young man had been eliminated. 

This was someone who was a stage above him and powerful, yet Reynolds managed to eliminate him with careful planning. 

"Smart." Kyle commented when he saw the final outcome of the battle. 

"Of course, do you think that he's dumb? He may act dumb sometimes, but he's pretty smart." Klaus said. 

"He studied his opponent and planned accordingly." Grey said. 

They all saw the fight, and every single person in the arena knew that Reynolds took a gamble with that attack. The speed at which the attack came meant that he had already prepared it. 

If the young man had moved to the right instead of the left, then his plan would have been thwarted. This would've made him feel disorientated, giving his opponent the chance to get at him. 

Alice was still fighting against her opponent. Unlike Reynolds' opponent, the young lady didn't give her the chance for her to counter. Even though she was still on the back foot, she was still able to hold on. 

The duo were still fighting when they heard the voice of the man in charge of their platform. 

"You can stop fighting now." The voice said. 

They paused and turned to look at the man, before looking around, only to realize that they were the only two fighting. Counting with their eyes, they noticed that including them, they were ten people left in the platform. This meant that the others had been eliminated. 

"Good battle." The young lady said. 

"I enjoyed myself." Alice replied. 

She walked over to Reynolds and they walked back to their seats. Reynolds was the only one who drew some attention due to his careful planning. There are also a few people who watched Alice's fight with the young lady and found her impressive. 

"We made it to the next round."