Affinity:Chaos

Grey and Reynolds moved without delay. Others across the field still needed help, so the faster these three Gnomes were dealt with, the better.

Fear had already taken deep root in the remaining Gnomes. Grey’s sudden return had shaken them badly. All they wanted now was to break free and flee back to the safety of their camp. One of the original four already lay dead on the sand. Of the three still alive, two carried serious wounds. The fact that the Gnome with a gaping hole through his torso was still breathing bordered on miraculous.

The moment Grey ordered the attack, panic took over. None of them wanted another fight, especially not in their current state.

The Gnome who had spent the early part of the battle chasing Grey acted first. He spun and fled at full speed, shouting for help as he went. To anyone listening it might have sounded like a warning, but the truth was simpler. He only wanted to draw every eye toward Grey so he himself could slip away. Spreading word of Grey’s presence was secondary to his own survival.

Grey had already prepared for exactly this. He had no intention of letting any of them escape, and even less intention of allowing news of his arrival to spread across the battlefield.

The bunny leader, absent since the fighting began, finally showed himself. Space around the fleeing Gnome thickened without warning, turning the air into something dense and clinging, like a quagmire. The Gnome’s movements slowed dramatically. His limbs felt heavy, each step a struggle.

Grey was already fast, and as a Space Elementalist he could have closed the distance on his own in short order. The bunny leader’s interference simply made the outcome certain.

A golden spear of condensed light formed in Grey’s hand. Light and lightning had always been particularly effective against Gnomes, light most of all. The Gnome saw the spear coming and thrashed harder, trying to break free of the restricted space. Nothing worked. He remained trapped and exposed as the weapon drove straight toward his chest. He had only just torn Reynolds’s lightning spear from his shoulder moments earlier; now he faced something even more dangerous.

With a raw roar he wrapped himself in a sphere of pure darkness, the only defense left to him.

The light spear punched through the darkness as though it were thin mist and buried itself in his chest. A short, choked scream escaped him before it cut off completely. He was dead before his body finished falling.

Grey did not spare the corpse a second look. He turned and saw Reynolds and the Ninth stage Sovereign they had rescued finishing the other two. Both Gnomes were already badly hurt from the earlier ambush, and the shock of recognizing Grey had left them more interested in escape than resistance. Their desperation to flee created clear openings, and Reynolds and the human used them without hesitation.

The three regrouped once the last of the targets stopped moving. The rescued Sovereign offered another quick thanks. Grey and Reynolds answered with simple nods.

Reynolds fixed Grey with a serious look.

"How are things over there? We felt one of their Peak Sovereigns die a while back and thought the fight might finally be turning our way. It doesn’t seem to have gone as planned."

Grey shook his head.

"No. One of them is immune to my mental attack. He stopped us from taking more than a single kill in the opening strike."

Reynolds gave a short nod of understanding.

"I thought as much."

He had seen Grey use that ability against both Gnomes and Necromancers before and knew how decisive it could be when timed correctly. He had expected at least three of the six Peak Sovereigns to fall once Grey entered the fight. Learning that one of them could ignore the mental pressure explained the lower result. What he did not know was the price Odelia had paid to secure even that one death. She had risked permanent damage to her hand, but one fewer Peak Sovereign still eased the pressure on their side.

"What now?" Reynolds asked, cracking his knuckles.

"I need to get back to that battlefield soon," Grey answered. "So we finish what we can here quickly."

"Got it."

Grey pointed toward a cluster of fighting some distance away. Six Ninth stage Gnomes and their puppets had surrounded four human Ninth stage Sovereigns. The humans carried injuries of varying severity and were trapped inside the encirclement, hope beginning to fade. Then two streaks of light cut across the sky toward them at high speed.

One of the trapped humans had been present in Old Humphrey’s manor the day Grey and Reynolds first arrived. He recognized them at once. This was their chance. He sent a quiet voice transmission to the other three, telling them to strike the moment he gave the signal. The others did not fully understand, but they agreed.

Grey and Reynolds closed the remaining distance. The moment they entered range, Grey released his mental energy in a wide sweep, severing the connections between all six Gnomes and their puppets.

The Gnomes noticed the two newcomers approaching, yet showed little concern. Two more Ninth stage humans only meant two more potential kills. Of the six, only two already controlled Ninth stage puppets; the other four still relied on Eighth stage puppets. An upgrade was something they welcomed.

Grey and Reynolds had no idea the Gnomes only saw them as a means to get better puppets. Even if they did know, they wouldn’t care. To them, these Gnomes were dead anyway.

When Grey and Reynolds arrived, Grey didn’t waste any time and immediately used his mental energy attack.

The Gnomes were caught off guard and were incapacitated by the sudden attack. Reynolds and Grey were still in motion, so after Grey used the mental energy attack, they followed up with their own attacks.

The human Ninth stage Sovereign who recognized Grey, saw the opportunity and yelled at the top of his voice.

"Now!"

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