Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2172: You Talk Too Much

”Kill!”

With the shout from the first Peak Sovereign Gnome, all three charged toward their chosen targets in a straight line.

The brown-clothed Gnome fixed his attention on the two Ninth-stage humans. He sent his Peak Sovereign puppet streaking toward Grey while he himself moved to engage Elder Voss in direct combat.

The other two Peak Sovereigns rushed at Mayor Aldric and Elder Harrington. They had already closed most of the distance and were about to unleash their opening attacks when a powerful, invisible force suddenly swept across the battlefield.

Grey’s mental energy erupted outward in a precise, concentrated wave.

In an instant the links between the Peak Sovereign Gnomes and their puppets were severed.

The two Gnomes attacking Mayor Aldric and Elder Harrington froze mid-air. Their puppets, which had been moving in perfect coordination with them, also halted as if they were inanimate objects. A dazed look flashed across the Gnomes’ faces for a fraction of a second as they felt the sudden connection to their puppets severing.

Mayor Aldric and Elder Harrington had been waiting for exactly this signal. The moment they sensed the fluctuation of Grey’s mental energy, they moved without the slightest hesitation. The confidence they had gained from the previous night’s battle left no room for doubt.

They struck like lightning.

Elder Harrington’s hands formed a series of rapid seals. A surge of water elemental energy transformed into a prison of absolute ice that slammed around his target, sealing the Gnome’s limbs and torso in a thick, transparent layer before the Gnome could even react. At the same time Mayor Aldric drove forward, earth and fire elemental energy concentrating around his right hand as he aimed straight for the first Peak Sovereign’s essence core.

On the other side of the small battlefield, Elder Voss also recognized the signal. The moment Grey’s mental energy spread out, she launched her attack. A dense, roaring fireball formed in front of her and shot toward the brown-clothed Gnome’s head with lethal intent.

The brown-clothed Gnome snorted coldly and waved one hand. A thick veil of darkness rose in front of him and intercepted the fireball.

Bang!

The collision tore at the fabric of space itself for a brief moment before the world forcefully repaired the damage. Shockwaves rolled outward across the sky.

Grey, meanwhile, had expected every puppet to stop the moment his mental attack landed. Seeing the brown-clothed Gnome’s puppet continue its charge, he was slightly caught off guard. By the time the growing shadow in front of him registered as a real threat, the Peak Sovereign puppet was already upon him.

He hastily threw up a multi-layered barrier of earth, wind, and blue flames. Against a normal Ninth-stage attack it would have been more than enough. Against a Peak Sovereign puppet striking at full force, the hurried defense lasted less than a second before shattering completely.

The impact sent Grey flying backward like a broken kite. His figure disappeared into the distance in a streak of residual elemental light.

The puppet did not pursue. It stopped and hovered in place, because its master was no longer paying attention to it.

The brown-clothed Gnome stared ahead with wide, bewildered eyes. The two companions he had known for hundreds of years, Peak Sovereigns who had stood at that level even before he himself reached the Sovereign Plane, were now completely at the mercy of their opponents. Mayor Aldric held one by the throat with casual confidence. Elder Harrington had already sealed the other in ice and was preparing the finishing blow.

Everything had happened in the span of a single breath.

From the moment he sent his puppet at Grey, to Elder Voss’s attack, to the sudden collapse of his two companions, less than a second had passed. The brown-clothed Gnome’s shock deepened as a terrible realization struck him like lightning. He remembered the faint resistance he had felt from his puppet during the mental attack, a resistance so slight he had dismissed it at the time. Now he understood what it meant.

His head snapped toward the direction in which Grey had been sent flying.

Grey Dawson.

The name exploded inside his mind. The strange unease he had felt earlier suddenly made perfect sense. Now he understood why the humans dared to charge to their camp.

Mayor Aldric tightened his grip on the first Peak Sovereign’s throat, a confident smile on his face. The captured Gnome’s eyes, which had been blank with confusion for only a second or two, suddenly widened in pure shock as the truth dawned on him.

”Grey Dawson is here!” he shouted.

Mayor Aldric, clearly pleased to have finally seized this long-standing troublemaker, gave a calm nod. ”Yes. Yes, he is.”

Only then did the Mayor turn to check on the rest of the battlefield. When he found no immediate sign of Grey, a flicker of surprise crossed his face. He had poured every bit of focus into making the sneak attack succeed and had not paid attention to the others. A quick glance toward Elder Harrington showed that the situation there was completely under control. In fact, Elder Harrington had already gone for the kill. Of the two Peak Sovereigns affected by Grey’s mental attack, one was dead and the other was captured with his essence sealed.

Only the brown-clothed Gnome remained unaffected. He was obviously one of the special Gnomes whose connection with their puppets can’t be broken like the others.

The last Peak Sovereign stood frozen in place, eyes locked on Mayor Aldric and Elder Harrington, every muscle tensed and ready to flee the moment an opening appeared.

A few seconds later Grey flew back into view. His previously neat hair was a mess, and his robe was wrinkled and torn in several places from the force of the puppet’s strike. A thin trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were cold and clear.

”You...” the brown-clothed Gnome pointed at him, his voice shaking with a mixture of rage and disbelief. His eyes had nearly turned red.

Grey was already in a foul mood from being the only one sent flying. Hearing the Gnome call out to him, he met the man’s gaze with icy indifference.

”Me what?”

The brown-clothed Gnome had not expected such a flat, dismissive response. For a moment he could only stare, words stuck in his throat.

The captured Peak Sovereign, still held by Mayor Aldric, saw the desperate situation and shouted toward his remaining companion, ”Capture him now!”

”You talk too much,” Mayor Aldric said coldly. A pulse of essence sealed the Gnome’s mouth shut.

Now the four humans, Mayor Aldric, Elder Harrington, Elder Voss, and Grey, slowly closed in, surrounding the brown-clothed Gnome and his still-active Peak Sovereign puppet.

The brown-clothed Gnome’s face was ashen. Only a few seconds earlier they had held the clear numerical advantage. Now one of his companions was dead, another was completely incapacitated, and he stood alone against four powerful opponents, with only a single puppet left to support him.

The sudden and total reversal left him struggling to accept reality.