Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 1989: Klaus Venting

The silver robbed Gnome Klaus was battling was shocked by Klaus’s strength. He could tell from his initial attacks that he was powerful, however, after only a few moves he realized Klaus was not just powerful, he was a freak. He had never seen a Seventh stage Sovereign being able to unleash the power Klaus was doing at the moment. Even most Eighth stage Sovereigns paled in comparison. To be fair, he could sense that Klaus was close to breaking through to the Eighth stage. Even with this, he did not feel it explained Klaus’s strength.

An Eighth stage Sovereign would not be able to defend all his attacks with the same ease Klaus was doing. He took a glance at the Sixth stage Sovereign Gnome fighting with Reynolds and seeing an Elemental Warrior, he knew that Gnome’s chances of victory were slim. Even the Seventh stage Sovereign Gnome battling against Alice did not stand a chance as well. He was initially hoping one of them would quickly deal with their opponents and come help him handle Klaus. Sadly though, every single one of them were in trouble and from the looks of things, he was the only one who should be giving the others assistance.

Grunting in frustration, he unleashed a ball of black gooey substance that corroded through Klaus’s defensive ice wall.

Klaus was not fazed by this, pushing his palm forward, he refilled the space that had been corroded by the darkness element as he unleashed icicles at the Gnome.

The Gnome used his Puppet to block the attack, only to notice that the parts of the Puppet that was struck by the icicles were starting to freeze over. He hurriedly used his essence to deal with it, while making the Puppet to unleash a barrage of attacks at Klaus.

Klaus once again easily dealt with the attack using his heavy water. After dealing with it, he continued his attack with the icicles. Attacking with water in a situation like this would only put him at a disadvantage, especially when the opponent had Puppets that could help ensure the distance between them remained long. Using ice attacks were faster, and this was his best hope of striking the Gnome.

The Gnome did not need any reminder as he could already tell that Klaus’s ice attacks were already this dangerous, if he were to be caught in his water attacks, he knew it would be tricky. It was not that Klaus’s water attacks were more powerful than his ice attacks, it is just that due to the free flowing state of water, it is very difficult to deal with, especially in close conditions. Being enveloped by the opponent’s water would be detrimental to anyone. This is something the Gnome knew from years of fighting experience.

Klaus was also aware of this, hence the reason he wanted to shorten the distance between them. As he attacked, he moved closer, hoping to catch the Gnome off-guard.

The Gnome had his eyes on Klaus all through the time, so the moment he noticed this, he tried to retreat. He knew his strength, and even though he was confident he could defeat Klaus eventually, he found these youths very odd. For this reason, he wanted to play it safe. Until he found the perfect opportunity, he would ensure the distance between himself and this young Water Elementalist remained as wide as possible.

The Gnome froze, not of his own choice, but because he noticed something was grabbing his leg, holding him firmly in place. He could not help but show a shocked expression. Looking down, he saw vines firmly grabbing his left leg, pulling him down. He exclaimed in shock and tried to cut off the vine. This was not the first time he was seeing this vine, when Hugh and the Fifth stage Sovereign were battling, the former used this same method to hold the Gnome in place. As soon as the bone grabbed onto his leg, other than the feeling of being held in place, he also sensed his energy being drained from his body which frightened him.

Klaus, on the other hand, took advantage of this opportunity and used his icy domain, covering a distance of almost three hundred meters in icy snow.

As the snow fell, the Gnome noticed he was finding it hard to properly circulate his essence, which made it harder for him to break free from the vine. Luckily, the gap in cultivation between himself and Hugh was pretty high, so even though the vines were sturdy, he managed to break free on his third attempt.

After breaking free, he saw that Klaus had already shortened the gap between them to barely fifty meters. Without panicking, he sent the Puppet to block the latter’s path. This was the same tactic he employed when Klaus tried to move closer to him the first time.

Klaus, knowing he might not get an opportunity like this again, made a stream of water which enveloped the Puppet. After doing this, he breezed past the Puppet, aiming for the retreating Gnome as blades of ice were sent at the Gnome.

The Gnome, while retreating, was forced to block these attacks. He wanted to recall his Puppet, but he noticed the method Klaus used to trap the Puppet was simply unfathomable. The Gnomes were not familiar with Klaus’s heavy water, most Elementalists were not as well. Unlike regular water, this heavy water gives off unimaginable pressure, just like the depths of the ocean, which was why it was very dangerous. Of course, there are certain levels an Elementalist would attain and then be able to deal with this pressure. Nonetheless, the pressure they could deal with is not fixed; meaning the greater the pressure, the harder it is to deal with. Over the years, Klaus has greatly improved the pressure of his heavy water, hence the reason he was able to use a single droplet of water to easily sink into the ground when he went to the secret realm with the Moonlight Faction.

The Gnome struck out a palm, creating a palm made from the darkness element. Klaus covered himself with an ice sphere, enforcing it with his active ice domain as he took the attack head on. If he stopped to block the attack, the Gnome would take the chance to retreat, something he did not want.

Crack! Bang!

His ice sphere shattered from the palm strike in an instant, and he was hit by the force. Grunting, he felt his innards rock, but he still did not back down. Forcefully slowing down the blood he felt building up towards his throat, he lunged at the Gnome, attacking with his heavy water.

The Gnome did not panic, he was a Ninth stage Sovereign, a Commander of an army unit. He would never cower in front of a Young Man who was only a Seventh stage Sovereign, two stages beneath him. Looking at Klaus’s fearless expression, he snorted coldly and met him head on.

Boom!

For the first time, the duo clashed head on, the Gnome no longer hiding behind his Puppet.

Klaus was forced almost eighty meters back from the impact, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

The Gnome on the other hand, stood rooted to the spot. Even though he successfully sent Klaus flying, he did not feel any happiness, rather, furrowing his brows, he looked down and frowned. His right shoulder was slowly growing numb from where he was hit by Klaus. Not just that, he could also feel his left arm shaking while also releasing small icy air.

‘What sort of freak is this?’ He wondered internally. This was the first time he was facing such a consequence from hitting someone. He had battled with multiple Water Elementalist who were great ice users over the years, and none of them have given him this feeling.

Looking at Klaus, he saw the latter grinning at him which made his heart grow cold. He speculated the latter must have something wrong with his head, after all, blood could clearly be seen dripping on the side of his mouth, which made his grin even more ridiculous.

Before the Gnome could reassess the situation, Klaus charged at him once again.

Some hundreds of meters away, the Peak Sovereign looked at Klaus and frowned. Seeing Klaus’s fighting style, he felt a little confused. Elementalists generally do not engage in close combat battles. There are a few who enjoy it, but they are mostly Earth Elementalists. Their bodies which have been fortified by the earth element makes it possible for them to take on powerful hits without feeling the full impact of it. Water Elementalists on the other hand excelled in not getting entangled in the situation Klaus was purposefully getting entangled in, which was a shocking sight to the Peak Sovereign.

Klaus was generally not a careless fighter, he would rather sit back and defend until the perfect opportunity arises. Today however was different, today, he wanted to vent, he wanted to feel his blood boil, and this was the only way he could.