Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2194: Taking Back The City III

The four Peak Sovereign Gnomes did not waste time talking. Dark elemental energy burst out from all four of them at once, forming thick waves of corrosive force that rushed toward the human side. Two of the Gnomes locked their killing intent on Grey right away. The other two tried to break the formation and separate him from the rest.

The Faction Leader and Heidens moved first to block. Fire and heavy earth elemental energy smashed into the darkness, creating a loud shockwave that split the air above the ruined courtyard. Mayor Zane, Adkins, and the other two Peak Sovereigns spread out quickly, forcing the Gnomes to split their attention. Grey did not fall back. He blinked to the side with a short spatial shift, avoiding the thickest part of the attack, then sent a four-colored fusion orb flying at the nearest Gnome.

The Gnome twisted his body and wrapped darkness around his arm to break the outer layer of the orb. Even so, the remaining force still pushed him several meters back, turning his expression ugly. Grey’s power was not something they had expected, a Peak Sovereign dared not take lightly else they would surely suffer.

The fight spread across the sky above the city. Elemental clashes lit up the night in violent flashes. The four Gnomes worked well together, their darkness techniques linking up to create sudden pressure from different angles. One of them slipped past Adkins for a moment and thrust a spear of condensed darkness at the Faction Leader’s side. The Faction Leader blocked with a wall of fire, but the force still tore a deep cut across his left arm, drawing blood. He gritted his teeth, yet did not drop.

"Isolate them!" he shouted.

The human Peak Sovereigns adjusted right away. Heidens and Mayor Zane pressed one Gnome from both sides. Adkins and another Peak Sovereign locked down a second one. Grey and the remaining two experts turned fully on the third. The fourth Gnome tried to break the arrangement, but Grey acted quicker. Grey used his gravitational force field to slow the Gnome for a short moment. That was enough for a combined strike of fire and wind from the two human Peak Sovereigns to land cleanly. The Gnome spat blood and was forced downward, though he regained his bearings before hitting the rooftops.

The Gnomes quickly saw that the numbers were turning against them. One of them, the most injured of the four, pulled out a dark token from his storage ring with a snarl.

"You think killing us ends this?" he shouted across the battlefield. "The moment this signal goes out, every Gnome force in the region will know you left the Molten Crest Faction grounds unprotected. Your cities and supply lines will all burn, if you don’t let us leave."

He raised the token, darkness already gathering around it.

None of the human Peak Sovereigns paused.

"Kill them," the Faction Leader said coldly.

Grey moved first. He vanished and reappeared right behind the Gnome holding the token. A blade made of compressed blue flames cut toward the man’s wrist. The Gnome twisted hard and managed to keep the token, but the movement left him open. Heidens’s heavy earth spear slammed into his chest at the same time, breaking ribs and driving the air from his lungs. The token slipped from his hand. Grey pulled it over with a short spatial tug and crushed it before any signal could form.

The first Peak Sovereign Gnome fell soon after under attacks from three directions. His aura flickered once and disappeared.

The faces of the remaining three Gnomes turned ashen. The hope the signal had given them was gone. They fought with more desperation now, darkness exploding outward in wider and messier patterns. One of them locked onto Grey again and poured almost all his strength into a single thick spear of corrosive energy. Grey met it with layered defenses made of the earth and light elements, but some of the force still slipped through and cut a deep wound across his right shoulder. He grimaced in pain, but quickly stabilized the injury with light elemental energy but did not step back.

That exchange gave the other human Peak Sovereigns the opening they needed. Mayor Zane and Adkins overwhelmed the second Gnome with steady combined pressure. Their attacks landed one after another until the Gnome’s defenses broke. Adkins finished him with a final strike, leaving only two Peak Sovereign Gnomes left.

The numbers were now completely on the human side. The Faction Leader, even with the wound on his arm, pushed forward with Heidens and the others. Grey, shoulder still bleeding, used short spatial shifts to break the Gnomes’ timing whenever they tried to create space. One of the remaining Gnomes suddenly turned and shot toward the outer mountain slopes, hoping to escape and carry the news himself. Void appeared in his path, a small orb that was fully contained wirhin a strange container floated towards the Gnome. It exploded, slowing down the Gnome long enough for Heidens to close in and end him with a heavy blow.

The last surviving Peak Sovereign Gnome hovered alone against six human Peak Sovereigns and Grey. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth. His darkness aura still burned, but the result was already clear. He looked once toward the distant horizon, as if still hoping for help that would not come in time, then stared at Grey with pure hate.

"You will not live to see the end of this war," he said.

Grey did not reply.

The last fight was short and violent. The Gnome threw out everything he had left. The human Peak Sovereigns met it together, their combined elemental power tearing the technique apart. Grey appeared at the Gnome’s side in the opening that followed and drove a space-infused strike through his defenses. The Faction Leader’s flames came right after and burned what was left.

The last Peak Sovereign aura on the Gnome side vanished.

The high air above the city went quiet for a short moment. Down below, the lower battlefield was still noisy as the remaining Gnomes were being pushed back, but the most important part of the fight was over. Six Peak Sovereign enemies, two Necromancers and four Gnomes, were dead. The price on the human side was real. The Faction Leader’s arm was badly hurt, and Grey’s shoulder wound was deep enough to limit his movement. Both of them were still standing though.

Heidens looked at Grey’s shoulder, then at the Faction Leader’s arm. "We finish the rest quickly."

The Faction Leader nodded, eyes cold as he looked down at the routing Gnome forces still inside and around the city.

"Clean it up."