Chapter 308: Gamble

Crash! 

"Ah!"

The Earth Elementalist yelled in pain as he crashed hard into the wall by the side, almost half of his body was crushed by the impact. He was currently bleeding from the side of his blonde hair, shaking from the pain. 

"Erwin!" Johanne and the leader yelled out at the same time while looking at the pain gripped Erwin. 

"You… you monster! I'll kill you!" The leader yelled with his eyes almost bulging out as he stared at Grey. 

In the group, Erwin was the one he was closest to, seeing him in such a state sent him hysteria. 

Just as he was about to charge at Grey who was looking at them from a distance, he was held back by Johanne. 

"Carlos, stop! This is what he wants. His defensive tool is already out, we just need to hang on a little more, and we can defeat him," Johanne said while holding onto the enraged Carlos.

Carlos looked at Grey before moving his gaze to the shaking Erwin who was moaning in pain. He clenched his fists while trying to calm his emotion. Even though the injury looks severe, as long as Erwin doesn't die, he can recover. He nodded at Johanne before taking a step in front of her. 

Johanne understood his intent and quickly went to feed Erwin a healing tonic to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.

Grey on the other hand stared at them without much emotion. He couldn't say he really felt anything for them, after all, they are enemies. But he didn't really like these senseless killings. 

'Who is wrong and who is right? It doesn't matter, what truly matters is whose side you're on. Tsk! Crazy people.' He thought with a shake of his head while looking at them. 

His defensive tool was out of energy and he had been stuck once, luckily, he prepared an earth armor as well. The group thought it was the defensive tool when it blocked one of their strikes. 

"This is a battle I'm bound to win," Grey declared as he started slowly approaching Carlos and Johanne. 

Carlos looked at Johanne who was feeding Erwin a healing tonic, before looking at Grey once again. He had tried accessing Grey's strength since the beginning of the battle, but he had been unable to find out his true strength, or come up with a plan to deal with him. 

'He not only has explosive speed, but his attacks are explosive as well. To think he could last this long? Normally, when an Elementalist uses explosive speed or attacks, the consumption is insane. We've been fighting for almost five minutes now, and he still has two inscriptions up. Guess we'll have to go with a battle of attrition tactic, if we can defeat him, then we wouldn't need to worry about dying.' Carlos' brain went into overdrive trying to come up with an escape plan. 

"Don't attack him carelessly, focus on defending," He whispered to Johanne.

Johanne nodded when she heard his order. 

Grey slowly picked up speed before lightning flashed across his body and he disappeared from sight. 

Buzz! Swoosh!

A bolt of lightning could be seen moving across the area of the battle scene while releasing attacks simultaneously. 

Carlos and Johanne focused on defending during this battle, while Carlos would occasionally attack with his inscription whenever Grey presented an opportunity for him. But most of his strikes missed because Grey's speed was not something his attack speed could match. 

Another three minutes went by with the lightning bolt moving almost throughout the time. After not being able to get any strike at them, Grey was forced to stop. 

'Dammit! Taking down this guy is harder than I thought.' Grey cursed while looking at Carlos and Johanne. 

They were both breathing heavily, but so was Grey. Compared to them who had their backs against each other trying to defend against Grey's onslaught, Grey had been moving almost nonstop. 

Although he had been able to successfully hit them, the attacks didn't get to them with full power because most of the power was used in destroying Carlos' attacks. 

Both sides went into a standoff once again. With Carlos focusing all their energy on defending, it was difficult for Grey to kill them. 

"How can he have so much stamina?" Carlos asked in-between gasps. 

He initially thought that Grey would already be out, but even after almost eight minutes of using such explosive attacks, he was still standing. Other than the sweat and his heavy breathing, he looked to be perfectly fine. 

"It doesn't matter, it's almost ready. Johanne just a little more, and we'll be able to avenge everyone and kill this bastard." Carlos clenched his fists tightly.

He's currently planning on taking a gamble, if he's successful, then they will defeat Grey, but if he fails, they die.

'Phew! I have to say, this guy's more experienced in fighting than most of the people I've faced. With the position they took up, they can perfectly block my attacks, and although my fire element attack is far more powerful, that guy always nullifies them.' Grey thought while breathing out. 

'One more time, if I can't, then I guess Void will have to join the battle, with his space element, they wouldn't know how they died.'

Grey stood straight before spreading out both hands, multiple fireballs appeared mid-air. Each fireball was around the size of a watermelon, and they numbered over twenty. With a wave of his hand, the fireballs went straight for Carlos and Johanne. 

Lightning danced around Grey's body before he disappeared once again, this time, he wanted to end the battle with this round of attack. If he couldn't, then there's no harm in calling for Void's assistance. 

"Get ready, he's coming!" Carlos yelled, "We'll end him with this move!"

Boom! Bam! 

When Grey's fireball was about to hit them, Carlos set up an ice sphere that covered an area of almost twelve meters in radius with a spread of his hand. Twelve faint lights raced along with the sphere as it expanded from Carlos' position. 

Boom! Bang! Crack!

The sphere managed to block five of the fireballs before cracks ran across it. Another hit and it exploded, sending bits of ice across the battlefield. 

"Now!' Grey, who was biding his time from another location, shot straight into the twelve-meter range with a lightning sword in hand. 

Just as he was about to attack, twelve lights flashed on the ground before rising into the sky. It formed a straight line up, almost twenty meters high, and shrunk to the area Grey was standing before trapping him. 

Grey looked at the translucent shield-like array trapping him, "Oh, an array, how convenient."

After Grey finished his statement, under the eyes of Carlos who was only three meters away, he used his index finger to tap on the array. 

Crack!