Affinity:Chaos

"The participant with plaque number seventy-five should step forward"

The man said after all the plaques were distributed.

Grey looked at the plaque in his hand, and twenty-nine was boldly written on it. He was not the only one who check his plaque, the rest of the participants also did the same. The few weaker ones prayed they were the ones who got the lucky number.

Grey had no problem with not skipping this round since he mainly came here to test his limits against others. With the upgrade in his earth element, he's stronger compared to the last time he battled, but it didn't mean he could defeat a student in the Ninth stage yet. But he was sure he might be able to fight Alan to a draw now.

Alice also didn't have a problem with this, after all, she was a battle maniac. She might even feel sad if she had to skip this round. Reynolds and Klaus didn't really care also, if they had it, they'll just relax and watch the battles, if they didn't, they'll fight.

Grey looked around to see who was going to step forward but didn't see any movements from the crowd, he subconsciously turned his head towards Klaus and his expression changed when he saw Klaus smiling stupidly.

Klaus stepped forward and showed his plaque to the man in charge.

Reynolds mouth twitched a little when he also saw this, since Klaus stepped forward, it only meant he got the lucky number again.

"Crap! How come he always gets it?"

He wasn't the only one who had this thought though, everyone who came from the Lunar Academy who witnessed the tournament was also dumbfounded. They had witnessed Klaus's terrifying luck during the tournament which allowed him to skip two rounds. But witnessing it once again was just shocking.

They could only smile bitterly and curse their poor lucks.

The second round soon began, Grey's battle was among the last set for the day. Although he hoped to battle with a student in the Ninth stage, he didn't get it. His opponent wasn't weak though since she was in the Eighth stage of the Arcane Plane. After a long battle, he was able to obtain victory.

When the group who attacked Grey saw him, they were stunned, especially the one who lost an arm. Grey was perfectly normal, they knew too well how many injuries Grey sustained during the battle, he wasn't even supposed to be able to fight, talk less of beating someone in the Eight stage. Regret suddenly washed him up once again, he regretted following them to attack Grey. If he had just stayed where he was, he would have been perfectly fine. Unfortunately, there's no medicine for regret.

Of the seventy-five participants left, more than half of them were in the Ninth stage, the number in the Sixth stage was only four, with Klaus and Jonas being two of them.

After getting through this stage, Grey knew his chances of advancing once again was very low since the participants left were mostly in the Ninth stage. Even though he really wanted to fight with them, he knew he wasn't their match yet.

The battle soon got to Reynolds turn, his opponent was surprisingly Jonas. Given the way he hated the Starlight Academy, Grey was sure he would try to beat Jonas up badly. Well, so they thought.

When the battle started, Reynolds didn't even try to hold back, he unleashed a strong attack towards his opponent. With his strength, coupled with the stage advantage, he should normally be able to completely overpower Jonas.

But…

Boom!

Both fighters were pushed back by the impact of the first clash Reynolds retreated three steps backward from the impact of the attack, Jonas on the other hand retreated five steps before he was able to get his footing right.

The result of the first clash stunned Reynolds, although he got the upper hand, it was just merely. Grey was also surprised by it, he didn't think Jonas would be able to almost fight Reynolds to a draw given the grade of his element. But it didn't surprise him too much since Klaus's grade was also purple, but he could battle with those who had blue grade and a higher stage too.

"He's pretty strong"

Klaus stared at the battle before commenting.

"Yeah"

Grey replied calmly.

The battle went on with Reynolds holding the advantage most of the time, but there were a few times he nearly lost due to his hotheadedness, but luckily, he was able to calm himself and slowly grind down his opponent. The advantage of having a higher stage soon started to play out, and just as expected, Jonas lost.

Reynolds came back to his seat after the long battle, he was feeling exhausted, luckily, he won the battle.

"To think you almost lost against a student from the Starlight Academy, who is even a stage lower"

Klaus said in a mocking tone.

Reynolds looked at Klaus and felt speechless, sometimes he felt like just beating him up. He knew Klaus was just playing around, but it didn't mean he couldn't beat him up still.

"You want to try?"

He said with an inviting gaze. If Klaus made the mistake and agreed, he will definitely show him a thing or two. But the next thing Klaus said almost made him cough up a mouthful of blood.

"Please, like I haven't defeated you before"

Klaus said with a scoff, particularly stressing the first word he said.

Grey looked at Klaus and didn't know what to say. He still didn't remember when Klaus defeated Reynolds.

"What are you looking at? Do you want me to beat you up again?"

Klaus looked at Grey arrogantly.

Grey looked at Reynolds and they both nodded, they seem to have come to a conclusion about how to deal with Klaus.

On seeing this, Klaus couldn't help but freeze,

"G…guys, you know I'm only playing around right?"

He stuttered while trying to butter up his friends, which ended in a failure.

Grey didn't even bother to look at him and drew closer to Reynolds, seemingly planning out what methods will hurt Klaus the most.

Klaus almost wanted to cry but no tears came out, he was already cursing his big mouth inside. He totally forgot about their sparring sessions, given his strength, he might be able to struggle longer than Jonas against Reynolds, but it didn't change the fact that he would get his ass whooped. Against Grey, he didn't even have the chance to struggle for more than three minutes.

"Damn you! Do you think I'm afraid?"

He suddenly shifted his gaze over to the laughing Alice, and an idea struck him.

"Hey, want to spar with me today?"

Alice stifled a laugh when she heard Klaus's offer. Klaus has always been scared of sparring with her, she didn't expect he would take this route to escape from punishment from Grey and Reynolds.

"How about next time? I can see you already have plans with Grey and Reynolds"

She said trying to hold back her laugh.

"No…no, today is good"

Klaus said with a shaky voice. Only after continuous persuasion did Alice finally agree.

"Okay fine"

Alice agreed helplessly. She didn't think Klaus was such a persistent person.

"Great, it's a date then"

Klaus said without thinking. His arrogant look once again returned as he looked at Grey and Reynolds,

'Hmph! They think they can bully me, but I'm one step ahead of them'.

There was no way Grey and Reynolds would object to him sparring with Alice, all he had to do now was spar with her for some days. By then, Grey and Reynolds would have already forgotten about their evil scheme.

Alice however lowered her head shyly when she heard Klaus say the word 'date', she blushed unknowingly with her heart beating like crazy.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Klaus asked when he suddenly noticed Alice's strange behavior.

Alice nodded, she didn't dare to raise her head though, she covered her face with her hands and her imagination started running wild. It was only after some time had passed was she able to calm her racing heart.

The battles for the day soon ended and the group went back to their residence. When Grey and Reynolds went to call Klaus over for their sparring session, they saw him coming out of his room with a victorious look. Just as they were about to call him,

"I have a sparring session with Alice today"

He said as he walked past them with a smirk,

'Let's see how you will beat me up'

Klaus gladly went over to Alice's place for their training session. Although he was still beaten by Alice, it wasn't to the extent Grey and Reynolds had planned for him. They soon ended their sparring session and he volunteered to show Alice around. Although Alice was from a big family, she didn't travel frequently, this was only the second time she had been to Capital City…