“Huh!”
The trio exclaimed simultaneously when they heard Grey. As soon as Grey appeared, Aetonth’s figure soon came into view.
“Crap! It truly chased him all the way here.” Klaus was the first to react.
He quickly stretched out both his hands, holding onto Reynolds and Alice’s arms respectively. He dragged them closer to him as he stepped into the array.
He recalled when Grey said the dragon might actually be behind him as he was coming here, but he never thought it would happen.
After stepping into the array, Klaus, Reynolds, and Alice were quickly enveloped by light before vanishing.
Aetonth sent an ice ball in Grey’s direction.
‘Incoming!’ Void alerted Grey of the ice ball.
‘You take care of it.’ Grey said not changing his direction.
Void had been the one changing the direction of some of Aetonth’s attacks, since they were already this close, Grey saw no reason to dodge to the side. Aetonth might even catch up with them if he does so.
‘I can’t.’ replied Void.
‘Why?’
‘I’m out of space essence. I haven’t had much time to refill before each battle. I don’t think what’s left will be enough to transport the ice ball, it would be bad for us if it doesn’t.’ explained Void.
Grey’s absorption speed was faster than his, so unlike Grey who would use about one hour or so to fill up his essence reserve, he needed nearly double the time.
He was very reliant on his space element, so it’s understandable why even after resting for thirty minutes, it couldn’t keep up with his consumption.
‘Fine! But attack it, I don’t think I can fight against it anymore.’ said Grey.
He concentrated his strength on his legs, as well as his wind and lightning element. The next second, he disappeared from that spot and a red fireball took his place, heading straight for Aetonth.
Grey appeared almost seven meters to the right. The moment he appeared, he continued running since he didn’t dare to waste any more time.
‘Luckily, I’m very fast.’ Grey thought as he looked behind him, to his surprise, Aetonth didn’t continue chasing after him when he got close to the array.
Aetonth didn’t have any problems with deflecting Void’s fireball. It stopped in place after deflecting the attack and looked at Grey as he was about to step into the array.
‘Looks like it can’t leave this place. No wonder it tried so hard to stop me when I started ascending the mountain.’ On seeing Aetonth’s reaction, Grey thought it stopped because it couldn’t leave this place.
He felt it was just like the quasi dragon who couldn’t leave that underground lab, so it tried to do everything it could to stop him.
“Goodbye mister, miss…” Grey paused since he didn’t know how to address Aetonth.
He had no idea if it was male or female.
‘What are you doing?’ Void asked looking at Grey strangely.
He felt they should’ve already left by now, yet Grey was trying to tell Aetonth goodbye. Was he crazy?
‘I’m trying to say goodbye. Oh! Do you know if it’s a mister or a miss?’ Grey asked enthusiastically.
‘Now I see why he’s friends with those two.’ Void shook his head.
He had always thought compared to Klaus and Reynolds, Grey was relatively more serious. But on seeing what he was currently about to do, he felt they were the same people. Presently, he wouldn’t be surprised if Grey truly used the healing tonic he got from the Blooming Vipers to cook.
‘Why don’t you ask it? Or even better, check.’ Void said sarcastically.
‘Forget it, it’s not like knowing its gender matters.’ said Grey.
“Goodbye dragon, I’ll truly miss you. Just like ever…”
Roar!
Aetonth who just wanted to make sure Grey left before it went back to its cave roared angrily. It was currently about fifteen meters away from where Grey was standing, yet, saliva and snot still came out of its mouth and headed straight for Grey.
It wanted to attack, but it recalled that Grey would be able to easily dodge it. But with this, Grey would definitely want to leave.
“Crap! Gross.”
Grey immediately stepped into the array, hoping to disappear before the yellowish substance that came out of Aetonth’s mouth got to him. He didn’t know if it was an attack or not, but just from how it looked, he didn’t want it anywhere near himself.
He was quickly enveloped by a white light, before disappearing. Just as he was disappearing, the yellowish substance got to the place.
Splat!
It touched the ground, with Grey nowhere to be seen. But looking closer, Aetonth noticed there was a part of the substance that was missing.
Because of the trajectory, the substance was supposed to form a complete circle since it missed Grey. Yet, a chunk from that circle was missing, at least one-third of it.
Aetonth burst into laughter when it realized what happened. It originally didn’t expect it to touch Grey, so on seeing that it did, it was amusing as well as satisfying.
“Haha, I have something else to brag about. I spat on him. Haha.” Aetonth was laughing happily as it took to the air.
The old man appeared above him with a wry smile. He didn’t know Grey’s personality, so seeing him standing there seemingly wanting to say goodbye to Aetonth stunned him. He was further shocked when he saw Aetonth spraying saliva and snot in his direction.
“Why did you do that?” He asked with a curious expression.
“Haha, I didn’t really plan for it to go this way, but I’m glad it did. Haha.” Aetonth didn’t answer his question, rather, he continued laughing joyfully.
The old man couldn’t understand the joy it was currently feeling. In the future, it wouldn’t only say it beat up Grey, it would also say it sprayed saliva and snot on him. Its friends would be envious! Well, that was all on the premise that Grey turns out to be stronger than the old man in the future. If not, it’ll never speak of it. It’s not like it lost anything anyway, everything that Grey took was nothing much compared to its wealth.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” The old man said calmly.
“I just wanted him to go so I could go back to my cave.” Aetonth said while chuckling.
It still found the whole scenario very hilarious.
“I saw what you did though.” The old man said with a smile.
“It’s just a small amount of water, it’s nothing much.” Aetonth said nonchalantly.
The old man looked at him with a strange smile.
‘Heh! Even though this guy likes bragging, he didn’t forget to help Grey out.’ He thought.
When Aetonth opened its mouth to roar, a string of ice-cold water shot straight at Grey. It was faster than the yellowish substance, and Grey didn’t even sense it before it entered into his body.
The water was from the pond in Aetonth’s cave, it’s very beneficial to Ice Dragons. In the case of humans, it increases a Water Elementalist’s ice ability.
Aetonth always carries some with it. It originally didn’t want to give some to Grey because from the first time they fought, Grey only used the fire, lightning, earth, and wind elements. It was when Grey first used the water element to trap it that it started getting the thought. If finally decided to give him some as a parting gift when it saw Grey’s ice ability when Grey created an ice whip.
Since Aetonth was an Ice Dragon, it naturally favored ice, in regards to humans, Water Elementalists. It noticed compared to some of the humans it had seen, Grey’s ice ability was lacking, so it decided to help him out. But given Grey’s current abilities, there was no way he would know it helped it. Aetonth didn’t do it to gain his favor anyway, it did it because it wanted to.
“My crystal.” Aetonth said, not forgetting what made it do all this in the first place.
“I thought you’ve forgotten about it?” The old man laughed before making the crystal appear before him.
He waved his hand and the crystal went back to Aetonth. With this crystal, Aetonth’s ice power is almost double. This meant that had it been with this crystal while fighting against them, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
The crystal floated before Aetonth for two seconds, before going back to its head. As soon as it came close, it embedded itself into it once more.
“I’ll be going back now, old man. Call me when you need me.” Aetonth said before flying off.
The old man stood in the sky for a while before looking in the direction of the array.
“*Sigh* Hopefully he grows in time.” He muttered before vanishing.
_____
Outside the trial land.
‘Haha, what a way to leave this place.’ Void laughed on seeing the sight of Grey after he appeared on the other side of the array.