In no time, Klaus' cultivation started to increase. From the Eighth stage, Klaus soon rose to the Ninth stage, and he didn't have any plans of stopping there.
The box contained an ice lotus flower which helped Klaus in his advancing. Grey didn't think Klaus would be able to advance so quickly.
Klaus wasn't the only one advancing, Alice and Reynolds were showing signs of advancing as well. Alice broke through to the Fifth stage, while Reynolds was on the verge of breaking through to the Sixth stage.
Alice was the one with the lowest cultivation base among all of them, but with the help of the flower, she was advancing, even faster than Klaus and Reynolds were in their current training.
Grey had nothing to do, so he sat down and decided to go through the array marks he saw in the secret realm. He felt they were some sort of language or means to communicate with elemental particles. He continued trying, but he still couldn't pry into the mystery they contained.
Two hours went by in the blink of an eye.
Grey was still in the process of trying to unravel the mystery behind the symbols, while the others were still cultivating.
Klaus was the first to open his eyes.
"Hahaha, come Grey, let's spar." He laughed in delight and attacked Grey with a powerful ice arrow.
The speed of the arrow was on par with Klaus' strongest ever ice needle he has made. This showed the enormous increase in his strength. His casual attack was now on par with his strongest attack when he was in the Eighth stage.
Grey noticed Klaus' movement, although he was taken by surprise when Klaus suddenly attacked, he was still very composed. After all, he was quite fast.
Red lightning danced around his body and the arrow passed through his figure. But on further inspection, one would realize the attack hit an afterimage image and not Grey.
Grey appeared behind Klaus and just when he wanted to grab a hold of him, an ice spike came from Klaus' body and hit Grey, forcing him back.
When Grey was hit by the attack, his body started to freeze.
Grey was taken aback when he noticed this. Klaus' attack didn't usually possess such traits, these were new.
"How do you like my new attacks? Touch it and you'll be frozen. Luckily, you're powerful." Klaus laughed.
The ice lotus he absorbed gave him this new terrifying ability, and he loved it. This will make his ice attacks more potent. If he were to use his ice needles now, they would be even more dangerous. Very few people would be able to defend against them now.
Grey shook off the attack before sending out a palm made of flames. He didn't want to give Klaus the chance to mock him. If Klaus were to get the upper hand in this bout, then he was done for. Given Klaus' usual antics, he would bully him till the end of the world.
Klaus blocked the attack with ease, before sending out an attack of his own.
Grey blocked it and snorted. His eyes turned pale blue and his fire domain surfaced. Even if Klaus had improved in strength, he didn't believe Klaus would be able to oppress him when it came to using their domains.
Klaus didn't hold back and also made use of his domain. His ice domain spread out, freezing everything around them.
"Are you dumb? Do you want to involve them in this too? Stop playing around." Grey made a move when he saw Klaus' domain getting close to Alice and Reynolds.
They were only sparring, he didn't want to disrupt the cultivation of Reynolds and Alice.
"Oh, I forgot about them." Klaus chuckled awkwardly.
To be honest, he was too engrossed in the battle and forgot about the others. All he wanted to do was to see the complete extent of his new ability. And from the looks of it, they were more than impressive. It even exceeded his expectations.
Grey had no issues with him, since he had come back to his senses, then he was fine with continuing the spar.
"Void, watch them."
With that, he disappeared with Klaus.
If the duo were to continue their spar here, they would inevitably disturb the other two.
After saying this, Grey vanished, taking Klaus with him.
Void appeared, grunted softly but still sat down on a tree to watch them. As long as he doesn't have to fight with anyone, then he was okay with watching over Alice and Reynolds.
….
Grey and Klaus appeared a few kilometers away from their friends.
"Alright, go all out, I want to see what you're made of now." Grey said to Klaus.
"Don't beg me when I'm beating you up."
"If you can beat me, I'll admit defeat. You know I'm not that petty."
"Watch out for my deadly fangs."
Klaus' scream surprised Grey, but he still comported himself and his skin turned silver. Dragon scales appeared on his body and he let out a soft breath. The cold breath made the grass below him freeze solid.
Klaus cackled and charged at Grey, covering his entire body with ice. He was going to defeat Grey for the first time in years now, and he wanted to savor the moment.
Grey, seeing Klaus in this state didn't panic. With a simple movement, an earth wall rose in front of him, blocking Klaus' movement.
Klaus flew up in a bid to dodge the earth wall, but he was met with an attack that forced him back down. Grey used the earth element to hide the fire elemental attack he wanted to use.
"Fuck! That's cheating!" Klaus yelled.
"How's it cheating?" Grey smiled, he then added, "It's not my fault I have multiple elements now, is it?"
Klaus didn't know what to say, in anger he released his ice domain, hoping to stop Grey from making any further movements.
"These are the scales of an ice Dragon, do you think you're better than they are?" Grey asked with a playful smile.
He walked casually through the ice domain.
When Klaus saw this, he used multiple ice spikes, attacking with them.
Grey didn't bother about them. A thin sphere appeared around him and blocked the ice spikes that came his way.
When Klaus saw this, he almost gouged his eyes out.
"What the hell man?!"
Klaus wanted to give up. Fighting with Grey was a headache. Especially when he was using all his elements.
"Time out! Time out!" Klaus called for a pause.
Grey didn't do anything and waited for him, "What?"
"You're not allowed to use all your elements."
"Oh, how many should I use then?"
"Three max."
"Just that?"
"Also, your space element is ruled out."
"So any three with the exception of the space element."
"Yes."
Grey laughed when he heard this, "But wouldn't that mean if you win, you didn't win me at my peak?"
"It doesn't matter, you're too overpowered with all your elements."
"I see." Grey touched his chin, "What about this, I can use my space element and any other two. This way you'll be more proficient when fighting against Space Elementalists."
"Hmm, understandable."
Klaus nodded, agreeing to Grey using his space element.
Grey laughed when he saw this and his figure faded.
Klaus, already expecting Grey to attack, reacted quickly, blocking Grey's attack.
Grey's fist hit the ice wall that surrounded Grey, but the fist didn't stop, it broke through the defense of the wall, heading straight for Klaus' head.
"Shit!" Klaus shouted and retreated at full speed.
Only now did he recall that Grey's physical strength was far above that of any other Elementalist. In fact, with his silver scales added to it, he was more frightening.
Grey laughed and continued his assault, there was no way he was going to let Klaus get away.
His attacks were fierce, but Klaus' defense was strong as well. Klaus blocked the attacks, making sure Grey wasn't given the chance to get close to him.
Grey was just too freakish!
This was the only thought in Klaus' head.
He held on, and after blocking one of Grey's attacks, he used an ice hammer to strike the ground, forcing Grey to retreat from the broken ice shards that came out of the hammer.
Klaus didn't aim the hammer at Grey, rather, he smashed it into the ground to disrupt Grey's continuous attacks.
Grey commended his efforts, but didn't stop his assault.
With the elements he had in his arsenal, he was a full-time attack minded Elementalist. The only time he doesn't attack as often is when he is surrounded, and even in that situation, he still occasionally lets out outbursts.
Klaus continued his defense, he was well disciplined, not giving Grey any space.
Grey's expression started to become serious as the battle continued. He realized with Klaus' new strength, it wouldn't be that easy to defeat him.