Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Bright runic lights shone on the body of the middle-aged Radiant Knight. He gazed upon Bloody Mary, still floating in the air, his eyes betraying an expression of thought.

  If she knew that I am a radiant knight, why wouldn't she retreat? Could it be…

  There was no time for him to think. In the woods one kilometer northwest, a sudden commotion that exceeded the violent elementium flux earlier erupted. The radiant knight's face fell when he felt the terrifying elementium flux and saw the magic flames suddenly erupt.

  "It's the Flame Demon!" The young spellbreaker knight couldn't help but exclaim, his eyes betraying shock and fear that couldn't be hidden.

  After the bloody battles of the past few days, the knights and adepts had a better understanding of each other's forces.

  The most terrifying force on the knights' side was most definitely that group of radiant knights. They were slightly lacking in mobility, but their powerful runic powers gave them incomparably powerful attacks and an impenetrable defense. In all seriousness, the only thing the adepts could do when they met radiant knights was retreat. They had absolutely no chance of beating them in a fight.

  On the other hand, some terrifying characters had sprung up on the adepts' side as well. Such as Bloody Mary before him, who was always surrounded by terrifying bat swarms; or Evil Bugs Acteon, who could command tens of thousands of poisonous bugs. There were also other scary adepts with all sorts of odd abilities…

  But none of them were as scary as the Flame Demon!

  When the three-meter tall Flame Demon, clad in brilliant red flames all over its body, stepped onto the battlefield with his two fire golems, the doubled number of fire spells coupled with the Fire Deity’s explosions were enough to instantly kill a spellbreaker knight of the same grade.

  Thus, whenever a knight squad met the Flame Demon in the depths of the woods, it would be the end of their fates right then and there!

  Chapter 198

  The light of flames flickered in the woods far away. Intense fires ravaged about.

  The death cries of the accompanying mercenaries and the angered roars of the spellbreaker knights could be heard clearly!

  The expression on the middle-aged radiant knight's face suddenly changed. He had no time to be entangled with Bloody Mary. Immediately, he charged towards the battlefield in the distance.

  As part of the army’s higher ranks, he knew very well that there were only two spellbreaker knights in the squad there. Facing the terrifying Flame Demon with such a force would definitely result in heart-rending casualties.

  If one were to form an analysis based purely on the Grade of the individual, both the spellbreaker knights and the adepts were at the First Grade, and should have the power to kill each other. Theoretically, the two spellbreaker knights facing the single First Grade adept on the battlefield there should have the advantage.

  Unfortunately, such an idealistic comparison had never proven true.

  On one hand, you had the evil adepts that came from a powerful plane, while on the other you had close-combat knights from a weak plane. If one were to remove the hampering effect of the plane's suppression, a First Grade adept could be said to have an absolute advantage against a spellbreaker knight of the same grade.

  The frail adepts might fear those elusive assassins, but when faced with these tough and beefy knights, they had a clear battle advantage thanks to their class. You are tough? Well, if one spell can't blow you away, I'll cast two! If two isn't enough, I'll cast three!

  As for a melee fight? Hehehe, no adept would be idiotic enough to engage in a melee with the tin-can spellbreaker knights. It was delusional for the spellbreaker knights to catch up to the nimble adepts in the dense woods, especially considering their horrendous speed.

  Be it Flame Teleportation, or Shadowstalk, or elementium wings of wind, the adepts had plenty of means to keep a safe casting distance between themselves and the immobile knights. Most of the time, the adepts were the ones kiting the knights. It was very rare that the knights were able to trap and surround the adepts in one spot.

  Of course, not all adepts had such mobile abilities. Just in the past fifteen days, there were already three adepts that had died on the battlefield. The remaining adepts all had powerful movement abilities, as well as powerful and deadly spells.

  With just these two traits, as long as they didn't bump into radiant knights, the adepts would have over a seventy percent chance of winning in fighting against the spellbreaker knights. This was why the knight's camp had lost twenty spellbreaker knights, while the adepts had only lost three adepts.

  Because of this, the radiant knight flew into a rage when he saw the terrifying Flame Demon slaughtering their elites in the distance. He charged towards the battlefield as quickly as he could while being cautious of any attacks from Bloody Mary.

  However, things didn't turn out the way he thought they would!

  The radiant knight thought that Bloody Mary would slow him down to the best of her abilities in order to buy time for the Flame Demon. But who knew that Mary was completely unfazed by his departure? Instead, she unfolded her wings and leapt towards the young spellbreaker knight.

  Now, the radiant knight's face had truly become dark!

  He finally understood why Bloody Mary appeared here.

  If he insisted on saving the two spellbreaker knights, then the knight he left here would not be able to escape the fangs of Bloody Mary. But if he didn't reinforce the two knights…

  The crackling sound of fire in the distance became even more intense. A bright red flame pillar, almost turning a blinding white, blasted into the sky and enveloped the trees in a hundred meter radius. It was a terrifying world of flames. At the same time, a dome-shaped flame barrier appeared out of nowhere. It was the Flame Demon's signature, Ring of Fire!

  The middle-aged radiant shook his head in anger and sighed before turning around and charging towards the female vampire, who was still circling around the young spellbreaker knight. Now that the Flame Demon had even activated his Ring of Fire, it was obvious what the fates of the two spellbreaker knights would be.

  Rather than saving two subordinates who were most probably dead, it was more important to protect the companion right beside him!

  Mary cursed under her breath when she saw the radiant knight hurrying back. With no choice left, she could only escape out of the opponent's attack radius in a couple of flashes. She might have the ability to kill a spellbreaker knight, but against a radiant knight one grade above herself, she could only retreat. She dared not even expose herself where the opponent could reach.

  The spellbreaker knights were able to combine the external runic energies with the life force within their bodies to create a powerful knight battle technique, similar to an invisible force that could be expelled outwards. This allowed their attacks to break free from the limits of their weapons, and possess somewhat long-ranged abilities.

  Moreover, as the concentration of the energy was far higher than the concentration of elemental spells, these kinds of mid-ranged knight battle technique not only had powerful anti-defense properties, they were even able to completely negate or annihilate the spells of casters while they were in midair. This was where the name Spellbreaker Knight came from!

  And radiant knights were undoubtedly even stronger than spellbreaker knights.

  Their strength mainly came from their ability to utilize runic energies to strengthen themselves, somewhat akin to the body refining adepts of the World of Adepts. However, while the body refining adepts used various poisons or extreme pain to exhaust the potential of their bodies and strengthen their physique, the radiant knights used runic energy to temporarily grant themselves immense physical strength.

  Even though their paths were slightly different, both possessed equally powerful physical combat ability.

  Thus, Mary could use her agility to toy with a spellbreaker, but when she met a radiant knight, retreat was her only option. Fight? With Mary's current abili
ty, even breaking through the defense of a radiant knight’s combination of runic energies and their life force was an immensely difficult task.

  Conversely, if the distance between the two was shortened, Mary could be killed in one blow instantly by the radiant knight if he found an opportunity.

  Mary's blood-energy infused crimson armor could only endure up to 110 points of elemental damage. Meanwhile, radiant knights were able to let out blows of combined energy that could reach 150 points with every strike they made. Instantly killing a melee adept like herself was but an easy task. That was why Mary didn't dare move within ten steps of the radiant knight.

  Looking at the sly Bloody Mary, the middle-aged radiant knight's heart was filled with immense humiliation that couldn't be expressed with words.

  This was a weak and powerless adept who was an entire Grade below himself, yet she was able to render a Second Grade knight helpless with her exceptional agility. The radiant knight's attacks were indeed powerful, but would it matter if he couldn’t even hit the enemy?!

  In the short delay here, the battle in the distant woods had already reached its conclusion!

  As the terrifying forest fire started to spread outwards, the sounds of exploding fireballs started to diminish before eventually vanishing.

  Countless pairs of eyes on the nearby hills, cliffs, and the top of the canopy were looking towards the direction of the battle. At that moment, many grieving sighs were let out in the depths of the forest at the same time.

  Greem was completely unfazed by the battle’s various onlookers.

  With seven or eight wind critters floating above the forest nearby, and a dozen clay golems swimming under the ground, not even the smallest motions within a radius of five kilometers were able to escape Greem's senses. It was with this absolute control of the battlefield that Greem was able to completely display the numerical advantage of the golem army, and maintain an absolute pressure on the enemy within a small battlefield.

  Besides the necessary local mercenaries, the squads always consisted of single spellbreaker knight leading two witcher knights, or two spellbreaker knights travelling in a pair. Occasionally, radiant knights would be mixed into the count to bait the adepts into attacking.

  This arrangement and number of personnel was the ideal battle formation that was realized after half a month of bloody battle.

  There were approximately a dozen evil adepts wandering about the forest, usually fighting alone, with the exception of the necessary servants and summons that they commanded. It was very rare for adepts to fight together. This was the case was due to the distrust amongst adepts that hindered any sort of cooperation.

  However, once the knight squads gathered into an army that a single adept was no longer able to fight against, the adepts would gather together and fight, regardless of how unwilling they were. After a few battles that ended up as bloody slaughters, the higher-ups of the knights' army had no choice but to split the army into smaller squads and start a game of cat and mouse with the adepts in the woods.

  Most of the time the adepts were the cats, while the knight squads were the mice.

  Every time the were assaulted by adepts, the first casualties were always the mercenaries in the squad. The knights, on the other hand, were able to retreat while using their powerful strength to fight, as long as their opponents weren't the more powerful and terrifying adepts. Besides being a little flushed, most of the time there wouldn't be any threat to their lives.

  However, if the attacking adept had bad luck and bumped into a squad with a radiant knight, the position of cat and mouse would immediately be reversed. The three adept casualties had died at the hands of radiant knights in this fashion.

  The adepts that continued to intercept enemies were either quick at escaping, had resilient physiques, or looked on cautiously before they made any moves. As long as they were able to do any one of those, they were able to keep their lives and not die humiliatingly in a dark corner of the forest.

  Meanwhile, Greem had his army of elementium scouts. Along with his unique Fire Teleportation ability, which made him the perfect fit for such a chaotic and messy battlefield, he constantly obtained kills left and right.

  Most other adepts had to be careful and repeatedly probe the enemies, even if they found a squad, so as to not fall into the hands of radiant knights. However, such caution very easily caused the target to be aware of their existence, causing a perfect hunt to become a meaningless chase and pursuit.

  The knight squads in the forest would call for help from each other. If they realized their companions were being pursued, the nearby squads would rapidly hurry over to reinforce them. When that happened, it was the adept's turn to run!

  Such a process of probing, counter-probing, pursuing, and counter-pursuing was the least efficient means of fighting.

  However, Greem had enough eyes in the sky to simultaneously track two or three different squads at the same time. Regardless of how well the radiant knights' impersonations were, some clue that exposed their identity would reveal themselves under Greem's complete and absolute monitoring.

  Thus, Greem had plenty of time to choose prey that he could devour in a single bite, as well as set up traps beforehand. As the unnecessary probing and hesitations were eliminated, Greem was able to obtain great results every time he struck.

  His chosen prey would never have a chance of escaping, which also saved him from going through the process of pursuing and hunting them down. As long as he was able to control and delay the squads nearby to prevent them from reinforcing his prey, then even two spellbreaker knights were not enough to stop his slaughter.

  If it wasn't for the Scroll of Voodoo having a cooldown that limited the flurry of spells, and if it wasn't for Greem reserving nearly half of his strength to deal with any unforeseen events, his destructive speed might even increase further.

  Even so, the terrifying name of the Flame Demon was quickly spreading amongst the knights.

  Chapter 199

  It was a temporary camp.

  The camp was located in the middle of a pile of rocks.

  The two to three meter tall rocks were messily stacked upon each other. They may not have look very ordered or well-arranged, but they were able to bring about some sense of security for the campers.

  The mist was damp and heavy.

  Even though it was already deep into the night, the travellers camping amidst the pile of rocks had not started a campfire to get rid of the moist air. No one was speaking either. Under the black shadows of the towering rocks, a handful of adventurers wrapped their bodies with thick animal furs and cloth, trying hard to fall asleep.

  However, the scene they saw during the day Had been too shocking– so shocking that no one in the camp could sleep.

  "Sylow, do you think we can return home alive?" The hunter, Poole, lightly jabbed the sides of his companion from the same village and whispered softly.

  Sylow was an archer. He was the best archer back in the village they came from.

  Sylow turned his body, but didn't answer his companion's question.

  However, Poole vaguely realized that his companion was slightly shaking when he touched him earlier. He didn't ask his companion the reason, for at this very moment, his body was also shaking uncontrollably.

  That terrifying flame humanoid as large as a demon. That deafening sound of explosion that shook the entire forest. The sea of flames that seemed like they would consume everything. Two lord knights and three mercenaries had so easily died in the sea of flames, becoming yet more souls reaped by the evil adepts.

  Each of those characters were likely infinitely stronger than himself!

  When he recalled the scene he had seen while crouched on the top of the tree that evening, Poole felt like even his soul was shaking. It was almost as if… almost as if he himself had turned into the knight engulfed by the violent flames, only capable of letting out his life’s last sorrowful cry!

  Pressured by the terror in his hear
t, Poole found the courage to turn around to face a shadow at the other end of the camp and asked softly, "Sir Morse, will we be able to return home alive?"

  "Silence! Do you want to draw those adepts over?" The spellbreaker knight Sir Morse, who was hidden by the shadows, scolded softly. But then his tone became gentle, "Don't think too much. Our mission is to investigate the surroundings of Serpentfowl Cliff. Just 1.5 more kilometers tomorrow and we can accomplish our mission. Then you will be able to claim your reward from the base. That's 30 gold sorens! More than enough for you to live comfortably for ten years!"

  Perhaps due to the thought of a peaceful life after obtaining the reward, Poole was able to slightly let go of his concerns. He wrapped himself tightly in the thick fur once more, trying to get a little warmer.

  Poole had no idea that the earth was starting to rise in a spot at the middle of the base as he was trying to fall asleep. As the earth finally gave way, countless black scorpions surged out, forming into five separate black tides of bug that silently streamed into the surrounding darkness.

  After a short moment, Knight Morse's angered roar rang out in the darkness.

  "Get up… everyone get up… Evil Bugs is here!"

  Following the flash of light from an energy shield’s activation, the flame longsword in his hand was also ignited. The blinding light of the flame instantly illuminated the crude camp. There were five people in the camp. Besides himself, there were two witcher-knights and two mercenary hunters.

  Unfortunately, when the flickering light illuminated the camp the only ones that were able to leap out of the furs were himself and a witcher-knight named Gurm. The other three didn't respond at all. Looking from a distance, the only thing they could see were the furs and felts creeping about as the bugs within crawled around.

  "Dammit… " Morse cursed angrily, "Get your weapons and prepare for battle."

  In truth, there was no need for him to remind him, as Knight Gurm was already swatting away the numerous scorpions on his body, using his resilient will to resist the waves of nausea while drawing out his runic longsword.