If it wasn't for Greem's high vantage point, as well as the chip's powerful computing abilities, he might have entirely missed the shockwave from the battle.
A fight had also broken out 7.5 kilometers to the east. The two parties involved were body-refining adept Kiel, and two spellbreaker knights. After a tough battle, the spellbreaker knights retreated from the battlefield, but not without paying the price of one death, and severe injuries for the surviving knight. Kiel had also received some damage in the fight, and could only let the severely injured knight walk away.
Greem couldn't help but feel like this was a waste. He quickly sent this information to Mary, who was roaming about the woods far away.
The battle 15 kilometers in the northeast was the most intense. The spellbreaker knight, that had been forced into a position of certain death, self-destructed. The method with which he used to self-destruct was similar to how Ninther did it.
This made Greem suspect that all spellbreaker knights knew of such an annoying way to self-destruct.
The one who forced the spellbreaker knight to self-destruct was an odd adept called Marionette. It seemed he was a peculiar fellow who was able to manipulate the bodies of others.
However, neither of these three battles were the focus of Greem's attention.
The only battle Greem was paying attention to was the one happening 23 kilometers to the northwest.
Because this battle was between a radiant knight and Second-Grade Adept Fügen!
Chapter 201
In the bloody battles of the last few months, three adepts had fallen to the sneak attacks of radiant knights.
This was already a fairly sizeable loss for the Sarubo Clan.
After all, the bottom line for the Sarubo Clan was set at eight adept losses in this planar invasion. If the numbers of adept casualties exceeded a certain number in this plane, it would cause a drastic effect to the Sarubo Clan’s ranking within the Zhentarim Association.
If the Sarubo Clan reassigned adepts from their subordinate lesser planes to fill in the vacancies of the clan headquarters, it would cause an immense impact to the stability of their rule over their two subordinate planes.
Thus, faced with the frequent assaults of the radiant knights, the only Second Grade Adept of the base, Sir Fügen, had no choice but to personally step onto the battlefield and teach these ‘magic-infused knights’ a bloody lesson!
This was a moonless night!
The adepts were exceptionally active tonight. Besides the ten adepts who had always been fighting on the frontlines, Sir Fügen brought five more adepts with him to join the battle.
An unfortunate radiant knight had already been identified. The remaining knight squads around him were being dealt with by other adepts, while this radiant knight hiding in the knight squad naturally became the target of Sir Fügen's hunt.
It was obvious that Sir Fügen didn't really trust Greem and the others. He had specifically brought his direct subordinates from the base to deal with the other knight squads and clear out the battlefield, displaying a desire to keep other adepts from coming close. Greem, who had long wanted to spy on the secrets of Second-Grade Adepts, could only fall back on such a method to gather information.
Ever since he became a First Grade Adept, Greem felt lost concerning his future path. He didn't dare progress recklessly without gathering enough information and figuring out the proper way forward. However, most of this information was something that newly advanced adepts were unlikely to come into contact with.
At least, before Greem signed a more intimate contract with the Sarubo Clan, he would have no chance of gaining access to such information!
If Greem were able to collect a little information about Second Grade Adepts at this point, it would undoubtedly become a lighthouse that shed light on Greem's future path. Even if he didn't know the means of progressing down this path, as long as he had a direction, Greem would be able to use the chip's powerful computing abilities to reverse-engineer a method of moving forward.
It was a blood-colored night, and the raging winds were howling in the night.
Standing on a high cliff, one could taste the bloody slaughter carried over by the night wind from afar.
If Mary had been here, she probably would’ve let out a long howl in excitement!
Greem thought so to himself, but his eyes were still fixated on a spot in the darkness. Blue light continuously flashed in his eyes.
The battle had already started!
One could already smell the ice-attribute particles in the night wind, alongside small traces of fire-attribute particles.
Greem made an initial judgement that the innate powers of the Second Grade Adept Fügen were probably ice spells. The immense power of his attacks had already completely suppressed the radiant knight.
In the end, radiant knights were only a group of ‘magic-infused knights’ that had very high magic resistance.
Their strongest ability was their resistance to elemental spells. As they lacked a systematic means of cultivation or meditation, they were wholly unable to manipulate the elementium particles drifting about the atmosphere. Thus, whether it was to attack or defend, they had to rely on runic energies.
And these so-called runic energies were only magical energies drawn from magic crystals with the use of crude runic arrays, that were then applied to weapons and armor. Such equipment would hardly even be called magic tools in the World of Adepts. At best, they were enchanted equipment, and were far inferior and much less efficient than magic tools.
However, everyone had their own expertise, and the knights were experts in this particular field of utilizing runic energies. The knight plane's runic arrays were all designed and focused around the concept of merging the strengths of runic energies and the knights. Thus, when it came to the assimilation of runic energies with the source of their life force, their runic arrays did indeed have unique insights of their own.
Even Greem was interested in capturing a radiant knight himself to investigate the secrets of the runic arrays on their bodies. Once he obtained the knowledge related to their runic arrays, Greem had every confidence that the energy system of his golems would be able to be further improved. Even the Flame Fiend Transformation runes carved on Greem's body had room for improvement!
The pitch-black night sky was abruptly lit up by a blue light that appeared. A large halo of ice that could easily be seen suddenly exploded in the middle of the woods. The surrounding ancient trees were instantly sealed in a world of crystalline ice.
The crackling sound of ice particles in the air crashing against each other rang out throughout the sky. Greem couldn't help but be impressed by the power of a Second Grade Adept.
The knights' plane was a small material plane sorely lacking in elementium energies. A First Grade spell might be able to have an effect of up to a 100 degrees in the World of Adepts. However, here, it might only have around 70 degrees of power. Moreover, the radius and duration of its effect would also be greatly reduced.
Fortunately, most of the invading adepts had plenty of magic tools, spell scrolls, and magic staffs to empower themselves. With plenty of instant-cast spells at their fingertips, they were still able to drown the enemies with attacks, maintaining their advantage as casters while fighting against knights of the same Grade.
The nighttime battle lasted for another half an hour before finally ending. The result was as expected; Sir Fügen obtained an overwhelming victory.
As the victorious adepts brought plentiful spoils of war back to the base, Greem was finally able to visit the location of the battle.
This was the backslope of a small hill. Three gigantic rocks formed a circle, with a flat ground of around twenty meters in radius within it. This was an excellent camping spot for an adventurer's squad.
Sadly, this place had been turned into a world covered in ice and snow!
Greem walked out from the dark forest, confidently strolling about this area of snow and ice. Cerulean light
continued to flash in his eyes, hidden by the shadow of his hood. All of his senses were utilized. His sight, smell, hearing, and his taste were all activated to feel the elementium in this camping spot.
The three-meter tall rock had been covered by a layer of thick ice. Even the campfire in the middle of the camp had been sealed in an ice crystal, with the firewood and the fire itself also preserved within.
Greem gave the crystal a light knock. It let out a clanging sound. The ice’s hardness was no less than normal steel. Greem was still able to vaguely see the shape and color of the burning campfire through the semi-translucent ice crystal. The bright red flames, and the white-hot center of the fire, could be seen clearly. It was almost as if time had been completely frozen and stopped at that one specific moment.
Fire in ice? This kind of ice power that could even freeze flames most definitely contained traces of planar laws. Otherwise, it would never be able to create such a situation where two elementium with conflicting attributes were able to co-exist!
Two human mercenaries laid on the ground beside the rock. Their panicked and worried expressions were still frozen on their faces. Their hands had reached towards the weapons on their waists, while their other hands were pressed against the ground to push themselves up. Sadly, their lives would forever be frozen in that moment.
One could tell that Adept Fügen had instantly let out a terrifying Ring of Frost when he broke into the camp, immediately getting rid of any irrelevant characters.
The signs of flame explosions became even more obvious at the other end of the camp.
Greem kept scanning through the various details scattered about the location, and a scene of the shocking battle that had occured here appeared in his mind. Greem followed the signs of the battle left by these two, continuously walking deeper and deeper into the woods, before finally arriving at the spot where the battle had ended 1.5 kilometers away.
The trees in a quarter-kilometer radius had been razed to the ground. There were deep rents left in the earth everywhere. The bottom of these gullies were charred by fire, still letting out wisps of black smoke.
It was absolutely possible to estimate the intensity of the battle from the numerous scorch marks left behind by the radiant knight's powerful knight battle techniques. But now, a layer of crystalline ice had completely covered all the scorch marks, demonstrating Fügen's complete control over the battle.
Here, the radiant knight had been frozen in place by Adept Fügen, with no means of moving even a single step, and forced to passively endure and defend against Fügen's attacks. This was evident from the angle of attack and contact of the spells!
Radiant Knights did indeed have very high magic resistance. Even so, they would not be able to resist an endless stream of spells.
Once the knight exhausted the magic crystals within his runic arrays, Fügen, with his plentiful combat experience, would never give him the chance to swap out the crystals!
Greem stopped at the center of the battlefield. There was an ice pillar half a meter tall here. The upper half had cracked and shattered, but the lower half was still hard as steel, letting out a dark blue gleam.
This was where the radiant knight had been defeated and lost!
Greem sensed the atmosphere once more, now that he was where the battle had happened. There were still some of Adept Fügen’s personal elementium signature left in the ice pillar. However, besides this, Greem felt like there was something else.
Mm, this was worth bringing back for research!
Now that he had made his decision, Greem took out his Fire Lord’s Scepter and summoned the Fire Deity. Then he used a summoning core to summon a rock serpent.
Once the Fire Deity appeared, it started to chaotically blast flames all over the place to quickly destroy any markings left on the battlefield. Meanwhile, the gigantic rock serpent opened its large mouth and devoured the ice pillar, along with the dirt frozen underneath it, before vanishing into the ground.
After a quick survey of the battlefield, and having made sure nothing was left, Greem finally turned to leave.
With the help of the night winds, the raging forest fire burned everything left to ashes. When the scene had been reduced to nothing but scorched earth, the dirt near the edge of the earth started to break open. Tens of thousands of black beetles surged from underneath, forming into the silhouette of Evil Bugs Acteon.
"Dammit, that bastard was here already!"
Acteon cursed once more when he saw the ravaged earth, the billowing black smoke, and the remaining fires before him.
Then he turned to look at the black skies around him. He couldn't be sure if the bastard had left any odd eyes or ears around here.
After lowering his voice and cursing a couple more times, Acteon finally turned into a black smoke again, drilling into the ground and disappearing!
Chapter 202
The death of a radiant knight on the battlefield was no less shocking to the witcher-knight army than a massive earthquake.
There hadn't been a single record of a radiant knight dying on the battlefield in nearly a thousand years. Of course, this had to do with the fact that heretic casters in this plane were much weaker than the radiant knights, as well as the radiant knights' own strength.
Without the accumulation of knowledge nor the legacy of a proper system, the naturally awakened heretics had powerful talent and enviable development potential, but no place to systematically learn arcane knowledge or learn to apply their powers. Moreover, under the strict suppression of the witcher-knights, they were forced to hide their names and hide every time their identities were exposed, living a life fleeing and being homeless.
Under such conditions, the Continent of Knights’ heretics that awakened their power, naturally, were constrained by the lack of knowledge and resources. They could only suffer as they stagnated around the level of an apprentice adept. Even if there were occasionally geniuses that would advance to a First Grade caster by accident, they were hard-pressed to gain an advantage over the witcher-knights that travelled in groups. Once they met spellbreaker knights, the only path left to them was a death in despair.
A caster that was able to threaten a radiant knight had never appeared in this plane.
But now, the situation had completely changed with the appearance of these powerful invaders!
The angered knights' higher-ups had a severe disagreement. Some wanted everyone to remain calm, continue the slow but steady search through the remaining areas, and quickly find out the location of the invaders. While some were extremely angered, believing the previous strategy to be excessively conservative and equivalent to sending their elite forces to be slaughtered by the enemy.
Both parties had a major falling out due to this issue, and neither side would give any ground.
As the two Third-Grade Dragon Knights needed to escort the wounded green dragon back to the Dragon Cliff, they were currently missing from the knights' base. Consequently, under the pressure of this irreconcilable conflict, the witcher-knight army finally split!
The radicals were unable to hold back their rage any longer. After gathering nearly a thousand witcher-knights, they charged into Greenland Forest without hesitation.
At that time, the neighing, ferocious magic colts were all over Greenland Forest’s outer area.
These terrifying beasts looked like the combination of warhorses and magic wolfs. They carried streams of witcher-knights on their backs, sprinting through the dense forest as if they had wings on their backs. It didn't matter whether it was mountainous areas, steep cliffs, or gushing rivers; they would be able to leap across and continue onward as if they were still walking on flat ground.
With the magic colts' extraordinary climbing abilities, a massive army of 7 radiant knights leading 34 spellbreaker knights and 828 witcher-knights pushed forward into the depths of the forest with immense speed.
The horrifying voodoo beasts, incessantly surging forth from the depths of the woods, turned into piles
of minced meat under the impact of the violent knight battle techniques.
For one moment, nearly a thousand witcher-knights started a wild slaughter against the numerous voodoo beasts within the woods, turning the forest within five kilometers into a bloody abattoir.
…………
There was a terrifying battlefield located deep in the forest.
The witcher-knight army had arrived here. A massive cliff blocked the path before them. To the left was a slope densely filled with trees, and to the right was geography that was flatter and had a spread of the trees that were thinner. As a result, the direction of the army naturally turned, heading towards the right of the cliff.
Just as the knight army had altered their course, a horde of voodoo beasts numbering in the thousands swarmed forth, instantly shattering their formation and scattering troops, throwing them into chaos.
Above the cliff and within the dense woods under the cliff, at the area where trees were sparse, behind the valley… in every single location of the area, one could see witcher-knights and voodoo beasts fighting in small groups.
Everywhere was the sound of blades against flesh, bones being cut, splashing blood, the roar of the knights, terrifying screeching of the voodoo beasts, the booming explosions from violent and ferocious knight battle techniques…
Not a single patch of silence could be found near the cliff. Burly silhouettes swinging their swords could be found everywhere, as could the ugly forms of the voodoo beasts.
Meanwhile, hidden amidst this chaotic and messy battlefield, Greem wandered about like a terrifying god of death descended upon humanity, his black robe wrapped about him. He casually admired the cruel and bloody slaughter before him, while using the wind critters to look for a suitable battlefield to join.
There were eighteen more adepts who were looking for an opportunity around the battlefield, much like he was doing.
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