Mechanical adepts, on the other hand, could replace their weak bodily organs with magic-infused machinery that possessed amazing strength through various artificial modifications. In doing so, their bodies would naturally possess magical effects, even without casting spells. Moreover, these effects would last forever.
Mechanical adepts might lose the appearance and pleasures of a human, but they gained supernatural prowess in exchange!
It was rumored that large numbers of Esoteric Adepts gathered at the Castle in the Sky, in the Continent of Adepts western seaboard, and that most of them were mechanical adepts. The Castle in the Sky, the adepts' city that floated ten thousand meters in the sky represented the highest achievements and the peak of magic-infused machinery.
Even though Greem wanted to find out more about this Adept Hyde, a light mechanical hum rang out and a strange flux appeared around Hyde, obstructing further probes from him.
Greem smiled awkwardly and nodded at Hyde and Marionette before walking to the side and waiting patiently.
They didn't wait long.
A moment later, thunder rumbled in the skies, and Adept Thunderbird appeared in a flash of lightning. Bloody Mary and a strange adept cloaked in a black robe appeared behind him.
Seeing that everyone he invited had arrived, Adept Hyde cleared his throat and began with an odd mechanical voice, "Everyone, I gathered you here today for the sake of those damned radiant knights. If we let them safely break out of the envelopment we created, all the sacrifices and prices we had to pay would have been for nothing."
All the adepts chose to remain silent in the face of such a cliche introduction.
The fight turning sour would likely cause the clan's expansionist plans to fail, and when they were chased out of the plane by the natives, the clan’s promise of rewards and resources would not be fulfilled. However, if the adepts present were forcefully pushed onto the battlefield as cannon fodder, they would only put out a perfunctory effort, never giving their all and prioritizing their own survival.
Adept Hyde, who intimately knew the nature of adepts, quickly changed the topic of the conversation.
"I intend to launch an ambush specifically against that radiant knight. If you wish to participate in this operation, then stay and we will discuss the specifics. If anyone here is unwilling to participate, you may leave now! The only thing I can guarantee, if this plan succeeds, is that everyone will get what they want the most!"
The expressions on the adepts faces finally changed!
As adepts upholding the principle of equivalent exchange, they would instinctively choose to avoid any task that proved without benefit or too dangerous to themselves. Ambushing a Second Grade knight was undoubtedly a dangerous task that landed well beyond their abilities!
However… if they could get the resources and knowledge that they wanted the most by doing so, taking a little risk seemed acceptable.
The light in everyone's eyes brightened for a second, as if they were silently thinking about something.
The Hyde’s mechanical eye swept around and lingered for a moment. He was slightly relieved when he saw that no one had left. Everyone here were powerful adepts that he had chosen after careful consideration. They had strange magic abilities that could not be comprehended by outsiders.
If anyone here had left, it would have caused disturbances and flaws in his plan. If needed, he would have to lower his criteria and pick people from the remaining adepts who could substitute for those who left.
"Since no one left, that means that everyone is willing to participate in this plan. Very well, let us begin discussing our wants and needs!"
No adept would be willing to tell the public such private information. What happened next was one-on-one negotiations between Adept Hyde and each participant. Hyde's lips moved slightly, but no sound came out. It was evident that he was secretly conversing with an adept.
After approximately seven minutes, Greem got a notification from the chip in his mind.
"Detecting unique mental connection. Initiator: Adept Hyde. Requesting instructions from host. Authorize connection?"
"Authorized!"
The next second, the odd metallic voice belonging to Adept Hyde appeared in Greem's mind.
"Greetings, Adept Greem. Time is short and I'll be direct. If I invite you to participate in this dangerous hunt, what do you want in return?"
"……" Greem hesitated for a bit before slowly speaking, "I wish to obtain the portion of knowledge that concerns the merging of runic energies and life energies!"
"Uhh… this request is a little tough! After all, complete knowledge about the merging of energies is most likely in the hands of the massive force behind the witcher-knights. Even if we obtained some fragments of runic knowledge after we kill the radiant knight, trying to reverse-engineer the merging of energies from that is still extremely difficult… "
"If my judgement is not incorrect, Sir Fügen captured a live radiant knight previously. Surely we must have obtained plenty of internal secrets from his mind."
Adept Hyde's body twitched oddly in the distance. His mechanical eye glowed with a bright red shine as he once again earnestly assessed Greem.
"I do not have the authority to reveal internal information from the base."
"If I cannot directly obtain knowledge on the merging of energies, I wish to know how I may obtain such knowledge. In other words, I wish to know who else on the Continent of Knights possesses complete knowledge on merging. Of course, it is best if it's someone I can deal with!"
"You are truly an adept with foresight! If I'm not wrong, putting aside valuable resources, the most valuable thing on this plane is their runic knowledge. Lord Sarubo has classified the energy fusion knowledge you are requesting as a Class Three strategic resource. It's impossible for it to be handed to you. As for the people here who possess the knowledge you seek– even though they have not been classified as supervised figures, you will need to hunt them on your own. I can only provide a list of individuals!"
"That is enough! I accept these conditions."
The next second, a magical contract woven from Spirits appeared in Greem's mind.
The chip dutifully completed a detailed scan of this contract. After eliminating all logical, linguistic and magical loopholes in the contract, the chip presented a detailed contract to Greem. Greem had a quick look, and having verified that there was no distinction from the contents they had just discussed, cautiously left his magic emblem on the contract.
It took another seven minutes before Adept Hyde signed contracts with the remaining adepts. Everyone started to become more friendly with the contract now in place.
To ease cooperation later, Adept Hyde had everyone do a basic introduction of their magical abilities. Adept Hyde was naturally the first, as he had to encourage everyone else to speak.
"Hyde, mechanical adept, specializing in close quarters combat. Magic abilities roughly includes Energy Lightsaber and Awl of Slaughter… "
The second to speak was Thunderbird.
"Thunderbird, elementium adept, specializing in lightning magic. Currently possess the spells Lightning Storm, Lightning Blast, and Lightning Teleportation… "
"Marionette, bloodline adept, specializing in plant modifications. Mastered spells include Puppet Strings and Substitute of Wood… "
"Evil Bugs, bloodline adept, specializing in bug-body modification. Mastered spells include Bug Manipulation, Splitting Attack, and Damage Sharing… "
"Phantom, elementium adept, specializing in illusions. Mastered spells include Realm of Dreams and Spell of Dream Departure… "
"Flame Demon, elementium adept, specializing in fire magic. Mastered spells include Flame Fiend Transformation and Ring of Fire… "
"Bloody Mary, bloodline adept, specializing in blood magic. Mastered spells include Bat Demon Transformation and Bloodsucking… "
"Demon Shadows, elementium adept, specializing in curses… "
Naturally, no one would r
eveal all their cards in such a situation. Thus, the introductions of their spells and magic were incomplete. However, given that Adept Hyde had gathered everyone here, he most definitely had some kind of understanding as to everyone's abilities.
Everyone kept silent and listened to Hyde describe his hunting plan in detail!
Chapter 211
The battle in the woods raged on.
Only now the battlefield had shifted fifteen kilometers away from the original hill.
This was entirely a path of death paved with the corpses of voodoo beasts, leaving an indelible mark in the hearts of every witcher-knight that trod down this road.
Neither party could sustain the battle at this point!
On the side of the humans, less than two hundred witcher-knights had successfully made it here from the hill, and each of them carried some injuries. The mental and physical stress they had to bear had reached the limit. Almost all of them were on the verge of breaking down.
On the other hand, on the adepts' side, nearly thirty thousand voodoo beasts had been lost since the start of the battle. This was already the entirety of the voodoo beasts that the adepts had created in this past month!
Even after paying the price of all their voodoo beasts, the only harvest the adepts gained was a bunch of dispensable witcher-knights. The only decent returns were the heads of some spellbreaker knights.
The spellbreaker knight casualties were extremely heavy. Thirty-four of them had charged into the woods, but only fifteen were able to escape with the army. The rest had turned into piles of bones, or similar results at the hands of the adepts.
However, the seven radiant knights that formed the higher-ups of the knights' army stood strong!
Be it the continuous attacks of the voodoo beasts and ghouls, or the insidious ambushes of the adepts, nothing could shake the rock-hard defense of the radiant knights. Even the black fog enveloping the woods had no effect other than causing them to cough a little blood and become slightly weakened.
These radiant knights clearly possessed enviable resistance against this sort of terrifying virus that could destroy the balance of runic energies in their bodies. It could also be that their bodies could bear this amount of damage, allowing them to keep on fighting with no impact on their strength.
The spellbreaker knights and witcher-knights were completely exhausted halfway through their escape.
They stumbled after the shining forms of the radiant knights as their bodies revolted and struggled under the effects of the diseases. Under the effect of the black fog, the remaining runic energies in their bodies rampaged everywhere, destroying their internal organs and causing them to cough up blood with every couple of steps they took.
Purple and black blood paste, filled with broken bodily organs!
The spellbreaker knights had stronger bodies, and were thus able to maintain some modicum of combat ability. However, they no longer dared to draw the strength of runic energy into their bodies. As a result, the runic swords in their hands once again became normal longswords, no longer possessing the keen sharpness they used to have.
The witcher-knights, on the other hand, had lost all their ability to resist. They trudged painfully along like the sick and injured that they were, mindlessly trailing along with the formation. They had lost all ability to resist or fight, and could only rely on the protection of the spellbreaker knights and radiant knights!
Perhaps the adepts realized this, as they commanded the voodoo beasts and ghouls not to kill the witcher-knights, but injure and wound them as grievously as possible without killing them, leaving the severely injured to remain in the formation.
This undoubtedly slowed down the entire army.
The seven radiant knights and fifteen spellbreaker knights had become the only protection for nearly two hundred witcher-knights.
Every time the voodoo beasts surged forth in large numbers, the seven radiant knights had to fight on the frontline with all their strength, using their tough bodies and destructive battle techniques to eliminate their enemies. The fifteen spellbreaker knights, on the other hand, stood guard around the witcher-knights, using their lonely figures and dim runic swords to hack at the enemy, slowly shaving away their numbers.
One could say that this knights' army was completely exhausted and had limited combat ability after such a long battle.
It was precisely because of this that the adepts didn't immediately refuse when Hyde made the suggestion to hunt the radiant knights. Instead, they saw the opportunity before them and became excited.
…………
The first wave of attacks were naturally led by the elementium adepts. In particular, Greem and Thunderbird were the most prominent ones.
After all, fire magic was widely considered to be the most suited for slaughter on the battlefield, even amongst all elementium magic. Thunderbird's lightning magic also had considerable use. However, lightning goes as quickly as it arrives. It was way inferior to fire magic when it came to prolonged damage.
When Thunderbird and Greem started chanting in unison on top of a hill a half kilometer away from the knights, an apocalyptic scene once again appeared in the distant skies.
Above, there were roiling and flaming red clouds, while below you had violent and wild lightning storms.
When repeated flaming meteors dragged their black smoke tails and crashed into the ground, the forest the knights were in had already been ravaged by violent lightning. Withered dead trees releasing black smoke were everywhere.
The radiant knights hastened the witcher-knights’ escape from the area covered by the spell, while slashing apart each and every falling meteor with all their strength. However, even with all their efforts, some red-hot meteors still landed within the army.
The outside of a meteor was a solid magma shell, while its core was made of liquid lava and abundant fire elementium that went up to 3000° Celsius. When they fell to the ground, besides forming a deep crater, the magma shell on the outside would shatter and shoot out in every direction along with the raging fire elementium and corrosive lava inside.
Without the protection of their energy shields, even the spellbreaker knights would not be able to use their bodies to bear the might of such a terrifying heat wave and lava rain. The witcher-knights? The moment they were engulfed by the meteor's impact was the moment they were fated to die. What's even more terrifying was the fact that no one could even find their corpses even after the attack was over and the hot lava had cooled.
Not just burnt to charcoal and reduced to ashes, but having what's left of their ashes trapped in the cooled magma. A true case of having nothing left to speak of their existence.
Even though they only needed to run twenty or thirty meters to escape the area of effect, most of the witcher-knights were too exhausted and weak. They could only struggle within the sea of flames, howling in pain as they crawled forward, suffering until the last bit of their strength and life gave way.
When they saw their companions howling in pain and stretching their arms for help, the few radiant knights and spellbreaker knights rushed into the sea of flame with no regard for themselves. They grabbed their companions' bodies and threw them out of the flame sea with all their strength.
Yet at this moment, under the guidance of the adept, the burning clouds in the sky started to slowly move towards the area the witcher-knights were congregating in.
Charles stared at everything happening before him with his eyes wide open. His ears were filled with the pained screams of witcher-knights before their deaths. He turned around in anger. He wanted to charge to the distance and slay that accursed adept in one slash.
However, at this moment, a tall silhouette stopped him.
"You stay here and lead everyone out. I'll go!" Meusel grabbed his arm and shouted with a hoarse voice, before turning and striding into the woods.
Half a kilometer of distance was nothing beneath the feet of an angered radiant knight.
Just as the Meteor Shower h
ad completed the middle phase and was transitioning into the explosive final phase, the angered Knight Meusel was already rapidly closing in on the caster’s hill.
Greem and Thunderbird were able to sense Meusel with their own means, even without a message form Adept Hyde. The two adepts didn't dare to look down upon an angered Second Grade Radiant Knight. The moment Meusel closed in on the hill, the two stopped their spells.
Knight Meusel rushed to the top of the hill and stared at the two evil adepts cautiously looking at him. Instantly, he realized something.
Perhaps because he considered this possibility before he came, Meusel had stopped his old friend and come here himself. Looking at the scene, Meusel knew that the scenario he feared most in his heart had finally turned into the reality he saw before him. Meusel was still unfazed. He calmly walked out of the dark forest.
"Call all your allies out!" Meusel lightly waved his longsword as the hot flames once again engulfed the sword.
Even though he was completely exhausted, even though he was covered in burns everywhere, even though he was now surrounded by powerful enemies– when the runic energies once again surged through his body, the Radiant Knight Meusel stood tall with his sword before him, still possessing the strongly imposing aura that frightened all who looked upon him.
However, this had absolutely no effect on the adepts, whose wills were so tough that they could hardly be affected by external factors. In a wave of cold cackling laughs, Evil Bugs, Hyde, Marionette, and Mary appeared in the woods behind Meusel, surrounding him in a triangle formation.
Phantom and Demon Shadows were nowhere to be seen.
Their spells were mostly supportive in nature. Hiding in the darkness and casting their spells when they were most needed was much more threatening than appearing on the battlefield and assaulting the enemy head on.
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