A First Grade Adept challenging and succeeding in slaying a Second Grade being would never happen in the World of Adepts. The strict planar laws and the massive difference in power caused any hopes of using tricks or superiority to compensate for the difference in grade to turn into a mere dream!
This also indirectly reflected the strictness of the Grade system within the adepts’ plane.
However, it was no longer such an absolute situation in a planar war!
As the surging elementium flames slowly dispersed, a person that had been ravaged by the spells, so much that he no longer looked human, fell out from within.
The blood and flesh on his body had been withered and carbonized, and the molten armor had fused with his bones, making him look like a golden skeleton from afar. The grim heat had caused his remaining bones to continuously let out white smoke, as if this last remaining part of his existence would also crumble into ashes.
His runic longsword, knight armor, muscular body, his short brown hair… all the traits that belonged to that radiant knight had completely vanished, leaving behind an unrecognizable skeleton.
Greem stumbled and reverted his Flame Flame Fiend Transformation.
Those short seven seconds of Blazing Light had eaten away at the the purest core and source of his body’s fire powers. This was not something that could be recovered by drinking a couple vials of potions. The only way to recover it was to meditate diligently, day after day, in order to have a chance of accumulating by relying on the powers of planar laws.
After his Blazing Light, the flame spell bombardment had only exhausted to spells within the Scroll of Voodoo. It had not drained any of his Spirit. Otherwise, he might have had to watch the enemy escape before his eyes!
However, the major exhaustion of his Spirit had completely robbed him of all his strength. He could only grab the golden skeleton with one hand and the Scroll of Voodoo with the other as he stumbled back towards the tower.
"Evil Bugs, you take Flame Demon's position!" Adept Fügen's voice rang out from afar.
It seemed that Adept Fügen was still closely monitoring the battles from behind, even as he was entangled with two radiant knights.
With this Second Grade radiant knight as his spoils of war, no adept would still object to his ‘desertion’ in the middle of combat. After all, putting themselves into Greem's shoes, how many among the First Grade adepts here could have the terrifying might needed to exterminate a radiant knight by themselves?
If it had been any other adept, they would probably be hounded by the radiant knights, not to mention unexpectedly turning the tables!
Even those combat adepts that took pride in their abilities couldn't help but sneak peeks at Greem, even as they were engaged in their own battles. The proud Adept Hyde was included amongst them.
Chapter 228
Exterminating a Second Grade radiant knight?
Some adepts might arrogantly think it possible if they hadn't had any contact with such an opponent. However, after several battles over the course of the invasion, and their multiple run-ins with the radiant knights, all of the First Grade adepts had long since given up on such impractical thoughts.
The Second Grade knights on this plane might be slightly weaker. However, when they slashed at enemies with their radiant runic longswords, even their most basic physical attacks were as powerful as 60 points of damage, when converted to the measurements used by adepts. Those ferocious knight battle techniques, on the other hand, could even reach a terrifying 120 points of damage.
This also meant that the adepts’ magical protection and elementium barriers were not enough to shield them from the knights’ attacks if they got close. The most common strategy the knights employed against casters was to raise their energy shields above their heads and charge through the bombardment of spells. Then they would reach the casters' sides to chop them, and all would be well.
Simple, violent, direct!
In fact, so simple that it even seemed laughable.
But it was precisely with such a strategy that the knights were able to forcefully exterminate all the naturally-awakened casters on this plane. Until they met this bunch of evil adepts from the World of Adepts…
Greem retreated from the battlefield, dragging the golden knight skeleton with him. Meanwhile, Acteon led his swarm of carcass beetles and took over his position. The two inevitably passed by each other.
Acteon's face was obscured by the shadow of his hood. Only his disgusting and protruding lotus-shaped mouth part could be seen. At the instant they passed by each other, he turned and looked at Greem. He spoke with his unique screeching voice, "You are very powerful!"
Then his gaze mildly swept past the Scroll of Voodoo in Greem's left hand, before rushing onto the battlefield with his bugs.
The disgusting feeling Greem felt in his heart finally started to dissipate after Acteon's slimy and sticky gaze left his body. When Acteon said the words, "You are very powerful!", his bloody and maniacal gaze, his ear-piercing screeching voice, along with the hidden implications behind his words, deeply unsettled Greem.
If it wasn't for the Fire Lord silently waiting behind him and one single powerful spell he had specially reserved to defend himself still stored within the Scroll of Voodoo, Greem might have even suspected that Acteon was thinking of attacking him!
Even though Greem was extremely weakened now, he still reserved some strength for a counter-attack. If anyone was unable to suppress their greed, he would be sure to use his most vicious attacks to shatter their foolish thoughts.
Adepts were like large and greedy lone wolves. In usual circumstances, they could band together to devour the enemy. However, if anyone within their pack showed any weakness or lethargy, they didn't mind getting rid of these weaklings!
This cruel competition might make it difficult for the adepts to cooperate wholeheartedly, but it also succeeded in repeatedly creating cruel, savage, terrifying, and powerful individuals that could face any situation by themselves.
In a complex and dynamic battlefield, so called 'teamwork' wouldn't be of very much help. In fact, it was the well-rounded adepts that had a better chance of survival. One couldn't fault the non-combat adepts for treating planar wars as a massive threat to their lives.
In a chaotic battlefield, you wouldn’t have a body refining adept to help you deflect the hordes of enemies, nor an elementium adept to erect an elementium barrier for you. You certainly wouldn’t have an adept that would bring you along as they retreated… you would always be fighting alone when you were placed in a battle.
Here you solved all the difficulties you faced by yourself!
If you ever fell into a dangerous situation because of your own weakness, you couldn’t count on any 'companions' to valiantly come and save you. The best they could probably do is throw a fireball in your direction and drag a few enemies down with you.
In the battle happening currently, for example, even though the three body-refining adepts, Greem, and Hyde had set up a crude perimeter, there were still numerous small fries that made their way through. Those adepts being ‘protected’ at the perimeter had to deal with the pesky fellows in front of them while exterminating the knights in the distance.
The auxiliary adepts that lacked self-defense abilities and had to rely on their 'companions' protection were the quickest to die in such a situation. Perhaps this was why most Esoteric Adepts chose to put some effort into elementium spells as well!
The battles at the perimeter were bloody and brutal, but so were the fights within the perimeter.
Before Greem could get his exhausted body back through the crowd of adepts, a small squad of witcher-knights charged at him while yelling a pointless battlecry. "Exterminate the evil!" Of course, they quickly fell under the Fire Lord's violent fire spells.
The fact that Greem had an adept-level golem as a bodyguard made him pretty untouchable!
That said, Greem had to take a surprising five minutes before he could cross a
hundred meter distance. Over three dozen witcher-knights had fallen behind him.
When Greem finally made it to the adepts' base after much difficulty, every single adept couldn't help but greet him, even as they were still engaged in their respective battles. The adepts were generous with paying respects to a companion who could kill a Second Grade radiant knight all by himself.
Having greeted the adepts and notified Adept Keoghan, Greem slowly withdrew behind the gates of the tower. He found a safe spot within it and started a basic treatment of his body’s wounds.
He took out a Tree of Life leaf and put it in his mouth, then retrieved several bottles of ointments and started to spread them on his severely burnt hands. Greem also swallowed a bottle of potion that stimulated his Spirit to facilitate a rapid recovery. It was only after he had done all this that he sat down, grit his teeth, and endured the intense pain from all over his body.
Right now, deep in his eyes, the chip had sent out a report on the condition of his body. It was in a terrible state.
Name: Greem
Race: Human (Half-Elementiumized)
Gender: Male
Class: First Grade Elementium Adept
Attributes: Strength 1.5 (0.4) | Agility 0.9 (0.6) | Physique 1.4 (0.5) | Spirit 1.3 (0.1)
Condition: Spirit exhausted. Severe injuries in the process of recovery...
The numbers in the self-report were the current actual attributes of his body. It was only when comparing the two sets of numbers that he could truly feel the damage to his body.
Greem sat cross-legged on the ground, silently waiting for his body to recover. Meanwhile, the tall and mighty Fire Lord guarded the tower gates while helping the potions master Ferrier in his extermination of the witcher-knights that made it too close to the tower.
It seems that the clan placed quite a lot of importance on Ferrier's talent for potions. Otherwise, they wouldn't have assigned him to a rear position.
With the aid of the Fire Lord, Adept Ferrier could finally catch a breath after having struggled until now with his unrefined combat skills. He turned and looked at Greem, who was putting on an expression of intense agony, before tossing a small green vial to him. Ferrier shouted, "Spread it on your wounds; it can ease the burns from your source power’s flames!"
Greem caught the vial and held it before him.
Green liquid sloshed within the transparent vial. He opened the cork, and a unique aura belonging to life energy wafted out.
Greem lowered his head and looked at his hands. He couldn't help but smile bitterly as he shook his head.
His white and slender hands were black as char now. Moreover, fine cracks had covered the entire surface of his skin. If he exerted even a little force his burnt skin would start cracking, revealing the black finger bones beneath.
The Leaf of Life he kept in his mouth was slowly but surely healing the burns on his hands. However, the burns this time came from the violent fire-elemental laws radiating from the Blazing Light. His hands would not be able to recover before he managed to remove the strands of planar laws within his wounds.
The newly grown flesh would instantly be deprived of their moisture by the heat from the fire-elemental laws, causing his hands to remain charred and burnt. Even though he was the source of these fire elementium laws, the backlash from them due, to his amateur handling of the powers, was still extremely terrifying.
If he didn't find a way to absorb or neutralize these strands of planar laws, his hands would never be able to recover. This meant that he would not be able to weave hand signs and cast spells with his hands in the short term!
Greem poured a drop of the potion onto his left hand to test its effects. Crisp crackling sounds rang out at the very moment the fragrant green liquid made contact with his withered flesh. Pieces of charred skin started to crack. Small wisps of flame rose from under the flesh and were gradually extinguished as they were engulfed by the green liquid.
That patch of skin gradually started to heal, becoming smooth and radiant once again.
Greem nodded at Ferrier with a smile on his face. He confidently spread the green liquid all over the charred portions of his hands. As the crackling continued, strands of fire-elemental laws continued to be extracted and slowly dispersed in the air. At the same time, Greem's hands were slowly recovering, becoming white and slender once again.
On the other hand, the intense pain and itching from the process of the skin breaking and flesh growing had been suppressed by Greem using his powerful Spirit. Only Greem himself fully understood the experience he was going through now!
In the meantime, a chilly gust of wind had blown into the tower. Adept Fügen, wrapped in a layer of snow and ice, appeared inside and quickly found a corner in the hall to treat his wounds.
"This is yours now!" Adept Fügen casually tossed a massive ice crystal towards Greem. One could vaguely see the radiant knight encased within. "Use this to get on the good side of that little vampire lover of yours. Who knows, maybe you will make your way into her bed immediately! Kehkehkeh… "
Even Greem was speechless when this strict and cool high-grade adept started teasing him. That said, the perfectly preserved body of a knight was far more valuable than that worthless pile of charcoal and bones he had.
Thus, Greem quickly kept the frozen knight! Greed was still glowing green in his eyes as he did so.
He knew very well that this meant that the leaders of the Sarubo clan had acknowledged his efforts. This was probably their gift to him for fighting with all his strength!
Chapter 229
The adepts’ defensive circle was shrinking.
Now all of the adepts had been pushed back against the tower gates. They erected a sturdy elementium barrier there, barely defending against the dragon breaths from the green dragons.
In this period of time, another adept had fallen under the blade of a radiant knight.
Tacna. An illusionist that was said to have learned some wind spells as well. Sadly, his talent for illusions couldn't be utilized to their fullest when facing numerous enemies, and his simple wind spells were unable to help him escape the pursuit of his enemies.
As such, he was bogged down by a group of reckless witcher-knights on the chaotic battlefield before finally falling under the sword of Radiant Knight Windsor.
At the last moments of the battle, Mary, Phantom, and Demon Shadows brought large numbers of 'reinforcements' back with them. This allowed the adepts' defensive line to endure for another thirty minutes.
Even disregarding everyone else, just Bloody Mary alone had brought five spellbreaker knight vampires back with her.
In their human forms, the knights had powerful defense and devastating melee attacks. Moreover, the moment they were in any sort of danger, they could instantly morph into bats and scatter in any direction. The addition of this fresh blood undoubtedly gave the adepts an opportunity to take a breath.
The adepts retreated right up to the gates, using them as the last line of defense. The three body-refining adepts formed a solid defense along with the vampire knights. They were the meat shields for the rest of the adepts.
All of the witcher-knights that dared to attack the gate first had to endure wave after wave of spells before they even had the opportunity to engage in melee combat with the body refining adepts. It was at this time that Greem was able to observe the body refining adepts combat style at a close distance.
Body Refining Adepts often appeared to be muscular men with tough bodies and intimidating size. They rarely wore the light robes of adepts, instead choosing leather or metal armor as their defensive wear. Even their choice of weapons resembled mercenaries and warriors rather than spellcasters.
As adepts that relied on their Physique and Strength to crush enemies, the most powerful weapon they had were their bodies. Even if they knew some spells, the main purpose of those spells were to enable them to close distances and engage in melee combat.
Their height of two meters might not be advant
ageous when chasing after the horse-riding witcher-knights, but if the two ever clashed and charged into one another, the witcher-knights would most definitely be the ones that ended up wounded.
All sorts of magical lights flashed on the bodies of the body refining adepts. They stood intimidatingly before the gates, knocking any witcher-knights that came into their sights off their horses, before tearing them apart with their hands. No obvious injuries had been left on their bodies, despite the gallant and reckless attacks of the witcher-knights.
It was almost as if their flesh had been forged from steel. Metallic reverberations would emanate from their bodies when swords clashed against their flesh.
The only ones that were able to wound them were the spellbreaker knights.
If it was a fair duel, the elite spellbreaker knights might have had powerful bodies that could rival the body refining adepts. However, under the numerous enhancements multiple magic halos, the attributes of the body refining adepts increased exponentially. This made them far superior to spellbreaker knights.
What was the effect of Strength and Physique being magnified and increased exponentially?
Greem's scanning vision had a very clear view. Every punch thrown out by these body refining adepts could deal an astounding 40 to 50 points of damage. Their full-strength attacks could even reach a tremendous 100 points of damage.
This… this was almost as powerful as Greem's best fire spell!
Vicious physical attacks were coupled with their impenetrable physical defenses. These were probably the iron tools that body refining adepts relied upon to wrestle victory away from stronger opponents!
While these body refining adepts had mastered some spells, they were not used in order to attack the enemy. These spells served an auxiliary role, allowing them to fully unleash their physical strength.
Moreover, these body refining adepts were not barbarians that could only use their muscles. All of the armor and weapons they wore on their bodies were magic tools that had been carefully chosen. Some of them could boost the speed at which wounds healed, while others allowed them to cast spells like wings of wind or haste, compensating for their lack of mobility spells.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 151