Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Carlos and McThran had also reappeared in another spot.

  Adept Carlos seemed to be fairly unfazed. Other than some slight burn marks at the edge of his purple robe there was no indication of injury. On the other hand, the black smoke surrounding Adept McThran had thinned by a lot, revealing a scrawny but tall silhouette.

  Moreover, one could vaguely see clusters of small fires burning stubbornly at the edge of the smoke.

  The two scheming adepts had worked together and launched a sneak attack in the time Greem was launching his own attack. Greem would probably have suffered several crippling losses if he hadn't escaped then and there!

  Greem called upon his fire powers and tried to extinguish the strange smoke lingering on his waist. That said, the black smoke wasn't any trivial spell either. It was extremely hard to put it out.

  With no other choice left to him, Greem dug into his wound with his sharp magma claws, brutally cutting off the entire piece of his magma flesh and throwing it to the ground. He then bent down and scooped a huge handful of lava from the lava pool beneath him to seal his injury.

  In the meantime, that repulsive Carlos had already resumed his disgusting act, revolving around Greem and tossing his curse halos about. McThran, on the other hand, had turned into a cloud of black smoke and let out a sinister laugh. He dashed about the air, avoiding the Magma Fireballs that Greem had thrown at him.

  Every time he saw some lack of agility on Greem's part he would take advantage of it. The black smoke would dive into the Ring of Fire, enduring the burning effect of the elementium fires while leaving strange wounds on Greem's massive body.

  Greem would lose all sense of the parts of his body that had were corroded by the black smoke, rendering the wounded spots weak to Carlos' evil curses.

  Just fifteen minutes after they started, Greem already found himself being suppressed by their well-coordinated attacks.

  Greem silently shook his head and let out sighs in his heart.

  A higher-order plane was a higher-order plane after all. The strength of the creatures within were not something lower-order planes could match.

  Half a month earlier he was still causing a slaughter in the knights' plane, butchering First Grade spellbreaker knights as if they were chickens and dogs. Now, back in the World of Adepts, he was having trouble dealing with two First Grade adepts simultaneously.

  Fire spells may be the most suited elementium spells to slaughter, but they had plenty of flaws and insufficiencies when it came to the skirmishes and battles between adepts.

  What use were powerful fire spells if they couldn't connect with enemies? How effective could the terrifying Ring of Fire be if it couldn't engulf the enemies within itself? If Greem didn't continue to think of ways to enhance his abilities against the equally mobile and flexible adepts, he would lose any advantage that he might have had.

  Greem roared in rage. It was finally time to use all his powers.

  He tossed out an elementium crystal core, and all of a sudden the adept-level Fire Lord stood beside him. The massive Fire Deity had also emerged from the blazing flames on the other side.

  The pseudo-adept level Fire Deity was hardly a qualified subordinate at this point. However, it could still make a little impact with its self-destruction!

  At that same time Greem extended his right hand, and a flame whip made of concentrated flame energy instantly formed in his hand. With the whip, Greem could make it much harder for McThran to break through Greem's defenses. The Scroll of Voodoo had also appeared silently in Greem's burning left hand. Its pages had already started flipping incessantly.

  None of the adepts involved in this fight were idiots. The strange form of the Scroll of Voodoo had already caused Carlos and McThran to knot their brows in frustration.

  Soul Equipment!

  This was most definitely a Soul Equipment!

  Unfortunately, they couldn't tell what effect the Scroll of Voodoo had. After all, all Soul Equipment had their own unique ability. It was hard to determine their effects just through their appearance. If they slipped up and gave the fire adept brat a chance, this soul equipment could probably turn the tides in a single blow!

  The two adepts proceeded with this in mind. Naturally, they slowed down their actions and became much more conservative with their attacks and defense.

  Greem wouldn’t let them wear him down just like that. As a fire adept, and an elementium adept that was particularly good at creating his own home field advantage, he was going to snatch the upper hand back. Thus, as the three terrifying flame demons roared and attacked with impunity, the battlefield quickly converted into a massive pool of roiling lava.

  The foothold left for the two enemy adepts was quickly shrinking!

  …………

  The few Sarubo Clan elite apprentices were standing by the castle walls, gazing in awe at the battle of the adepts.

  If one were to describe the battle between the apprentices as explosive, the battle that was happening now was a volcano! It was as if a gigantic, live volcano had just been plunged into the battle. The raging fires and violent spells ravaged the land, severely altering the geography around Locker Castle.

  Even though the castle was five hundred meters away from the battlefield, everyone could still feel the oppressive heat and wind pressure pressing against their faces. The thundering sounds of explosions continued without end. Any single spell that an adept shot out was enough to cause the onlookers' hearts to clench tight in terror.

  If any of the adepts got too engrossed in their fight, they might very well accidentally wipe the castle away along with them.

  They weren’t sure if that terrifying Adept Greem was the most powerful adept present. However, they were certain that he was the absolute scariest!

  The large patches of lava pooled on the ground, the layers of black and red flame clouds in the skies, and the blazing air inbetween.

  This domineering Adept Greem had forcefully turned this place into his home field, all by himself. He had demonstrated to the entire world and to these future adepts, in the most raw and most insane way possible, the terror of a powerful adept!

  He also perfectly displayed the tremendous destruction that an adept was capable of. Anyone looking on would feel fear creep into their hearts!

  Near the end of the battle, the entire battlefield had turned a bright red. Even the two pseudo-adepts couldn't see through the elementium tides and peek at the progress of the battle.

  …………

  Greem's full prowess was only unleashed once the entire battlefield had turned into a sea of flames.

  With his elusive Fire Teleportation, and his agile speed within the sea of flames, he was no longer plagued by his limited agility.

  The vicious fire spells also gave him incomparable damage at long distances. Even a Magma Fireball fired off half-heartedly could deal astounding amounts of damage. Moreover, the Flame Fiend Transformation had caused his Physique to go up several times. The seven points of Physique he now had were nearing the levels of body-refining adepts.

  This meant that he had both terrifying long-range attacks as well as powerful melee strength!

  Greem, who had always been on the receiving end in this battle, seemed to finally have a chance to turn the tables with the home field advantage finally set.

  Chapter 256

  Dong!

  An intense explosion erupted.

  Greem's massive flame body appeared within the sea of flames. The tremendously wide Ring of Fire instantly shot out from his body. For the first time, Greem was able to catch Carlos within the burning zone before he could escape.

  Carlos' gray defensive barrier was turning a bright red under the heat of the elementium flames.

  The very next second, two ferocious Magma Fireballs exploded right next to him!

  However, all of a sudden, a strange smoke of pure gray suddenly appeared. It formed the shape of a skull and dove into Greem's body, causing his vision to go completely black. He ha
d been temporarily blinded.

  Carlos took full advantage of this window of opportunity and scrambled out of the Magma Fireball’s explosive radius. One could still see the burn marks left all over his body as he frantically scurried away. He made a smart choice! Almost at the very instant Carlos had left, a gigantic magma hand rose from the lava pool below, smashing at where Carlos was with all its strength.

  Dong!

  The entire ground trembled.

  A terrifying black and red handprint half a meter deep was imprinted in the dirt. The roiling lava quickly filled the crater.

  Then the mighty Fire Lord burst forth from the ground. It bent its body slightly and let out a silent roar in the direction that Carlos had disappeared.

  Greem, who had just finished launching his attacks at Carlos, had also received McThran's blows at the same time. The two passed by each other, lashing at each other with all they had. Greem's savage whip had dispersed nearly half of the black smoke shrouding McThran, while McThran had also successfully left behind a cloud of black smoke the size of a grindstone on Greem's back.

  In the meantime, Greem had made countless attempts to bombard the enemy with the six instant-cast spells within the Scroll of Voodoo. However he could never quite catch McThran's figure.

  The layer of smoke enveloping McThran wasn't just corrosive, it also had the unique ability to shield McThran from any sensory detection. Consequently, Greem had never managed to lock on to the adept despite having battled him for so long.

  This was also part of the reason for the awkward situation that Greem was dealing with.

  Even though Greem was trying his best to corner Carlos with the cooperation of the Fire Lord, the latter's strange curses would always interrupt him at a key moment and prevent him from landing any crucial hits. Moreover, McThran would continuously harass and wound him as he chased Carlos about.

  His elementiumized body of flames might not have any fatal weak points, as compared to a human body, but it still played an important role as the carrier of Greem's spirit consciousness. If the carrier fell apart, Greem's spirit consciousness would lose all protection he had. Greem would be then be rendered helpless to every whim and fancy of the enemy!

  Greem immediately changed his battle plan, perhaps because he too realized the danger he was in.

  The next second, his tall body crashed into the sea of flames and instantly vanished from sight.

  This time, he had actually vanished. There were none of the telltale signs of a Fire Teleportation.

  Moreover, he didn't show up after vanishing. It was almost as if his entire existence had melded into the sea of fire.

  And thus, the Fire Lord was left alone in the battlefield, trudging about with heavy footsteps as it desperately pursued the sly Carlos. The Fire Deity, on the other hand, had already fulfilled its mission and died!

  As expected of a veteran dark adept; Carlos was both extremely proficient with his element and possessed exceptional battle awareness. Every time he repositioned himself, he would shower the large area beneath him with dark elementium halos. These scattered dark elementium weren't meant to damage his opponent. Rather, they were used to put out those terrifying elementium fires.

  However, even as Carlos did his best to put out the sea of elementium flames, the Fire Lord continued to spread the gift of fire as he chased after Carlos. With one in hot pursuit of the other, the entire battlefield was quickly stirred into a mess.

  As all of this was happening, Greem's spirit consciousness went undetected, flowing within the sea of flames.

  Every time he reached the center of a fire, the blazing elementium flames would form a strange face of fire. The face had no body. Its eyes blinked as it looked about, quickly dissipating if Greem didn't find any enemies.

  Then, the very next moment, Greem would form another face at another spot in the field of fire, scouting for any signs of enemies.

  But while he was searching for McThran, the reverse was true for his opponent as well!

  A cloud of strange black smoke weaved between the gaps in the burning fires as it communicated with Carlos, who wasn't very far away. The two had never cut off their mental connection.

  "This brat is very well-hidden! He's completely elementiumized his body and can hide anywhere in the flames! It's way too hard to find him with such an inefficient way of searching!" Finally, McThran couldn't help but throw out his suggestion. "You try and attack his elementium golem to draw him out. We will try and surround him once more!"

  "Hmph… " Carlos laughed sinisterly, "Why shouldn't you be the one to bait him? That brat hasn't even used the soul equipment in his hands. If you want to test its might you are welcome to do so. I'm not dumb enough to be a target for that!"

  "If that's the case, then we will both act together and crush that elementium golem first! Without a subordinate like that, his home field advantage will gradually shrink, and things will get easier and easier!"

  "Very well! Wait for my signal, and we will act on my count!"

  Carlos was rapidly moving through the blazing inferno. Again and again, he showered the ground with dark elementium halos made of gray mist, instantly extinguishing all fire elementium in a hundred meter radius around himself. Behind him, the clumsy and slow Fire Lord was striding over. The ground trembled with every step it took. It raised its arms and tried to reform the sea of flames as it shot out several Explosive Fireballs at Carlos.

  Yet at this very instant Carlos, who had always been running away, turned around. He dodged the fireball speeding towards him, while gathering massive amounts of dark elementium in his hand to form a terrifying spear. The spear shot forward, piercing the Fire Lord's Lava Shield, and embedded itself deep in the Fire Lord's chest.

  At the same time McThran suddenly appeared behind the Fire Lord. His hands, both shrouded in black smoke, plunged deep into the Fire Lord's blazing magma body. Large black patches quickly spread across its body.

  The Fire Lord might have adept-level abilities, but it wasn't an actual intelligent lifeform!

  Its resistance wound up the two veteran adepts, but there was no escaping its deathly fate at the hands of their combined attacks.

  Greem sensed the warnings sent from the Fire Lord. His massive body quickly started reforming at the closest spot to the battle. Unfortunately, the sly Carlos had already exterminated all fire elementium in a hundred meter radius around him beforehand. As a result, Greem was still a good hundred and twenty meters away from the Fire Lord, even after emerging from the flames.

  Black spots and gray shadows quickly spread throughout the Fire Lord's gigantic body. Inevitably, they started to creep onto its most important part– the golem core.

  Greem grit his teeth when he felt the core at its limit. He gave his last order to the Fire Lord. Self-destruct!

  Having accompanied Greem for six months, and having crushed one obstacle after another, the Fire Lord could be considered the most powerful golem Greem had. Yet today, Greem could only choose to give it up in this border skirmish between two adept clans.

  Greem's resolution had also exceeded the two adepts' expectations and better judgement. The unique existence of golems had also turned the elementium core into a miniature elementium bomb! Especially when it was the self-destruction of an adept-level golem. The terrifying might was enough to frighten even two veteran adepts.

  Carlos had been wandering at a distance from the Fire Lord. He was able to retreat the moment he sensed the Fire Lord's abnormality. However, McThran wasn't so lucky. He was battling with the Fire Lord at melee distance. It was too late for him to escape when he finally sensed the boiling and chaotic elementium tide within the Fire Lord.

  Boom! A massive explosion shook the ground and the heavens.

  A towering mushroom cloud slowly rose to the skies.

  Violent gales blew in every direction, bringing with them the incinerating flames of the explosion. In just a single instant it had collapsed half of the outer castle walls five hundred me
ters away. Horrifying heat and flame streams blasted out, reducing all life without elementium protection to ashes before blowing even the ashes to the winds.

  Buildings near the castle had crumbled and fallen apart. Even the heavily guarded side of the castle facing the battlefield had also been charred soot-black under the heat of the terrifying flames. The buildings that were even closer to the walls had softened and collapsed as if they were made of mud or molten cheese.

  If even the castle, shielded by a castle wall, had been reduced to such a state, what would one expect of the exposed armies of Lord Tras?

  Terrifying fires ravaged across their ranks. The poorly equipped vassal troops were instantly burnt to ashes, leaving weird human-shaped scorch marks on the ground. The ninety warriors of steel, that had fortunately escaped from the last attack with their lives, were also engulfed by the tide of fire before they could escape this time.

  Their numbers were instantly cut in half!

  After the fire passed by, the scattered and remaining troops weren't even enough to form a battalion.

  Even Keoghan and Cochran, who were still engaged with each other, had to stop their fight as they looked on in shock. All of their attention was now on that terrifying field of fire.

  Wasn't this just a border skirmish between adept clans!? How… how did such a big commotion come about? Were they having a battle of life and death?

  Meanwhile, at the core of the explosion.

  The Fire Lord's massive and magnificent body had already vanished.

  Only a fifty meter wide and ten meter deep crater was left on the spot. Boiling lava roiled within the crater. Monstrous heat and flame streams, upwards of four thousand degrees, had completely shattered the space above the crater. Colorful dark red auroras floated about, painting a beautifully tragic image.

  However, any clear-headed adept would never be tricked by the beauty before them. Neither would they ever come close to those phantasmally pretty lights. Because… those were the elementium mirages projected by the space outside the plane after the space within the plane had been shattered.