Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The winged lions were no different from the ordinary lions commonly seen in forests. The only difference was how much more powerful and muscular they were.

  In particular, the two winged lions flying in the front, one male and one female, were as muscular and massive as a rhinoceros. A pair of wings made of shiny silver feathers extended from their ribs. The pair of strange twisted horns growing from their heads was also an extremely obvious trait.

  The three First Grade winged lion cubs behind them were several sizes smaller than their parents. That said, their ferocious and savage appearance still betrayed their status as the kings of the forest.

  The floating battleship had already removed the magic cloak on the outer layer. A semi-translucent barrier enveloped the ship, protecting it as it made its escape.

  A brilliant silver light radiated from the bodies of the winged lions. They beat their wings and dove towards the battleship, making an elegant and perfect curve in the air. As the position they were attacking was the other side of the ship, Greem didn't start attacking them. Rather, he turned around to look at how the adept opposite him dealt with the lions.

  Greem didn't know which area of Zhentarim this adept came from, but he could see that the adept was wearing green leather armor, black pants, and a machete at his waist. He was even holding a massive bow as large as himself in one hand. Right now, the gigantic bow had already been pulled into a crescent moon. Black light glowed around it. Greem could vaguely see the shape of an arrow gathering within.

  This adept was clearly an experienced veteran as well. He didn't fire his magical arrow early. Rather, he was patiently waiting for the best timing to strike. An adolescent winged lion had reached the barrier. The twisted horns on its head rammed into the barrier. Blinding white light surged forth from the tips of the horns and clashed against the runes on the barrier.

  The barrier started to weaken and thin out. Just a moment more and the horns would pierce through the barrier. The adept finally struck.

  Ci. A sharp whistle in the air…

  A black magical arrow shot out of the barrier, quick as lightning, and embedded itself into the winged lion’s protective barrier. The magical arrow exploded before the winged lion could even react. A large cloud of black mist enveloped the front half of its body. Sizzling sounds could be heard as the mist corroded away at the defensive force field.

  The winged lion, caught by surprise, had been blasted away. It somersaulted in the air several times before finally expanding its wings and stabilizing itself.

  The front half of its body had been stained a black color by the spell shot at it earlier. The adolescent lion let out a raging roar as a blinding white light quickly engulfed its body, expelling all the outside energies that had found their way into its body. A short moment later, the white light faded away and the winged lion was completely recovered. Even its wings, that had been corroded to a black color, had become white once again.

  Light-attribute recovery spells!

  Greem licked his lips. Envy was showing in his eyes.

  The winged lion beat its wings and circled around the outside of the ship. Its ferocious gaze was trained on the adept that had slightly wounded it earlier. The lion let out a few angry roars and continued to fly around the battleship. It was calmly looking for the weak spots in the defensive light barrier.

  Greem couldn't help but feel a strong desire burn in his heart as he looked upon these winged lions flying through the skies. He desperately wanted to leap out and catch one to serve as his own familiar. Flight, combat, and recovery? These magnificent steeds were the most suited to be the mounts of adepts!

  Those odd horns on their heads, in particular, seemed to be extremely powerful. They could gather light particles and use them to attack the enemies. Or they could use the light elementium to heal and regenerate their own bodies. The effect of their magic was no less effective than that of adepts that specialized in healing magic. If he owned a winged lion like that, wouldn't it just be like always having a healer by his side? If he ever sustained combat injuries, he would no longer need to pinch his nose and swallow those strange potions with unknown contents!

  Greem clearly wasn't the only one with such thoughts. Almost all of the adepts looked at these magnificent flying beasts with burning desire in their hearts. However, everyone knew very well what they were made of. They wouldn't make such unwise moves such as trying to capture a Second Grade winged lion.

  The adepts had the advantageous position while they were within the battleship. Every time the winged lions wanted to dive and attack the barrier, they would fire their spells in unison and force the enemy to disengage. No one was dumb enough to charge out into the sky and start a battle of life and death with this group of winged lions!

  Meanwhile, Greem was also doing his best. A winged lion cub flew past the side of the ship he was on. The chip provided Greem with the speed and flight course of both the cub and the ship, and he was able to throw out a Magma Fireball in advance. Once the winged lion cub reached the position of the fireball, Greem immediately detonated it.

  A resonating boom!

  The cub was completely engulfed by the explosive flames and boiling lava.

  When it finally made its way out of the explosion with a tragic howl, much of its body had already been charred black. Sharp magma fragments had pierced through the defensive force field around its body and had found their way into its flesh. Blood spilled from the sky.

  The winged lion cub's cry had also attracted the attention of the other winged lions.

  Several beams of white light shot towards the cub, and its terrible wounds vanished in an instant. It had regained its earlier magnificence.

  However, having been wounded once, the cub no longer dared to close in on the battleship so recklessly. It unfurled its wings and distanced itself from the ship. Then it started to shoot out white light from its horns, using it to assault the defensive barrier from a distance.

  This white light was extremely pure light energy. It was difficult to intercept these attacks with magic. The light elementium that clashed against the defensive barrier would also explode and cause light bursts every so often, causing all of the adepts who were looking to be blinded by light.

  The duration of the blinding effect wasn't very long. It only lasted three to five seconds.

  However, it wasn't hard to imagine the disaster that might have occurred if there wasn't a layer of defensive barrier between the adepts and the winged lions!

  As Greem battled, he gathered data on the winged lions with the help of the chip. The feedback from the chip proved a terrifying fact. If he engaged in a fair duel with one of those First Grade lion cubs, he would have no more than a thirty percent chance of victory.

  Of course, this percentage was calculated without the inclusion of his golems and his Flame Fiend Transformation. This was also the meager chance of victory that most adepts had!

  Greem could truly feel the strength and terror of the magical creatures that resided within the black forest.

  Without the battleship's cloak, the protection of the barrier, or the aid of numerous magical tools and items, the human adepts were no more than fodder when pitted against these wild beasts!

  No wonder the three adept organizations on the Continent could last this long!

  If the human adepts hadn’t gathered together and united their strengths, they would probably have been overwhelmed and replaced by a tide of powerful magical creatures. Their rule over the World of Adepts would have come to an end.

  Chapter 275

  The battle with the winged lions was more like a game!

  It was no matter of life and death.

  The floating battleship continued to maintain a thick defensive barrier as it slowly flew away from the winged lions' hunting area.

  The adolescent winged lions also seemed to be uninterested in damaging the ship. Rather, they were training the cubs to fly and hunt. Even though they would occasionally tackle the bar
rier with all their might, they spent most of their time circling above the ship, roaring and trying to intimidate the adepts.

  Both parties fought as they flew, and finally, when the floating battleship crossed a raging river, the winged lions stopped their pursuit. They hovered in the air and roared threateningly at the ship before returning home.

  It seemed that this ten meter wide stream was the border between them and another group of magical creatures. A blood war would probably erupt between the two if the winged lion crossed the border!

  The battleship gradually started to accelerate after leaving the winged lions behind it. It continued to cruise along its planned path within the forest.

  According to the Silver Union adepts' briefing, the next area they were passing through was the first danger zone along the flight path– the den of the harpies.

  In truth, Greem was so shocked by the news that his eyes almost fell out. The weak harpies were the first dungeon boss they were facing?

  How was this possible?

  Greem's impression of the harpies was that they were extremely weak. These creatures with the heads of female humans and the bodies of vultures should be extremely low-level magical creatures. A single magical fireball would be able to kill an entire group of them. How were they more dangerous than winged lions and Hill Giants? How did they form a danger zone on their own?!

  A lot of the adepts were clearly as confused as Greem.

  Thus, the Silver Union adept gave them a basic explanation on the characteristics of harpies.

  Indeed, most of the harpy tribes that the adepts met in the wild were extremely useless and weak. So feeble and frail that they were no threat at all. The reason was because the size of the harpy tribes were often way too small.

  Harpy tribes with only around a hundred members weren't even worth an adept's time. Ordinary mercenaries and adventurers only needed sufficient preparation, and they too would be able to exterminate an entire tribe.

  This was because there were no low-level harpies with magical power within these tribes. The only thing they could do in a fight was drop some boulders from overhead and dive at enemies with wooden spears in their claws.

  That said, the harpy tribes had a very prominent characteristic.

  The moment the number of their tribe members swelled above five hundred harpies, a harpy witch with magical powers would be born in the tribe. They would shed most of the feathers on their bodies. Other than their wings and the claws of their feet, they were basically no different from human females.

  Moreover, if there were over a thousand tribe members, a terrifying head witch would be born among the harpy witches. This was a powerful caster that was no weaker from human adepts. They even had the agility of assassins to go along with their tremendous magical powers.

  The harpy tribe they were about to come into contact with was a massive tribe of over ten thousand harpies. Thus, there were over a thousand harpy witches born within the tribe.

  A thousand agile spellcasting harpy witches. This was a fearsome opponent no matter where it was on the Continent of Adepts. Even powerful magical creatures like the winged lions wouldn't recklessly offend this swarm of harpies. They would drown in their numbers within moments.

  Thus, the obstacle before them was no mere harpy tribe. It was a fearsome harpy kingdom! Not only did they have an extremely intelligent leader, they also had proper distribution and composition of classes spread across all the harpies.

  This meant that they had commanding officers, spellcasters, and so many warriors they could blot out the sun. It was a risky venture every time the floating battleship passed through here.

  However even if this place was a danger zone, it was still possible to pass through if everyone worked together. This was much better than trying to break through the surrounding death zones!

  Right now, the battleship was already fifty thousand kilometers deep into the black forest. If they strayed from the flight path at this point, it was very likely that they would stumble into the territory of Third Grade magical creatures. Their chances of escaping the attack of a Third Grade magical creature were almost non-existent with how weak they were.

  There had already been three such cases of battleships being destroyed by Third Grade magical creatures over the past hundred years. All of the passengers involved died. Even though the Silver Union sent out top-grade adepts to exterminate and exact vengeance on the responsible magical creatures, the dead would never come back to life.

  Thus, even if they knew the might of the harpy kingdom, they had no choice. The Silver Union could only choose to fly across the border areas of the harpy kingdom if they wanted to avoid the more terrifying Third Grade creatures.

  …………

  Three days later.

  The first brutal battle since Greem boarded the ship broke out because of a coincidental meeting!

  They had, very unfortunately, walked into a hunting party sent out by the harpies.

  It was a small party of no more than thirty harpies, and most of them were just ordinary harpies. They were two mutated harpies amongst their ranks. One of them was a harpy assassin, while the other was a low-grade harpy witch.

  These stubborn fellows were complete idiots. Even though they were much weaker when compared to the adepts, they still insisted on blocking the way of the ship. Almost all of them were killed in a single wave of spells. Sadly the two mutated harpies were able to escape.

  The very next day, the floating battleship was surrounded as it flew over a chasm. The harpy army had hurried over the moment they received word about the ship!

  The floating battleship cruised forward with great difficulty.

  The harpies were circling and flying around the egg-shaped barrier. Their piercing shouts were so loud they could even shatter the eardrums of anyone listening to them.

  Most of the harpies didn't have any control over magic elementium. They beat their gray wings and charged at the defensive barrier with wooden spears in their claws. These crude attacks might work against ordinary beasts, but they were completely useless when used to attack a defensive barrier.

  As such, a thousand harpies attacking in unison achieved absolutely nothing. Other than causing some ripples across the barrier, they only thing they achieved was exhausting a little of the ship's reserve energy. They had absolutely no chance of cracking the defensive arrays!

  However, there were some unique individuals that had undergone mutation among their ranks.

  Harpies were usually creatures with gray feathers and ugly appearances. They looked more like birds than humans. However the mutated individuals had already shed the feathers on their bodies. Only a few patches of blue feathers remained on their joints.

  Their exposed skin was white and smooth. Their figures were slim and curvaceous, with exceptionally delicate and perfect facial features. However, their eyes were as red as blood, their fingers crooked and sharp, and a pair of horrendous claws grew beneath their thighs where their feet was supposed to be.

  Honestly, if one were to ignore those ugly wings and claws, these harpy witches could be said to be extremely beautiful humanoid creatures!

  According to Greem's understanding, some mixed-blood harpy witches had joined the adept organizations on the East Coast. Those were the mixed-blood descendants born of human adepts and harpy witches.

  Of course, this also proved that some human adepts had really unusual tastes!

  The adepts attacked with all their strength to drive the harpies away. They couldn't be allowed to deal more damage to the defensive arrays protecting the battleship. Spells of every color and effect exploded like fireworks around the ship. One after another, the harpies were engulfed by powerful elementium vortices.

  A snowstorm enveloped most of they sky, the chill quickly applying a layer of light blue frost over every single harpy caught in it. Countless harpies tried their best to beat their gray wings, but they could only feel their wings becoming heavier and heavier.

&n
bsp; Eventually the harpies started to fall from the sky, screaming as they did so.

  They quickly regained their ability to fly after they left the area covered by the snowstorm. Still, the appearance of the storm had disrupted the pace and rhythm of their attack, sowing chaos into the ranks of the harpies.

  A wind adept standing not far from Greem released a wind spell with a large area-of-effect. The peaceful skies were suddenly filled with danger and terror. Invisible tornadoes of wind hid in the air. Any harpies that accidentally stumbled into this area would be sliced to pieces by the swirling winds. Pungent mists of blood would erupt in the air.

  Greem, on the other hand, didn't summon his golems or use his Flame Fiend Transformation. Instead he took out his Fire Lord’s Scepter and behaved as any other fire adept would, slowly firing off one fire spell after another.

  He ceaselessly chanted and cast spells. His loud and firm chanting of profound and difficult spells rang out, and a red pillar of fire was conjured in mid air. Powerful ripples of fire spread out from the pillar. All of the harpies engulfed by the ripples would be burnt to death. Even those that survived had their wings charred and ruined, and were sent falling a thousand meters towards the ground.

  The ordinary adepts had no ability to fly after their feathers had been completely reduced to ashes.

  As Greem continued to channel several powerful fire spells, he looked about at the chaos going on around him. Periodically, fire would burn in his eyes and a powerful Scalding Ray would shoot out towards the harpies.

  It was way too much of a waste to use Solar Rays against these unarmored and unprotected harpies. The inferior Scalding Ray was more than enough to get the job done!

  The Scalding Ray shot out continuously, piercing through the bodies of the harpies and sentencing them to a painful death as they fell from the air. Black patterns would spread all over their body as they fell.

  The poison from the Scroll of Voodoo would quickly take their lives even if the Scalding Ray hadn't managed to kill them.