Feathers and blood filled the air around the battleship.
The harpies were being slaughtered by the adepts!
Chapter 276
Three slim and beautiful silhouettes were gathered together deep in the back ranks of the harpy army as the adepts recklessly exterminated the attacking harpies. It seemed they were in the middle of some sort of discussion.
"It is almost time!" A head witch with a pair of snow white feet and a red feather robe draped over her shoulders instructed, “Lana, make sure you act quickly later. Catch as many as you can once Natalia breaks through the barrier with her innate ability. You must leave the moment you receive the signal. Otherwise it would be a troublesome affair trying to save you after the barrier closes. Do you understand?"
"Understood!"
"Understood!"
The two witches standing beside her bowed respectfully.
Ordinary harpy witches were similar to the apprentice adepts in human society. They had some elementium casting ability, but their Spirit was still insufficient for their spirit origin to be elevated to the next level. Only harpy witches that had reached First Grade could change their appearances.
An ordinary harpy witch would shed their feathers when they advanced to First Grade. When they advanced to Second Grade, their trademark claws would also morph into human feet. If they were fortunate enough to advance once more and turn into Third Grade harpy witches, their physical bodies would be no different from a human adept. The only difference would be in their bloodline.
All three of the harpy witches had beautiful feet rather than the claws so commonly associated with harpies. This meant that each of them were harpy witches over Second Grade, and had already completed their second evolution.
An army of a hundred First Grade witches gathered around the three Second Grade harpy witches, silently guarding them.
Any male would probably fall into a daze if he was standing among their ranks. Every single one of the witches here had pretty faces, alluring figures, and ample bosoms. Strangely enough, not a single male could be seen among their ranks!
The head witch finally gave the order and the army of witches moved out after hiding for so long.
Piercing screeches rang out in the sky. One after another, the agile and elegant harpy witches flew out from the ranks of the ordinary harpies. They quickly circled around the battleship, hurling wind blades and lightning balls at the defensive barrier.
The addition of this army of spellcasters instantly caused the resilient defensive barrier to tremble intensely. More and more of the mysterious runes appeared on the surface of the barrier.
The types of magic the harpy witches could cast was extremely limited. It was usually limited to just wind and lightning magic. The strength of their attacks was also pathetic, ranging between thirty to fifty points of damage. However, regardless of how weak they were, there was no stopping the strength of their numbers. There were a hundred of them after all. The wind blades and lightning balls continued to crash against the defensive barrier, placing tremendous stress on the magic arrays.
"Stop attacking the ordinary harpies. Shoot those damned spellcasters out of the sky! Hurry, hurry, hurry… " The Silver Union in charge of coordinating the adepts was in a panic. He shouted all over the ship as he took out a Fireball Wand from his waist, instantly shooting five fireballs towards those harpy witches.
The other adepts instantly adjusted the direction of their attacks, focusing their fire towards the spellcasters.
…………
Inside the cabin.
Alice was lying beside the window of the tiny room with nothing to do. She rested her head on her tiny hands, looking on as the colorful battle erupted outside.
One after another, the ugly and savage harpies tackled the barrier. They used their spears, their beaks, their claws, and anything they had to tear at the semi-translucent defensive barrier. At one point, the disgusting faces of the harpies had even come within ten meters of Alice. There was an impenetrable barrier and a window between the two.
Moreover she was already a pseudo-adept, and a cute pseudo-adept who had mastered spatial magic at that! Still, there was no place for her on the battlefield like this.
At the start of the battle all of the servants, followers, and apprentices had been ordered to stay within the cabin. As such, she could only look on coldly as the harpies were brutally slaughtered. Reduced to cinders, electrocuted, having all the water in their bodies extracted by dark magic…
There were all kinds of magic, and the harpies could attest to this. After all, they were the ones dying in a variety of odd and peculiar ways!
Alice’s eyes suddenly lit up when those harpy witches appeared. She pressed her face against the window, looking enviously at the plentiful bosoms of the witches bouncing about as they flew quickly around the ship. She looked down at her seven year old body and her flat and smooth chest. Her expression instantly soured!
Dammit! Even a bunch of humanoid monsters are larger than me! Bastards! You lot aren't even humans, what's the point of having such large breasts? Curses upon you hags…
However, just as Alice was indulging in her own stupid thoughts, a light ripple in the air caught her attention.
Spatial flux? Hm? Why would there be spatial flux here?
Alice closed her eyes and tried to sense the spatial flux. The spatial ripples hadn't occurred within the defensive barrier. Rather, they were coming from the outside. Didn't this mean… the one manipulating space wasn't an adept on the ship, but a harpy witch?!
Even though Alice was still angry at Greem, she was fully aware of how reliant she was on him right now. Thus Alice quickly contacted her so called 'master' using their mental link.
…………
Spatial flux?
Greem fell deep into thought the moment he received Alice's message. He was doubtful.
Spatial Magic wasn't so easily mastered!
Time and Spatial Magic were heralded as the hardest to learn within all the branches of magic. Usually an adept wouldn't even be able to learn these magics if they didn't have the necessary affinity.
The Fire Teleportation that Greem himself had mastered might look like Spatial Magic, but its true nature was just a clever use of fire magic. It was completely different from Spatial Magic.
Harpies, on the other hand, had even more mediocre talents when compared to adepts. Most of them only had wind affinity or lightning affinity. Wasn't the chance of one of them awakening a spatial affinity way too low?
Even though it was a reminder coming from Alice, Greem wasn't too convinced. However, considering the power of spatial magic, Greem decided to play it safe. He quickly and subtly cast a small spell on himself.
Apart from this, he didn't share Alice's warning with the Silver Union adept. After all, this was information he himself wasn't too sure about. If it proved to be wrong, he would end up as a joke amongst the other adepts.
However, a massive disturbance occurred at the back of the ship as Greem was still hesitating!
The sudden appearance of the harpy witches had drawn the attention of all the adepts. Powerful and mighty spells blasted towards their dancing figures, leaving colorful fireworks in the air as they exploded.
Yet, as their gazes were drawn to the witches, the Second Grade Harpy Witch Natalia had taken the opportunity to sneak over to the other side of the barrier.
A black vortex appeared in her hands and she pressed it against the impenetrable barrier. A large hole suddenly opened in the barrier, which was supposedly able to defend against all elementium damage. The runic energies of the barrier were absorbed by the strange black vortex, causing a massive opening in the defense system.
The Second Grade Silver Union adept who was silently guarding the magic arrays at the core of the ship raised his head up in shock. He could sense a breach in the defensive barrier.
What was happening? Had the defensive barrier been destroyed? No, everything was still functioning!<
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A strange flux suddenly appeared on the deck of the floating battleship as the adept was still recovering from the shock. The space had been shattered and a rift had opened in mid air. Two strange harpy witches walked out of the rift and appeared before the human adepts.
Some adepts were still caught up in slaughtering the harpies on the outside. The two harpy witches with perfect figures and light blue wings moved before the adepts had even noticed the trouble behind them.
A sharp and piercing scream filled the entire ship. All of the adepts affected by the strange soundwave felt their vision blur. They were no longer able to control their bodies or draw upon their magical powers.
The two Second Grade harpy witches used their agility to dive towards the adepts, quickly capturing several adepts and throwing them into the spatial rift before coming back for more. They had already caught five human adepts in a matter of seconds.
All the adepts on the ship started to panic as this occurred. They threw their most powerful spells at the enemy that had mysteriously appeared on board, while desperately avoiding capture by the harpies.
However, any adept would be hard-pressed to escape the piercing screams and agile shapes of these Second Grade magical creatures. Greem was an unfortunate one as well. He was right within the hunting range of the two harpy witches!
A creaking sound started to ring out in the air. The spatial rift that had been forcibly torn open was slowly closing under the powerful regenerative ability of space itself. The rift trembled slightly. It was obvious that it couldn't last much longer.
A massive wave of runic energies surged forth around the hole in the defensive barrier, reducing the massive opening into a small hole the size of a fist. The defense system of the ship would once again be complete the moment this hole disappeared. At that point, the two harpy witches would no longer be able to escape using the spatial rift.
"You two hurry up… I can't keep it up for much longer!" Natalia shouted at the two harpy witches as she did her best to maintain the hole in the barrier.
The two harpy witches looked at each other and made a decision.
"We will capture one last round of adepts!"
The two silhouettes let out another piercing scream as each of them dashed towards a target of their own, quick as lightning.
And the target of the head witch was Greem!
Chapter 277
The harpy head witch was extremely fast!
There was no way Greem could possibly escape her grasp at the speed at which she was lunging at him.
Thus Greem stopped moving. His fire elementium started to boil and surge around his body. Just half a second more, and Greem would be able to turn into elementium and teleport from the spot.
Unfortunately a stunning scream found its way into his ears right as he was about to complete his spell.
Greem stumbled as he lost control over his body, which had just turned into flames. He had failed to escape in time.
The head witch's cool hand gripped his body before he could calm himself down and think of anything else. Violent lightning energies surged into Greem's body, instantly crippling him and taking away every ounce of strength he had left in his body.
The head witch grabbed his body and quickly dashed towards the crumbling space rift.
Greem barely managed to regather his scattered thoughts during this short buffer. He looked at the space rift right before his eyes and used what was left of his strength to wave his Fire Lord’s Scepter. He then activated the small spell he had prepared in advance.
Boom. A muffled explosion rang out.
The Fire Deity suddenly appeared on the deck.
Before it could even announce its arrival upon this realm with a massive roar, its flaming body was replaced by Greem's tall figure. The Fire Deity mysteriously appeared in the witch's hand and was brought along into the spatial rift.
Fire Deity Summon!
Puppet Substitution!
This wasn't a teleportation spell of the spatial magic series. Rather, it was a flame golem substitution that was completed using the mental signature left on the Fire Deity.
The head witch almost seemed to have realized the change at the moment she charged into the spatial rift. However, she could no longer stop the momentum of her body. She and the other harpy witch disappeared into the spatial rift, and the pitch-black vortex finally closed.
The hole on the defensive barrier had finally disappeared as well.
The floating battleship shook vigorously for a moment. Ferocious and violent runic energies surged out of the core of the ship, reinforcing the defensive abilities by a hundred, even a thousand fold, completely wiping out the spatial disturbances left behind by the harpies.
The harpies outside the boat seemed to have received an order. They quickly scattered in every direction, screeching as they did so. They beat their gray wings and flew every which way as they retreated from the battle.
For a moment, the entire sky was filled with gray silhouettes. The mutated harpy witches were mixed within the crowd, making it hard for the adepts to identify the culprits of the earlier attack!
Peace returned to the battleship a short moment's latter. The shrouded sun once again shone upon the adepts.
They looked at each other aimlessly, still stunned from the terrifying attack that had occurred earlier.
What happened just now?
Everything was going smoothly! They were doing their best to slaughter the reckless harpies, how did… how did a couple of harpy witches break inside of the barrier and kill… no, abduct six of them?!
Greem was in shock as well. Even the Flame Fiend's Heart that had been sealed in his chest started to beat rapidly, causing his blood itself to boil intensely. He had to expend a lot of his energy before he was able to suppress the fiery riot happening within his body. It was a long time before he calmed down.
When he turned his head to gaze at the distance, he could no longer see the harpies’ fleeing silhouettes on the horizon. The adepts looked around the deck. There were six less adepts on the ship, and some of them were acquaintances of other adepts that were taking this trip.
Greem was still confused about the harpies abducting the human adepts, but the chip quickly filled in the details with its large library of knowledge.
The harpies were an usual race. There were only females in their tribe, but never males. This meant that the harpy kingdom was a kingdom of females. There wasn't a single guy that lived with the harpies. Thus, they had to rely on other races if they wanted to mate and leave offsprings for the tribe!
The harpies were usually isolationist creatures. It was only when an individual harpy had reached mating season that they would go out to hunt for males of other races. They would then catch them and bring them back as mates. The harpies might seem absolutely weak and pathetic, but their genes were extremely strong and resilient. It didn't matter what sort of odd race they mated with, the offspring would always be a harpy of pure bloodline.
Of course, some adept scholars believed in another theory; a theory that the offspring of the harpies were of mixed descent. However they would abandon all the offspring with impure bloodlines, choosing to rear only those with pure bloodlines. This was how they managed to retain the purity of the tribe's bloodline!
According to ancient texts, the offspring of harpy witches and human adepts were more likely to have magical talent.
As such, there were many cases of human males being abducted as mating tools in areas close to harpy settlements. However cases like today, where they actually succeeded in abducting adepts, had never been heard of!
All the adepts on board couldn't help but cast their gazes at the coordinating Silver Union adept.
"Are we not pursuing them? Are we letting them take away our companions just like that? " An adept couldn't help but demand angrily.
"How do we chase them? Where do we chase them to?" The face of the Silver Union adept instantly soured, "These are the depths of the Blac
k Forest! Any change to the flight path could spell doom for this ship. Do you really think that we should invade the harpy kingdom for the sake of some unfortunate fools? There are over ten thousand harpies and over a thousand harpy witches there… "
The adepts fell silent!
Everyone was upset about the situation. Yet the moment that the thought of death crossed their minds, any dissatisfaction or ideas of saving their allies quickly vanished.
The Silver Union adept turned and eyed Greem. He nodded and said, "You are very lucky!"
He then announced loudly, "The Silver Union will be responsible for the compensation of the clans and organizations those adepts belonged to. However, all of you should already have prepared yourself for such an outcome the moment you stepped on this ship. We will try our best to fix the loopholes in our defensive barrier. We assure you that such a thing will not happen again! … "
The silver-robed adept continued to ramble on with an encouraging and motivating speech, but all of the adepts were still frowning deeply. They had lost all their confidence for the journey forward.
Just then, the Second Grade adept of the Silver Union emerged from under the deck. He took a long cold look at everyone.
"I know what you are afraid of! I can represent the Silver Union in giving you our word. The same thing will never happen again. To think that two mutated harpy witches had appeared amongst the ranks of the harpies, and that one of them was the rarely seen space caster. This was completely out of our expectations. I have already made the necessary modifications to the array. It is absolutely impossible for them to launch another attack like that one. So everyone can put aside your concerns, and we can continue on our way!"
Having said that, the Second Grade adept went back under the deck, returning to the core control room.
The adepts could only look at each other helplessly. There was nothing they could do but accept the reality before them. One by one they returned to their rooms to rest.
Greem smiled as he listened to Adept Angus' words of care and concern, before silently returning to his room.
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