Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Tigule was pretty powerful, but he lacked the means to limit and restrain the adepts.

  The crimson-armored female adept with bat wings seemed to be weak, but her movement speed was so fast that Tigule paled at the sight of her dashing around; Tigule would have had no chance of killing her. Even if he raised his speed to its limits, he would only trail behind her dust.

  The evil adept that manipulated the insects, on the other hand, was sly and very alert. He would explode into a mass of scorpions whenever Tigule tried to get close to him, escaping in every direction. Tigule might have been able to kill some of the bugs with his flamethrower, but that didn't seem to have any effect on the bug adept.

  Before long, the escaping scorpions would gather in another spot to form the likeness of the adept. The adept would then command his swarm to devour another magical machine.

  The leader of the evil adepts, that enemy shrouded in flames, was an extremely difficult opponent.

  The Fire Teleportation that occurred at three-second intervals allowed him to appear anywhere on the battlefield at any time.

  He seemed to have given up on directly killing the members of the magical machine squad. Instead, he turned to using his rapid repositioning and immensely powerful fire attacks to break the energy shields around the machines. The magical machines that had lost their barriers were then thrown to the other two adepts with the use of his giant flame hand. The fire adept solely concentrated on cracking the hardened shell of the nut.

  The members of the magical machine squad continuously decreased under the adepts' excellent teamwork.

  Tigule's eyes were opened so wide their corners were nearly splitting apart. There was nothing else he could do but rage as he frantically chased after the adepts.

  The means of combat available to the Metal Goblin that Tigule piloted was plentiful. It had goblin rockets and missiles for ultra-long range fights, boomshooters for long range, flamethrowers for midrange, and iron fists for melees. Such strength would have made him qualified to fight even a Second Grade magical creature.

  But using these tricks to deal with several evil adepts that had made their way across planes to get here?

  Their techniques were still too singular and straightforward. The goblins still had far too limited means with which to threaten the adepts.

  Just as Greem and his party were brutally slaughtering the magical machine squad, the floating vessel in the sky slowly approached the battlefield.

  Numerous goblins were furiously watching the 'live stream' of evil adepts murdering their companions through several large crystal lenses in the combat preparation hall.

  The atmosphere in the hall erupted as they watched the magical machines piloted by their companions being taken down by the adepts before the machines were pierced through and the goblin mechanics themselves killed!

  Several hundred goblins shouted furiously, begging their commander to allow them to engage in combat. These goblins were all elite goblin mechanics that the Goblin Empire had trained.

  "Wait, wait, wait. What are we still waiting for?" A goblin mechanic that had died his hair blonde jumped onto a table. He roared angrily, "Our companions are being slaughtered down there. We have several hundred of magical machines here. We might not be able to take them in a one-on-one fight, but all of us together could take them down just by sheer virtue of numbers. That being the case, what are we still waiting for?"

  "Yea… why won't you give us the order to engage?"

  "We request to engage in combat."

  Sharp voices shouted and yelled in the combat preparation hall. Their suppressed emotions from earlier flared up once more.

  "These are the orders of Prince Lord Gazlowe!" Ship Captain Toltoy fixed his uniform and coldly spat out.

  It was almost as if a cold gale had blown past the hearts of the goblins. The riotous hall fell into a deathly silence once more. All the goblin mechanics sat down quietly, no longer daring to make a commotion.

  At the moment, the name of Gazlowe was like a totem of the Goblin Empire. It was a symbol; a symbol that represented the future of all goblins, and the hope of the Goblin Empire rising to even greater heights. That was why the goblins had no choice but to sit down and await their orders in humiliation when they heard this name, even if they still didn't comprehend the actions of their superiors.

  …………

  Inside a room at the heart of the flying ship.

  Old Prince Gazlowe was observing the battle below with a fervent passion.

  Gazlowe showed no signs of sympathy or sorrow despite the magical machines serving him being ravaged and bullied by the adepts. Instead, he displayed excitement and insanity as he watched the various fire spells, the destructive female adept, and the strange bug-manipulating adept.

  He had cast aside his ugly white trenchcoat since becoming a prince. However, the goblin multipurpose detection glasses he wore on his right eye hadn't been taken off.

  At the moment, he was watching the combat styles of the adepts with immense interest, while using various instruments to measure the energy levels of the adept's attacks.

  The old goblin would gasp again and again when the shocking values were projected onto his monocle.

  In particular, when his monocle locked onto the fire adept, he found that every single spell that the opponent cast would always be at the limits of the instrument's measurement capabilities. The values that rolled across his monocle were a bloody crimson.

  "Toltoy, prepare the goblin artillery. I want to see how what heights of power these adepts can reach!" The old goblin picked up a golden horn and yelled into it.

  "Understood, Lord Prince!"

  As the order was given, the metal plates at the bow of the flying ship split apart. A black cannon barrel one meter in diameter emerged. As the ship trembled, immense amounts of magical energy transferred from the engine room into the goblin artillery. A terrifying and blinding black light lit up in the barrel of the cannon.

  The old goblin controlled the cannon from his room and slowly aimed the crosshairs at the fire adept. The old goblin could very clearly see the fire adept lift his head through the large lenses in his room. The adept's deep red and blazing eyes clashed with his own eyes over the one-kilometer distance.

  "Taste my goblin artillery, intruder!" The old goblin let out an orgasmic cry and furiously smashed the crystal button on his table.

  Weng! A muffled boom.

  The massive floating vessel rocked as a blinding black pillar of light shot towards Greem at the speed of lightning.

  Greem had detected the abnormality in the sky a long time ago.

  The powerful magical energy that gathered above him was like a rising black sun. It was hard even to ignore its existence.

  Greem pushed away all his enemies with a Flame Halo of Repulsion before straightening his body and lifting his head to see what it was the enemy intended to do.

  It was a cluster of pure magical energy that still retained the violent and chaotic nature of magic from the space beyond the plane. It was probably the spatial energy extracted from a space furnace.

  Judging from this, the flying ship above them must have a steadily functioning space furnace at its core.

  The goblins had no affinity for elementium control. As such, it would be hard for them to convert the spatial energy into unusual spells of various forms. Consequently, they could only gather all this spatial energy and use it in this extremely crude fashion of firing it.

  However, spatial energy possessed destructive and chaotic traits. It caused tremendous amounts of damage to the stable elementium energy inside the adepts. The goblins' means of attack might seem simple and crude, but the might it possessed was by no means small.

  Greem looked on as the black sun lit up in the barrel of the cannon. He watched as the ship shook intensely. He even watched as the black pillar of light shot towards him, targeting his chest.

  The black light wasn't all that fast, but the spatial energy was clearl
y damaging the elementium balance of the plane. The space of the plane started to tremble and ripple wherever the black light went. The crackling sound of the chain explosion of elementium energy rang out in the air.

  The black pillar of light that initially had a diameter of no more than one meter had expanded into a massive column with a twenty-meter radius when it was halfway to its target. By the time it reached in front of Greem, the radius of the pillar of light had reached as far as a hundred meters. The power of the attack per unit area within the pillar of light reached upwards of a thousand points.

  Not temperature, but a thousand points in terms of energy damage!

  Greem's heart trembled, and he teleported to the maximum possible distance with a single Fire Teleportation. Mary, who was at the edge of the pillar of black light, extended her wings and escaped at a speed that the naked eye couldn't catch.

  That put Bug Adept Billis in a tight spot, with his lack of mobility spells.

  His body fell apart, and he turned into a swarm of bugs that burrowed into the ground. The one dozen sting scorpions frantically gathered on him and formed a multi-layer bug shield above him.

  However, a spatial energy attack of over a thousand points was not that easy to take on.

  The next second, Billis paid a terrible price for his arrogance!

  Chapter 505 Fighting While Retreating

  Greem had experienced a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind since the fight started.

  He had kept feeling as if the Goblin Plane didn't live up to its name. The strength they were displaying was far too weak.

  As a small-sized plane, the power systems of the Goblin Plane were several times weaker than the Knight's Plane. There had at least still been a Fourth Grade Dragon Knight in the Knight's Plane. Yet, Second Grade magical machines like Tigule's were already considered top-tier combatants in the Goblin Plane.

  Greem didn't really understand the situation. He had intended to observe a little longer to obtain an explanation. And at that moment, when he saw that black pillar shoot towards him, Greem instantly understood the core strength of the Goblin Plane.

  Dammit! The opponent had invested most of their efforts into the path of 'magical energy'!

  Greem possessed the ability to exit the battlefield quickly. Naturally, he had the leisure to think about all these complexities. However, Bug Adept Billis, who had remained in the black pillar of light's area of effect, instantly became the most tragic victim of the battlefield.

  Two other magical machines had remained in the radius of the black light, much like Billis. They had rapidly started melting the instant they came into contact with the black light. The machines collapsed like melted candles before being entirely vaporized.

  Billis was still tunneling downwards. Sadly, the speed at which he tunneled clearly couldn't compare to the speed of the black light.

  The scorched earth that had remained after the fight was melted away by the black light. It had managed to expose Billis, who was now five meters deep underground. The fifteen sting scorpions formed into a black shield layered over Billis' head, but they had barely managed to shield him from the direct blast of the black beam.

  However, the terrifying elementium chain reaction still unavoidably affected him!

  The spatial energy destroyed the delicate elementium balance within Billis' body, turning the orderly elementium into chaotic and ferocious energy. The energy shield that Billis had erected immediately ignited and exploded like a barrel of oil lit by a spark.

  The adepts might pride themselves as evil beings that tended towards chaos, but at their core, they were still beings of order that originated from a plane. Chaotic and unbridled spatial energy was no different from poison to them. Only overwhelming strength of the soul could prevent spatial energy from interfering and destroying the elementium energy within an adept's body.

  However, Inner Light was something that only Fifth Grade adepts were capable of.

  Perhaps this was the main reason the World of Adepts had set Fifth Grade to be the prerequisite for stepping out beyond the plane!

  Billis could not possibly use the Inner Light that only Fifth Grade Great Adepts had access to. He could only try to maintain his energy shield to the best of his abilities, while desperately attempting to tunnel himself out of the area of the black light.

  Tragically, just half a meter away from the edge of the black light, one sting scorpion above his head exploded. It could no longer endure the corrosion of the spatial energy. A thin ray of the light shone upon Billis' body.

  The very next second, Billis' immortal body of bugs boiled and fell apart.

  The tens of thousands of dispersed scorpions fought with each other to escape from the radius of the black light, but they were all entangled by the scattered spatial energy at the very same instant, causing them to explode into a splattered mess of flesh and blood.

  It wasn't over yet.

  Before all the blood could even land on the ground, it was vaporized by the ferocious energy and vanished without a trace.

  After Bug Adept Billis had suffered his tragic death, the fourteen sting scorpions that had formed the shield immediately scattered and started to run for their lives. They paid an unbelievable toll of five lives to make it across that short distance of half a meter.

  The remaining nine sting scorpions quickly gathered in an area a hundred meters away after escaping from the black pillar of light. The ground there split apart as the earth turned. A new swarm of bugs emerged from underground and reformed into Bug Adept Billis's likeness.

  Compared to earlier, the body that Billis had gathered this time possessed a much weaker energy aura.

  It seemed that the accidental death from earlier had severely damaged Billis' soul origin.

  The black pillar of light persisted for another sixteen seconds before gradually dissipating.

  It had utterly ravaged the location. The geography had been destroyed, leaving only a shocking scene behind.

  The black pillar of light might have vanished, but it left behind a terrifying crater. The crater had a radius of nearly a hundred meters and was a dozen meters deep with walls as smooth as marble.

  For a moment, both parties involved in the battle–the goblins and the three adepts–were wholly mesmerized by the frightening power of the black light. They stared at the crater with fear in their eyes, unsure of how to continue.

  The Metal Goblin that Tigule piloted kneeled by the crater, its massive metal hands digging deep into the earth. The sorrow and pain in his heart overwhelmed him.

  A mere half an hour of combat, yet all one dozen of his close companions had died, just like that. Moreover, even their corpses hadn't remained after death. Their bodies had vanished with the descent of the black light.

  Yet, the one that wiped out every last trace of their existence was actually the goblin cannon fired by their own people!

  Such an impact almost caused Tigule's spirit to collapse. He could no longer muster the courage to battle.

  Greem lifted his head and once again cast his eyes upon that floating ship. Even though he was like a rabbit in front of an elephant when compared to the ship, he remained fearless and unfazed. In fact, it almost seemed like he was eager to go up and investigate for himself.

  Before he could realize that thought, over a hundred small black dots emerged from the floating ship. They quickly dived towards the battlefield.

  Greem's ultra-long ranged sight allowed him to see the true nature of the black dots perfectly.

  Combat magical machines!

  Over a hundred magical machines!

  Moreover, judging from their external designs, they were all bird-type machines that could fly.

  Greem's heart trembled and finally dispelled the idea he previously had.

  This was not their world. It was the world of the goblins!

  As an intruding Second Grade adept, Greem still needed to maintain caution and respect for the enemy when facing a native army composed
of elites.

  That was why Greem was the first to run, without any hesitation.

  The three adepts demonstrated all sorts of tricks as they frantically escaped into the woods. The black dots in the sky were like a swarm of bloodthirsty wasps. They buzzed as they pursued the adepts.

  The massive flying ship also rapidly turned around and trailed after the robots, but slowly disappeared into the horizon as it trailed behind.

  No one could care for the heartbroken Tigule right now. He opened his cockpit with grief painted across his face. He leaped onto the ground and stumbled across the battlefield in search of the corpses of his companions.

  Regardless of how thoroughly he scoured every inch of land in a two and a half kilometer circumference, he could only find the broken machines of two of his companions. Tigule personally dragged his companion's deformed corpses from the machines and buried them with tears streaking down his face.

  The other companion's corpse had already exploded into bloody paste and chunks of flesh. Tigule didn't mind the filth. He gathered every drop of blood, every strand of flesh, and every piece of meat, before stuffing it all into his mouth, crying out loud as he swallowed everything in a single gulp.

  For some reason, Tigule's green eyes turned blood red after doing all this. A dense aura of bloodthirst radiated from his body.

  He unhesitatingly charged into his cockpit and closed it. The three-meter tall Metal Goblin raised its arms and let out a heart-rending roar. It then strode into the forest.

  …………

  The pursuit in the forest was still ongoing.

  Billis and Mary had already shaken off the enemy completely.

  Mary's speed was too much, even if the magical machines in the skies had two additional wings. Bug Adept Billis, on the other hand, was extremely proficient at stealth and hiding. He only needed to burrow into the ground, and the goblins would be incapable of finding him with their crude technology.

  That was why they had all vanished from sight a long time ago. Only Greem alone remained.

  Greem didn't mind this situation at all.

  Billis and Mary were only First Grade. Recovering their magic in this shitty low-magic plane was an arduous task. They needed to go into hiding after a fight to recover.