Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The vampires and blood slaves below Viscount level (First Grade) were also burned to ashes before they could escape due to the exhaustion of their blood energy.

  There had been three or four hundred people laughing and talking in the banquet below. In the blink of an eye, only three or four people were left. These people had barely managed to escape from Rose Manor. The rest had all been turned to ashes in that terrifying sea of fire.

  The three-story building built of brick and wood also collapsed from the fire, leaving two tall figures standing at odds against each other in the blazing field of fire.

  Chapter 556 Battle Between the Powerful.

  [Beep. Wounds detected on surface of body. The wounded area has reached 43%. Recommend immediate treatment.]

  [Beep. Blood energy remnants detected in wounds. Energy neutralization required before treatment can proceed.]

  [Beep. Continuous blood loss from wounds has resulted in a blood loss of 1.72% and energy loss of 2.15%.]

  [Beep. Host's Ring of Fire has been activated. Domain of Heat has been activated. Burning Domain is forming.]

  [Beep. Host's energy strength is continuing to increase… abnormal distortions have formed in surrounding forcefield. Calculating distortion rate.]

  A series of notifications from the Chip flashed in Greem's mind. He quickly browsed through most of the statistics, not bothering to act on any of them. At the same time, he patiently waited for the Chip to complete its calculation on the degree of distortion in the forcefield around him.

  Any casual strike by Second Grade adepts like themselves could reach energy levels of two to three hundred points. That was a terrifying height that was forever unachievable for First Grade adepts.

  The elementium powers contained within the body were so overly vast that the combination of mental consciousness and magic power constantly distorted the forcefield space around the adept.

  In an environment like this, any sensory information obtained by the naked eye or the Spiritual senses would contain some slight deviation. The degree of this deviation depended on the power of these two adepts. If any adept relied too much on their vision and attacked or moved according to what they saw, they would be shocked to find their moves never hitting their target.

  Their target would never be where they thought them to be.

  And this was the result of spatial distortions in the forcefield!

  Under ordinary circumstances, such spatial distortions would not be too exaggerated and would not be able to affect combat between high-grade adepts. However, when two equally-matched adepts were engaged in such a battle, any tiny change or variable could be utilized by the opponent to turn the tables.

  Leicester had already used his agility to obtain the first strike before Greem could conjure his powers. This much damage was not severe for a Second Grade fire adept, but losing 1.72% of his blood and 2.15% of his energy right when the battle had just started was not a good sign.

  Greem hovered in midair, his entire form shrouded in elementium flames that had surged out from his body. The wild elementium fires roiled and wrapped around him. Greem's body turned red, white, and almost transparent. He had wholly transformed into a terrifying flame humanoid.

  The minor wound on the surface of his body quickly healed with the help of the fire energies. However, the blood he had lost would take a while to recover.

  Across from Greem, sizeable gray bat wings had extended from Leicester's back, and fearsome spikes grew at the ends of his wicked bone wings. Leicester hovered above the sea of flames with his wings. He extended a long red tongue, gently licking the boiling blood that remained between his fingers.

  Indeed, as Greem's fire energy erupted, the blood that had left his body would also become boiling hot. Licking it with the tongue felt like licking lava itself.

  Even though the drops of blood had already reached temperatures of over seven hundred degrees, Leicester still narrowed his eyes and licked the liquid. He even raised his head and let out a blissful yet tortured moan when he ingested the crimson blood.

  [Beep. Detecting abnormal loss of energy from host's body. Initial estimates of 1.16% energy loss rate.]

  The Chip's notification that had popped up in Greem's mind caused him to change color.

  The vampire before him could actually absorb the elementium energy within his body through the blood that had already left his body. It was unimaginable, but it wasn't all that surprising once he considered the great bloodline talents that the vampires possessed.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  Several explosions of fire erupted. A vast amount of fire energy gathered in front of Greem and formed into Fire Shields glowing with numerous fire runes. Solidified flames mixed with shrouds of fire and quickly started spinning around Greem's body.

  Two larger and more robust Lava Shields were also quickly forming in front of the Fire Shields. With magma as the base, fire as its adhesives, and paired with flashing fire runes, the two Lava Shields brimmed with lava and burned with flames. They had a sturdy and heavy quality that gave a sense of weight to anyone who looked upon them.

  The layers of defensive fire spells were completed, and Greem was well within their protection. It would no longer be easy for Leicester to get close as he had before.

  Even Leicester, for all his pride, felt his scalp buzz when he saw Greem putting up all those personal defenses of his. Any single one of Greem's shields were nothing if taken individually. Leicester's sharp fangs could tear them apart with a single swipe.

  However, there were so many of them. If these shields obstructed Leicester for even a moment, the fire adept would have the time to chant his spells and cast them. Leicester might be Second Grade, but he could not endure too many violent blows from a fire adept of the same grade, especially if he were slowed down by a shield.

  It was important to note that elementium adepts had always been known as glass cannons among the multitudes of different adepts. No adept of the same grade could endure their onslaught if they were allowed to unleash all of their strength without interruption.

  The elementium adepts had powerful attacks and weak defenses!

  Still, that weakness was relative.

  A fellow like Leicester, who had speed but lacked in offensive ability, would have trouble breaking through all of Greem's shields and getting to him. A body refining adept with high elementium resistance would probably fare much better.

  There was no need for reservations now that things had turned ugly.

  Still floating in midair, Greem turned into a frightening humanoid artillery. One by one, fire spells of terrifying strength and power ravaged towards Leicester like a violent storm. Leicester beat his big wings, using his agile figure to weave between the gaps in the wave of flames, occasionally closing in on Greem to rip apart one of his Fire Shields.

  Even though Greem had put in all his effort to locking onto Leicester, the vampire adept's high agility and flexible figure caused nine out of ten of Greem's spells to miss. Even the occasional spell that made contact with Leicester would have its damage minimized. The vampire adept used some special technique to avoid the core area of the explosions and was only affected by the energy at the edges of the spell.

  However, the flame backlash from the Fire Shields and the burning effect of the Ring of Fire made it impossible for Leicester to attack while remaining unharmed. Every second he spent near Greem meant another second of enduring burning damage.

  Still, the blood mist that protected his body could easily deal with fire damage of this intensity.

  If one were to think of Greem as a ferocious cannon, then Leicester would be a gray bat flying around the barrel of that cannon.

  He logically exploited the gaps between the enemy's attacks and used all he had to break the layers of Fire Shields that surrounded this enemy. Yet, at the same time, he needed to be extremely careful to avoid being burned by violent flames because he couldn't dodge in time.

  A Magma Fireball of two hundred a
nd twenty points of power might not be enough to wound him severely.

  However, it wouldn't be easy to escape the shower of fire that would descend upon him the moment the Magma Fireball stalled him.

  Leicester had initially intended to use his speed to trick Greem into going all out. He would then counterattack once Greem had exhausted most of his energy. As the two of them continued to fight in the skies above Rose Manor, and the manor slowly turned into a sea of fire, Leicester was shocked by his discovery. Greem's firepower was just as strong as when they started; there were no signs of him faltering.

  It was as if… as if Greem wasn't concerned about running out of energy!

  Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

  This was an adept that had completed both body and Spirit elementiumization!

  He must have formed a corresponding elementium core within his body.

  Ordinary battles of attrition were useless against such elementium adepts who carried a miniaturized energy pool with them. Unless Leicester could find a way to increase the intensity of the fight by another two levels, exhausting the opponent's elementium energy was naught but a joke.

  While Leicester was worried about Greem, Greem was also deep in thought.

  Leicester could not hit him through the layers of elementium shields he held. Similarly, his powerful fire spells had no way of keeping up with Leicester's rapid movements.

  Over the course of thirty minutes, Greem's fire spells had already thoroughly plowed the earth beneath them once. However, the amount of damage that he had applied to the vampire was minuscule. Trying to get the vampire to submit with just this much damage was fantasy.

  Even though Greem possessed over ninety-nine percent of the initiative in the all-out fight between the two Second Grade adepts, he didn't actually have much combat advantage. He needed to commit all of his efforts to tracking that vampire. Any moment of carelessness could cause him to be the victim of a relentless assault.

  Every time this happened would mean the loss of two or three of his FIre Shields!

  In comparison, the Lava Shields had better defensive powers, but their slow orbiting speed made them less agile than the Fire Shields. The two sluggish Lava Shields were incapable of stopping the vampire's sudden attacks if all the Fire Shields vanished.

  The two Second Grade adepts continued their stalemate in this manner. The powerful fire spells continued to wreak havoc on the ground below, severely changing the geography.

  The once beautiful, quiet Rose Manor had crumbled into ruins. All the buildings had collapsed in the sea of fire. All the plants and flowerbeds had been reduced to ashes by the flames, leaving only black marks in the earth.

  While the two adepts were fighting, a secret battle had also broken out beneath the manor!

  Chapter 557 Blood Prison Counterstrike

  As a separate asset of the Vik Family, the Rose Manor couldn't compare to Bloodcastle when it came to functionality and defenses.

  As the two Second Grade adepts recklessly ravaged the manor, all the buildings were utterly destroyed. While the buildings on the surface collapsed and vanished in the fire, the more secretive constructions beneath the manor were also unavoidably affected.

  Blood Prison!

  It was one of the most common facilities in a vampire family.

  The purpose of its existence was to imprison low-level vampires that had committed wrongdoings.

  As vampires themselves, they inevitably knew the flaws and strengths of vampires. As such, all the facilities in a blood prison were tailored for use against vampires. At the same time, they were also more bloody and cruel than an ordinary prison!

  The vampires relied on blood as a carrier of their power and required it for energy. Their abilities would be heavily discounted once they had lost more than half of their blood.

  That was why blood prisons were also terrifying torture rooms, apart from their ability to imprison vampires.

  The captured Mary was currently hanging on a large wooden barrel. Eight silver chains the thickness of a thumb had pierced through her shoulder blades, collarbone, ribs, wrists, and her ankles, keeping her firmly suspended in midair. As magical silver had indescribable destructiveness toward a vampire's body, the wounds created by the silver chains would not heal on their own.

  The thick and rough chains caused Mary's wounds to be exceptionally bloody and severe. Fresh blood continued to flow from the holes in her body, dripping into the big wooden bucket below her.

  The wooden bucket was large enough to fit three people of Mary's size. Yet, it seemed like it was almost filling up to the brim as the blood continued to drop.

  The ones in charge of watching over Mary in the blood prison were two Vampire Barons.

  As lower vampires, they were enjoying the experience of seeing a higher class Viscountess being tortured before their eyes. They weren't shy to express their joy with words and actions either.

  Still, Mary was a spoil of war that the Second Grade Count had personally put in the prison. As such, neither of them dared take so much as a sip from the blood in the bucket, even though it was almost about to spill. Mary had on her crimson armor, red boots, and her head full of long crimson hair. Even as the silver chains tortured her into a ghastly state, her impressive figure and breathtaking beauty still stunned any who looked upon her.

  She was an offshoot vampire that threatened the Count; she could not avoid the fate of extermination, regardless of how talented she might be. Leaving the blood prison alive was nigh impossible now that she had fallen into the hands of Lord Leicester.

  That was why these two pseudo-adept level vampire barons regularly walked about Mary, cursing and swearing at her with the most obscene of vulgarities, while boldly gazing upon her body with their lustful eyes.

  Their greatest pleasure was pulling upon those silver chains and causing them to tug on Mary's flesh, inflicting further damage upon her and hastening the flow of blood.

  Mary gritted her teeth and remained silent regardless of how they tortured her.

  She had even glared at them with her crimson eyes for the first two days. However, over the past few days, the blood in her body had almost entirely dried up. Her body had weakened to the point where it was hard even to open her eyes.

  Yet today, several large tremors had spread into the prison from the manor above.

  The entire Rose Manor seemed to have been thrown into a grinder. The trembling houses collapsed, and the earth itself split apart. The underground blood prison was necessarily affected by this.

  Several magical halos lit up on the augite walls filled with green moss and blood stains. These halos formed into a tight defensive forcefield and repelled the spells descending from above.

  If it weren't for the magical protections of the blood prison, the two vampire barons hiding within it would have already been turned to ash by Greem's Ring of Fire.

  The two vampires keeping guard over Mary didn't know what was happening. They hastily took out their communications wand to attempt to contact their companions on the outside. Unfortunately, they got no response after multiple tries with different individuals. Even Viscount Entia, who managed the entire Rose Manor, couldn't be reached.

  Of course, they didn't even dare consider the idea of opening the defenses of the blood prison to go out and look.

  If the mysterious force could so severely damage even an advanced magical facility like the blood prison, it wasn't hard to imagine what had happened to the buildings outside.

  For the sake of their own lives, it was best to hide in here until the coast was clear.

  While the two vampire barons panicked, Mary opened her crimson eyes. A murderous and sinister killing intent vaguely shone through her weak gaze.

  While most of the tremors from the commotion above had been absorbed and repelled by the blood prison, the energy that had managed to get through was not a small amount of force either. At the very least, it was sufficient to loosen the wall around the chains that suspended her in
the air.

  Mary was extremely weak now. Her strength was inferior to a five-year-old toddler. However, an intense feeling from the bottom of her heart drove her actions. It might be her only chance of escaping!

  The loosening of the silver chains allowed her body, which had been spread out, some degree of movement.

  Mary endured the intense pain from the silver chains chafing her flesh and dragged her left hand toward herself. She opened her mouth and used her sharp teeth to bite off half of her wrist. That allowed her to free her left hand from the silver chains.

  She then turned to bite her right hand. Once both hands had been freed, she only needed to rest for a while and her badly damaged hands, hanging by a thread of a skin and some tendons, would return to normal.

  The vampire's powerful regenerative powers were on full display now that the silver chains no longer bound her hands and she was no longer losing blood.

  Then, Mary used both her hands to break her shoulder blades, break her collarbone, and slowly extract the silver chains from within her body.

  This process was undoubtedly no less painful than the cruelest and most bloody of tortures in the world. Mary gritted her teeth and pulled through it without a single sound.

  Once she had pulled the last silver chain out of her body, Mary's disrupted and severed flow of blood energy immediately began to circulate once more. The energy flowed through her entire body; the comfortable and pleasing feeling caused her to moan slightly in bliss.

  The two vampire barons turned their heads upon hearing this sound, only to see a free female vampire that had broken free from the bounds of her silver chains.

  "Quick, get at her… she's just broken free. She hasn't recovered any of her strength yet; we still have a chance…" The more veteran of the two vampires couldn't help but exclaim.

  Two agile figures immediately lunged at Mary.

  Mary raised her pretty face and laughed sinisterly. Her whole body suddenly dropped as she plunged herself into the bucket of blood beneath.

  Ripples spread through the bucket as Mary instantly submerged herself beneath the blood.