Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Both of these attacks ignored defense!

  That meant the frost dragon's tough ice armor and fine dragon scales were like paper before Mary. They broke with a single attack.

  On the other hand, there was Oliven who held the title of Dragon Devourer. She was truly one of the dragon killers, infamous even throughout the multiverse. Her racial powers and close combat techniques were mostly targeted at creatures of the draconic bloodline. Her Strength, Speed, Agility, and explosiveness would increase several times when fighting with dragons.

  It allowed her to possess unparalleled lethality when facing off against a dragon of the same grade, even though she didn't have the advantage in size. Moreover, some unique racial powers of the dragons would have no effect on Oliven.

  Disregarding everything else, just the annoying dragon's aura of might that all dragonslayers had to deal with did not affect Oliven.

  All the individuals within the ice palace could feel an indescribable feeling of oppression when the frost dragon let out a furious and desolate roar. Those with weaker Spirits would give up on attacking and defending when within the radius of the aura of might, almost as if a Fear spell had hit them. They would toss away their weapons and run across the battlefield fearfully with their hands above their heads.

  Even an elementium adept like Greem that specialized in Spirit felt his brain faze for a second during the battle, despite already drinking the Potion of Spirit Protection. A single moment of interruption like this could cause a large spell that had been channeled for a long time to fail or cause initially smooth movements to stall for an instant.

  Such a phenomenon could not be seen upon Oliven.

  Oliven completely ignored the frost dragon's aura of might. Her petite body leaned against the dragon's, avoiding the wings and dodging the claws and bites. She was like a stubborn plaster stuck to the frost dragon's body, continually using the Slicer and Cruel Claws in her hands to attack the weak spots of the dragon's body.

  Dragon eyes, nose, throat, belly, the root of the wings, anus, back of the head…

  As long as it was a part of the body where the frost dragon could not defend, you could be sure that this fearsome dragon killer had already taken care of that spot. It left Aruntini with the helpless feeling of being unable to retaliate and an unforgettable pain!

  Frost Dragon Aruntini had just woken up from her sweet nap and was already beaten half to death by a dragon slaying squad of four before she could understand what was happening.

  The intense pain from her entire body. The resentment of being attacked by unknown enemies. The fearsome feeling of death that rose from the depths of her soul. All this caused the anger in Aruntini's heart to explode like a fireball.

  [Beep. Detecting high-intensity frost energy gathering within the target creature's body. Initial estimates suggest this to be a dragon's breath. Ice attribute. Energy level is estimated at three hundred to five hundred points. Host is advised to quickly retreat. Safe distance: two hundred meters.]

  The abrupt notification from the Chip caused Greem to jump up in shock.

  Between three hundred to five hundred points?

  Even he couldn't escape death if he were to be blasted directly by an attack of this intensity.

  "Retreat two hundred meters away. Zacha, you go forward."

  Greem gave out a series of orders while an expression of shock still hung upon his face. Mary and Oliven, who were having a great time attacking the frost dragon while sticking to the creature, paused for a moment upon hearing this.

  Mary would never doubt the accuracy of Greem's commands. She immediately retreated upon receiving her orders. Oliven hesitated for a short moment. She only needed three more slashes before the frost dragon's left wing was completely cut off at the root. Wouldn't her earlier efforts be for nothing if she retreated now?

  However, they were allies after all. Greem must have discovered something for him to give out such an order. Moreover, that female vampire had been so resolute in her retreat. It seemed they weren't lying to her to cheat her of her contributions.

  Oliven's black silhouette flashed after a momentary pause. She quickly escaped back after Mary.

  Just then, Frost Dragon Aruntini let out a reverberating dragon's roar. She opened her mouth wide, and a Freezing Breath that covered the entire space blasted out of her throat. It surged in every direction like a relentless tide.

  For a moment, the massive room was filled with white and swirling dragon's breath.

  The temperature of this Freezing Breath was exceptionally low. It had the terrifying power to freeze all things.

  Everything within the room was frozen in a thick block of ice as the white mist dispersed. Even the frost dragon herself and Zacha, who was surrounded by an Ice Barrier, was frozen within.

  Greem and Mary hadn't been caught in the ice due to their timely retreat. Oliven, on the other hand, had been a little late. The ice mist had caught up to her body. Fortunately, she drew upon her strength quickly and managed to break free of the ice mist and escape, especially with her on the edge of the breath radius already.

  However, Zacha, who had been ordered to intercept the frost dragon, could only be frozen five steps away from the frost dragon.

  Oliven cast a subtle look at the Second Grade Fire Adept Greem upon escaping the ice mist. She couldn't help but secretly wonder how he had managed to discover the actions of the frost dragon before the explosion of power. She had been closer to the frost dragon at the time. Yet, Greem had been able to discover the gathering of the frost dragon's ice energies before she had even realized anything.

  Could he have any precognition abilities?

  While Oliven was sorting out her doubts, Greem had already walked forward. He continuously used his fireballs to bombard the massive ice crystal before them.

  One could imagine that this was an ultimate skill that the frost dragon had only used to save her life and buy some time.

  Once the Freezing Breath surged out of her mouth, all the enemies within the room would be sealed in a thick block of crystalline ice along with herself. This way, she would be able to save her life in a moment of crisis, as well as buy some time and wait for her dragonborn servants to come as support her.

  Greem had already tried to place as high an estimation as possible to the effect of the Freezing Breath. However, he still realized that he had underestimated the Second Grade frost dragon by the time all the mist had dispersed and the ice crystal was perfectly exposed before him.

  The ice crystal was durable enough to match even diamond. While it had frozen both the frost dragon and Zacha, it didn't affect the frost dragon's movements and attacks within at all.

  While dragonborn Zacha was frozen to the spot, Aruntini was casually extending her body and using ice mists to perform essential treatment upon her most serious wounds. She then swam like a fish in water within the ice, as if the substance wasn't solid, and took steady steps toward dragonborn Zacha.

  Frost dragon Aruntini wanted to walk more elegantly and display her nobility, but the severely wounded left leg and right wing made her wince with every step. One could even see the broken bones within the massive wound on the right leg.

  It made the frost dragon skip and hop when she walked. Aruntini didn't dare set her foot upon the ground for fear of touching the wound.

  Frost Dragon Aruntini couldn't express any elegance or beauty when she walked in such a manner, regardless of how pretty her appearance was.

  The enraged Aruntini's eyes had already turned milky-white, and a fearsome tide of frost was gathering within. She slowly arrived in front of Zacha and opened her mouth filled with sharp teeth. She used her slowest possible speed to bite down upon the dragonborn's head.

  Aruntini was filled with hatred at this moment.

  She wanted to use the slowest possible speed to torture and kill this wicked enemy and use the death of this dragonborn to warn the enemies outside the ice crystal. She could only relieve the anger and fury inside he
r chest through such a method. She still had no idea where these enemies came from, why they broke into her room, or why they had hurt her elegant and noble body.

  Just as she was intentionally putting on a show of elegance, the two Potions of Melting that Zacha had drunk before the start of the battle finally took effect.

  Something finally changed about Dragonborn Zacha's formerly restrained body as the frost dragon's teeth closed in upon him.

  His thick fingers that held on to the two shields suddenly sprang to life. He could finally move.

  Chapter 606

  Dragonborn Zacha defrosted himself just in time.

  The two shields brought together successfully blocked the cruel fangs of the frost dragon.

  The price Zacha paid in exchange was only a mouthful of blood.

  A muffled boom…

  A massive dent instantly appeared in the Queyras shield enchanted with frost resistance. All the magical runes drawn upon the shield detonated in succession, causing it to lose all of its basic resistances.

  Frost Dragon Aruntini was caught unaware. She had used too much force and was now wincing and hissing in pain. A single massive dragon tooth flew out with traces of blood still attached to it.

  At this moment, the ferocious roars of dragon warriors reached the room through the winding tunnels from outside the palace.

  A trace of hope suddenly appeared in Aruntini's eyes!

  We can't let the frost dragon do as she wants to in the ice crystal.

  Greem made up his mind. He crushed two large rubies with a single hand and used the Blaze of Destruction to cast the large-scale fire spell Doomsday Volcano. The magical volcano's point of explosion was right beneath the frost dragon.

  Ice and fire were always in opposition to each other!

  The ice mist in the room dispersed rapidly as large clusters of lava and fire surged out of the magical volcano. The massive ice crystal also started melting and shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye.

  Seeing that her shell was about to be broken, the slightly recovered frost dragon once again launched a brutal attack at Dragonborn Zacha. Sadly, Dragonborn Zacha was remarkably resilient against attacks now that he had given up on any sort of offense. All the high-quality magical equipment he was wearing on his body turned him into a steel statue, especially when paired with the many elementium protections revolving around him.

  Frost Dragon Aruntini's consecutive lunges and strikes all ended in vain accompanied by dull and muffled thuds.

  Just then, a sweltering heat wave pressed against her face. The ice crystal had finally shattered!

  The conclusion of the dragon slaying was incredibly smooth.

  The four First Grade adepts of the Crimson Clan could not hold off the continuous charges of the ferocious dragonborn. They could only retreat as they fought, quickly arriving at the frost dragon's quarters.

  They formed a new defensive line here. The few Second Grade adepts that had successfully captured the frost dragon took this opportunity to slaughter their way out, dealing tremendous damage to the dragonborn that had swarmed into the room.

  At the same time, the one hundred and forty magical machines that had marched all the way from the metal fortress also charged up the single and snowy peak, successfully surrounding the enemy.

  Second Grade adepts stood in their way at the front while fearless metal machines assaulted their ranks from the back. The hundred dragonborn were caught in the middle, unsure of whether to advance or retreat. Soon, all of them had fallen within the snowy ice palace.

  The riotous battlefield was finally silenced when day turned into night; the curtain of darkness fell upon the land.

  Over half of the one hundred and forty magical machines had been destroyed. Only thirty of those were still in perfect working condition. The rest of the surviving machines were all missing arms or legs. They would need to be sent back to the metal fortress' repair shop to regain their full combat abilities.

  These thirty magical machines were also being used as construction machines right now. They piled the corpses of the dead dragonborn together and sent them up to the goblin flying ship to be transported back to the metal fortress. The severely wounded dragonborn who still had breath left in them were all made to drink healing potions before being locked up in their own camp.

  A newly assembled flying ship appeared above the snowy peak at midnight. It slowly landed in front of the ice palace.

  Once some wide metallic planks had been laid out, squads of construction machines marched out of the ship with heavy footsteps.

  It was challenging to bring the massive flying ships of the Goblin Plane to Lance through the teleportation device. Large groups of engineers and technicians had gathered in the metal fortress, and after an entire month, they had finally succeeded in using the rudimentary construction tools to build a flying ship.

  Gazlowe hadn't even dared to let this new flying ship out of the metal fortress while the fire dragon girl was still ravaging its surroundings. Such flying ships that lacked powerful defensive measures were invincible when bullying magical creatures without the ability to fly. However, it was no more than a moving dummy for a large and ferocious being like the fire dragon.

  That was why Gazlowe had to delay the operation of the flying ship and only let it out once the fire dragon girl had gone hunting in the depths of Stonetalon Mountains.

  The metal fortress was nearly seven hundred kilometers away from the snowy mountain. Trying to bring this badly wounded frost dragon back across such a long distance would take eight to ten days on the ground. Such a long time on such a long road. Any accident that happened in between could cause Greem's efforts to have been in vain.

  Greem had no choice but to call for the flying ship and transport the frost dragon, along with all of the wealth in her lair, back via air.

  One had to admit that each and every dragon were items with plenty of potential.

  This Second Grade frost dragon might still be a young teenage dragon and had not participated in too many of the dragon raids, but the golden coins, jewels, and treasures gathered in her palace still managed to take up most of the room.

  Greem did a quick survey and shook his head in disappointment.

  Robbing a teenage dragon was just not the same as robbing an old dragon!

  The frost dragon's wealth might seem plentiful, but most of these were worldly items that had been stolen from human kingdoms such as gold coins, antiques, agates, and crowns. They might cause some commotion if taken to a human realm, but they were useless in the eyes of adepts.

  For the adepts, tens of thousands of gold coins were no more practical than a single magical gemstone.

  The former was only an ornamental product, while the latter could be used as materials to support spellcasting, allowing the launched spells to become faster and more powerful.

  Flashy but without value!

  That was Greem's assessment of the frost dragon's hoard after looking through it.

  However, even a rotting ship had three pounds of nails in it. Greem still managed to find some useful stuff in the hoard after sifting through and organizing all of it.

  Spellsaving Gemstone!

  It was a type of magical gemstone that could contain a single complete spell.

  During combat, adepts needed to chant words, perform handsigns, and use their staff and casting materials to cast spells. It was the only way they could use any of their most potent and fearsome magic. Now that Greem had a Spellsaving Gemstone, he could save a complete spell within it ahead of time. When needed, all he had to do was chant a short activating keyword to release the spell rapidly.

  That was undoubtedly extremely beneficial to an adept in combat!

  Sadly, upon inspecting the quality of this Spellsaving Gemstone, Greem disappointedly realized that it could only contain a First Grade spell. It was utterly useless for him.

  Still, it was a convenient item for a First Grade adept.

  After some hesitati
on, Greem awarded it to Bug Adept Billis, who had fought the hardest during today's battle.

  The construction machines also found a high-quality Frozen Mallet within the pile of jewels.

  It was a one-handed warhammer with a strange design. One end of the mallet was flat, while the other tapered off into a sharp edge. Brilliant flakes of frost and icicles covered the entire hammer. A strange surge of frost power would radiate from the mallet when the user held it in their hand. This frost power would cause seventy points of freezing damage to nearby enemies while slowing their speed by 40%.

  A powerful weapon like this clearly shouldn't fall into the hands of outsiders. It had to be awarded to the most significant contributor to today's successful dragon slaying– Dragonborn Zacha.

  In all honesty, the head of the Frozen Mallet was the size of two to three human heads put together, while the whole thing weighed about one hundred to one hundred and fifty kilograms. The only one within the Crimson Clan that was capable of using such a heavy weapon seemed to be Dragonborn Zacha.

  Dragonborn Zacha fell silent when he saw the powerful magical weapon placed before him.

  After a long period of hesitation, he finally bent over to pick up the warhammer.

  A milky-white Frost Aura appeared around him the moment the warhammer fell into his hands. It was like a beautiful ribbon of light. It froze the water molecules in the air into ice shards, causing them to hang upon Zacha's body and armor.

  "Thank you…master." Dragonborn Zacha finally faced Greem and said these words after waving the weapon about and testing it out.

  Even though he had been following Greem for over half a year and had always put all of his efforts into the missions Greem assigned him, this was the first time he had such sincere gratitude for his master. That was why it was particularly difficult for him to articulate this gratitude.

  Still, his usually stern and solemn expression seemed a bit more relaxed after saying that.