It was their terrifying numbers that allowed the wall formed from white bones skeletons to rapidly approach Greem.
A group of low-grade skeletons with no soul or consciousness wanted to bury a Second Grade fire adept to his death with their sheer number?
A hint of coldness appeared on Greem's face.
He grabbed the air several times in quick succession and threw several magma fireballs into the air. These fireballs were like guided missiles, whistling through the air and crashing into the areas where the skeleton army was most concentrated. The violent flame shockwaves and rain of magma turned this tiny cave into an unbearable hell of lava.
Despite such a tremendous setback, the skeleton army continued to charge into Greem's Ring of Fire. Hordes of white ghouls were also starting to join the battlefield from the depths of the mist.
Unlike the First Grade ghouls created by adepts, these mass manufactured ghouls were clearly much weaker. They were like a group of humans that had been skinned and left soaking in a gutter for several days and nights. Their entire bodies reeked with a pungent stench and betrayed a pale white resembling that of drowned humans.
Their tendons and bones had been pulled and contorted beyond recognition; there was nothing human about their appearance. A slimy bodily fluid covered their bodies, and they hunched their bodies and crawled about like wild beasts. They possessed sharp claws and fangs along with unnaturally long tongues.
These ghouls all had the strength of advanced apprentices and came in shocking numbers.
At least from the scans of the Chip and Greem's own spiritual senses, there seemed to be no end to the ghouls that were swarming out of the caves. They stepped on the bodies of the skeleton warriors and quickly advanced toward the adepts. Some of them even climbed onto the wet and slippery walls of the caves, wildly lunging into Greem's crimson barrier from every angle.
Greem's expression gradually turned solemn.
Damn. There seemed to be a bit too many undead here.
The strength of the undead before him still had no chance of killing a Second Grade adept. After all, their basic power was still merely that. Their attacks had absolutely no possibility of breaking a Second Grade adept's defensive spells.
However, the situation in front of his eyes did not match his expectations!
These undead had no morale, will, or emotions to speak of. They just charged into the Ring of Fire from every direction like an unrelenting tide. They were like a swarm of ants advancing through a ball of fire by gathering into a ball. They continued pushing forward even as the outer layer burned and scorched into ashes.
However, with the addition of these agile ghouls, the assault of the undead army against the Ring of Fire became unstoppable.
The white ghouls had covered the entirety of the black stone walls and were jumping down without any care for their own wellbeing.
Even as their exposed bodies were scorched black from the fires, their withered bodies continued lunging at Greem.
Beng! Beng! Beng!
Several dull thuds rang out in succession.
The Fire Shields and Lava Shields that popped out of Greem's body stopped the burnt corpses of the ghouls. However, the consecutive impacts had also stopped Greem in his tracks.
Greem looked at the lunging white shapes around him, and his frown deepened.
These fellows didn't seem so easy to deal with!
Greem had no choice left. He raised his hand and released the five-meter tall Flame Fiend of Terror. The golem shielded him and waved its flame whip to drive away the ghouls that lunged at its master. Even if the occasional ghoul managed to land on the Flame Fiend, the flames that surged out of the golem's body would reduce the ghoul to ashes when it bit the golem.
With the Flame Fiend forging the way forward, the swarming undead no longer posed a threat to the three adepts. The army could only try wildly and in vain to assault the towering flame humanoid.
The Flame Fiend of Terror was utterly fearless despite being swarmed by enemies. It moved forward with its thick magma legs and charged into the area where the undead were most numerous. It then raised both of its arms, and a large-area Meteor Shower upended the undead army, obliterating their ranks and formations.
The white ghouls swarmed forward and climbed all over the Flame Fiend's giant body.
The Flame Fiend let out a ferocious roar as fearsome streams of fire that reached two to three thousand degrees blasted out of its strong magma body. Even the resistant bodies of the corpses couldn't deal with such intense magical damage. They were like wolves that had fallen into a volcano, instantly vaporizing and leaving behind not a single speck of ash.
Still, even this terrible outcome couldn't stop the ghouls from hurling themselves at the enemy.
Visible cracks and damage had already appeared on the massive magma body of the Flame Fiend.
Meanwhile, the enemies didn't seem to be running out any time soon.
Chapter 689 Undead Powerhouse
Even ants could bring down an elephant!
Greem had scorned this old saying in the past, but now it was playing out right before his eyes; he couldn't quite accept it as the truth yet.
If it were humans that were facing off against the Flame Fiend now, they would probably have scattered and fallen apart the moment the golem had appeared. How could they possibly be like these undead, fearlessly using their horrifying numbers to push back against the enemy?
It hadn't even been eight minutes since the Flame Fiend had appeared, yet the number of exterminated undead had already reached the ten thousand. However, the tide of undead showed no signs of reducing in number. In fact, with the surging of undead from the various caves, the dense crowd had almost taken up every inch of space within this massive cavern. They were trying their hardest to strike at the adepts and the Flame Fiend with their ferocious attacks from every angle and every direction.
Of the three adepts, Alice alone had no combat ability to speak of!
She might still wield some sealed Cards of Fate in her hand that she could use to let out some voodoo beasts or servants, but any summoned creature below Second Grade would not be of any use in a situation like this. Even a Second Grade summoned beast with slightly weaker Physique and Strength would be torn apart.
That was why Greem's only reaction to their predicament was to fire off ultra-large fire spells at an increased frequency.
Firestorm!
Meteor Shower!
Doomsday Volcano!
……
These undead creatures had weak Physique and Strength; their only redeeming factor was their fearsome numbers. That was why the fire spells that Greem cast were lower in power, but possessed extreme area-of-effects and duration.
Again and again, he cleared away the massive cavern. Again and again, the fires would eventually die out before being taken up by new undead in a matter of seconds; another explosion, another flame that died out, and another wave of undead that surged forward.
Even with his flame core to sustain him and enable his extraordinary combat endurance, firing large-scale spells at such a frequency still put Greem's body under tremendous stress.
Fortunately, he had the Flame Fiend of Terror as his assistant. The two flame giants alternated their spells and alleviated much of the pressure on Greem.
Meanwhile, Uzzah, who stood at the rear of the formation, continued to watch on with a cold and silent gaze.
As Greem continued to lash out with all his ferocity, a trace of surprise finally appeared on the cloaked face of this Third Grade Dark Witch.
This male adept's power of fire was genuinely pure. Moreover, the limit of Greem's endurance was far beyond her expectations!
Given the size of the undead army in front of them, Uzzah had expected the male adept to beg for her help a long time ago. Yet, despite how dangerous the situation was becoming, this fellow called Greem was still hanging on. Moreover, the RIng of Fire that he had erected was still firmly protecting the two w
itches behind him, even as it held off tens of thousands of undead.
His relationship with Alice was intimate, so it wasn't surprising that he would keep an eye out for her. However, that crimson Ring of Fire of his also encompassed Third Grade Uzzah perfectly within. He had no intention of leaving her out just because of her strength, nor did he intend to force her to engage in the fighting.
While shocking Uzzah, it also frustrated her as someone who took pride in her identity as a witch!
Could he think that all witches were as frail and helpless as Alice? One should know that the ones supporting the pillars of the sky in the Northern Lands were all immensely powerful Northern Witches. The so-called male adepts were little more than ornaments and tools for pleasure before the presence of true Northern Witches.
Consequently, the tighter Greem's defense over Uzzah was, the deeper the shadows in her eyes grew.
Anyone familiar with the Dark Witches knew that this was a sign that this Third Grade Dark Witch was so furious that she was almost beyond control!
However, there was no one near Uzzah that she could get mad at. As a result, the anger in Witch Uzzah's heart could only accumulate and pile on, blazing furiously in her emaciated frame.
Perhaps because it sensed that the price of burying these adepts under the corpses of low-grade undead was simply too high, an undead knight wholly covered in metal armor emerged from the mists. He wore a full-face helmet and rode out upon a towering skeletal steed, the steed's bone hoofs clicking crisply against the ground.
As a high-grade undead, every single action of this undead knight carried with it an oppressive and menacing feeling of dominance.
All the skeleton warriors and ghouls beside it naturally retreated. No undead dared to approach within five meters of the undead knight.
Judging by the black mists boiling around the Second Grade undead knight, it was clear that this was a dark knight that had mastered the powers of darkness.
The grinding sounds of bone rang out from behind this dark knight. A large group of skeletal beings walked with casual steps and appeared before the adepts.
These skeletons had skeletal armor on, a short bone blade sheathed at their waists, a bone tiara upon their heads, and held short bone staffs in their skeletal hands; Greem's heart sank.
Undead casters!
The aura that they gave us wasn't too powerful. At their very best, they were only First Grade bone mages. However, casters were still casters in the end. He couldn't deal with these bone mages as casually as he had dealt with ordinary undead.
Undead were essentially reanimated creatures formed from shattered souls that had been attached to broken bones.
If such a shattered soul had been a powerful caster in their past lives, then there was a possibility that a portion of it's casting abilities and knowledge could be preserved. When a soul like this fell upon a pile of broken bones, it would be able to become the simplest of skeleton mages. If it fell upon a zombie, it could become a zombie mage.
It was only possible for a skeleton mage to turn into a bone mage after hundreds and thousands of years of settling and evolution, while a zombie mage would turn into a terrifying lich.
Regardless of what the soul's innate talents were in its past life, those skills would all turn into abilities of the death attribute after they were reanimated as undead casters. The most proficient magic of the bone mages was naturally bone magic.
With the arrival of these bone mages, a rain of bone spears shot down at the adepts.
[Bone Spear.
First Grade Bone Magic.
Offensive power: 35—50 points: The tip of the bone spears will explode upon hitting the target and deal splashing damage equal to approximately 3 points of power. Furthermore, these bone spears also possess approximately 5 points of negative energy damage (Note: negative energy creatures are immune to this effect)]
The various attributes as scanned by the Chip were be projected into Greem's mind the moment the bone spear appeared within his field of vision.
In all honesty, the strength of each bone spear was unimpressive. So much so that the spear didn't deserve to be regarded as First Grade. At their very best, these bone spears were only as powerful as the attacks of advanced apprentices in the World of Adepts.
However, there was no dealing with the fact that they were being fired in a barrage!
The simultaneous barrage of bone spears from over a hundred bone mages pierced through the Ring of Fire without stop. The negative energy attached to the bone spears clashed with the fire elementium, igniting microscopic elementium explosions in the air. However, the bone spears, tougher than steel, managed to endure the extreme heat and embed themselves within the magma body of the Flame Fiend.
With the gigantic golem shielding him, Greem managed to block all of the remaining bone spears with his Lava Shields.
This first wave of attacks had not dealt any damage to the three of them!
Yet, as the master of the Flame Fiend of Terror, Greem had a clear grasp of the situation.
The elementium reserves inside the Flame Fiend's magical core had fallen by six percent just enduring this wave of bone spears. If they didn't find a way to exterminate these bone mages, the powerful Flame Fiend would be beaten down by the relentless attacks of the enemy.
Greem's eyes flickered, and a series of orders had already been sent out.
The Flame Fiend of Terror that had initially stood in front of him let out a resounding roar. Its body then abruptly vanished in a massive halo of fire that reached toward the sky.
Fire Teleportation!
Under Greem's instructions, the Flame Fiend had used Fire Teleportation and instantly appeared within the tight formation of the bone mages. It didn't even need to use any spells. Just the Lava Shields protecting its body and the blazing streams of fire that shrouded its form had dealt horrible area damage to these bone mages.
Just as the Flame Fiend raised its arms and prepared to use a large-scale fire spell to cremate all these bone mages, black lightning flew out from nearby. The blast of lightning pierced through the Flame Fiend's Lava Shield and three Inferno Shields, going straight into its chest.
This sudden attack caused Greem's eyebrow to jump. He couldn't help but turn his stern gaze toward that Second Grade dark knight.
Just now, it was this monster that had thrown its four-meter long lance and pierced the magma body of the Flame Fiend.
Moreover, through the scans and senses of the Chip, Greem had very clearly 'seen' the might of that charged attack from the knight.
Five hundred and nineteen points!
That was already a shocking number for a Second Grade dark knight!
The Chip had also managed to estimate the basic attributes of this dark knight through this attack.
[Dark Knight.
Second Grade Undead Creature.
Possesses mastery over dark magical energies.
Bodily attributes: Strength 21-23 | Physique >20 | Agility >15 | Spirit >13 ]
An undead creature like this had attributes far superior to even Greem after his Second Grade advancement.
After all, Greem walked the path of an elementium adept. He had not invested too many resources in his Physique and Strength. It wasn't until he transformed into a Flame Fiend that his Strength and Physique could reach beyond fifteen points and prove somewhat of a match against these Second Grade creatures.
However, as a Second Grade elementium adept with flame specialization, Greem's Spirit was as high as twenty-seven points. That was already a decent start for most Second Grade adepts.
If Greem wanted to defeat this Second Grade dark knight, his best option was to maintain a certain distance with it and rely on his powerful fire spells to drown out the undead.
Just as Greem gritted his teeth and stood forward, Uzzah's cold and stern voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
"You stay here. Leave that dark knight to me!"
A sinister and chilling laugh rang out
, and Uzzah had already vanished from the spot.
Chapter 690 Unstoppable Advance
As the commander of the undead army, this dark knight did not charge forward to battle with the Flame Fiend.
Instead, it stood at the rear of the battlefield, using a wound-up throw of its dark spear to interrupt the Flame Fiend's spell channeling. The dark knight didn't make any more moves beyond that and instead assessed the battlefield from upon its skeletal steed.
As an intermediate-grade undead, it had sufficient intelligence to determine the individual that posed the greatest threat to the undead army.
The terrifying flame giant charging at the forefront was not the strongest enemy in front of the sensitive and sharp senses of its soul fire. Instead, the few human adepts hiding behind the flame giant gave it the most significant and direct sense of threat.
Thus, the dark knight shifted most of its attention upon the three odd casters after interrupting the Flame Fiend's spell.
As expected, not long after the dark knight's attack, the black-robed caster at the very rear of the enemy's formation vanished without a trace.
The dark knight tugged at the reins of its steed. This skeletal steed covered in black barding and outfitted with a spiral horn upon its skull immediately stood upon its hind legs and let out a terrifying whinny. Its eyes and hooves burned with an eternal black flame of death and sparks of fire came out of its nostrils.
The dark knight drew the longsword hanging by the skeletal horse's neck and swung it about as if it was an extension of its very body. The knight scanned its surroundings with the utmost caution.
Even the dark knight was deeply wary of these foreign casters!
These outsiders might not be that much stronger than the local natives when it came to the power of their spells, but the diversity and strangeness of their abilities and magic was extraordinary. Even two or three casters on this plane put together could not compare to the flexibility of these evil witches.
While the dark knight was utterly focused, his steed was starting to writhe about in discomfort and anxiety.
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