However, before it died, the golem’s sharp limbs pierced through the bodies of three human warriors, skewering them like kebabs. Finally, it fell silent.
As a Second Grade body-refining adept, Gullit had already tempered his body into a special weapon. The toughness of his muscles and bones could compare to beginner Second Grade protective magical equipment. Every one of his fists would land firmly in battle, and every slash would see blood. In a matter of moments, he had executed three of the robotic golems.
Only two machines were left standing between the Archers and the soldiers. The balance of the battlefield had quietly tipped toward the invaders.
The other Second Grade, Adept Gerndt, also started roaring. His formerly skinny body abruptly started expanding and distorting.
In an instant, Gerndt’s body was covered in a layer of strange black scales. His own body had transformed into a big-headed carp with sharp and wicked teeth. His arms turned into two powerful fins, supporting his fat body on both sides and providing it with the ability to move. His two legs merged to form a fat tail also covered in black fish scales.
It was a strange magical creature known as a Bloodmouth. It had robust mobility both on land and in water. However, its primary weapon was still its terrifyingly large mouth that could open to a nightmarish extent. Inside the mouth were sharp and fearsome serrated teeth.
Being torn by the jaws of such a monster could instantly break anyone’s bones. Moreover, its horrifying maw was directly connected to its bottomless stomach. Any living beings swallowed by this creature would have to endure the damage from its stomach acid as well.
A horrifying magical creature like the Bloodmouth could even devour and digest the robotic golems, who were almost several times its size. The horror of its stomach was no more evident than here!
FIre Throne might still have some magical machine reserves, but they couldn’t possibly let the two Second Grade adepts have free reign over the battlefield.
Mary shouted, “You two handle that body-refining adept. Leave this ugly fish to me!”
After some quick and simple instructions, Mary turned into a crimson flash of lightning and rapidly approached Adept Gerndt. The two blood knights behind her, Soros and Windsor, changed directions and hurried toward the rampaging Second Grade Body-Refining Adept Gullit.
Gerndt had just torn a golem to pieces. The metal chainsaw that the machine so desperately fought back with only sent sparks flying against his fine fish scales, but they couldn’t harm him whatsoever.
The bloodmouth opened his mouth and bit through the golem’s thick metal limb. He then held the arm in his mouth and started crunching and swallowing as if it was a stalk of sugarcane.
The bloodmouth stared with his bloated dusk-yellow eyes when he saw Mary approach. He opened his mouth to reveal a chilling smile.
Chapter 776 - The Combat Escalates
As a bloodline adept, Gerndt was practically fearless after transforming into the bloodmouth!
If Mary had been an elementium adept, he might still have been worried about being kited and worn down by long ranged spells. However, Gerndt had nothing to be concerned about against a vampire that specialized in Agility.
The weak attacks of vampires was a universally known fact. Trying to break through his fine scales with Mary’s thin claws was no more than a delusion. Without the ability to deal damage, the talent of the vampires to consume blood and regenerate would be useless.
Meanwhile, Mary would be in a terrible pinch if the chilling jaws of the bloodmouth caught her. Regardless of how strong her magical defenses were, she would not be able to escape the fate of being bitten in half.
Thus, Gerndt did not retreat when he saw Mary approaching. Instead, he put on a wicked smile and rapidly charged at Mary with his fat body, like a magical fish that couldn’t walk on land.
If one had to pick out a weakness of the bloodmouth, it would be their lack of long-ranged skills. Their mobility was also on the slower side amongst Second Grades. However, their tough defensive scales and fearsome mouth that could devour everything made up for most of these weaknesses, turning them into ferocious magical creatures that most would not dare to provoke.
Mary rapidly began to circle the bloodmouth upon nearing him. She also started frequently using her crimson claws to prod and probe for any weaknesses on his body. Gerndt ignored Mary’s attacks and relied on his scales to block them all. He also started moving about, trying to get Mary’s body within the range of his bite.
In truth, most of Mary’s attacks possessed the two different effects of blood corrosion and shadow damage. However, they still couldn’t deal any visible damage to the heavily armored bloodmouth.
Meanwhile, the bloodmouth’s attacks were clumsy and slow. It had failed to catch her, even after several attempts to snap after Mary’s phantasmal silhouette. Even when he occasionally struck, he would quickly discover that they were afterimages that Mary had intentionally left behind to bait him into revealing weaknesses when attacking.
Mary quickly started giving up after three minutes of circling and striking the bloodmouth.
Mary’s attacks could not easily penetrate the fine scales that covered the fat fish’s body. Meanwhile, the parts that could be known as weak spots–the eyes, the mouth, and the anus–were all very well covered.
Mary had moved to the bloodmouth’s back several times in hopes of striking at his anus. Unfortunately, the bloodmouth’s anus was beneath its massive fishtail. The flat and powerful tail had completely covered the weak spot, leaving Mary no possibility of striking at it. Unless Mary could bait the bloodmouth into using his tail to strike at her, she would not have a chance to commit to this plan of action.
The other most glaring weakness of the bloodmouth were the eyeballs above his mouth. They lacked the protection of the fine scales and appeared to be the most easily attacked part of his body.
However, Mary was not an idiot either. After a few tries, she quickly discovered that the weakness was no more than a trap that the bloodmouth had left for his enemies.
An enemy would have no choice but to arrive in front of the bloodmouth if they wanted to attack his eyes. Yet, the front of the bloodmouth’s body was precisely where his giant mouth was. Regardless of whether he chose to spit Void Ooze or Acidic Spit at the enemy, he would inflict tremendous damage.
Void Ooze could trap an enemy in a spot and reduce their speed tremendously for a short period. On the other hand, Acidic Spit was an even more terrifying acid that could destroy and weaken all known magical armor and defensive spells.
If the enemy were even somewhat slow in their movements and allowed the bloodmouth to obtain a chance to do so, the magical fish would be able to swallow the enemy in a single bite. One couldn’t expect too much of Mary just because she was Second Grade. Even she would have no chance of escaping from his stomach if she were swallowed into his body!
Mary had no choice but to concentrate all her attacks on the back of the bloodmouth, sending scale dust flying everywhere as she scratched with her claws, leaving scratch marks all over the tail. However, the bloodmouth didn’t seem to mind. He continued to turn his body and snapped continuously with his wicked mouth, letting out a threatening and intimidating crunching sound as he did so.
Mary couldn’t harm the transformed Gerndt, and Gerndt couldn’t catch the phantasmal female vampire. The battle between the two quickly turned into a stalemate.
On the other side of the battlefield, Soros and Windsor had managed to locate Second Grade Body-Refining Adept Gullit.
The three of them were all of professions that preferred direct combat. As such, they immediately started clashing with their weapons upon encountering each other.
As a body-refining adept, Gullit had refined his entire body to be as tough as steel. When aided with defensive spells and his life forcefield, he became speechlessly invincible. The blood battle techniques that the two blood knights landed on Gullit were mostly dispersed by his defensive force
fields. What remained of their force couldn’t even scratch the body-refining adept.
In contrast, the immense strength of Gullit, paired with his magical blade, represented a huge threat to the blood knights with every slash he executed. The magical blade could cut through Soros and Windsor’s armor and leave a deep wound if it ever struck them.
More importantly, the two blood knights would not be able to consume blood and regenerate if they couldn’t even wound Gullit. If one of the knights were to become injured and forced to escape and target another human warrior to recover, the remaining blood knight would have to face Gullit alone and be at considerable risk of being executed.
Thus, in a matter of just fifteen minutes, Soros and Windsor had experienced many risky exchanges. They had no choice but to retreat as they fought, barely dealing with Gullit’s attacks this way.
That said, compared to the problematic situation that Mary and the blood knights were in, the blood elves were having a much more relaxed time.
They transformed into crimson bats and weaved between the crowd, quickly diving toward the location of any adepts they spotted. The ones they were looking for were all First Grade adepts of the Andorra Clan. Though they were all experienced veterans with exceptional combat ability, all their techniques and skills were useless when dealing with two fearless Pseudo Second-Grade blood elves.
The two blood elves weren’t concerned with dodging or avoiding damage. They relied on their superior grade advantage to crush the enemy. They would boldly cling to an opponent’s defensive shield when they got the chance, scratching and biting with all they had. They couldn’t even be bothered to dodge the enemy’s attacks.
The Andorra adepts had no choice but to grit their teeth and place their hopes on their defenses when dealing with such unreasonable and unstoppable Pseudo Second-Grades. However, regardless of how talented a First Grade adept was, they would be at a massive disadvantage when contesting a Second Grade in offensive intensity alone.
The result was the same, even if the enemy was only a Pseudo Second-Grade!
Two First Grade adepts of the Andorra Clan died just like that, having their shields forcefully broken and their bodies drained of all their blood. Meanwhile, the wounded blood elves completely recovered to their initial state after consuming their blood. They roared and charged at new enemies.
Apart from escaping, all the First Grade adepts they had set their sights on could not do anything. They dared not confront the vampires in direct combat.
For a moment, all the Andorra adepts were terrified by the blood elves and chased all over the battlefield. However, apart from the two adepts who were killed at the very start of the battle, the other adepts became more cautious when they recognized the terror of the blood elves.
They would immediately turn tail and run when they saw any sign of the blood elves approaching them, never giving a chance for them to get close. However, this made it difficult for the adepts to cooperate with the noble’s army and strike a fatal blow at the line of magical machines.
The human warriors that had been abandoned by the adepts could only raise their wooden shields and travel across the uneven Magma Hall with incredible difficulty, enduring the storm of bullets coming their way.
In just half an hour, another one thousand human fighters had fallen into the muddy puddle of blood beneath them.
The expressions of the Alliance adepts turned solemn when they saw this. They were once again surprised by the Crimson Clan’s reserve of forces.
If this tower had belonged to their own clans, which of them would have dared to charge out the tower and fight against the powerful Alliance with eight times their number? Yet, this enemy had dragged their magical machines out of the tower and started to battle against the Alliance to buy time for the tower to recover.
The fire adept squad might have successfully caused the uprising of the magma sea below and cut off all chances for the tower to continue absorbing fire energy. However, such a large-scale interference could not be maintained for long. If the Crimson Clan managed to drag out the battle until the magma sea calmed down, it would be challenging to repeat the trick.
Thus, the higher-ups of the Alliance could no longer sit still for much longer when they saw that the Andorra Clan was having trouble breaking through the magical machines after such a long time.
Under the orders of Third Grade Yurga of the Kamala Clan, the Cenas Clan that was supposed to replace the Andorra Clan one hour later entered the battlefield prematurely.
When an additional sixteen adepts entered the battleground with an extra three thousand human fighters, the atmosphere of the battlefield froze over!
It was important to note that the Cenas Clan’s forces had three Second Grade adepts.
Their arrival could substantially compensate for the lack of high-grade fighting forces on Andorra’s part. The three thousand human fighters might not be able to affect the grand scheme of things, but the three Second Grades were an important weight that could affect the balance of the entire battle.
The higher-ups’ idea was actually straightforward. They wanted to force Mary and the other vampires to retreat and provide space for their noble’s army to exterminate the magical machines. The Alliance army could only officially launch their attack against the tower once they did away with the annoying obstacle that was the magical machine army!
Chapter 777 - The Tense War
With the entrance of the Cenas adept, the situation that was starting to look good for the Crimson Clan quickly turned the other way.
Fire Throne had been slowly accumulating and gathering energy. However, it now had no choice but cast out a web of blinding red light, providing all the Crimson adepts and magical machines on the battlefield with fire protection. What immediately came after was the area-of-effect Meteor Shower that the tower had been charging up.
A large, flaming cloud mass suddenly gathered on the thirty-meter-tall ceiling of the Magma Hall. Blazing fires and lava bubbles roiled within those clouds, staining the entire space dark-red as if it was a realm of ghosts.
The adepts in the attacking party immediately used their tricks and exited the frontlines upon seeing this ill omen. Meanwhile, the four thousand soldiers and servants were abandoned on the battlefield as sacrificial pawns.
All the human warriors lifted their heads and looked at the massive boiling red clouds above them, terrified and concerned. As more fire energy surged from the tower to the clouds, they increased in size, filled with massive lava bubbles the size of watermelons.
Breathing became difficult for everyone beneath the oppression of the powerful fire elementium aura. What entered their lungs when they inhaled was no longer cool, fresh air, but surges of searing heat waves.
“Run!”
“We can’t wait here to die!”
As the fire elementium gathered at a frenzied pace, the warriors that had been driven mad by the slaughter immediately came to their senses and scattered fearfully in every direction. Even the horses they were riding had gone out of control. They would not listen to any orders and ran about blindly, biting and charging at each other.
The entire battlefield was instantly plunged into a scene of apocalyptic chaos!
However, before the mortal army of the Alliance could escape from the range of the fire clouds, a thunderous boom rang out from above. As the lava bubbles within the clouds popped, waves of fire started to fall from the sky along with countless drops of lava that freely spread red flames everywhere across the hall as they descended.
The lava bubbles spontaneously exploded into ferocious fire halos when they landed on the ground, engulfing everything within ten meters in a terrifying storm of golden flames. Lava bubbles that popped in mid-air were like beautiful fireworks instead, sending blinding flames scattering across the sky.
Everything and every being devoured by the flames would turn into black smoke in an instant, vanishing entirely from the mortal realm. The only proof of their former existence
was a small pile of ash left on the scorched earth.
It was a Meteor Shower that Fire Throne had especially enhanced for the purpose of attacking their enemies. Judging by the radius and intensity of this spell, its effect was approximately equal to seven Second Grade Meteor Showers being cast simultaneously.
Mortals caught within the spell’s radius had no chance of survival. Even the First Grade adepts were very likely to die if they couldn’t dodge in time and were struck by more than three lava bubbles.
As such, nearly half of the Magma Hall turned into a blazing sea of fire with the descent of this ‘ultra’ Meteor Shower. Most of the soldiers and servants of the Andorra and Cenas Clan had perished. Even three First Grade adepts had died to the spell.
The few Second Grade Alliance adepts that were trapped in the sea of fire barely escaped after being surrounded by Mary and the others.
This Meteor Shower might be powerful, but there was still a ways to go before it could kill a Second Grade adept.
For a moment, the Alliance adepts and noble’s army struggled to escape from the sea of flames. They immediately collapsed from exhaustion after stepping out of the boundaries of the sea of fire, no longer able to get up.
It was at this moment that they thoroughly understood the terror of an adept’s tower.
Just a casual attack from the tower had exterminated the three thousand Alliance soldiers and forced the adepts of the Andorra Clan and Cenas Clan back to the entrance of the Magma Hall.
Supposedly, the Alliance adepts should be feeling upset and angered at having encountered such a terrifying assault. However, everyone only saw smiles on the faces of the Alliance higher-ups.
“Truly a group of people who can’t retain their composure!” Yurga smiled chillingly, “To think they would use such precious magical energy to deal with a mortal army with no offensive ability whatsoever. Aren’t they so willing to part with their reserves…”
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