Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  With her wounds, she was barely hanging on as a beginner Third Grade, despite her actual intermediate Third Grade ranking. Still, she could be of help in the battle.

  Her arrival also extinguished all of Greem’s thoughts of escape.

  He might be able to fight multiple opponents while hiding in the volcano, but if he were to leave the volcano, every one of those hunter adepts would be a difficult opponent for him. Meanwhile, Witch Rena and those magical materials for repairing the array were no longer important; not compared to his own life.

  For the first time in his life, Greem had been forced into a corner, with no solution or means to deal with the problem!

  Greem had charged out of the volcano crater countless of times, battling with the four hunter adepts with the volcano’s pool of lava behind him. Unfortunately, apart from destroying the surrounding area, he could not kill or even defeat a single one of them.

  Greem’s primary opponent was always the serpentine adept, Natagu.

  His style of combat was straightforward. He would turn into a terrifying twenty-meter long giant snake covered in purple-black scales. This snake naturally had the resilient life force of snake creatures, along with a fearsome soundwave attack.

  Soundwave attacks were a niche of magic in the adept’s arcane system. As such, there were very few spells that could defend against them. Soundwave attacks were also known for their ability to penetrate defenses. Even the elementium magical machine’s sturdy body was not entirely impervious to it.

  As such, Natagu alone could restrain both Greem and the elementium magical machine. Meanwhile, the other two witches would greatly affect Greem during the course of the battle. One specialized in poison, while the other specialized in mental manipulation.

  Whenever Greem betrayed weakness during a battle, Katherine charged up to his side with unmatched ferocity and cut open his defenses with her most ferocious attack. In fact, Katherine was more than willing to go wound-for-wound to injure Greem at all costs.

  This fact, in particular, was what caused him the most trouble!

  If it weren’t for Sodden’s Holy Ring, Greem would have long since fallen victim to such a vicious group of enemies.

  …………

  Greem slowly opened his eyes in a secret cave beneath the lava pool.

  This underground cave was over twenty square meters in size, undecorated with anything other than a simple stone bed. Small fire runes had been carved on the walls around the room, glowing with faint light as they kept the flowing lava out of the cave.

  The elementium magical machine was guarding the entrance silently, its compound eyes projecting beams of multiple frequencies to keep a close eye on any movement in the sea of lava. It wasn’t until Greem finally awoke from his slumber that the magical machine stepped aside and returned to its normal state.

  The first thing Greem did upon waking up was to communicate with the Chip rapidly.

  He had set up many fire traps near the lava pool. If the hunter adepts wanted to sneak into the volcano, they would trigger his traps without a doubt. And that would be his time to turn the tables!

  Unfortunately, perhaps out of fear of Greem’s reputation, the four adepts were being excessively cautious. They were unwilling to take a single step into the crater, regardless of how many weaknesses Greem showed.

  It rendered most of Greem’s preparations useless.

  Apart from the fire traps, all sorts of strange fire creatures had also scattered throughout the lava pool. Greem put them under his powerful binding the moment they set foot here from the Fire Elementium Plane, turning them into his eyes and minions.

  Unfortunately, even the strongest of these fire creatures were only at the peak of First Grade. They were useable as fodder but utterly useless as a means to chase away the hunter adepts.

  Hmph! If those hunter adepts won’t come looking for trouble, then I’ll bring the trouble to them.

  After recovering from all the injuries and exhaustion from the last battle with deep sleep, Greem led the elementium magical machine and the horde of fire creatures out of the lava pool.

  Only Psionic Adept Benija remained stationed at the crater.

  While she was idly using her mental flux to scan for movement near the crater, the silent lava suddenly started boiling. A tremendous surge of fire energy rose from the bottom of the pool and stormed toward the top of the crater.

  Again!

  Benija lifted her slender hand to cover her mouth and let out a yawn. She then stretched and extended her Spirit toward this massive surge of fire energy. She had determined the enemy’s numbers and power with her potent mental skills before they had even emerged from the pool.

  “Hey! You guys, hurry up! It seems like the fire adept is looking for trouble again!”

  As Benija’s mental message reverberated throughout the temporary camp, the three hunter adepts emerged from their tents. They rubbed their sleepy eyes and cursed as they flew toward the crater.

  When they arrived at the crater, Greem had also emerged from the lava, appearing before them.

  “What is it, brat? Was the Kiss of Death from last time not enough of a lesson for you? To think you still dare to come out to play today.” Serpentine Adept Natagu laughed coldly, his eyes landing on Greem’s left hand through the shimmering red light that covered his body.

  Two deep bite marks could still be seen at the edge of his palm. The flesh and skin around the bite had already turned black, and a bitter, tea-like scent could still be smelled in the air.

  It was a nasty mark that Natagu had left on Greem during their last fight. It was a terrifying Kiss of Death that he had unleashed during their skirmish, manifesting in the form of a snake-shaped silhouette that penetrated Greem’s defenses to bite him. If the opponent was careless, the serpentine shadow could even dive into their body and gnaw directly at their soul origin.

  It was fortunate that the Chip had reminded Greem so that he managed to block his chest with his palm, preventing the snake from delivering a lethal strike. However, the bite had delivered Greem a dose of snake poison. He had no choice but to resist its effects through a deep slumber.

  Greem’s expression turned severe at the mention of the injury. However, he then laughed sinisterly and continued, “Poison can’t kill me yet. Instead, I’m really upset that I didn’t get to eat roast snake last time. What do you say, Sir Natagu!?”

  Natagu now wore a purple robe, but there were noticeable burn marks on his exposed skin.

  The fact that these wounds had not thoroughly vanished despite his Physique as a Third Grade bloodline adept was more than enough demonstration of the severity of the burns he had received.

  Both parties dug at each other with their words while glaring viciously at their opponents. The atmosphere once again turned tense and murderous!

  Chapter 978 - A Savage Battle

  The first ones to charge onto the battlefield were naturally those fire creatures who acted as cannon fodder.

  Low-grade fire elementals, fire spirits, fire deities, fire wolves, magma hounds, infernals, and fire giants.

  All sorts of fire creatures of various shapes and forms swarmed out from behind Greem, roaring as they rushed at the four adepts standing above the crater. Waves of wild fire magic devoured the adepts before the creatures even arrived.

  Though this wave of attacks seemed incomparably ferocious, there were no powerful fire spells mixed within. Most of these fire creatures’ innate powers only included the use of elementium fireballs.

  Purple light flashed in Benija’s eyes, and an intangible mental fluctuation swept across the air, detonating the elementium fireballs before they could reach them.

  A tremendous fiery explosion occurred right in front of the four adepts. The aura of the energy flux was shockingly powerful. However, the shockwave from the detonated fireballs was already on its last legs when it reached the adepts. It could not move their seemingly thin defensive forcefields, let alone wound them.

&n
bsp; After two waves of useless fire attacks, the massive army of fire creatures had arrived near the top of the crater. Before they could scatter and surround the adepts, Blade Princess Katherine stepped forward. She pushed with her hands, and five metal blades stood in the way of the fire creatures like fluttering butterflies.

  The disc-blades spun, and their bodies of fire fell apart.

  The fire creatures at the average of beginner First Grade were sliced to countless pieces beneath this fearsome array of blades, shattered into sparks before they had the chance to struggle.

  One wave was minced to pieces, and the next, minced to pieces as well.

  The five disc-blades moved at Katherine’s every whim and will, soaring through the horde of fire creatures. Their every attack left a ground full of sparks and scattered flames behind them.

  Even the most quick-footed and agile of the fire creatures could not escape the metal blades the Blade Princess controlled!

  The elementium magical machine charged forward under cover of the fire creatures, rumbling as it swung its metal fists down upon Katherine. Vicious magical energy trailed the path of its punch, creating small elementium vortexes in the air as its fists traveled towards its target.

  As a mechanical witch, Katherine’s attributes leaned toward Agility. However, her Strength was pretty impressive as well.

  Thus, she did not choose to dodge when faced with the magic-enhanced punch of the magical machine. The two metal spikes in her hands joined together and clashed with the metal fists as a violent storm of steel.

  Katherine’s body drifted across the air as she continued her wild attacks, borrowing the force of the elementium magical machine’s punch to retreat rapidly. From a distance, it looked as if Katherine had been blown away by the elementium magical machine and had been the victim of that exchange.

  In truth, Katherine was unharmed, while a series of fine cuts and tiny dents now covered the magical machine’s right arm. However, with the thickness of the magical machine’s metal arm, this much damage could not affect its combat prowess at all.

  It was much like a raccoon toying with a black bear. Regardless of how the elementium magical machine lunged and darted, pummelling with its fists and sending wave after wave of magical energy shockwaves, Katherine remained a shadow. She moved and circled about the hulk, her metal spikes and disc-blades sending sparks flying as they cut against its body of steel. The sound of grinding metal was piercing to the ears.

  Once Katherine was pushed back by the elementium magical machine, the fire creatures finally managed to break through the blade array. They roared and charged at the remaining adepts.

  The next to take Katherine’s place was Benija.

  She didn’t roar or shout or behave in any particularly eye-catching way. Her slender body simply stepped forward as several waves of invisible flux radiated from the large purple crystal on her forehead. The bodies of all the fire creatures caught by the wave stalled before disintegrating without any explanation.

  These massive clusters of fire exploded near the crater, blasting the soft volcanic rock to pieces and sending them tumbling down into the lava.

  If Katherine’s way of slaughter was within the realm of normality, then Benija’s method of slaughter was utterly incomprehensible. Even Greem, all the way behind the army, could only detect the existence of the mental flux through his multi-layered vision. However, he had absolutely no idea how this mental flux had destroyed the consciousness cores of the fire creatures.

  From his perspective, it looked as if the fire creatures had charged forward and mysteriously self-destructed. Their wild elementium fires then turned into giant fireballs and devoured the frontlines.

  Greem had no intention of summoning Thunder Dragon Arms.

  He wasn’t arrogant. It was merely because the act itself was meaningless.

  The four hunter adepts would turn and flee without hesitation whenever Arms appeared. They used the vast space of the battlefield to wait out the dragon’s summoning time.

  According to the planar laws, Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms was not summoned to Henvic by an interplanar portal but through his dragon contract with Greem. As such, the time he could remain in Henvic was restricted by the planar laws.

  Even with their contract, Greem could only keep Arms within Henvic for fifteen minutes. It was more than enough for a fight but far too lacking for them to pursue four hunter adepts who were solely intent of avoiding battle.

  As for escaping while Arms kept the adepts at bay…Greem had considered the idea, but in truth, the four hunter adepts wanted nothing more than that.

  After all, if he left the volcano, he would leave the shelter of the lava pool behind. Greem was not so confident as to believe he was powerful enough to defend against all four of them without a geographical advantage. Thus, Greem gave up on the idea entirely after summoning Arms twice. He started to play this game of siege with the hunter adepts with all his seriousness.

  Seeing that all his minions had charged forward, Greem transformed into a flame giant without any hesitation as well. He lifted his hand and summoned clouds of fire, which he cast down upon his enemies.

  The four hunter adepts could no longer remain unfazed against the ferocious attack of a Third Grade fire adept. Each of them started to carefully dodge those splashing Magma Fireballs and the crashing Meteor Showers, trying to avoid every one of Greem’s attacks.

  For some reason, the fire magic that Greem used was shockingly powerful!

  The spells even contained light-attribute damage that could ignore their defenses.

  However, what troubled the hunter adepts the most was the magical effects of Greem’s fire spells, which he could alter at will. Coldflame, fire poison, explosion; the various strange magical effects were enough to drive an enemy insane.

  The fire poison was nothing much. With Poison Witch Guinevere around, they could cure themselves of any poison.

  However, the explosive fireballs and the Coldflame fireballs were far too challenging to deal with!

  Greem’s fire spells were terrifying enough with their intense heat. They could also explode and at any time, as well. That made them incredibly annoying to deal with. There were many times when Katherine was forced to exchange blows with the elementium magical machine because of the disruption shockwaves from a fireball’s explosion.

  If her luck were any worse, she would have been frozen on the spot by Coldflame. Even with her tremendous power, she would have been beaten within an inch of her life by the savage elementium magical machine.

  It couldn’t be helped. The Blade Princess’ power was at an all-time low after all, with all the severe injuries she had already sustained. She was stuck in a weakened state until she could return to the realms beyond for a thorough treatment!

  The four adepts immediately split up their work when they saw Greem step on the battlefield.

  Natagu and Benija worked together against Greem, while Katherine and Guinevere held back the elementium magical machine.

  Both parties demonstrated their myriad powers and clashed with each other in this volcano crater with a diameter of over two and a half kilometers.

  The four hunter adepts had tried to have Katherine alone occupy the elementium magical machine, while the remaining three rained down upon Greem, hoping to kill him through this plan quicky.

  Unfortunately, Greem was surprisingly resilient and stood right behind a pool of lava from which he could draw even more power. As such, he stood unyielding against the attacks of three hunter adepts.

  In comparison, Blade Princess Katherine became the weakest of the group.

  The battle between Greem and the three adepts had yet to come to a conclusion, yet the elementium magical machine already had her on the ropes. A little bit more, and the duel would have ended in a clear defeat.

  It was that battle that caused Katherine to sustain even more damage and become further weakened.

  However, of the four hunter adepts, neither Benija,
the psionic, or Guinevere, the poison adept were suited to dealing with the magical machine. They couldn’t possibly hold it back either. Meanwhile, Serpentine Adept Natagu served as the main force of the attack. It made no sense for him to switch priorities and deal with the irrelevant magical machine.

  If he did that, Greem might have enough space to unleash his full might, bringing to bear a shocking threat against them all!

  The four hunter adepts had no choice but to rely on this ‘gentler’ approach to slowly wear down the fire adept.

  One had to admit that, as the leader of their group, Natagu’s power was genuinely terrifying.

  When he transformed into the Black Mamba, he had scales that were as tough as the elementium magical machine’s body of steel, as well as exceptional magic resistance that could compare to that of the dragons.

  With his powerful physical and magical resistances, Natagu could even charge into the lava and engage Greem in a melee. Whenever the two of them fought at their full strength, it would be as if Gangsas Volcano had erupted in full force. Wave after wave of blistering lava would surge out of the crater, along with plumes of volcanic ash that could blot out the sun itself.

  The earth rumbled as if it would be torn asunder, and the entire vicinity of the volcano became a near-apocalyptic land of destruction where no living being could approach!

  The shockwaves created by the battle between the adepts caused the volcano to erupt with increasing frequency and intensity. All humans and creatures within fifty kilometers of Gangsas Volcano started to flee into the distance in front of this indescribable threat.

  Chapter 979 - Betting His Life

  Chapter 979 Betting His Life

  This great battle between the adepts at Gangsas Volcano did not cause too many casualties, mostly because of its remote location.

  However, since the adepts had started camping there, Gangsas Volcano had erupted every three to five days. It expelled thick black smog and ash into the air, covering the skies and rendering all the land within hundreds of kilometers dead.