Thus, a new battlefield appeared on the flank, which quickly intensified and boiled over!
At the same time, some surprising changes had also appeared on the main battlefield.
The Frost Giant Army and the Modified Beast Army were starting to falter in the face of the Crimson Clan’s offense. They were slowly beginning to retreat.
Chapter 1009 - Prelude to the Final Battle
The ones that defeated the two mighty subordinate armies of the Fabres Clan were none other than the inconspicuous self-destructing machines of the Crimson Clan.
These self-destructing machines were often the size of a human head and marched along with the magical machines. When the battle broke out, they swarmed forward, chittering and screeching as they rushed to where the enemies were the most crowded before exploding violently.
Their main lethality came from their modified magic energy explosives and the numerous armor-penetrating shells hidden within them. They unleashed a devastating and indiscriminate attack when they blew up.
They might seem small, but their numbers were unbelievable. Even after half of them had been destroyed by spells and frost magic, the remainder of them still managed to self-destruct amid the ranks of the frost giants and the modified tigers.
One or two self-destructing machines might not be much, but when there was an entire army of them, even the two powerful subordinate armies started suffering damage to their lower bodies. Most of the Frost Giants’ hairy legs were injured from the explosions, while the modified beasts were mostly wounded in the lower abdomen, where the golden scales did not reach.
These small injuries didn’t seem like much, but when they accumulated, they began to hinder the attacks and movements of the enemy severely. A Frost Giant shambling on one leg or magical tiger that occasionally paused to lick its wounds were both prime targets for the goblin chariots on the battlefield.
As courageous as the two subordinate armies were, there was no avoiding their rapid exhaustion in such a bloody battle!
Seeing how the frontline was about to descend into a wasteful tug-of-war that would expend much of their invested resources, the seven Third Grade adepts of the Fabres Clan started to become concerned.
The Fabres Clan was indeed several dozen times more powerful than the Crimson Clan, with incomparable advantages in both resources and number of adepts. However, the bigger the organization, the more power was needed.
These subordinate armies were all aces that the Fabres Clan had hidden across their lesser planes. They were the main military force meant to be used to defend the assets of the clan. If they suffered excessively heavy losses in a short amount of time and failed to replenish their numbers quickly enough, there would be an unpredictably severe effect across the lesser planes owned by the Fabres Clan.
For the first time, the seven Third Grade adepts of the Fabres Clan couldn’t help but be impressed by the Crimson Clan. They had only risen to power a hundred years ago, yet they could survive in a battle against the Fabres Clan and their thousands of years of accumulation until this moment. It was more than enough evidence of the effective management of the Crimson Clan, as well as their surprising military potential.
Moreover, even though the war had intensified to such an extent, the Crimson Clan had yet to send their golem dragon onto the battlefield. It fully demonstrated that the enemy was not yet on their last legs and that they were not desperate. It also indirectly reflected the Crimson Clan’s terrifying potential for war.
Faced with such an opponent, the Fabres clan adepts had no option left but to put aside their arrogance and to show the will and courage to fight a bloody battle.
The seven Third Grade adepts looked at each other and silently started sorting out their equipment. They flew out of the flying wooden ship and headed towards the bloody battlefield. Squads of elite adepts also emerged from their hiding spots behind them, gathering into a rumbling torrent as they rushed towards the battlefield.
Faced with the hundreds and thousands of Fabres adepts, the Crimson Clan also started to concentrate their military forces and assigning them to their various positions. In the distance, the magical golem dragon in Pinecone City could also be seen moving towards the battlefield with rumbling steps as a torrent of steam pouring from its mouth.
The three Motherships slowly lowered their altitude and hovered above the clan’s formation, shielding them from any aerial threats. Over four hundred goblin chariots grouped up into four cannon formations on the ground, still incessantly bombarding the enemies marching towards them.
The number of magical machines coming from the chariots, the Motherships, and from Pinecone City now numbered 1,262. All of them stood in front of the goblin chariots, forming a tight–if haphazard–defensive line at the very front.
Any creature that wished to assault their defensive line would have to endure the firepower of hundreds of magic energy cannons, along with sniping fire from the giant energy cannons above.
That did not include the 763 magical machines and 326 Brutalblood goblin machinist-sorcerers that were still fighting on the battlefield.
The two great clans were desperately concentrating their forces at the frontline but did not cast them into battle yet. Instead, they gathered their soldiers at the edge of the battlefield with the intent of forming an overwhelming force sufficient enough to crush the enemy’s line of defense in a single strike.
All manner of adept forces started to appear after a while, each one dressed in their own unique fashion and equipped in their own particular way.
There was cavalry riding upon ferocious beasts, wearing magic resistant armor while wielding thunder tridents crackling with lightning. There were archers with muscular bodies, carrying glowing runic longbows of strange design upon their backs. There were even bird-people who had wings growing out of their backs, dressed in leather armor and holding magic wands in their hands.
All of these soldiers radiated magical aura, and even the weakest of them was at the level of an advanced apprentice. In a small clan, these people would be the next generation forces that the clan would cultivate with all their strength. Yet, the Fabres Clan had chosen to train them into a strange ‘army’ of sorts.
Indeed, the Fabres Clan had trained these soldiers in the fashion of worldly armies while equipping them with the corresponding magical equipment. Sometimes, when an apprentice-level ‘warrior’ combined his power with that of magical equipment, he could unleash terrifying combat prowess equal to that of a proper adept.
That was perhaps the real reason the Fabres Clan had put in so much effort into training them!
It was important to note that successfully cultivating an official adept in the World of Adepts required such a tremendous amount of time and resources that it could topple an ordinary adept clan. However, if this time and these resources were invested in adept apprentices who had no hopes of advancement, it was easy to obtain a sizeable, simple fighting force quickly.
However, compared to official adepts, these apprentice ‘warriors’ only had the combat prowess to match. They didn’t have many hopes of advancement and could not be a source of high-grade adepts for the clan. As such, most large adept clans still focused on cultivating proper adepts, only complementing the clan’s primary military force by training such ‘adept forces.’
The Crimson Clan had risen to power far, far too recently, after all. They hadn’t had sufficient time, energy, or resources to train and create a voodoo beast army, a subordinate army, or an adept force belonging solely to the clan. Only the newly founded Brutalblood Army was somewhat like an adept force, while the dragons of Lance were slightly similar to a subordinate army.
As for a voodoo beast army? Not a shadow of such a force could even be seen within the Crimson Clan!
At this point in the war, both parties were already committing every single force they had to the battle. The conflict started to escalate in tension, slowly turning into the final showdown between the Fabres Clan and the Cr
imson Clan.
Behind the Crimson Clan’s forces was their last remaining city– Pinecone City.
If the Crimson Clan lost the war, all the territories, resource sites, and workforce they had painstakingly gathered over the years in Ailovis would be destroyed in a single night. Though they still had a clan tower they could retreat to, doing so would mean the reputation that they had built up over the years would be gone without a trace.
The competition in the World of Adepts was exceedingly cruel and practical!
Once the Crimson Clan was reduced to a weakling that anyone could bully, all the enemies they had made in the past would gather together to devour what resources they had left. They would never give the Crimson Clan a single chance at rising to power again.
Meanwhile, the core of the Crimson Clan remaining in White Tower would also have to survive a bloody storm just as brutal as the one in the central region if they wanted to grow firmly under the rule of the Northern Witches.
The presence of a powerful mastermind could faintly be felt behind the scenes of the tumultuous storm that the Crimson Clan was currently facing!
That the Crimson Clan could rule over a region of their own was proof of their powerful vitality and resilience. Though tension and conflicts over certain things might arise with the veteran clans, all-out war seeking to uproot the very foundations of a clan rarely happened under ordinary circumstances.
Though the Fabres Clan could conquer the entirety of Ailovis after they exterminated the Crimson Clan, it wasn’t exactly worth the price. The number of adepts and soldiers they had lost since the start of the battle was already pushing towards their limits.
If this series of ceaseless casualties were to continue, even the great and powerful Fabres Clan would face the possibility of a period of weakness.
It was precisely because they hoped to prevent that from happening that the seven Third Grade Fabres adepts had chosen to set foot upon the battlefield personally. They wanted to crush the last resistance of the Crimson Clan with a violent and unstoppable assault to end this long and difficult adept war as soon as they could.
The seven Third Grade adepts stood in a row, each using their abilities to hover above their forces. Their ferocious aura gathered into a formless will, heavily pressing down upon the Crimson Clan’s forces.
Meanwhile, on the side of the Crimson Clan, only Mary and Oliven were flying in the air, glaring at the enemy. There were no other Third Grade adepts. Neither their aura nor numbers could even come close to that of the Fabres Clan.
“You must be Adept Mary.” The leader of the Fabres Clan adepts was a Third Grade adept named Zam. He stepped forward and smiled as he looked at the crimson adept hovering in the air with her wings of leather, “All the forces that your Crimson Clan can muster are already here. If you lose, you will lose everything. Not only will you have no clan and no resources, but even you personally will not be able to remain in this land. So…surrender!
“As long as you are willing to surrender, I will ask Lord Declan to treat you all as best as we can. When that happens, you will remain respected adepts, free to walk under the skies. Why not take my offer?”
“Trying to get me to surrender?” The pretty Mary started chuckling loudly.
“What’s so funny?” A female adept from the Fabres Clan stood forward and said, “Stop dreaming of resisting us. Otherwise, you will lose everything when you lose the war. Not even your souls will rest in peace when that happens!”
“Hahaha! That’s where you are wrong! You aren’t speaking to the right people!” Mary continued to laugh, “The Crimson Clan is not mine. It’s his. If you want to ask us to surrender, you had better talk to him!”
As Mary finished speaking, a blinding pillar of fire blasted into the skies above a Mothership. A majestic and towering figure strode out from within.
Chapter 1010 - Legendary Fire Adept
How much power did Greem’s name hold in the Crimson Clan?
It wasn’t usually too obvious, but the power of his name was put on full display upon a clan battlefield like this one.
The Crimson Clan was founded by Greem, to begin with. He, the legendary fire adept who rose to power in such a miraculous fashion, had deeply etched the name of the Crimson Clan in the hearts of every one of its members.
The Crimson Clan was Greem, and only Greem could truly represent the Crimson Clan!
It didn’t matter how badly suppressed by the enemy the Crimson Clan had been. It didn’t matter how horribly they had been beaten. It didn’t matter how many concessions they had made and how many resource sites and territories they had lost. When Greem appeared before everyone with his iconic body of flames, the emotions of the Crimson Clan members instantly ignited.
A thunderous wave of cheering soared into the skies.
Almost as if resonating with everyone’s emotions, blazing fire cascaded outwards from Greem’s burning figure, gathering into a luxurious crimson armor that covered his towering body.
Greem’s familiar and powerful voice boomed across the sky.
“Everybody, I am back!”
This simple sentence caused the entire battlefield to erupt.
The goblin machinist-sorcerers bathing in blood and fire on the frontlines, the goblin cannoneers firing away at the turrets on the goblin chariots, and the clan adepts gathering at the frontlines preparing for the slaughter to come; each and every one of them flew into a frenzy. Their eyes turned red, and they started shouting the name of the legendary fire adept with all their might.
It wasn’t just them. The applause was thundering within the command hall of the Motherships as cheers filled the rooms. In particular, Crimson leaders and commanders Gargamel and Meryl were having tears well-up their eyes and streak down their faces. They, too, started shouting with all they had.
It had been such a hard and bitter effort just hanging on!
Their past few months of painstaking effort, of staying at the very frontlines night and day, of enduring countless rumors and gossip behind their backs, and of shouldering such unimaginable pressure– what had it all been for? For the sake of awaiting their master’s return, for the sake of preserving the Crimson Clan’s power, and for the very sake of returning a still-intact Crimson Clan back to the hands of Greem.
When they saw that dear, familiar pillar of flames and that majestic figure standing in the sky, all their humiliation, frustration, and effort turned into warm tears and burst out of their eyes. Gargamel and Meryl could only express their delight and excitement with the most primal and intense cheering that they could muster.
Now that Lord Greem was back, they no longer had to bear such a heavy burden!
Even if Greem were alone and the enemy numbered in the tens of thousands, the hearts of the Crimson adepts still settled in an instant. They believed…no, they firmly believed that even in the most desperate of situations, even in the most difficult of battlefields, the legendary fire adept Lord Greem would undoubtedly lead them towards victory!
Greem stood high in the sky with overwhelming fire gathered around his body. His powerful and sensitive Spirit perfectly picked up on the intense conviction from the members of the Crimson Clan. From adepts to apprentices to the ordinary goblins, everyone was filled with unwavering trust and admiration for him.
This…was clearly the source of the power of faith!
This power didn’t usually manifest easily, which is why Greem hadn’t realized its existence, even when tens of thousands of such fine threads were wrapped around him. However, today, when the clan was faced with a crisis, all of the emotions hidden within the hearts of the clan members had been ignited and brought forth. That was why Greem could very clearly sense surges of a profound and unusual power being very remotely projected onto his person through the mysterious planar laws when he stood forward.
It mysteriously caused his majestic figure in the sky to become even more focused and substantial in presence.
The effect of this in the eyes
of the enemy was as if the legendary fire adept was resonating with the world itself, even as he walked towards them. His entire being, from his physical presence to his spiritual presence, pressed towards them with a terrifying aura as if he had the very power of the world in tow.
It caused the members of the Fabres Clan to feel an inexplicable pressure within their hearts and minds. The will to battle that they had just managed to muster earlier couldn’t help but start wavering and trembling!
Naturally, the ordinary adepts and warriors did not feel this change too sensitively.
They only faintly sensed the aura of the fire adept growing stronger and his figure growing larger, while realizing that they had no chance of defeating this opponent. It was a vague and peculiar sensation to have, but it was directly etched within their souls and minds, causing them to believe firmly in this feeling as if it were a fact itself.
When the actual fight broke out, the ordinary warriors and adepts probably wouldn’t even have the courage to swing their weapons or cast their spells at Greem.
The morale and will of the Fabres forces instantly faltered and fell to a low!
“Dammit! That is the power of the laws! The fire adept actually managed to move the planar laws.”
“How is this possible? I am not hallucinating, am I?”
“Bastard! Isn’t he only Third Grade?”
The others might not understand what was happening, but the seven Third Grade Fabres adepts at the frontline felt everything and understood most perfectly what was happening.
The damned fire adept was actually compatible with the consciousness of the planar origin at this moment. He had managed to move a trace of the planar laws’ power, etching within the souls of their forces the thought of defeat.
According to what they knew, this should be a power exclusive only to those old, peak Fourth Grade monsters!
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