Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The 350 points of energy intensity might not be able to burn a hole through his body, but they could still leave a small scorch mark the size of a fingernail on his back. More importantly, the elementium magical machine knew how to time its shots to Gallow’s movements. Gallow’s quickly moving body would be interrupted by an attack whenever it was a key moment in catching up to Greem, causing him to lose his best opportunity to attack.

  A single beam would leave a small scorch mark. Two beams, and there would only still be a small scorch mark. However, as these ray beams continued to rain down on Gallow, the small scorch marks started to gather together to become a massive wound that even he could not ignore.

  After all, what rested in Gallow’s chest was not his original heart, but the withered heart of a Fallen Emperor. Gallow might not die if an attack hit that heart, but it would most definitely wear away at his endless supply of death aura.

  He had no choice but to dig his feet into the corpse pile. A terrifying and bloody ditch, one meter deep and two meters wide, was carved into the corpses before he finally managed to stop his insane momentum. It allowed him to dodge the next magic energy beam that was fired at him.

  However, in the one instant that Gallow stopped moving, Greem’s eyes gleamed as a layer of invisible flames immediately engulfed Gallow’s body.

  Gallow, who had thus far remained untouched even after being bombarded a dozen times by Greem’s Vicious Fireballs, let out a grunt. A violent shockwave blasted from his body and blew away this layer of flames.

  It had only been two seconds since the invisible flames surrounded Gallow.

  However, when Scarface Gallow scrambled out of the fire, a good half of his body had already turned black and charred. It was almost as if the excellent magic resistance that he prided himself on had vanished for that one instant.

  “This…this isn’t holy light?”

  An old voice asked in surprise in the higher-up’s room in Kerslin Castle.

  “It’s not holy light! In my opinion, this should be holy fire formed from assimilating a portion of holy light power,” An equally old voice sighed and said in a low voice, “There is already a semblance to principle fire in his flames now!”

  “That said, his control over this principle fire is clearly very limited. As long as he can’t lock onto the position with his vision, this slow-acting fire will have difficulty burning Gallow,” A crisp female voice interrupted.

  “Indeed, you might be right. But…can Gallow remain as calm as before after having seen principle fire for the first time?”

  “……”

  Far away from the musings of the Fourth Grade adepts in the World of Adepts, Scarface Gallow couldn’t help but fall into a state of panic and shock.

  All this while, he had been able to reign undefeated due to his wild Strength and the shocking resistance of his undead body. With these, Gallow could endure attacks from Third Grade elementium adepts and only suffer insignificant damage.

  However, like a warrior who had been hiding beneath his sturdy armor, the sudden disappearance of his protection had destroyed his psychological sense of security, more severely so than the massive wounds that had just been inflicted on his body.

  Gallow wore extremely rare magical equipment on his person. It was the Sun Vine, that was capable of absorbing elementium damage.

  However, the layer of invisible flames from earlier clearly didn’t belong to the realm of light elementium magic, but fire magic.

  Scarface Gallow’s undead body’s fire resistance might not be sufficient to allow him to be immune to fire, but it was pretty close to that. How could his skin have been burned to ashes by the invisible flames?

  That…was simply beyond Gallow’s expectations!

  It was precisely his overconfidence in his magic resistance that caused Gallow to hesitate for half a second at that moment, allowing the invisible flames to engulf him. Those two seconds of fire had successfully burned away Gallow’s confidence. He no longer dared to let the legendary fire adept attack without restraint.

  Hesitating, and concerned about any more attacks, Gallow no longer pursued as wildly and brazenly as before. He continued chasing after Greem, but constantly dodged and avoided the attacks coming from him and the elementium magical machine.

  In doing so, his chances of catching up to Greem decreased considerably!

  …………

  Greem was quickly running away.

  Just now, he had managed to activate the new fire spell that the Chip had simulated– Origin Fire!

  It was a principle fire that combined the holy light’s characteristic of ignoring magical resistance and defenses. Greem should only have been able to master this fire after advancing to Fourth Grade.

  However, with the aid of the Fourth Grade Sodden’s Holy Ring, he could successfully unleash the fire after a series of complicated and inconvenient energy conversions.

  Unfortunately, the instant he successfully managed to cast Origin Fire, his Flame Fiend’s Heart withered by a great deal!

  The Flame Fiend’s Heart was the heart of a Second Grade demon that Greem had transplanted earlier in his life, after all.

  The Flame Fiend’s Heart had provided Greem with endless fire energy over the years, allowing him to trump one powerful enemy after another. However, with every step Greem took towards greater heights, the Second Grade Flame Fiend’s Heart gradually stopped becoming a source of strength. Now, at the peak of Third Grade, it was even dragging down the progression and improvement of his power.

  Take what happened earlier, for instance. The Origin Fire’s demand for fire energy had gone beyond the limits of the Flame Fiend’s Heart. The sudden torrent of flames that coursed through Greem’s body exceeded the capacity of the Flame Fiend’s Heart, burning the heart in the backlash.

  If Greem’s body was a wooden bucket, then the Flame Fiend’s Heart was the short plank in the bucket, dragging down Greem when he wanted to unleash his power. If the fire energy surging through Greem’s body exceeded a certain level, he would harm his own body even as he injured the opponent.

  It was at this very moment that Greem realized, more than ever, that this body of his was in dire need of changes!

  However, regardless of how concerned and anxious he was about the issue, it was something he had to deal with after the fight. Greem still needed to face the formidable Scarface Gallow with all his strength right now.

  After all, if Gallow were able to hit him with all thirty-nine points of his Strength, no number of elementium shields would guarantee his personal safety.

  Chapter 1046 - A Battle Between High-Grade Adepts

  A battle between high-grade adepts could no longer be compared to the hunting and fighting of ordinary creatures!

  Battles between ordinary beings were ultimately a contest of raw strength and technique. Meanwhile, a fight between high-grade adepts was a competition of Strength, Agility, Physique, Spirit, skill, and senses.

  During a battle, the massive amounts of magical energy within a high-grade adept’s body would naturally form a defensive forcefield, cutting off all foreign spiritual probes. That said, as long as their body and Spirit still conducted energy exchange and interaction with the external world, the opponent would be able to pick up on their intentions in battle based on the minute energy shifts in the surroundings.

  When both adepts’ Spirits were firmly locked onto each other, the factors that determined the final result of the battle would be massively expanded. It would no longer be purely a matter of base power and combat prowess, but the nature of power, the application of force, and many, many others.

  Some times, even the slightest change in the environment or one’s emotion during battle could affect the final result. Should an adept be forced into a disadvantage during a fight, defeat would become very likely unless they were to turn the tables by some forceful means.

  Though the two days and nights of encirclement by the zombies did not inflict any physical or spiritua
l damage to Gallow, it had substantially worn away at his will to battle. The sudden appearance of Greem’s Origin Fire during his fight became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

  At the very least, Gallow’s combat will and desire for victory had been completely suppressed!

  Wew!

  The magical sword grazed past Greem’s waist, sending vicious winds rippling through the air. A visible injury appeared on his body where the power of the sword radiated. Greem could not regenerate this wound, no matter how much fire energy he called upon. At the very least, he would not be able to heal this wound while he was still engaged in this fight.

  The magical sword in Scarface Gallow’s hands was scarier than the man himself!

  There was a trace of the principle powers contained within that attack.

  The source of that power was the magical sword!

  While the magical sword was still returning from its previous strike, Greem quickly waved his hands. He was only ten meters away from Gallow. A blazing torrent of flames with surprising intensity gathered between his hands and blasted towards Gallow’s chest.

  The Chip’s Elementium Sight revealed that there were three high-magic regions on Scarface Gallow’s body, where the energy reaction was shocking. They were his heart, his spine, and his right hand. These regions not only had a shockingly high energy reaction, but even their energy auras were slightly different from the rest of his body.

  The personal information obtained from the Association stated that Gallow had unexpectedly killed a Fallen Emperor in the Undead World. Greem had reason to believe that Gallow had used the body parts of the dead Fallen Emperor to modify his own body.

  Those three high-magic regions should be the body parts he had replaced from the Fallen Emperor.

  The heart gave him an endless supply of death energy, while the spine was the real source of his tremendous Physique. As for his right hand…Greem was surprised to find that the energy aura radiating from his right hand was identical to that radiating from the magical sword.

  The sword was growing from his right hand! It wasn’t just simple magical equipment!

  It was this surprising discovery that drove Greem and the elementium magical machine to focus all their attacks on Gallow’s heart.

  However, due to Gallow’s resilient Physique and formidable magic resistance, neither of their attacks had managed to break through Gallow’s skin, let alone wound the organs beneath. Well, that was if there any organs within.

  Scarface Gallow also seemed to have realized their intentions. He started to pay more attention to defending his battered chest during the intense battle.

  Gallow was now cautious of the elementium magical machine’s magic energy rays, compared to his utter disregard at the start of the battle. He would slice every single beam to pieces with his sword, even going to the extent of using other parts of his body to take the shot in place of his chest and back.

  The magic-energy ray beam was indeed potent. However, the elementium magical machine was firing from a thousand meters away, after all. That significant distance gave Gallow more than enough time to react and deal with the annoying beams.

  Greem had no choice but to throw himself into the fray as well, advancing on Gallow and using his vicious flames to assault the same spot on Gallow’s body repeatedly.

  Greem had always preferred using formed fire spells in battle, be it Vicious Fireball, Molten World, or the improved Scarlet Firestorm. However, in a struggle between high-grade adepts, both fighters were continually moving. These formed spells that required chants, handsigns, and elementium molding became relatively ‘clumsy’ in such confrontations.

  Greem was either escaping with all he had or pursuing with all the bloodlust he could muster. He never had the time to stop and cast any of these formed spells. By the time he tried and cast a spell, the enemy would already be right in front of him or way beyond the range of his spell; neither of these possibilities was good news for Greem!

  After experiencing several of these battles, Greem finally managed to put together this style of combat with the help of the Chip.

  Direct manipulation of fire elementium!

  Without the molding process of formed spells, he would save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent on casting. It allowed him to inflict fire damage on his opponents more rapidly.

  However, there are always two sides to things.

  Without the constraints of a form, gathering the violent and active fire elementium into a concentrated torrent required more focused spiritual manipulation on Greem’s part, along with extraordinary fire affinity. It increased the tax on Greem’s Spirit.

  Moreover, if his Spirit were to weaken for even a slight second during the process of manipulating the flames, the fire elementium would clash with each other and neutralize the force of the attack. When that happened, it wouldn’t just be a matter of failing to harm the enemy. Even Greem himself would have to suffer some degree of backlash from the flames.

  That was why directly manipulating fire elementium required extremely high fire affinity, tremendous Spirit, and exceptional fire manipulation technique. Failure was guaranteed if any one of these factors was missing. Forcefully attempting to go through with it would only backfire!

  However, since Greem dared to do so, it meant that he was confident in manipulating the flames well.

  As Greem moved about in an almost leisurely fashion, his ten fingers waved and flickered rapidly. Wild and ferocious fire energy would be absorbed from the surroundings with every movement he made, gathering around him and turning into a white stream of flame. It would then be slowly concentrated into a fearsome torrent as he teleported and danced about the battlefield.

  A firestorm capable of destroying everything shrouded Greem’s body, following him with every step he took and incessantly licking away at Gallow’s body. It didn’t matter how Gallow moved or blocked with his limbs and sword; he could not stop the torrent of fire from landing on his chest as they slipped around every obstacle like a gentle stream.

  A hole the size of a bowl had been burned into Gallow’s leather armor. The purple-green skin beneath glowed red from the constant heat and only turned redder and hotter as the flames continued to burn.

  When Gallow realized he could not defend against the enemy’s attack, he gave up on the pointless defense and put all his efforts into attacking Greem.

  He brandished his terrifying magical sword and swung it rapidly, sending multiple sword lights and compressed sword auras into the air, ravaging everything around him. Several purple-black lines appeared in the corpse mountain beneath them as the sword beams cleaved into the bodies.

  The destructive power contained within the slashes erupted, sending a hundred walls of black blood flying into the air at the same time with bits of flesh and bone mixed within the pungent liquid.

  Under such terrible circumstances, Greem had increasingly less space to move.

  Greem had already tried his best to reduce the size of his body. He had gone from a five-meter-tall flame giant to a two-meter-tall flame humanoid. It was the only way to concentrate his power and avoid being hit by the enemy’s powerful attacks.

  After all, when fighting against an adept as strong as Gallow, a bigger size would only mean making himself a bigger target.

  There was no merit to being large either. It was better to be small since it made it easier to control his powers!

  Greem’s red and white body quickly wove about the battlefield, blue light flickering in his blazing eyes, capturing every change in the substances and elementium around him.

  Countless haphazard red lines wrapped around each other and slashed towards him in his Elementium Sight. According to the data provided by the Chip, these force threads created by Gallow’s raw Strength all had over 600 points of power. Greem’s magical defenses could not defend against these threads at all.

  Even a single one of these force threads could slice through all of Greem’s defenses and hit his
body.

  If it were only a single force thread, Greem would be able to escape with some slight injury. Two threads, and he would risk losing a limb or even being cut in half. Three threads…the Chip revealed that Greem’s life would be in danger if he got caught by three threads. He would have a 46% chance of dying instantly.

  That was already a terrifying number!

  Greem quickly retreated without any hesitation.

  He also manipulated the flames and changed their trajectory as he backed off, blasting them into the force threads that were winding towards him.

  It was a clash of concentrated energy and loose energy. Thus, the torrent of fire was instantly cut into sparks by the incredibly focused force threads. The threads glowed brighter and brighter in Greem’s Elementium Sight.

  Even Scarface Gallow, with his tremendous Physique, had to stop and rest for a few seconds to calm the boiling energy in his body after unleashing such a violent attack. He then leaped into the air once again, chasing after the force threads and lunging wildly at Greem.

  Greem stared at Gallow through the hundreds of force threads. He was still retreating, constantly gathering more fire to slow down and obstruct the force threads as he did so.

  The two adepts quickly left the corpse mountain behind them, one chasing and one fleeing into the distance.

  Chapter 1047 - Various Factions

  At Greem’s level, any number of auxiliary functions would only remain supplemental. What truly determined victory in battle was the magical techniques of the adepts themselves.

  In all honesty, Scarface Gallow’s combat style was somewhat similar to body-refining adepts, though he was far more powerful and unusual in his attacks.

  After having his body modified heavily, Gallow no longer had so-called ‘weaknesses’ on his person. He would still be able to live if his body was severely injured, with over 80% of it missing. That said, his heart, spine, and right hand were most crucial to him.

  Though he wouldn’t die if these organs were damaged, he would still suffer a tremendous discount in combat prowess!