Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The Ango’rosh ogres had formidable Physique, terrifying Strength, and numbers in the thousands. It made them a particularly fearsome force. However, such an army was nothing in the eyes of a Fourth Grade fire adept.

  If it wasn’t out of concern of the Fourth Grade ogre chieftain, Greem could have gone all out and exterminated them by himself.

  How fearsome was a legendary fire adept unleashing all his power?

  A Fourth Grade fire adept was an apocalyptic calamity on the battlefield. Every action, every fire spell, could inflict devastating damage to the enemy.

  With the fire creatures as fodder in the front and Greem wreaking death and destruction from behind, the twelve Swamp Giants only had to endure a negligible amount of pressure in combat. They mostly gathered around Greem, exterminating any ogre that slipped past the fire creatures or attempted to destroy the Flamegate.

  The fire creatures were an unstoppable torrent by now, engaging the ogres in a vicious battle.

  The smaller fire creatures were nothing more than fodder. Their powers were already greatly affected by the damp environment. The moment they approached the ogres, they were crushed to sparks by the stone hammers and sticks.

  Though the sparks from their disintegrated bodies would burn the ogres, they were resilient enough to withstand such damage. Injuries like that only provoked the ogres and made them even more wild and reckless in battle, rather than hinder them.

  Only Second Grade fire creatures with bodies that were almost entirely solid and amazing powers could inflict lasting, severe damage to the ogre warriors. Moreover, the beings summoned here weren’t the fire creatures themselves, but a projection of their power.

  That only made them even more ferocious and fearless than usual.

  Once the flame power in their projection had been exhausted, they would self-detonate without hesitation, inflicting the maximum amount of damage and causing as much chaos as possible.

  Consequently, deafening explosions were constantly ringing on the frontlines. Waves of fire would wash over the swamp, leaving behind charred skeletons and human torches.

  Horrible. The battle was unusually gruesome!

  However, this was the ogres’ base, after all. The hundreds of meters of ponds and swamps at the front of the camp were the worst battleground for the fire creatures. Most of their energy was exhausted by the air’s humidity, leaving them with only a small portion left that they could unleash on these wicked ogres.

  Meanwhile, Greem’s fire spells were still the main threat to the ogres.

  Be it the Meteor Showers, the Doomsday Volcanos, or Molten World, each and every one of his spells had terrifying might and shocking radius. They were incredibly lethal to the ogres!

  Even as robust and resilient as they were, the Ango’rosh ogres could only dejectedly accept the reality of their fragility in front of Greem.

  Gorefist, who had been hiding in the army, witnessed ogre after ogre collapse in the flames, and familiar figure after familiar figures reduced to ashes in the fires. He let out a furious roar, but there was nothing he could do.

  With the horde of fire creatures standing in the front, and twelve Swamp Giants standing guard, very few ogres could even make it near the Flamegate. The ogres had to endure wave upon wave of fire spells. Their cries of anguish before death were heartbreaking.

  “Gorefist, that human adept is a reinforcement found by Moat. Apparently, he’s a legendary Fourth Grade fire adept. Do not underestimate him. Buy as much time as possible. Krach and I will arrive shortly. We will work together and take him down when we arrive. He will be yours to do as you please!”

  “Hurry up…move faster. That damned bastard is slaughtering all my men. Every body falling in battle here is one of my people, yet you two are still watching from afar…no! I must stop him!”

  “No…Gorefist, you must not step in battle! I believe that human adept is trying to lure you out and kill you in single combat. You will die if you show yourself!”

  “I don’t believe it! He’s a Fourth Grade, but I am a Fourth Grade as well. There’s nothing to fear. Come here as soon as possible! Perhaps by the time you arrive, I will have twisted off his head and feasted on his blood.”

  While Gorefist was shouting in his mind, Greem had summoned another gigantic meteor and sent it crashing down from the skies.

  The Meteor Showers from earlier had only summoned meteors about one meter in diameter. Still, they had devastated the ogres. This gigantic meteor was over twenty meters in diameter. When it cut across the sky towards the ground, it was almost as if it had seared a burning mark in the air.

  Even the space of the plane began trembling when the meteor passed by.

  Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! If a meteor like that landed in the ogres’ ranks, the damage it could inflict was unimaginable.

  Gorefist could no longer hold back. He roared and pushed aside his men before charging into battle.

  The moment he stepped onto the battlefield, he let out a furious shout. He swung the stone hammer in his right hand over and over as if it was weightless before finally hurling it forward.

  It turned into a fireball and rapidly approached the even more massive, more terrifying fireball crashing down from above.

  A loud explosion rang out. The hammer shattered the meteor into several pieces and splintered it in every direction. Gorefist made a grabbing motion, and the falling stone hammer vanished instantly.

  It reappeared in Gorefist’s right hand the next moment.

  Greem sensed an unexpected flux of the planar laws during this process.

  Hm? The planar laws that the ogre chieftain had mastered were truly unusual. To think he could resummon a weapon he had thrown into the distance!

  On closer thought, a planar law power like this was practically useless for most adepts with their long-ranged spells. That said, it was a decent ability for melee professions with a lack of reach.

  With this ability, even a creature as clumsy and unintelligent as an ogre could take on the role of heavy artillery!

  Gorefist stood in the center of the battlefield with a hammer in each hand. His beady green eyes stared viciously at Greem, hatred burning strongly within.

  Fire creatures foolish enough not to know better were crushed beneath Gorefist’s foot when they got close. The entire battlefield shook as if an earthquake had happened.

  Powerful shockwaves spread through the ground to the surroundings. All fire creatures caught in this shockwave instantly turned to ashes, without even the chance to self-destruct.

  Forty-two points of Strength.

  In just half a second, the Chip had determined the ogre chieftain’s Strength.

  It was important to note that Greem’s base Strength at the moment was no more than 27 points. And this was only thanks to the constant supply of fire dragon meat and the use of a significant amount of resources. As expected of a Fourth Grade melee fighter, his base Strength was 15 points higher than Greem’s.

  If Greem fought him in person, he would have to endure a tremendous amount of force with every parry or strike he attempted!

  Even so, Greem would not back off.

  After all, this was a rare chance to pick off a Fourth Grade native creature.

  If he missed this chance, he would have a much, much, much harder time killing even a single Fourth Grade of the Spirit World.

  Greem waved his hand, and the fire creatures on the battlefield split off to the sides. The twelve Swamp Giants also retreated close to the Flamegate.

  Thus, the center of the battlefield was left to the two Fourth Grades!

  Gorefist, Ango’rosh Ogre Chieftain.

  From a distance, he looked like a fat, overweight human.

  He was over seven meters tall– not exactly the tallest amongst the ogres, but certainly the bulkiest.

  He stood there like a mountain of flesh, flab upon flab of meat on his body. There were so many layers that it almost looked like he was wearing armor of flesh. His stubby legs were h
alf a meter in diameter, leaving craters in the ground with every step.

  Due to his excessive size, Gorefist only wore a hide around his waist, barely covering his more sensitive parts.

  He also wore a necklace of skulls on his neck. He wore a sharp bone in his nose as a piercing. His eyes were wide as metal shields, and his big ears drooped all the way to his shoulders.

  The only weapons he had on his person were the two giant stone hammers.

  Greem could faintly sense some strange energy flux from the hammers. It seems like they were no ordinary items!

  Chapter 1206 - The Tragic Ogre Chieftain

  As the two Fourth Grades prepared for battle, the other participants in combat started to move away silently.

  It was simple. They were all scared of being caught by the shockwaves of the Fourth Grades’ attacks!

  Once there were no other distractions within five hundred meters, Gorefist lifted his hammer, roared, and charged forward.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  The earth trembled, and the world shook.

  Fearsome shockwaves emanated from where he stepped, and a deep footprint remained in the ground where he trampled. All the puddles around the point of impact were blown into the air and split into tiny particles of water by the vibration of the strange shockwave.

  The chieftain of the Ango’rosh ogres thundered towards Greem like a berserk bull.

  The flame giant that Greem had transformed into was a dozen meters tall, while Gorefist was only seven meters tall.

  Even though Gorefist was smaller in size, he didn’t seem intimidated at all, judging by how fearlessly and recklessly charged forward.

  Greem quickly cast his spells, and several Flame Vines began to creep towards the ogre. However, the Flame Vines were shredded to sparks by the force shockwaves in the air before they could wrap around the opponent’s thick limbs.

  The wind howled as the hammer crashed forth, instantly smashing the fire projection that Greem had left in his original spot.

  Meanwhile, Greem’s actual body appeared a hundred meters away. A chain of Blazing Fireballs cut across the sky and landed on Gorefist.

  Beng! Beng! Beng.!

  Consecutive explosions rang out, causing Gorefist to grunt over and over again.

  However, the winds howled once more as a warhammer burst forth from the flames, stirring a gale in the process. The hammer smashed viciously towards Greem.

  Greem did not dare hesitate in the slightest. He teleported a hundred meters away with Fire Teleportation and dodged the flying hammer.

  It couldn’t be helped. The difference in Strength was too massive. Greem had absolutely no confidence in defending against the hammer with his magical defenses. With Gorefist’s 42 points of Strength, Greem’s body would turn into meat paste upon contact.

  Even if the hammer couldn’t break Greem’s magical shields, the shockwave from the impact would be more than he could bear.

  If Greem was further stunned by the impact of such a heavy weapon…

  That was the agony of elementium adepts when fighting against warrior professions. They could not allow the enemy to touch them in the slightest.

  Fortunately, as an elementium adept, Greem’s mobility was far superior to Gorefist.

  As the two Fourth Grades continued to attack each other, the previously rowdy crowd of fighters became scurrying rats, covering their heads and fleeing away from the battlefield with all their might.

  The battlefield of Fourth Grades was exceedingly terrifying. There was no room for the weak.

  Greem regularly scattered to the winds, erupted into tiny sparks and drifted into the air, or appeared here and there around Gorefist using Fire Teleportation. He was changing positions every three to five seconds, simply to prevent getting hit by the enemy.

  Yet, regardless of how dangerous the situation became, Greem never strayed more than a hundred meters away from the ogre chieftain.

  He had no choice! It was what he needed to do.

  Area-of-effect spells might be unavoidable, but their magical power was too scattered. They could not inflict any significant damage to this enemy. Only concentrated single-target spells could penetrate the opponent’s forcefield defenses and inflict sufficient damage.

  However, very few such spells could be cast instantly. Their trajectory was also too predictable.

  If they were a hundred meters apart, Gorefist would be able to read the trajectory of all the fire spells. He would then have plenty of time to think and react, be it to dodge or shatter the spell with a thrown hammer.

  However, Greem also suffered incredible pressure by skirting within a hundred meters of Gorefist. The ogre’s terrifying Strength was overwhelming!

  Those howling hammers might not have hit Greem even once, but just the shockwaves in the air caused by their passage made his Inferno Shields shatter.

  The battle was like a bear trying to catch a cat. The bear seemed clumsy, but the fight could be decided in an instant if anything happened.

  Greem was utterly untouched since the start of the battle. Meanwhile, the ogre chieftain had been bombarded with fire spells and covered in burn wounds. Still, injuries like these were only light wounds for the tough-skinned ogre.

  Gorefist only had to protect his head and heart with his hammer. The enemy could freely attack the rest of his fleshy body. He persistently struck at the dodging Greem. Even though he missed every single time, his hammers still put incredible pressure on the adept.

  Gorefist stared with his strange, triangular, beady eyes through his hammers at Greem, with a shifty gleam that did not match his stature. He was intentionally putting on an act of clumsiness and ignorance. If the adept truly believed that this was all he had to offer, then the battle techniques he would unleash in the heat of battle would catch the enemy by surprise and teach them an unforgettable lesson!

  None among Fourth Grades, caster or warrior, was an idiot.

  If you ever believed your opponent to be a fool, you would not be far from a death trap!

  However, while Gorefist was hiding his real power, Greem was also holding back.

  Among the few fire laws he had mastered, he had made sure to conceal the two most important ones– Fire Penetration and Invisible Flames. He had only been using Increased Fire Effectiveness and Increased Spellcasting Range.

  While the ogre chieftain was scheming his demise, Greem was also plotting the ogre’s death.

  Since the opponent was blatantly laying down bait, he would happily devour it.

  Greem was also trying his best to inflict as many minor injuries as possible while the ogre held back. It was a free advantage offered by the opponent. It would not be so easy to freely bombard the enemy when he finally went all out later.

  Gorefist continued to endure the fire spells in agony while secretly compressing the space available to Greem. His small, beady eyes continued to turn around their sockets as he tried his best to calculate his chances of success with the ambush.

  Meanwhile, Greem was actively moving around with Fire Teleportation, using the Chip’s scans to gather the opponent’s information and data. Greem might not have Alice’s exceptional sense for danger, but analyzing the enemy’s movements and predicting the flow of the battle through dynamic analysis was the Chip’s area of expertise.

  With the two Fourth Grades intentionally guiding the battle where they wanted it to go, the first fuse was quickly lit!

  Gorefist swung the hammer in a wide arc, forcing Greem to use Fire Teleportation once again. When Greem’s body vanished in a pillar of fire, Gorefist turned around to face his back. Both hammers flew forward and crashed towards an empty spot on the ground. He roared and strode forward, giving Greem a hug of death with his strong arms just as the adept appeared out of thin air.

  Wooosh!

  The fierce winds howled ferociously.

  Greem’s path to the right and left had been thoroughly cut off by the hammers. He had also just finished his Fire Teleportation, and there
was a three-second cooldown until the next time he could cast it.

  Gorefist thundered forward like a wayward train, catching this perfect moment and using his arms to further seal off any path of escape that Greem had.

  Gorefist’s broad mouth opened as wide as it could go as he charged. He let out the loudest and most vicious roar he had made since the start of the battle. The shapeless soundwave burst forth from his mouth, compressing the air and causing it the visibly form into a wave that crashed against Greem’s body.

  All the fire defenses around Greem popped and shattered. His mind was also dazed for a brief moment. It felt like his soul consciousness was numb and no longer responsive to his thoughts and intentions.

  Berserk Howl!

  It was a secret combat technique of Gorefist that allowed him to cripple the enemy’s Spirit momentarily with a battlecry. The duration of its effect was determined by the resilience of the opponent’s Spirit.

  Gorefist couldn’t help but grin widely when he saw the flame giant stripped of all his defenses and his body swaying about. There was only a mere distance of thirty meters between them now. Moreover, no one could stop him from reaching the flame giant and crushing him into pieces.

  Before his smile could spread to the rest of his ugly, tattooed face, Gorefist’s legs tripped on something. His chubby body lost balance as he crashed to the ground head first, sliding towards Greem covered in mud and water.

  A small, but strangely hard, wall of fire about half a meter tall had appeared on the ground between him and the adept without his knowledge. Gorefist’s substantial body crushed the second and third wall of fire after he was tripped by the first one. His large head then smashed a fourth and a fifth wall.

  When he finally slid up to the flame giant, Greem had broken free of his daze. After crashing into so many walls of fire with his head, Gorefist was stunned, despite his Physique.

  The next instant, a pillar of golden flames engulfed the ogre chieftain’s body, roasting him thoroughly, inside and out.