Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The tower was having an exceptionally difficult time surviving this first violent attack from the Crimson Fleet flagship.

  After a dozen seconds, the energy pillar started to weaken. The first shot from the giant magic energy cannon had not managed to crack the tower’s firm shell.

  However, before the Entom Clan adepts could exhale in relief, their hearts were strung up again. That was because the Versailles had slowly back away, and an equally massive Mothership drifted into its position. Its cannon was already charged, and the terrifying roaring of the cannon was horrifying.

  “Hurry, hurry…replenish the energy and restore the outermost defenses as quickly as possible,” The shouts of many adepts could be heard ringing from the tower. However, the next moment, their voices were drowned out by a terrible blast of energy.

  Yet another pillar of energy cut across the one and half kilometers of empty space, precisely landing on the same location as the last cannon shot.

  The forcefield that had just faded away revealed itself once again, blocking the energy pillar with its layers of force walls. The force walls could not endure the terrifying power of the cannon shot and shattered one after another.

  However, an endless supply of energy surged from within the tower as new force walls replaced the damaged ones. Through this means of constantly replenishing exhausted energy, the tower was once again barely able to survive the enemy’s attack.

  Twelve seconds later, the energy pillar dissipated, and the second attack ended.

  The Motherships hovering high in the sky switched positions once again. A third Mothership drifted forward before the horrified gazes of the Entom adepts.

  “Dammit! Open fire…return fire. We must retaliate! Otherwise, we will be sitting ducks. Once the tower is broken, none of us will survive.”

  As the adept’s leader shouted out his commands, the tower trembled as several layers of magical light appeared around its structure. Countless runic circuits filled with magic energy lit up sequentially and activated the numerous offensive arrays laid down throughout the tower.

  The next second, magical lightning bolts as thick as silver serpents lashed forward, along with a hail of frost weapons, giant globs of poison, and a barrage of shadow arrows. The attacks blasted against the sky fleet in a torrent.

  The Mothership that was preparing to fire showed no signs of retreat or defense. It was the two other Motherships behind it that erected a strange defensive barrier that engulfed the third one as well.

  It was a sort of special defensive barrier that combined energy shields and anti-magic barriers. It was incredibly effective at neutralizing elementium spells.

  The defensive barrier clashed with the rain of spells. It was as if fireworks had lit up over the city. However, before the shockwaves from the explosions faded away, a pure white beam of energy shot out from the cannon, blasting against the tower’s shields once more.

  This time, due to the diversion of energy to its offensive arrays, the tower’s defensive forcefield was no longer able to endure such a ferocious attack. The forcefield started to shatter and break down, layer by layer. Soon, a large hole ten-meters in diameter had burned through the forcefield. The energy pillar landed unimpeded on the structure of the tower itself.

  The defensive arrays on the tower’s walls lit up one by one, the magical runes glowing with blinding light. The dust and dirt on the walls of the tower were instantly blown away by an unseen force. The part of the structure hit by the energy pillar began to glow bright red as if it was molten lava.

  After fifteen long seconds, the energy pillar finally extinguished, leaving a giant, three-meter-wide scar on the tall tower. From a distance, it was almost as if a giant had left a burn scar on the tower with an equally gigantic cigar.

  Fortunately, the tower had been built out of obsidian, an excellent material. It possessed exceptional magic resistance and decent physical resistance. The tower was barely able to survive the cannon’s shot by the skin of its teeth.

  However, even though the section of the wall blasted by the energy pillar had cooled and returned to its original color, it was still damaged. It had now become a weak point of the tower.

  While the cannons cooled down, the tower drew wildly from the magic power in the energy pool at the building’s bottom. It injected the tower walls with power. The tower’s robust array system allowed the shattered forcefield to be restored, once again sheltering the tower.

  As for the damage to the tower? That would have to be patched up after the battle.

  At the very least, no Entom adept would dare brave enemy fire to repair the tower. That wasn’t courage, but idiocy!

  “Who would’ve thought that the Crimson Clan would possess such a terrifying magical weapon!?” The few Second Grade adepts that the Entom Clan had left in the tower all carried terrified expressions on their faces. They shouted out loud, “Where do they get all this magical power from? Could it be…could they have hidden an entire adept tower in those ships?”

  It was no surprise that the Entom adepts were so shocked. To their understanding, the most powerful things in the world were none other than war towers. War towers had a complete energy pool and energy circulation system, along with plenty of defensive and offensive arrays. Towers could store magic energy when not required, and draw upon the energy pool to supply the tower during times of war.

  These perfect magical facilities provided the adepts with a perfectly safe environment to freely unleash their destructive power. Naturally, war towers became a synonym for ultimate power in the hearts of all adepts!

  Today, the Crimson Clan had dared to face off against a large adept tower with only three metal ships in the sky. That was far beyond the understanding of the Entom adepts, and it filled them all with awe and shock.

  They had always believed that the Crimson Clan had been fueling these gigantic monstrosities with their tremendous wealth- that they were powering these flying death machines through a humongous supply of magical crystals.

  They now recognized their mistake.

  It was obvious that these metal ships held a power source in no way inferior to the energy pools of the adept towers. Otherwise, an energy blast of such intensity could not have lasted for so incredibly long!

  The miniaturization and mobilization of energy pools and elementium pools had always been key research subjects for most major adept clans. However, they never expected such technology to appear within the Crimson Clan.

  Judging from the ease with which the ships maneuvered around, as well as the complete defensive and offensive system, the Crimson Clan were already well-versed enough with this technology to implement it efficiently in war.

  The power that the Crimson Clan had been hiding was overwhelming!

  “Mobilize…go…tell the Swamp Flying Dragon force to strike now! We can’t let the enemy continue to attack our tower brazenly like this. We must counterattack,” Some of the more vicious and bloodthirsty adepts started shouting.

  As they gave their orders, several doors opened at the waist of the tower. Approximately a hundred strange dragons appeared.

  Adept apprentices dressed in robes of various colors rode on the backs of these dragons.

  They held high-grade magic wands and scrolls in their hands. Where they appeared, they shredded the enemy to pieces with a rain of instant-cast spells.

  If the enemy attempted to engage in a melee, then the dragons would leave them a terrifying memory to keep for what remained of their lives: sharp, scythe-like claws and fangs, powerful limbs, acid breath, and those ear-rending howls.

  Swamp flying dragons had inherited some dragon bloodline, after all. They might not compare to even the weakest of the pureblood dragons, but in a pack, they were still a terrifying force to be reckoned with.

  Pseudo-dragon mounts and apprentices with the ability to unleash powerful spells combined both physical and magical attacks. You could almost call it perfect.

  Unfortunately, such an army was l
ittle more than dead meat in front of the Crimson Fleet.

  The Motherships retracted the giant cannons and revealed hundreds of smaller magic energy cannons in their place. The black cannon barrels adjusted their angles according to the enemy’s position as they approached. Once the dragons were within firing range…Boom! Boom! Boom! Hundreds and hundreds of energy fireballs shot towards the dragons, like meteors falling from the sky.

  One or two fireballs were not enough to kill these dragons, given their resilience and magic resistance.

  However, with this carpet of fireballs raining from above, even pureblood dragons would be doomed, let alone these mutts.

  Chapter 1316 - Putting Down Dragons

  “Dodge…dodge, all of you, high-speed maneuvers, immediately!”

  The leader of the Swamp Flying Dragon army was an actual First Grade adept. However, even he felt his scalp go numb and his heart throb at the sight of those countless fireballs and their black tails of smoke.

  The dragon he was riding reared its head as he shouted his orders. It folded its wings and wove and dove in between the fireballs like an unstoppable arrow, slowly but surely making its way towards the giant ship.

  Its companions were also dodging and weaving about wildly behind.

  Unfortunately, there were simply too many energy fireballs packed together. They might be able to dodge one or two of them, but they couldn’t avoid all of them. There were even a few dragons that crashed together in their panic.

  For a moment, the sound of exploding fireballs, the agonized screams of the dragons, and the shouts of the apprentices mixed into a chaotic mess.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The series of fireball explosions generated a fearsome shockwave, which made the battlefield even more dangerous and unpredictable. Several of the swamp dragons crashed into the fireballs and started to swerve unpredictably, crashing into and detonating even more energy fireballs.

  Pretty fireworks erupted in the air.

  In the blink of an eye, over twenty swamp dragons and their adept apprentice riders had been blown to bits. Pieces of dragon organs, flesh, and purple blood scattered down to the ground in a wet and warm rain, making for a rather magnificent, if morbid, sight.

  Even more swamp dragons managed to charge past the clouds due to their magical shields and began to approach the Motherships.

  At this point, squads of magical machines were already standing in wait near the Motherships’ edge. They erected their energy barriers and activated their magic energy cannons, silently waiting for the enemy’s arrival.

  The magic energy cannons had a firing range of seven hundred meters, far beyond the scope of the dragons’ acid breath. Consequently, the magical machines were the first to fire in the engagement.

  The three Motherships were arranged in a triangle formation, with the Versailles slightly behind the other two.

  While the swamp dragons desperately flapped their wings to reach within attacking distance with the apprentices on their back, a storm of small energy fireballs shot out from both sides of the three Motherships.

  The adept who had just flown above the clouds felt a chill spread through his heart. He watched with eyes wide open as the hail of fireballs crashed down from above.

  The ships had only fired three hundred magic-energy fireballs earlier. It might have looked like plenty, but there was still plenty of space between each shot in which to weave and dodge. However, the machines’ bombardment was a true rain of fire this time, in every sense of the word. There was no possibility of avoiding the fireballs by means of movement or positioning.

  The adept activated the Barrier Gem that he gripped tightly in his hand without hesitation.

  A magical barrier appeared, completely enveloping him and his dragon. The fireballs immediately erupted into a sea of fire, just barely after the barrier appeared.

  Over a dozen dragons screeched and fell from the skies.

  “Disengage from the enemy’s firing range…disengage from the enemy’s firing range. Launch a dive assault once we reach higher altitudes!”

  The king of the swamp dragons beat its wings at their leader’s orders and flew even higher. Finally, they were past the Motherships, circling above all the Crimson ships. The magic energy cannons of the Motherships could no longer attack them at this angle. Only the squads of magical machines arranged on the wide decks could continue firing.

  The leader of the Swamp Flying Dragons continued to circle in the air, dodging one fireball after another.

  Meanwhile, he hastily produced several seeds from his pouch and threw them down at the deck. These seeds were only the size of fists and were so light they seemed almost weightless.

  They drifted down slowly. Upon landing on the deck, young green sprouts started to grow from these seeds. The sprouts might look thin and weak, but they had as much penetrative power as high-grade enchanted weapons.

  These sprouts quickly pierced through the half-meter thick metal deck and began to dig and grow under the deck. The ability to devour everything- that was the unique power of these magical plants.

  By devouring the ship’s metal, the magical plants started growing at extraordinary speed, soon transforming into gigantic lifeforms that resembled metal squids.

  They waved their dozen-meter-long vines about, rampaging across the deck, knocking down the machines or picking them up and hurling them at other machines as projectiles.

  The machines quickly mobilized, surrounding the metal squids and suppressing them with relentless firepower. Unfortunately, these magical plants had exceptional resilience and remained lively even after being riddled with holes. Until the magical consciousness in their mind was wiped away, they would not die.

  For a moment, the decks of the Motherships had been thrown into disorder!

  Ci!

  The sound of a sharp arrow piercing through the air.

  A magical arrow of an exotic design cut across the chaotic battlefield, bypassing the dozens of metal tentacles and embedding itself in the head of one of those squids.

  The arrow quickly exploded, and magical flames surged out of every crack in the squid’s head. This mighty, uncontested magical plant instantly fell limp as the metal it had assimilated shattered into loose debris. Its metallic-organic body turned into green slime that sizzled as it eroded what remained of the deck below.

  The intermediate Second Grade magical archer, Sandor, had appeared on the deck. She held a metal longbow of strange design in her hands, carved with all sorts of unusual magical runes. She turned back and shouted out orders to her subordinates.

  “Stay on the deck and take care of these squids. Hmph! I will go delay the ones responsible for this!”

  These individuals with magical longbows slung across their backs and shortswords at their waists were blood elves with the magical archer class.

  Having said that, Sandor leaped several times and arrived at the edge of the ship’s deck. She kicked against the ground with her slender legs, and her body flew across the air like an eagle. The adept riding on the swamp dragon king happened to be circling overhead at that moment. He waved his magic wand without hesitation upon seeing Sandor fly toward him.

  A terrifying cloud of black smoke immediately wrapped around her.

  Sandor let out a grunt as her blood aura erupted, blasting away the smoke. She raised her longbow, and an explosive arrow instantly shot toward the adept.

  As an intermediate Second Grade fighting against an advanced First Grade adept, there was no questioning this clash’s victor!

  The explosive arrow sunk into the adept’s head, and his head exploded into tiny pieces like a watermelon.

  The swamp dragon king let out a sorrowful roar, but before it could dive down, it felt a weight on its back. Sandor had landed on the dragon.

  She had switched the longbow to her left hand while her right hand pulled a dagger out of its sheath. With one light motion, she severed the massive dragon head and sent it tumbling down toward the earth.
Sandor stepped on the dragon’s falling corpse as she scanned the skies. Once she located her next target, she kicked off and charged forward.

  Her body was still in the air, but her bowstring was already trembling. Yet another explosive arrow buried itself into the spine of a swamp dragon like a bolt of lightning. In the next second, the arrow exploded, and the apprentice on the dragon’s back howled as he fell from the sky.

  His body passed by Sandor midair. There was a cold gleam of light as another human head soared through the air. Sandor stepped upon their corpses and leaped into the air again.

  Sandor’s movements were the perfect expression of a blood-elf magical archer’s agility and magical attacks. She slaughtered the dragons as if she were putting down stray dogs, knocking one apprentice after another out of the skies, beheading them before she moved on to the next one.

  It was a slaughter. It was a simple, bloody slaughter!

  One hundred swamp dragons with their fully-equipped adept apprentice riders would have had no problem conquering a human kingdom. Here on this battlefield of adepts, they had been disposed of before they could even cause a splash.

  Lakarr’s adept tower was ultimately no more than a regional city. It was already impressive for them to have an army at the scale of the Swamp Flying Dragons.

  Once the Swamp Flying Dragons had been dealt with, the adept tower lost all means of retaliating against the Crimson Fleet. They could only defend themselves stubbornly with endless forcefields, no longer daring to send out any sorties.

  Thus, the Crimson Fleet released an army of three hundred magical machines to work with the fleet in clearing out the rest of the City of Lakarr.