Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The blood energy in her body was raised to its limits. Her body, which had still been visible as multiple afterimages, turned into a single crimson thread that shot straight through the starbeast’s body.

  Its defense was unsuccessful!

  A strange cry resembling that of a cow echoed throughout the battlefield. A massive hole abruptly appeared in the starbeast’s body as its blood splattered outward like a fountain.

  A massive, gaping hole had been carved in the center of its ten-meter-long body. Black blood rained down on the ground along with bits of flesh here and there.

  Despite having sustained such terrible injuries, the Fourth Grade starbeast wasn’t dead yet. It endured the pain and fled into the distance.

  Judging by how fast it was flying through the air, its speed had hardly been affected by its wound.

  Thunderous cheers erupted from the adept towers below.

  “Escape? You wish,” This was the first time Mary was fighting in the magic surge. She could not accept it if she did not return with spoils in hand. She unfurled her wings and prepared to give pursuit.

  However, the next moment, Adept Andrew appeared in front of her silently, standing in her way.

  “Don’t be in such a hurry, Lady Mary!”

  “Move, or I will look for you when the prey has escaped!”

  “Don’t worry, Lady Mary. I have already mobilized the Winged Dragon Force,” Andrew smiled, but his eyes betrayed fear and respect. “The starbeast has been heavily injured. The Winged Dragon will suffice in finishing it. The defense of the mega-rift is critical and rests upon you. Leave it to us to hunt down the prey! Don’t worry. I assure you that the head of the prey will be presented to you before the end of the day.”

  As if on cue, a dozen black dots rose from a tower in the distance. They roared as they chased in the direction of the starbeast.

  These were mixed-blood Third Grade winged dragons with Third Grade adepts as their riders. They were quite a formidable force.

  “Hmph! Remember to send the prey to my castle when you’ve caught it. Its ability to devour magic is quite unusual. I will have to do some proper research on it!” After reasserting her dominance, Mary put away her wings and dashed out of the sky in a crimson flash, disappearing into a strange tower protected by the numerous war towers.

  Andrew stood silently in the sky after watching Mary leave.

  The mega-rift above him was still swirling restlessly, unleashing waves of spacestorms every so often. An ordinary person would have been reduced to dust in less than three seconds here.

  Even an adept would have to erect multiple elementium shields around themselves if they wanted to move freely across a battlefield like this.

  Only high-grade adepts like Mary or himself could keep the spacestorm at bay through their life forcefields and have unimpeded movement.

  Meanwhile, starbeasts were like fish in water in this harsh environment that most would consider a land of death. Not only did they feel no pressure from the spacestorms, but they could also draw on the ebb and flow of the tide and use them as weapons.

  High-grade adepts only tolerated the environment, while starbeasts thrived in it.

  This slight distinction magnified the difference in power between the adepts and the starbeasts!

  Andrew was a bloodline adept. He could transform into a giant lizard with tremendous defensive ability, a strong jaw, and a fearsome petrification ability.

  While he would have an easy time repelling the starbeast, it was nearly impossible for him to stop it from escaping. If the starbeast were slightly craftier and had fought a guerilla battle against Andrew, he would have been forced to leave the radius of the tower’s support. His chances of victory would have plummeted even further.

  A starbeast like that, capable of rivaling his own power, had been severely injured at Mary’s hands. Moreover, it seemed like Mary had not been fighting with all her strength. It made him even warier.

  Andrew knew that many factors, including innate talent and magical equipment, could create a gap in power between adepts of the same grade. Still, to watch an extremely young adept grow to a level where even he could only look up to……

  It made Andrew incredibly dejected and emotional as an adept that had lived for seven hundred long years.

  Chapter 1361 - The Fire Crows and the Ironstone Wilderness

  The arrival of the magic surge was a difficult trial for all planar worlds!

  Given the scale of the World of Adepts and the power of its inhabitants, no intruder or monster could shake this colossal civilization.

  However, just because the safety of the adept civilization was guaranteed didn’t mean that every single clan and organization that made up this civilization would go unharmed. Quite the contrary- in this time of turbulence and chaos, any organization could easily face devastating losses if they made even a small mistake. Their advantage and position that they had built up over the years would be lost to the wind in the blink of an eye.

  This fact…was the fundamental reason all adepts were so cautious and wary of the magic surge.

  Even a world as powerful as the World of Adepts had to be cautious when dealing with the magic surge, let alone smaller planar worlds that were inferior to the World of Adepts.

  When the magic surge arrived, and the planar barriers could no longer protect the worlds within, the natives would have to face the onslaught of spacestorms and vicious monsters. They had no other way out but to throw their lives into the grinder in hopes of reaching that minuscule chance of survival.

  Weakness was the original sin in the universe!

  …………

  The Goblin Plane, Ironstone Wilderness.

  It was a desolate and quiet land of red earth.

  The earth here was too acidic, contained too many minerals, metals, and far too little organic material. Consequently, no plant life could grow here. The land that stretched for nearly fifty meters was barren. Apart from individual hills and stone pillars riddled with holes from the acid rain, there did not seem to be anything else.

  Due to the acidity of the earth, the ground appeared dark red. Under the sun, it almost seemed as if the earth was soaked with blood. Thus, this place was also known as the Devil’s Land.

  Due to the inability to grow any plants here, it was only natural that there were no settlements. There were no goblin cities or villages anywhere in sight, let alone any goblin activity.

  However, a loud rumble suddenly blared out in this desolate land.

  A fully-equipped company of goblin chariots appeared within view. The heavy goblin chariots had tracks of steel that crushed the red earth beneath them. Meanwhile, magic energy cannons rotated on top of the vehicle, pointing here and there at the shadows beneath the rocks.

  A goblin wearing an aviator’s helmet and goggles peeked out of the top of the first chariot in the company.

  He was holding binoculars up to his eyes and looking at all the hills and stone pillars around him.

  The geography here was unusually dangerous, and the environment was incredibly harsh; it was clearly not a place suited for life to thrive. With the magic surge looming just over the horizon, the company did not dare to let down their guard for any reason at all. They surveyed this region of spatial weakness meticulously.

  Indeed, the reason Ironstone Wilderness was so desolate was that it was a region of spatial weakness. The chaotic magic energy seeping in from another world had changed the environment here, causing an elementium imbalance that resulted in the red earth.

  The goblin company was composed of eleven goblin chariots, each outfitted with magic energy cannons, rockets, and magical machines. Their mission was to patrol this Ironstone Wilderness regularly, ensuring that no otherworldly creatures could sneak into the Goblin Plane during the magic surge.

  To better help them with their task, the higher-ups had assigned a goblin helicopter to each company.

  As the goblin company rumbled across the red earth, a hel
icopter codenamed Flying Fish flew past them at an extremely low-altitude. It then curved in an elegant line and flew to a red hill in the distance.

  Goblin Commander Pike’s green hair rustled about violently under his leather hat in the wind. He bent over slightly and shouted, his hand pressing the communication crystal in his ear.

  “Morris, you bastard. Don’t fly so close to the chariots. Dammit! My eardrums nearly burst from that terrible noise of yours. Remember, fly higher and check out Zone 27. The device indicates that the sealing array there has been triggered. Some nasty things might have slipped in. Be careful.”

  “Flying Fish received, Pilot Morris reporting in. Heading to Zone 27 now.”

  Commander Pike smacked the chariot loudly and pointed in the direction the helicopter was headed. He raised his binoculars again and continued tracking the aircraft.

  The chariot company took a sharp turn and headed toward a forest of stone pillars.

  Before the chariots reached within one and a half kilometers of the stone forest, a flock of birds assaulted the helicopter. Fortunately, Morris was quite a skillful pilot. He was able to conduct complicated evasive maneuvers with the helicopter, escaping the birds’ encirclement and turning straight back toward the chariots.

  Pike, who had been watching on anxiously, was overjoyed to see this. He immediately ordered the company to establish a defensive formation. The magic energy cannons creaked and quickly adjusted their angles. The metal clamps used to support the chariots on both sides embedded themselves into the ground. A light blue barrier then engulfed the entire company.

  The helicopter flew straight at the company. Just as it was about to pass within the chariots’ radius of fire, it barrel-rolled to the side, curving away and revealing the unusual birds squawking behind.

  It was a strange flock of birds that the goblins had never seen before!

  They resembled giant ducks, but they had no hair on their long necks. They had a strange red sac on both sides of their heads. These birds weren’t exactly massive, had red feathers, and flew at a mediocre speed.

  If it weren’t for the fact that the helicopter was trying to lure them into firing range, it would have been able to leave them in the dust a long time ago.

  The Goblin Plane of the present was no longer the Goblin Plane of the past!

  Having experienced the depths of the adept civilization, the goblins had gained a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience; Commander Pike was able to identify these ‘monsters’ in just two seconds.

  Fire Crows!

  Birds with the ability to spit fire!

  The two sacs near their mouths were where they stored their saliva. Their saliva would combust when it came into contact with air, allowing them to shoot out fireballs just by spitting. The ferocity of these fireballs was about half that of an average one from a human adept. However, the flames themselves had an odd adhesiveness, allowing them to continue burning on the enemy for a long time.

  It was the most troublesome aspect of fire crows!

  It was not very difficult to deal with an individual fire crow. The problem was that fire crows were flock animals. They lived in flocks, the smallest of which consisted of two to three hundred fire crows, while the largest could go up to tens of thousands of crows. The size of the flock depended on whether there was sufficient food where they lived.

  According to Pike’s knowledge, there were no fire crows in the Ironstone Wilderness and not very many across the Goblin Plane, either. That was why he was certain that this flock of a thousand fire crows must be intruders that had snuck in through a spatial rift.

  They were sure to migrate to a place with more ‘food’ once they adapted to the environment and geography here. Goblins were most certainly on their list of prey.

  To ensure the safety of the Goblin Plane, these fire crows could not be allowed to roam freely.

  Consequently, the moment the fire crows flew into their firing range, the magic energy cannons of the chariots immediately fired.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  A series of energy fireballs flew into the sky, crashing into the fire crows and causing seas of fire to erupt everywhere.

  The fire crows might be able to breathe fire, but that was due to their special saliva; they weren’t actually fire creatures themselves. The cannon fire of the goblin chariots instantly inflicted devastating damage to the flock.

  The battlefield was filled with the pained and furious cries of the fire crows, along with the sound of exploding fireballs. Numerous fire crows were blasted into bits, while others were burned black and crashed to the ground as scorched corpses.

  The few crows that survived the gauntlet quacked and dove downward, blasting the light blue energy barrier with their fireballs.

  Unfortunately, as their individual might was too insignificant, they were incapable of shaking this barrier sustained by all eleven goblin chariots.

  The air around the barrier moved around turbulently as the fireballs exploded. However, the flames did not simply dissipate, but turned into a red liquid that slowly dripped down the barrier. This red liquid would instantly ignite the moment it was exposed to air again, rapidly corroding the energy barrier.

  There were still far too few goblin chariots here. Their first wave of attack had halved the number of fire crows, but their attacks after were far more ineffective against the now scattered and disorganized fire crows. It was like trying to hit mosquitos with a cannon.

  After a dozen volleys, they had only managed to shoot down a few more fire crows.

  That was far too few compared to the five hundred fire crows still left in the air.

  The crows flew up and down, trying their best to spit fireballs at the energy barrier.

  Judging from their actions, they intended to burn through the barrier and rush in to fight the goblin chariots.

  Since the magic energy cannons were ineffective, Pike gave an order, and the magical machines hanging from the back of the chariots prompt;y leaped off. They formed a row and started to shoot at the fire crows with energy beams.

  With their near-instantaneous projectile speed, the energy beams were far more effective than fireballs in this scenario. They were a little weaker, but given the countless guns on each magical machine’s body, they more than made up the difference.

  Bzt! Bzt! Bzt!

  Chapter 1362 - Danger Lurks

  Chapter 1362 Danger Lurks

  Caw! Caw! Caw!

  The scattered fire crows croaked loudly and suddenly dispersed. They chose to distance themselves from the goblin chariots and started circling beyond their range of fire.

  They no longer charged in a single flock as they had before. Instead, the fire crows formed assault groups of two to three, constantly diving toward the chariots from every direction and corroding the energy barrier with their sticky fire. They would retreat from the cannon’s range of fire the moment they completed their attack, continuing to circle outside while they awaited their chance.

  Only a few magical machines accompanied the chariot company. As such, the magical machines could not cover all the air around them. If they scattered their gunfire, they would not be able to inflict as much damage on the fire crows as before.

  “Mm?” Upon seeing this, Commander Pike paused for a moment. He then mumbled to himself, “Could there be a leader amongst these fire crows?”

  As First Grade magical creatures, fire crows might be powerful, but their intelligence was not comparable to humans. Only when an advanced First Grade or Second Grade Fire Crow King was born would the entire flock appear much more intelligent.

  Only a high-grade fire crow king like that could have the intelligence to notice the goblin chariots’ immobility.

  Pike immediately picked up his binoculars and tried his best to search for that fire crow king in the flock. Just as he expected, Pike followed the cries of the birds and found an exceptionally majestic and large fire crow.

  The fire crow had a circle of golden feathers o
n its head. It looked like a crown from a distance.

  It seemed like this fire crow was not only their leader, but even had the potential to advance to a fire crow emperor!

  “Mané, pay attention to the fire crow king on coordinates 230,783. I want you to shoot it down with the magical machines. The chariots will provide you with cover,” Pike immediately gave out orders upon discovering their target.

  Mané, the captain of the magical machine squad, promptly turned his machine around when he heard this. He quickly locked onto the unusual fire crow with his tactical display.

  “Let’s go! We are going to shoot down that ugly bird!”

  He laughed arrogantly as all eleven of the magical machines rushed out of the energy barrier. They fired all their weapons, all while they approached the target.

  After hundreds of years of advancement in technology, the present magical machines had cast the goblin’s outdated steam-machines far behind them.

  The standard PG-52 combat magical machine was outfitted with two Mark-II magic energy cannons on their shoulders, two magic energy rapid-fire guns on their chests, four magic energy ray guns on their arms, and sets of sixteen-round rockets on their back.

  Such tremendous firepower allowed every PG-52 magical machine to rival a Second Grade adept in offensive might. At the very least, a squad of magical machines arranged in tight formation in battle would most certainly be a vicious meat grinder.

  Rockets flew into the air wherever the machines went, whistling as they dove into the midst of the fire crows. The rockets were filled with plenty of shrapnel and arcane crystal fragments. When they erupted in mid-air, they were capable of wreaking destruction over a large area.

  Fire crows were magical creatures with excellent magic resistance. Otherwise, they would not have been able to cross a spatial rift so easily. However, their bodies lacked the protection of hard scales or hide, making them far more vulnerable to physical attacks.