Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  It would be worth it if Greem could get his hands on those divine authority fragments, even if he had to abandon everything else!

  As for the finale of a battle that would come after this? Greem would be no more than cannon fodder at his current level. It was better to fight on the peripheral battlefields like this to obtain as much loot as he could.

  After all, there would be very few chances to obtain a god’s divine origin once this war was over.

  Perhaps they were thinking the same thing as Greem, for the other two Great Adepts–Antuso and Rossellini–also started to fight desperately.

  The first to break through was naturally Antuso, whose opponents were relatively weaker!

  While the swarm of armor-eaters distracted the petitioners, Antuso flickered in and out of view as the spiritwolf and launched a rapid assault.

  In just fifteen minutes, he had successfully disposed of one of the orc petitioners. He then snatched away the petitioner’s soul, and whatever divine power crystal remained, and put it in his pouch. The remaining petitioner tried his best to flee when he saw the tide turn, but he quickly fell to the jaws of the armor-eaters.

  These armor-eaters were of a low grade, but Antuso had specially modified them. They possessed unusual magic resistance and horrifying defense-piercing powers for their grade. Even Fifth Grade orc petitioners would fall before an entire swarm of them.

  Their deaths provided Antuso with a Fifth Grade soul and a small number of divine power crystals.

  After wiping out the petitioners, Antuso turned his focus around and lunged straight at the fearsome clone of Ogre God Mairo.

  In all honesty, enemies like Mairo’s clone were the kind that all Great adepts tried their best to avoid!

  Overwhelming physical prowess, incredible Physique, shocking Strength, ridiculous defense; if it weren’t for Mairo’s low Agility and clumsy movements, no adept would dare go near a god clone like them.

  Mairo’s clone used a means of attack that was extremely simple and monotonous, but they were overwhelmingly powerful!

  Mairo continuously buffed himself with Bloodthirst and Berserk, causing his pudgy body to grow even further in size. Blinding crimson light shone from his entire body as he chased after Rossellini with a giant wooden staff.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  His body was as massive as a mountain made of flesh. His stubby legs caused spatial ripples to spread across space as he charged forth. The wooden staff he raised above his head howled with wild, unfettered force, sending Rossellini packing like a frightened rat.

  Rossellini might look safe and secure while enveloped in that firm astral armor of his. However, even he could only flee in the face of the Mairo cone’s fearsome staff.

  If that staff hit him, his astral armor could probably withstand the impact. However, he would definitely be crushed to mush inside the armor.

  After all, the Physique of Fifth Grade Great Adepts wasn’t the highest!

  In a face-to-face conflict like this, the human adepts were always overwhelmed by the gods with their powerful bodies.

  Rossellini left behind a brilliant blue trail of starlight as his three-meter-tall body flew gracefully through space. He concentrated starlight and blasted it at the pursuing ogre as he fled.

  The blue starlight clashed with the blood aura around Ogre God Mairo, exploding into countless beautiful sparks.

  Meanwhile, the sprinting Mairo occasionally threw out one or two giant fireballs, knocking Rossellini here and there. A thick layer of the astral substance around him burned away every time that happened.

  Rossellini would replenish his armor’s astral substance with starlight, while the berserk ogre would reapply Bloodthirst on himself, and his simmering blood aura would erupt once more.

  The adepts fought against the gods, while the beasts fought against each other!

  The summoned creatures were fighting each other in pairs further away from the battlefield.

  In all seriousness, they were no longer complete entities. Instead, they were high-grade puppets subject to the every whim and will of their masters!

  The Windrend hawk, tunneling sandworm, and berserk giant ape were all divine creatures. Their flesh bodies had obtained a trace of divine virtue and had gained certain characteristics of immortality. They might not be the strongest, but the divine virtue within them gave them impressive, transcendental power.

  They were unopposable divine beasts against creatures of lower grades. However, against the specially crafted ultra-grade voodoo beasts of the Great Adepts, they were little more than wild beasts with a hint of divine virtue in them!

  The first to die on the battlefield was the berserk ape, whose opponent was Rossellini’s astral construct.

  The astral construct could regenerate infinitely while bathing in starlight. As long as the ape’s Strength did not exceed the limit of the construct’s defense, then the astral construct was indestructible.

  The berserk giant ape and the construct clashed and wrestled like two wild beasts.

  Roars and shockwaves filled the air. Flesh, hair, fur, and bits of broken bone drifted off into the distance along with light-blue metallic debris. However, before they could even flee from the battlefield, an even larger and more ferocious shockwave caught up to them and shredded them into unrecognizable particles.

  Soon after the two orc petitioners died, the beginner Fifth Grade ape bit the dust. It was the first divine creature to die on the battlefield.

  Rossellini’s astral construct had suffered greatly to finish off the berserk ape. Its body was tattered and torn. A few gaping gashes had been clawed across its chest, revealing the wildly spinning starlight arrays within.

  Moreover, none of its limbs were complete. Horrifying bite and claw marks could be seen everywhere.

  However, all this damage gleamed with starlight.

  The astral construct just needed time to repair itself!

  Chapter 1504 - To the Death

  When Antuso and the astral construct were finally free to clean up the battlefield, the power balance was completely shattered!

  The advantage snowballed rapidly. Horr’s side grew increasingly weaker, and the adepts’ odds of victory steadily increased.

  In the end, it was Greem, Antuso, Rossellini and the armor-eaters, the astral construct, the ten-armed giant, Remi, and the Earth Shatterer surrounding Horr and Mairo’s clone.

  The god and the god clone seemed to have realized the encroaching danger. They gave up on the unrealistic desire for victory and began to try and disengage.

  It was then that Greem and the other two adepts had a severe disagreement in their choice of target.

  Antuso and Rossellini insisted on attacking Mairo’s clone. It was just a clone of Ogre God Mairo, after all. It had limited power, and the three of them combined could easily subdue him.

  If they were lucky enough, all three of them might get a divine authority fragment for themselves!

  However, Greem was entirely dedicated to the idea of hunting down Horr himself.

  Of course, as a Fifth Grade God of the Hunt that was only recently demoted from Sixth Grade, Horr would have far more divine authority fragments in his body than Mairo’s clone. Even a conservative estimate would put his divine authority points at over 15.

  If they could hunt down the God of the Hunt, the three of them would die smiling.

  However, the difficulty in doing so was immense, and the odds of failure were over seventy percent!

  Moreover, that was only because Greem possessed the Devouring Fish bloodline. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even have a ten percent chance of doing so.

  It had been hundreds of years since the adepts declared war against the orc pantheon. Even now, there had yet to be an incident where a god had fallen. Despite having his god kingdom destroyed, even the most unfortunate God of Hatred Enus had successfully escaped with most of his divine authority and divine virtue. He had retreated and settled down as a demi-god.

  It could
be seen how much survivability a true god had on the battlefield!

  Consequently, recklessly choosing Horr as their main target was likely to cause the three adepts to return with nothing to show for it.

  The arguments and disagreements between the three adepts reverberated violently inside their minds.

  Even though mental communication was almost instantaneous with hardly any time delay, it wouldn’t take much time for the two gods to escape either. There was practically no time for them to argue or convince each other.

  The three-man party split up!

  Antuso and Rossellini chose Mairo’s clone.

  They were confident in defeating Mairo’s clone without Greem’s help. However, it was uncertain how many divine authority fragments or how much divine virtue they would be able to obtain from a mere clone.

  Meanwhile, Greem gritted his teeth and chose Horr’s true form in the end.

  Greem had already exhausted Horr’s Divine Shield, as well as all his other divine spells. He had also survived three attacks from Horr’s divine weapon. Meanwhile, he still had the orb’s Critical Wildfire and the Berserk Eye in reserve.

  In addition to the Devouring Fish Transformation, he still had a fair chance at capturing Horr’s true form. However, the price that Greem would need to pay for such a feat was so immense that even could hardly imagine it.

  Still, Greem was someone who dared to risk. Since there was a chance to win it all, he would not give up on it so easily. After all, there were at least a dozen divine authority fragments, a large amount of divine virtue, and three pieces of divine equipment to be gained.

  This risk was more than worth it!

  Greem no longer hesitated after making up his mind. He instantly unleashed his full force.

  He clashed in bloody combat with Horr out there in space.

  Surrounding them was the ten-armed giant, Remi, and the Earth Shatterer.

  The ten-armed giant abandoned all defense. All ten of its arms swung rapidly without stop, tossing gray stone spears toward Horr. Its attacks were no longer aiming to injure Horr itself. Instead, they were just meant to seal off any paths of escape and dodging, providing Greem with more chances at a critical strike in battle.

  The Earth Shatterer had already sustained incredible damage. Typically, Greem would have already put it away to prevent it from sustaining any irrecoverable injury. But right now, Greem wanted nothing more than for Horr to attack the Earth Shatterer a few more times.

  It would give Greem a few more opportunities to inflict devastating damage on Horr!

  Moreover, the Hysteresis Halo that the Earth Shatterer carried would slow down Horr’s movement speed. Even though the effect wasn’t entirely noticeable, any minor increase or decrease to a combatant’s power at this critical juncture would be crucial.

  Spirit of Pestilence Remi gave up on attacking. Instead, he unceasingly spat out plagues and poison to corrode Horr’s body. If one instance of poison were insufficient, then perhaps two or three would do; the point was, all the plague and poison stacked together had turned Horr into an utterly green hulk.

  Even though the damage that the poison inflicted was minimal, it still effectively broke down the defensive power of Horr’s body.

  With the aid of his three subordinates, Greem was able to strike back against Horr’s arrows with his flames. However, there were many times where he had to use his fire clones to take on some damage.

  Otherwise, if Greem’s own life force were too low, it would be too easy for the Execute effect on Horr’s divine bow to activate!

  In doing so, his three fire clones were the ones that suffered. They screamed and died horribly, one after another. The reason for their deaths was all the same; the Execute effect of the arrows had been triggered.

  The arrows striking them might inflict tremendous damage, but they weren’t supposed to be lethal. However, when the Execute effect of the arrows triggered, a strange golden blade would mysteriously appear above their heads. It would strike down silently.

  Execute. When the target creature’s life force was below one-fifth of their maximum, their soul would instantly be extinguished.

  It was an incredibly unreasonable and barbaric divine principle. When it activated, there was no means of defending yourself other than relying on your own soul’s inherent resilience and resistance.

  There was only a trace of Greem’s soul consciousness in each of the three fire clones. Naturally, those fragments of his soul could not possibly endure the Execute effect. That was why the fire clones had erupted into scattered sparks the moment they were struck.

  The three fire clones dying meant that they had managed to block three lethal attacks for Greem. He took this opportunity to inflict unimaginable fire damage to Horr with his incomparably violent fire spells.

  The life force of both parties rapidly decreased.

  However, Horr possessed Greater Restoration. He impatiently cast it on himself again once it was off cooldown. Supported by his tremendous divine power, all the damage to his body was rapidly recovering.

  If it weren’t for Greem’s outstanding damage, Horr would probably be all healed up and restored to full.

  That was, in fact, the most troublesome aspect of fighting a god in its true form!

  Through their god kingdom and uncountable believers, they had an inexhaustible amount of divine power that they could expend. They could cast the incredibly costly Greater Restoration, at best, only once a day for an ordinary Fifth Grade god. Meanwhile, Horr could cast it as many as three times.

  Any of Horr’s enemies would have to go through the trouble of wearing down his life force three times if they wanted to kill him.

  Greem was communicating with the Chip even as he fought against the god.

  “Chip, when exactly can I transform into the Devouring Fish and swallow him?”

  [Beep. The God of the Hunt’s true form, in this weakened state, possesses 15 points of divine authority. Under such conditions, recklessly transforming into a Devouring Fish and devouring the target will only yield a 6% chance of killing the opponent.

  [Meanwhile, the odds of Host being killed in the process are as high as 88%.]

  “Then, what should I do?”

  [Reduce the target creature’s life force as much as possible.

  [When the target’s life force has fallen below 80%, the odds of devouring will reach 13%.

  [When the target’s life force has fallen below 60%, the odds of devouring will reach 17%.

  [When the target’s life force has fallen below 40%, the odds of devouring will reach 25%.

  [When the target’s life force has fallen below 20%, the odds of devouring will reach 34%.

  [When the target’s life force has fallen below 10%, the odds of devouring will reach 53%.]

  Tssss!

  Greem couldn’t help but draw in a breath of cold air.

  Even in the best-case scenario where he reduced Horr’s life force below 10%, Greem would only have a 53% chance of successfully devouring him.

  Barely more than half.

  It was practically asking him to wager his life!

  Horr was a god that had been demoted from Sixth Grade, after all. He couldn’t be regarded in the same way as an ordinary Fifth Grade god. A result like this was expected.

  However, that couldn’t satisfy Greem.

  He let out a furious roar.

  “And if I lower his life force to 1%?”

  [Odds of success will reach 83%.]

  “Screw it! I’ll go in on these odds!”

  At that moment, some gods on the main battlefield seemed to have received Horr’s call for help.

  Two Fifth Grade god clones and five orc petitioners rushed out of the battlefield and charged toward this battlefield.

  “Ten-armed giant, Remi, stop them! Leave Horr to me!”

  Greem shouted, and his two subordinates left the battlefield to engage the enemy in the distance. Only Greem, Horr, and the Earth Shatterer were left here.


  The other summoned creatures had all died!

  “Fight!”

  “Die!”

  Horr seemed to have realized the approaching threat. He and Greem both let out a battlecry and unleashed their most vicious attacks on their opponent.

  Just as Horr’s attention shifted to Greem, the overlooked Earth Shatterer self-detonated without any hesitation.

  Indeed, it blew itself up!

  A beginner Fifth Grade Earth Shatterer that had been fielded in battle for the first time hastily ended its own life.

  Its self-detonation unleashed a vicious blast at the God of the Hunt.

  Greem struck instantaneously while the god scrambled to defend himself.

  Critical Wildfire!

  Berserk Eye!

  Fiery Refraction!

  Three Fifth Grade fire spells and the self-detonation of a Fifth Grade magical golem. Such devastating power was impossible to endure, even for the God of the Hunt.

  The Chip monitored Horr’s condition as his life force dropped rapidly from 67% to 11%.

  Eleven percent…the odds of devouring now was only slightly more than 50%.

  Greem had already unleashed all his hidden aces, but the damage he inflicted was evidently still insufficient!

  Greem let out another shout. Flames surged across his body as he lunged forward.

  Trading the opponent’s life with his own.

  Horr struggled desperately. His life force continued to drop as he lashed out at Greem.

  [9%…7%…4%…2%…1%…]

  Greem had never felt time pass by so slowly and painfully. He abandoned all defenses, focusing entirely on using his own life to wear away at Horr’s life force.

  When the Chip indicated Horr’s life force was at 1%, Greem finally let out a howl. He transformed into the Devouring Fish and swallowed the god in a single gulp.