Age of Adepts

If Greem was still that adept apprentice with only a couple of golems, the ”battle” before him might actually be a little more stimulating and exciting.

Sadly……

The number of low-quality golems, like the clay golems, in Greem’s storage belt had already hit triple digits. Even intermediate golems like the stone serpents were being summoned in squads. Greem’s golem army was already shaping up nicely, with the exception that his collection of pseudo-adept level golems was still lacking.

The clay golems were extremely tough to deal with when they appeared in such large numbers.

In all honesty, a clay golem with the power of an intermediate apprentice should have a difficult time fighting against a disciplined witcher-knight. The golems made of clay weren’t as tough as stone golems or steel golems. The crude magical weapons and knight battle techniques of the witcher-knights could reliably destroy half a clay golem’s body with a single strike.

Unfortunately, this group of witcher-knights evidently lacked experience fighting against a large number of elemental golems. They had no idea that there was an extremely important elementium core within each elemental golem. Far too many of their attacks were wasted on the clay golems’ dense limbs and their soil-like heads.

Every clay golem that had sustained heavy damage to their limbs would sink beneath the ground. Once they repaired their bodies and emerged again, they were no different from a brand-new golem.

In the eyes of the witcher-knights, this group of over forty clay golems was an an unending army that continuously sprang from the ground. It was not something that could be destroyed by human strength.

At the start of the battle, every time an eye-catching knight battle-technique was executed, it would cause two or three clay golems to crumble and fall, resulting in the knights cheering in excitement. But now, as the golems endlessly rose from the dirt, the knights became too exhausted to deal with the heavy mud fists and unexpected mud spears.

While coughing up blood from their accumulated injuries, more and more witcher knights were bashed to the ground by the clay golems’ fists, and the circle where the battle was taking place slowly began shrinking. Soon, only the knight captain and his two deputies were still resisting. The clay golems surrounding them, however, had already formed three or four layers around them.

Seeing that the battle was basically over, Greem stopped hiding. With determined strides, he walked out from the darkness. Slowly, he stepped into the disheveled camp.

His appearance instantly drew the attention of the last three people!

These three instantly understood Greem to be the mastermind behind tonight’s attack when they saw his black robed silhouette.

They looked at each other, grit their teeth and made a firm decision in an instant.

The two deputies shouted as they tossed aside the badly battered shield. Quickly, they drove the flame longswords to the limit of its power and charged towards Greem, cutting down all the clay golems in the way as they did so.

But just halfway, they were stopped by the horde of golems.

The two deputies let out another battlecry and their faces flushed red. While they still had the strength left, they threw the two dense flame swords forward. The impact of the swords caused most of the golems in front of them to collapse and fall to the ground.

The knight captain took advantage of the opening made by his deputies. White light flashed around his body. He became like a sprinting jaguar, breaking through the scattered blockade of golems. Intense flames flared about the longsword in his hand as he slashed at the evil heretic with all his might, the sword leaving behind several afterimages.

The hot wind slightly lifted the hood from Greem’s head, allowing the airborne knight captain to lock eyes with Greem’s burning pupils.

Even though the captain’s charge was so powerful, and his burning longsword was but a short distance away from the heretic’s brow, there was no trace of fear or hesitation in his opponent’s burning eyes.

The knight captain’s heart shook.

It was the first time in his life he had seen a pair of eyes burning.

Not a metaphor, nor an illusion, but an actual pair of flaming eyes that were spewing out terrifying jets of flame.

His flaming longsword blazed like a torch and was now less than a meter away from the heretic’s head. At this distance, with the speed at which he was charging at, his strike would land in a fraction of a second.

As the captain mustered up all his strength to deliver a crippling blow to those fearsome, flaming eyes, the ground erupted. The ground in front of the heretic’s feet split apart and a large, imposing monster emerged.

Coincidentally, the captain’s flame longsword sliced into center of the terrifying monster’s stone head!

Stone shattered; dirt and sand fell to the ground……

The longsword cut through layers of stone before finally becoming stuck in the thick and dense stone.

The pseudo-adept level stone serpent broke apart the ground, bringing with it the flame longsword stuck in its head, as well as the captain himself. As the serpent fully rose from the ground, it exposed its full size of ten meters.. Tons of dirt, sand, and stone tumbled down from its large mouth and around its pitch black eyes, knocking the captain around.

Even so, the knight captain still did not let go of the longsword stuck in the stone serpent’s head.

The two deputies, on the other hand, had collapsed due to exhaustion after that last blow. Several clay golems charged forward and quickly restrained them.

Right now the only person who could still move was the knight captain, still dangling from the stone serpent’s head.

Greem impatiently snapped his fingers when he saw the opponent’s stubborn and futile struggle. A thunderous blast of lightning from the sky struck the captain. In the very next second he fell like a piece of rotten wood, smashing a hole in the ground where he landed.

Having cleaned up the last of the resistance, the camp was finally silent.

One after another, clay golems began cleaning up the camp in an orderly fashion.

The rubble from the aftermath of the battle was cleared away, and the shattered ground patched up. The campfire was lit again, and a new skinned boar was placed on the rack above the fire....

The teenager bound to a tree shivered. For a moment he felt like time had reversed back to when events had just started. The surroundings before his eyes were still the same. The only difference now was that the sole person in the camp was the mysterious man in the black robe.

Of course if you counted him, the prisoner, as well, then there were two!

”Can you roast?” The man in the black robe said, suddenly turning to look at the teenager.

The unexpected question caused the teenager to be at a loss. First he nodded, then he shook his head. For a moment, even he wasn’t sure what his reply was.

”You better be able to! Otherwise, I’ll eat you!” The man in the black robe released a stream of fire at the tough leather rope binding the teenager, incinerating it into ashes: ”Come and help me roast the meat! ”

The teenager flexed his numbed limbs, dusting off the ashes left on his skin.

The black ashes dispersed, revealing his undamaged skin below.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

It’s important to note that the ropes were binding his body tightly and were pressed into his skin. Yet the mysterious spellcaster was able to wield fire to incinerate the rope and leave his skin untouched. This……this terrifying elemental control was worthy of worship!

In his heart, this mysterious black robed man that had appeared out of nowhere was a powerful deity sent from the heavens to save him. How else would a human be able to control elemental fire to such a precise degree?!

His heart filled with faith, the teenager took the rock out of his mouth and ran to where the mercenaries had left their stuff, drinking until he was full. Then, he washed his hands and face before walking to the campfire and doing his job of roasting the meat.

Greem sat by the campfire, but ignored the teenager. He was still silently communicating with the chip in his mind.

”Beep; battle report……

“Twenty-three total plane natives captured, of which thirteen are witcher-knights, ten are human mercenaries. One person escaped....

“Golem squad. Thirty-seven clay golems mobilised, one pseudo-adept-level stone serpent mobilised. Casualty number is 0......

“Initial battle strength estimate: witcher-knights are equal in power to apprentice adepts. Individual power merged with primitive magical weapons and knight battle techniques, suited for large-scale battlefield melees……”

Greem was slightly stunned.

”How did someone escape? Where is this guy? ”

As Greem had that thought, the chip instantly switched to the viewpoint of a wind critter far away.

A scrawny and agile mercenary was running for his life in the dark and lightless woods, not even taking a single look behind him. The protruding branches whipped and slashed him, leaving wounds all over his body, but he would not slow down his steps even a little.

Honestly, Greem had cleared the forest way too thoroughly, causing all the wild beasts to vanish. Otherwise, with the mercenary’s reckless sprint, he would have eventually ended up in the belly of a wild beast.

”Beep; this mercenary took advantage of the chaos and escaped the camp. Asking host; should the Lightning Giant be sent to capture or eliminate him?”

Greem’s eye gleamed for a second before he coldly said, ”Based on the direction he’s running, he should be headed for the human town in the west! Evil Bugs has set up a large web there. Hopefully, that mercenary has the luck to break through. No need to care about him. If he wishes to die, then let him have a taste of Evil Bugs!”

”Right. I felt like these knights have very average power individually. They’re only normal people who’ve received special physical training. Why would you rate them as powerful as apprentice adepts?”

”Beep; the evaluation this time is a conclusion drawn from the combined strength and power of the two parties, viewed from all angles and perspectives……Witcher-Knight is a unique job class that requires the aid of many external objects to unleash their strength. Their standard equipment should be a powerful mount, customized magical equipment, and powerful individual battle techniques. With all this taken into consideration, a fully equipped witcher-knight should not be weaker than an apprentice adept of the same level……”

Greem couldn’t help but fall deep into thought when he heard this.