Age of Adepts

Both parties agreed to set the location of the battle one kilometer southeast of the campsite.

At that spot was an empty and unpopulated grass field.

The siblings were already waiting when Greem and Alice finally arrived.

”You keep your promises, as expected.” The brother took off his hood and revealed those strange and completely black eyes, ”These are the Northern Lands. Killing without discretion will cause us to be hunted by the witches. This spot is the perfect place to settle our problems since there is no one here!”

After three months of traveling as a group, both parties had some understanding of each other. Though it was impossible to find out more about their secrets, they still had a basic idea of each other’s powers.

In the eyes of the siblings, Greem was purely a fire adept. He was even the sort of person who would choose fire as his elementium mastery. This choice undoubtedly made his attacks even more devastating, but it also made him a priority target for his enemies. On the other hand, the girl known as Alice had no combat ability whatsoever. She only had some auxiliary support means to protect herself.

Greem and Alice had also figured out the abilities and identities of this pair of siblings.

The brother was Bill. He had only advanced a dozen years ago and was a no-name adept that specialized in physical modifications. He had replaced his original organs with magical ones he had found in his travels to strengthen himself. Consequently, he possessed some unique abilities that were similar to those of magical beasts.

His pitch-black eyes were what was known as the ’Eyes of Shadows.’ These eyes were capable of subtly turning shadow substance and darkness into terrifying shadow creatures. Moreover, after undergoing the process of modification, his body possessed immense strength, high agility, and a shocking Physique.

But no-names were no-names for a reason!

It didn’t matter if he used organ transplanting and modifications to make himself to be stronger than an ordinary adept. It didn’t change the fact that most of his magical organs contradicted and clashed with each other as well as the host body. There was a thick tension between all these parts at the very source of their existence that was extremely hard to mediate and neutralize.

It was a foolish path of strengthening the current self while giving up on future developments!

The sister that had tried to seduce Greem was called Amanda. She was a potions master that specialized in herbology. She was good at brewing all sorts of potions.

Alice couldn’t help but sinisterly laugh when she saw that the two enemies had arrived, ”Why are there only two of you? Didn’t you come here as a trio? Ask that other witch to come out as well, will you?”

The siblings looked at each other. Amanda shook her head and bitterly smiled as she said, ”We know each other a little too well. As expected, it’s hard to keep anything from you. Doris, come out! Let these two fellows witness our true power!”

As she shouted, a lonely silhouette walked out from the trees behind Greem and Alice. It was the witch that had left the merchant group before the other two parties.

”Quite smart, aren’t you people?” Alice couldn’t help but mock them, ”You knew we were more powerful than you and learned how to cooperate. Wow! What is it? Do you intend to play rock-paper-scissors to split the spoils after beating us? Let me guess. You will be the one to lose!”

Alice pointed at Doris, who traveled alone.

”Hmph! No need for any of your tricks to drive us apart! We have already discussed this and signed a contract of cooperation. We will never attack each other until you are dead!” Amanda snorted coldly, ”Who knew? A weak little shit like yourself with no combat ability whatsoever was assessed to be one of the three most promising candidates. I’m not even sure whether to laugh at them for their foolishness or to laugh at fate’s joke! It doesn’t matter. Today, you must die!”

”Well then, why are we still talking?! Let’s start, quick!” Alice shouted as she tossed out a blinding red crystal.

The next second, the domineering body of the Infernal Tyrant appeared in the field, shrouded with blazing flames.

The air instantly started to become intolerably warm!

The male adept named Bill looked at Greem and betrayed a sinister smile, ”You are very brave… but not very wise!”

The black vortex in his eyes spun as the shadows beneath Greem and Alice started to distort. Ferocious silhouettes climbed out of their shadows and lunged at them.

Adept Bill’s black eyes continued to flash as he summoned more and more shadow creatures to attack his opponents. Of course, he had no intention of placing all his hopes on these shadow creatures alone. He let out a resounding roar as dense black fur quickly started to grow all over his body and face.

He turned into a black panther standing on its feet within a matter of two to three seconds. His claws gleamed with the unique blue glow of elementium poison. He roared and charged at Greem and Alice.

Potion Master Amanda wasn’t idling either. Her fingers started to move as she threw several small vials into the battlefield. The bottles then exploded, and strange liquid splashed everywhere.

This viscous liquid started to gather together as if it had consciousness. Four human-sized creatures climbed up from the ground. Most of their body was semi-translucent viscous liquid. The inside of the body, on the other hand, had leaves, sand, pebbles, and even worms trapped within.

They had a head, torso, and four limbs, like any other ordinary human being. That said, there were no facial features. Nor were there any genitalia on their bodies.

They marched towards Alice with heavy footsteps the moment they got up from the ground. As they advanced, they slung several pungent corrosive balls at their target.

A few other vials had been tossed near Alice. Strange gray halos emerged from the bottles, quickly polluting Alice’s mental world a dull gray color.

Doris, on the other hand, stood silently behind Greem and Alice. It seemed her job was only to prevent the two from running away. She didn’t intend to engage in the battle.

Greem didn’t intend to continue hiding his power now that the enemy had moved.

The three adepts might have outnumbered them, but in the end, two of them were only newly advanced adepts that had just advanced in the last three years. Moreover, only Adept Bill’s abilities were at the level of a veteran adept, at the very best.

Greem himself, on the other hand, was an existence powerful enough to execute elite adepts!

”Yamituo, flames, the lost foot… ”

It was almost as if an invisible volcano had erupted within Greem’s body as he chanted the crisp and brief lines of his spells. Massive amounts of fire elementium didn’t gather from the outside, but instead emerged from within his body. The bright red flames ignited everything around him. Greem’s body also started to swell and increase in size as the tide of fire grew in size and intensity.

His two-meter tall body already towered over most adepts. With the torrent of flame energy, Greem instantly became a four-meter giant of flames. A sea of fire elementium solidified on the surface of his body and turned into an armor of flame.

Beng. Beng. Beng.

Four Inferno Shields made of solidified flames materialized, one-meter wide and two meters tall. They spun around Greem’s massive body.

That wasn’t the end of it!

A red flame barrier started to extend outwards, with Greem as the center. It completely enveloped an area of two hundred and fifty meters in the blink of an eye. Everything inside the zone started to burn under the ravaging of heat and fire.

The first to endure its effects were the siblings.

The various shadow creatures that had emerged from Greem’s shadow had their fragile bodies burned to ashes before they could even attack. The transformed Bill turned into a black flash of light and bypassed Greem’s Inferno Shield, even though the air had been distorted and turned red from the fires around Greem.

Pupu.

Two muffled explosions.

Bill’s sharp claws wholly destroyed two blazing Inferno Shields, causing them to explode into sparks of fire.

Bill grunted and appeared a hundred meters away. He glared at Greem with hatred in his eyes. Large patches of burns had surfaced all over his black body.

A wicked and hateful expression appeared on Bill’s long face when he witnessed the power of Greem’s fire magic. He used his claws to take out a red crystal leaf from his pouch. He stuffed the leaf into his mouth and swallowed it as quickly as he could. A light that repelled fire instantly blasted out from his body.

His body already possessed some degree of elementium resistance. Now, with the added effects of the fire-dragon herb, Bill’s fire resistance had increased exponentially. He no longer feared that ubiquitous Ring of Fire.

He could feel the fire poison within his body quickly being expelled. The scorching air that suffocated him had also turned into a warm breeze. Bill put on a wicked smile as he bent his body. His thick and powerful hind legs kicked against the scorched earth. Once again, his entire being turned into a black flash of light as he lunged towards Greem.

A fifty-centimeter crater had been left behind where he had kicked the ground. Frightening cracks spiderwebbed the earth. This destruction alone was enough to demonstrate how much Strength and Physique Bill had in his transformed state!

”Fool, are you still dreaming of fighting against all three of us alone? After turning into a beast, I have Strength equal to body-refining adepts. Today, I will… ” Bill wildly shouted as he spun around Greem and repeatedly shattered his Inferno Shields.

Before Bill could even finish his sentence, Greem’s massive hand of flame had dug into the ground. An enormous Lava Shield formed in the boiling lava, which Greem swung and smashed into Bill’s face.

A muffled boom.

Bill couldn’t stop the momentum. The Lava Shield shattered on his head. His entire body fell to the ground and flew almost forty meters away.

He finally got up after much difficulty and pulled his bloody face out of the muddy ground. His nose started to bleed now that dirt no longer stuffed it. His broad nose was also broken in three or four places.

Dammit, what was going on?! Why did that person’s strength and speed suddenly increase by so much?

Bill furiously spat away the dirt in his mouth. He was shocked to find two bloody fangs mixed with the earth.

Bastard! He knocked my teeth out!