Age of Adepts

Who would have known! Truly!

Who would have expected a magical creature as strange as the forest spirits to exist in the world?!

Greem clicked his tongue in amazement as he raised the Blaze of Destruction in his hand.

”It seems this is a conspiracy of the two of you! What is it? A poor wandering adept, an even more pathetic magical creature, and you want to drag me to my grave? Isn’t that just a little too complacent?!”

Greem tapped his staff against the ground, and a massive blast of flame a dozen meters long emerged from the top of the staff. The temperature in the cave instantly rose.

”Hmph! Arrogant human, aren’t you the smug one?!” The forest spirit floating down from above chuckled as she spoke, ”Did you think we would trick you into this place without prior preparations? Witness what I have laid out for you!”

The forest spirit shouted, and faint blue light emerged from all around the room. The floor, walls, ceiling, and even the pillars of stone. A strange array large enough to cover the entire space appeared.

The flames from Greem’s staff and his Ring of Fire quickly dimmed, before being reduced to sparks.

”Beep. Detecting unknown forcefield interference. Initial estimates suggest…”

The information projected in his mind caused him to pause for a second. He uttered the name of an array, one word at a time.

”Magic… Interference… Barrier!”

”Good to see that you know your magic!” The forest spirit’s phantasmal body slowly hovered in the cave. She phased right through a stone pillar and moved behind Greem, firmly sealing off his only path of escape.

”This is a Magic-Interference Barrier specially prepared for you. I have adjusted it into a Fire-Interference Barrier. No fire spells can be successfully cast while in this cave. What’s left of a fire adept once you strip him of his innate magic? Hahaha.”

Sabrina’s expression soured at this moment.

One adept was more than enough trouble. To think that an adept was working with a magical creature. Her fortune must have been the absolute worst to run into a situation like this!

Meanwhile, Greem smiled at his enemies, even as Sabrina plunged into despair. A strange smile appeared in his eyes.

”Are you sure a Magic-Interference Barrier would be enough to make me surrender without any conditions? If that’s the case, what are you hesitating for? Come at me!”

Greem’s calm demeanor was beyond the forest spirit’s expectations. Her pretty eyes shifted from Greem and fell upon Gargamel.

”Don’t worry. Greem is merely pretending to stay calm!” Gargamel waved the staff in his hand, ”We set up this magic array together. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with it.”

Gargamel summoned an elementium fireball. The dense fire elementium gathered in his palm. It dispersed and turned into waves of fire before it could form into a fixed shape.

”Then you go ahead and capture him!” The forest spirit calmly said.

”This… ” Gargamel took a look at his frail body, then glanced at Greem’s muscular figure. He shivered at the thought.

A physical fight was out of the question!

Gargamel chose to use his specialty without hesitation.

He shook his staff rapidly. Every time he did so, a strange halo of light appeared around Greem. These halos contained various magical powders. They surged into Greem’s body, carried along by the flow of magical energy.

They were all reduced to ashes by a sudden explosion of flames from Greem’s body.

”Dammit! Didn’t you say that he would no longer be able to cast any fire spells?” The forest spirit couldn’t care less for her elegance when she saw this happen. She started cursing furiously.

”No need to worry. It isn’t a spell!” As expected of a veteran adept that had lived for two hundred years, Gargamel saw through the truth of the phenomenon in an instant, ”He has already elementiumized his body. This is the innate ability of his body of fire. It isn’t an active magic spell. The Interference Barrier cannot disperse this.”

”You are sure?” The forest spirit was doubtful.

She might have been more powerful than Gargamel, but she was far less experienced than him when it came to magical knowledge.

”Cough. Girl. Brat. Do you want to live or die?” Gargamel rolled his eyes and looked at Sabrina, ”He can no longer use any spells at this moment. He’s only a slightly fit man now. If you help me take him down, I’ll help you treat your internal injuries.”

Greem snorted coldly and marched towards the forest spirit.

”Stop him, Sabrina! Or I will make you die now!” Gargamel let out a hoarse yell and threw out two potion vials and two summoning stones.

The potion vials smashed into the ground. Two storm elementals emerged from the viscous liquid. Two earth elementals, a hundred and fifty-centimeters tall, also climbed up from where the summoning stones had vanished.

The forest spirit landed on the ground with a somber expression. Her legs turned into countless thorns and vines that dug into the ground, causing the ground to tremble. Earth and dirt overturned as thick vines dug underground like giant serpents. They quickly extended to the area beneath Greem.

Sabrina stood right between Greem and the forest spirit as all this was happening. She gritted her teeth and hesitated for a moment before finally coming to a decision. Five robotic arms that reached as far as three meters in length emerged from her body and struck towards the forest spirit.

”You deal with the summoned beings behind me. I’ll deal with the forest spirit!” Greem looked at Sabrina with a severe look in his eyes. He opened his mouth and gave his orders.

Sabrina turned her head in surprise. She felt a trace of relief when she saw Greem’s calm gaze. She immediately turned to deal with the four summoned beings. Each one of them had pseudo-adept level abilities and were supported by Gargamel’s spells and potions. It was definitely a challenging task for Sabrina to hold them back.

Greem stepped forward and gazed at the quickly approaching forest spirit with cold eyes. He waved his hand and threw two golem cores to the ground. The Decayer and the Roaring Monster appeared before him. Two adept-level golems.

Dong!

A muffled boom. The Roaring Monster stomped with its thick stone leg the moment it appeared. Fine cracks appeared on the ground beneath it. The powerful shockwave was just in time to greet the vines extending towards them.

Ugh…

The forest spirit grunted. All the roots and vines she had extended immediately shrunk back and retreated.

Half of the roots had been shattered and ripped to pieces. Green sap dripped onto the ground. Soon, a small river formed beneath her feet.

The forest spirit flapped her hand in anger. Her left hand split into four vines and smashed apart the acid arrows that the Decayer had sent her way.

”Haha! You guys are correct. I am a fire adept!” Greem chuckled, ”Unfortunately, your information gathering wasn’t complete. Apart from being a fire adept, I am also a golem summoner.”

This situation was only possible thanks to the two enemies. They had sealed away all fire spells but didn’t entirely do away with the magic of other elements. It was unavoidable! If any basic wandering adept were able to set up a Magic-Interference Barrier that encompassed every single elementium, then array masters would have become the strongest adepts in the world. The conditions and requirements were too harsh to create an all-encompassing Interference Barrier.

After all, most adepts only possessed long-ranged attacks. Once they lost their spellcasting abilities, they would die a terrible death when pit against a magical creature. Humans were far inferior when it came to a contest of their physical bodies. That was the main reason Gargamel and the forest spirit chose to set up this trap!

Through the use of this Magic-Interference Barrier, that they could adjust to seal a single element, they had managed to kill three wandering adepts in ten years. Every time, Gargamel acted as the informant. He found out about the victim’s innate magic, then employed the same excuse he had used to trick the enemy into the cave.

Once the Magic-Interference Barrier tailored for the enemy was activated, the fight was practically over. Elementium adepts would have their combat skills reduced by seventy to eighty percent. What remained of their powers was insufficient to deal with the combined force of an adept and a magical creature. This combination was how they had managed to pull this trick off three times in a row!

However, their plan had failed this time. Gargamel and the spirit had run headfirst into the tough steel wall that was Greem. It served them right!

Still, the battle wasn’t over. This forest spirit had the rare innate ability to drag people into their dreams. She had taken Greem by surprise when she cast this ability on him.

A green nature-attribute halo emerged from her body and rapidly encompassed the entire place. Be it the elementium golems, the half-robotic Sabrina, or even the heavily defended Greem; they felt a wave of exhaustion take over their bodies. Their desire to sleep was overwhelming.

Soon, they had all fell into their dreams!

”Quick,” The forest spirit yelled at the top of her lungs, ”This fire adept’s Spirit is way too potent. I can only restrain him for five seconds. Do it now.”

The forest spirit roared as she lunged at Greem. Thick vines lashed out at the fire adept. On the other side of the cave, Gargamel gritted his teeth and poured a vial of potion into his mouth. He then frantically charged towards Greem.

Greem hadn’t actually fallen asleep at this moment.

On the one hand, the Ioun Stones that Alice had given him did their job. They raised his Spirit and neutralized part of the soul-controlling spell’s effect. The forest spirit’s spell was also a type of soul power. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been able to restrain the two elementium golems that never needed sleep!

On the other hand, Greem’s chip had managed to detect him succumbing to sleep. It emitted minor electric currents to stimulate his spirit consciousness and allowed him to recover from the state of drowsiness quickly.

He might be awake, but he still faced the combined attacks of both Gargamel and the forest spirit!

”Chip, do you have a solution?”

”Beep. This Magic-Interference Barrier is only an elementary-level runic array. Host only needs to complete the Flame Fiend Transformation. The sudden increase in attributes will be more than enough to neutralize the elementium interference.”

”Then what are we hesitating for? Flame Fiend Transformation!”

Greem yelled in his heart, and his body started to swell.