Age of Adepts

Thunderclouds rumbled as lightning flashed.

Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha was a soldier that mostly engaged in close combat, but the lightning power that he amassed with all his strength still reached a level that moved Greem.

Two hundred and eighty-three points!

That was a shocking number.

An attack of this level could allow Zacha to instantly kill any individual weaker than himself within a radius of a hundred meters. That mostly referred to any being of First Grade and below. Even Greem could be severely wounded if his defensive spells weren’t all prepared.

As the rumbling lightning spread outwards, all of the magical machines collapsed to the ground. Bright arcs of electricity still crackled over their metal bodies. The powerful lightning blast had destroyed the control modules and energy circulation system within their bodies, resulting in multiple smaller explosions on the battlefield.

All the magical machines in view exploded into scattered bits of metal and robotic components. Only the machines at the edge of the lightning storm were barely able to stay in one piece. However, even they had lost their ability to fight.

Seventy-eight combat magical machines.

A full power attack from Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha had destroyed seventy-eight magical machines. That was a result that he could already be proud of.

However, all of Zacha’s energy was exhausted after the attack. His muscular hooves could no longer support his massive body, and he slowly started to fall as he leaned against his electric spear.

Even a Second Grade like himself couldn’t support such a brutal and reckless blow.

Far away at the entrance of the tunnels, a new wave of magical machines was charging toward Greem and Zacha, stepping upon the debris of the destroyed machines as they did so. They had yet to arrive in front of Zacha, but their violent barrage of bullets had already engulfed the Dragonborn.

The complete exhaustion of his lightning powers and the inability to rapidly absorb new lightning elementium from the air caused Zacha’s blue scales to lose their luster. His scales were now dull and lightless.

Consequently, his defensive abilities also degraded. He was a genuine Second Grade dragonborn, yet grunted from being hit by ordinary metal bullets.

The Thunderstrike from earlier had clearly avoided the area Greem was in. Even though the wildly crackling tide of lightning had destroyed one of Greem’s Fire Shields, he’d only had to endure a portion of the lightning aftershock. He was not hurt at all.

Greem took a few steps forward and stood by Zacha’s side. He bent over and placed his bright burning hand upon the Dragonborn. A mysterious scene occurred!

The brilliant flames slowly started to spread from Greem’s magma hand and extended toward every part of Zacha’s body. Dragonborn Zacha’s four odd eyes of two different sizes opened wide in surprise. The bright red flames were burning on his body, but strangely enough, he couldn’t feel any pain from the fire at all.

It was almost as if…as if those flames didn’t have any temperature!

However, his sharp instincts as a Second Grade dragonborn told him that these flames did have heat. It was only that the powerful human fire adept seemed to be temporarily allowing him to possess a strange state of immunity against fire through contact. This way, elementium fires of any strength would not be able to damage him!

The visible burning of the fire looked extremely slow, but in truth, the entire process took less than three seconds to complete.

The Fire Shields and Lava Shields around Greem also hovered over and helped Zacha block the barrage of bullets and goblin rockets. As the bright flames completely engulfed Zacha, a brilliant red light erupted in his vision. He immediately felt as if he had been thrown into a sea of fire. His sense of space had fallen into complete chaos.

However, this flash of red light departed as fast as it had come!

When the red light quickly faded away, Zacha was shocked to find himself moved from his original position. He had been teleported into the group of adepts along with the fire adept.

He could see that speechlessly savage and violent witch at the perimeter, beating on the magical machines with her thick wooden club. Every swing of her club would cause a dent in a magical machine’s head, and sometimes even destroy the machine. Only metal components and alloy shards remained on the floor.

Disregarding everything else, this berserk witch was a terrifying existence when it came to pure strength, even if thrown into the midst of First Grade Dragonborn. Even Second Grade Zacha would not be able to crush her in a matter of two to three seconds.

The other side of the adepts’ perimeter was being held up by Bug Adept Billis’ swarm.

A dozen sting scorpions the size of mastiffs roamed the battlefield, occasionally letting out earth spikes at the magical machine. These sudden spikes would probably have impaled ordinary creatures. In fact, it was possible that they were simply lifted into the air from all the earth spikes.

However, the heavy machines were entirely composed of tough, hard metal. There was no apparent weak spot anywhere on their bodies. As such, the earth spikes of the sting scorpions couldn’t deal much direct physical damage to them.

However, these sting scorpions were displaying power beyond their own grade under the command of Billis. If one earth spike wasn’t enough, then he would use two, or ten.

Focused fire from thirteen sting scorpions was enough to deal severe earth damage to all magical machines in a ten-meter radius. As the damaged magical machines struggled to escape from the forest of earth spikes, these sting scorpions would burrow and appear beneath them.

Then the sting scorpions would bite and tear at the bodies of the machines in a mad frenzy.

Once visible cracks started to appear in their bodies, the sting scorpions would dive inside. A magical machine would then collapse in a crackling explosion, wholly crippled and incapable of movement.

The ones fighting at the frontline were always these sting scorpions. Bug Adept Billis was hiding inside the defensive line formed by the sting scorpions, casually picking off the stray machine that had made it past.

However, the sting scorpions were still somewhat weak individually when compared to the magical machines. Their shells were also not as durable as the machines. As a result, all thirteen of them suffered wounds and injuries of various degrees after a long period of fighting. Their pungent purple blood had spilled everywhere.

Still, this didn’t make them any less reckless when they rushed at the next magical machine in the line!

Mary and Endor had a much more comfortable time behind the lines with these two meat shields in front of them. They stayed by Alice’s side and guarded her while using powerful long-ranged spells to attack the magical machines.

As a vampire adept, Mary was an agility-type assassin. Her expertise was not frontal attacks.

That was why she had no choice but stay inside the perimeter and fire arrows with her crimson bow, despite her normally assertive personality. She couldn’t do much against this endless horde of enemies.

It was the same for Poison Witch Endor.

Her poison techniques and spells were utterly useless against a bunch of remote-controlled machines with no flesh or blood to speak of. She no longer had the same might that she had displayed when she instantly murdered a hundred goblin mechanics on the day she entered the Goblin Plane.

However, Endor also knew pretty decent and sinister spells apart from deadly plagues and poisons. Even the magical machines were not immune to her vast acid swamps and the corrosive arrows that she fired.

Moreover, all of her attacks focused on the lower half of the magical machines. All the machines that had their legs corroded by acid would become stumbling blocks for the others. It delayed the speed at which the machine army pressed toward the adepts.

In conclusion, the spells of the adepts were extremely varied. They could come up with entirely different plans of action in response to different situations.

The discipline and obedience of the adepts might be extremely lacking, but they made up for it by having adaptability that surpassed that of Zacha’s dragonborn squad by several times.

That was also why the adepts had managed to hang on for so long despite having fewer numbers compared to the dragonborn scouts. Their chances of survival were also much higher.

As expected of a fierce and mighty Second Grade dragonborn, Zacha managed to recover in less than thirty seconds. He could now stand up and join the battle once more.

The perimeter of the adepts became even more stable and more difficult to break with Zacha’s addition!

At this moment in the battle, the number of broken machines piling up outside the perimeter had reached a total of two hundred. It had gone far beyond Gazlowe’s psychological bottom line.

If all of his magical machine reserves were exhausted, he would have to retreat. That was the case even if he was a Third Grade monster facing off against a ragtag group of First Grade adepts led by two Second Grade beings.

After all, who was it that made his reincarnated body that of a giant brain that only had the means to protect itself? It didn’t have the unique combat techniques and abilities that normal Third Grade monsters should possess.

As the adepts gave their all to repel the attack of the machines, a thunderous roar echoed from a tunnel nearby.

The next moment, a dozen magical machines guarding the tunnel were blown away by a massive force. They flew across the sky like petals in spring. The four directly hit machines disintegrated in midair.

Shattered magical machine parts flew everywhere like a downpour of rain!

A powerful dragon seventeen meters long and covered with fine blue scales emerged from the tunnel as the magical machine army was thrown into disarray. He took to the skies and caught up with the machines in the air before using his fangs and slender tail to smash them to pieces.

The adepts present on the battlefield couldn’t help but be mesmerized at the sight of the dragon’s majestic movements in combat. Their hearts shrunk at the same moment.

A Third Grade Dragon!

And to make matters worse, a fearsome Thunder Dragon– dragons that were known even amongst the entire species!

The few adepts belonging to Greem’s faction couldn’t help but gather closer together. They got into formation and resisted that terrifying dragon’s aura of might that pressed against them.