Age of Adepts

Azurelode.

It was a large metal mine at the edge of Stonetalon Mountains.

The cave spiders and the hill dwarfs were the ones toiling hard within the mine. They had obtained ownership of the mine from Dragon Lord Cherkes in exchange for offering a certain amount of metal ores on a consistent basis.

It was such a rich metal reserve rested right beneath the eyes of Dragon Lord Cherkes, yet he seemed blind to its wealth. Cherkes didn’t do much else with it apart from some light excavation of the metal ores to forge metal armor for his subordinate dragonborn.

As for creating an empire of steel and exporting the valuable metal resources to other planes? Such mercantile thoughts had never appeared in the minds of the Dragon Lords.

Back then, the reason Cherkes had agreed to the joint excavation of Azurelode by the dwarfs and the spiders was that he had his eyes set on the accompanying resources of the metal reserves– the magical gemstones. Cherkes couldn’t care less for those black and heavy metal ores that took up so much space.

Yet, it was these metal ores that Cherkes was never concerned about that drew him such terrifying and undefeatable enemies.

Second Grade Wind Dragon Lord Cherkes stood proudly upon the peak of the mountain. Upon hearing the report, he gripped the edge of the stone platform with his sharp talons, bent his body, looked down upon the forest beneath, and let out a reverberating dragon’s roar.

The entire forest flew into chaos wherever the dragon’s echoed.

Countless birds and beasts emerged from their homes and fled away from the Twin Peaks without looking back. On the other hand, loud dragon roars rang out in response from the dragonborn camp at the feet of the mountain. Squads of large and mighty dragonborn wearing metal armor and wielding poleaxes charged out of the camp in strict formation.

There were a hundred and two berserk dragonborn with First Grade power. These dragon warriors were already all of the strength that Wind Dragon Cherkes could assemble, disregarding the dragon messengers he had sent out to collect ’taxes.’

The dragon warriors’ ferocious will to battle deeply motivated this wind dragon lord.

Cherkes might have chosen to ignore the transgression out of fear of the enemy if they were only passing through his lands. However, there was no way he could sit still when it looked like the enemy wanted to set up camp at the edge of his home.

Thus, Wind Dragon Cherkes looked at the ferocity of his dragonborn army and let out yet another powerful dragon’s roar that shook the forests. He beat his green and gray wings hard and took to the skies with a powerful kick to the ground.

The wind dragons were naturally the masters of the sky.

Cherkes’ ten-ton-heavy body looked idle and clumsy when he moved on the ground. However, when he took to the air, layers of semi-translucent wind barriers enveloped his body, and the terror and agility of a wind dragon were put on display for all to see!

Other dragons had a trace of disharmony when they turned and twisted in flight, but the wind dragons flew in the air with the agility and flexibility of a fish in water.

Wind Dragon Cherkes dove downward before abruptly pulling up right as his massive body approached the ground. He couldn’t help but let out another roar when he flew past the dragonborn army.

The army immediately broke out into cheers.

They raised their large and wicked poleaxes to pay their respects to their lord, even as they started sprinting to follow behind the wind dragon and charge toward Azurelode.

…………

At this moment, the metal spider had already arrived at Azurelode. It transformed into an oddly-shaped monster and entered the mine without any difficulties, even as it was showered with the throwing axes of the hill dwarfs and the poison of the cave spiders.

The small two-meter entrance of Azurelode was clearly not large enough for something its size to easily enter. Thus, the metal monster extended a thick metallic limb to seal the entrance. Dong! Dong! Dong! As many as thirty combat magical machines were instantly shot out into the mine.

Countless cracks then opened up on the body of the metal monster. A barrage of bullets shot out and dealt with the trash and small fry hiding outside the cave.

The arcanite rifles had been reforged and were now all powered by magic energy. They possessed terrifying lethality that surpassed what they had in the past.

The fearsome metal bullets shattered and pierced everything in their way. Wood splintered and rocks split. In fact, the bullets could even cause a massive pillar of dirt to rise whenever they hit the ground, leaving only deep black holes in the ground.

The short hill dwarfs were not wearing any decent armor. Their bodies of flesh and blood were instantly riddled with holes by the brutal gunfire, draining the life from them. The cave spiders, on the other hand, were agile leapers and ran about quickly. Ordinary rifles had a hard time killing them.

Thus, a few more holes opened up beneath the metal monster’s giant body, and several spider golems rolled out from within.

Spiders against spiders!

Two different spider-like creatures broke out into an intense fight in front of Azurelode.

The cave spiders’ main weapons were their sharp fangs, pointed limbs, and their acid spit. However, none of these were threatening against the spider golems made of pure metal.

The metal spiders walked with heavy and clanging footsteps, rapidly closing the distance between them and their enemies. Several metal barrels extended out of the disc-shaped protrusion on their elliptical backs. Then, beams of intense flame would blast toward the cave spiders.

Charcoal spiders!

In almost a single instance, the cave spiders defending their nests outside Azurelode had already sustained heavy losses. Most of them had been burned into black charcoal by the hot flames.

Gazlowe’s mental voice rang out in the minds of all the adepts once he had dealt with all these pesky ’trash.’

”Sit tight. I’m going in.”

A dozen robotic arms with rapidly spinning drills attached to their tips emerged from the metal monster’s body. A fearsome disaster befell the mountain where Azurelode was located.

A massive hole was drilled into the mountain amidst an ear-piercing clanging and the forceful pressure of the metal monster. The metal monster slowly vanished in a cloud of dust.

A long dragon’s roar suddenly rang out from the depths of Stonetalon mountains as the metal monster was trying its best to dig into the depths of the mine.

A slight quake in the earth and a rumbling sound accompanied the dragon’s roar.

The wind dragon and his dragonborn army had arrived!

”You deal with them!” Greem fell silent for a moment before giving combat orders to Gazlowe, ”Try not to expose the existence of us adepts if possible!”

”I understand!” Gazlowe was much more obedient than before, ”It’s just a tiny Second Grade dragon anyway. I’ll send it packing.”

As a Third Grade brain monster, it wasn’t an exaggeration when he said such a thing.

With the metal monster and all its hidden magic energy weapons, it was no trouble dealing with a barely adolescent Second Grade wind dragon. In fact, Gazlowe could even capture the dragon alive if the geography was suitable.

Thus, not only did the metal monster not stop digging upon Greem’s orders, it even increased its pace, as if it couldn’t wait to get underground.

Wind Dragon Cherkes flew high above Azurelode, looking down upon the mess beneath him with eyes widened in anger.

It wasn’t that he cared for these worthless mine workers. Instead, he was stunned by the absolute hostility of the enemy. It seemed the enemy had no intention of making peace with him, the Dragon Lord of this land. They had wrought immense destruction on the mountain the moment they arrived.

It seemed the enemy was trying to dig into the ore veins beneath the mountain.

A massive hole a hundred meters in diameter had already been dug out of the mountain. Over half of the metal monster itself had entered the mountain.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

Cherkes cursed furiously.

The enemy’s actions signaled one thing; they were ignoring him.

It was undoubtedly an offense against the Dragon Lord’s reputation!

Cherkes could no longer hold back. He let out a roar, folded his wings, and dove straight down from five hundred meters in the air, his whole angular dragon body stabbing down like a sharp sword.

The dragon had come!

Naturally, there was no way any single one of Cherkes’ actions could have escaped Gazlowe’s spiritual senses.

Gazlowe only stopped his digging when he saw the dragon dive towards him. He commanded his large liquid metal body to prepare for combat.

The production facilities carried within the metal monster were all sent into the mountain, while all the magic energy weapons were transferred to the side facing outward.

The initially uneven metal body had now become as smooth as a mirror, melding to become one with the mountain, as if it was a metal city wall. Countless holes opened up in the wall as black gun barrels emerged from every one of them. All the cannons and guns locked on to the approaching dragon.

What…what was this?

Fierce winds blew through the air.

Cherkes’ massive eyes opened wide while his body was still mid-dive. He watched the enemy’s strange actions with utter confusion.

He might not have understood what the enemy was up to, but the sharp senses of a dragon caused an indescribable feeling of death to rise from the depths of his dragon soul.

He would most definitely die if he kept diving down like this!

This feeling had come so suddenly that Cherkes couldn’t help but doubt it for a second.

While he was debating whether to pull up or continue descending for a dragon’s breath, his sharp sight caught sight of a hundred magic-gathering points suddenly lighting up. The speed at which the magical energy was gathering, and the level of the power, left Cherkes speechless.

The wind dragon was utterly terrified, so much so that he fell into a complete panic. The dragon beat his wings desperately, trying to change the angle of his flight.

Dammit!

Cherkes couldn’t even finish his roar before being drowned in a blinding sea of light by the one hundred energy pillars blasting into the sky.