Age of Adepts

Dragonborn Camp.

The pesky kobolds had been completely dealt with.

The kobold blood had been scattered all across the camp, and the stinging smell of blood had obscured the stench of the place.

The smell of blood wasn’t unpleasant to the dragonborn who had always lived on the edge of battle. In fact, it made them feel at ease and relaxed.

The dragonborn had traveled far to get here and had indeed prepared food of their own. However, given the unpredictability of war, it wasn’t a bad idea to prep more food ahead of time. That was why Commander Will had sent out the food requisitioning party to find trouble with the local natives.

The dragonborn warriors gathered into their squads to start campfires and put on their pots. Soon, the pleasant fragrance of cooked ribs started to fill the camp.

Several dragonborn warriors had even taken off their armor and were wrestling bare-handed with the free time they had before dinner.

Dragonborn were warlike people. Fair matches like these were the best stages to demonstrate their valor and might.

As such, the dragonborn captain did not stop them from doing so. They joined the spectating warriors and started cheering for their companions and jeering at the opponents.

The atmosphere of the camp turned lively and fun, yet there was also a certain peace to the scene that most outsiders wouldn’t comprehend!

”Those overactive little brats.” Deputy Commander Eden laughed when he turned back and saw this scene unfold. He was standing on a slope within the camp and looking into the distance.

Even though he was scolding the soldiers, there was a trace of indulgence in his tone.

Commander Will also turned to look at the camp, but he frowned and shook his head before looking into the distance once again. If this had been in the past, he would probably have laughed off the situation much like Eden. He might even have roared and charged into the camp to throw a couple of those rascals to the ground.

However, an indescribable feeling of uneasiness lingered in his heart right now. He couldn’t free himself from that feeling no matter what he did.

”What are you still worried about?” Eden caringly asked when he saw his old friend frown so hard, ”The requisitioning party, or the Twin Peaks party?”

Eden never even mentioned the Dragon Cultists.

Those lowly trolls had relied on their humble, fancy words and useless praise to win the favor of Lady Philippa. Dragonborn looked down upon such behavior and, by association, scorned these Dragon Cultists.

Two hundred Dragon Cultists sounded like a reasonably large army. However, Eden was confident he could slaughter the enemy in half an hour if he had a squad of dragonborn warriors with him.

It was this vast disparity in combat prowess that caused the dragonborn to look down upon the Dragon Cultists, who only knew how to grovel and pray. The dragonborn would even be glad to hear of the Dragon Cultists sustaining massive losses against some powerful magical creature.

Commander Will didn’t answer his old friend’s question. His gaze was still roaming across the distant fog.

”How long has it been since the requisitioning party left?” Will narrowed his eyes and asked sombrely, ”If we were to go by my calculations, they should already have returned seven minutes ago!”

Eden was a veteran of war and quickly realized the abnormality upon being reminded by Will.

”The murloc camp they were heading to is no more than two and a half kilometer away from us. Unless they ran into some real trouble, they should already have returned. Should I bring someone to go check?”

”No need to go! They might never come back,” The fires of anger burst forth in Commander Will’s four amber eyes, ”I have been feeling uneasy ever since we entered the Swamp of Sorrows. Now, it seems, we have underestimated the enemy this time! We have stepped into their trap without even noticing. The enemy never intended to hold the line at Stonetalon Mountains. Instead, they’ve come all the way here to intercept us.”

Deputy Commander Eden shivered at those words. A trace of anger appeared in his eyes when he once again looked at the fog around them.

Fear was the one word that had never appeared in the dictionaries of dragonborn warriors.

They would only feel hate and anger for those despicable fellows that hid in the shadows. They would never fear them!

”I will go and gather up the group and have them be on alert!” Deputy Commander Eden quickly came to a decision.

Eden beat his chest and saluted Will before crushing a black scorpion by his foot and sprinting down the slope with two of his subordinates.

Will continued to look at the surroundings of the camp, utterly ignorant of the sliver of gray smoke that rose from the remains of the black scorpion that Eden had stomped into the ground. The gray smoke silently merged into the damp mist around them.

In truth, the entire camp was enveloped by this strange gray smoke. The only reason no one had realized this was due to the presence of the mist around them.

While Will was silently guessing at the intentions of their hidden enemy, a modified magic-energy flying ship slowly cruised above the skies of the camp. It started to circle there.

If this had been the goblin flying ships of the past, its old and clumsy steam engine would have been roaring loud enough for everyone within four kilometers to hear it clearly. Moreover, there were also the clanging and creaking sounds of mechanical components and turning gears. That loud noise would have made any form of subterfuge impossible. The dragonborn would have discovered the ship before it appeared unless they had all turned deaf.

The sound released by the flying ship was minimal now that the energy source had been swapped out for magic energy. The chances of them being discovered by the dragonborn were even lower with the cover of the fog.

Several goblin technicians in leather clothes and advanced goggles with green lenses were crouching at the edge of the flying ship. They were using the enhanced vision of the goggles to observe the dragonborn camp beneath them silently.

One of the advanced goblin engineers was softly commanding a construction machine to carefully place a three-meter-long, cigar-shaped bomb into the drop hatch.

Once they had prepared everything, the advanced engineer pressed the communication device in his headset and softly made his report, ”Hummingbird One calling Eagle Nest. Hummingbird One calling Eagle Nest. Destroyer is in place. Hummingbird One awaiting orders.”

An invisible electric wave rapidly spread out towards the distance and sent the message to the heavily guarded base.

Mary took off her headset and lightly tossed them upon the metal platform. She then casually placed her slender and beautiful legs on the floor. The three blood knights stood in a row behind her while old fox Vanlier mumbled something into her ear with a huge grin on his face.

Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha was sitting in the corner of the camp, using a cloth to carefully wipe the electric spear that had accompanied him for all these years.

Deserra, Dana, Endor, and Charon had all returned from their missions. Almost every one of them carried wounds on their bodies, except for Endor. In particular, Medusa Dana’s injuries were the most severe.

However, with the treatment of plenty of healing potions and life potions, Dana’s wound healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. She only needed another fifteen minutes of rest to regain her essential combat ability.

Only Bug Adept Billis, who had gone out to kill the Dragon Cultists had yet to return. News from the battlefield was that Billis’ bug army, paired with the magical machines, had managed to obtain the advantage in that battle. However, there were some tough nuts among the Cultists that could use potent fire powers as well. It caused the losses of the magical machines to be relatively higher than expected.

It seemed Billis would not be able to make it back in time for the main offensive against the dragonborn camp!

Another fifteen minutes later, Dana pulled her head from within a massive barrel of herbs without a scratch on her body. Mary put down her legs and stood up confidently to shout, ”Prepare to attack!” She then led the way and strode out of the tent.

This single order seemed to have put a high-speed motor upon the entire camp. The whole establishment started to move about at an extremely high pace.

One hundred and sixty-three magical machines split up into different squads based on their models. They sorted into neat formations and marched into the mist with heavy and rumbling footsteps.

The adept squad that Mary led hid within the magical machines and silently proceeded toward the battlefield.

Mary continued to give orders as they moved. The eyes and spies they had set up around the dragonborn camp ahead of time started to close in as well. They were like a tight fishing net being cast over the dragonborn.

The large-scale movement of the magical machine army couldn’t avoid the senses of the dragonborn, even with the fog as cover.

The dragonborn camp was filled with the shoutings and clamoring of the dragonborn captain. The squads of dragonborn had been summoned and were being assigned to different areas based on their habits in battle.

The so-called dragonborn camp had actually been stolen from the native kobolds.

There were no durable walls or fortresses around the camp that they could fortify themselves in. However, three sides of the camp were blocked off by massive pools of mud and water. There was only a single ten-meter-wide dirt road that led straight into the camp.

Thus, the dragonborn adapted their strategy to the geography and laid most of their troops upon the road that led to the camp, forming several defensive lines along it.

The dragonborn army had always been known for their ferocity and violence in combat; they had rarely ever been on the defense. However, the enemies had appeared far too abruptly this time. They also seemed to be out for blood. That left Commander Will with no choice but to alter their original plan and to decide on their next course of action after figuring out the strength of the enemy.

However, Commander Will’s little scheme was well within Mary’s plans.

Mary might not be all that good at scheming, but toying with a dragonborn commander was still a breeze with the aid of Old Fox Vanlier.

The organized formation of magical machines parted the fog and pressed toward the dragonborn camp with rumbling steps under the hostile gaze of two hundred dragonborn. The intimidating aura of bloodthirst and killing intent unnerved even the veteran dragonborn.

Both sides slowly closed in on each other.

A massive fight would break out at any time!

Chapter Notes:

Editor Ryu: For those who don’t normally read posts, I implore you to read this Major Update that affects the future of Age of Adepts. It contains some serious changes that go into effect today, November 1st, 2018.

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