Age of Adepts

”A weapons master and a deadshot; two Second Grades. Now, this is fun!”

Greem raised his head and laughed. Several new Fire Shields and Lava Shields popped out of his party and enveloped him tightly within their defenses.

”Come, all of you. Let me see what you Second Grades of Faen are made of.”

The faces of the two Second Grade elves turned around as the faint red Ring of Fire engulfed a hundred-meter space around Greem. Both of them retreated at the same time, barely making it out of the radius of the spell.

However, while they had managed to escape, other smaller creatures were in for a disaster.

The one hundred flower fairies and green fairies buzzing around the battlefield were still weaving through the crowd, screaming as they ran. The very next moment, they were howling in agony and frantically trying to leave this strange Ring of Fire, panicking like dragonflies that had fallen into the water.

Sadly, before they could make it too far, large bursts of flame started to burn on their bodies.

Within a matter of seconds, the flames spread throughout their bodies and turned them into blazing birds of flame.

As creatures of grass and wood, flower fairies and green fairies had practically negative resistance to fire. That was why they were burned to ashes without a chance to escape when they faced a master of pyromancy. Sparks and flames of various sizes also ignited all over the bodies of the elves and treant warriors.

The two commanders were naturally worried to see so many of their companions cast to the flames. They had no choice but to return and stall the otherworldly adept that had transformed into a fearsome Flame Fiend.

If Greem were only an ordinary Second Grade adept, he would already have been minced to bits by the enemy. However, after opting for flame mastery, Greem’s control over elementium fires had reached an incredible extent of power far beyond the reach of ordinary adepts.

It was particularly true once Greem had merged so many otherworldly fire runes into his magic. The ways and techniques in which he utilized fire magic had become increasingly strange and profound.

Explosion! Coldflame! Poisonfire!

Greem looked at the weapons master that was circling him and regularly using moon blades to destroy his Fire Shields. He smiled chillingly, lifted a finger, and pointed at the elf, ”Coldflame!”

The next second, the flames that shrouded the weapons master suddenly halted. They then suddenly turned into terrifying Coldflames with frigid temperatures. A layer of cyan and white frost quickly covered the body of the weapons master, causing his limbs to go numb and cold. He was almost frozen to the spot.

Greem then lifted his hand and pointed at the female deadshot that was closing in under cover of the ancient trees, ”Poisonfire!”

The female deadshot’s athletic body suddenly paused. She almost fell from the twenty-meter tall tree due to the abrupt change in her actions. A surge of green suddenly surged up her red and flushed face, almost as if poison had entered her body.

Once he had hit both of the elves with his ability, Greem solemnly shouted, ”Explosion!”

A mysterious magical rune surfaced in front of Greem’s eyebrows. The frozen weapons master and the poisoned deadshot grunted simultaneously.

A miniature upheaval of fire had erupted within their bodies and around them!

Just as they were about to be wounded, a milky-white magical halo descended upon their bodies, forcefully dispersing the elementium flames that were just about to go rogue.

Dammit! It’s those two unicorns!

Greem roared and extended his blazing hand of magma at the weapons master. However, the elf had already broken free of the Coldflame’s control at this point. His silhouette flashed as he moved away from the spot. The two moon blades in his hands spun like windmills and sliced through Greem’s fist in a cross. The speed at which they moved was too fast to be seen with the naked eye.

Haooo!

A pained cry that was neither human nor beast rang out. Greem retracted his hand with all his strength. The enemy had already severed the front half of his magma hand.

Boiling red lava spurted forth from the wound like a fountain. The lava gathered in front of him, turning into a small pool.

Greem stomped his feet furiously. A massive Flame Halo of Repulsion blasted out in every direction.

The weapons master that had intended to take this opportunity to close in on Greem was pushed away by the Flame Halo, screaming as he was knocked back. His body sizzled when burned by the elementium flames.

The unicorns had only dispersed the abnormal condition of being frozen that Greem had imposed upon him. However, the elementium flames were now directly burning the weapons master. It was not a negative status, and thus, could not be purged or dispersed.

Greem intended to take advantage of this opening to strike at the weapons master. Just then, the sound of a snapping bowstring came from the distance. Two enchanted arrows whistled across the air and pierced toward his chest.

Dammit, that female elf broke free as well!

Greem opened his mouth and spat out a massive cluster of fire. The fire formed into a nearly solid Fire Shield, just barely making it in time to block the damage from the explosive arrows. Greem took this chance to draw upon his Heart of Flames. A surge of pure fire energy flowed to the cut upon his left palm and turned into a new magma hand within three seconds.

However, at this moment, two milky-white Halo of Purifications landed upon Greem’s massive Flame Fiend body. These halos crackled and caused many of his Fire Shields to explode.

Dammit…dammit!

Greem shouted at the skies in anger, ”Zacha, kill those two damned unicorns for me!”

Dragonborn Zacha roared upon receiving his orders. He bent his body and launched a ferocious charge at the three unicorns. Any object that stood in his path would shatter beneath his incomparably brutal strength.

He knocked down two ancient trees in a row, trampled three elven archers, and blew away a treant warrior. Dragonborn Zacha brandished his lightning spear and his Frozen Mallet as he appeared in front of the three unicorns.

The male unicorn in the lead stepped forth and used its spiral horn to block the Frozen Mallet smashing toward them. Surging nature power clashed intensely with violent ice power between the horn and the mallet.

In the end, the two distinct elementium forces exploded, blasting away both of the fighters.

However, Dragonborn Zacha’s Strength was far superior to the male unicorn’s. He managed to regain his footing after stumbling two steps away. Meanwhile, the unicorn had been knocked ten meters away. Purple blood was even oozing out of the root of the horn upon its head.

”How dare you stand before my master. Die.”

The physically superior Dragonborn Zacha was the first to recover from the impact. He waved his lightning spear as a thick and winding lightning chain shot forth. Its target was that male unicorn.

A whinny rang out. The female unicorn that was protecting her foal raised her horn when it saw the situation turning against them. A blast of Blinding Light landed upon Zacha. Even Zacha’s exceptional resistance couldn’t help him against this racial ability that possessed a trace of planar laws.

The next second, Zacha was utterly blinded by the enemy!

Just as he rushed forward furiously with spear and mallet in hand, the male unicorn rolled and climbed up from the ground. The unicorn charged forward and stabbed his horn deep into Zacha’s chest.

The unique purification ability of the unicorns caused the wind indurium armor Zacha wore to be completely ineffective. Even the tough and beautiful dragon scales underneath the armor couldn’t stop the horn from piercing into Zacha’s body.

The dragonborn let out a furious roar that stunned the entire battlefield. Zacha tossed aside his lightning spear and freed a hand to grab the unicorn’s horn. He then smashed downward with the Frozen Mallet in his other hand with such force that it stirred up a gale of its own.

Dong! A muffled thud. The male unicorn started to see stars. Its limbs went limp, and it almost knelt before the dragonborn.

Seeing that the enemy still intended to continue his hammering, the unicorn summoned all his strength to stir his horn while also calling upon more nature power to surge into the enemy’s body.

The female unicorn could no longer stand by at this point. It feared for its mate and quickly charged over with the foal.

Three big and one small. These four non-humanoid figures engaged each other in a deadly close-ranged fight in the center of the battlefield, fighting tooth and nail for every advantage. It was a bloody and horrible scene to behold.

Without the unicorns interrupting, Greem could finally unleash his full power in a showdown against the two Second Grades.

Seeing their companions dragged into the battle one after another, the two druid masters with long flowing braids of green hair let out battle cries of their own. They fully intended to join the fray now.

At that moment, both of them heard sinister and scary laughter closing in on them. A Second Grade dark witch was charging at them upon her flying broom.

The countering of her attribute caused the dark witch to be fearful of the two young unicorns. That was why she had been circling the skies instead of joining the battle. Otherwise, an unfortunate purification from the unicorns could easily wipe out a body of shadows like her own.

She had waited until this moment when the dragonborn was stalling the unicorns. It was now that the Second Grade dark witch cackled and charged at the two Second Grade druid masters.

The dark witch might be afraid of the unicorns’ racial abilities, but as a Second Grade being, she had nothing to fear about the druids’ nature magic. After all, in terms of magic technique and means of murder, a dark witch from the World of Adepts was just far too superior compared to two druid masters.

That was why she was utterly fearless, even when fighting against two enemies at once!

The Second Grade individuals had clashed with the other Second Grades. The rest that remained were naturally irrelevant small fry. These First Grade people might not have the ability to intervene in the battle between the Second Grades, but if they gained the advantage in battle and got into formation, they could still apply decent pressure on the Second Grades.

That said, the magical machine army was clearly stronger when it came to a comparison of First Grade units.

One could put it this way; on the side of the elves, only the six treant warriors and the dozen low-grade druids could deal any degree of damage to the magical machines. The other elves were basically harmless.

Their weak arrows and slender blades could not break through the machines’ thick armor. Apart from being one-sidedly slaughtered and beaten, they had no other options.

Thus, once the witches went to deal with the treant warriors and druids, the defensive line that the elves had barely been keeping up finally shattered!