Age of Adepts

Little Locke wasn’t in a hurry to retreat in the face of the approaching blood elf. Instead, he took his time to equip a strange metal helmet.

The next second, three metal balls the size of fists took to the skies and revealed the rubies embedded within them. The golem machine creaking behind Little Locke suddenly started swelling as well. As the metal gears creaked and extended, a crude, two-meter-tall magical machine formed.

Now that all this finished, Little Locke smashed the button on his belt, and a dome-shaped protective forcefield enveloped him.

The Invincible Belt was a magical energy item that Little Locke had invented himself. It could erect a dome-shaped defensive forcefield with energy supplied from magical energy batteries. As it did not require any magical input from Locke himself, he could turn his attention to other things.

Dong! A muffled boom rang out.

The lunging Lens ran into the semi-translucent forcefield and was instantly stunned by the impact. Yet, before he could beat his wings and escape, the three revolving metal eyeballs appeared to have received instructions and locked onto Lens’ bat form. Three red heat rays shot toward him from different angles.

Forty points.

Lens’ rich personal experience allowed him to judge the energy intensity of the heat rays before they reached him. Though forty points of damage wasn’t too intense, they would have no problem piercing through the body of a transformed bat.

Supposedly, the blood elves would turn into their human forms once they had closed the distance between them and their enemies, using their rapid attacks to circle the enemy. However, this time, the barrage of energy beams forced Lens to dodge and run. He couldn’t find any chance to attack Locke’s defensive forcefield.

Just as the bat wildly dodged about, the crude machine on the ground creaked and charged at him as well.

Pu!

The first gift from the machine was a swirling pillar of fire. Strange alchemical powder shot out of the machine’s skinny arms, which turned into searing alchemical flames when they came into contact with the air, burning the bat as it gave chase.

The faces of the blood elves around the arena turned dark.

Dammit! Why were the tricks of this goblin so nasty?

Fortunately, Lens was a smart and sharp guy as well. He quickly erected a layer of blood mist to protect himself.

He then flapped his wings with all he had and rushed out of the area covered by the flames. The moment he escaped from the flames, three sizzling heat rays shot toward him.

Lens screamed and started maneuvering. It took him a lot of effort to dodge two of the beams, and the last remaining one pierced through his right wing to leave a small, scorched hole on its edge.

Dammit! I had best deal with these three annoying metal balls first!

The thought ran through his mind, and Lens couldn’t be bothered with the little goblin for now. Instead, he turned abruptly and targeted one of the metal eyeballs.

As if it had sensed Lens’ intent, this metal eyeball stopped attacking and started to move through the air like an agile bird, making unpredictable movements all over the place. Lens’ flight speed might have been swifter than the metal eyeball, but it wasn’t that easy to catch the machine when it was focused purely on escaping. That was particularly the case given how large the plaza was.

Moreover, the two metal eyeballs were still sticking behind him like pieces of gum, continuously shooting off their attacks. However, these two sly eyeballs weren’t getting too close to Lens either. They would instantly switch their roles of bait or hunting dog at any moment if they discovered Lens intended to change targets.

For a moment, these three eyeballs dragged Lens along the ride like a dog taken for a walk. There was nothing the vampire could do at all.

Naturally, the golem machine could not fly and couldn’t participate in the battle happening in the skies. However, under Little Locke’s command, the machine stopped and proceeded to transform. Spikes emerged from its large metal feet and fixed it on the spot as its metal back opened to reveal a trove of goblin rockets.

“Locke Improved Rocket Launcher Number Three.”

Little Locke shouted loudly. Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of goblin rockets launched into the sky, propelled by orange alchemical flames at their tails.

Lens, who was still being tortured by the three metal eyeballs, felt a chill run down his spine. It was only now that he saw the seven rockets rapidly whistling toward him.

He shrieked and turned to charge downward. He dodged in the air above the town, but the seven rockets were still pursuing him closely while their blazing trails left a beautiful picture in the night sky.

Lens no longer cared for his reputation now; he just wanted to get away. The vampire dove into the crowd and started to weave between the legs of the hunters and apprentices in his bat form. The group was instantly thrown into chaos as they ran in every direction to avoid the goblin rockets.

Little Locke sighed and sent out an invisible order with the thought-amplifying device on his head. The seven rockets suddenly switched directions, rushing up into the air before exploding into blooming fireworks three hundred meters high in the night sky.

The onlooking apprentices started cursing. They were clearly upset with Lens’ despicable and unsavory actions.

Seria looked at the crowd coldly as she stood at the edge of the plaza, and the voices in the darkness quickly went silent.

Lens took advantage of Little Locke’s diverted attention towards the careful manipulation of his rockets to revert to his human form and lunged at the goblin.

Zeng, zeng, zeng!

For a moment, Lens utilized his rapid movements to their fullest potential, circling Little Locke’s protective forcefield and leaving crimson claw marks on it.

These melee attacks might not be all that powerful, but the blood energy in them possessed a terrifying corrosion effect. Thick red smoke rose from the forcefield as it sizzled. A thick layer of the shield had been shaved away by the corrosion.

Little Locke felt cold sweat run down his body at this attack. He quickly gave the command, and the three eyeballs returned to use their heat rays once again to force Lens away. The golem machine also straightened its body and rushed to Little Locke’s side to watch his back.

Lens found an opportunity to forcefully break through the screen of heat rays while Little Locke was in a panic. He successfully destroyed one of the eyeballs, but he paid the price of having his shoulders pierced by two heat rays to accomplish this.

If this wasn’t a duel, Lens could have dived into the forest and used his bloodsucking regenerative abilities to heal his wounds. Unfortunately, there were no ‘blood treats’ for him on this battlefield.

He had not managed to deal any visible damage to Little Locke up till now. As such, there was no chance for him to recover any damage. On the other hand, the eyeball machines and the golem had no flesh or blood that he could feast upon.

The blood elves watching couldn’t help but frown, and their hatred for the goblin magical mechanics deepened once more. It was truly an anti-human profession.

Perhaps because the wounds on his body caused Lens to go berserk, but he actually managed to use his speed and agility to destroy the two remaining eyeballs after gritting his teeth and chasing after them.

Without the harassment of the eyeballs, the clumsy golem had no way of keeping up with the blood elf’s phantasmal movements. Lens once again left the machine behind him and left a bloody mark on Little Locke’s forecfield.

Finally, after repeated attacks, the forcefield dispersed, exposing the goblin within.

If this was a battle in the woods, Locke could have retreated by relying on his teammate’s cover to erect a new forcefield after swapping out a new battery for the belt. Unfortunately, he had no such opportunity in a duel like this.

Lens took advantage of this great opportunity and lunged forward furiously.

He even sacrificed his left arm to the chainsaw attack of the golem just to get past. However, once he made it past the golem, there was no longer anything standing between him and the goblin.

“You damned little thing. Go and die.”

After an entire night of humiliation, Lens roared and rushed at Locke.

Just as Lens prepared to murder Locke in a single strike, the goblin took out a small and delicate energy beam gun.

“Haha, even the most powerful heat ray can’t help you now.”

Sadly, before Lens could even finish speaking, a sky-blue beam of energy shot out from the gun.

It’s blue?

Lens’ hadn’t finished the thought when his body had already become enveloped in a layer of blue ice. The coldness of this ice was beyond that of ice in the natural world. It froze not only Lens’ body, but also his mind as well.

Little Locke leaped a hundred meters away with his rocket boots, stumbled, and stabilized himself.

Behind him, the frozen Lens behaved like a clumsy boar. His body flew across the plaza and smashed into a crude wooden house.

Screams and the sound of tumbling tables and chairs rang out from the house.

Frost Ray Gun!

Little Locke spun the gun about his finger brazenly and blew away the non-existent smoke from its barrel. He then casually put the gun back on his belt.

A row of five guns of different colors rested there, each of them seemingly corresponding to an energy ray of a different elementium.

The wild cheers of many goblin apprentices immediately rang out from the crowd.