Age of Adepts

Just as the stone golems were wreaking havoc with the guards, the attacks of the Coldwinter Witches arrived.

Arrows of snow and ice crashed against the rock bodies of the stone golems, instantly coating their bodies with a layer of crystalline frost. The movements of the golems became dull and slow.

With the assistance of the Coldwinter Witches’ magic, the guards finally managed to stabilize their formation. They surrounded the stone golems, taunting them into attacking while having the stronger guards use heavy weapons like warhammers and flails to smash the legs of the golems.

Pebbles flew everywhere, and rocks started to fall.

For a moment, the entire street was filled with dull thudding sounds of metal against rock.

“Nashi, you and Thurman stall the stone golems. Aina and I will deal with Sofia and the rest first,” the leader of the Coldwinter Witches shouted. However, her words stopped before she could finish the sentence. She opened her eyes wide and watched as the three Fate Witches on the other side of the street took out some strange metal talismans. The Fate Witches then shook their hands and released three towering and ferocious metallic machines from within.

“Careful. Hurry up and cast shields on yourselves.”

Unfortunately, a storm of metal bullets shot toward the Coldwinter Witches before her words could reach their ears. Several Scalding Rays were also mixed into the metal barrage.

The guards surrounding the stone golems were the first to fall victim. One by one, they fell to the ground, shot by the terrifying metal bullets. They might have been wearing leather armor, but even a slight graze from a metal bullet caused a cloud of blood to burst into the sky.

If a bullet hit them square on the body, then the massive gaping wound would be more than enough to knock them to the ground.

As the three Archers fired without stopping, a good half of the armored guards were instantly put to the ground, inflicted with penetrating and crippling wounds.

The metal bullets did not stop after clearing the battlefield. They continued whizzing toward the wide-eyed Coldwinter Witches.

A crackling sound, much like that of popcorn, rang out in the air.

The ice shields around the Coldwinter Witches trembled furiously. Even the street walls behind them were riddled with bullet holes.

“Dammit! They actually brought metal golems out with them! Hurry! Hurry up and summon some snow beasts.”

Naturally, as the branch that was most proficient in combat, the Coldwinter Witches were not so easily beaten.

The four Coldwinter Witches immediately started using their signature abilities after defending against the first wave of attacks.

A Coldwinter Witch remained behind the ranks and started to summon monsters of ice and snow wildly.

A broad zone of snow and frost quickly formed as she chanted, and many strange ice and snow creatures lunged out from within, howling and yelping. There were Frost Beasts made entirely of transparent ice crystals, snow wolves covered in ice shards, frost giants with two heads and four arms, as well as Frost Critters composed out of only cold air.

These monsters roared as they charged out of the snow, rushing bravely at the stone golems in front.

Another two Coldwinter Witches worked together and erected an Ice Shield, protecting them and their companions from the storm of bullets and energy beams. The leader of the witches now had the space to go on the offense. She put on a wicked smile and levitated into the air, where she started to cast a massive snowstorm above the heads of the Fate Witches.

The apprentices of both parties also started shouting and joining the battlefield.

However, their abilities weren’t enough for them to truly participate in a battle between official adepts. They could only cast their spells to protect themselves and barely survive in the corners of the battlefield.

A sight that caused everyone’s jaw to drop immediately unfolded. The Fate Witches were not favored in this battle. However, even their apprentices started throwing out elementium cores and summoning a horde of strange elementium golems.

Among them were giant stone serpents that could break through defenses, towering fire elementals that functioned as sheer firepower, as well as wind elementals with shocking speed.

These elementium golems were at the pseudo-adept level at best. They should not have been able to affect the battle, but they were far too numerous. Twelve pseudo-adept level elementium golems charged forward and put up a messy fight. They broke through the perimeter of snow beasts and allowed the three advanced First Grade stone golems to arrive in front of the Coldwinter Witches.

The Ice Shield erected by the Coldwinter Witches shattered under the giant stone fists of the stone golem. The two witches that were maintaining the barrier quickly fell to the ground, robbed of all combat ability and coughing up blood.

The witch that was attacking the Fate Witches from midair flew into a rage when she saw this happen. Her snowstorm changed directions and blew toward the apprentices.

The wild chill blew across the apprentices, instantly turning them into ice sculptures on the spot before they could even run.

Arya and the other two witches who were watching from above couldn’t help but frown at the same time. They were slightly infuriated by the mad actions of the Coldwinter Witch.

To think that she would publicly attack a group of apprentices as an official witch herself. Such an action would draw ire from onlookers, regardless of how justified her response was. If it weren’t for the decision of the Witch Council, Arya and the witches would not have been able to hold back from interfering.

However, the madness of the Coldwinter Witch leader only served as a prologue to their defeat.

As the Ice Shield shattered, they lost all their ability to defend against the stone golems and the Archers.

The Coldwinter Witch in charge of summoning snow beasts also had her shield shattered by a stone golem. She collapsed to the ground and started spitting up blood from the impact. Only the witch in the lead was still using her rapid ice spells to circle around and fight back.

Unfortunately, even she quickly fell to Berserk Witch Sofia’s thick wooden staff.

Once Sofia transformed into the Berserk Witch, she could shrug off the freezing and slowing effects of her opponent’s ice spells. It was why she could catch up to the Coldwinter Witch while the stone golems were incapable of doing so.

After knocking the enemy leader unconscious, Sofia led the two Fate Witches back and started to rescue the frozen apprentices.

The apprentices hadn’t been sealed in ice for too long. Except for two relatively weaker apprentices, they successfully saved everyone else.

A glint of savagery shone in Sofia’s only eye when she saw casualties among the witch apprentices that she had brought along with her.

When she walked to the Coldwinter Witch leader with her wooden staff in hand, the opponent was still glaring furiously as her, even as she crouched upon the ground and coughed up blood.

“Sofia, you got us! To think you even brought golem talismans and elementium summoning cores with you. Hmph! Without them, you…”

While the Coldwinter Witch was still baring her teeth and spitting out insults, Sofia lifted her wooden staff and let it fall. The staff smashed down upon the witch’s frail skull, causing it to explode into blood and bits of bone instantly.

The entire street immediately fell silent.

The three neutral witches floating in the air were also shocked into silence. For a moment, no one knew how to react.

“You think you can still live after killing our people? Hmph!” Sofia snorted coldly and lifted her wooden staff once again. She shook off the dripping crimson liquid at the end of the staff and turned to look at the three remaining Coldwinter Witches.

“No. Don’t…don’t kill us. We…didn’t kill any of your people.” The Coldwinter Witch that Sofia was glaring at instantly turned pale. Her entire body trembled in fright.

“We lost two people, and you guys only seemed to have lost one. This isn’t fair, is it?!” Sofia had a wicked smile on her face.

Everyone was at a loss of words.

You lost two apprentices there, but the Coldwinter Witches lost an advanced First Grade witch!

Could that even be compared?

However, no Coldwinter Witch dared to argue with Sofia as she glared so fiercely at them.

“Compensation…we are willing to offer compensation!” The three Coldwinter Witches hurriedly explained.

“Hmph! Save your magical crystals for yourself! Right now, we have one more death on our side. That isn’t fair, so your side needs to have one more person die. Speak; who will you choose to die?”

Sofia’s sinister voice had just reached their ears, and all the Coldwinter witches and apprentices couldn’t help but shiver in fright at the same time. Their faces turned completely white.

They looked at each other–the three witches and twenty-one apprentices–all at a loss of words.

“Hmph! Since you guys don’t want to choose, then I’ll choose for you!” Sofia unhesitantly lifted her thick wooden staff once again.

“I’ll choose. I’ll choose…her!” The highest-ranking witch of the three remaining Coldwinter Witches saw that Sofia’s one-eyed glared was fixated upon her and hurriedly pointed at one of the apprentices.

The chosen apprentice was instantly terrified beyond her wits. She screamed and immediately leapt to her feet in an attempt to run.

Dong, dong, dong!

A wave of bullets shot toward her, tearing the apprentice to shreds. Her broken body and bits of her flesh stained the surrounding apprentices a crimson red.

The witch apprentices shouted out in horror. Some of them even fainted on the spot.

“Capture all of them and bring them back to the tower. Execute anyone who resists!”

Sofia smashed the staff into the ground as the Fate Witch apprentices quickly hurried forward to bind their enemies. Even the three witches were not spared.

Meanwhile, the white-armored guards were left to their own devices. No one dared to lift a finger to save them regardless of how much they screamed and begged for help.

The three neutral witches finally descended from the sky after some hesitation, seeing that the Fate Witches had taken control of the scene.

The battle today had crossed some lines!

However, Arya and the two other witches could only look at each other. Not a single one of them dared to step forward and correct Sofia’s ‘mistake.’

Weren’t the Fate Witches usually weak and incompetent individuals? Since when were they so savage and violent?

The city guards in the distance were shivering in fright as well.

They might be used to bloodshed and violence, but when the target of the killing and violence was a group of witches, they couldn’t help but be terrified.

What were witches? They were the noblest class of individuals in the Northern Lands who held the most privilege in their hands!

Since when could they be hunted like wild beasts? It was unthinkable!

Sofia casually tossed Arya a sack of magical crystals as compensation for the destroyed walls and floorboards. She then led her subordinates and departed into the distance with the prisoners in tow.

Not a single person on the entire street dared to stand in their way!