Age of Adepts

The same tall cliff.

Mary’s tall, slender body once again appeared.

However, compared to her casual composure last time, she appeared to be in a much more awkward, roughed-up state now.

The right hand that had pierced through Greem’s shield was now scorched black, while there were similar burn marks on her delicate body and crimson armor. Though these marks vanished amidst a cloud of blood energy in less than five seconds, frustration still emerged on Mary’s pretty face.

“That damned Burning Domain!” Mary shouted resentfully.

If it weren’t for the all-encompassing Burning Domain, Greem would not have been able to hit Mary with his spells, all of which relied on his vision or spiritual guidance. Moreover, those powerful area-of-effect spells took too much time to chant. They gave Mary too much space to assault Greem.

As such, he had no chance of harming Mary as long as she didn’t run into Greem’s defensive spells. Her speed was almost beyond the limit of spiritual senses.

Unfortunately, all of this was ruined by the damned Burning Domain!

Mary had no chance of defeating Greem unharmed while the Burning Domain existed.

She would have to continually concentrate blood energy to resist the effects of the Burning Domain while she was within its radius. Mary would have to give up on her assault, regardless of how good of an opportunity it was, if she sensed her blood energy being run down by the Burning Domain. She needed to retreat from the domain and recover her blood energy before continuing her attack.

That gave Greem the chance to rest and repair his shields!

That was why, in Mary’s eyes, Greem was like a monster covered in spikes. She had to endure the terrifying sensation of being buried in spikes if she wanted to get a shot at him.

She had always been Greem’s ally in the past. Naturally, she had never needed to be the receiving end of this unpleasantness. However, now that she was his enemy, Mary felt just like all his past foes. She hated nothing as much as she hated Greem’s Burning Domain.

Fire Resistance Talismans, Scarlet Crystals, Fire Flowers, Fire Dragon’s Hide.

I will buy all of these things after this fight, even if I go bankrupt!

Mary shouted furiously in her heart as she unfurled her wings and began circling rapidly around Greem.

She knew that Greem’s flames could apply fire poison and Coldflame to his enemies at any time. If the Coldflames froze her, she would not be able to endure the attacks that came after.

The tremendous offensive power of a Third Grade fire adept would be enough to turn her into ashes within seconds. As such, Mary had to be careful when choosing her angle and position of attack. She could not provide Greem a single chance to retaliate.

It might look like she had the initiative in this battle, where she was able to retreat and attack at any time while Greem could only watch. That said, if she were to make any small mistake, this battle for her pride could end in an instant. There was no such thing as luck.

However, where was her chance to win if she only circled and never attacked? The only way to create a possibility of victory was to continuously risk herself and go on the offense, using her endless offensives to force Greem to show a weakness.

However, attacks like these were double-edged.

At the same time as it brought danger upon Greem, it placed Mary herself in jeopardy.

However, with her personality, there was no way she would ever be fearful of a little danger.

Mary transformed into a lightning-fast crimson silhouette, weaving through the forest like a blood-red phantom. It was undoubtedly incredibly tricky to continually track the movements of such a speedy shape.

Mary was able to break free of Greem’s spiritual tracking every time he hesitated before she broke into the Burning Domain from an unexpected angle. She would then charge to Greem’s side and wreak havoc.

Moreover, when Greem’s Spirit finally caught up, Mary would escape from the Burning Domain like a gust of wind, circling in the air like a crimson phantom once more.

Every time this happened, Greem would hastily reform his magical shields, while Mary quickly healed her burn wounds with blood energy.

The lack of strength to end the battle in a single strike meant that the two of them were stuck in this meaningless war of attrition. Both Mary and Greem started to become impatient and frustrated after a few rounds of such exchanges.

One was an exceedingly fast Agility adept, while the other was a fire adept with shocking firepower.

Both of them had their advantages, weaknesses, and expertise. It was tough to decide a victor when they were engaged in a fight like this.

[Beep. Target creature data gathering complete.

[Mary, Beginner Third Grade.

Profession: Bloodline Adept (Vampire).

Bodily Attributes: Strength 15 | Physique 17 | Agility 31 | Spirit 21.

Profession Skills: The Embrace, Shackles of Blood, ???, …]

One had to admit that as a vampire adept, most of Mary’s bodily attributes appeared to be somewhat weak. Her Agility was the only exception. At thirty-one points, there was no denying that she was a true Third Grade powerhouse.

If she’d had a bit more time to nourish her body and train herself, she might have been able to improve on these attributes.

However, trying to challenge Greem with her current attributes was an overestimation of her abilities!

Greem had been on the defensive for the majority of this battle by having to split part of his attention on the Chip’s data collection. Now that he had obtained the data, there was no longer any meaning to this battle dragging on.

Greem immediately erupted with his real power without any hesitation!

He lifted a hand and smacked the Fire Dragon’s Breath pendant hanging around his neck. A wave of flames immediately surged forward, engulfing the air around him.

Mary’s crimson form wove between the flames almost entirely unharmed. However, there wasn’t much space left for her to dodge.

Greem also turned into a bluster of flames and started chasing after Mary’s figure. The boots of Ash glowed with a bright yellow flame, leaving trails of burning footprints in the air.

Greem trying to catch Mary with his thirteen points of Agility was like a clumsy seal trying to bite at a dragonfly. There was absolutely no effect aside from causing some splashes in the pool.

Mary hadn’t seemed to have expected Greem to chase after her with such a simple method. A playful idea appeared in her mind, and she ran in front of Greem, taunting him to catch up. The two of them played a game of cat-and-mouse in the sky above the cliff, turning the already dark sky bright red with flames.

The aura of the two Third Grade powerhouses raged across the battlefield. Some magical creatures that snuck close to observe the commotion turned tail and fled without turning back after sensing a familiar aura among the two.

Greem had been a disaster for the magical creatures in the Black Forest nearby. He had been visiting them repeatedly over the past few years to refine his combat skills. Greem had almost challenged every single known Third Grade magical creature within five hundred kilometers of Fire Throne.

Either Greem beat the magical creatures to the point they ran as far as they could, or Greem was defeated and ran as fast as he could back to Fire Throne. Regardless of the result, Greem always engaged alone, never calling on any companions or summoning that powerful elementium magical machine.

As such, Greem had defeated all the nearby magical creatures with his own power!

Now, Greem’s means of combat were extremely diverse. He would never strike without purpose.

However, Mary had no idea about any of this.

That was why she finally stepped into a trap when she was trying her best to taunt Greem with the intention of launching an unexpected assault on him!

In a battle between Third Grades, one’s spiritual appendages were always locked onto the opponent, even though there was absolutely no bodily contact. Even if the spiritual focus were broken off, it would quickly lock onto the opponent again. There would be no chance for the enemy to remain free of one’s Spirit for extended periods.

That was why it was usually challenging to set a trap for an opponent under such circumstances.

However, today, Greem had brazenly dug a trap in front of Mary, and she had run into it without realizing anything.

The trap was a well-hidden fire array!

The materials used to make that trap were the fire footprints that the boots of Ash left in the air.

Greem appeared to be leaving chaotic footprints all over the sky, but he was secretly constructing a hidden fire array that stretched for a hundred meters. When Mary unknowingly dashed into the area, the one hundred footprints in the air lit up simultaneously. A faint fire array then enveloped Mary.

Truly, whatever you were most afraid of was what would appear in front of you!

Mary’s most terrifying power was her uncontested speed.

Naturally, the trap that Greem had left for her was one that was used to limit her speed.

As the flames rose to the sky and the array revealed itself, an extremely cold fire wrapped around Mary, attempting to encase her in ice.

Mary’s face instantly flushed white!

If the Coldflames truly caught her, this battle would unquestionably end in her defeat. It was an unacceptable outcome for the prideful Mary.

In the blink of an eye, Mary let out a shrill cry. Silver light lit up on her body as she instantly appeared several hundred meters away, having broken free of the Coldflame array’s bindings.

Meanwhile, Greem’s eyes opened wide, his face with an expression of disbelief.

How…what just happened? How did Mary break free of the Coldflame trap?

His eyes couldn’t see what had happened, no did his spiritual sense capture what had transpired, but the Chip’s battlefield recording function had perfectly recorded the entire event. With the Chip’s battlefield records that had been slowed down by a hundred times, Greem could clearly see the battlefield seemingly freeze the moment Mary screamed. It was then that she stepped past the Coldflames and escaped the trap.

Time freeze.

Was Mary’s speed so extraordinarily fast that she could achieve the effect of freezing time itself?

Mary couldn’t help but be shocked at that moment!