Age of Adepts

Greem was now in an entirely different position than in the past.

In the past, he had preferred to maintain a low profile. Every time he revealed his unusual abilities, it would be a massive surprise for his enemies. However, with every step he took towards the peak of the World of Adepts, the more well-known his abilities became.

At this point, the enemies that dared to show themselves before him either believed in their prowess or had made all the necessary preparations to counter his techniques.

Consequently, every fight from now on would be incredibly brutal and torturous.

The main reason for that was simple. All of his opponents were high-grade adepts. They were vicious and cunning individuals that had achieved their current positions despite the brutal and intense competition of the adept system. They had also experienced fortunate encounters, much like those that Greem had. As such, every high-grade adept invariably had some deep secrets unknown to the rest of the world.

Take Sanazar, for example!

She was also a prodigy that had grown up in the spotlight. She had been discovered with adept talent at the young age of seven and was then sent to an adept’s tower. She became a pseudo-adept at nine years old and advanced to adepthood at eleven. Her journey was smooth sailing throughout, making her the target of envy of countless companions and friends of the same age.

The Panwood Academy that Sanazar joined at the time was a small adept organization. The strongest individual in the organization was the Second Grade director of the academy. Naturally, he was overjoyed to have obtained a disciple with such talent and, thus, had invested plenty of resources into her development.

Sanazar was not only a talented individual at the time. She was also an incredibly pretty woman and became the ‘goddess’ that many young male adepts vied for.

As a relatively small, isolated organization that was hidden away in the ruins of an unknown ancient city, Panwood Academy had very little communication with the outside world.

Yet, it was this peaceful and ordinary adept organization that suddenly had a disastrous incident befall it.

In a single night, all seven official adepts and thirty-six apprentices of the organization were turned into puddles of pungent poison liquid. Sanazar, the only survivor, had been driven mad. She had also mysteriously advanced to Second Grade.

It wasn’t that major of an incident, but it still attracted the attention of the Zhentarim Association. An investigation team led by Elder Sarubo hurried to the remains of Panwood Academy. After a series of subtle investigations, they came to a conclusion.

The cause of Panwood Academy’s destruction was the Second Grade director. He had coveted Sanazar’s beauty and talent and had wanted to turn her into his personal property. Unfortunately, he had faced intense resistance from Sanazar. Since the two of them had fallen out, the director decided to go to the extreme. He used the cruelest of magic to turn Sanazar into the ugly but powerful Flying Venom Dragon.

However, some issues seemed to have occurred during the implantation of the control rune. Sanazar abruptly regained her consciousness and burst out into a berserk fury, slaughtering every adept and apprentice in the academy with her newly obtained bloodline.

As a victim herself, Sanazar’s ‘crimes’ were naturally pardoned. At the same time, out of pity for her talent and potential, Fourth Grade Adept Sarubo, who was responsible for the investigation, inducted her into his own clan.

Today, Sanazar has become a powerful Third Grade bloodline adept and a pillar of the Sarubo Clan, managing all matters within the clan headquarters.

The experience in her younger years had obviously affected Sanazar’s personality to a high degree. It turned her into an impulsive and rash individual, savage and cruel. However, what she could not tolerate above all else was the terrifying devastation that the Flying Venom Dragon bloodline had done to her appearance!

The bodies of humans were far too weak, after all. They could not endure the corrosion and modification of a poison bloodline. As such, the once beautiful Sanazar cloaked her own body with purple mist to avoid others looking upon her fearsome and hideous appearance.

Every transformation into the Flying Venom Dragon was a form of torture upon herself. It would cause her to recall the horrifying event in the past. Sanazar always became exceptionally mad and tyrannical after transforming.

Of course, she also became unusually powerful.

The magical equipment she chose for herself was also very specific to her circumstances. They were the Tempest Heart protective talisman and the Bramblethorn Armor.

The Tempest Heart could increase her base physical damage by thirty-percent while sharpening her claws and teeth into Third Grade magical weapons. However, this came at the cost of her intelligence being reduced by half. The Bramblethorn Armor, on the other hand, could form a layer of thorns on her body, causing all enemies that attacked her to endure fifteen-percent of all damage that they inflicted on her.

Fortunately, this Bramblethorn Armor could only reflect Greem’s fire damage, but not his holy light damage that could ignore all defenses. Otherwise, Greem would have long since fallen to the combined might of Sanazar and himself.

After all, Greem only had elementary fire immunity at the moment. He was not protected from light elementium damage.

Meanwhile, Greem had also left a deep impression on Sanazar during this battle.

Even though he was clearly an elementium adept, he was able to fight a bloodline adept like herself in a melee to a standstill. It was evidence of Greem’s shockingly formidable attributes. If an elementium adept had a Physique as tough as a body-refining adept or a bloodline adept, then how powerful could they become when combined with their fearsome elementium magic?

Greem no longer held back at this point in the battle.

He quickly switched from his Flame Fiend’s body to his Body of Flames. He no longer tussled with Sanazar at close range and instead started bombarding from afar.

With the surprising movement of the Body of Flames and the phantom-like Fire Teleportation, Greem weaved between the seas of flame like a fire spirit, swarming Sanazar with intense fireballs and tides of infernos.

With the four-hundred points of holy light damage provided by Sodden’s Holy Ring, every single one of Greem’s attack had over eight-hundred points of power. That was already close to the offensive power of Fourth Grade adepts. Of course, this inflicted incomparable damage on Sanazar.

The terrifying burn marks left by the fire magic and the scorch marks left by the holy light power caused Sanazar’s ugly body to be covered with scars. Her thirty-nine points of Physique were wildly healing her body, but they were no match for Greem’s insane ability to inflict damage.

The significantly weakened Sanazar thrashed within the exploding flames, madly chasing after Greem’s flickering Body of Flames yet always falling into the traps he set. She would either be smashed into the ground by Meteor Showers from above or blasted left and right by Flame Pillars bursting forth from below.

Even as they reveled in the pure display of power, the savage might that Greem displayed after taking off his veil of gentleness struck fear in the hearts of every adept watching the battle.

A beatdown. An undisputed beatdown!

Greem relied on his mobile Body of Flames to dodge Sanazar’s repeated attempt to lunge at him. He then used vicious fire magic to drown her in a tide of flames.

It didn’t matter how Sanazar struggled or charged. She could not escape the flames that continued to pursue her as if they were her shadow. She could only furiously roar as she rushed from one sea of fire to another. Everywhere around her, every spot within her vision, was all filled with devastating flames.

If it weren’t for her bloodline providing her with exceptional Physique and magic resistance, Sanazar would already have been reduced to ashes beneath such powerful fire.

However, even as badly beaten as she was, Sanazar still charged through the flames stubbornly, searching for that radiant silhouette formed out of bright yellow flames. The flesh on the surface of her body flaked off as ash, and new tissue quickly grew again.

With her fearsome regenerative powers and her enduring bloodline powers, Sanazar was able to remain standing even in the face of Greem’s most brutal attacks.

It was now a contest of whose powers were more overwhelming and whose stamina could last longer.

If Sanazar had greater Physique and could endure until Greem’s Spirit had been exhausted, then she would be the victor. However, if Greem’s fire magic were even more ferocious and exhausted Sanazar’s bloodline powers, it would be a different story. Without her bloodline powers, Sanazar would not be a match for Greem.

The two adepts finally moved into attrition mode on their third day on Bluesea Plane. An unprecedented duel between two of the strongest adepts began.

It was the Flying Venom Dragon’s thirty-nine points of Physique against the flame giant’s thirty-nine points of Spirit.

The fight should not have been like this!

With the cautiousness of Third Grade adepts and their variety of magical techniques, this battle should have lasted for several weeks and been filled with all sorts of traps and schemes.

However, due to someone intentionally driving the battle in this direction, the fight had deviated from its original course.

It didn’t matter if this battle was what the audience wanted to watch. Greem was firmly proceeding down this path.

If he had fought like an elementium adept from the very start, Sanazar would most definitely have begun fleeing while fighting, dragging this battle into a drawn-out affair of constantly probing each other.

When that happened, Greem would have had an exceedingly hard time finishing the battle in a short time!

Now, having exhausted most of her stamina, Sanazar could no longer escape from the range of Greem’s fire magic; she could only passively endure the ferocious flames.

Sanazar roared and struggled with all her might in wave after wave of monstrous fire attacks. Poison halos ravaged the earth over and over as she held on with all she had. Sadly, she had already fallen into Greem’s rhythm. There was nothing she could do to improve her situation apart from struggling in vain.

Finally, the Flying Venom Dragon reared its neck and roared in the tides of flames. A dense cloud of purple mist erupted around its body, and Sanazar uncontrollably reverted to her human form.