Age of Adepts

In truth, the environment of the Marsh Wetlands was not suited as a battlefield for fire creatures.

However, with a master of fire like Greem around, no disadvantageous environment could last for long.

Seeing that the fighting had broken out, Greem raised both his arms and started casting. He completed a massive Meteor Shower in just six seconds. Blazing meteors engulfed in red lava pierced through the dense mist, one after another, crashing from the skies with black tails of smoke.

They struck mostly near the ogres’ formation, forcing the weaker ogres to lift their wooden shields to cover their heads. However, the quickly crashing meteors created craters in the ground. The violent fire shockwaves threw many of the ogres to their feet, and the splashing rain of lava sent them running around in agony.

The entire frontline of ogres had instantly descended into a magma hell.

The Ango’rosh ogres had formidable Physique, terrifying Strength, and numbers in the thousands. It made them a particularly fearsome force. However, such an army was nothing in the eyes of a Fourth Grade fire adept.

If it wasn’t out of concern of the Fourth Grade ogre chieftain, Greem could have gone all out and exterminated them by himself.

How fearsome was a legendary fire adept unleashing all his power?

A Fourth Grade fire adept was an apocalyptic calamity on the battlefield. Every action, every fire spell, could inflict devastating damage to the enemy.

With the fire creatures as fodder in the front and Greem wreaking death and destruction from behind, the twelve Swamp Giants only had to endure a negligible amount of pressure in combat. They mostly gathered around Greem, exterminating any ogre that slipped past the fire creatures or attempted to destroy the Flamegate.

The fire creatures were an unstoppable torrent by now, engaging the ogres in a vicious battle.

The smaller fire creatures were nothing more than fodder. Their powers were already greatly affected by the damp environment. The moment they approached the ogres, they were crushed to sparks by the stone hammers and sticks.

Though the sparks from their disintegrated bodies would burn the ogres, they were resilient enough to withstand such damage. Injuries like that only provoked the ogres and made them even more wild and reckless in battle, rather than hinder them.

Only Second Grade fire creatures with bodies that were almost entirely solid and amazing powers could inflict lasting, severe damage to the ogre warriors. Moreover, the beings summoned here weren’t the fire creatures themselves, but a projection of their power.

That only made them even more ferocious and fearless than usual.

Once the flame power in their projection had been exhausted, they would self-detonate without hesitation, inflicting the maximum amount of damage and causing as much chaos as possible.

Consequently, deafening explosions were constantly ringing on the frontlines. Waves of fire would wash over the swamp, leaving behind charred skeletons and human torches.

Horrible. The battle was unusually gruesome!

However, this was the ogres’ base, after all. The hundreds of meters of ponds and swamps at the front of the camp were the worst battleground for the fire creatures. Most of their energy was exhausted by the air’s humidity, leaving them with only a small portion left that they could unleash on these wicked ogres.

Meanwhile, Greem’s fire spells were still the main threat to the ogres.

Be it the Meteor Showers, the Doomsday Volcanos, or Molten World, each and every one of his spells had terrifying might and shocking radius. They were incredibly lethal to the ogres!

Even as robust and resilient as they were, the Ango’rosh ogres could only dejectedly accept the reality of their fragility in front of Greem.

Gorefist, who had been hiding in the army, witnessed ogre after ogre collapse in the flames, and familiar figure after familiar figures reduced to ashes in the fires. He let out a furious roar, but there was nothing he could do.

With the horde of fire creatures standing in the front, and twelve Swamp Giants standing guard, very few ogres could even make it near the Flamegate. The ogres had to endure wave upon wave of fire spells. Their cries of anguish before death were heartbreaking.

“Gorefist, that human adept is a reinforcement found by Moat. Apparently, he’s a legendary Fourth Grade fire adept. Do not underestimate him. Buy as much time as possible. Krach and I will arrive shortly. We will work together and take him down when we arrive. He will be yours to do as you please!”

“Hurry up…move faster. That damned bastard is slaughtering all my men. Every body falling in battle here is one of my people, yet you two are still watching from afar…no! I must stop him!”

“No…Gorefist, you must not step in battle! I believe that human adept is trying to lure you out and kill you in single combat. You will die if you show yourself!”

“I don’t believe it! He’s a Fourth Grade, but I am a Fourth Grade as well. There’s nothing to fear. Come here as soon as possible! Perhaps by the time you arrive, I will have twisted off his head and feasted on his blood.”

While Gorefist was shouting in his mind, Greem had summoned another gigantic meteor and sent it crashing down from the skies.

The Meteor Showers from earlier had only summoned meteors about one meter in diameter. Still, they had devastated the ogres. This gigantic meteor was over twenty meters in diameter. When it cut across the sky towards the ground, it was almost as if it had seared a burning mark in the air.

Even the space of the plane began trembling when the meteor passed by.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! If a meteor like that landed in the ogres’ ranks, the damage it could inflict was unimaginable.

Gorefist could no longer hold back. He roared and pushed aside his men before charging into battle.

The moment he stepped onto the battlefield, he let out a furious shout. He swung the stone hammer in his right hand over and over as if it was weightless before finally hurling it forward.

It turned into a fireball and rapidly approached the even more massive, more terrifying fireball crashing down from above.

A loud explosion rang out. The hammer shattered the meteor into several pieces and splintered it in every direction. Gorefist made a grabbing motion, and the falling stone hammer vanished instantly.

It reappeared in Gorefist’s right hand the next moment.

Greem sensed an unexpected flux of the planar laws during this process.

Hm? The planar laws that the ogre chieftain had mastered were truly unusual. To think he could resummon a weapon he had thrown into the distance!

On closer thought, a planar law power like this was practically useless for most adepts with their long-ranged spells. That said, it was a decent ability for melee professions with a lack of reach.

With this ability, even a creature as clumsy and unintelligent as an ogre could take on the role of heavy artillery!

Gorefist stood in the center of the battlefield with a hammer in each hand. His beady green eyes stared viciously at Greem, hatred burning strongly within.

Fire creatures foolish enough not to know better were crushed beneath Gorefist’s foot when they got close. The entire battlefield shook as if an earthquake had happened.

Powerful shockwaves spread through the ground to the surroundings. All fire creatures caught in this shockwave instantly turned to ashes, without even the chance to self-destruct.

Forty-two points of Strength.

In just half a second, the Chip had determined the ogre chieftain’s Strength.

It was important to note that Greem’s base Strength at the moment was no more than 27 points. And this was only thanks to the constant supply of fire dragon meat and the use of a significant amount of resources. As expected of a Fourth Grade melee fighter, his base Strength was 15 points higher than Greem’s.

If Greem fought him in person, he would have to endure a tremendous amount of force with every parry or strike he attempted!

Even so, Greem would not back off.

After all, this was a rare chance to pick off a Fourth Grade native creature.

If he missed this chance, he would have a much, much, much harder time killing even a single Fourth Grade of the Spirit World.

Greem waved his hand, and the fire creatures on the battlefield split off to the sides. The twelve Swamp Giants also retreated close to the Flamegate.

Thus, the center of the battlefield was left to the two Fourth Grades!

Gorefist, Ango’rosh Ogre Chieftain.

From a distance, he looked like a fat, overweight human.

He was over seven meters tall– not exactly the tallest amongst the ogres, but certainly the bulkiest.

He stood there like a mountain of flesh, flab upon flab of meat on his body. There were so many layers that it almost looked like he was wearing armor of flesh. His stubby legs were half a meter in diameter, leaving craters in the ground with every step.

Due to his excessive size, Gorefist only wore a hide around his waist, barely covering his more sensitive parts.

He also wore a necklace of skulls on his neck. He wore a sharp bone in his nose as a piercing. His eyes were wide as metal shields, and his big ears drooped all the way to his shoulders.

The only weapons he had on his person were the two giant stone hammers.

Greem could faintly sense some strange energy flux from the hammers. It seems like they were no ordinary items!