Age of Adepts

Courage and guts. Who would’ve thought these things would appear in the Central adepts?

Such a suggestion would have been a hilarious joke in the past. However, this ‘joke’ had come true on this bloody and cruel planar battlefield.

Kerala and the other Central adepts who had achieved this ‘miracle’ were oblivious to what they had just done. All they could think about at the moment was how to ravage this prey before them with their most violent and savage spells.

Indeed, these terrifying monsters that once resided in their nightmares had now become their prey. All they had to do was tear off a piece of flesh from the bloody bodies of those disaster creatures, and their great and mighty feats would be recorded in the historical records of the World of Adepts.

It was a sort of glory, a form of belief, that provided the Central adepts with endless courage and motivation as they lunged at the grievously injured minor Scourge Lords.

“Bastards…you ants…how dare you harm my body. I will make you pay the price,” The ten-headed ghoul Mugus let out a berserk roar. Thick black smoke scattered from his slime-like body, countless ghosts howling and shrieking as they thrashed within the smoke.

These terrifying ghosts screeched and broke free of the smoke, swarming at the adepts under his instructions.

“Mother of light, haven of fire!” Greem boomed in a loud voice like an ancient fire-giant. He swung his hand and cast out a wave of light. It turned into dark red halos around the human adepts, perfectly enveloping their bodies.

The ghosts running at the Central adepts turned into balls of flame the moment they touched the halos. They screeched and howled horrifically, swerving left and right through the air. They clearly couldn’t break free of the flames.

Soon, the flames burned out their malice cores, and the ghosts vanished without a trace.

These ghosts were composed of Mugus’ principle power. They could ignore all defense, corrupt any living creature, and even devour the flesh of his enemies. These ghosts were incredibly powerful and lethal weapons, even in space and the realms beyond.

In the face of Greem’s principle fire, even a Fifth Grade being like Mugus would have great difficulty forcibly corrupting these Fourth Grade adepts.

As Mugus howled in anger, Kerala and the others were already bombarding him with spells.

Seal of Darkness!

Infrasound Rupture!

Water Dragon Rush!

Nature’s Wrath!

Declan’s body glowed as his companions provided cover fire. He rushed forward and started fighting this berserk ghoul to the death. Behind him, Ariza had transformed into a lion-headed human. He roared and followed after Declan.

Matthew, the weakest among them, summoned three Fourth Grade magical creatures and sent them forth to stall the other minor Scourge Lords.

At the same time, large groups of adepts from the Silver Union, the Northern Witches, and the Adept’s Association poured out of the tower in the distance. They were rushing over as fast as they could.

The minor Scourge Lords were severely wounded, but they weren’t wholly incapacitated. Upon seeing the severity of the situation, they turned and hurried toward the valley. They couldn’t be bothered to deal with the human adepts.

They would only have the time and room to heal their injured bodies once they fled there and summoned more subordinates to cover for them. These injuries might look serious, but they were little more than flesh wounds. With enough time and sufficient energy, it wasn’t too hard to recover.

“Focus your power on the serpentdrake. Ignore the ten-headed ghoul,” Greem quickly instructed his allies with a voice transmission. He himself strode over and stood in front of the many-armed giant that had been trying to sneak away.

Kerala and the others only realized the ten-headed ghoul’s true terror once they started fighting it. They might be protected by Greem’s principle fire and the planar consciousness’s blessing, but the endless horde of ghosts were unstoppable. They were already starting to bite and tear at the Central adepts’ bodies and injuring them.

A Fifth Grade creature was Fifth Grade, after all!

Greem could fight them to a standstill. Ordinary Fourth Grade adepts like them were not a match, even when they possessed superior numbers and the enemy was already injured.

The difference in power couldn’t be more obvious!

The seven Central adepts had no choice but to give up on what seemed like the most delicious prey. They turned their focus onto the equally wounded winged serpentdrake.

The serpentdrake was only a peak Fourth Grade minor Scourge Lord. It was powerful, but the best it could do was defend itself against a whole bunch of Central adepts. It had no room to run.

“Mugus, help me! I will give you half my wealth once we escape,” the serpentdrake endured the barrage of fearsome spells with its tattered body as it shrieked to its companion for help.

However, its heart soon plunged into the icy depths. Ten-Headed Ghoul Mugus sprinted toward the entrance of the valley without turning back.

Three human adepts had landed at the entrance. It was evident that they intended to cut off the minor Scourge Lords’ escape route.

There had never been any trust or friendship between the disaster creatures; they were only subordinates of the Sixth Grade Scourge Lord Dilmas. There was plenty of rivalry and competition amongst them, and these were times of crisis. Naturally, it was every disaster creature for themselves. No one would ever put their lives on the line for another.

The four minor Scourge Lords were instantly split up and intercepted by the major adept organizations.

Greem took on the many-armed giant, Kerala and the seven Central adepts stopped the serpentdrake, and the three ultra-powerhouses of the Association intercepted the ten-headed ghoul at the entrance of the valley. The Northern Witches managed to reach the only remaining dust elemental first and quickly surrounded it.

In comparison, the Silver Union forces that consisted only of golem masters and puppet masters lacked mobility. They were so slow that they didn’t manage to corner even a single minor Scourge Lord for themselves.

Silver Union Vice-Senate Head Melone was so furious seeing the other organizations steal all the prey that he almost couldn’t resist taking the serpentdrake from the Central adepts.

However, upon seeing Greem’s gigantic, mighty body–and recalling that terrifying Fifth Grade divine fire spell–Melone’s anger quickly subsided. He was left with nothing but sighs.

At this point, he could only hope that the Central adepts would be incapable of taking down the peak Fourth Grade serpentdrake. That way, the Silver Union would have a chance of taking over. After watching from the sidelines for a while, Melone could only shake his head in disappointment. He turned and flew toward the bottom of the valley with the Silver Union adepts in tow. He was hoping to find some spoils of value there.

The battle was still as intense and savage as ever!

The human adepts might have the absolute advantage, but it was still challenging taking down these powerful minor Scourge Lords. Of course, if the human adepts had fought as fearlessly as warriors and accepted a little sacrifice, the fighting would probably already be over.

It was precisely because no one wanted to die and no one wanted to pay the price for hunting this prey that the battle ended up as a war of attrition.

The battles against the peak Fourth Grade serpentdrake and the dust elemental went without a hitch. Everything was within the control of the adepts. Meanwhile, on the other two battlefields, the battle against the Fifth Grade many-armed giant and the ten-headed ghoul appeared to be incredibly risky.

Fifth Grades were Fifth Grades, after all!

Even after being blown halfway to their graves by the elderly adept, the two monsters’ remaining power was still superior to the Fourth Grade adepts.

The many-headed giant was five meters tall and glowed with a radiant, earth-yellow light. While his feet were connected with the ground, he could endlessly absorb earth elementium and form thick stone armor around his body.

Meanwhile, countless muscular arms grew on both sides of his body, all of them creating stone spears and boulders to hurl at Greem.

The many-armed giant’s Strength was surprising. Even though Greem was several hundred times larger than the giant, he was still weaker in Strength. The blazing hand that Greem swung at the many-armed giant had been destroyed by the giant several times through sheer force. As such, the battle inevitably ended up at a certain range.

Greem tossed a series of fire spells containing the Undying Flames at the giant. If any of them were to hit the giant, they would burn until he died. The many-armed giant retaliated with giant boulders the size of hills. These boulders would explode into countless fragments when they hit Greem’s body.

This method of fighting inflicted serious damage to both parties.

However, while the many-armed giant relied on his stone armor and impenetrable skin to defend against the flames, Greem defended with the principle barrier put up by the Tome of Corruption.

After enduring severe damage, the many-armed giant’s power was basically equal to Greem. Under such circumstances, the two pieces of Fifth Grade divine equipment in Greem’s possession became the final straw that allowed him to crush his opponent.

The many-armed giant that relied primarily on his own body was no match for the legendary fire adept wielding two divine items!

More and more clusters of golden flames started to burn on the many-armed giant’s wide-body, quickly spreading into an inferno. The psychological pressure of these gradually spreading fires caused the enemy to lose the courage and faith needed to continue the fight.

Many-Armed Giant Zagu was observing his environment as he traded blows with Greem. He was searching for the perfect opportunity to slip away. Finally, while Greem was dealing with a barrage of fifteen boulders, Zagu raised all his arms and swung them down at the same time.

Smashed by overwhelming strength, the earth cracked apart, and a giant pillar of dust rose into the air. The many-armed giant’s body quickly faded away into the dust.