Age of Adepts

There were no idiots among those who could set foot upon this battlefield of gods and adepts!

Any person who wasn’t an idiot would turn and flee at the sight of an enemy stronger than them.

That was why the idea of having high-grade adepts run around to quickly slaughter low-grade god clones would remain no more than that.

Upon setting foot on the battlefield, the only thing you could do was pick an ‘appropriate’ opponent for yourself, rather than dreaming of rampaging through a bunch of weaker enemies. The arrival of Greem and his two companions might have increased the adepts’ strength, but the power balance was not so out of the gods’ favor that they would flee.

The peak Fifth Grade God of the Hunt Horr, a clone of Ogre God Mairo, and two orc petitioners roared and clashed with the Greem’s group.

The two orc petitioners were undoubtedly the enemy’s weakest combatants, but they were also the most annoying and hated enemies for the adepts.

The reason for it was simple!

Killing them was not easy, but there were no benefits to be reaped by killing them.

Petitioners were divine beings formed by combining the souls of dead believers with divine power. There were no divine authority fragments or virtue within them. Even the armor and weapons they wielded were all projections of divine power.

If you weren’t quick enough to extinguish their souls after killing them, the souls would escape back to the god kingdom. There it would only take a tiny bit of divine power for them to come back to life.

These petitioners were undoubtedly the kind of opponent that adepts were least willing to face!

Due to this nature of theirs, the two petitioners fought fiercely and recklessly. They did not hold back in battle out of concern for their own lives at all. In fact, there were many times where they tried to be as much of a disruption as possible to force the adepts into having no choice but to pick them off first.

The clone of Ogre God Mairo looked like an ugly, stupid, and greedy ogre. He had a half-meter-long horn on his head and swung a mace in his hands that could double as a magical staff.

The ogre was mostly naked, with only a piece of hide wrapped around his waist. His skin was red and tough.

Mairo’s clone was almost like a combination of a warrior and an adept.

His primary combat role was that of a warrior, to rule over the battlefield with his powerful body and overwhelming Strength. Meanwhile, as a secondary class, he also possessed the ability to cast spells rapidly.

Even after ascending to become a god, Mairo wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

His spellcasting ability primarily concentrated on enhancement and support spells such as Bloodthirst, Berserk, and Haste. He could also throw out one or two fireballs occasionally. In truth, as long as he wasn’t raining down a hail of strikes nearby, he wasn’t much of a threat for adepts.

However, both Mairo’s clones and the orc petitioners were only supporting in this battle. The true powerhouse of this group was still the peak Fifth Grade God of the Hunt in his true form.

Horr, the God of the Hunt, possessed three divine weapons.

Among these three weapons, the most famous was the Sixth Grade Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. It was a terrifying divine bow possessing the three principle characteristics of Critical Strike, Trueshot, and Execute.

In particular, the Execute characteristic would instantly kill any enemy if it activated. It possessed the ability to directly exterminate the soul!

Apart from this, Horr also had the Fifth Grade Collar of the Deceiver and the Fifth Grade Boots of Avoidance.

The former could refract Horr’s actual location, making it difficult for an enemy to figure out his position. It also prevented all locking-on with Spirit or divine will. Being unable to lock onto Horr meant that all guided or single-target attacks were ineffective against him.

Meanwhile, the Boots of Avoidance could improve Horr’s ability to dodge attacks.

The increase wasn’t tremendous. It was a mere sixty percent.

At least six out of ten attacks were not likely to make contact with Horr.

Apart from his three pieces of divine equipment, Horr also possessed the Call of the Wild ability as the God of the Hunt. He could simultaneously command three divine creatures that were only two minor grades weaker than himself.

The ones he chose were the beginner Fifth Grade Windrend Hawk, Berserk Giant Ape, and Tunnelling Sandworm!

It was obvious that his hatred for Greem and Antuso was extreme. He had chosen to field only offensive divine beasts.

It initially appeared only to be Horr, Mairo’s clone, and the two orc petitioners rushing at them. However, their numbers suddenly doubled halfway through.

It wasn’t just Antuso who was terrified now. Even the mildly infamous Great Crimson Adept Greem’s eyebrow was twitching wildly.

Goddamn! This formation is a little too terrifying, isn’t it!?

“What about it? Do you think we can take it?” Antuso was screaming in their mental channel.

“We can give it a try. It’s going be a stretch, though,” Even Greem wasn’t confident about this.

“Treasure where there’s danger! I’ll deal with Mairo’s clone. Greem can stop Horr. Antuso…move fast and come help me once you’ve dispatched the petitioners,” Rossellini quickly divided the tasks between them.

“And…what about those mongrels?” Antuso was still screaming furiously in their minds.

“Everyone take out what you’ve been saving for the occasion and keep those beasts occupied. Don’t let them get in the way of our business today!” Rossellini was quite the vicious and determined man.

As the person who proposed the idea in the first place, he had to take the initiative. He was the first to throw out a sandboard, from which a giant, beginner Fifth Grade sand serpent emerged. It shook its giant body, flickered its red tongue, and glared at the sandworm digging through the ground.

At the same time, Rossellini raised both hands and quickly chanted a strange, mysterious incantation. As a tremendous amount of blue starlight surged into his body, he was soon covered in layers of astral substance summoned from alternate dimensions.

Meanwhile, a ball of blue light glowed beside him, forming into a powerful and unusual astral construct.

This process sounded very slow, but it was, in fact, so fast that it was hard to tell what had exactly happened. In just a single instant, Rossellini had covered himself in a thick astral battlesuit. Meanwhile, a five-meter-tall astral construct stood up by his side.

Cloaked in that blinding starlight, Rossellini looked like a mech from some other world. The suit glimmered beautifully as Rossellini raised an arm and shot a Starlight Blast at Mairo’s clone.

Meanwhile, at his command, the astral construct at his side swung its chainsaw and drill as it lunged at the Giant Berserk Ape.

Rossellini was incredibly decisive. He had taken on three enemies all by himself!

Upon seeing this, Antuso knew that he could no longer hold back. If he didn’t contribute, he wouldn’t be able to get his share of the spoils once this was all over.

He let out a roar and turned into a spiritwolf. He raised his head and let out a long howl.

As he continued to howl, a five-meter-long, two-meter-wide rift appeared in the air. A shocking number of Armor-Eaters emerged.

The armor-eaters were no more than a swarm of Second Grade magical insects, but they possessed a powerful magical characteristic.

That was Armor Piercing!

They could threaten beings and creatures far superior to them in grade level.

After completing his summon, the spiritwolf rushed at the two orc petitioners with this swarm of insects.

Given his terrifying formation, Antuso would finish his opponent in a matter of minutes.

The only opponents left for Greem were Horr himself and the Windrend hawk!

It was only then that Greem let out a breath of relief. He raised his hand and summoned Remi and the ten-armed giant.

The ten-armed giant was the intermediate Fifth Grade voodoo beast that Greem had asked Adept Karon to construct. Its bloodline origin was related to that of the legendary Hecatoncheires.

The moment the giant appeared, its ten arms made a slight grabbing motion and created three-meter-long spears out of thin air. It began to hurl these javelins repeatedly at Horr.

A dark purple halo appeared under its feet. This evil halo could afflict all enemies within a thousand meters with a fearsome Curse of Misfortune.

Remi was left to deal with the Windrend hawk, while the ten-armed giant would support Greem against Horr. Greem still had a beginner Fifth Grade Earth Shatterer in his possession. It was the magical golem he had created with the principle crystal of the Earth Prophet.

It was wise to keep at least one card hidden up your sleeve on a battlefield like this.

Seeing as the battlefield was basically filled, Greem kept the Earth Shatterer behind and focused on dealing with Horr himself.

There were no idiots among those who could make it to Sixth Grade.

Horr had fallen to Fifth Grade due to a lack of divine authority fragments, but his exceptional divine power application and techniques still left Greem with an unforgettable impression!

The ten-arm giant launched the first wave of attacks by Greem and the adepts.

Horr threw out a single ball of divine power that detonated the hail of stone spears. The chaotic earth elementium and divine power clashed, causing a magic storm to appear in the center of the battlefield. Consequently, everyone’s spiritual senses were impeded as well.

A fierce and towering figure leaped out of the center of the storm and shot three consecutive arrows at Greem.

Due to their Trueshot characteristic, it would be impossible to dodge these arrows.

Greem shouted out loud, “Cover me!”

He ignored the arrows and focused on gathering his flames.

The ten-armed giant strode forward and continued its bombardment of stone spears. The three arrows were successfully struck down!

Simultaneously, three completely identical clones appeared behind Greem, covering his actual body in a triangle formation. They uttered a furious cry in unison as numerous waves of fire surged toward Horr’s divine body from every angle.

A battle of the gods had begun!