Age of Adepts

Low-grade fire elementals, fire spirits, fire deities, fire wolves, magma hounds, infernals, and fire giants.

All sorts of fire creatures of various shapes and forms swarmed out from behind Greem, roaring as they rushed at the four adepts standing above the crater. Waves of wild fire magic devoured the adepts before the creatures even arrived.

Though this wave of attacks seemed incomparably ferocious, there were no powerful fire spells mixed within. Most of these fire creatures’ innate powers only included the use of elementium fireballs.

Purple light flashed in Benija’s eyes, and an intangible mental fluctuation swept across the air, detonating the elementium fireballs before they could reach them.

A tremendous fiery explosion occurred right in front of the four adepts. The aura of the energy flux was shockingly powerful. However, the shockwave from the detonated fireballs was already on its last legs when it reached the adepts. It could not move their seemingly thin defensive forcefields, let alone wound them.

After two waves of useless fire attacks, the massive army of fire creatures had arrived near the top of the crater. Before they could scatter and surround the adepts, Blade Princess Katherine stepped forward. She pushed with her hands, and five metal blades stood in the way of the fire creatures like fluttering butterflies.

The disc-blades spun, and their bodies of fire fell apart.

The fire creatures at the average of beginner First Grade were sliced to countless pieces beneath this fearsome array of blades, shattered into sparks before they had the chance to struggle.

One wave was minced to pieces, and the next, minced to pieces as well.

The five disc-blades moved at Katherine’s every whim and will, soaring through the horde of fire creatures. Their every attack left a ground full of sparks and scattered flames behind them.

Even the most quick-footed and agile of the fire creatures could not escape the metal blades the Blade Princess controlled!

The elementium magical machine charged forward under cover of the fire creatures, rumbling as it swung its metal fists down upon Katherine. Vicious magical energy trailed the path of its punch, creating small elementium vortexes in the air as its fists traveled towards its target.

As a mechanical witch, Katherine’s attributes leaned toward Agility. However, her Strength was pretty impressive as well.

Thus, she did not choose to dodge when faced with the magic-enhanced punch of the magical machine. The two metal spikes in her hands joined together and clashed with the metal fists as a violent storm of steel.

Katherine’s body drifted across the air as she continued her wild attacks, borrowing the force of the elementium magical machine’s punch to retreat rapidly. From a distance, it looked as if Katherine had been blown away by the elementium magical machine and had been the victim of that exchange.

In truth, Katherine was unharmed, while a series of fine cuts and tiny dents now covered the magical machine’s right arm. However, with the thickness of the magical machine’s metal arm, this much damage could not affect its combat prowess at all.

It was much like a raccoon toying with a black bear. Regardless of how the elementium magical machine lunged and darted, pummelling with its fists and sending wave after wave of magical energy shockwaves, Katherine remained a shadow. She moved and circled about the hulk, her metal spikes and disc-blades sending sparks flying as they cut against its body of steel. The sound of grinding metal was piercing to the ears.

Once Katherine was pushed back by the elementium magical machine, the fire creatures finally managed to break through the blade array. They roared and charged at the remaining adepts.

The next to take Katherine’s place was Benija.

She didn’t roar or shout or behave in any particularly eye-catching way. Her slender body simply stepped forward as several waves of invisible flux radiated from the large purple crystal on her forehead. The bodies of all the fire creatures caught by the wave stalled before disintegrating without any explanation.

These massive clusters of fire exploded near the crater, blasting the soft volcanic rock to pieces and sending them tumbling down into the lava.

If Katherine’s way of slaughter was within the realm of normality, then Benija’s method of slaughter was utterly incomprehensible. Even Greem, all the way behind the army, could only detect the existence of the mental flux through his multi-layered vision. However, he had absolutely no idea how this mental flux had destroyed the consciousness cores of the fire creatures.

From his perspective, it looked as if the fire creatures had charged forward and mysteriously self-destructed. Their wild elementium fires then turned into giant fireballs and devoured the frontlines.

Greem had no intention of summoning Thunder Dragon Arms.

He wasn’t arrogant. It was merely because the act itself was meaningless.

The four hunter adepts would turn and flee without hesitation whenever Arms appeared. They used the vast space of the battlefield to wait out the dragon’s summoning time.

According to the planar laws, Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms was not summoned to Henvic by an interplanar portal but through his dragon contract with Greem. As such, the time he could remain in Henvic was restricted by the planar laws.

Even with their contract, Greem could only keep Arms within Henvic for fifteen minutes. It was more than enough for a fight but far too lacking for them to pursue four hunter adepts who were solely intent of avoiding battle.

As for escaping while Arms kept the adepts at bay...Greem had considered the idea, but in truth, the four hunter adepts wanted nothing more than that.

After all, if he left the volcano, he would leave the shelter of the lava pool behind. Greem was not so confident as to believe he was powerful enough to defend against all four of them without a geographical advantage. Thus, Greem gave up on the idea entirely after summoning Arms twice. He started to play this game of siege with the hunter adepts with all his seriousness.

Seeing that all his minions had charged forward, Greem transformed into a flame giant without any hesitation as well. He lifted his hand and summoned clouds of fire, which he cast down upon his enemies.

The four hunter adepts could no longer remain unfazed against the ferocious attack of a Third Grade fire adept. Each of them started to carefully dodge those splashing Magma Fireballs and the crashing Meteor Showers, trying to avoid every one of Greem’s attacks.

For some reason, the fire magic that Greem used was shockingly powerful!

The spells even contained light-attribute damage that could ignore their defenses.

However, what troubled the hunter adepts the most was the magical effects of Greem’s fire spells, which he could alter at will. Coldflame, fire poison, explosion; the various strange magical effects were enough to drive an enemy insane.

The fire poison was nothing much. With Poison Witch Guinevere around, they could cure themselves of any poison.

However, the explosive fireballs and the Coldflame fireballs were far too challenging to deal with!

Greem’s fire spells were terrifying enough with their intense heat. They could also explode and at any time, as well. That made them incredibly annoying to deal with. There were many times when Katherine was forced to exchange blows with the elementium magical machine because of the disruption shockwaves from a fireball’s explosion.

If her luck were any worse, she would have been frozen on the spot by Coldflame. Even with her tremendous power, she would have been beaten within an inch of her life by the savage elementium magical machine.

It couldn’t be helped. The Blade Princess’ power was at an all-time low after all, with all the severe injuries she had already sustained. She was stuck in a weakened state until she could return to the realms beyond for a thorough treatment!

The four adepts immediately split up their work when they saw Greem step on the battlefield.

Natagu and Benija worked together against Greem, while Katherine and Guinevere held back the elementium magical machine.

Both parties demonstrated their myriad powers and clashed with each other in this volcano crater with a diameter of over two and a half kilometers.

The four hunter adepts had tried to have Katherine alone occupy the elementium magical machine, while the remaining three rained down upon Greem, hoping to kill him through this plan quicky.

Unfortunately, Greem was surprisingly resilient and stood right behind a pool of lava from which he could draw even more power. As such, he stood unyielding against the attacks of three hunter adepts.

In comparison, Blade Princess Katherine became the weakest of the group.

The battle between Greem and the three adepts had yet to come to a conclusion, yet the elementium magical machine already had her on the ropes. A little bit more, and the duel would have ended in a clear defeat.

It was that battle that caused Katherine to sustain even more damage and become further weakened.

However, of the four hunter adepts, neither Benija, the psionic, or Guinevere, the poison adept were suited to dealing with the magical machine. They couldn’t possibly hold it back either. Meanwhile, Serpentine Adept Natagu served as the main force of the attack. It made no sense for him to switch priorities and deal with the irrelevant magical machine.

If he did that, Greem might have enough space to unleash his full might, bringing to bear a shocking threat against them all!

The four hunter adepts had no choice but to rely on this ‘gentler’ approach to slowly wear down the fire adept.

One had to admit that, as the leader of their group, Natagu’s power was genuinely terrifying.

When he transformed into the Black Mamba, he had scales that were as tough as the elementium magical machine’s body of steel, as well as exceptional magic resistance that could compare to that of the dragons.

With his powerful physical and magical resistances, Natagu could even charge into the lava and engage Greem in a melee. Whenever the two of them fought at their full strength, it would be as if Gangsas Volcano had erupted in full force. Wave after wave of blistering lava would surge out of the crater, along with plumes of volcanic ash that could blot out the sun itself.

The earth rumbled as if it would be torn asunder, and the entire vicinity of the volcano became a near-apocalyptic land of destruction where no living being could approach!

The shockwaves created by the battle between the adepts caused the volcano to erupt with increasing frequency and intensity. All humans and creatures within fifty kilometers of Gangsas Volcano started to flee into the distance in front of this indescribable threat.