Age of Adepts

The witcher-knights, who were once the rulers of this plane, had now become frightened birds fleeing from a bloodthirsty hunter.

They took off their heavy armor, tossed aside their iron knee pads, and threw away their helmets. Some knights even let go of their runic bows, only keeping the single runic sword and slim shield with them.

They panicked like dogs without a home, running quickly through the night’s thick and enigmatic mist. Some knights tripped on thick tree roots, while others fell off cliffs of four or five meters.

Three radiant knights led the charge in front, while the other four led a group of spellbreaker knights to cover the rear. The army retreated as they fought, forcefully opening a path of blood and flesh through the forest, breaking through the heavily surrounded hill.

Initially, all the witcher-knights were still able to follow behind that radiant flame longsword. However, as the howls in the forest around them started to become more and more frequent, and closer and closer, everyone started to panic.

Some knights were completely exhausted, while others were heavily injured. Most of them were hanging on by sheer will. They leaned on and encouraged each other as they desperately ran along with the crowd. Of course, there were also some frightened witcher-knights that chose to leave the main force. In just a few seconds, they would disappear into the dark forest.

Most of the adepts’ attention would be attracted to the main force of the knights, especially in such a cruel battlefield. As long as they could break through the defensive line of the voodoo beasts on the outer rim, then the individual witcher-knights were indeed very likely to escape.

Honestly, their line of thought was not without its logic!

However, could the few witcher-knights, without complete armor or their powerful steeds, resist the hordes of voodoo beasts and ghouls when they were so badly weakened? This was undoubtedly a problem they had to solve on their own!

Finally, an adept in the darkness couldn’t hold back any longer!

A dark green ball of light the size of a human head raced out from the darkness nearby, landing right in the middle of a group of frantically running knights. The ball of light exploded, and countless acid arrows radiating bright light shot in every direction.

The three closest knights were riddled with holes by the acid arrows before they could activate their energy shields. Their heavy bodies fell to the ground, still letting out ear-splitting sizzling as their corpses were corroded with acid. In less than seven seconds, the three witcher-knights were dead and their bodies had dissolved into a pool of green liquid.

Most of the knights further away were able to activate their shields in time and shield themselves from the acid arrows. Only one knight was a touch too slow and was pierced through the leg.

The injured witcher-knight let go of his runic longsword, writhing in pain on the ground. No one could bear the blistering sounds as his flesh corroded. A companion he was acquainted with stopped and drew a dagger. He ripped apart the legs of his companion’s pants and was about to slice off the flesh that had been corroded.

However, what he saw was a large and bloody wound that had been completely rotted. The entire right leg had turned a green color, and the terrifying color was rapidly spreading upwards.

"Can you bear the pain? This leg is done for!" The companion shouted and tossed aside the dagger. He drew his longsword and raised it high, intending to amputate his companion’s leg to save his life.

Yet at this very moment, odd breathing and the sounds of sprinting footsteps rang out. A large swarm of voodoo beasts with a few ghouls mixed in surged forth.

The two terrified knights had no time to even resist. Their shapes were instantly swallowed by the tide of monsters.

A middle-aged adept wearing green leather armor was cackling in the depths of the woods. A ball of green light floated before his chest. Occasionally, a green beam of light would shoot forth from the ball, landing in the knights’ formation in the distance. Every time this happened, two or three witcher-knights would lose their lives.

Just as he was at the peak of his excitement his expression changed, and he rolled to a side of the ground. Almost at the same time, a red flame blade slashed through the air from the darkness, blasting through eleven trees before it gradually dissipated.

The expression of the adept in green armor soured.

If he hadn’t dodged in time, that flame blade would definitely have sliced him in half from the waist downwards. Even if he had cast all the protective spells he had on himself, it wouldn’t have done anything against a knight battle technique of this prowess.

The difference in power was far too obvious!

Gah! An old dog flailing in water, and he dares to bite back!

The adept in green armor cursed under his breath. At the same time, he tapped the human bone necklace on his chest, and his entire body suddenly became obscure and intangible before quickly vanishing from the spot.

Before he could escape into the darkness of the woods, a blinding flame longsword whistled through the air and pinned him to an ancient tree behind him.

The adept in green armor howled in pain. Even though the flaming runic-sword had gone through his chest, he had yet to die. Instead, he quickly grabbed a green staff out of the air and tried to escape for the second time.

Unfortunately, the energy flames on the runic sword became even more intense, instantly reducing his body to ashes and leaving behind a horrifying skull and a green staff on the ground.

Charles walked forward from the darkness with determined steps, stopping before the tree and drawing his longsword out. He grabbed the adept’s skull from on the ground, and raised it above his head while shouting into the distant woods, "Come... keep coming! This will be your only end!"

For one moment, the woods became slightly silent!

Countless gazes penetrated the layers of branches and leaves, silently staring at the terrifying skull the radiant knight was holding in his hand.

Just a foolish idiot!

Many people were coldly mocking in their hearts, but deep inside they were highly cautious.

From the start of the battle until now, the one torturing and toying with this thousand-man knights’ army had always been a group of First Grade adepts. Even though there were radiant knights within the army that could utterly dominate them, and even though there were seven of them, the adepts had never feared them at all. Some ambitious adepts were even scheming to capture a radiant knight.

However, at this moment, when they saw the death of that reckless idiot, all the adepts had no choice but to remind themselves to stay cautious. Second Grade Knights were Second Grade Knights after all. Even if they were in an awkward position, they were still extremely powerful beings that could kill them at any time.

These adepts could play the sly and wicked big bad wolves before the witcher-knight sheep, and even the spellbreaker knights. However, in the face of the mighty radiant knights, they could only curse silently in the shadows. The fragility of Second Grade knights was only when compared to Second Grade adepts. These radiant knights still possessed the ability to dominate First Grade adepts.

As long as the adepts understood this, they would be able to preserve their lives, even if they had to suffer a little humiliation.

Several adepts looked at this scene in humiliation, keeping their hatred within themselves and gritting their teeth. That said, the adepts that had always favored beating the enemy with their brains and knowledge would not charge forward because of a moment’s passion.

The powerhouses amongst the First Grade adepts couldn’t help but wrack their brains for ideas once more!

............

Greem rode high above the back of the Alligator Hunter in the dim woods, quickly pursuing the witcher-knight army.

Behind him, countless clay golems and wind critters formed a strict blockade, allowing him to constantly monitor every change within two and a half kilometers around him.

Just as he was quickly sprinting through the forest, a wind critter on the outer rim suddenly sent an odd image back.

Greem thought for a moment before halting the Alligator Hunter’s advance. He took out his Fire Lord’s Scepter and waited silently.

Very soon, thunderous crackling rang out, and a man engulfed in tens of thousands of lightning arcs appeared in the skies above.

Blue armor and a refreshingly bald head, with numerous strange runes carved densely in his scalp. From the looks of it, he was a forty-year old middle-aged man.

Greem recognized him. He was a combat adept from their base who was skilled at manipulating lightning, nicknamed Thunderbird.

In all honesty, even though they were all from the same adepts’ base, most of them wore thick and heavy robes or veils, even hiding their faces with spells. Thus, this was the first time Greem had seen Thunderbird’s true face.

"You are Greem, aren’t you?" Thunderbird asked coldly, "Go to Spider Valley five kilometers away for a meeting. Boss Hyde invites you to work together to deal with that radiant knight. I’ve already brought the message to you. Whether you go or not is your business!"

Having finished speaking, Thunderbird did not even linger. With a flash of lightning, he disappeared from the spot.

Greem raised his head and looked at the lightning scorch marks that lingered in the night sky, somewhat stunned, "A meeting?"

Almost immediately it seemed as if he understood something, and coldly spat out, "Hmph! It seems there’s finally someone that can no longer stand the arrogance of the Second Grade knights! A meeting? It seems they are planning some kind of action! It wouldn’t hurt to check it out."

Then the Alligator Hunter turned and sprinted towards the Spider Valley in the distance.

Spider Valley.

As its name implied, Spider Valley was a terrifying place that was home to many spiders!

The moment one entered this valley, one would see the dense white spider webs throughout the dim woods, along with terrifying spiders crawling about the branches.

Oddly enough, even though the species and colors of the spiders were extremely varied, the largest of the spiders here were only the size of a fist. One would not be able to see any of the Huntsmen Spiders or the Deinopidae, or Ghostface Spiders, that were typically as large as a calf.

Of course, Greem knew why this was the case.

That was because he was the one who personally swept through Spider Valley. Any large spiders that had even a little value had already been sent back to the adepts’ base by him. Thus, the Spider Valley was now not exactly true to its name!

The gathering spot was set not far from the entrance of the valley. When Greem hurried over, there were already four people silently waiting there.

Marionette, Acteon, Phantom and Boss Hyde.

Greem naturally already knew who Marionette and Acteon were. Most of his attention was on the other two.

In all honesty, this person was not a simple person at all. He was able to have an adept, who usually only respected knowledge and prowess, acknowledge and call him ‘Boss’!