Age of Adepts

The two magical machines at the back were firing flamethrowers and bullets, while the two at the front were waving their metal fists to punch at the dragonborn.

When the two dragonborn destroyed these four magical machines at a small cost, four new magical machines stomped forward.

It was tough for the dragonborn to escape the siege of the machines once they had been caught in an endless loop of battles.

The siege of the magical machines naturally infuriated the arrogant and proud Third Grade thunder dragon.

For the first time, he felt as if he had been toyed with by the natives of a lowly plane!

Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms was no longer able to suppress his fury. He let out a reverberating dragon’s roar as he began his dragon transformation against the might of the planar suppression.

Arms was no mixed-blood descendant like Zacha. He was Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms, a pure-blooded noble thunder dragon. The reason he had transformed into human form when he came to the Goblin Plane was only to make the passage here easier. It also helped weaken much of the planar suppression’s effects.

Now, faced with the provocation of the local natives, Arms could no longer suppress his flames of anger. He released his transfiguration effect in a flash of lightning and returned to his original appearance.

It was a beautiful thunder dragon with a body full of fine blue scales. His neck was slender, yet muscular. His cheekbones were sharp, as were his superciliary bones and pointed snout. When Arms’ large mouth opened, the sound of rumbling thunder could be heard within. One could also vaguely see a cluster of pulsing electric storms in his throat.

Thunder Dragon Arms’ body was seventeen meters from head to tail. His wingspan was twelve meters at its fullest.

The tunnel before them might be a massive corridor for ordinary goblins, but it was a tightly constraining prison for the transformed thunder dragon. It was hard for him to turn his body in this tunnel.

However, he did not need to bother with turning!

Thunder Dragon Arms shoved his subordinates aside after he had completed his transformation. He lowered his head and used the two pairs of hard, spiral-shaped horns to open a path. He smashed his way through the magical machines in a matter of seconds.

It didn’t matter how tough and hard the alloy materials used to forge the magical machines were. They couldn’t possibly defend against the barbaric charge of a Third Grade dragon.

Moreover, if Thunder Dragon Arms made it into the midst of the magical machine army, he could easily summon lightning around him and use it to blast away all magical machines around him.

That would be a lightning storm conjured by a Third Grade thunder dragon. How could a group of First Grade magical machines hope to defend against it?

It was just like plowing the ground. Thunder Dragon Arms pierced through the siege of magical machines without much effort. A floor full of machine debris and shards were left in his wake. However, the counterattacks and focus firing of magic energy weapons from the magical machines still dealt minor damage to the thunder dragon’s body.

Arms plowed through three tunnels and destroyed over a hundred magical machines. Yet the tunnels in front of him were still packed full of magical machines.

Thunder Dragon Arms crouched on the ground and panted for a moment. For the first time, he started doubting whether this had been the right choice.

The lightning speed of a thunder dragon had no room to be unleashed in this location. Even the endless power of electricity he always wielded in the past could not be replenished in this place; this damned Goblin Plane’s magic aura was too thin. It was enough to make a dragon suffocate. The magic elementium obtained through breathing was not sufficient for Arms’ use.

That was why, after a bit of fighting, the Third Grade Arms didn’t dare to use his powers of electricity in the same extravagant manner as he had in the past. Instead, he turned into a cold-blooded killer, pinning the machines with his horns and tearing their chests apart with his claws before spitting a ball of lightning into the machines.

The explosion of lightning within the magical machines would instantly destroy all their delicate components, causing them to cease all operations after a bit of creaking.

Killing the magical machines in this manner was a little slower, but it saved a lot of Arms’ lightning powers. After all, the wounds from close-ranged combat would quickly heal due to his robust Physique. On the other hand, his lightning powers would take a much longer time to recover.

As Arms was having a fun time taking apart the magical machines, Giant Brain Gazlowe was almost crying from the heartbreak.

The magical machine factories in the Steel Capital could indeed produce an endless stream of magical machines, but the process itself still consumed a large number of metal resources. The metal reserves in the Steel Capital were, at the very best, only enough to construct another 1,236 magical machines.

Yet, just Thunder Dragon Arms alone had easily destroyed a hundred and eighteen machines.

If Arms was allowed to continue his rampage, all of Gazlowe’s machines would be destroyed, regardless of how many he could create.

As such, Giant Brain Gazlowe could no longer sit still when the Third Grade dragon continued to advance towards the hall. It started to negotiate with Greem, the leader of the adepts.

Nothing else in the world was more important to Gazlowe than his life!

He had gone through so much trouble to assimilate with the Steel Capital through the immortality ritual. However, these adepts and dragonborn that had broken into his ’body’ had become a major problem.

Of course, he would try and capture both of these enemies in a single blow if he had the chance.

However, his means of attack were restricted. He needed to rely upon those mediocre low-Grade magical machines for combat. Those magical machines had no advantage to speak of before the adepts and the dragonborn. In fact, they were so frail in front of the Third Grade thunder dragon that they were no different from simple toys.

With no choice left to him, and the situation spiraling out of his control, Gazlowe could only choose to form an alliance with the adepts once again. He needed them to help fight against the dragonborn and weaken the amount of pressure that he needed to deal with.

While Gazlowe believed his plans to be unnoticed by the others, he had no idea that Alice possessed a perfect sense of all his schemes.

All the adepts that Greem led retreated from the underground hall without any hesitation upon establishing an alliance with Giant Brain Gazlowe. However, they didn’t behave as they had agreed. Instead of going out to hunt the thunder dragon, they were trying to make their way out of the hall via the tunnels.

The current situation was a result of there being three parties. No one dared to fight with their full strength out of caution for the third party. Thus, Greem chose to temporarily remove himself from the conflict and allow the giant brain to clash head-on with the thunder dragon.

He didn’t believe that Gazlowe would so easily bow before the dragon when it came to a choice of freedom and enslavement.

As long as the dragon and the brain didn’t come to an agreement, then a big fight was unavoidable. The adepts would then have a chance and the space to thread the needle and determine the outcome of this conflict!

Giant Brain Gazlowe was naturally furious at the adepts retreat.

However, he couldn’t do anything about their betrayal. He had to deal with this problem by himself!

A large group of magical machines and goblin chariots swarmed out of various spots under his command. They were to stop the adepts in the tunnels before they could make it too far away. Even more magical machines marched into the underground hall and started clearing up the remnants of the dragonborn squad.

Less than ten dragonborn scouts remained after that brutal battle.

The severely wounded Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha could only lead his remaining seven dragonborn scouts in a difficult retreat. They fought as they slowly stumbled backward and attempted to return to the planar hall to regroup with their master.

Sadly, while the magical machines were mostly delaying the enemies in the other two battlefields, Gazlowe commanded the machines to commit to bloody and savage extermination when it came to Zacha and his soldiers. All the remaining dragonborn scouts fell to the endless horde of magical machines in less than fifteen minutes. Dragonborn Zacha was also completely exhausted. He couldn’t possibly escape from the surrounding of the magical machines now.

"Save him!"

Endor was protecting Alice as they moved in the group. However, Alice suddenly opened her eyes and gravely spoke to Greem when Zacha had fallen into a situation of certain death.

There wasn’t time to explain anything in such an emergency. Greem immediately cast Fire Teleportation several times in a row without any hesitation whatsoever. He dove right into the fearsome battlefield filled with magical machines.

Dragonborn Zacha was indeed a powerful individual as a Second Grade himself. If it weren’t for the exhaustion from his battle with Greem, and the delayed recovery caused by the Goblin Plane’s environment, he would never have fallen into such an awkward position.

The magical machines might be able to trap the Dragonborn, but they couldn’t stop the agile and mobile Greem.

Greem engulfed the battlefield with a Meteor Shower the moment he stepped foot inside. He successfully reached Zacha while the magical machine army was thrown into disarray.

"If you trust me, then do not resist," Greem gravely said as he fired a chain of fireballs to knock the magical machines away, "I can bring you out of here!"

Zacha gripped the electric spear in his hand tightly. He cautiously assessed this terrifying fire adept who was engulfed in a blaze of flames. He couldn’t figure out what the adept’s intentions were.

After all, they had only just been clawing at each other’s throat. Now, the enemy was coming over in a friendly display of help? That... was confusing Zacha, whose brain capacity had a limit.

"You are an invader. I am an invader. Now, it seems both of us invaders have been tricked and toyed with by that bloody Gazlowe," Greem coldly said, "I will never allow such a formerly lowly creature to do as they will, not upon my dignity as an adept. So..."

Who knows which of Greem’s words was the one that moved Zacha, but the dragonborn immediately tightened his grip on the electric spear. The muscles on his right hand bulged, and his veins could be clearly seen. A thunderous roar erupted from his mouth as he stood up on his hooves. Suddenly, a dense lightning power radiated from his body.

Greem’s heart trembled slightly.

The Second Grade Dragonborn was almost at his limits, but even a faltering tiger was still an intimidating one. If Zacha tried to attack him with all he had, Greem would not escape unscathed, even with all the defenses he possessed.

He was an elementium adept after all, not a body-refining adept or a bloodline adept that fought with their physical bodies.

While Greem was frowning, Zacha’s ferocious attack that had been building for a while finally descended upon the hall.

Suddenly, the entire battlefield was covered in blinding, brilliant clusters of terrifying lightning!