Age of Adepts

Mary’s vampire army had swollen like a rolling snowball after she took advantage of Billis drawing away the attention of the Skywater City elves.

However, the ravaging of the vampire army incited Skywater City’s response– a standard elven army of three thousand soldiers. From chimera squads to druid squads to green fairy squads; in all seriousness, the elves were treating Mary and her vampires as an actual army.

After a sloppy battle at Morgan Valley, Mary had unhesitatingly led all her vampires away in an attempt to escape!

She had no choice. The vampires’ survivability was truly powerful, but they were still far from being able to fight with a proper elven army.

Without qualified defenders and ranged units for cover, the vampires were exterminated by an accurate barrage of elven arrows before they could even get close to the elves. The vampires that, luckily, managed to approach the elves due to the cover of trees and terrains were surrounded by war dancers the moment they showed themselves.

This batch of newly converted vampire spawn experienced a tremendous loss of Physique, Strength, Agility, and intelligence compared to actual vampires. The blood elves who endured the intense change of blood and did not regress into wild beasts were a minority after all. Ordinary elves could only be modified into these inferior vampires that just knew how to obey orders.

Moreover, they had only just completed the alteration of their blood and were yet unused to this half-elf, half-vampire form of theirs.

They might still be as quick and agile as before and possess ferocious attacks, but there was a hint of numbness and clumsiness when they switched between their bat and elven forms. In truth, this weakness wasn’t all that serious, but it was magnified when they were dealing with extremely agile war dancers!

The movements of these vampire spawn were slow, dull, clumsy, and unresponsive in front of these war dancers and their two narrow elven sabers. They were practically the ideal training dummy.

When both parties passed by each other in the woods, snow-white flashes of blades would shine in the night, and the heads and limbs of vampire spawn would go tumbling in the air.

It was only the first clash of the battle, yet three hundred and seventeen of Mary’s four hundred vampire spawn had been pinned to the ground by sharp arrows. The other eighty-three were also experiencing an agonizing death by a thousand cuts beneath the blades of the elven war dancers.

The vampire spawn army had utterly fallen apart a mere three minutes into the start of the battle!

Having run into an iron wall, Mary unhesitatingly brought the remaining vampires with her and went on the run.

To avoid the vampires from escaping, the elven commanders hastened the elven army forward in full pursuit. In doing so, they became incapable of maintaining their previously sturdy and well-defined dynamic defense.

Squads of elven archers rode hippogryphs above the towering canopy, trailing behind a shocking number of bats. They made sure to fly at least a hundred meters in the sky out of concern of an ambush from the vampires. They could only occasionally see the rampaging crimson cloud of bats through the gaps in the canopy.

Their job wasn’t to attack the flock of bats but to point the elven strike team below in the right direction every so often. As such, their safety was pretty much guaranteed. At the very least, they had not let these vampires escape, even after several dozens of kilometers.

Yet, just as they reached a dense stretch of the forest, the cloud of bats vanished without a trace.

The excessively dense leaves and full canopy made it exceedingly difficult for them to figure out the enemy’s tracks. With no choice left to them, the leader of the archers could only lower the height of her hippogryph and circle above the canopy in hopes of finding something.

At the very moment the hippogryph riders descended, the forest beneath them trembled as six crimson silhouettes shot out from within.

These shapes had gray, demon-like bat wings behind their backs. The distance between them and the riders rapidly closed as they beat their wings and soared into the skies.

"Enemy assault!"

"Attack!"

All the hippogryphs started fluttering amidst panicked cries and calls. They quickly drifted outward to avoid the enemy’s charge. While the hippogryphs repositioned themselves, the riders on their backs stabilized themselves with their extraordinary sense of balance. They then drew their bows, nocked their arrows, and quickly intercepted the enemy with their bolts.

Zeng, zeng, zeng!

The countless snapping bowstrings rang out as numerous arrows shot toward these crimson silhouettes at speed faster than the eye.

Strangely enough, these crimson shapes had no intention of dodging in the face of this rain of arrows. Instead, they endured the arrows and charged into the skies.

These figures then let out battlecries, and crimson arcs of light, soaked in savage blood energy, cut across the sky in every direction. The hippogryphs that failed to dodge in time flared their wings and cried out loud. The next second, their corpses split in half and fell from the sky in a rain of blood.

As for the riders on the hippogryphs back? Some had keen senses and left the area covered by the crimson light arcs just in time and were saved by other nearby hippogryphs. Some elves couldn’t respond in time and were cut by the crimson arcs of light along with their hippogryphs. These elves were diced to pieces before they could even shout out in agony, falling from the sky in bits and chunks.

For a moment, the hippogryph squad had been thrown into utter chaos!

These crimson silhouettes took advantage of their panic and flapped their wings once again, launching a fierce charge at the elves as if they were knights of the skies.

Three blood knights and three blood elves. All of them were powerhouses that possessed ’pseudo-Second Grade’ power. Moreover, they did not fear the attacks of these elves, allowing them to charge fearlessly like a tiger let loose upon a herd of sheep. They slaughtered the hippogryph squad, letting broken corpses fall from the sky like raindrops.

Qiu, qiu!

A series of magical beasts calls rang from the distant horizon.

Realizing that the scouts had been attacked, a large group of chimeras and silver pegasuses was rapidly approaching the battlefield, carrying many more elves on their backs.

A sound rang out in the forest below before the reinforcements could enter the fight. The six crimson silhouettes turned and quickly vanished into the woods, disappearing without a trace.

By the time the elves arrived, only a flock of continuously rising hippogryphs were left, along with broken and severed bodies hanging from the branches below. The pungent odor of blood forced its way up the nostrils of the elves, choking them and almost making them vomit in disgust!

The high-grade druid that had hurried to the scene stomped his feet in anger. At the same time, he couldn’t help but be shocked at the ferocity of these vampires!

"There is a group of Second Grade people in the enemy’s ranks. The scouts will have a hard time if no powerhouses are escorting them!" A high elf standing upon the back of a muscular chimera frowned and said, "Lord Antoril, it seems we can only leave the task of tracking the enemy to you!"

This person named Antoril was a Third Grade druid elder. He belonged to the congregation of the Talon and could transform into two types of ferocious Third Grade avians. That was why the elven commander kept him at his side.

Third Grade fighters often had extremely high status and positions in regular elven armies. Even the leading commander could not enforce any tasks upon them. You would have to discuss any matters of necessity that required their attention with an amicable tone.

Moreover, this particular Third Grade druid elder wasn’t even in the army; he belonged to the congregation of the Talon. The commander would have to rely on their personal relationship to issue any orders to the druid.

It was important to note that no druid elder would ever act alone!

A dozen high-grade druids draped in green leaves and vines stood behind Elder Antoril’s back. Amongst them were as many as four Second Grade druid masters. Even the remaining druids were elite druids with individual specializations of their own.

Such a powerful druid squad would be a treasured elite unit in any elven army. They wouldn’t hastily be sent into battle out of fear of suffering casualties. However, they had no choice today. To avoid letting the vampires escape, these druids would have to serve as vanguards and scouts!

"Leave it to us!" The druid elder was clearly a close friend of the commander. He very generously spoke, "These evil fellows! They have already ravaged the elven villages near the west coast. I was just thinking of settling that debt with them! Let’s go and show them a little color, shall we?"

The druid elder roared, and eighteen druids in eagle helms raised the staffs in their hands in unison. They quickly transformed into giant eagles and featherwing serpents amidst a blinding green light. They then dove forward into the forest.

The druid elder, on the other hand, rapidly turned into a massive thunder roc, spreading his wings and soaring ahead.

The size of this thunder roc and the intensity of the electricity that clad its body was shocking!

With such a group of druids leading the way, the safety of the elven archers was finally ensured to some extent. The routed hippogryph squad gathered together once more. Their numbers had been cut in half, but the remaining riders were still in good spirits. They all requested permission from the commander to continue their pursuit.

With the consent of the commander, this squad of only twenty hippogryph riders quickly followed after the giant thunder roc and pursued in the direction of the enemy.

Several kilometers behind them, a large group of war dancers, archers, and green fairies were traversing the forest in a loose formation, trying their best to keep up with the flying scouts.

One had to acknowledge that the vampires were not the match of this elven army when it came to frontal warfare. However, when it came to a battle of mobility, this elven army wouldn’t be able to touch the soles of the vampires’ feet, even if their numbers increased tenfold.

It couldn’t be helped. The vampires had unique Physiques. They only needed to suck some blood from forest creatures to maintain their stamina and energy. Meanwhile, while these elves were all elites, they were still made of flesh and blood. They were far from being capable of competing with monsters like vampires in terms of stamina!