Age of Adepts

The ground rumbled as the giant and majestic body of the magical golem dragon approached, one step at a time.

Complex expressions appeared on the faces of the Fabres adepts: frustration, regret, and even annoyance, but never fear.

Greem’s eyes swept across the battlefield and instantly took in the expressions of the tens of thousands of creatures there. He realized something and spoke out loud, “Lord Declan, why not show yourself and let us meet if you are already here?”

The seven Third Grade Fabres adepts paused for a moment when they heard this. An expression of disbelief then appeared on their faces. Adept Zam’s face turned dark as he asked with a chilling tone, “How did you know that Lord Declan had already arrived?”

No wonder Zam was shocked and stunned by Greem’s words. Even he had only received news of Adept Declan’s arrival seven minutes ago. He couldn’t help but be surprised when Greem so quickly revealed the truth.

Greem smiled but did not answer the question.

Just as Zam intended to continue his threats, a rough and booming voice rang out on the battlefield.

“There’s nothing strange about it! They have a Fourth Grade golem in their army, and you all remain as fearless as before. Obviously, that’s because this old man is here. Is there even a need to guess how he figured it out? Hmph! Bunch of idiots.”

A figure of average height appeared on the wooden ship. The person did not cast any spells or rely on any items as he walked into the sky above the battlefield, step by step.

He was a muscular middle-aged man with a stout stature. He had a full beard on his face, with an almost completely bald head. There were only three braids of interweaving black and white running down the back of his head. He was not dressed in the robes that most adepts typically wore. Instead, he wore old and ancient-looking gray leather armor. Not a single trace of magical equipment could be seen on his entire person.

He looked to be only forty to fifty years of age, but that extraordinarily concentrated and overwhelming elementium flux around his body signaled his true identity. The power he radiated was extremely strange. It was formed from the refinement and concentration of a mix between extreme physical strength and elementium energy. It was firm, yet contained, all while possessing the activity and impulsiveness unique to wind elementium.

In particular, when the middle-aged man looked across the sky at Greem, Greem felt the fires around him stall for a fleeting instant and become tamer and docile.

Greem narrowed his eyes to relieve the pain brought about by the excessively bright light that the opponent’s aura gave off. The Chip was working at full capacity, but all of the scans only revealed extremely chaotic and nonsensical numbers. The light seen through his elementium sight was also useless, as it was almost like staring into the Sun at close distance.

It was incredibly fortunate that his eyes didn’t go blind from the piercing light.

Greem immediately shut down most of the Chip’s probing abilities before he could get used to that constant flux of power that the enemy was radiating. Otherwise, the only thing he would see in his field of vision would always be a blinding blood-red light.

“You are Greem? Hmm? Didn’t they say that you are only a Third Grade fire adept that had only recently advanced? Why do you have the power of an Advanced Third Grade already?” The middle-aged man glanced at Greem in confusion, a trace of surprise in his eyes.

Even though Beginner Third Grade and Advanced Third Grade were both gnats that could be squished to death with a single finger in his eyes, Greem’s ability to advance by two minor grades in such a short timespan was sufficient proof of his potential.

Provoking such a talented enemy for the clan with no ‘proper’ reason was such a terrible idea that even Fourth Grade Body-Refining Adept Declan couldn’t help but start regretting his decision.

Damned hag! I knew she had no good introductions to make! It’s about time to make that hag pay a price once I kill this quickly improving Third Grade fire adept.

With a trace of a foul mood in his heart, murderous intent started to burst forth from his gaze towards Greem.

The tiny Crimson Clan had never been enough to catch his gaze, but he definitely could not allow this Third Grade fire adept to escape. If he managed to escape and advanced to Fourth Grade in the future, then the Fabres Clan would face a calamity!

Perhaps sensing the terrifying pressure coming from the Fourth Grade adept, Greem’s body started to hover backward slightly. The Fourth Grade magical golem dragon of the Crimson Clan hastened its steps, rumbling to the frontlines and appearing in front of Greem.

“This is what you are counting on? A metal golem with the power of a Fourth Grade?” Declan stared coldly, not stopping the magical golem dragon from reaching Greem. At any rate, he had already firmly locked onto Greem’s mental flux; he wasn’t concerned about Greem taking the opportunity to flee. He very charismatically waited for the enemy to make their combat preparations.

“Brat, let me tell you a secret. If and when you truly have the opportunity to advance to Fourth Grade, you will naturally know that even the most powerful of auxiliary forces cannot compare to one’s own strength! Just like this...break!”

At this, Adept Declan shouted loudly, and his not particularly muscular right arm silently expanded to twice its original size, punching towards the gigantic golem dragon.

The fist wasn’t of astronomical size, nor did the punch itself appear to be very fast or ferocious. However, driven by the incomparable and seemingly divine strength behind it, the punch possessed tremendous power.

The initially formless and shapeless wind elementium in the air was compressed around the punch by tremendous strength as the fist shot forward, gathering into a semi-translucent projection of a fist. As Declan shouted and punched forward, the fist projection glowed with blinding light and shot towards the golem dragon’s metallic head.

A deafening and inexplicable screech rang throughout the battlefield.

The fist projection flew across the air rapidly, all while absorbing the wandering wind elementium in the surroundings into itself like a whale taking in water. When the fist smashed through the air and arrived at the magical golem dragon, the mighty power contained within the blow had risen to a level where even Greem was terrified.

1100 points.

A casual and straightforward fist from Declan had over 1100 points of power!

The magical golem dragon was indeed a Fourth Grade war machine. The magical goblins operating it from within had also managed to achieve perfect compatibility with it over all these years.

The metal shell on the dragon’s back flipped over, revealing a series of magic energy cannons within. A barrage of cannon fire started to bombard the approaching fist. However, the fist projection had far more concentrated power. It shattered the countless energy fireballs and arrived in front of the magical golem dragon.

The golem dragon opened its large mouth, and a gigantic energy pillar, as thick as a well, cut through the sky and blasted against the fist. Finally, it managed to destroy the fist when it was just five meters away.

The scattered tide of energy ravaged the air and created a halo-shaped pillar of dust that extended thirty-four meters into the sky, pushing everything away.

Where the massive pillar of dust pushed across, even the magical machines could not stand still. Despite weighing several tons, they were blown off the ground and blasted several hundred meters away. Even the goblin chariots were caught in the blast and were swept into the distance.

For a moment, the Crimson Clan’s entire formation descended into chaos!

However, such a shockwave did not spare the Fabres forces either.

The Fabres adept forces erected massive barriers of light in the face of this violent energy tide and protected themselves within. However, judging from the flickering light of the wall, they were only barely hanging on.

Meanwhile, the subordinate armies, who were not protected by any sort of magical barrier, launched into the sky, screaming before they were slammed heavily into the ground once again. If it weren’t for their sturdy physiques, the shockwave alone would have killed many of them.

It wasn’t just the Crimson Clan. Even the Fabres Clan was scrambling to deal with the shockwave!

“Hmm? This metal golem is pretty interesting. Well then, let me show you the true power of a Fourth Grade!” Having said that, Declan curled a single finger and flicked it. The nail-sized ball of compressed wind then shot towards Greem like a speeding bullet.

Greem had now flown onto the head of the golem dragon. He had just landed on the small platform between the curved horns when he felt danger approaching.

In a single breath, a series of Inferno Shields and two Lava Shields shot out of his body and appeared in front of him.

Pupupu!

After a series of frightening thuds, four of the Inferno Shields were blasted into shreds and scattered into the air as sparks. A small hole had also bored through the Lava Shield made of magma and lava.

Finally, the bullet of compressed wind dissipated along with the fifth Inferno Shield, sparing Greem the humiliation of being injured at the very start of the fight.

Greem felt a chill run down his back when he looked at the last three Inferno Shields in front of him. There was no longer any concealing the shock on his face and in his heart.

Seemingly as if it had sensed Greem’s intentions, the magical golem dragon roared, and a nearly transparent forcefield appeared from within its body to shield both itself and Greem.

Greem stood firmly on the platform and lifted his head to look at Declan, who was charging down at him. Several pieces of magical equipment radiating powerful auras slowly began to appear on Greem.

Sodden’s Holy Ring, the magical crown Burning Sun, the magical armband Emblem of Fire, the belt The Fearless, the Boots of Ash, the pendant Fire Dragon’s Breath, the Ghost Scepter, and the Holy Temple Ring.

He had obtained the Ghost Scepter from Psionic Benija. It allowed the owner to turn their body into an ethereal form, thereby avoiding physical damage from the real world.

The Holy Temple Ring was from a Third Grade Holy Knight. It could strengthen the wearer’s mental will, allowing them to become immune to all elementium magical damage for five seconds.

Greem had also obtained a series of other equipment, but no matter how he looked at them, only a few of the pieces were useful to him. One of these pieces of equipment came from the hunter adepts and the other from a holy knight. When added together, the pieces allowed Greem to avoid any single instance of lethal damage perfectly.