Age of Adepts

How terrifying was an elite-level magical creature with the territorial advantage?

Greem might not have known the answer to this question before this moment, but now he no longer needed one!

The massive demon-hunting spider skittered about the hall with the agility of a monkey. It easily avoided the spells hurled at it by taking cover behind the pillars. It then scaled the walls and hung from the ceiling with the use of its webbing and spider legs. Tula remained as speedy as ever even when it walked on the roof of the cave.

Every time Tula struck at Greem, its sharp limbs threw the adept into a panic as he scrambled to avoid the attacks. However, any misstep in this environment would cause Greem to land in a spider web trap! What came next was the horrible fate of being consumed by tens of thousands of spiders.

Fortunately, Greem was a destructive fire adept that brought his territorial advantage along with him wherever he went. Once he transformed into the Flame Fiend, every place enveloped by his Ring of Fire would turn into his home field.

The Ring of Fire sizzled when it came into contact with the spiderwebs, like water poured onto boiling magma.

The flames burned intensely, scorching the webs until they turned black and charred before finally turning into dust. And Tula’s method of countering the Ring of Fire was to have the magical spiders detonate themselves!

Tens of thousands of fist-sized spiders climbed out of every shadowy corner, leaping and jumping towards the Ring of Fire where they ferociously detonated themselves before they wholly burned.

These spiderites were small magical creatures that had magical energy. Their self-detonation wasn’t all that powerful, but it was at least as strong as a magical fireball with twenty points of power. Once their numbers reached a certain threshold, there would be several spiders simultaneously detonating themselves within the Ring of Fire. The stacked energy shockwaves from the explosions caused some of the energy to dissipate. Still, the combined force of their explosions had also reached a threatening extent.

Ten small spiders grouped could deal a hundred and thirty points of damage. That was as much as Greem’s all-out attacks!

Not to mention there were far more than ten spiderites standing in front of them. Spiderites covered the ceiling, floor, walls, pillars, and every other open space. Their numbers had likely exceeded the thousands.

The shockwave vortex created by the lurching magical energies severely damaged the Ring of Fire’s stability, causing its radius to shrink quickly. Once the Ring of Fire completely fell apart, Greem and his party would have to face the full force of those spiderites.

The Roaring Monster, the Decayer, and Unguja all retreated to Greem’s side, where they used their concentrated firepower to weaken Tula’s relentless strikes. Greem then freed himself from the battle for a moment and immediately drew upon four of the massive fire spells he had stored in the Scroll of Voodoo.

Scarlet Firestorm!

Meteor Shower!

Doomsday Volcano!

World Scorching Firecloud!

In all honesty, the simultaneous detonation of several spiderites was quite destructive. However, Tula wasn’t able to leverage this ability to reign over the Black Forest completely. The main reason for that was the excessively weak magical resistance and physical defenses of the spiderites!

Perhaps because they had undergone mutations and modifications, most of the spiderites’ internal organs were used to store magical energy; it caused their magic and physical defenses to be far inferior to small magical creatures of similar strength.

Consequently, a single large-area fire spell from Greem instantly annihilated most of the spiderites that had yet to charge into the Ring of Fire. Moreover, their passive ability to self-detonate had also triggered a chain reaction of blasts. Their frail defenses and substantial numbers were the primary causes of the chain explosions!

The explosive bang of a Scarlet Firestorm with ninety points of power reverberated throughout the hall the moment it was released. Even Tula was effected, along with the spiderites near it. Tula was blasted at least twice, even as it hid in a dark corner of the cave.

This series of explosions had caused irreversible destruction to the spider hall!

Most of the pillars supporting the hall had been blasted to fragments. Many cracks had also appeared in the walls around them. Finally, the overburdened ceiling collapsed amid ear-piercing grinding.

If the Roaring Monster hadn’t stood foremost to use its massive stone body to prop up a small barrier, Greem and his group would have become victims of this disaster.

Yet, by saving the party, the Monster had also exhausted all the elementium energy it had stored within itself. All the stones on its body disintegrated and fell off until it was nothing but a pile of rocks. The Roaring Monster might not have been dead, but there was no chance it could participate in this battle any longer!

Greem and the others eventually climbed out from the debris with great difficulty when a massive silhouette lunged at them from under the rocks. Its piercing spider legs slashed out as it whistled through the air.

Greem didn’t say anything. He immediately leaped away from the spot through the use of his Fire Teleportation.

The more massive Unguja was the first to be hit. One of his heads was severed, and a purple-black fountain of blood sputtered out from the wound. Two spider legs had also impaled his body. Tula held the Demon Hound up in the air, causing Ungala to scream in agony.

The Decayer was also a victim as its defense was the weakest of them all. It had been split in half by Tula’s ferocious fangs and had collapsed into a pile of thick acid goo. The beetle shells and broken limbs of corpses that the Decayer had yet to digest scattered everywhere. It was incredibly disgusting to look at.

With a flash of crimson light, Greem reappeared next to a stalagmite thirty meters away. He then turned and silently looked at Tula, who raised Unguja’s body in a show of might.

A strange creak.

Tula’s two limbs moved slightly and the sharp blades twisted in Unguja’s flesh. The pitch of the three-headed demon hound’s cries shot up sharply.

”How dare you break into my den! Now you know my power!” Even though Tula was viciously punishing Unguja, its several compound eyes stared at Greem without so much as a single blink; the adept seemed to be up to something.

The other enemies in the room were not his opponent. Only this human adept, whose power varied from battle to battle, gave Tula a vague sense of danger; it was a threat of death that frightened the massive spider.

Greem’s massive body was blazing with fire. He remained in the first phase transformation and didn’t attempt to unseal the Flame Fiend’s Heart. Even though his eyes, flashing with a blue light, fixated on the cautious Tula, Greem was rapidly communicating with someone in his mind.

A moment ago, an unexpected mental consciousness came out of nowhere and gently poked at his senses, right when Tula was about to attack him. The first message he received was a warning about Tula’s sneak attack.

Without the warning, Greem would not have been able to sense Tula’s existence immediately after they had just survived being crushed by falling rocks. If Tula had gotten its way, it would have severely injured Greem!

”Now you believe me, don’t you?” The mysterious consciousness continued to communicate with him, ”I helped you, and now you must help me. I don’t need you to do much. Just force that damned old spider thirty meters back, and I will do my best to help you kill it.”

Greem was speechless.

However, this mysterious mental consciousness matched a specific individual in the chip’s data library. If it was indeed that person, everything that was happening could very well be explained.

Greem acted without hesitation after quickly establishing an agreement with the other person.

The Decayer had fallen apart near Tula. Suddenly, a green halo flashed above the Decayer, and two slightly smaller Decayers emerged on the spot. They frantically started spitting acid at Tula.

Greem held his staff in his left hand and the Scroll of Voodoo in his right. A radiant red light appeared amid the sound of flipping pages as a violent Chain of Fireballs crashed towards Tula. This Chain of Fireballs was a spell stored in the Scroll of Voodoo. With staff in hand, Greem simultaneously conjured an explosive fireball that he hurled at Tula.

None of these attacks seemed to have considered Unguja’s wellbeing!

Even if Tula intended to use Unguja to block this wave of spells, he would still be damaged by the ensuing shockwave and explosion.

It already knew that adepts were cold and unfeeling people. Trying to threaten them with their ’subordinates’ was a purely suicidal act. That was why Tula’s six other limbs swiftly moved and carried its body back away from the spells. At the same time that it retreated, Tula raised its legs and threw the badly wounded Unguja at the explosive fireball flying towards them.

Usually, Tula would have charged ahead and braved the attacks to engage Greem in a close range fight. That was its terrifying combat style that it had honed after hundreds of years. Suffering a small wound for a chance to murder the enemy was worth the trade.

However, Tula was deathly afraid of the powerful grimoire Greem had in his hand.

A grimoire that could instantly discharge so many potent spells was likely a magical item. Before Tula figured out how many spells remained in that book, it would never risk its life!

Moreover, the sudden active stance that the human adept was taking gave Tula a sense of danger. It had a vague feeling that there was a plot hidden behind the adept’s actions.

As expected, the human adept immediately disappeared in a flash of fire right after he fired that series of attacks.

Fire Teleportation!

Dammit, where did he intend to teleport to?

Would he go to support that elementium golem’s attacks, or would he rush over for a melee?

Tula raised its four front limbs high up as unease and confusion filled its heart. It then slashed at every inch of space around it with the four sharp limbs. At the same time, it used its other legs to retreat and quickly distance itself from its original position.

At the same moment its massive body was retreating, a pile of rocks at the edge of the cave blew apart. A slender figure dashed out and lunged towards Tula’s thick shell.

More enemies?

The sudden appearance of this enemy scared Tula out of its wits.

It shook its body frantically and tried to shake the enemy away. However, the opponent didn’t seem to care about the injury. They got all the way up to its back and jumped at Tula’s head while ignoring the damage Tula’s thick hair was dealing to their tender skin.

Demon-Hunting Spider Tula was shocked!

It barely managed to turn its head sideways, yet the first thing it saw was a pair of eyes shining with a frightening glow.