Age of Adepts

The flying ship slowly glided above the cloud layers.

Several dozen metal eyeballs the size of human heads floated above the forest beneath, spouting faint blue light behind them. They wove between the dense canopy and winding vines, constantly shooting out faint red lasers to scan for every suspicious shadow in the woods.

Any opponents with life signs would have a hard time escaping the scans and senses of these metal eyeballs with the inspection runes and infrared rays embedded within them. With them as assistants, the adepts would have a perfect grasp of the situation on the ground, even if they were high in the sky.

The giant, magic-energy mechanical body of the metal eyeballs did not appear to be outfitted with any offensive weapons. However, if enemies ever attacked them, all they had to do was increase the energy level of the infrared ray, and the scan would rapidly turn into a heat ray.

The heat ray, possessing less than thirty points of power, might not be enough to deal with those high-grade magical beasts. However, it was more than enough to deal with ordinary forest creatures.

Thus, the red heat ray sizzled and repeatedly hissed throughout the journey. Every single red flash meant an insignificant life had crossed into death: lizards, goats, wolves, owls, pigeons. These harmless forest creatures had met a true calamity of extermination this time. The passing metal eyeballs instantly killed the animals, though they had barely understood the situation.

The metal eyeballs were like the bloodiest, cold-hearted, and despicable of assassins. They didn’t spare any lifeform that had body heat or life signs. They advanced in groups of three, forming a wide yet strict net of slaughter, clearing the way along a fixed path and murdering all lifeforms they sensed along the journey.

Under the bloody slaughter of the metal eyeballs, the more alert forest creatures had no choice but to run out of their hiding spots in the caves, tree trunks, and tunnels to flee into the depths of the forest. Those who were slightly too slow all lost their lives to the fearsome heat rays.

It was an area near the shoreline. According to the information that Greem had obtained, there should be a small elven village nearby.

However, as outsiders, it was still challenging to find a well-hidden elven village in the forest, even with Tymo’s guidance. Greem had no choice but to use such a startling method to force out the elves.

They had suffered a tremendous loss on the west coast. The adepts had lost a witch, while the other severely wounded witch would need time to recover her combat ability, even though they had finally saved her after extensive care. As such, Greem was brimming with anger. He couldn’t wait to find these elves and massacre the lot of them.

He stood within the flying ship, high above the clouds. The several dozen light screens before his eyes constantly flashed with different scenes, displaying everything happening within the forest below in its entirety.

Every time the metal eyeballs discovered a magical beast or plant that was too difficult to deal with, Greem would immediately use the communication device at his side to contact Tigule, who was trailing behind the eyeballs. Three magical machine warriors would move out to deal with these troubles that had suddenly appeared.

It didn’t matter how strange or powerful these magical forest beasts and plants were. None of them could withstand the barrage of metal bullets and the heat of magical fires. They quickly fell to the guns of these magical machine warriors.

Finally, with the appearance of a small stampede, Greem realized something was wrong.

An antelope and a brown bear had been mixed within the stampede and were frantically escaping into the distance. Strangely enough, despite how they ran and fled, the two animals never seemed to scatter or leave each other.

”Hmph! Those transforming druids again!” Greem laughed coldly before giving out a series of orders.

The net of metal eyeballs made a slight turn and silently missed the position of the antelope and the brown bear as they turned toward another direction. Yet, in the shadows where the enemy had no eyes, a sting scorpion hiding in the ground and a red-eyed bat had secretly reached behind them.

Once the antelope and brown bear had left the danger area, they gathered together and muttered to each other. The antelope then continued chasing behind the metal eyeballs, observing the situation from a distance. On the other hand, the brown bear turned and rushed into the forest, hurrying somewhere in the distance without looking back.

When evening fell, the sting scorpion and the old fox Vanlier simultaneously sent out messages from the distance.

They had finally found elven cottages!

Without hesitation, the flying ship descended from the cloud layer. It retrieved the metal eyeballs and magical machine warriors, rose into the clouds once more, and vanished without a trace under cover of night.

The cautious antelope seemed to have sensed something was wrong. It immediately turned and ran in the direction of the elven cottages.

…………

The elven cottages.

It was an elven village neighboring the shoreline.

The village wasn’t large. Only a hundred or so elves lived here.

There were no wooden or stone buildings of ornate design here. There were only small wooden huts and platforms constructed upon the branches of the tall ancient trees. The treehouses were extremely crude and simple. However, suspension bridges made of vines and wooden planks connected each and every treehouse.

When breezes blew across the forest and the vine bridges swayed in the air, the flowers and grass upon them would wave about in a breathtaking display of beauty.

Due to the low population of the village, they had no ability to rear large magical beasts or savage magical plants. Consequently, the town’s garrison was made up of flower fairies, blade dancers, and elven archers. Even the only two beginner druids had only chosen to stay here because they were born here.

Night had fallen. Female Elf Captain Lyfaea stood upon the wooden platform the elves used for archery training, situated upon the highest ancient tree in the village. She silently looked to the horizon.

Lyfaea slowly walked toward the edge of the platform. She shut her eyes and used all of her mind’s power to sense for the message from afar.

It was the home of the elves.

Every blade of grass, every twig, every flower, every fruit, and even very tree, vine, and animal were known to Lyfaea. She could call their names and engage them in friendly conversation. No one could catch the elves in the forest, for all plants and animals in the woods were their companions. They would help the elves destroy all traces of their existence and become the ubiquitous eyes of the elves.

For example, Lyfaea was standing in the wind right now with her eyes shut. However, she could still vaguely sense everything happening within a radius of several kilometers.

The woods would warn her if danger ever descended. The animals would let out strange calls, and even the rustling of ancient trees’ leaves would tell her the information she needed.

For some reason, today, a feeling of danger lingered in her heart. Still, she was utterly unable to sense where the threat was coming from.

A violent and terrifying aura had come from the forest in the south during the day.

Out of security concerns, Lyfaea had sent the only two druids in the village there to scout. According to Syd Sharpfang, who had returned from his mission, a horde of strange and evil monsters seemed to have appeared there. The monsters were madly slaughtering their animal friends in the forest.

Their numbers were many, and they were reasonably powerful as well. That was why the two druids could only hide in the shadows, silently observing and tracking, but never daring to appear before the monsters to chase them away.

As night fell, Lyfaea sent another two flower fairies to reinforce the other druid out of concern. Still, no news had returned.

That was what Lyfaea was most worried about.

”Sister Lyfaea, Sister Lyfaea.”

Two young elven teenagers–one boy and one girl–ran to Lyfaea’s side while she was at her most concerned.

”Sister Lyfaea, come and take a look at this! I finally managed to hit two willow leaves earlier.”

The teenage elven girl pulled at Lyfaea’s arm and shook it. She raised an elven arrow that she was holding in her hand. Two thin willow leaves were impaled upon the elven arrow.

”So what if you just hit two willow leaves. Sis Lyfaea, look at me, I hit three leaves.” The other elven teenager also raised an arrow happily. Three leaves were impaled upon this one.

The elvish girl immediately pouted and glared at the boy.

For the elves who were naturally adept at archery, shooting stationary targets was something that only children did. The most essential condition for anyone who sought to become an elven archer was to pierce through five light willow leaves with a single arrow.

The fact that these two little kids could shoot through two and three leaves was already quite impressive!

Lyfaea put on a wry smile and extended her hands to rub their silky smooth, short green hair. She was just about to say something encouraging when she realized her eyes had gone dark. It was almost as if the entire world had turned dim.

The female elf captain raised her head in surprise.

It was only now that she realized the bright and brilliant disc of the moon hanging in the skies seemed to have been obscured by something, causing the entire village to lose the brilliant shine of the moonlight.

Naturally, with her eagle-like vision, Lyfaea could see everything clearly.

It wasn’t because of clouds. Instead, it was a massive metal ship descending from the skies; its target was the elven cottages beneath.

The appearance and models of the enemy were just like the fearsome and evil monsters that Syd Sharpfang had described!

It was an enemy assault.

Multiple four-meter tall magical machines encased in strange metallic shells descending from the skies by metal ropes amidst panicked cries. They landed all over the elven village with dull thuds.

The next second, whistling barrages of bullets shot toward every moving lifeform in the place. Goblin rockets howled as they flew toward every treehouse, dragging behind them foot-long trails of fire as they went on a rampage.

A series of explosions and ringing sounds echoed throughout the elven village. A storm of blood and fury instantly engulfed this peaceful paradise!