Age of Adepts

Outside of the town was chaos by now.

The surging sea of black insects was like a fearsome beast that devoured everything in its path. The insects immediately crawled all over any elf that fell into their midst before drowning the elf and turning them into a struggling pile of insects.

What was even more terrifying was the utter lack of any defensive structures around the elven villages and towns. Those loose fences were of absolutely no defensive use apart from defining the range of the elves’ activity.

If the elves could build tall and durable walls like the humans could, they might have been able to slow down the speed of the insects’ advance temporarily. However, an exposed elven town like the one right now would become the victim of the black insects’ reckless, devouring expansion.

Many elves living on the edge of the town were forced into the trees by the swarming insects.

Before they could calm down and regain their breath, several lightning-fast black silhouettes and a cluster of crimson clouds engulfed them.

There were some combat professions with decent strength amongst these elves. They had no room to dodge or run in the face of the magical mantises and the bloodsucking bats. Their only option was to put their lives on the line and trade blows with the enemy. Sadly, be it the magical mantises or the bloodsucking bats, they were never the type to lament their losses.

That was why the elven warriors with excellent sword skills, and the elven bowmen with perfect accuracy, were knocked down from the trees by the magical mantises in this chaotic battle before they could even unleash a hundredth of their real power.

The only thing that could be seen from a distance was a black flood surging into the border of the elven town. All elven warriors that stood in their way erupted with inner-power aura of different colors, but they were all quickly engulfed by the swarm. Only the elven bowmen could bounce and roam about between the trees and occasionally fire one or two powerful shots into the sea of insects.

Sadly, these stragglers couldn’t survive for much longer either. They were quickly caught up by the groups of magical mantises and exterminated one by one.

The edge of the town had been thrown into complete disorder.

As the female elf captain made it halfway there, she happened to run into the elves that were fleeing and retreating.

It had only been less than five minutes of battle, but it seemed as if these elves had experienced years and years of trauma. Their faces were pale, and their spirits were clearly shaken. There was nothing in their eyes except for fear.

The female elf captain was a beginner Second Grade. Upon seeing the urgency of the situation, she immediately grabbed onto a vine and leaped onto a tall tree. She then took out three elven arrows carved with strange magical patterns from her quiver. Beng! Beng! Beng! With three consecutive snaps of her bowstring, three enchanted explosive arrows flew into the black insect sea in a triangle.

The next moment, violent explosive shockwaves spread out, again and again, quickly engulfing the front of the black insect sea into its carnage.

It immediately reduced the speed of the swarm’s advance.

Three visible openings had appeared at the front of the swarm!

Ordinary elven arrows had lost all their previous effectiveness against such a dense swarm of insects. Instead, it was the violent but straightforward explosive arrows that could better deliver area damage. However, when the female elf captain reached into her quiver once again, she frowned at the number of arrows that she could feel.

There were still thirty of those ordinary elven arrows, but there were only two enchanted explosive arrows left!

These enchanted arrows with tremendous power could only be crafted by a small number of elven casters in the elven kingdom. That was why even a garrison captain like herself only carried with her five enchanted arrows. If she were to use all of them here, she would not have time to go back to the tree hall to replenish her ammunition.

At any rate, Quel’Lithien Lodge was a small elven town and had no more than thirty enchanted arrows stored in its warehouses. That was not even close to enough to deal with the situation before them.

While the captain hesitated, a black human silhouette quickly swelled into shape from the sea of insects in a street corner. After forming his body with the swarm, Bug Adept Billis looked through the trees and branches at the Second Grade elven deadshot.

The opponent was a Second Grade. It was already far beyond the limits of what he could hunt.

As per their previous agreement, Billis’ mission was to drive the swarm forward, smash through all of the town’s defenses, and trap the elves inside the sea of insects. Meanwhile, those elves of Second Grade and above would all be left to Mary and her bloodsucking bats.

That was why Billis did not show himself after spotting the Second Grade elf, choosing instead to wait in silence.

Under his wordless instructions, the black sea of insects ignored the damage from the explosive arrows and continued to surge forward after a momentary pause. His magical mantises also left behind black afterimages as they slipped past the Second Grade elven deadshot and bounded toward the center of town.

The captain, who could see everything happening on the battlefield, was infuriated at this.

Her body shot out like lightning as she quickly flashed from tree to tree. The elven arrows in her hands were like beams of magical electricity, quickly striking at the backs of the mantises.

One of the magical mantises didn’t manage to dodge in time and was pierced through its chest by an elven arrow and pinned to a thick branch.

With their tremendous life force, such a small wound would not be able to kill them!

This magical mantis struggled with all it had and slowly pulled the arrow out of its body.

Just then, the female elf captain had managed to catch up. The elven arrows spilled out of her bow like a torrent. In an instant, the triangular head of the mantis, along with its chest and abdominal sac had all been punctured by the arrows.

It struggled desperately for a moment more before finally dying of its grievous wounds!

In the window of these few seconds, the other magical mantises had charged even further toward the tree hall at the center of the town, utterly unfazed by the death of their companion.

The female captain’s expression turned. Her body bent down slightly as she prepared to give chase.

However, at that very moment, several shrieks rang out from behind her. Enemies that could genuinely threaten her had finally arrived!

The captain stood atop the towering tree. A single look around her under the illumination of the chilling moonlight allowed her to identify the few unique silhouettes that had enveloped her.

The ones that had appeared from her north, south, and east were three human knights in strange crimson armor.

Their bodies were all supple and muscular. Their gazes were cold and wicked. A crimson cape with black underneath billowed behind all of their backs in the night winds.

They might look the same as humans on the outside, but the female elf captain knew very well that they were nowhere close to humans. That was because she had a very clear view of what had occurred earlier. These adversaries had all transformed from some strange giant bats.

The captain slowly turned around and faced the beautiful and seductive woman. The woman was slowly descending from the skies, taking small steps as a pair of gray bat wings softly flapped behind her back.

The captain’s spirits went adrift for a moment.

She never knew a woman could look so wickedly seductive.

Her perfect and delicate face, her explosive figure, her human-like yet unhuman-like features, her passionate, blood-crimson eyes; the female captain had no choice but to admit that this woman was just as terrifyingly beautiful in her eyes; so beautiful that it broke her heart.

Charming magic?

The female elf captain quickly woke up after her momentary daze.

This time, she finally saw through the opponent’s pretty appearance for her true nature!

Second Grade…the opponent was a Second Grade as well!

No; the female captain looked all around her and was shocked to find that all these subordinates of the witch that had surrounded her were Second Grade!

There was nothing to be discussed between elf and witch.

The two merely paused for a moment before breaking out into a battle without hesitation.

Perhaps because she realized that Mary was the leader of this group of individuals, the female elf captain ignored all the attacks launched at her from the three Blood Knights while choosing to focus all her firepower on this pretty witch with a natural ability to charm people.

Both sides were fighting fire with fire, exchanging blows as quick as they could, and turning and moving under the moonlight above the canopy like a set of revolving doors.

As their silhouettes were moving too fast, their afterimages were being drawn all across the canopy, especially when seen from afar. The crisp clash of metal upon metal also rang out far into the woods.

As a Second Grade elven deadshot, the captain also knew all sorts of archery techniques aside from using enchanted explosive arrows. She knew how to infuse arrows with magic, how to guide her shots, and how to fire volleys of arrows. In the mere millimeters of space when dodging attacks, the longbow’s string in the captain’s hand would tremble in succession, sending several bolts into parts of the Blood Knights’ armor that left them exposed.

Sadly, it was only after wasting nearly half of her arrows that the female captain discovered that her opponents were undying monsters. These fiends were still fighting with all their strength even with an arrow through the brain or throat.

They would casually pull out the arrow, snap it in half, and toss it aside.

The horrifying wounds left behind by the arrows would heal as layers of crimson halos spread across them, repairing them to their original state.

Dammit, these monsters had absolutely no weaknesses! This…how was she supposed to kill them?

Just then, massive magical fireworks shot into the air above the central tree hall of the town. It exploded into pretty lights high up in the sky. From a distance, two hippogryphs could be seen howling as they took to the skies and carried the elven bowmen on their backs rapidly toward Skywater City.

A call for help had finally been sent out from Quel’Lithien Lodge!

Yet at this point, it had only been no more than seven minutes since Quel’Lithien was attacked.

Still, these mere seven minutes already felt like torturous decades to the elves!

Mary took the opportunity of her three Blood Knights stalling the female captain to transform into a bloody red mist. She then charged to the captain’s side and engulfed her in the mist.

Both parties fought all-out inside the dense mist of blood. Two massive fireballs exploded in the cloud of blood, following several furious warcries and the explosive snap of a bowstring.

A short moment later, Mary beat her bat wings and slowly ascended into the skies. She had one hand on the captain’s waist, while her other rested upon the captain’s head as she greedily leaned against her neck and sucked her blood.

The two massive wounds on Mary’s shoulder and right leg were quickly healing under the flashing crimson halos.

Flooding the enemy with numbers and striking her with their fastest speed. It would be no issue taking down the female elf without any damage as long as Mary was patient.

However, they were in enemy territory and every extra second in this place increased the chance of variables popping up. That was why Mary intentionally betrayed a weakness and baited the enemy into using the last two enchanted explosive arrows against her. This way, Mary was able to capture the brief instant where the enemy let loose her shot to break through her defenses, arrive at her side, and capture her.

Mary forcefully sucked the sweet blood from the captain’s body, while also silently feeding back into the elf a trace of her blood essence. Under Mary’s powerful control, this sliver of blood essence flowed along the captain’s circulatory system and slowly seeped into her brain.

There, the blood essence gradually morphed into an undetectable microscopic blood cocoon and trapped part of the mind in there.

As this area of her brain became locked away, the female elf captain fell into a coma, but her body still trembled uncontrollably. A strange crimson rune slowly appeared on her forehead between her eyes.