Age of Adepts

It was like a performance with perfect teamwork.

Mary, who had been looking coldly elsewhere, suddenly twisted her body. She perfectly dodged the sudden strike from the mysterious dagger and appeared within that stretch of shadow.

Her fingers moved like blades as she flicked them, gently piercing into a living body.

A pained grunt rang out as warm, red blood started bleeding out of the cracked bark. At the same time, there was a light peeling sound as a slender figure peeled off of the bark. As the elven cape split apart, the trademark and delicate face of a female elf was revealed.

Even though this face was extremely contorted due to agony, it was still as pretty as ever. In fact, the elf’s current expression could invoke sympathy in most people.

Mary’s right hand, still infused with incredible amounts of blood energy, had penetrated the elf’s chest. She had a gentle grasp over the still-beating heart of the pretty elf.

”Ignore me; kill…kill this…demon!” Blood streaked down the corner of the injured elf’s mouth as she screamed with all her might.

The hidden snap of bowstrings rained down in the shadows of the surrounding woods.

Several enchanted arrows shot toward Mary from every direction.

However, regardless of how fast the arrows were, they could not catch up with Mary’s extreme agility.

After advancing to Second Grade, Mary’s Agility had already reached a shocking twenty-six points. That was an entire two times more than the Agility of these strange elves. The high Agility not only gave Mary surprising jumping ability and lightning speed, but also a stunning reflex.

One could genuinely say that everything within Mary’s vision was moving at a slower pace, so much so that they were even at a standstill! As long as she wanted to, she could stab a dagger into an elf’s heart while they were still drawing their bow at her, then casually returned to her original spot and wait for the arrow to fly over.

Mary had seldom used her crimson longbow since advancing to Second Grade. It wasn’t because the might of the bow was too insignificant. It was because the speed of her arrow was simply far too slow. Rather than wait for the bolt to reach the enemy, why not just stab into the opponent’s heart or throat with her hands? That was far more exhilarating and simple.

That was why Mary could spare the effort to crush the elf’s heart and walk through the rain of arrows in the face of the barrage. Mary reached out with her hand and plucked away some of the more annoying arrows before flashing ten meters away to a patch of dense brambles, gently slashing the throat of an invisible person, and then blinking away once again.

Mary’s movements looked as strange as those of a phantom’s in the eyes of those elves.

One moment Mary had been twenty meters away, the next she was wiping at the throat of a companion beside her, then the next she appeared in a different area, flicking a crimson arrow at another elf’s eye.

Flashing, disappearing, flickering, disappearing, and flickering again.

The process and actions in-between could not be captured at all. The only thing that the slow dynamic vision of the elves could catch was the 0.01 seconds where Mary paused before killing.

As the dense barrage of arrows smacked against the ancient trees and embedded themselves into their trunks, six fountains of blood simultaneously burst forth into the empty air graced by the moonlight. Six elves whose wide-open eyes, filled with utter disbelief and horror, collapsed without a sound. Their soft bodies rolled on the emerald-green grass of the forest.

With the death of the elves, the elven capes they draped around them lost their Moonstalking Stealth ability as well; their true faces were finally exposed to the vampires.

Uniform leather armor and dark-green capes. Pretty faces and slender ears. The short green hair and delicate crossbows, along with daggers, flying claws, and throwing knives at the waist was the appearance of an assassin.

The elves also had assassins?

A loud gale sped through the forest in Mary’s moment of thought.

A fast and cold wind struck toward Mary’s back.

The cold wind was sharp and chilling; it appeared to be a small, sharp weapon.

The forest was once again filled with flickering silhouettes as multiple afterimages rapidly flashed all over the place. The sounds of clashing metal rang out continuously and in succession.

The new opponent was a Second Grade fighter among these odd elves. She also specialized as a high-agility assassin. The phantasmal silhouette the Moonlight Goddess bestowed upon her ensured that the only thing that ordinary people saw would be her afterimages.

Outsiders would die to her incomparably sharp daggers without ever touching her sleeves when she used such a practical and straightforward ability, particularly with her exceptional Agility.

It was a shame; truly a shame!

The twenty-one agility points of this odd elf were utterly put to shame by Mary’s twenty-six points. Her footsteps could not even keep up with Mary’s shadows. Mary also seemed to possess the ability to distinguish between the elf’s real form and afterimages. That caused all of the elf’s prided abilities to be no more than bubbles before her.

The two assassins quickly jumped through the forest, switching between twenty to thirty battlefields in a mere matter of ten seconds.

The conclusion of the battle was seven claw marks on the elf’s body and not a scratch on Mary. One of the claw marks even viciously tore apart the right side of her delicate, beautiful face.

As the two separated from each other after their ferocious bout, three more stealthed elves collapsed in the forest without a sound. A bloody hole existed where their throats and hearts were, without any exception. Crimson blood stained the grass beneath them.

The odd elf flickered and moved into a shade in the forest, her eyes burning with the fires of fury. She glared murderously at the female vampire casually standing upon a soft branch.

Resentment and anger filled her heart, but she knew very well that the difference between them was far too large. It was so massive that it was impossible to compensate for it with numbers!

The enemy was Second Grade. She was Second Grade as well.

However, there was a tremendous difference, even between Second Grades!

After all, the opponent was a Second Grade witch from the World of Adepts, while she was only a Second Grade experimental task force created through the combined efforts of the elven kingdom and the Moonlight Temple. Both parties were not even on the same technical level when it came to bodily attributes or the skill of utilizing those individual abilities.

If the enemy was said to be a ferocious lone wolf filled with scars and memories of countless bloody battles, then she was a little bunny armed to the teeth.

Even armed with a full set of armor and sharp weapons, the victor of a clash between them had to be the wolf.

There was no complicated reason for it. One was a natural predator, while the other was only a herbivore that wanted to scare away the enemy. Their status was determined the moment they were born. No outside factors could change that fact.

The fires of anger in the elven leader’s eyes slowly faded after a momentary stand-off. She reluctantly accepted her defeat and silently gave the order to retreat.

As a whistle rang out in the woods, the odd elves hiding in various corners of the forest promptly escaped in every direction. The enemy, whose leader also had frightening movement speed, had already seen through their invisibility. Fighting any longer would only cause them to be wiped out.

The previously serene forest immediately became populated by moving shadows as countless phantasmal silhouettes floated through the woods, confusing the eyes of any witnesses.

The three blood knights gripped their runic longswords and prepared to give chase. However, they were momentarily stunned by the scene before them and had no idea in which direction they should pursue. They could only remain on the spot and listen carefully to the pitiful cries that rang out one after another in the forest until, finally, there was only deathly silence.

As they froze on the spot in confusion, Mary casually stepped out of the shadows of the trees, her lax hands still dripping with sweet and viscous blood.

Mary had trouble stopping the leader of those elves from escaping when she was only focused on that, even when she went all out. As such, Mary wasted no time on the leader and chose to slaughter the other elves rapidly.

Clearly, her harvest was plentiful as well!

”Go collect the corpses of those elves. I want to examine them again.”

Having said that, Mary proudly returned to her temporary base.

The aura and dominance of the Bloody Queen were no more obvious than at this very moment!

A short moment later, twenty-three elf corpses were spread out in a row on the empty field where the base was located. A few of the vampire higher-ups were moving around and examining them.

Finally, after hearing the feedback of some of the blood elves, Old Fox Vanlier returned to Mary’s side and delivered his report by her ear.

The Undermoon Assassins.

What the heck is that?

Mary waved the blood elves over and delved into more thorough questioning. It was only now that she figured out what this strange elven force was.

Of course, this was a force belonging to the Moonlight Temple.

The elven kingdom chose elven rangers with exceptional abilities and sent them to the Moonlight Temple. They then became loyal believers of the Moonlight Goddess and were blessed with powers, thus giving birth to this very different elven combat force– the Undermoon Assassins!

This operation compensated for the elven kingdom’s awkward lack of powerful assassins!

The Undermoon Assassins possessed exceptional individual technique. Every single elf was the very best at traditional archery techniques and close range fighting. Add to that the abilities bestowed upon them by the Moonlight Goddess, such as Moonstalking Stealth, Moonshade Clone, and many others, and the Undermoon Assassins possessed the fundamentals to become top assassins of the Faen Plane.

The only thing they lacked was likely practical combat experience and the grinding of their fighting will!

The debut of the Undermoon Assassins this time had undoubtedly been a disaster.

That was because they chose for themselves a hellish opponent for their very first operation– Bloody Queen Mary.

Though the Second Grade leader of the Undermoon Assassins was of the same grade as Mary, she was utterly inferior to the vampire, be it in terms of personal technique or god-given abilities.

Mary had practically crushed this proud Second Grade elf without any resistance!