Age of Adepts

Neeeiiigh!

A tragic and drawn out neigh rang out as the handsome Skysteed King fell from the skies, shrouded in a cloak of black smoke.

The sizzling sound of corroding flesh could be heard from its body as it crashed.

Everyone on the battlefield was smart enough to see that the Skysteed King’s odds were slim!

Even though defeat was inevitable and meaningless slaughter was the only thing that awaited them, the remaining pegasi refused to retreat.

They were not fighting right now; they were stalling for time.

As long as they could drag out the battle until the elven army arrived, these enemies would immediately retreat.

They had to protect the irreplaceable magic spring, even if they all had to sacrifice themselves for that cause.

Their thoughts were pure and noble.

However, trying to deal with the adepts using such a mindset was overestimating their abilities.

Now that the Skysteed King had been eliminated, Third Grade Dark Witch Uzzah had become an unstoppable blade on the battlefield!

Uzzah had also been slightly injured in her fight against the Skysteed King, but the morale of victory allowed her to regather her spirit and lead the other Second Grade adepts in exterminating the remaining Second Grade Skysteeds.

With a Third Grade Dark Witch watching the lines and restraining their movements, no Skysteed was able to escape, even with their terrifying speed of flight. A single Prison of Darkness from Uzzah would bind a Skysteed to the spot. Greem would then order Dragonborn Zacha and Tigule’s Goblin Shredder to surround and beat the Skysteed.

A Second Grade Skysteed couldn’t possibly deal with the brutal melee attacks of these two giants, even with their decent Physique.

One after another, the Second Grade Skysteeds were knocked unconscious and captured alive. They were all transported onto the flying ship.

It had only been twenty minutes since the start of the battle!

When the number of pegasi left in the sky numbered in the single digits, Uzzah finally hurried out of the air along with a few of her subordinates. They lunged straight at the center of the magic spring lake.

The statue of a pegasus rearing as if it was about to take flight silently stood at the heart of the lake.

The eternal spring water came from the mouth of that statue.

The magic spring water wasn’t crucial to the Dark Witches. What was important to them was this pegasus statue.

Simply smashing away its base and taking it away was a wasteful act. It was very likely that doing so would instead destroy the mysterious powers of this statue.

Thus, the witches had to cast a complete sealing spell to take the statue away with them.

Uzzah could not be interrupted while she was sealing the statue. After she started channeling the spell, she would also lose all of her ability to sense the external world. Greem and the others would have to protect her if it came down to it!

Dark Witch Uzzah nodded slightly at Greem before diving into the magic spring with three of her Dark Witches. They needed to uncover the mystery of the stone statue as soon as possible and then proceed to seal it completely.

Meanwhile, a Second Grade Dark Witch landed atop the statue and shut her eyes to focus on protecting her superior.

Greem and Mary left some instructions and had Zacha, Tigule, the vampires, and the adepts remain on the spot. The two of them then hurried in the direction of the elven garrison without any hesitation.

Mary and Greem were both Second Grade now, but their styles of combat were utterly distinct from each other.

Even the way they traveled had very distinctive traits.

Mary’s bat wings were not fully opened behind her back, and her body glided rapidly three meters above the ground like a speedy dragonfly. A light crimson trail followed her wherever she went, only dispersing after a long time.

Meanwhile, Greem didn’t choose to fly!

He was a classic fire adept. His mastery over Fly could never compare to other adepts.

Thus, he forged a new path of his own, researching and inventing this new way of travel using his Fire Teleportation and Flame Transformation as the basis of the spell.

His body turned into a formless blaze of fire whenever Fire Teleportation was on cooldown. This blaze of fire floated half a meter above the ground and used the propulsion of hot flame streams to move forward quickly. Once Fire Teleportation was ready, this ball of fire would abruptly explode into a fire halo, before reappearing in a specific position in front. The ball of fire would then continue blasting forward.

That was how Greem traveled: propulsion, Fire Teleportation, propulsion again, then Fire Teleportation again.

When used in a constant cycle, his speed was not much slower than Mary’s!

However, this method of travel also left behind marks that were far too obvious.

Anyone that looked down from high above the skies would clearly see a chain of black pearls along Greem’s trail. The pearls were the circular burn marks caused by the blast of fire when using Fire Teleportation, while the streams of flame he used to propel himself left shocking trails of ash upon the green plains.

The two adepts ran into the elven army reinforcements fifteen kilometers away from the magic spring.

It seemed the elves had left behind the slow infantry to increase their marching speed. As such, all the soldiers that the two of them had run into were air cavalry. Surprisingly, the one leading them at the very front was a beautiful elf riding upon a Second Grade green dragon.

Greem revealed himself in a ferocious pillar of flames. The blaze of fire quickly formed into a five-meter tall flame humanoid, subtly sealing off the path forward for the elves.

Greem used his unique vision to look around him before nodding in satisfaction.

Very good, no Third Grades.

They had already investigated the elven army before they attacked the magic spring. There were no Third Grade powerhouses around here. That said, he had been worried that the elven kingdom would have been alert enough to increase the number of high-grade personnel during such a time of crisis. That was why Greem’s priority upon appearing was to search for the existence of a Third Grade powerhouse.

Now that there were none, the battle today could commence.

If there had been a Third Grade, Greem would not have been as foolish as to risk his life for the sake of the Dark Witches. He would have hightailed it and ran as far as he could. He wouldn’t ever use his own life to test the strength of a Third Grade elf.

A Third Grade elf might be weak, but that was only relative to a Third Grade adept.

An elf of that level would have no problem dealing with a Second Grade adept!

As such, Greem instantly found the courage within himself when he sealed the path and found no Third Grades amongst the enemy’s ranks.

”Leave the green dragon and that elven brat to me. The rest is yours!”

Greem spared no words or time and quickly divided the enemy between Mary and himself.

Mary might have shocking short-distance flight speed, but her flaw of weak offensive power would be on clear display against a tough and sturdy opponent like the green dragon. It seemed like Greem was being unfair by claiming only two enemies for himself while leaving nearly a hundred aerial knights to Mary.

However, in truth, he had only made a decision based on their respective strengths!

Mary knew this very well and chuckled as she turned into a crimson cloud and threw herself into the midst of her enemies.

”Ah!”

”Careful!”

”There…”

”Dodge, quick!”

For a moment, grunts of pain rang out amidst the elven knights. It was only now that the elves realized that these two mysterious adepts had appeared to ambush them.

”You two are mine.”

The flame humanoid Greem had turned into possessed a loud and resounding voice due to its size.

Both the green dragon and the beautiful female elf on its back changed expressions upon hearing this. An expression of intense humiliation and anger appeared on their faces.

”You are courting death!” The beautiful female elf extended her slender hand and grabbed the strange elven longbow on her back, ”Oridela, we will teach him a lesson!”

The ferocious green dragon reared its head and roared. It then beat its mighty green wings and dove toward Greem.

It was the combination of an elven deadshot and a green dragon!

Greem’s large eyes froze for a second as they fell upon the longbow in the elf’s hands.

The green dragon and the female elf were already putting immense pressure upon him. However, if he were honest, even the spiritual pressure of these two enemies combined could not compare to the pressure from the longbow!

Greem felt a chill in his heart when the female elf nocked an arrow and drew the bow. Even from two hundred meters away, he could sense that dreadful pressure from the longbow.

The Chip quickly identified the bow through a trace of energy flux that it had leaked. A report soon appeared in his mind.

[Beep. Warning. Warning. Detecting high-energy convergent weapon.

Form: Bow.

Means of attack: energy-shaping, energy compression, energy enhancement.

Attacked offensive effect: out-of-order conveyance strike.

Basic offensive power: 200-300points.

Note: according to the laws of the Faen Plane, this weapon might be classified as a pseudo-artifact.]

Pseudo-Artifact?

Even Greem’s heart couldn’t help but tremble when he heard these words.

The Staff of Divination that Alice was always dreaming about also seemed to be a pseudo-artifact. The Second Grade elf that had appeared before him was also holding a pseudo-artifact in her hands.

Dammit! Aren’t there too many pseudo-artifacts on this plane?

In the World of Adepts, the adepts had classified magical equipment into four grades based on their compatibility with the adepts of those grades: First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, and Fourth Grade. The so-called pseudo-artifact of Faen Plane was of the same tier as Fourth Grade magical equipment.

However, in the World of Adepts, a Fourth Grade magical equipment would never fall into the hands of a low-grade adept!

Even if a low-grade adept had been fortunate enough to obtain high-grade magical equipment, they would not be able to hold it for long. In fact, the gear would easily draw death toward them.

Meanwhile, the existence of gods on Faen caused the chances of mortals obtaining high-grade weapons to be significantly higher. Followers who were favored by the gods could easily be rewarded by the gods for all sorts of reasons.

Thus, several low-end pseudo-artifacts were created in this manner!