Age of Adepts

Three days later.

The public arena of the Rhein Adept’s Tower.

News of the duel between the Kamala Clan and Crimson Clan had already spread all over the tower. It had become the most popular topic of conversation for the people.

As internal information about the two clans was slowly revealed, more and more people started to understand the story behind this duel.

The Kamala Clan had a powerful Third Grade adept!

Death Heralding Crow Yurga. In the central region, this terrifying name could even stop the cries of an infant and put a halt to an adept’s step.

Yurga might not be the most powerful of the Third Grade adepts in the central region, but his fearsome death beams made him a terrifying figure that even other Third Grades didn’t dare to provoke for no reason.

Yurga could kill anyone and anything in his way if he activated the Death Gaze effect of his death beams. He was practically an elite Third Grade adept!

On the other side, the Crimson Clan was a newly risen adept clan. No Third Grade adepts registered with the Association had appeared within the clan yet. It was highly likely that the Crimson Clan would have to challenge Third Grade Yurga with a Second Grade adept.

Challenging a Third Grade with a Second Grade; was there even any purpose to a duel like this?

Perhaps the Crimson Clan would immediately surrender and hand over large quantities of magical crystals as compensation for the Kamala’s losses. Or maybe they would send out Bug Adept Billis and use his death to end this meaningless farce!

Despite all the chatter, no adept cried out for the obvious injustice that the Crimson Clan was facing.

The physical might of a clan was truly a portion of the clan’s power, but was its soft influence not as well?

The Crimson Clan had always strong-armed their way through all their problems since their establishment. They had never attempted to socialize or win the favor of the Zhentarim Association. The fact that they ran into a wall in this scenario was not beyond the expectations of the adepts.

Apart from raising their strength, adept clans in the central region also had to establish a good relationship with the Association. It was best if they could find one or two Association elders who could represent the welfare of their clan. That was the only way to ensure the successful development and growth of a clan.

However, the clan leader of the Crimson Clan was a rookie. He had not only failed to find someone to rely on but had even offended the elders of the Association on some issues.

The so-called Association elders were all prominent figures at Fourth Grade. Naturally, they wouldn’t go through the extra effort to make trouble for a Second Grade adept. However, several unexpected problems had still found their way to the Crimson Clan because of this strained relationship, causing them to have a difficult time dealing with it all.

The two parties finally met in the public arena at the promised time.

The tall spectator’s stand around the arena had been filled with adepts and apprentices who had come to watch the show.

Adept Laurent represented the Disciplinary Corps and walked onto the platform to announce the cause for this duel. It was now that he cast his sight onto the two parties involved.

“Yurga, you are the only one that has come from your Kamala Clan. I assume you will be the one representing the Kamala Clan in battle?”

“Indeed!”

Yurga’s black robes trembled, and his entire being exploded into a cloud of black smoke. The smoke drifted to a side of the arena before reforming into Yurga’s human form.

“Greem, who do you Crimson Clan intending to send into battle?” Adept Laurent asked loudly.

Bug Adept Billis, who was standing behind Greem, shivered. He couldn’t help but lift his head and stare calmly at the expressionless Greem.

He lowered his head when he crossed eyes with Greem. Instead, it was Mary who actively responded to Greem’s gaze, volunteering herself for the task.

“Me. The one representing the Crimson Clan in battle will be me!”

This shocked everyone. The young and handsome leader of the Crimson Clan actually took this immensely dangerous mission upon his shoulders and was now striding into the arena.

“No. Greem, you can’t go yourself.” Greem’s sudden action was clearly beyond Mary’s expectations. Her face flushed red as she charged toward Greem without any regard for herself.

Unfortunately, her body slammed into a defensive shield that had risen around the arena, keeping her outside. Regardless of how she scratched or attacked, the blood energy could not create an opening on this resilient and dense defensive shield. In fact, the ripples of energy caused Mary’s nails to snap and her fingers to bleed.

Bug Adept Billis was utterly stunned and remained frozen on the spot.

In all honesty, he would never have guessed that this situation would occur even if was allowed to guess ten more times.

Winning against a Third Grade as a Second Grade was impossible. Instead, the adept who attempted this colossal task was facing a very high likelihood of death!

With the resentment between the two clans, Adept Yurga would never show mercy to a Crimson adept. The chance to rightly murder the opponent and obtain victory in the clan war in doing so was too attractive. Adept Yurga would undoubtedly be fighting his hardest.

After leaving Mary and Billis behind, Greem strode to a side of the arena and locked eyes with Adept Yurga from afar.

“It’s you?!” Surprise also appeared on Yurga’s gaunt and withered face.

Of course, he wasn’t fearful of Greem. It was simply because he couldn’t figure out Greem’s purpose in doing this.

Was he not afraid of death? Or was the title of the Death Heralding Crow so weak that it could no longer intimidate anyone?

Yurga chuckled coldly as his entire body slowly floated ten meters off the ground. His already crimson eyes started to turn an even more brilliant shade of red.

“Good; very well, let us properly settle the disagreements between our clans here then!”

Yurga’s body exploded once again, and a thick, ink-black cloud of smoke engulfed half of the arena. The black mist rolled across the stage; no one could see what was inside, but they could hear the loud and noisy squawking within. It seemed the black mist had already been filled with a large flock of Death Heralding Crows.

The aura of this Third Grade adept had already been so fearsome before the battle started. It seemed like he intended to overwhelm and crush Greem!

“Little guy, you are a brave one, but this decision is not a very wise one. I will give you a minute’s time to prepare now. After a minute, I will announce the start of the duel.” Adept Laurent’s voice rang out in the arena. It was clear that he didn’t think highly of Greem’s chances either.

Greem’s face was solemn. He took in a deep breath and threw out two magic golem cores. As they roared and transformed into six-meter tall Flame Fiends of Terror, Greem also started changing.

First transformation: body of flames!

A wild surge of elementium fire came out of every corner of Greem’s body, creating a swirling pillar of fire around himself. His flesh body quickly turned into one of elementium flame as his size increased to four meters.

Second transformation: Flame Fiend’s body!

Greem opened his mouth and roared.

As the elementium in his body was converted, his frail fire body turned into a giant Flame Fiend forged out of large magma rocks and boiling lava. His entire body swelled to over six meters tall.

For a moment, three six-meter-tall Flame Fiends of Terror stood in a triangle formation, causing the arena to become a giant blazing sea of fire.

That wasn’t the end of it.

Several elementium halos flashed on Greem’s body as a semi-translucent barrier emerged from within, creating a terrifying Burning Domain around the Flame Fiends. In the blink of an eye, the three Flame Fiends vanished into the sea of fire, making it hard to find any trace of where they were.

The sea of flame pushed back against the black mist, and for a moment, though the defensive shield had yet to be taken down, the intimidating aura of both fighters was already at a standstill.

Holy shit? Was this a level that a Second Grade adept could reach?

The adepts gathered around the stands were stunned speechless and soon started gossiping and whispering about what they had just witnessed.

Though the elementium ripples on Adept Yurga’s side were stronger, they currently appeared to be evenly matched against Greem’s fires. After all, Adept Yurga was known for his strange and vicious moves. He couldn’t compare with a fire adept known for being a battlefield cannon when it came to flair and presentation.

“Time is up. I hereby announce that the duel has begun!”

As Adept Laurent announced the start of the battle, the defensive shield separating the center of the arena vanished without a sound.

The very next instant, the rolling black mists clashed with the surging fires, creating an unpleasant sizzling noise. Countless Death Heralding Crows flapped their black wings inside the black cloud and charged into the sea of fire, rapidly extinguishing large patches of flame. However, the sea of fire also lunged at the birds with terrifying force, roasting one crow after another into ashes, causing them to explode into mist once more.

Yurga hid within the black mist; his massive Spirit turned into numerous thread-like appendages extending toward the depths of the sea of fire. As long as he could find Greem’s position, crushing him would over in a flash with the spiritual pressure of a Third Grade and the death beams of the crows.

Even a lion hunting a rabbit would have to give its all!

The Kamala Clan’s humiliation over the past few months needed to be washed away with a thorough victory. As such, Yurga would never provide the young adept with any chance to drag this out or even surrender after a short stand-off.

Yet, what surprised Yurga was the fact that the strange fire barrier was quickly expanding. It had now engulfed the entire one-kilometer diameter of the arena. Yurga also felt a strange magical power within the flames.

The elementium powers within his body lost its original activity and became dull and slow. Yet, the opponent’s fires didn’t seem to be affected. Instead, they were burning fiercer and stronger.

An elementium-restricting barrier?

A gloomy look overtook Yurga’s gaunt face.

Dammit! This brat’s power might not be much, but his special techniques can truly catch people by surprise!