Age of Adepts

The might of the dragons was well-known throughout the entire multiverse!

Their melee combat ability, mid-ranged dragon breath, and long-ranged dragon magic were all incredibly dangerous and incomparably powerful.

Under ordinary circumstances, a dragon could easily crush three to five human casters of the same grade.

That could be seen from what was happening to the vampire adepts.

The two blood knights and three Second Grade blood elves were flying around the dragons in a pack, delivering a beating to any dragon they caught. Those First Grade dragons were brutalized like sheep to the slaughter before them.

However, this small pack of vampires felt like they were practically kicking an iron wall whenever they ran into a Second Grade dragon.

The sharp attacks of the two blood knights might be able to harm the Second Grade dragons, but their defenses were inferior. Meanwhile, the three blood elves were completely defeated in offensive power, defensive power, elusiveness, and magical resistance. They quickly became targets of the Second Grade dragons’ pursuit instead.

If it weren’t for the forcefield protection provided by the Mothership, these three blood elves would have long since been vanquished by the furious dragon breath of the Second Grade dragons.

In preparation for their all-out fight against the dragons, a humongous semi-translucent forcefield had appeared around the massive hull of the Mothership. The breaths of the dragons and their dragon magic shattered into sparks when they crashed onto the forcefield, unable to damage the ship whatsoever.

A small personal forcefield had also appeared around all the Crimson adepts engaged in combat, providing a defense of seven hundred points of power. Whenever the shields were on the verge of breaking, the adepts only had to hide within the Mothership’s forcefield, and the guards would quickly regenerate with Gru’s energy chains.

It was equivalent to blessing every Second Grade Crimson adept with a Third Grade defensive spell that could be continuously regenerated!

As long as they didn’t venture too far into the flight of dragons and get surrounded, their lives would not be at too much risk.

It was this layer of protection that prompted the Second Grade Crimson adepts to be so exceptionally courageous and willing to commit. Even those who typically loved hurling spells from behind a wall of meat shields were now charging to the very front line, fighting bravely like warriors.

Meanwhile, the golem dragon had raised its head and was silently looking at the battle in the skies. Its broad and scaled back started to twist and contort without stop. Several goblin cannons more than three meters in diameter rose from within its abdomen and began to adjust their barrels according to the movements of the dragons above.

There were two reasons it had yet to attack. First, the dragons were too far away; it was easy for them to dodge the attacks from such a range. Second, the five Third Grade dragons had yet to enter optimal firing distance. Firing the cannons now would alert them prematurely.

Greem and Mary might be keeping the Third Grade dragons busy, but they still needed the Fourth Grade golem dragon to take them down.

This fight also demonstrated the power difference between Greem and Mary.

In a fair duel, Greem could fend off any Third Grade dragon with the help of the elementium magical machine. If he ran into a dragon that was not skilled at flight or escape, he had a seventy percent chance to capture it alive.

Mary could also fight any Third Grade dragon on even grounds without losing a single inch. However, the final result would most definitely be a stalemate, with neither her nor her opponent possessing any way of harming each other. The dragon could not catch up to Mary, and Mary could not inflict sufficient damage upon the dragons.

After all, vampires did not have tremendous offensive power.

It was merely the nature of her profession and affinities. There was nothing she could do about it!

However, if Mary could obtain powerful magical equipment that was compatible with her origin attribute, she could instantly solve this flaw of hers. Otherwise, Mary would need to raise her current Second Grade subordinates to Third Grade and rely on numbers if she wanted to establish herself among all other Third Grade creatures.

The thought of obtaining a Third Grade subordinate through the Embrace was best kept within her dreams. If Mary ever tried to put this thought into action, it would drain her of all her origin blood.

It was only now that Mary thoroughly understood why the top-tier vampires of the World of Adepts did not use the Embrace to establish an organization utterly loyal to them and instead resorted to primitive reproductive methods to create bloodline descendants.

In the end, it was all about origin blood!

Mary had created five Second Grade vampires and dozens of First Grade vampires through the Embrace. These vampires were, thus, constrained by her origin blood. Without Mary’s permission and unlocking of their restraints, none of the vampires beneath her would be able to advance.

That was her right as their blood master!

Correspondingly, if she Embraced far too many subordinates at once, it would bring a tremendous burden to her origin blood, even as it allowed her numbers to swell and increase. Such a strain would subtly affect the rate at which Mary’s power increased and the difficulty of advancing to the next grade.

To lighten the burden on the origin blood while still raising qualified subordinates, most vampire clans still relied on primitive reproductive methods to give birth to the next generation. It was only when they had exceptionally excellent bloodline descendants that the blood master of the clan would break the exception to Embrace them and make them a loyal servant.

If Mary were sufficiently powerful now, she could even directly raise one of her Second Grade subordinates to Third Grade through a bloodline blessing. However, this unreasonable act would consume far too much of her origin blood. It was something that would only happen at the later stages of Third Grade for Mary.

By then, Mary’s origin blood should be much more plentiful. A strange situation where she promoted her subordinate would only happen if she also had no hope of personally advancing. No blood master would be willing to share the origin blood they had so painstakingly cultivated with an underling that had no hope of reaching greater heights otherwise.

…………

The bloody battle in the sky continued.

It was a world of blood and fire on the ground.

There were roaring dragonborn warriors, charging ogres, sinister Dragon Cultists hiding among the natives as they cast their spells, tough and sturdy trolls, chittering ratmen throwing rocks from a distance.

These servants of the dragons fought against the magical machines with all their strength as flames burned around them and explosions continued to assault their ears.

Sizzling energy beams cut across the air as flame jets roasted the enemies to a crisp. The magical machines wildly fired as they raised their giant metal fists and exchanged blows with the enemy.

The battle was brutal and bloody; it was a horrifying scene from a nightmare to behold!

The magical machines charged through the horde of creatures, their slaughter leaving waves of blood in their wake. The natives stormed forward, their wooden bats and stone sticks breaking upon the machine bodies before they were promptly disemboweled and crushed to a pulp by the machine’s ferocious metal fists.

If too many natives surrounded them, the magical machines would shoot out streams of fire, turning all life around them into living torches. The battle was a gruesome purgatory now.

Even the crudest of stone sticks would damage the machines if the ogres and trolls were the ones wielding them. If the damage sustained exceeded the limits of the machine’s endurance, they too would die.

However, the army had already established a perfect and comprehensive charging and maintenance system. Magical machines that were severely damaged knew well enough to retreat behind the perimeter, where they were quickly fixed up by the technicians there.

That was why the magical machine army had managed to maintain their perimeter with this thin kill zone, even though both sides were suffering heavy losses.

In all seriousness, the greatest threat to the magical machine army were still those dragonborn warriors.

They had power, equipment, and magic; they were practically the representation of the perfect warrior. The only thing holding them back was the difficulty in breeding and their pathetic numbers.

There were at least three thousand dragonborn warriors of various attributes on this battlefield today. If they could form up and start a charge, they would be a destructive force against the machine’s boundary.

Fortunately, the goblin chariots in the back were sufficiently powerful. The violent energy fireballs were always chasing behind the dragonborn warriors, never giving them the time nor opportunity to group up.

The magical machines were undoubtedly at too high a disadvantage against the dragonborn warriors. As such, the First Grade adepts of the Crimson Clan became the main force responsible for the assassination of these dragonborn.

Zacha and Tigule were not good at flying and had no choice but to retreat from the battlefield in the sky. Instead, they descended to the battlefield on the ground and started slaughtering these dragonborn warriors alongside Billis. Accompanying them was Arms and Iritina.

They were dragons, after all. Though they had already betrayed their kind, fighting their kin in such a brazen manner was still difficult. To avoid the awkwardness of the situation, the two of them transformed into their human forms and started slaughtering the dragonborn and natives on the ground.

With them on the battlefield, even the Second Grade dragonborn warriors were not capable of causing much trouble.

Whenever a Second Grade dragonborn started to build up momentum, Arms would charge over to it. A dose of dragon’s aura at close range caused the dragonborn’s knees to weaken and its Spirit to break. A quick slap to follow up and it would probably be on its deathbed, regardless of its grade.

It didn’t matter which dragon lord they belonged to. The dragonborn warriors of Lance always had one flaw that existed at the very core of their existence– a fear of the dragon’s aura of might. It was the means by which the dragons controlled the dragonborn and made sure they never went out of control. It was a rule that all dragon lords followed strictly.

Compared to the cruelty on the ground, the battlefield in the sky appeared somewhat non-committal.

The dragons in the battle, be they First, Second, or Third Grade, were all spoiled and pampered dragon lords. If they were asked to pillage, loot, and kidnap beauties form a different plane, they might put their all into the task.

However, having them fight bloody battles against adepts without regard for their own lives was asking for a bit too much!

In their minds, a hundred dragons gathered together would most certainly have exterminated these adepts with overwhelming force. However, when they actually entered the battlefield, they were shocked to find that the enemy adepts were sly and sinister fighters, with attacks that hurt them to their very bone.

It indirectly weakened the First Grade dragons’ will to fight!