Age of Adepts

Katherine’s body spun wildly, turning into a golden tornado as she gripped her metal spike tightly with both hands and went for the Flame Fiend’s heart.

The timing of her attack was impeccable– it was the small window when Greem had just completed his Fire Teleportation. Moreover, Greem’s movements were far less agile and slower to react after he transformed into a Flame Fiend.

Her attack was also targeted at the most crucial high-energy organ. If she succeeded in her ambush, the damage to Greem would either kill him or cripple him without a doubt.

However, Greem had pursued her all the way here to Hakans. He also knew that she had hidden herself secretly before the battle broke out.

How could he not have prepared a contingency for her!

He was not fast enough to escape Katherine’s attacks with the Flame Fiend’s movement speed, while enduring her well-prepared attack at close range would only be a foolish decision. As such, Greem disintegrated without any hesitation!

As Katherine turned into a violent golden tornado, and the tip of her sharp spikes was only half a meter away from making contact with the Flame Fiend’s magma armor, this humongous six-meter tall-giant made of magma, lava, and flames instantly disintegrated.

Hundreds and thousands of magma shards fell to the ground like a collapsing mountain. The lava and flames flowing within also went out of control immediately and started spilling and spreading everywhere.

Katherine pierced through the collapsing stone and lava with the metal spike like a drill with her body of blades as a saw. Everything in contact was minced into fine particles. Strangely enough, she neither sensed nor detected any life energy aura.

The golden tornado vanished as Katherine once again stood upon the smoldering ruins in the form of a human girl. She held her breath and started searching for the male adept’s location once more.

The sudden appearance of the young girl had also attracted the attention of several nearby fire creatures. Out of their hatred for life, they roared and charged at Katherine.

“Rats! Die.”

Katherine, still filled with frustration over her failed ambush, motioned, and the metal disc-blades beside her swung. Five golden glints of light instantly sliced past the body of the fire creatures. These fire creatures that were no more than First Grade were instantly dispersed and reduced to a rain of fire.

The strange sound of metal grinding against metal could be heard amidst this rain of fire.

Katherine turned back to look and was surprised to find a survivor among the fire creatures. It roared and charged forward, even as it rapidly swelled and increased in size. One of Katherine’s metal disc-blades was now a blazing, revolving saw of death against its back, but it could not even cut a single inch into the creature’s body.

The energy aura of this fire creature whose appearance so resembled a magical tiger was also increasing wildly, even as it grew to a gigantic size.

First Grade…Second Grade…Third Grade.

This otherworldly flaming tiger whose power had been no more than pseudo-adept level had transformed into a terrifying Third Grade fire creature within a matter of three seconds. Katherine could hardly feel her own body or soul at this moment.

How…how is this possible?

Aooooo!

A deafening roar came out of the tiger’s mouth. It braved the attacks of the metal disc-blades and charged courageously toward Katherine.

Dammit! It was an elementium helper that the male adept summoned from another world. Moreover, it’s a Third Grade helper!

Katherine’s mental state was in shambles now.

She had a pretty good idea that the Third Grade flaming tiger that had been posing as a mere fire spirit had probably been prepared for the Gold Knight if she hadn’t appeared. However, now that she had revealed herself, she immediately became the focus of all the enemy’s attacks.

Unfortunately, the current circumstances did not allow her time to hesitate or mourn her decisions.

A loud explosion rang out as the human and the tiger crashed into each other, turning these ruins into a terrifying battlefield.

The Gold Knight was charging over upon his warhorse. He abruptly stopped his mount upon seeing this unfold. For a moment, he was utterly confused at the sight of this fiery and intense battlefield.

Enemies, enemies…all of them were enemies!

Should he catch them all in a single strike, or should he help one side beat the other first? Or should he watch as they brawled it out amongst themselves and intervene once they were both wounded and exhausted?

In his moment of hesitation, disaster struck the holy knights that were attacking the elementium magical machine. One of the Second Grade Silver Knights failed to dodge in time and was set on fire by the flames blasting out of the machine’s right hand. He and his horse were scorched entirely black.

Though his companions managed to save him on time by dragging him aside and using Holy Recovery on him repeatedly, his severe wounds meant that he would not be able to rejoin the battle. Thus, a gap appeared in the ranks attacking the magical machine, providing it with the chance to escape.

The Gold Knight could no longer be bothered with these two enemies that were tearing away at each other. He immediately turned around and charged at the elementium magical machine.

Meanwhile, a strange human face suddenly appeared in a flickering flame at the edge of the battlefield above a blazing building. The face opened its golden eyes as it coldly assessed the battlefield.

Seeing that the Gold Knight had ignored the battle of the Third Grades in favor of attacking the elementium magical machine, the face let out a cold laugh and turned its attention back to the Blade Princess.

Of course, this human face was something that Greem had manifested with his powers. This ability was something he had learned from the flaming tiger, Cindral. Hiding one’s body with actual fire was the unique skill of some fire creatures! Without Cindral’s guidance, Greem would not have been able to achieve such a feat without several dozens of years of training.

Greem turned into a cluster of pure flames and liberally traveled across the massive sea of fire.

Compared to his human form or his Flame Fiend form, a body of pure and shapeless fire was more compatible with Greem’s soul origin. It was also stranger and unpredictable. His movements had also become unprecedentedly quick and subtle since he turned into pure fire.

He was able to travel freely to any place with fire. There was no need to even draw on his magical powers. It significantly reduced the possibility of the enemy discovering him.

Greem circled Katherine and Cindral, observing their battle as he looked for the best opportunity to strike. He knew that Katherine was aware of his existence. Moreover, he knew that she was definitely searching for ways to locate him, the best of which was to betray a weakness and lure him into striking.

Thus, the timing he was looking for must not be a trap laid out by the opponent. It would be a test of his judgment!

……

Katherine was still fighting with all she had.

This flaming tiger was unusually difficult to deal with!

Unlike the elementium forms of ordinary elementium creatures, this flaming tiger had a completely different body that was tough and sturdy.

Indeed, his half-elementiumized body seemed to have been mixed with some sort of strange metal, causing it to display astounding toughness comparable to super magical alloys. The remaining half of Katherine’s human face couldn’t help but twitch at the sight of this vicious flaming tiger confronting her in a melee battle, yielding not a single inch to her metal blades and spikes.

She was screaming internally, even as she fought.

It was important to note that these five disc-blades and two metal spikes were all high-grade magical equipment. They were not only made with extremely tough materials but had also been enhanced with multiple practical anti-magic effects.

Yet, even compound attacks like these felt like beating against a solid statue forged of super-alloy when they hit the tiger. Apart from some sparks and a deafeningly loud sound, they could not even slice off a single hair from the tiger.

The flaming tiger was also taking full advantage of his sturdy flame body. He lunged, pounced, spewed fire, swept with his tail, and let out stunning tiger roars, leaving Katherine with no time or space to spare at all, much less to split her attention and search for the damned fire adept.

However, her sharp battle instincts allowed her to faintly sense a deeply hostile intent flowing through the fires around her. Unfortunately, the flaming tiger’s actions left her with no ability to determine the source of that hostile intent.

It undoubtedly made the already wounded and occupied Katherine become increasingly frustrated and suspicious of everything around her.

Just as Katherine was starting to be consumed by paranoia, Cindral let out a huge roar. His overwhelming and berserk aura gathered into a cone-shaped shockwave that crashed into Katherine’s quickly moving body.

The Blade Princess’ petite body shivered slightly, and her mind was blown into a slight daze from the abrupt soundwave attack. Both Cindral and the hiding Greem pounced at this excellent opportunity, blasting Katherine with their most ferocious attacks.

Aaaaaah!

Even with her arrogance, Katherine could feel the aura of death approach her from the attacks by two powerful Third Grades.

She no longer dared to hold back. She lifted her head and let out a sky-rending screech. A dozen disc-blades shot out of her body and formed a fearsome array of destruction in tandem with the first five blades. They spun wildly around her body.

Any attack or spell that attempted to hurt her would first have to be sliced and slashed up by the metal array. It was a multi-layered composite attack. Any being that wished to break through to Katherine’s side would have to endure one hundred and seventy-three physical damage every second.

Moreover, once these attacks added up, even the toughest of defensive spells would fall.

Cindral had just reached Katherine and left seven fearsome gashes on her body with his flaming claws. He was shocked and quickly fled from the blades. Even as quick as he was, he was still viciously slashed by seven or eight of the blades.

Damage of this level was too much for Cindral’s body, even after it had been strengthened.

A pained roar rang out as Cindral scrambled out of the blade array.

On the other side, the powerful Third Grade fire spell that Greem had prepared for so long was already locked onto Katherine. It was Molten World. A blindingly dense fire halo appeared beneath Katherine’s feet as a massive pillar of flame abruptly erupted with Katherine at its very center.

The temperature of the surroundings rose rapidly. A thousand degrees…two thousand degrees…three thousand degrees.

The overwhelming heat ignited all of Katherine’s clothes and caused her exposed flesh to become red-hot. The blistering air made it difficult for her to breath. She felt the few flesh organs within her body shrivel and char as she did so.

Manipulating five disc-blades was Katherine’s usual level of ability. She would only release all the blades within her when she was fighting for her life.

The tremendous Spirit exhaustion caused by this move was intolerable, even with her Spirit!

Katherine no longer cared about attacking Greem. Instead, she fled away as fast as she could with her severely injured body.

This time, she truly could not bear any more damage!