Age of Adepts

The battle was still raging on!

The armies finally stopped after retreating ten kilometers. They started to turn back and look upon the dusty battlefield in the distance.

Wave after wave of violent magical energies shook the air itself, the result of the purest and most concentrated of magic attacks. One or two thick beams of energy occasionally swept across the horizon, shredding all the clouds in the sky to reveal its strangely crimson color.

Shock and disbelief appeared on the faces of Zam and the other six Fabres adepts as they sensed the intensity of the energy spreading from the distance.

That legendary fire adept was actually fighting Lord Declan to a standstill through the use of a Fourth Grade magical machine. How could they not be shocked and terrified by this!?

Magical machines were machines, after all. Their massive size might provide them with superior strength, but there was no working around a machine’s natural disadvantage of being slow and clumsy. Everyone here should be able to avoid a magical machine’s range of attack with some minor technique up their sleeve, before going on to slowly wear down a machine’s defense.

That was why the Third Grade Fabres adepts did not think of the Fourth Grade magical machine as that much of a threat!

However, judging from the battle in the distance, Lord Declan did not have too obvious of an advantage in this fight. Everyone was surprised at how powerful the Third Grade adept was.

Of course, if the Fabres Clan had performed a more in-depth investigation and uncovered the past results of the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon in battle, they wouldn’t be so surprised. After all, the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon had fought against a Fourth Grade dragon in Lance.

“Zam, Lord Declan should be able to win, shouldn’t he?” A male adept asked worriedly.

“There’s no doubt about that. Lord Declan will win!” Conviction appeared on Adept Zam’s face.

The Third Grade adepts instantly calmed down slightly upon hearing this.

In truth, at this point in the war, the Fabres no longer had absolute control of the battlefield anymore, even with their massive financial and military reserves. Before Fourth Grade adepts had appeared on the battlefield, this war had been at the level of a typical adept war. Victory and defeat were very common outcomes for anyone.

However, now that the war involved Fourth Grades, the entire situation was spinning out of control!

If Declan did not manage to put down this combination of the Fourth Grade golem dragon and the Third Grade legendary fire adept, then everything they had worked for up to this point would have been for naught.

So what if they had managed to conquer so many of the Crimson Clan’s territories and resources? So what if they had several times the number of low and intermediate-grade adepts compared to their opponents? Nothing mattered if they could not take down the Fourth Grade golem dragon and the Third Grade fire adept!

The true measure of these two clan’s strength wasn’t in some tiny and trivial numbers, but the personal prowess of the adepts that stood at the peak of the clan.

If and when a Fourth Grade adept wanted to establish his clan or build his kingdom, there would be plenty of organizations and human nations who would fight for the chance to join them. The Fourth Grade adept wouldn’t even need to worry about the trivial administrative tasks; someone would volunteer to do it for them.

No organization or force in the World of Adepts dared to go against the will of a Fourth Grade adept.

The only one who could interfere or intervene with the will of a Fourth Grade adept was another Fourth Grade adept or a military force equal to them!

The Fourth Grade golem dragon of the Crimson Clan had never experienced live pressure testing in combat in the World of adepts, after all. As such, it had not yet been accepted by the various adept clans of Zhentarim as a genuine Fourth Grade. Thus, when the fires of war finally reached the Crimson Clan’s land of origin, the most potent forces of the two clans finally clashed!

The Fourth Grade magical golem dragon was not complete without Greem.

It might be able to endure the quick and vicious attacks of a Fourth Grade dragon or ravage a battlefield uncontested. However, it could not stop a powerful Fourth Grade body-refining adept from sneaking in through the gaps in its body and taking it apart from the inside.

Greem’s presence compensated for its only weakness!

With Greem controlling the giant magic energy cannons and the energy beam along with his own powerful fire spells and holy light damage, Fourth Grade Declan was tremendously restricted in his movements and actions. He could no longer move around as he pleased.

The golem dragon’s body was also sufficiently hard and tough. It didn’t just manifest in the actual hardness of the super-alloy, but in the assimilation of the magical energy from within its body.

Without the infusion of magical energy, the super-alloy alone wouldn’t be hard enough to endure the violent Strength of a Fourth Grade body-refining adept. It was because magic energy had seeped into every corner and inch of the magical golem dragon’s body that much of the force from Declan’s vicious strikes was neutralized.

Only the remaining impact could affect the golem dragon’s body, leaving behind fearsome dents in the metal. Otherwise, the magical golem dragon would not have been able to stop Declan from taking it apart and boring straight through, even if its metal body was ten times as thick and substantial.

His offense having been thwarted, Declan’s defenses also started to show holes in them!

Even though they were both Fourth Grade, Declan was far, far smaller than the magical golem dragon. As such, the golem dragon’s base Strength was a lot higher than Declan’s. That said, with its clumsy size and unbearable speed, it required incredible coordination to hit Declan with its metal legs or its vicious head.

Fortunately, Greem relied on the giant magic energy cannons to make up for the golem dragon’s defensive weakness. He chased Declan around with the thick energy beams, forcing him to run and circle around with no time to break through the golem dragon’s defenses.

After several attempts, Greem stopped using his fire spells altogether. Instead, he converted all his fire energy into corresponding ‘holy light’ power through Sodden’s Holy Ring. He then used the speed and penetration ability of the pure light energy to bully the Fourth Grade adept.

Light could not be stopped!

It could penetrate the defensive forcefield formed by a Fourth Grade adept’s tremendous personal strength, directly inflicting a strange magical effect on his body akin to a burn. Declan had never even heard of such an attack.

He was remarkably unused to dealing with it, especially given his preference for head-on confrontations.

Since the golem dragon’s body was impenetrable and its legs could not be broken, Declan gave up on this pointless strategy and focused on taking down the Third Grade fire adept.

There was no doubt that the legendary fire adept was the weakest link in this chain. It was also the only weakness that Declan could hope to exploit!

He didn’t believe that a Third Grade fire adept would be able to defend against the wild melee attacks of a Fourth Grade body-refining adept with just the protection of a defensive forcefield from the golem dragon.

Of course, this change in target also meant that Declan now had to face the attacks of all three energy beams at once. However, his defensive forcefield was durable enough that a single hit would only cause it to tremble violently. It was only at risk of shattering when two beams hit him simultaneously.

Once Declan lost his defensive forcefield, he would have to quickly avoid all the other incoming attacks and adjust the energy circulation within his body to resummon the forcefield.

Declan would have to endure hundreds of rounds of continuous fire from the smaller magic energy cannons throughout this process, as well as the incredibly unusual light energy attacks of the wicked fire adept. Thus, even though the magical golem dragon was now covered in dents all over its body, three to five visible injuries could also be seen on Declan’s body.

The most severe of the injuries was located beneath his right rib.

It was a terrifying wound that had been left behind by the third energy beam grazing his body after the first two beams had shattered his forcefield. That one attack had shaved away a bowl-sized piece of flesh from Declan’s body. The exposed flesh had crystallized completely, with traces of magical energy still lingering on it.

Healing this wound had caused Declan to lose even more of his stamina. After neutralizing the magical energy that remained in his injury with his powers, the flesh and muscles near the wound could finally squirm and mesh together once again under the effect of his formidable Physique, uninterrupted by any foreign force.

The other injuries were all inflicted by that Third Grade fire adept and his light energy. To save stamina, Declan did not waste any power to heal these wounds. Instead, he relied on his 46 points of Physique to let them heal on their own.

It was 46 points of Physique. What a horrifyingly powerful body!

Take the common beast of the Black Forest– the Hairy Rhinoceros. Even that beast, which was known for its defense, only had 7 points of Physique. An ordinary dragon mostly had between 11 to 25 points of Physique.

The effect of extremely high Physique was astounding defensive power and impressive regeneration.

With Declan’s 46 points of Physique, he could stand there and let the enemy attack him all they wanted to; any weapon below Third Grade would not even be able to leave a scratch. He could put his hand into the mouth of a First Grade dragon, and no matter what they did, they would not be able to cause any serious injuries.

Of course, to achieve this tremendous defensive effect, Declan still needed to have plenty of stamina and excellent elementium powers.

After all, his defensive forcefield was formed out of extreme life force and wind elementium energy.

Neither could be missing from the equation!

Unfortunately, such a dominant defense seemed to have no effect on that strange light energy at all. Beam after beam of fast and fearsome holy light landed on Declan’s body, leaving imprints that resembled horrible burn marks.

If Declan did not dodge in time, the pure, holy light could even penetrate his body to purify and neutralize his precious magic energy.

Declan’s precious magic energy was the driving source of his prowess in battle!