Age of Adepts

What did it look like when two terrifying monsters fought?

Only the adepts watching through the screens in the safety of Kerslin Castle could tell you from experience.

Adepts had always maintained wisdom and composure as their motto. However, all the observing adepts were now balling their hands into fists, gritting their teeth and trembling as they watched this monumental fight.

This one incredible fight between the Flame Fiend and the Flying Venom Dragon was already more than worth the ticket to fly here!

Battles between ordinary adepts were no more than playing house when compared to these two monsters fighting against each other. When they fought, every attack was either a rain of meteors that spanned an area of over a kilometer or a wild bash with a twenty-meter-tall tree picked up from beside the assailant.

It was almost as if the earth itself had been upended in the forest. The ground quaked intensely, sending massive pillars of dust and smoke into the air and obscuring the two gigantic creatures tussling below.

Before the dust pillar could spread out, a bright green halo of poison spread out from the center of the battlefield, instantly engulfing all of the nearby woods.

The three eagles controlled by the Association flew high above in the skies. When they looked down, they could clearly see a green poison halo spread throughout the forest.

All life withered and died where the poison traveled.

All substances, be they towering trees, the resilient vines winding around them, or the bushes and brambles that lay scattered all over the forest withered the instant they came into contact with the halo. They turned into pools of green liquid glowing with intense radioactive light.

The might of the Flying Venom Dragon’s fearsome poison was capable of eroding even a massive golem entirely made out of metal, let alone these forests unprotected by any form of magic.

The adepts watching the screens were all horrified.

However, before they could let out a gasp, there was a loud explosion. A massive halo of fire erupted after the halo of poison, engulfing the dusty battlefield in a vast sea of fire.

The poison clashed with the fire, neutralizing each other as best as they could. The forest had been entirely destroyed. Not even the smallest of lifeforms could be seen in the vicinity, nor a single plant.

“This…this is…the power of the strongest Third Grades?” A young adept who was watching the fight alongside his clan members stuttered, his entire being in shock and terror.

The other adepts did not speak.

Only the Second Grade adept in their clan spoke in a solemn voice, “This is hardly them at their strongest. They are still enduring planar suppression right now. It should only be around half of their actual power, I believe?”

The other adepts were terrified and shocked into silence.

They continued to watch the screen as the two titans rolled over and razed an entire cliff to the ground. It was a tall cliff, standing at over thirty or forty meters and peeking out of the forest itself. Towering trees snapped and fell over wherever they went, either turning into ashes or a poison swamp. Large swathes of greenery disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Such terrifying might was only half of their actual power? Then how did they look like when they fought with all they had?

As low and intermediate-grade adepts, they did not have the necessary experience and worldview to understand or analyze the battle happening in front of them. As such, they could only assess the action based on the visuals and intensity of the fighting. However, such an extreme and massive battle would not fool the eyes of the high-grade adepts of Kerslin. Their method of assessing the fight was very different from an ordinary adept.

“Hasn’t Greem always been a smart person? Why is he so unwise today? To engage a bloodline adept like Sanazar in an up-front fight…” A Third Grade adept of the Association smirked, disdain written all over his face.

“Truly. He’s an elementium adept, and instead of using his fire spells, he’s fighting with his bare hands. Hmph! I think he’s gone mad!” Someone beside quickly piped up in agreement.

“He’s not scheming anything, is he? Why do I feel like Sanazar hasn’t gotten the upper hand yet?” Finally, someone voiced their doubts.

“Hm? Something’s wrong. The fire adept’s offensive power is a little unusual!”

“You just noticed it? I’ve realized his base damage has been a little too high for a while now. Have you guys discovered it? His fire magic is accompanied with a trace of white light every time he attacks. What is that?”

“That seems like…like light elementium!”

“That’s strange. Doesn’t Greem have fire specialization?”

“That’s nothing to gawk at. It might be some ability from his equipment!”

……

The Association adepts might be cruel with their words, but between all of them, they analyzed everything happening on the battlefield with perfect clarity.

While they calmly examined the battle, several Fourth Grade adepts gathered in an arcane hall in the higher levels of Kerslin Castle were also calmly observing the fight through the light projection.

“Sanazar’s a little impulsive.”

“Yes, she still has too much confidence in her venom dragon’s body. She’s completely forgotten that her opponent has two items in his possession that counter her and her abilities.”

“Oh? What else is there apart from that strange ring?”

“Through some of my more secretive channels, I recently learned that the kid had upgraded his Soul Equipment to Third Grade, allowing it to manifest as the Spirit of Pestilence. Do you think he fears Sanazar’s poison with the Spirit of Pestilence protecting him?”

“I still think that the key to victory lies with the ring. There is simply no solution to that pure light elementium that can ignore both physical and magical defenses. Without the appropriate means to defend against it, the light elementium alone would be enough to wear Sanazar down.”

“Kerala, you couldn’t have forgotten to prepare Gallow any equipment to defend against the light elementium, could you? In my opinion, Sanazar probably can’t defeat Greem.”

“Nicolas, you seemed to have forgotten the decision we made together. All fourteen adepts of the Association agreed that we would raise Greem to Fourth Grade and recruit him into the Association such that he can replace us in…— well, since we have already decided to let him win, why would I go to the extra effort of making Gallow more well-prepared?”

“Hmph! I just don’t want that brat to get too arrogant. It wouldn’t be late for Gallow to give him a thorough beating before conceding!”

“……” Adept Kerala fell silent for a moment before finally speaking, “I understand Gallow’s personality. He is prideful. I am afraid he won’t hold back. If I do give him Purpleblood, he would probably fight Greem with all he had. When that happens, the situation will no longer be in my control.”

Apart from Greem and Sanazar’s battle, the fight in another region of Bluesea Plane was also being projected onto their screen. Scarface Gallow and Medium Adept Dante had also met up and were now engaged in a chase across a vast plain.

Both of them were peak Third Grade adepts, but judging by the situation, Scarface Gallow had the absolute advantage and was chasing Medium Adept Dante all over the place. Dante could only rely on the Third Grade spirit he had summoned to secretly and sinisterly ambush Gallow to relieve the tremendous pressure he was enduring.

Dante was truly a fearsome medium. The Third Grade spirit he had summoned flew all over the place, hiding in all sorts of locations and making it impossible to guard against. If Gallow hadn’t turned his body into the unusual Immortal Body, he would already have died to the countless assassination attempts by the spirit.

However, the strongest move of Dante’s Third Grade spirit was undoubtedly ‘Possess’!

It allowed the spirit to charge into an opponent’s body and take control of them for a brief moment. It might be an incredibly brief instant, but even that one instant would be lethal in a battle between Third Grades.

The vicious pierce wounds on Gallow’s forehead and chest were the two most significant pieces of evidence of this!

Scarface Gallow lived up to his name as an undying monster. Even after his heart and forehead had two large holes pierced into them, he could still chase after the enemy with his sword in hand. The magical sword in his hand also seemed to have some sort of strange power. It caused a portion of Dante’s intangible body to vanish permanently wherever it made contact.

Supposedly, Dante’s intangible body could recover from any physical damage just by going ethereal. However, when faced with Gallow’s unusual sword, the parts of his body that were cut off could not regenerate again.

After this happened twice, Dante did not dare to touch the magical sword again!

If he couldn’t win in a direct confrontation, then he would make it a chase.

Dante took full advantage of his rapid movements and dragged Gallow in a circle around the massive field. At any rate, there was still plenty of time remaining for the battle. He could freely exhaust Gallow’s stamina and retaliate once he collapsed from exertion.

It was the most common tactic that elementium adepts employed against powerful bloodline adepts!

While Scarface Gallow and Medium Dante were busy with their chase, tens of thousands of kilometers away in the depths of the forest, Greem and Sanazar’s battle raged on.

Compared to the massive gulf in power between Gallow and Dante, Greem’s and Sanazar’s strength was nearly equal. The only difference came in the form of melee combat techniques.

As the two of them tussled with each other, Greem suffered from having a less resilient body. His close combat attacks also inflicted far less damage than Sanazar’s poison fangs and claws.

Fortunately, with the aid of the Chip’s combat assistance system, he was able to dodge several violent strikes from Sanazar, while giving her a beating with the holy light damage from Sodden’s Holy Ring.

When the two of them finally broke apart after a particularly violent exchange, the first round of the battle finally came to its end.

Greem leaped a kilometer away with Fire Teleportation. He looked at the badly burned Flying Venom Dragon before gritting his teeth and turning to treat the wounds on his body.

The bright yellow flames around him had now been stained with a layer of green. Even Greem’s own body was now covered in patches of black, purple, and green. Sickly-green liquid flowed out of dark sores on his skin, leaving a deathly pungent odor in the air.