Age of Adepts

Wenno died!

And along with him, one hundred and thirty-two Darkblood adepts.

There were also over three hundred other adepts that were wounded by the shockwave from the giant magic energy cannons. Among them was Darkblood Giant Zuval, who had been fighting on the frontlines.

The two magic energy cannons had only fired the one time, and they had killed a Third Grade Darkblood adept while severely injuring the other. The plant monster that had been ravaging the battlefield had also withered and died in an instant. Such a result could be called miraculous, considering there were no Fourth Grade adepts on the Capital of Steel’s side!

This one attack had also shocked the Fourth Grade adept of the Istanal Clan to his core!

As a veteran Fourth Grade adept, he had looked down on the Crimson Clan for daring to venture into space despite being no more than a newly advanced clan. However, that horrifying attack from earlier had caused cold sweat to break out all over his body.

The combined power of the two magic energy cannons was already comparable to an all-out attack from a Fourth Grade adept. He would be at significant risk of injury if an attack like that struck him. After all, the magic shields that adepts sustained with their power weren’t a match for such a powerful energy attack.

It was the main reason why most adepts preferred to remain in their private towers!

While humans could be distracted in battle, magical machines would never be rattled.

Taking full advantage of the enemy’s distraction and shock, the magic energy cannons had immediately turned and focused on the individuals that had been wounded in the shockwave. Two rounds of concentrated fire took away the lives of another twenty Darkblood adepts.

The brazen attacks of the Capital of Steel had finally infuriated the Fourth Grade adept.

He, who had been hiding behind the scenes since the start of the battle, finally stepped up.

It wasn’t out of cowardice that he hadn’t lifted a finger. Instead, it was because of an unwritten rule in Exodar Camp.

As long as no Fourth Grade adepts were involved in an outpost in space, any of the battles that occurred were only considered ordinary skirmishes and fights. The authorities of Exodar Camp would not intervene.

However, if adepts of Fourth Grade and above were involved, the chances of intervention by the authorities would increase tremendously.

For instance, as ferocious at the battle earlier was and as many adepts had died, the patrolling adepts would only watch on from afar. They were content with not doing anything as long as the fight did not affect the necessary order of Exodar Camp.

However, now that the Fourth Grade adept of Istanal Clan could not help but join the battle, the fight’s nature had changed drastically.

Several patrol parties gathered together near the battlefield. They began to discuss whether they should intervene directly. Magical messages were sent over and over to Exodar Camp. Even Lord Kaelf, peak Fourth Grade and Head of Inspections, was stirred by the reports. He hurried to the scene of battle immediately.

When Sixth Grade Adept Ulnak finally received news of the incident and cast his attention to the battlefield, the fighting had already reached a peak!

The Fourth Grade adept of the Istanal Clan was a fearsome body-refining adept. He wore fine yellow leather armor on his body. He didn’t have too many other accessories or equipment and appeared rather empty-handed. However, he had a strange black sword on his back that emitted a concerning aura.

He was neither handsome nor ugly. His looks were as ordinary as they come.

However, when he took a step forward and released all of his power, everyone’s expression turned solemn. They could sense the wild, overwhelming force that was radiating through space.

Even Gazlowe, who was hiding in the heart of the rock, couldn’t help but become nervous. He immediately raised the security alert of the Capital of Steel to its maximum degree!

Through the clash of their auras, he could already sense the chilling killing intent radiating from the opponent’s very soul.

It was obvious that the Capital of Steel’s stubborn resistance and devastating retaliation had angered the Fourth Grade adept. He intended to attack with all he had!

In the previous battles, the battle situation had appeared to be split sixty-forty due to Gazlowe’s intentional show of weakness. The Darkblood Army had a sixty-percent chance of victory, while the Capital of Steel only had a forty-percent chance.

On the surface, the Darkblood Army had some casualties, but the Capital of Steel was suffering even more.

However, if you were to perform the calculations, you would be shocked to find that the losses were not even at all, and not in the Darkblood Army’s favor! The losses incurred on the side of the Darkblood Army were actual Darkblood adepts. Meanwhile, the Capital of Steel had lost several metal fortresses, a few more metal towers, and over two thousand magical machines.

In numbers alone, the Capital of Steel had certainly lost far more than the Darkblood Army.

However, considering the fact that the goblin factories beneath the city could endlessly forge magical machines at practically no cost, it was a completely different matter. This trade of the lives of adepts for the lives of magical machines was undoubtedly terrible for the Istanal Clan.

As the true face of the Capital of Steel was always hidden underground, no one could see the truth of its operations through its thick metal plates and the thousands of meters of rock. That was why the Capital of Steel was able to drag the enemy into its favorite fashion of war– a ‘difficult’ and arduous process of attrition.

However, when the Fourth Grade adept decided to move, the entire condition of the battlefield change.

The might of a Fourth Grade adept couldn’t be more evident here.

The man took out his sword and stepped down from the air. One step at a time, he slowly walked towards the metal hall at the center of the city. With every step, he casually swung his sword at one of the metal buildings.

Where the shapeless sword aura reached, black smoke appeared. It didn’t matter how sturdy the buildings were or whether they were forged of rocks or metal. They shattered in an instant and exploded into countless twisted pieces.

Gazlowe saw all this with his own eyes.

An inconspicuous line cut across a squadron of magical machines that had just walked off the assembly line and arrived on the surface. The machines instantly fell apart, collapsing into countless pieces of metal shards and components.

The shapeless sword aura sliced against the ground, creating a hundred-meter-long rift across the rock. When it sliced a tower, the upper half of the tower screeched and collapsed to the ground, the surface of the cut itself smooth and clean.

Meanwhile, all retaliation against the Fourth Grade adept was blocked by a strange, distorted forcefield. It didn’t matter how many energy beams or fireballs there were. As long as they weren’t concentrated together into a single attack, they couldn’t do anything to this body-refining adept.

If the Capital of Steel wanted to restrain his movements, it would have to rely on a powerful attack from the giant magic energy cannons.

Without any hesitation, the two massive towers beside the metal hall started spinning once more, revealing the two terrifying cannons.

Ci! Ci! Ci!

The strange soaring sound of gathering energy rang out once again. Magic power of tremendous intensity surged through the energy pipes, through the tower, and finally converged on the cannon.

The energy circuits that spiraled within the cannon lit up sequentially as shocking and violent energy rapidly gathered within. It compressed, over and over. The energy aura leaking from the barrel spread out like an overwhelming wave. It was a terrifying sight to behold.

The man with the magical sword smiled wickedly. He stepped against empty air, and his entire person flickered, dodging Gazlowe’s undetectable mental focus.

As powerful as Gazlowe’s mental powers were, he was still a Third Grade creature after all. Trying to limit the opponent’s movements with spiritual pressure and then blasting him with the cannon was a good idea. However, it was practically useless against a Fourth Grade enemy.

In fact, the moment his shapeless mental appendages emerged from the Capital of Steel, the Fourth Grade adept instantly noticed them. He even managed to figure out Gazlowe’s approximate location based on these mental tendrils.

However, out of fear of those two fearsome giant cannons, the Fourth Grade adept didn’t dare step inside the city. He couldn’t attack Gazlowe himself if he refused to step into the range of the cannons. The other thing that limited the Fourth Grade adept’s movements was the faint trace of Fourth Grade aura he could sense hiding inside the city.

Since he dared lead his army here to assault the Crimson Clan’s outpost, he had naturally done his research. The Crimson Clan was a Fourth Grade organization protected by a Fourth Grade adept. The legendary fire adept Greem was well-known within Zhentarim.

It was said that he had been severely injured in an expedition to another world and had even wounded his soul origin.

That said, a Fourth Grade adept was still a Fourth Grade adept. As powerful as he was, the man with the magical sword could not ignore the terrible threat posed by a Fourth Grade fire adept.

Blood was still spilling on the battlefield in brutal and unrelenting fashion. However, everyone’s focus was still drawn to the major players of the battle. Even the Third Grade adepts’ devastating display of power could not attract even the slightest of their attention.

After all, everyone beneath Fourth Grade was an ant or fodder. Only Fourth Grade adepts could decide the outcome of this war!

The somewhat more skinny figure of Greem stood inside the core area of the Capital of Steel, beneath the ground. He finally handed over control of the most important magical machine of the Crimson Clan to Gazlowe.

Space rippled and trembled violently. When the white light of the successful teleportation slowly faded away, a vicious magical machine standing several dozen meters tall appeared inside the room.

The golem dragon; the Crimson Clan’s only Fourth Grade magical machine and their highest confidence in a war.

It had finally arrived in space!

“It is yours to command now!” Greem coughed lightly, a trace of fatigue appearing on his young face, “Protect the Capital of Steel with it and bring nightmares to our enemies!”

As Greem’s voice disappeared into the wind, the terrifying magical machine finally broke free of the constraints of teleportation space. It started to move its gigantic and vicious body slowly.