Chapter 255 The Might of Adepts
There were no war declarations like the ones ordinary human nobles so liked to use.
Nor were there any insincere greetings.
A fight between adepts erupted the moment everyone involved had arrived!
The old adept known as Cochran continuously waved his hand about in the air. Every time, a strange flashing rune appeared and a terrifying, otherworldly creature would step out of nowhere.
Manticores, Destrachans, Ogre Magi, Wyverns, Formian Worker Ants, Yeth Hounds…
Though none of these creatures were excessively powerful, each and every one of them had a strength that rivaled pseudo-adepts. More importantly, their numbers seemed… a little over-the-top!
These otherworld creatures had traversed space under the influence of magical power. They leapt towards Adept Keoghan the moment they appeared. Keoghan let out a wicked grin and moved forward to engage.
Of course, Greem couldn't possibly remain idle now that the fight on the other side had already started.
Greem smiled graciously as he looked upon the two adepts that were gazing coldly at him.
Have the summoning adept stall Keoghan while the two offensive adepts defeat me first? In truth, their plan was pretty solid. That said, it depends on whether they had the power to back it up!
The battle between the three adepts started when Greem strode forward.
Carlos, the curse adept, quickly moved about, ensuring that he was always outside of Greem's intimidating Ring of Fire. Carlos muttered chants under his breath and waved a withered and rotted wooden wand at Greem, sending black and grey curse halos shooting towards him.
Some of the curse halos vanished after entering the Ring of Fire, their spell structures torn to pieces by the terrifying flame streams. Most of the remaining halos were blocked by the quickly spinning Lava Shields, leaving only a few to actually afflict Greem with curses.
However, while the number of effective curses were extremely low, they just didn't stop coming!
Greem let out a muffled grunt. The light from his bright-red flame body dimmed. It was clear that he had been affected by the curses.
Confusion!
Stamina Drain!
Spatial Confusion!
……
Dammit, what were these damned spells!
None of these curses did anything individually. However, when accumulated, they became a massive burden for Greem, who still had to deal with another enemy. The disastrous consequences of being affected by the curses at a key moment in battle were not something he even wanted to think about!
Greem let out an angered roar. Ferocious fire energies surged out from his body, instantly erasing all of the debuffs on him. A crimson radiance gathered around his eyes as a terrifying Solar Ray shot towards Carlos' heart.
Carlos, who had been wandering outside the Ring of Fire, let out a wicked laugh and instantly vanished from the spot. Adept McThran had vanished along with him.
This was bad! Something was wrong!
Greem narrowed his eyes. His body paused for a moment before disappearing.
A blast of fire accompanied by a soft boom appeared along with Greem at a spot a hundred meters away. His large and mighty body stumbled for a bit before recovering. A large cloud of strange black smoke was lingering by the right side of his waist. His crimson body of magma, originally hidden under the blazing fires, had been corroded by the black smoke. The entire spot had turned a purple color.
Carlos and McThran had also reappeared in another spot.
Adept Carlos seemed to be fairly unfazed. Other than some slight burn marks at the edge of his purple robe there was no indication of injury. On the other hand, the black smoke surrounding Adept McThran had thinned by a lot, revealing a scrawny but tall silhouette.
Moreover, one could vaguely see clusters of small fires burning stubbornly at the edge of the smoke.
The two scheming adepts had worked together and launched a sneak attack in the time Greem was launching his own attack. Greem would probably have suffered several crippling losses if he hadn't escaped then and there!
Greem called upon his fire powers and tried to extinguish the strange smoke lingering on his waist. That said, the black smoke wasn't any trivial spell either. It was extremely hard to put it out.
With no other choice left to him, Greem dug into his wound with his sharp magma claws, brutally cutting off the entire piece of his magma flesh and throwing it to the ground. He then bent down and scooped a huge handful of lava from the lava pool beneath him to seal his injury.
In the meantime, that repulsive Carlos had already resumed his disgusting act, revolving around Greem and tossing his curse halos about. McThran, on the other hand, had turned into a cloud of black smoke and let out a sinister laugh. He dashed about the air, avoiding the Magma Fireballs that Greem had thrown at him.
Every time he saw some lack of agility on Greem's part he would take advantage of it. The black smoke would dive into the Ring of Fire, enduring the burning effect of the elementium fires while leaving strange wounds on Greem's massive body.
Greem would lose all sense of the parts of his body that had were corroded by the black smoke, rendering the wounded spots weak to Carlos' evil curses.
Just fifteen minutes after they started, Greem already found himself being suppressed by their well-coordinated attacks.
Greem silently shook his head and let out sighs in his heart.
A higher-order plane was a higher-order plane after all. The strength of the creatures within were not something lower-order planes could match.
Half a month earlier he was still causing a slaughter in the knights' plane, butchering First Grade spellbreaker knights as if they were chickens and dogs. Now, back in the World of Adepts, he was having trouble dealing with two First Grade adepts simultaneously.
Fire spells may be the most suited elementium spells to slaughter, but they had plenty of flaws and insufficiencies when it came to the skirmishes and battles between adepts.
What use were powerful fire spells if they couldn't connect with enemies? How effective could the terrifying Ring of Fire be if it couldn't engulf the enemies within itself? If Greem didn't continue to think of ways to enhance his abilities against the equally mobile and flexible adepts, he would lose any advantage that he might have had.
Greem roared in rage. It was finally time to use all his powers.
He tossed out an elementium crystal core, and all of a sudden the adept-level Fire Lord stood beside him. The massive Fire Deity had also emerged from the blazing flames on the other side.
The pseudo-adept level Fire Deity was hardly a qualified subordinate at this point. However, it could still make a little impact with its self-destruction!
At that same time Greem extended his right hand, and a flame whip made of concentrated flame energy instantly formed in his hand. With the whip, Greem could make it much harder for McThran to break through Greem's defenses. The Scroll of Voodoo had also appeared silently in Greem's burning left hand. Its pages had already started flipping incessantly.
None of the adepts involved in this fight were idiots. The strange form of the Scroll of Voodoo had already caused Carlos and McThran to knot their brows in frustration.
Soul Equipment!
This was most definitely a Soul Equipment!
Unfortunately, they couldn't tell what effect the Scroll of Voodoo had. After all, all Soul Equipment had their own unique ability. It was hard to determine their effects just through their appearance. If they slipped up and gave the fire adept brat a chance, this soul equipment could probably turn the tides in a single blow!
The two adepts proceeded with this in mind. Naturally, they slowed down their actions and became much more conservative with their attacks and defense.
Greem wouldn’t let them wear him down just like that. As a fire adept, and an elementium adept that was particularly good at creating his own home field advantage, he was going to snatch the upper hand back. Thus, as the three terrifying flame demons roared and attacked with impunity, the battlefield quickly converted into a massive pool of roiling lava.
The foothold left for the two enemy adepts was quickly shrinking!
…………
The few Sarubo Clan elite apprentices were standing by the castle walls, gazing in awe at the battle of the adepts.
If one were to describe the battle between the apprentices as explosive, the battle that was happening now was a volcano! It was as if a gigantic, live volcano had just been plunged into the battle. The raging fires and violent spells ravaged the land, severely altering the geography around Locker Castle.
Even though the castle was five hundred meters away from the battlefield, everyone could still feel the oppressive heat and wind pressure pressing against their faces. The thundering sounds of explosions continued without end. Any single spell that an adept shot out was enough to cause the onlookers' hearts to clench tight in terror.
If any of the adepts got too engrossed in their fight, they might very well accidentally wipe the castle away along with them.
They weren’t sure if that terrifying Adept Greem was the most powerful adept present. However, they were certain that he was the absolute scariest!
The large patches of lava pooled on the ground, the layers of black and red flame clouds in the skies, and the blazing air inbetween.
This domineering Adept Greem had forcefully turned this place into his home field, all by himself. He had demonstrated to the entire world and to these future adepts, in the most raw and most insane way possible, the terror of a powerful adept!
He also perfectly displayed the tremendous destruction that an adept was capable of. Anyone looking on would feel fear creep into their hearts!
Near the end of the battle, the entire battlefield had turned a bright red. Even the two pseudo-adepts couldn't see through the elementium tides and peek at the progress of the battle.
…………
Greem's full prowess was only unleashed once the entire battlefield had turned into a sea of flames.
With his elusive Fire Teleportation, and his agile speed within the sea of flames, he was no longer plagued by his limited agility.
The vicious fire spells also gave him incomparable damage at long distances. Even a Magma Fireball fired off half-heartedly could deal astounding amounts of damage. Moreover, the Flame Fiend Transformation had caused his Physique to go up several times. The seven points of Physique he now had were nearing the levels of body-refining adepts.
This meant that he had both terrifying long-range attacks as well as powerful melee strength!
Greem, who had always been on the receiving end in this battle, seemed to finally have a chance to turn the tables with the home field advantage finally set.