Age of Adepts Chapter 202

Chapter 202 Prelude to the Conflict
The death of a radiant knight on the battlefield was no less shocking to the witcher-knight army than a massive earthquake.
There hadn't been a single record of a radiant knight dying on the battlefield in nearly a thousand years. Of course, this had to do with the fact that heretic casters in this plane were much weaker than the radiant knights, as well as the radiant knights' own strength.
Without the accumulation of knowledge nor the legacy of a proper system, the naturally awakened heretics had powerful talent and enviable development potential, but no place to systematically learn arcane knowledge or learn to apply their powers. Moreover, under the strict suppression of the witcher-knights, they were forced to hide their names and hide every time their identities were exposed, living a life fleeing and being homeless.
Under such conditions, the Continent of Knights’ heretics that awakened their power, naturally, were constrained by the lack of knowledge and resources. They could only suffer as they stagnated around the level of an apprentice adept. Even if there were occasionally geniuses that would advance to a First Grade caster by accident, they were hard-pressed to gain an advantage over the witcher-knights that travelled in groups. Once they met spellbreaker knights, the only path left to them was a death in despair.
A caster that was able to threaten a radiant knight had never appeared in this plane.
But now, the situation had completely changed with the appearance of these powerful invaders!
The angered knights' higher-ups had a severe disagreement. Some wanted everyone to remain calm, continue the slow but steady search through the remaining areas, and quickly find out the location of the invaders. While some were extremely angered, believing the previous strategy to be excessively conservative and equivalent to sending their elite forces to be slaughtered by the enemy.
Both parties had a major falling out due to this issue, and neither side would give any ground.
As the two Third-Grade Dragon Knights needed to escort the wounded green dragon back to the Dragon Cliff, they were currently missing from the knights' base. Consequently, under the pressure of this irreconcilable conflict, the witcher-knight army finally split!
The radicals were unable to hold back their rage any longer. After gathering nearly a thousand witcher-knights, they charged into Greenland Forest without hesitation.
At that time, the neighing, ferocious magic colts were all over Greenland Forest’s outer area.
These terrifying beasts looked like the combination of warhorses and magic wolfs. They carried streams of witcher-knights on their backs, sprinting through the dense forest as if they had wings on their backs. It didn't matter whether it was mountainous areas, steep cliffs, or gushing rivers; they would be able to leap across and continue onward as if they were still walking on flat ground.
With the magic colts' extraordinary climbing abilities, a massive army of 7 radiant knights leading 34 spellbreaker knights and 828 witcher-knights pushed forward into the depths of the forest with immense speed.
The horrifying voodoo beasts, incessantly surging forth from the depths of the woods, turned into piles of minced meat under the impact of the violent knight battle techniques.
For one moment, nearly a thousand witcher-knights started a wild slaughter against the numerous voodoo beasts within the woods, turning the forest within five kilometers into a bloody abattoir.
…………
There was a terrifying battlefield located deep in the forest.
The witcher-knight army had arrived here. A massive cliff blocked the path before them. To the left was a slope densely filled with trees, and to the right was geography that was flatter and had a spread of the trees that were thinner. As a result, the direction of the army naturally turned, heading towards the right of the cliff.
Just as the knight army had altered their course, a horde of voodoo beasts numbering in the thousands swarmed forth, instantly shattering their formation and scattering troops, throwing them into chaos.
Above the cliff and within the dense woods under the cliff, at the area where trees were sparse, behind the valley… in every single location of the area, one could see witcher-knights and voodoo beasts fighting in small groups.
Everywhere was the sound of blades against flesh, bones being cut, splashing blood, the roar of the knights, terrifying screeching of the voodoo beasts, the booming explosions from violent and ferocious knight battle techniques…
Not a single patch of silence could be found near the cliff. Burly silhouettes swinging their swords could be found everywhere, as could the ugly forms of the voodoo beasts.
Meanwhile, hidden amidst this chaotic and messy battlefield, Greem wandered about like a terrifying god of death descended upon humanity, his black robe wrapped about him. He casually admired the cruel and bloody slaughter before him, while using the wind critters to look for a suitable battlefield to join.
There were eighteen more adepts who were looking for an opportunity around the battlefield, much like he was doing.
Ever since they heard the large movements of the witcher-knight army, the adepts' base finally sent out nine adepts as reinforcements, causing the number of adepts on the frontline to reach nineteen people.
Adepts would rarely form groups of three or five like the witcher-knights. The way they were cultivated since youth was far too different. This caused adepts to be accustomed to battling in an unrestrained fashion, without any regards for others. Moreover, none of them would trust another adept with their backs.
Thus, they always fought alone!
Even Greem and Mary, who had experienced numerous life and death trials together, would usually fight on their own if there wasn't a need to stick together. They would very rarely fight together.
Perhaps this was the nature of adepts.
Greem strolled along a river. On the other side of the river, a group of nearly a hundred witcher-knights were fighting to the death against a group of voodoo beasts equal number in number. After paying the price of three witcher-knights' lives, they were on the verge of exterminating this squad of voodoo beasts.
Thus, when Greem walked past the battlefield, still wrapped in his black robe, there were only a dozen feline voodoo beasts resisting against the knights.
Five spellbreaker knights were mixed into this knight squad. When they saw Greem and his black robe from at a distance, they let out a battlecry and charged towards him with thirty witcher-knights following closely behind.
A seventy meter distance and a small stream five meters wide was not enough to deter their charge.
Greem looked at the provoked enemies and shook his head without showing any expression on his face. He chose to avoid the knights.
He might be able to defeat a squad this size, but the price he would need to pay for it was too large. Moreover, there was another knight squad on the tiny hill beside them. There were two radiant knights in that squad. If Greem engaged them here but became unable to end it quickly, he would very likely attract the attention of those two radiant knights.
Radiant Knights were not an enemy Greem could deal with!
Greem extended the hand hidden under his robe. A washbasin-sized Magma Fireball shot forth from the Fire Lord’s Scepter. With a wave of his hand, Greem threw it towards the charging knight squad.
The spellbreaker knight leading the charge frowned when he saw this. After sharing a look with the companion beside him, two large flame blades shot out from their longswords, intercepting the crimson fireball radiating astounding elementium flux in the air above the stream.
Boom! A loud explosion rang out in the skies.
The violent flame shockwave cut the stream in half and the water droplets were instantly heated to their boiling point, shooting everywhere like bullets in the air.
The charging knights quickly activated their energy shields. Cling. Clang. The sound of a constant stream of blows rang out. They were able to block this wave of attacks without suffering any losses. However, when they finally put down their energy shields and the misty vapor had finally dissipated, they could no longer find the silhouette of the black-robed figure.
"It's the Flame Demon!"
"It is him!"
"Hurry up and alert everyone. The Flame Demon was spotted. Have everyone be more cautious…"
Just as the few spellbreaker knights were thinking of a way to spread the news, Greem had already appeared in a low valley two-hundred and fifty meters away. Here, a group of nearly three dozen witcher-knights were trying their best to defend against the endless aerial attacks of three winged dragons.
Very fortunately, there were no spellbreaker knights or radiant knights. And especially, there weren’t any dragon knights in this squad!
As such, Greem no longer hesitated when he saw such a feast. The Fire Lord and the Fire Deity appeared at the same time, charging into the knights' ranks without any regard for their lives. As there were no powerful enemies here, Greem didn't activate his Flame Fiend Transformation, choosing to fight with his enemies using his adept form.
With the frightening prowess of the golems under Greem, just the Fire Lord and the Fire Deity alone were enough to easily take down this group of witcher-knights before him without having to lift a single finger. However, considering the numerous variables that could go out of control around the battlefield, Greem wanted to end the battle as fast as he could and joined the battle as well.
An adept-level golem, a pseudo-adept level elementium being, fighting alongside an adept of flame mastery. The three masters of flame charged into the battlefield, instantly turning the area into a sea of flames and covering it in countless fiery explosions.
The Chain Fireballs shot in succession, the Meteor Shower that fell from the skies, and the Firestorm that ravaged over half of the battlefield…this round of ferocious bombardment instantly pushed the knight squad to the brink of their deaths.
The witcher knights at the center of the explosions didn't have a chance to retaliate. Already, they had been blasted and reduced to ashes by the countless powerful spells. Only the witcher-knights at the edge of the area of effect were able to barely keep up their energy shields, riding their badly burnt magic colts out of the flame sea.
But the only thing that waited for them outside the field of fire was the Magma Fireballs that Greem casually threw at them.
These large elementium fireballs, wrapped in a layer of boiling magma on the outside, crashed into the ranks of the surviving knights with a trail of black smoke billowing behind them, suddenly exploding when they hit a witcher-knight.
The shattered magma shards shot out in every direction. The Magma Fireball’s terrifying lava core splashed in every direction as well, instantly covering a radius of ten meters.
Not every human could comfortably and easily soak themselves in lava like Greem could. The temperature of the boiling red lava would never go below 2000 degrees. The witcher-knights that were showered in lava would instantly be scalded and burnt by the lava. The flesh on their bodies, their bones, and even the magic colts below them would rapidly melt like wax into a pile of unrecognizable ash.
The magic resistance of the witcher-knights was still not enough to resist a vicious spell this powerful!
In under two minutes, Greem had exterminated a squad of thirty-three witcher-knights with ease, without activating his Flame Fiend Transformation or exhausting the instant spells stored in the Scroll of Voodoo.