Age of Adepts Chapter 732 Fire Dragon's Labyrinth

The fire dragon's cave wasn't without defenses!
Greem had just landed, yet two Firethroat Dragonborn immediately roared and lunged at him from inside the cave. The long-handled axes in their hands glowed with a flickering red light as they smashed them at the enemy, who had yet to stabilize himself.
Advanced First Grade!
The two Firethroat Dragonborn were both advanced First Grade elites. However, their strength was still nothing before a Second Grade adept.
A Flame Halo of Repulsion shoved the two dragonborn away. Greem then lightly patted the Scroll of Voodoo at his waist, and the Voodoo Doll emerged along with the Stitch Ghost Golem.
"The two of them are yours."
Greem gave a simple command and then ignored the two dragonborn.
The two magic servants giggled and floated toward the towering dragonborn warriors.
It was at this moment that Mary flew down from above along with her two blood knights. Though they possessed the strength of Second Grades, the three of them hated this environment with a passion. Wisps of black smoke had even started rising from the surface of their bodies.
While Mary was upset and cursing about the harsh environment here, a long and drawn out cry came from the fissure. Then, the massive and heavy body of the Goblin Shredder crashed down like a set of weights.
Tigule had already tried his best to maintain his balance while shooting out decelerating jet streams from the back of his machine. Sadly, the air currents in the lava valley were chaotic and random, making it difficult for the goblin to control the trajectory of flight and leaving him no choice but to crash like a massive piece of iron.
Greem sighed and waved at the crashing Goblin Shredder from a distance.
Red light immediately engulfed the massive body of the Shredder, and it gradually started decelerating. Once its speed had sufficiently slowed, the red light began to move the machine toward the teleportation platform through some unknown force.
"Thank you, boss. Thank you so much." When he finally found his balance on the platform again, Tigule's shrill and frightened voice rang out from within the Goblin Shredder.
It seemed like the Goblin Shredder still had some pretty significant flaws. It was best to find some time to improve it after this.
Oliven and Billis, who came right after, could both reach the platform through their own strength. However, when it came to Dragonborn Zacha, Greem had no choice but to act again and move him over.
Once Zacha had landed, and Greem turned around, the Voodoo Doll and Stitch Ghost Golem were already hovering gleefully in front of him. As for the two Firethroat Dragonborn? One of them had been poisoned to death, his face green and in agony. The other dragonborn's eyes had opened so wide that they almost split apart, his face filled with terror and fear.
At this point, all members of the team were present except for Old Fox Vanlier, who was too weak and had been ordered to find a place outside to hide.
What came next was the meat of the journey: finding the Second Grade fire dragon.
Starting from the platform, the first thing that the party had to do was pass through that winding and booby-trapped labyrinth. They would not even be qualified to face that fire dragon if they couldn't even make it through the labyrinth.
"Billis, it's on you!" Greem said.
The reason he had brought the First Grade Billis along on dragonslaying operation was for this moment.
Billis, still completely cloaked in his black robe, nodded slightly. He took one step forward, faced the multiple entrances to the labyrinth, and his body scattered.
The black robe silently drifted to the ground as countless black beetles swarmed out from beneath the cloth. They weren't large, but their movements were fast and ferocious. The massive swarm instantly split into five or six armies of the same size and climbed toward the various tunnels in front of them.
These swarms might have split into different groups, but Billis' mind still remotely controlled them. Every time one of the bug armies ran into a fork in the path, they naturally split into even smaller armies. Like a ceaselessly splitting flood, the black swarm quickly engulfed every passage in the fire dragon's labyrinth.
That said, if it were so easy to explore the fire dragon's labyrinth, it wouldn't have become the base that the fire dragon lord relied upon.
A short moment later, they heard rumbling explosions from multiple spots in the labyrinth.
Billis' swarm had finally triggered the magical and mechanical traps that were set up everywhere. Every explosion signaled the death of dozens and even hundreds of insects. Though each individual loss wouldn't hurt Billis at all, the accumulation of damage from the continuous advance of the swarm was still not something that Billis could ignore.
The black robe that had drifted onto the ground evaporated wordlessly, turning into a cloud of black smoke. The black smoke formed into many winding lines in front of the party's eyes. These lines seemed to still continue to extend and stretch into the air.
It was the map of the labyrinth; the route that Billis had pieced together with the lives of tens of thousands of insects.
Greem looked at the map emotionlessly, but the Chip in his mind was already scanning and analyzing the map at high speed, finding the nearest and quickest path in the exceedingly tangled nest of lines.
Finally, one hour later, one of the hundreds and thousands of insect armies successfully emerged from the labyrinth and was immediately greeted by an overwhelming blast of fire and fury.
It was the fire dragon lord!
"Found him!" Greem's face relaxed as he shouted, "Let's go."
Having said that, he took the initiative and charged into the labyrinth.
Dragonborn Zacha raised his Frozen Mallet and smashed a corner of the teleportation array on the stone platform before following Greem into the labyrinth. The other Crimson adepts looked at each other and followed after their leader without hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, this place had been emptied! Not a single silhouette could be seen here!
With the swarm scouting the way forward, there were no more mysteries to this complicated and winding labyrinth. Greem and the others walked down an underground tunnel still burning with fires and traveled past plenty of roasted insect corpses.
As this was the shortest path, it also undoubtedly had the most magical traps. Billis' swarm had paid a massive price to make it through here.
However, Greem would compensate the bug adept for all these losses in the form of clan rewards once the operation had concluded. After all, amongst the Crimson Clan's new generation, Billis could be considered the most likely to attempt advancement to Second Grade adept in the foreseeable future!
Greem and his party easily made it through the fire dragon's labyrinth and immediately ran into the Second Grade fire dragon, who was already waiting for them.
If the fire dragon lord couldn't sense such a considerable commotion in his labyrinth, he would truly have become a blind and deaf dragon.
It was a large and handsome adolescent male fire dragon!
When it sat in the tall and spacious lava hall and raised its head high to gaze coldly at the adepts, everyone could feel the terror running through the depths of their hearts.
Greem was the one walking at the very front and, as such, was the first one to endure the chilling dragon's aura of might.
[Beep. Detecting foreign mental energy intrusion. Should mental barrier be activated to cut off said energy?
[Warning. Warning. If said mental energy is not cut off, host will experience -5 Spirit and -3 Agility in 7 seconds. Counting down from now: 7…6…]
"Activate mental barrier!"
[Order received. Mental barrier has been activated! It is estimated that all mental energy will be expelled after three seconds.]
From the others' perspective, Greem was only fazed for a few seconds before quickly breaking free of the effect of the dragon's aura of might.
Meanwhile, behind him, Mary, Tigule, Zacha, and the others all radiated the faint light of a mental barrier. The source of the light seemed to be an odd magical talisman hanging from their necks or waists.
These were Soul Protection Talismans that Greem had specially bought from the Silver Union. Each of them was worth eight thousand magical crystals!
The Second Grade fire dragon flew into a rage when he saw the strange magical flux radiating from the bodies of his enemies.
Given how prepared the enemies were, it seemed today's battle was unavoidable.
Fire Dragon Bamler raised his head and stared at Greem before roaring in a thundering voice, "Who…who are you people? Why have you invaded Lord Bamler's quarters? State your intentions, or else."
The fire dragon opened his mouth and flashed his chillingly sharp fangs. The adepts could see the blazing ball of fire quickly forming in his throat.
"Let's just fight if that's what we are going to do. What's with all the words!"
Mary had always been one whose movements were quicker than her thoughts. She cast away the obtrusive cloak on her body, flared her wings, and charged headfirst at the terrifying fire dragon.
She was fast, but the fire dragon was even faster.
A breath of incredibly hot dragon's breath rolled toward here like an unmoving wall.
Mary might be impulsive, but she wasn't stupid.
Taking on the dragon's breath of a Second Grade fire dragon with her defense and magical resistance was impossible; she would only be burned into cinders.
She beat her bat wings, and her slender body made four or five crimson shadows in the air before finally avoiding that fan-shaped breath.
Greem strode forward without hesitation and raised both of his arms. An equally turbulent stream of fire blasted toward the dragon's breath as the two clashed with each other.
Dragon's Breath versus Flame Stream!
Red dragons were high-grade, fire-attribute magical creatures, while Greem was a famous fire adept.
Both parties were practically immune to low-grade fire damage. When the two blasts of fire clashed with each other, terrifying temperatures and heat waves spilled everywhere across the room.
For a moment, the center of the lava hall split into two areas, each ravaged by a different flame trying to gain the upper hand on the other. It quickly turned the surrounding area into a burning sea of fire.
The conflicting parties were of the same grade and had roughly the same level of control over fire. Consequently, it turned into an equally matched showdown.
However, Greem's Physique and Spirit clearly couldn't compare with such a higher magical creature. Greem was knocked back several steps from the immense impact. His boots even started smoking from the friction against the floor, leaving two eye-catching skid marks on the ground.
Dammit. This fire dragon has so much strength!
Greem grumbled resentfully.