Age of Adepts Chapter 776 The Combat Escalates

As a bloodline adept, Gerndt was practically fearless after transforming into the bloodmouth!
If Mary had been an elementium adept, he might still have been worried about being kited and worn down by long ranged spells. However, Gerndt had nothing to be concerned about against a vampire that specialized in Agility.
The weak attacks of vampires was a universally known fact. Trying to break through his fine scales with Mary's thin claws was no more than a delusion. Without the ability to deal damage, the talent of the vampires to consume blood and regenerate would be useless.
Meanwhile, Mary would be in a terrible pinch if the chilling jaws of the bloodmouth caught her. Regardless of how strong her magical defenses were, she would not be able to escape the fate of being bitten in half.
Thus, Gerndt did not retreat when he saw Mary approaching. Instead, he put on a wicked smile and rapidly charged at Mary with his fat body, like a magical fish that couldn't walk on land.
If one had to pick out a weakness of the bloodmouth, it would be their lack of long-ranged skills. Their mobility was also on the slower side amongst Second Grades. However, their tough defensive scales and fearsome mouth that could devour everything made up for most of these weaknesses, turning them into ferocious magical creatures that most would not dare to provoke.
Mary rapidly began to circle the bloodmouth upon nearing him. She also started frequently using her crimson claws to prod and probe for any weaknesses on his body. Gerndt ignored Mary's attacks and relied on his scales to block them all. He also started moving about, trying to get Mary's body within the range of his bite.
In truth, most of Mary's attacks possessed the two different effects of blood corrosion and shadow damage. However, they still couldn't deal any visible damage to the heavily armored bloodmouth.
Meanwhile, the bloodmouth's attacks were clumsy and slow. It had failed to catch her, even after several attempts to snap after Mary's phantasmal silhouette. Even when he occasionally struck, he would quickly discover that they were afterimages that Mary had intentionally left behind to bait him into revealing weaknesses when attacking.
Mary quickly started giving up after three minutes of circling and striking the bloodmouth.
Mary's attacks could not easily penetrate the fine scales that covered the fat fish's body. Meanwhile, the parts that could be known as weak spots–the eyes, the mouth, and the anus–were all very well covered.
Mary had moved to the bloodmouth's back several times in hopes of striking at his anus. Unfortunately, the bloodmouth's anus was beneath its massive fishtail. The flat and powerful tail had completely covered the weak spot, leaving Mary no possibility of striking at it. Unless Mary could bait the bloodmouth into using his tail to strike at her, she would not have a chance to commit to this plan of action.
The other most glaring weakness of the bloodmouth were the eyeballs above his mouth. They lacked the protection of the fine scales and appeared to be the most easily attacked part of his body.
However, Mary was not an idiot either. After a few tries, she quickly discovered that the weakness was no more than a trap that the bloodmouth had left for his enemies.
An enemy would have no choice but to arrive in front of the bloodmouth if they wanted to attack his eyes. Yet, the front of the bloodmouth's body was precisely where his giant mouth was. Regardless of whether he chose to spit Void Ooze or Acidic Spit at the enemy, he would inflict tremendous damage.
Void Ooze could trap an enemy in a spot and reduce their speed tremendously for a short period. On the other hand, Acidic Spit was an even more terrifying acid that could destroy and weaken all known magical armor and defensive spells.
If the enemy were even somewhat slow in their movements and allowed the bloodmouth to obtain a chance to do so, the magical fish would be able to swallow the enemy in a single bite. One couldn't expect too much of Mary just because she was Second Grade. Even she would have no chance of escaping from his stomach if she were swallowed into his body!
Mary had no choice but to concentrate all her attacks on the back of the bloodmouth, sending scale dust flying everywhere as she scratched with her claws, leaving scratch marks all over the tail. However, the bloodmouth didn't seem to mind. He continued to turn his body and snapped continuously with his wicked mouth, letting out a threatening and intimidating crunching sound as he did so.
Mary couldn't harm the transformed Gerndt, and Gerndt couldn't catch the phantasmal female vampire. The battle between the two quickly turned into a stalemate.
On the other side of the battlefield, Soros and Windsor had managed to locate Second Grade Body-Refining Adept Gullit.
The three of them were all of professions that preferred direct combat. As such, they immediately started clashing with their weapons upon encountering each other.
As a body-refining adept, Gullit had refined his entire body to be as tough as steel. When aided with defensive spells and his life forcefield, he became speechlessly invincible. The blood battle techniques that the two blood knights landed on Gullit were mostly dispersed by his defensive forcefields. What remained of their force couldn't even scratch the body-refining adept.
In contrast, the immense strength of Gullit, paired with his magical blade, represented a huge threat to the blood knights with every slash he executed. The magical blade could cut through Soros and Windsor's armor and leave a deep wound if it ever struck them.
More importantly, the two blood knights would not be able to consume blood and regenerate if they couldn't even wound Gullit. If one of the knights were to become injured and forced to escape and target another human warrior to recover, the remaining blood knight would have to face Gullit alone and be at considerable risk of being executed.
Thus, in a matter of just fifteen minutes, Soros and Windsor had experienced many risky exchanges. They had no choice but to retreat as they fought, barely dealing with Gullit's attacks this way.
That said, compared to the problematic situation that Mary and the blood knights were in, the blood elves were having a much more relaxed time.
They transformed into crimson bats and weaved between the crowd, quickly diving toward the location of any adepts they spotted. The ones they were looking for were all First Grade adepts of the Andorra Clan. Though they were all experienced veterans with exceptional combat ability, all their techniques and skills were useless when dealing with two fearless Pseudo Second-Grade blood elves.
The two blood elves weren't concerned with dodging or avoiding damage. They relied on their superior grade advantage to crush the enemy. They would boldly cling to an opponent's defensive shield when they got the chance, scratching and biting with all they had. They couldn't even be bothered to dodge the enemy's attacks.
The Andorra adepts had no choice but to grit their teeth and place their hopes on their defenses when dealing with such unreasonable and unstoppable Pseudo Second-Grades. However, regardless of how talented a First Grade adept was, they would be at a massive disadvantage when contesting a Second Grade in offensive intensity alone.
The result was the same, even if the enemy was only a Pseudo Second-Grade!
Two First Grade adepts of the Andorra Clan died just like that, having their shields forcefully broken and their bodies drained of all their blood. Meanwhile, the wounded blood elves completely recovered to their initial state after consuming their blood. They roared and charged at new enemies.
Apart from escaping, all the First Grade adepts they had set their sights on could not do anything. They dared not confront the vampires in direct combat.
For a moment, all the Andorra adepts were terrified by the blood elves and chased all over the battlefield. However, apart from the two adepts who were killed at the very start of the battle, the other adepts became more cautious when they recognized the terror of the blood elves.
They would immediately turn tail and run when they saw any sign of the blood elves approaching them, never giving a chance for them to get close. However, this made it difficult for the adepts to cooperate with the noble's army and strike a fatal blow at the line of magical machines.
The human warriors that had been abandoned by the adepts could only raise their wooden shields and travel across the uneven Magma Hall with incredible difficulty, enduring the storm of bullets coming their way.
In just half an hour, another one thousand human fighters had fallen into the muddy puddle of blood beneath them.
The expressions of the Alliance adepts turned solemn when they saw this. They were once again surprised by the Crimson Clan's reserve of forces.
If this tower had belonged to their own clans, which of them would have dared to charge out the tower and fight against the powerful Alliance with eight times their number? Yet, this enemy had dragged their magical machines out of the tower and started to battle against the Alliance to buy time for the tower to recover.
The fire adept squad might have successfully caused the uprising of the magma sea below and cut off all chances for the tower to continue absorbing fire energy. However, such a large-scale interference could not be maintained for long. If the Crimson Clan managed to drag out the battle until the magma sea calmed down, it would be challenging to repeat the trick.
Thus, the higher-ups of the Alliance could no longer sit still for much longer when they saw that the Andorra Clan was having trouble breaking through the magical machines after such a long time.
Under the orders of Third Grade Yurga of the Kamala Clan, the Cenas Clan that was supposed to replace the Andorra Clan one hour later entered the battlefield prematurely.
When an additional sixteen adepts entered the battleground with an extra three thousand human fighters, the atmosphere of the battlefield froze over!
It was important to note that the Cenas Clan's forces had three Second Grade adepts.
Their arrival could substantially compensate for the lack of high-grade fighting forces on Andorra's part. The three thousand human fighters might not be able to affect the grand scheme of things, but the three Second Grades were an important weight that could affect the balance of the entire battle.
The higher-ups' idea was actually straightforward. They wanted to force Mary and the other vampires to retreat and provide space for their noble's army to exterminate the magical machines. The Alliance army could only officially launch their attack against the tower once they did away with the annoying obstacle that was the magical machine army!