Age of Adepts

A subtle energy flux appeared momentarily before vanishing!

If they hadn't all been Fourth Grade powerhouses, the three fighters would have easily ignored this unusual energy flux amidst the chaos of the battle.

This energy flux was subtle, yet sinister, and carried with it a terrifyingly overwhelming aura.

What was truly horrifying wasn't this flux of energy, but its source!

At the same instant that the shadow energy erupted, a tall, blurry figure emerged from Fahssn's shadow. The sharp, blade-like claws in his hands stabbed in and out of the Fungal Giant's body.

As the claws continued to slash, waves of fearsome shadow power erupted inside the Giant's body. These miniature energy explosions not only inflicted even more severe damage to the Giant's flesh but further corrupted most of his core organs with shadow energy.

The shadowy figure circled Fahssn rapidly, his claws continuously weaving and stabbing. In just the blink of an eye, hundreds of wounds had appeared on the Fungal Giant's body. Shadow energy continued to explode in these wounds. Blood as black as ink seeped out of the gashes, along with pieces of organs.

Fahssn, who was using his entire body to restrict Greem, had now become the perfect target. He could not even retaliate.

He roared furiously, his free arm extending into several separate appendages that lashed at the mysterious enemy. Unfortunately, his slow and clumsy movements could not catch up to the opponent's phantasmal form.

The howling, whipping vines landed on bare ground, pulverizing the stone ground and reducing it to dust.

As Fahssn resisted, the black figure quickly closed the distance, appearing behind Fahssn's actual body. The claw pierced his brain with a simple stab, and a tremendous surge of shadow energy instantly shredded his mind and mental consciousness.

The Third Grade sporeperson that was parasitizing the Fourth Grade Fungal Giant let out a tragic cry. His soul aura instantly vanished in front of everyone's eyes.

Greem had successfully assassinated Fahssn with the help of Shadow Demon by using himself as bait. However, at the same time, he'd endured a terrifying strike from the podling.

The Shield of Holy Light, created by Sodden's Holy Ring, was smashed to sparks by the podling's 'palm' made out of countless entangling vines. The multiple Lava Shields and dozens of Inferno Shields he tried to create were also smashed to pieces by the podling before they could fully manifest.

Even as strong as it was, the podling's strike was momentarily stalled after smashing through so many layers of magical defenses. Greem took full advantage of this window of opportunity. He used the violent recoil from a blast of fire to retreat out of the radius of impact.

An earthshaking impact rang out!

Greem's scrambling figure was blown forward by the vicious shockwave. He couldn't help but stumble away. The defenses he barely managed to conjure in time trembled as the loose rocks and stone from the impact shot at him. Blinding sparks and terrifying cracks could be seen on the fire shields around him.

Three-meter-thick green vines lashed out of the smoke and dust. Greem could only teleport away without any hesitation, just dodging the ferocious attack in time.

His figure reappeared in another place. An odd snapping sound could immediately be heard as three mouths charged out of the smoke and snapped at him like a hydra.

Greem lifted his hand, and a barrage of Blazing Fireballs flew at the enemy. The explosion managed to keep the three green mouths at bay. Before he could regain his balance, he felt a vicious wind against his back. Another giant vine was whipping towards him.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! This podling's way too huge!

When it went berserk, every single part of its body was a weapon.

The entire room was full of dancing whips, each about two to three meters thick and covered in scary thorns that seemed to have a metallic sheen. Being hit by such a vine, even without considering the podling's own 46 points of Strength, was already a threat to Greem.

Apart from the vines, the arm-like, agile branches and mouth-like leaves were all massive threats. The mouths could spew out a terrifying poison mist and constantly salivated.

Their saliva sizzled when it landed on the ground. White smoke would rise, melting a small hole into the stone.

Poison attacks, acid attacks, multi-attacks.

This podling seemed to have gone mad. It used its slender, soft, and agile stem to its fullest potential, whipping about and unleashing a torrent of attacks at Greem.

Greem was forced to teleport around the hall constantly. He could not stay in any spot for more than three seconds. Otherwise, terrifying roots would pierce out from beneath the ground, thick vines would crash down from above, and bone-chilling mouths would snap at him, forcefully crushing all his magical defenses to pieces.

Greem had also tried to cover himself in his invisible flames and hide.

Unfortunately, before he could even escape, he would be revealed by a breath of poison mist.

These flames would collide and clash with the poison mist. The poison mist evaporated each time, but Greem's cloak of fire would also be contaminated green!

However, while the podling was wildly trying to kill Greem, Shadow Demon once again appeared. He was standing right before the podling's stem, exposed above the pile of skeletons.

Fire erupted as a blinding light flashed in the hall.

Shadow Demon appeared out of the shadows and quickly arrived atop the skeleton pile. The sharp blade in his hand penetrated the podling's defensive forcefield and pierced into the seven-meter-thick stem.

The stem ruptured, and green sap splattered everywhere. Terrifying acid coated Shadow Demon's entire body.

Poison attacks were ineffective.

And acid attacks had to burn through Shadow Demon's incredible resistance.

With his resistance, the acid would have to continue burning for three hours before it could corrode his metal body. That was more than enough time for Shadow Demon to kill any enemy of his.

The podling's reaction at having been attacked was unusually extreme.

It twisted its body back, and eight green mouths lunged at Shadow Demon from every direction, their sharp teeth grinding as they snapped forward.

Shadow Demon had no choice but to run after two rounds of attacks.

He might be a magical machine with excellent physical defense and magic resistance, but even he might not be able to survive multiple attacks from the podling at close distance.

When Shadow Demon retreated to the shadows, and the podling's attacks missed, a series of fireballs landed on the podling's body.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

A violent chain of explosions blasted the podling's stem and ruptured it even further. Green sap splattered across the ground. The flames had even ignited one of the branches. The green mouth on the end of the branch struggled in agony and let out a scream resembling that of a baby's wail.

However, no amount of screaming could save its life. The green mouth turned into a pile of ashes as it wailed.

"You damned bastards. I will kill you."

The podling was the one caught between two enemies now.

Shadow Demon and Greem were both incredibly slippery and cunning.

When the podling tried to chase after Greem, Shadow Demon would sneak close to its body and inflict devastating damage. When the podling attempted to chase after Shadow Demon, Greem would use his terrifying might to hurl an endless stream of violent spells.

Attacks from two powerful Fourth Grades. Either one of them was enough to injure the podling badly.

The podling's greatest weakness was the fact that it was rooted and unable to move freely. It could only tiresomely chase after the two enemies, without the freedom to choose its own battlefield.

In the end, driven to a rage by the constant harassment of Greem and Shadow Demon, the podling finally went berserk.

It twisted and lashed out with its vines and branches, chasing off the two enemies that buzzed around him like annoying flies. It then pulled its roots out of the pile of skeletons with much difficulty, causing the entire hall to rumble and shake as it did so.

Due to how much of a hurry it was in, the podling had no time to extract its roots slowly. It was basically cutting off and leaving behind the majority of its body in doing so. As the bones rolled off of the skeleton pile, the sound of snapping roots could be heard.

Pungent, green sap flowed from the severed roots, staining the pile of skeletons a sickly green color. The bones that were covered in this sap started to soften and collapse like a bad cake before turning into a puddle of disgusting green liquid.

The moment the podling pulled out its roots, the skeleton pile completely collapsed, revealing the strange well hidden deep below. The water in the small well was extremely clear and gave off an unusual, overwhelming sense of unending lifeforce.

The tens of thousands of the podling's roots had been wrapped around the well and further covered in the skeletons of thousands of swamp creatures. That was why the aura of the well had not leaked out and been detected by anyone.

However, when the podling finally uprooted itself in a desperate attempt to attack the enemy, Greem finally discovered the existence of the well.

Primal Water.

So the Primal Water was there!

According to Emelia's information, there was certainly Primal Water in the Podling Cave. However, Greem had found no signs of the Primal Water in all his probing and fighting earlier.

Just as he was suspicious of having been tricked or lied to, he discovered what he was searching for beneath the roots of the podling.

It was now that he finally understood why this podling could grow to such a colossal size and possess such horrifying power. It had dug its roots into the well and used the Primal Water to grow and absorb the nutrients he needed to grow rapidly.