Age of Adepts

"Dodge…dodge, all of you, high-speed maneuvers, immediately!"

The leader of the Swamp Flying Dragon army was an actual First Grade adept. However, even he felt his scalp go numb and his heart throb at the sight of those countless fireballs and their black tails of smoke.

The dragon he was riding reared its head as he shouted his orders. It folded its wings and wove and dove in between the fireballs like an unstoppable arrow, slowly but surely making its way towards the giant ship.

Its companions were also dodging and weaving about wildly behind.

Unfortunately, there were simply too many energy fireballs packed together. They might be able to dodge one or two of them, but they couldn't avoid all of them. There were even a few dragons that crashed together in their panic.

For a moment, the sound of exploding fireballs, the agonized screams of the dragons, and the shouts of the apprentices mixed into a chaotic mess.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The series of fireball explosions generated a fearsome shockwave, which made the battlefield even more dangerous and unpredictable. Several of the swamp dragons crashed into the fireballs and started to swerve unpredictably, crashing into and detonating even more energy fireballs.

Pretty fireworks erupted in the air.

In the blink of an eye, over twenty swamp dragons and their adept apprentice riders had been blown to bits. Pieces of dragon organs, flesh, and purple blood scattered down to the ground in a wet and warm rain, making for a rather magnificent, if morbid, sight.

Even more swamp dragons managed to charge past the clouds due to their magical shields and began to approach the Motherships.

At this point, squads of magical machines were already standing in wait near the Motherships' edge. They erected their energy barriers and activated their magic energy cannons, silently waiting for the enemy's arrival.

The magic energy cannons had a firing range of seven hundred meters, far beyond the scope of the dragons' acid breath. Consequently, the magical machines were the first to fire in the engagement.

The three Motherships were arranged in a triangle formation, with the Versailles slightly behind the other two.

While the swamp dragons desperately flapped their wings to reach within attacking distance with the apprentices on their back, a storm of small energy fireballs shot out from both sides of the three Motherships.

The adept who had just flown above the clouds felt a chill spread through his heart. He watched with eyes wide open as the hail of fireballs crashed down from above.

The ships had only fired three hundred magic-energy fireballs earlier. It might have looked like plenty, but there was still plenty of space between each shot in which to weave and dodge. However, the machines' bombardment was a true rain of fire this time, in every sense of the word. There was no possibility of avoiding the fireballs by means of movement or positioning.

The adept activated the Barrier Gem that he gripped tightly in his hand without hesitation.

A magical barrier appeared, completely enveloping him and his dragon. The fireballs immediately erupted into a sea of fire, just barely after the barrier appeared.

Over a dozen dragons screeched and fell from the skies.

"Disengage from the enemy's firing range…disengage from the enemy's firing range. Launch a dive assault once we reach higher altitudes!"

The king of the swamp dragons beat its wings at their leader's orders and flew even higher. Finally, they were past the Motherships, circling above all the Crimson ships. The magic energy cannons of the Motherships could no longer attack them at this angle. Only the squads of magical machines arranged on the wide decks could continue firing.

The leader of the Swamp Flying Dragons continued to circle in the air, dodging one fireball after another.

Meanwhile, he hastily produced several seeds from his pouch and threw them down at the deck. These seeds were only the size of fists and were so light they seemed almost weightless.

They drifted down slowly. Upon landing on the deck, young green sprouts started to grow from these seeds. The sprouts might look thin and weak, but they had as much penetrative power as high-grade enchanted weapons.

These sprouts quickly pierced through the half-meter thick metal deck and began to dig and grow under the deck. The ability to devour everything- that was the unique power of these magical plants.

By devouring the ship's metal, the magical plants started growing at extraordinary speed, soon transforming into gigantic lifeforms that resembled metal squids.

They waved their dozen-meter-long vines about, rampaging across the deck, knocking down the machines or picking them up and hurling them at other machines as projectiles.

The machines quickly mobilized, surrounding the metal squids and suppressing them with relentless firepower. Unfortunately, these magical plants had exceptional resilience and remained lively even after being riddled with holes. Until the magical consciousness in their mind was wiped away, they would not die.

For a moment, the decks of the Motherships had been thrown into disorder!

Ci!

The sound of a sharp arrow piercing through the air.

A magical arrow of an exotic design cut across the chaotic battlefield, bypassing the dozens of metal tentacles and embedding itself in the head of one of those squids.

The arrow quickly exploded, and magical flames surged out of every crack in the squid's head. This mighty, uncontested magical plant instantly fell limp as the metal it had assimilated shattered into loose debris. Its metallic-organic body turned into green slime that sizzled as it eroded what remained of the deck below.

The intermediate Second Grade magical archer, Sandor, had appeared on the deck. She held a metal longbow of strange design in her hands, carved with all sorts of unusual magical runes. She turned back and shouted out orders to her subordinates.

"Stay on the deck and take care of these squids. Hmph! I will go delay the ones responsible for this!"

These individuals with magical longbows slung across their backs and shortswords at their waists were blood elves with the magical archer class.

Having said that, Sandor leaped several times and arrived at the edge of the ship's deck. She kicked against the ground with her slender legs, and her body flew across the air like an eagle. The adept riding on the swamp dragon king happened to be circling overhead at that moment. He waved his magic wand without hesitation upon seeing Sandor fly toward him.

A terrifying cloud of black smoke immediately wrapped around her.

Sandor let out a grunt as her blood aura erupted, blasting away the smoke. She raised her longbow, and an explosive arrow instantly shot toward the adept.

As an intermediate Second Grade fighting against an advanced First Grade adept, there was no questioning this clash's victor!

The explosive arrow sunk into the adept's head, and his head exploded into tiny pieces like a watermelon.

The swamp dragon king let out a sorrowful roar, but before it could dive down, it felt a weight on its back. Sandor had landed on the dragon.

She had switched the longbow to her left hand while her right hand pulled a dagger out of its sheath. With one light motion, she severed the massive dragon head and sent it tumbling down toward the earth. Sandor stepped on the dragon's falling corpse as she scanned the skies. Once she located her next target, she kicked off and charged forward.

Her body was still in the air, but her bowstring was already trembling. Yet another explosive arrow buried itself into the spine of a swamp dragon like a bolt of lightning. In the next second, the arrow exploded, and the apprentice on the dragon's back howled as he fell from the sky.

His body passed by Sandor midair. There was a cold gleam of light as another human head soared through the air. Sandor stepped upon their corpses and leaped into the air again.

Sandor's movements were the perfect expression of a blood-elf magical archer's agility and magical attacks. She slaughtered the dragons as if she were putting down stray dogs, knocking one apprentice after another out of the skies, beheading them before she moved on to the next one.

It was a slaughter. It was a simple, bloody slaughter!

One hundred swamp dragons with their fully-equipped adept apprentice riders would have had no problem conquering a human kingdom. Here on this battlefield of adepts, they had been disposed of before they could even cause a splash.

Lakarr's adept tower was ultimately no more than a regional city. It was already impressive for them to have an army at the scale of the Swamp Flying Dragons.

Once the Swamp Flying Dragons had been dealt with, the adept tower lost all means of retaliating against the Crimson Fleet. They could only defend themselves stubbornly with endless forcefields, no longer daring to send out any sorties.

Thus, the Crimson Fleet released an army of three hundred magical machines to work with the fleet in clearing out the rest of the City of Lakarr.

The mortal armies of the human kingdom truly had absolutely no chance in front of an adept army.

The three hundred magical machines marched forward in formation and razed Lakarr's city walls with a single bombardment. The soldiers of Lakarr scattered fearfully before they even fought these hundreds of gigantic metal monsters.

That was a good thing!

If they insisted on attacking the magical machines, the Crimson Fleet might not play so gentle anymore. The three Motherships would be able to raze half of the city's buildings in just two to three attacks. When that happened, the civilians of Lakarr would die along with the Entom Clan.

After routing the Lakarr guards, the magical machines split up into squads and marched on the tower along the streets. The three Motherships hovered in the air above, serving as cover for the machines.

The Motherships slowly approached, continually trading attacks with the adept tower as they did so.

With the magic generator furnaces, each Mothership was as powerful as an adept tower. With three of them against the enemy's one tower, it was only natural that the opposition had no choice but to remain on the defensive.

The reason the Crimson Fleet had sent out ground forces was simply to wear down the tower's energy reserves quicker. It couldn't be helped. Until the tower's energy was exhausted, the Crimson Fleet would not be able to assault and enter an adept tower with a complete offensive and defensive system, regardless of their numbers.

Thus, a difficult siege began!