Age of Adepts

Chapter 302 A Fearsome Fight

Colorful lights illuminated the forest.

When the light faded and darkness once again fell upon the earth, the Infernal Tyrant had already vanished from its spot. It had disappeared.

And neither was the female illusionist.

An illusion? A sealing spell? Or some other strange occurrence?

Greem had no time to think. He cast Fire Teleportation, disappeared, and reappeared a hundred meters away from where he was earlier.

Crunch.

The serpent the bloodline adept had turned into snapped its jaw closed. A tremendous noise echoed through the woods. A massive tree where Greem had just been standing under had cracked in half. Shattered wood splinters went flying in every direction. The tree creaked as it fell towards the ground.

The dark woods continued to rumble as the giant serpent's body charged through, crashing into the trees in its way and knocking them down like a berserk golem. It rapidly slithered towards Greem. It crushed everything in its way. The grass blew away, and a trail of dust had appeared behind the snake.

The oppressiveness of its presence, the ferocity of its might. Not even Greem dared to imagine the consequence of being hit by such a massive creature!

Greem shouted when he saw the massive shadow closing in on him. He stared at the pair of strange amber-eyes that glowed brightly in the inky night. An endless stream of abyssal flames surged out of the Flame Fiend's Heart along with the throbbing of flame energies. They coursed through his veins and quickly traveled throughout his body.

Flames emerged from Greem's body as he quickly increased in size.

The skin on the surface had cracked from the violent energies, causing wounds to appear all over. However, surging lava quickly filled in these wounds, turning his body into a Flame Fiend's body forged of flesh, fire, and lava.

Two thick, wickedly curved horns slowly appeared above his head. Greem painfully moved his body. His massive hooves stomped upon the scorched earth. The intense heat instantly caused the moisture in the dirt to evaporate.

Red lava flowed from beneath the earth. It quickly gathered and formed a massive pool of fire and magma beneath Greem's hooves. More and more lava and fire gathered in Greem's right hand. An unbelievable, exaggeratedly large executor's blade had formed in just a short moment.

Burning flames, red lava, dense black smoke, and the pungent odor of sulfur.

A five-meter tall Flame Fiend rose up in this terrifying world of black and red magma. The inside of its body was red hot lava, while solidified magma composed the surface. Wicked magma spikes could be seen growing out of its oversized joints.

The transformed Greem roared at the charging Giant Black Mamba. Smoke and flames vented from his large mouth and nostrils. Its terrifying aura of might was equally as shocking as that of the serpent!

"Die!"

The flame giant roared, and the two colossal titans clashed.

A low, muffled boom rang out in the woods.

The violent shockwave rippled outwards. Everything caught in it was shredded to pieces and blown away. All the trees, grass, bushes, and even the flames.

The two large bodies were entangled with each other as they stumbled for a distance.

The Giant Black Mamba raised its long neck and let out a pained screeching noise. The Flame Fiend burned the snake wrapped around it as if the Fiend was a boiling pillar of magma. Its scales and flesh were practically roasted above a pit. Black smoke enveloped the snake as its body turned bright red from the heat.

Still, it didn't dare to loosen its grip. In fact, it contracted every single muscle in its body and bound the Flame Fiend as hard as it could. The Flame Fiend's body creaked under the tension.

The serpent coiled its body and placed its giant face before the Flame Fiend's blazing head. Its eyes gazed into the eyes of the Flame Fiend.

A dirt-yellow surge of petrification energy took advantage of the Spiritual connection that had been formed and extended towards Greem's mental world!

If it directed the Eye of Petrification in a particular direction, it would petrify and turn the enemy's body to stone. Of course, the degree to which it would be able to cripple the enemy depended on the enemy's resistance. However, if it channeled those petrification powers towards the enemy's mental world through a Spiritual or soul connection, the enemy would instantly lose all ability to resist. They would be completely vulnerable and exposed to all other attacks.

Greem would never just sit around and wait for this disaster to occur. The Flame Fiend reached forward and grabbed the serpent's neck, calling upon the abyssal flames in its body to burn and wound the snake. At the same time, a surge of fire energy made its way to the Flame Fiend's eyes, and two terrifying Solar Ray beams shot out towards the snake.

The brown beam from the Eye of Petrification clashed with the blinding red Solar Rays.

The clashing energy moved back and forth in the air. It moved towards Greem at one moment, and at the next, it would push in the serpentine adept's direction. Every time it inched towards one of them, the person would immediately let out a wild roar and draw out as much energy to push the beam backward.

A giant serpent and a blazing demon. The two titans remained entangled with each other as they rolled in the sea of magma. Their fearsome eye powers were still locked in an intense struggle. For a short while, the two engaged in a stalemate.

In a section of the dark woods, the severely wounded Butcher was swallowing as many potions and regenerative brews as he had with him. He used every single spell and treasure he had on him that could help regrow his flesh and muscles.

Sadly, as he was a body-refining adept, most of his physical potential had already been drawn to its limits. Stimulative drugs and regenerative potions had minimal effect on him when compared to other adepts.

The Butcher barely managed to use his blood energy to extinguish the fires on his body. After a series of medical treatments, he was able to stabilize his wounds. An intolerable itch and stinging pain came from all over his body. The muscles on his body were quickly regenerating and recovering. He didn't look as grotesque and terrible as he did before!

He called upon his blood energy to rapidly heal his broken body. Meanwhile, he looked on at the battle in the distance with the one eye he had left.

Only a short time had passed, but already the fight between the two giants had shifted nearly two kilometers away. The ground quaked, and fires blazed in the sky. Their match was even, and the outcome undecided.

The Butcher felt fearful as he looked on.

If…if that Greem person had used this against him right at the start of the battle, how long could he have endured in that fiery hell? Fifteen minutes, or seven?

Disregarding the fearsome Flame Fiend form, just the abyssal flames, and streams of fire shrouding his body would have been too much for the Butcher to bear. The Flame Fiend wasn't known for its strength, but it still had 12.3 points in Strength, not to mention its robust Physique.

The Butcher was sure that he was nothing more than cannon fodder when put in front of a monster like this one. Bloodhand Butcher also had 17 points of Physique and 14 points of Strength. He was an elite adept even among the First Grades.

However, he knew very clearly that even the elite adepts were divided into several tiers.

The elite adepts that only had one attribute above 10 points were known as faux-elites. They might be able to demonstrate dominance in a specific aspect, but they were not all-rounded talents and had inconsistent performance. Thus, most people didn't consider them proper elites.

Only those who had managed to gain 10 points in every attribute could be considered elite adepts. These adepts were also the main military force in the more prominent clans. It didn't matter whether it was a planar war or a clan war. They were always the vanguards.

Strictly speaking, Bloodhand Butcher was also one of these elites.

His Physique had exceeded the threshold of 15 points and was at a total of 17 points. Unfortunately, his Strength, Agility, and Spirit still lagged behind. There were adepts above himself. Those were the elite adepts that had managed to cross the 15 point threshold for every single attribute. These individuals were often the reserve strength of adept clans, kept in safety to attempt an advancement to Second Grade. Clans often hid them and kept them a secret from the outside world. It was rare for these individuals ever to go outside.

However, whenever such an adept appeared, they could single-handedly crush any ordinary adept!

This strength was why the Butcher couldn't help but feel his body and soul and tremble in awe when he watched two adepts of this level battling before his eyes.

"What are you looking at? Hurry up and help!"

A Spiritual voice suddenly boomed in his mind. The voice belonged to that of his companion, the serpentine adept.

The Butcher betrayed a wicked smile as he looked at the two titans engaged in their brutal fight. He ignored the tears and pain that his smile had just caused on his barely recovered facial muscles. Blood dripped from his face.

He extended a hand, and the two-handed longsword that had been blown away flew into his hand in a crimson streak.

He glared at the Flame Fiend, who was still bound by the serpent's body and let out a rumbling roar. Blood energies gathered around him once more as he marched towards the battlefield.

Greem felt a slight tremor in the ground, and a severe expression appeared on his blazing face. The Flame Fiend suddenly came up with a burst of strength and created a little space for himself. His massive hands reached into his body and took out two gleaming crystals, which he then threw at the Bloodhand Butcher.

This momentary distraction had allowed the Black Mamba to tighten its grip once more, constricting the Flame Fiend and causing his body to groan from the pressure. Massive cracks had already started appearing all over the flame giant's body.

The petrification energy from the snake's eye had also gained plenty of ground. It was only several inches away from the Flame Fiend's burning eyes!