Age of Adepts

At this moment, the entire battlefield collapsed.

In between the locations of Mark and Greem, a large portion of the ground suddenly crumbled and caved-in, revealing a large and terrifying pit. At the heart of this hole, one could see dirt tumbling violently while clouds of dust rose to the surface. A massive figure could be seen gradually emerging from the depths of the pit.

Mark was forced to give up on his assault. A dignified expression was present on his face as he stared hard at the frightening figure that was slowly coming into view as dust settled down and it revealed its features.

The first thing he saw was a bizarre looking pair of fiery scarlet eyes, and after that he saw that its body was made up entirely of hard rocks. The triangle-shaped snake head which was molded from Adamantine Rock seemed to be indestructible, while a narrow seam can be found on its pointed snout. In fact, anyone blessed with a sharp vision would easily be able to tell that this gigantic snake, which was constructed entirely from rocks, even had a thin tongue and a pair of very sharp fangs.

Beyond the snake head was a strange body made from countless rocks of all shapes and sizes stacking onto each other, layers and layers of this formed the intimidating body of this giant rock snake. Since only a part of this snake's body showed up from the cover of the dust cloud, no one could get a full glimpse of it with most of its body still hiding underground.

But from what Mark could tell from the body parts that were exposed, looking at it from the ground up to its head that was held high up in the air, he estimated it to be at least twelve meters tall. If its entire body was truly made up of those rocks with high metallic content that were commonly found underground, then with just its frightening weight along with its indestructible body would be enough for it to become the greatest nightmare of most of its enemies.

This… was this terrifying Rock Snake one of that guy's golems?

Before he could dismiss his thoughts from his mind, the super Rock Snake had opened up its mouth wide, initiating a long-range attack named Gravel Spray at Mark. A vast amount of gravel and dirt was extracted from the end of its tail, channeling through a long winding tunnel inside its body and afterwards it shot out from its mouth, splashing Mark with a massive wall of dirt. From what they could tell, this Rock Snake didn't bother filtering the things it absorbed from the ground. There were many dried branches, grass and plant rubbish mixed in the dirt that was used in this nasty attack, along with countless underground insects, rats, earthworms and other unknown creatures.

Such a filthy attack made Mark feel stressed out.

While letting out an angry roar, he gathered up all of the thunder energy he has and directed it in front of his chest, forming them into a large web of lightning big enough to protect his body. The spray of dirt full of filth that impacted on the finely and closely woven lightning web produced a hissing noise that resounded throughout the entire place. A pungent odor of something burning lingered in the air afterwards.

In the moment Mark was using all of his strength to hold back the Gravel Spray attack, the audience located at the sides of the battlefield suddenly let out shocked cries.

"Careful…"

"Quickly, put up your defenses…"

…

Since Mark's line of sight was blocked by a huge amount of dirt, he wasn't able to see beyond the Gravel Spray. However, in a small time frame within a split second, his formidable combat instincts and abundant fighting experience allowed him to react quickly, raising his axe and placing it in front of his chest.

Puff!

A muffled explosion sounded out as the web of lightning scattered.

The terrifying and sturdy triangle-shaped snake head pierced through the dirt wall breaking the lightning web into tiny sparks. It then opened its large ferocious mouth and forcefully bit into Mark's battle axe.

An earth-shattering explosion echoed out to the surroundings. The Rock Snake clenched its huge mouth, using the sharp fangs made from tiny pointy rocks to tightly clutch onto the thunder axe, all the while taking advantage of the powerful thrusting force to crazily knock Mark far into the distance.

If it was another advanced apprentice and not Mark, this tremendous body slam alone would be enough to break their bones and crush them into a meat paste. Fortunately, Mark was a rare apprentice Body-Refining Adept of this training camp, his overall strength second only to Hulk, who was a Pseudo-Adept. Therefore, instead of being turned into a human paste, he could be seen letting out continuous wild roars. His body being stimulated by berserk strength resulted into cracking and popping sounds that could be heard coming from his own bones, and his muscles started to expand and become more robust at an incredible rate. Countless thick snake-like blood vessels crazily twisted and crawled under his metallic muscles…

The frantic Mark had one of his legs slightly bent down at the front while the other leg stretched out straight to support him from behind. His burly arm which had suddenly doubled in size held tightly on the axe. He had successfully blocked the full force of the Rock Snake's thrust.

Although he had succeeded in holding his ground, the land underneath his feet failed him.

Following the violent thrust of the Rock Snake, Mark's body kept being pushed backwards. His legs that were like pillars went through the hard ground, producing an increasing pile of dirt being accumulated behind him.

When the violent strike of the Rock Snake finally had its strength depleted, Mark's body had already been pushed back for more than twenty meters. The dirt that had piled up behind him became so tall it nearly drowned out his big burly body. The lower part of his body became completely submerged in dirt though.

"You must have used up all your strength already, huh? Now it's time for you to taste mine!"

Mark suddenly raised his head up staring right in front of him at the frightening head of the snake which was still biting on his axe while making eerie sounds. He roared out loud as fury welled up within him.

He forcefully knocked away the giant Rock Snake, and took advantage of the opportunity when its head drew back slightly. Mark suddenly jumped up with both feet while holding the axe with both hands, brutally chopping into the forehead of the Rock Snake.

Just like before, another loud explosion exploded out which sounded like metal striking metal ringing through the air. The giant Rock Snake had a ring-shaped body with a circumference of two meters which was entirely composed of Adamantine Rock that can be found underground. The snake was forced back by Mark's rapid chopping attacks causing huge amounts of rock fragments, dirt and sand to fall from its body like a waterfall.

Together with the audience, Greem's face twitched after witnessing how a muscular giant of a mere three meters high kept striking down on the gigantic rock monster which was many more times bigger than Mark. If this Rock Snake was a living creature, all of its bones would have been broken by now. It was a rock monster though and obviously not a living organism. Thus, that amount of damage wasn't enough to kill it.

Accordingly, under the long-distance control of Greem, the Rock Snake crazily twisted its body, coiling up into a dirt pillar that towered up in the sky. While that was in action, it retracted its body back into the dust cloud then prepared for another vicious thrust.

Mark, who had been able to attack it unceasingly before, wouldn't just let this go. He roared wildly and formed a lightning storm over his body as a protective shield, bending down and then sprinting right into the dust cloud to continue the intense fight he had with the Rock Snake in a chaotic fashion.

The massive dust cloud was stirred up and wasn't restrained anymore.

The air was full of dust that covered everything, blocking the vision of everyone. The chaotic and violent clash of Earth Elementium and Mark's lightning storm produced disruptions in their surroundings and isolated everything inside from the audience's spiritual senses. No one was able to bypass those by-product barriers which made them unable to find out the actual situation in the heart of the battlefield.

From time to time, large chunks of rocks would shoot out from within the dust cloud and sudden explosions of thunderclaps could be heard as well. Judging from these, the audience could infer indirectly how chaotic and intense the fight must be inside.

Meanwhile, Greem, who was riding on the Demon Alligator Hunter which was standing far from the center of the fight, had a more vivid and direct perception towards the situation inside the dust cloud, compared to the those other people. Under his skillful control, the rapid firing of Dirt Spears from the Demon Alligator Hunter and the Fire Arrows he casted towards the dust cloud would always inflict great damage to the enemy.

The furious roars that continued to sound out from within were the biggest evidence of how effective his attacks were.

It was such a remarkable battle which was like that of monsters fighting. It brought an indescribable sense of shock to the onlookers at the sides. Countless eyes of different colors filled with variety of expressions rested on Greem's face. They had changed their view towards him a lot of times already, previously from disdain to looking down and disregard but now, they had been startled after they examined him to be a rather dignified figure.

This was a fucking beginner apprentice!

Even so, he could still engage Thunder Axe Mark in such a fierce battle!

Although he wasn't fighting directly in person, but a summon was still part of an apprentice Adept's strength!

They couldn't help but try to imagine. If it wasn't Mark, who had a strong physique and muscles and clearly a man with powerful combat power that was fighting right now but them… Many elites among the people in the training camp showed painful and struggling expressions. Even though they didn't want to admit this, but if they were the ones there instead of Mark, maybe they would be struck down on the ground by a mere beginner apprentice, unable to get up anymore.

This mighty Rock Snake was just too strong!

It's overall strength was perhaps not weaker than that of an advanced apprentice of the path of Body-Refining Adept. If taken into consideration, the snake's frightening rock armor and its fearless onslaught would probably make even those Pseudo-Adepts in the camp hesitant to face this monstrosity!

At the time when everybody still had their minds filled with troubled and distorted thoughts, a ground-shaking eruption flared up through the air. Mark, who had been transformed into a muscular giant, was thrown out of the dust cloud and flew away like a cannon ball, slamming into the ground with tremendous force.

The crowd was shocked by this and hurriedly turned their eyes over to Mark. They instantly discovered countless frightening wounds covering the entirety of Mark's body.

Mark's left arm was broken and twisted into an unnatural angle while his right arm still looked to be in a good shape, barely able to hold on his axe. The battle axe forged from multiple special alloys had become out of shape while its body was full of deep scratches and bite marks.

Mark's body also had the same type of scratches on his axe.

When he tried to stand up on his feet while ferociously laughing, blood gushed out from the countless wounds he had, making his entire body bathe in blood. A terrifying cut from the bottom of his left eye to his right chin nearly ripped his face into two, of which the exposed flesh turned into a shade of earthly yellow color. A clear sign of being contaminated by Earth Elementium.

If Mark doesn't try to remove this Earth Elementium, a wound like this wouldn't completely heal even with his astounding self-recovery brought by his high Physique.

"Cough… good kid…" Mark stood still at the place where he landed and coughed up blood then said, "This fellow is really strong! If not because I made a mistake of having few of my helpful magical equipment exchanged for all of these rubbish, you wouldn't have been the one that had the advantage today… cough…"

The dust cloud dispersed, revealing the gigantic snake.

The crowd's eyes shrank.

The Rock Snake's condition wasn't any better than Mark's.

The gigantic snake with the size of a normal human house was now left with only one-third of its original size. Debris kept falling apart from its skull which had been crushed by Mark. The surface of the entire snake's body was covered fully with black burn marks resulting from the violent lightning strikes. Many rocks on its body had melted and dripped down like hot wax.

Right in the middle of the broken skull, behind the many layers of Adamantine Rocks, an egg-shaped summoning core could be vaguely seen.

Although the Rock Snake was pretty much in a very bad shape, that didn't hinder or cause any problem to its movement, offensive power, and defensive ability.

Some people blessed with keen perception even saw through the cracks of its body how huge amounts of Earth Elementium carried a lot of rocks and sand all around its interior restlessly fixing up all of the damages it sustained. Even the massive damage that was on the head of the snake could be seen closing up at an incredible pace.

It only took fifteen minutes for this Golem of the earth element to completely fix all of its injuries.