Age of Adepts
chapter-247

An enemy!

It was only when the Flame Fiend form was revealed that the radiant knight was able to determine the identity of his 'companion'.

The Flame Fiend's rapidly expanding magma hand had pierced through the knight’s armor and flesh, intensely burning in his stomach. The tremendous pain, along with his anger and hatred for the enemy, instantly threw the radiant knight into a berserker rage!

Any other human would have exploded and died if they had been injected with such violent fire energy. However, the radiant knights were well acclimated to ice and fire energies, having handled them for long periods of time. The flames in the knight's body could wound him but not kill him. In fact, he started his counter-attack using the massively increased Strength and Physique from his berserked status.

The radiant knight had no time to draw his sword. The moment he went berserk, he charged at Greem. He raised an iron fist and launched a heavy punch at the Flame Fiend's chest, instantly shattering a Lava Shield. The unstoppable fist continued on its path, sending the massive Flame Fiend flying backwards.

The Flame Fiend's steel-hard chest had completely collapsed. The sound of breaking bones could clearly be heard within the room.

A large and bloody wound appeared where the Flame Fiend's hand had been pulled out of the knight's stomach. Purple-black blood and shattered organs surged out of his body from the pressure of the vicious fire energies. However, even this blood and flesh didn't make it to the floor. They were vaporized by the intense heat as they were falling to the ground.

The radiant knight let out a muffled grunt. He stumbled two steps forward in agony before dropping to the ground on one knee.

Greem had crashed to the ground ten meters away. When he finally managed to get up, viscous blood-fire surged up his throat and he coughed it out onto the stone floor before him. On the ground, the Flame Fiend's purple blood burned with a strange fire.

Their enemy was right before them. The two raised their heads and locked onto their opponent with hateful gazes.

It isn’t wise to wait. I had best kill the opponent while he's badly injured!

A resolute thought rose up in both of their minds at almost the same time.

The radiant knight extended his right hand outwards. Amazingly, strange red flames started to surface on his hand. He grit his teeth and pressed the energy flames against the wound on his stomach.

Amidst the sizzling sounds of burning flesh, the radiant knight experienced an intense pain that he had never felt before. That said, he had succeeded in using the searing energy flames to exterminate the remaining elementium flames within his body, as well as managing to use the fire to seal his massive wound.

This was an extremely crude and simple treatment. Even now, any simple action would send pain shooting throughout his entire body. The more he exerted his strength, the more wounds would appear under the charred flesh. Purple-black blood would continue to flow down slowly. Even so, sealing his wounds still allowed him to regain a portion of his combat strength!

As long as his movements were quick and the battle short enough, he would still have an opportunity to properly treat his wounds at a later time.

Greem, on the other hand, had already swallowed four or five potion bottles of various colors. His bones and flesh cracked and snapped, and the shattered bone fragments were expelled from his body of magma. His collapsed chest started to swell under the guidance of some mysterious energies.

Still, the energy storm left behind in his body by the knight's attack was still ravaging his insides. For a moment this made it hard for him to gather enough magic to cast any spells.

The spellbreaker knights gathered about the hall shouted battlecries and charged towards Greem.

They too understood the situation. Both the radiant knight and the enemy had sustained damage from the earlier entanglement. As long as they were able to buy a little time for the radiant knight to recuperate, their chance of victory would increase greatly.

Yet this group of spellbreaker knights that had not engaged in the battle of Greenland Forest would never know how wrong they were. Distance was never a disadvantage for a powerful adept. Rather, it was an advantage!

The Scroll of Voodoo, always by Greem's side, had already silently appeared in his hand as he was trying to catch his breath, and was secretly flipping through its pages on its own. A short moment later the Scroll of Voodoo stopped on a certain page. A blinding magic halo burst forth.

Flame Halo of Repulsion!

This was a unique spell that contained both fire damage and the ability to physically knock back enemies!

Successive flame shockwaves spread outwards, with Greem at their center. Everyone that came into contact with the flame halo had to endure the burning of flames as they stumbled backwards awkwardly.

A single spell and all of the knights had been blown away, with the exception of some powerful knights that focused on honing their Strength and Physique. The remaining knights could no longer get close to Greem or interrupt his spellcasting!

The sound of flipping pages continued…

The pages finally stopped, and yet another powerful spell was used.

Fire Core Explosion!

This was one of the most powerful and mighty spells among the ones that Greem had mastered.

The destructive flame energies quickly gathered around the radiant knight under the guidance of Greem's gaze. In a single instant it could easily turn into a fierce explosive blaze, causing immense elemental damage to the opponent.

The radiant knight had just completed his rudimentary treatment, but he was still exceptionally sensitive to elementium flux. The moment the wild elementium energies started to move, he instantly let out a battlecry and kicked off against the ground, successfully escaping from the Fire Core Explosion's area-of-effect. At the same time that his body left the ground, his runic longsword started to glow brilliantly. A terrifying energy blade quickly slashed through ten meters of space to land on Greem's body.

The Flame Fiend's massive size ensured that he could never be as agile as a human knight. Even though Greem could see the blade slashing towards him, the only thing he could do was try his best to step to the side. Energy quickly gathered around his flame-red eyes as he dodged, shooting out a beam of Solar Ray and slicing towards the charging enemy from the side.

Pu…

Szz…

Two different sounds rang out at the same time, with two distinct but muffled cries of pain mixed within!

Fortunately, Greem had consciously prevented his vitals from being hit. Even though he had been hit squarely by the slash, the concentrated and lethal attack had only managed to tear a large gash from his right chest to the shoulder. Boiling lava at intense temperatures splashed out of the meter-long wound. When the lava landed on the smooth marble floor, it instantly heated up the ground to an unbelievable degree, softening and and liquefying the marble.

On the other hand, the Solar Ray shot from Greem's eyes had been blocked by the radiant knight's sword. Astounding heat gathered on the blade. Elementium energies clashed with runic energies, emitting a burning and blinding light as they collided.

The radiant knight quickly made a grabbing motion in the air with his left hand. A blinding energy spear quickly formed in his grip. He threw it with all his strength, putting a hole right in the stomach of the Flame Fiend. At the same time, the pages of the Scroll of Voodoo in Greem's hands rapidly turned. A Scarlet Firestorm instantly appeared where the knight was, returning the knight's blow with one of Greem's own.

Single-target spells might have been concentrated and powerful in a close-combat fight. However, melee classes could easily dodge or counter such attacks using various methods and skills. Thus, in order to ensure that the enemy was constantly damaged, Greem had no choice but to exhaust a large-radius fire spell.

Greem was an elementium adept with fire mastery after all. Any fire spell would become much more powerful if he was the one doing the casting. Thus, again and again, the two enemies clashed at a distance of less than ten meters. And once again the two ended in a painful stalemate!

Yet at this time, the numerous guards in the hall had already made their way here and were bombarding Greem with a rain of runic arrows. Spellbreaker knights were mixed into the crowd, waving their swords about as they tried to charge at Greem's side.

That said, none of these could directly threaten Greem's life. As long as he had five seconds of time to catch a breath, he could use the four powerful remaining spells in the Scroll of Voodoo to wipe them out.

Sadly, where was he to find these five seconds in such a terrifying and crowded battlefield?!

If he endured the enemies attacks and used an instant-cast spells to exterminate these annoying flies, the radiant knight might already have recovered from the previous round of attacks. The radiant knight would then easily be able to deal a killing blow in a composed and calm fashion.

There was even scarier news. Greem's powerful Spirit senses had already detected another massive life force rapidly speeding towards the hall.

A radiant knight!

The radiant knight that left earlier had realized something was wrong and was rushing back to the hall.

There was no time to hesitate anymore. Greem instantly activated the Scroll of Voodoo once more.

The spell he chose this time was still the Flame Halo of Repulsion, with its powerful repulsive effect!

As the swarm of human guards were reduced to ashes in the shockwave, and the spellbreaker knights were busy enduring the burning damage, Greem quickly took out a grey and inconspicuous wooden stick from his storage belt. He gripped it in his hand and decisively pointed it at the radiant knight.

"Iivaiyrda*Norhan! Sheep Transfiguration Hex!"

Green light flashed across the wooden stick. The radiant knight that the stick was pointing at promptly burst apart into white fog with a muffled boom. Only a cute and petite lamb was left on the spot.

At the same time, the chip's notification rang out in Greem's mind.

"Hex completed. Effect is reduced by 40% due to powerful mental resistance. Duration: three seconds."

Just a mere three seconds!

This wasn't enough for Greem to forcefully slay someone above his Grade!

Just then, a powerful impact of ferocious energies shattered the doors of the hall. The other radiant knight broke into the room angrily, glowing brilliantly with runic light.

Greem let out a silent sigh. He knew he no longer had a chance to kill the badly wounded knight. He could only take one step backward and vanish from the spot with his Fire Teleportation. Just as his silhouette disappeared, a terrifying energy blade slashed at where he had been.

A blazing fire halo appeared suddenly Greem was right before Edward VII's bed. A raging inferno surged in every direction. The doctors by the king's side quickly turned into human torches. The light of the burning flames filled the room. When the light finally dimmed, only charred bones were left of the poor doctors.

However, when this heat wave surged towards the dying king, it was blocked by an invisible energy barrier. It didn't manage to hurt the king at all! The energy barrier hadn't been activated through a magic or runic array. Rather, it was an energy barrier that emanated from a mysterious ruby necklace floating before the king's neck.

It was clear that this was no common object. In that moment of danger it was able to activate an energy defense on its own, protecting itself and the king within.

An energy field?

Greem was so shocked he almost shouted out loud.

Energy fields were a self-defense mechanism unique to higher life forms. Even without the power of spells, these lifeforms would be able to form a defensive energy membrane, with their powers functioning as its core. These energy fields were able to block most external attacks. Some high-level magically enhanced objects had similar traits.

This ruby couldn't possibly be a lifeform.

Which meant… that it was, at the very least, a high-level magic-enhanced object!

Greem no longer hesitated. He held nothing back from his Scroll of Voodoo. Two instantaneous spells violently blasted forth, immediately shredding the energy field to pieces with their forceful power. Then the two spells quickly shot towards Edward VII, severing his head with sharp blades.

Before the two radiant knights could leap over, Greem grabbed the head and the ruby necklace, leaving the hall in a blaze of Fire Teleportation.

It was time to escape!