Age of Adepts
chapter-423

How terrifying was a Medusa's Petrifying Gaze?

Most people who had experienced it themselves never had the chance to speak of it.

However, Greem had the luck to witness the petrification of an elite-class magical creature lord personally.

Tula only felt the intensity of the light shining into its eyes when it turned its head. It was blinding! Its vision went black, and then it could no longer see anything.

However, Dana's Petrification Gaze wasn't going to go all that well. An earth yellow color flashed around Tula's body. The old spider's head was the first to turn into hard stone. The light flickered as it spread through Tula's body, petrifying the upper half of its body to stone.

However, the spider's counterattack had also descended at this moment.

Several colorful spiderites climbed out of Tula's fat abdominal sac. These creatures quickly leaped onto the Medusa's body and started biting savagely. Several white pulses of light flashed from within Tula's body, and it swiftly began absorbing the petrification power that Dana had injected into its body.

The earth-yellow powers of petrification clashed with the milky white healing radiance in the middle of Tula's body; neither side seemed to have the advantage.

Dana, who had wanted to assassinate Tula in a single blow, was not in good condition either. Her slender snake tail whipped about frantically and successfully killed many spiderites, but there were still plenty of them biting her body.

The intense pain in her flesh and her already weakened spirit pushed Dana to her limits.

That explosive attack had obviously been the last bit of her remaining strength.

When the last traces of petrification energy entered Tula's compound eyes, Dana let go of her grip on the old spider in exhaustion. Her wounded body fell off from Tula's shell.

Even at this moment, the completely worn out Medusa continued to shout at Greem.

"Kill it. Help me kill it..."

The old spider's paralyzed limbs suddenly twitched, and an unstoppable force shook off the shell of stone that had formed over the surface of its body.

Tula was just about to double its efforts and use its freed limbs to break free of the petrification effect. Yet, at that moment, Greem and the Decayer's violent blows once again landed on Tula. This time, even the severely wounded demon hound standing at death's door forced himself to get up. His two remaining heads spit fireballs and wind blades at the ancient spider with all they had.

It was the first time Greem had hit Tula square on the body with his Fire Core Explosion!

The old spider had always used its agility, quick reflexes, and counterattacks to dodge the center of his fire spells' area of effect. Tula easily ignored the remaining magical shockwaves thanks to its excellent magic resistance.

This time, Tula was hit by Greem's spell while half of its body was petrified and its spirit was corrupted and crippled.

A Fire Core Explosion of a hundred and thirty points of power… that was a horrifying attack that even magical creatures at the peak of elite-class couldn't endure!

The Fire Core Explosion generated an elementium vacuum one-meter in diameter. This vacuum carved out a small chunk of Tula's body. This one-meter diameter hole at the center of Tula's body was a grievous wound, despite the monster's humongous size.

All the flesh and organs touched by the flames had been reduced to ashes. However, the intense heat also cauterized the gaping wound. That was why not a single drop of blood was visible. As the pressure on the wounds gradually built up within the body, purple-black blood burst out of Tula's flesh like a volcanic eruption.

Tula howled and fell to the ground, even as it managed to break free from the petrification!

At the same time, Unguja and Dana also collapsed.

The two of them had been supporting their bodies through sheer force of will. Now that they had witnessed their greatest enemy mortally wounded, they too finally collapsed.

Greem walked up to Unguja and took out five vials of healing potion that he poured right into the beast's mouth. The massive amount of medicine did their work and managed to help the demon hound cling to life.

Greem then slowly walked towards the collapsed Medusa and waved a vial of healing potion before her.

"Do you need me to heal you?" The green potion swished and swooshed about as he shook it, "I can ensure you survive as long as you yield to me!"

Who knew? The Medusa hadn't even spoken when a mental cry for help came from the dying old spider.

"Save me. Save me…you save me, and I'll listen to everything you say..."

Hmm, one would suppose that even a magical creature lord could beg like that. Still, this was definitely beyond Greem's expectations!

However, Dana the Medusa didn't want the old spider to be saved just like that. She opened her pretty eyes and stared unblinkingly at Greem.

"That bastard Tula has already planted eggs in my body. They will hatch and emerge in half an hour. You don't need to set your sights on me." Dana was the silent type that valued every word she said. Even though she could have pretended to yield to Greem in exchange for the life of Tula, she still spoke the truth.

Greem smiled and ignored the begging Tula. He sincerely spoke to the Medusa, "Don't worry about that! Just a parasite egg. I have absolute confidence I can extract them from your body! Now, it's just a matter of whether you are willing to yield to me."

Dana painstakingly propped herself up with her arms and took a look at her surroundings. She then gazed at Greem: "As long as you kill Tula and completely cure me, I swear by the name of the Earth Mother to forever serve you!"

Dana's words shocked the dying old spider. But before it could even muster the last vestiges of its strength to fight back, a black staff stabbed into its head. The impact squashed the last traces of life from the spider.

Even though the old spider was much more powerful than Dana, from a theoretical standpoint, Greem decided to recruit the Medusa after he gave it some thought. That was because he didn't have the confidence to completely manipulate a magical creature leader at the peak of elite-class and keep it under his thumb. After all, he had to undergo his second phase transformation just to possess the power to engage Tula in a fight. The disproportionate difference in Spirit also compromised any manipulation spells and contracts he could establish.

As opposed to recruiting a ticking time bomb, it was much better to take in a loyal Medusa.

The dust settled, and the battle was won. Greem sent the Decayer and Unguja to sweep the Spider Cave while he stayed behind to help the Medusa solve the problem festering within her body.

If it were any other adept, even those specialists who were well-versed in the arts of dissection and magical creature biology, they would not perform as well as Greem in this situation. With his scanning ability, Greem had the most perfect and unobstructed view of everything happening in Dana's body.

Now that the Medusa had deactivated her life forcefield, Greem's elementium sight was as powerful as an x-ray machine. He had managed a detailed scan of her body with a single glimpse. He then successfully found a parasite the size of a palm in her abdomen.

It was a strange creature that resembled both a spider and a scorpion!

Its head was pinned deep below Dana's ribs, while its four pairs of sharp limbs gripped her spine. Its tail had stabbed into the spine and seemed to be slowly absorbing Dana's bone marrow.

Dana's current exhaustion had evidently been caused by this parasite absorbing most of her strength.

Such a complicated scenario and such a strange parasite; any other adept would have been hard-pressed to get rid of this pest without harming the Medusa's origin powers.

However, this was not a problem for Greem and his powerful eyes. He had Dana lie on the ground as he took out a dozen surgical tools from his pouch. All of them had various purposes and shapes. He then cut open the Medusa's abdomen.

The surgical scalpel nimbly danced about Greem's slender fingers. It was almost as if surgery had become an art in and of itself.

Greem opened Dana's chest and exposed the unique biological composition of a Medusa to his eyes. Thick crimson body tissue existed beneath the tough ribs. A thin but tough membrane covered those muscles. Dana's three-lobed heart was beating beneath all that, slow yet powerful.

A dark red insect with a hard shell crouched on her spine. Seven or eight tiny vessels extended from its body and connected with the Medusa's organs.

The strange insect reared its semi-translucent head that had yet to harden and let out a weak but determined screech at Greem. It was almost as if it could sense the outside threat. Its attempts to absorb Dana's power became even more hurried and rushed!

Greem smiled coldly.

Anyone else might not have known how to deal with a strange creature like this one. They could easily hurt the Medusa as they killed this parasite. However, Greem was different. He had the best surgical guidance right in his brain.

The chip directly scanned all the contact points between the insect and the Medusa. It then projected every single one of them onto Greem's retina.

Seventeen contact points!

Eight of those were blood vessels, five were conduits of some kind, one was its head capsule, two were its body nodes, and the last one was its stinger.

Greem had to remove all these things from Dana's body in the shortest amount of time to prevent the insect from dealing more damage to her. And to do all this, Greem only needed a single instant!

Greem tossed the surgical scalpel aside. A strand of fire that resembled a blade burned at the tips of all ten of his slender fingers. He then rapidly sliced across the body of the insect like a delicate and careful pianist. His black eyes also shone as two tiny heat rays shot out from within.

The perfect coordination of his hands and eyes allowed him to sever the seventeen contacts points in a single second. Even the insect's four pairs of limbs had been cleanly cut off by Greem.

Greem felt the impulse to research a strange creature like this, and therefore spared its life. He carefully extracted it from Dana's body then threw it into a jar after sealing it with magic. Greem then cautiously took out the severed limbs and stinger and stashed them somewhere safe.