Age of Adepts

By the time Uzzah’s powers silently fell back to Third Grade, it had only been an hour and forty minutes since the start of the battle.

At the moment, there were only twenty minutes left in the two hours that Alice had requested.

Those twenty minutes sounded short, but trying to buy that much time was a bloody and challenging undertaking!

Uzzah, having regressed to Third Grade, was still as ferocious and violent as before. Sadly her only fate, if she were to confront the Fourth Grade Sword Saint, would be a beheading.

Three consecutive times, Uzzah had charged forward with her energy form, and each time, her energy form had been exterminated by the Sword Saint the very moment she got close.

Greem, who was managing things behind the scenes, knew that Uzzah had lost the ability to stall the enemy. Wasting any more energy on her would be pointless.

After casting a spell and summoning Uzzah back to his side, Greem controlled most of the magical energy and injected it into the magical cannons littered across the cabins.

The Elven Sword Saint Agassi strode through the distorted metal corridors, sending invisible blade strikes into the air with every wave of his sabers. The magical cannons hidden in the corners of the cabins and the end of the corridors were split in half after a single shot. The multitude of defensive power wasn’t able to obstruct the enemy’s advance in the slightest.

Only those metal magical machines lunging down the corridors with earthshaking steps barely managed to slow down the Sword Saint. That said, these machines that weighed eight tons and went up to four meters tall could hardly endure more than half a second in front of the Sword Saint. They were then split into many parts and mechanical shards by several rapid slices.

Greem had no choice but to inject the following magical machines with excessive magical energy, in hopes that the energy explosions during their death might create some degree of trouble for the enemy!

Sadly, after half a year of constant and intense battle, the magical machines remaining in the flying ship were far too few. Even with Greem personally controlling every machine on a suicide mission against the Sword Saint, he had great trouble slowing down the Sword Saint’s progress. In the end, Greem even decided to perform simple repairs on the engineering machines and send them to the battlefield as well.

Greem had even thought of collapsing and sealing the corridors to stop the Sword Saint’s progress. However, the half-meter thick metal walls were as soft as cheese beneath the elf’s snow-white slashes. The elven Sword Saint decided to give up on the existing metal corridors and instead started to cut a path forward with his sabers. He slashed at the metal walls along his way and moved toward the core of the ship in a straight line.

At this point, Greem had already sent out all the cannon fodder he could field. Still, he had only managed to buy seven minutes.

There were still thirteen minutes left. What was he supposed to use to buy more time?

The cannon fodder had all died. Was he...was he supposed to send the adepts to their deaths?

"I’ll go!" The usually quiet Dragonborn Zacha was the first to step forward.

One had to admit that the dragonborn were moving and loyal individuals once they had recognized a person as their leader. In the past, Zacha held no resentment for Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms, even when his master almost wholly devoured him.

Ever since Arms had transferred his soul contract to Greem, the subject of his loyalty had become this male adept from the World of Adepts.

Yet, none of these things had stopped him or his loyalty!

Apart from Mary and Alice, the only person that Greem could completely trust was this blindly loyal Second Grade dragonborn. That was why Greem hesitated when he saw Zacha volunteering for this task. He couldn’t bear to let a subordinate like this die just like that.

The adepts on the scene couldn’t help but lower their heads dejectedly when they sensed Greem’s expectant look sweeping over them.

It was a Fourth Grade Sword Saint!

Even the robust magical machines had been diced into pieces like common vegetables. It was impossible for the tough dragon scales and armor of the dragonborn to endure a single strike from the Sword Saint. Thus, it was clear that anyone below Third Grade would instantly die if they were to confront the elf!

Even Third Grade Uzzah would probably die in a single slash if she were to fight the Sword Saint with her actual body, let alone these meager adepts.

They couldn’t just ignore the threat coming at them. If the adepts were to allow the Sword Saint to continue cutting his path toward them, everyone here would not be able to escape death.

As the atmosphere within the room rose to a tense boiling point, an old and hoarse voice abruptly rang out.

"None of you need to go. I alone am enough!"

Everyone raised their heads in surprise, only then realizing that the one to speak was the old, hunchbacked Poison Hag Endor.

Greem’s furrowed his eyebrows. He intended to reject this offer.

After all, Endor was one of Alice’s only remaining relative in this world. If anything were to happen to her, Alice would probably resent herself for the rest of her life!

Yet, this matter did not allow Greem too much time to hesitate or think. Uzzah was already speaking beside him.

"I’m in favor of that!" Uzzah looked at Endor solemnly before saying to Greem; "She is prepared to die. Let her go!"

As a Third Grade witch, Uzzah was wise and knowledgeable enough to instantly recognize that Endor had already ingested excessive amounts of poison. She would not be able to live more than fifteen minutes even if she weren’t sent to her death!

Greem looked at Endor’s old face that was gradually turning back. He felt an odd weight in his heart and finally, without another word, nodded in agreement.

"Give this to Billis. He might have a use for it in the future."

Endor casually threw a knowledge crystal at Greem and started cackling and laughing wildly. She leaned against a staff that was almost twice her height and dove head first into one of the metal corridors, the metal floor clanging with every step she took.

Endor quickly advanced through the metal corridor, casting away her staff while madly swallowing the color contents of the various jars and bottles she had at her waist.

Her left hand pulled out the cork from a small gourd, and she took out a completely black centipede-like insect from within. She stuffed the insect into her mouth and started chewing with all her strength. Black and pungent insect blood seeped out of the gaps in her teeth, mixing with her own blood that was flowing from the cuts from the insect shells. Endor’s appearance became increasingly haunting and horrifying.

That was only a start!

Endor stumbled forward, continuously stuffing and downing all sorts of scary bugs and strange potions.

They all had different effects, but the changes they were causing in Endor was the same.

Endor was swelling.

The formerly 1.6 meters tall and 35-kilogram heavy witch had now turned purple. Her body was also rapidly swelling in size, like a ballon being pumped full of air.

Endor’s initially small body seemed as if it had been injected with too much gas, swelling up to two, three, four, and even five times the original size; she was just swelling like that. Her wrinkled skin was pulled so taut that it was almost translucent. If one were to stand in front of Endor at this moment, they would vaguely be able to see the roiling and viscous liquids within her.

A yellow-green smoke trailed behind Endor’s ugly and bloated body, clinging to the corridors and letting out an unbearable sizzling sound.

The surfaces of the metal corridor where Endor’s body passed by were filled with pockmarks and craters from the corrosion of the acid. The half-molten metal ceiling turned into black metal liquid and started to drip from above like molten wax.

For a moment, the entire metal corridor seemed like it was melting!

............

Agassi was walking between the metal corridors with a livid expression.

The elven sabers in his hand danced about, deflecting the energy lasers shooting out from everywhere. At this point, he no longer cared for exterminating this non-lethal ’ trash.’ He focused on searching for the enemy’s tracks.

He saw completely metal corridors, a spacious central hall, a small lab filled with mysterious apparatuses, and several tiny metal cabins whose purpose was unknown to him.

As Agassi walked through this world of metal and endured the unceasing storm of lasers, his fury and anxiety grew by the minute.

What was it that these enemies were trying to achieve?

He couldn’t understand their purpose, nor could he even attempt to guess at it!

He was here merely by a command that had been given to him under the joint orders of the elven court and the elven temples. He was to lead a group of elves to utterly exterminate this group of evil witches that had been causing chaos within Garan.

In truth, Agassi had been unconcerned when he first got news of his assignment.

The enemy didn’t even have a Fourth Grade among their ranks, yet they dared stir trouble within Garan, a continent protected by a pantheon of gods?

That was why he had confidently promised the elven court that he would achieve his mission before he set out.

Yet, in the previous encounter, he had been forcefully denied entry into the ship for an entire hour by a fake Fourth Grade propped up by a strange spell. Meanwhile, the squad he led had suffered decent losses. It was undoubtedly a terrible blow to his reputation and renown!

Agassi stormed through the twisted metal corridors, his heart fuming with anger and frustration. Initially, he had still been trying his best to find the passages that led downward. In the end, he could no longer hold back his frustration and decided to slice his way through the metal walls and proceed to the bottom of the ship.

Another snow-white blade flashed across...

He instantly opened a gap large enough for him to pass through in the metal wall before him. He quickly lifted his leg and strode across.

Agassi swept across this thirty-meter long metal corridor with his sharp eyes. He didn’t try moving to either side and instead walked to the metal wall at the other end intending to continue cutting through the walls.

However, the moment he lifted his saber, Agassi paused in his tracks and turned his head to look into the darkness of the corridor.

A strange creature emanating a pungent odor was howling and slowly shambling toward him from the darkness.

The fetid odor spread throughout the corridor as a wind blew by. Despite his magic resistance, even Agassi couldn’t help but feel dizzy when he inhaled the smell.

However, this minor discomfort vanished without a trace under the effects of his powerful inner power!

Just a poison creature sent to block the road; the enemy only had these tricks up his sleeves.

Agassi couldn’t be bothered with the creature after he took a single glance.

How could it possibly catch up to his fast speed with such slow movements?

Agassi didn’t intend to waste any time on the enemy. He raised his sword and prepared to cut the wall and move forward.

The very moment his eyes looked away, the bloated figure lunged forward and cried out eerily, "Why don’t you die with me!"

The next second, the poisonous human ball that had swelled to its limits exploded!

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