Age of Adepts
Chapter 205: Schemes and Trickeries

Adept Ferrier flew into the air.

From a distance, he threw several vials into the path of charging knights.

Large pools of purple liquid seeped into the dirt. Less than two seconds later, the ground shook and gave way as a large patch of thorns erupted from below. The thorned tentacles, thick as a baby's arm, spread chaotically in all directions. The thorns glowed with a mysterious shine that was unlike metal or wood.

In a few breaths' time, this forest of thorns sprouted out of nowhere, completely hiding the silhouettes of the adepts.

Sadly, even a wall of thorns such as this one was not able to stop the knights’ advance.

A thick Crescent Moon Slash struck close to the ground as it blasted forth, carving a deep ridge into the ground. Everything that stood before the wailing Moon Crescent Slash split into two. Be it hard rocks or thorn walls, everything gave way to the knights.

Before the two other adepts could cast their spells, the three radiant knights had already broken through all the obstacles in their way and appeared before the adepts.

The two adepts couldn't continue attacking the enemies anymore. Immediately, the two gave up on the spells they had almost finished casting and hurriedly escaped from the radiant knights' charge. In doing so they exposed Greem, who was still channeling his spell!

Greem had been stuck in place due to his channeling, but he had been constantly paying attention to the other adepts' performance. Marionette's actions were unexpected while Ferrier's performance was fairly standard. On the other hand, the performance of the last two adepts were very questionable.

Even if they were not combat adepts, they would have at least one or two simple and practical instantaneous spells, wouldn't they? Yet they gave up on covering him so easily. It was obvious that they had hostile intentions and wanted to kill Greem using the knights' hands.

Of course, if Greem had been the caster directing this Meteor Shower, and the Fire Lord had been the aid, then stopping the channeling of this spell would most definitely have inflicted severe spell backlash on Greem. In such a moment of life and death, Greem's fate would have been determined by even a slight delay in his movements.

That said, would Greem ever make such a mistake?

Greem forcefully stopped the Meteor Shower’s casting without even blinking. The only thing that happened was a flickering of flames on the Fire Lord's body.

Two or three pairs of eyes looking from the shadows of the woods in the distance dimmed, betraying expressions of frustration and annoyance.

Dammit, that Greem is sly, as expected. Such a massive and powerful spell and he chose not to direct it himself. He let that elementium golem direct it instead! Because of that, forcefully stopping the spell would inflict most of the backlash on the golem instead of him. The effect on himself was minuscule.

There was no time to think. Greem reached into the Fire Lord's body and grabbed hold of the summoning core before vanishing in a blast of fire.

His feet had just vanished when a violent Exploding Cross Slash blasted the ground where he had just been standing. Then the three radiant knights stopped their muscular magic colts in front of the dirt pillar that had been blasted into the air.

Even though they hadn’t managed to kill a single adept, they were able to stop the evil adept's spell.

Seated high on their horses, the three radiant knights looked down coldly at the adepts desperately running away. They did not choose to pursue them.

Without a sufficiently powerful mount, it was very difficult to chase after these adepts, who possessed numerous strange means. Moreover, if they accidentally fell into an adept's trap, even a peak Second-Grade radiant knight like themselves wouldn't claim that they would be able to remain unharmed.

The powerful green dragon that was beaten to the brink of death in Herdurand City was a perfect example of this!

Even though they were both at the Second Grade, if one were to compare a radiant knight with a green dragon, a single dragon would easily be able to defeat three to five radiant knights.

Green Dragons were massive in size. Thus when comparing against the same Grade, the amount of Strength and Physique it possessed far outclassed the tiny human knights. Moreover, green dragons could fly, release dragon breath, and possessed dragon scales with shocking defensive ability. All of these racial advantages added together to give them the ability to punch above their Grade and challenge a Third-Grade knight.

It was such a terrifying green dragon that was almost fatally beaten under the watch of several knights. The dragon was extremely close to losing its life in Herdurand City.

In accordance with the Dragon's Pact, signed between the Kingdom of Knights and the Dragon Cliff, the two dragon knights had no choice but to escort the green dragon and hurry back to the location of the Dragon Cliff– Dragon's Valley. Thus, for this period of time, the only higher-ups in the knights' camp were these radiant knights.

It was precisely this lack of firm authority that caused a splinter in the radiant knights’ opinions. This ultimately resulted in an angered decision to break apart. Some of the knights stayed while the rest marched into the woods, resulting in the awkward situation they were currently in.

"I'll chase them even further away?" Knight Aneos couldn't help but ask with a grave expression on his face.

"There's no point!" Charles took a look at the surrounding woods and shook his head, "I can tell that there are some more of those evil adepts hiding in the woods nearby. I fear that something might happen with the main force if we are away for too long! Never mind, ignore these annoying pests. As long as we find their den, I don't believe that they will keep running about as they are doing now."

The two radiant knights, Collier and Aneos, nodded in agreement. The three knights didn't pursue Greem and the others. They turned around and whipped their horses, chasing after the main force and disappearing into the depths of the forest.

Greem had cast a Fire Teleportation. When he appeared once again, he was at the hill closest to Marionette’s location. The two kept a distance of seventy meters between them. Greem had no intention of getting any closer.

Since Marionette was already severely injured, moving any closer would draw Marionette's suspicion and hostility. Thus, Greem stopped at a distance and painted a gentle smile on his face.

"Your injuries aren't too severe, are they? Is there anything you need help with?"

Marionette turned his stiff and wooden eyeballs, stared at Greem for a moment, before shaking his head with difficulty.

He walked with an odd posture to a large tree, that was so wide it needed five men to completely hug it, and thrust both of his hands into the tree trunk. As green halo quickly flashed about Marionette body as the fine cracks quickly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In contrast, the tall ancient tree shook and shivered.

The countless green leaves on its richly dense canopy rapidly withered and yellowed, before falling to the ground one after another. It seemed like only the blink of an eye, yet already this resilient tree with rich life force had already reached the end of its life; dried, aged, and withered.

When Marionette finally took his hands out from the ancient tree, the wounds on his body's surface had all vanished. He appeared full of energy once again. Of course, this was only his outward appearance. As for whether there were any injuries or damage left in his body– that was not for outsiders to know!

If any member of adepts showed any weakness, it would be the equivalent of shouting "Shoot Me!" to other adepts. Perhaps in the very next battle, this weak member would become the prey of other adepts along with the enemies.

In a place such as a planar battlefield, it was too simple to kill another adept as long as you left no evidence!

As such, sometimes, adepts would become even more terrifying and savage after they had been injured! The most important reason for this was that not putting up a facade of strength would invite countless trouble if other adepts saw their weakness.

In the world of adepts, one needed to be more savage and cruel than others to keep any opportunistic fellows at bay. Most of the time, the companion hiding behind your back was far more terrifying and a great deal more lethal than the most powerful enemy!

What a wounded adept needed most from others was not sympathy or help, but apathy. It was only when no one was paying attention to them that they could find an opportunity to hide in a corner and lick their wounds.

Greem nodded at Marionette without speaking another word. He bent his ear and listened for the terrifying thunder reverberating in the distance before vanishing from the spot with a Fire Teleportation. From the sound of it, more adepts had launched an ambush on the main force of the knights. From the means of attacks, it was probably the combat adept nicknamed Thunderbird.

It wasn’t until Greem's flashing flame halo had slowly disappeared into the woods far away that Marionette was able to let out a sigh of relief. His right foot had silently been pushed into the dirt in the ‘confrontation’ with Greem earlier. If Greem had dared to move within thirty meters of him, the wooden roots that would break forth from the ground would most definitely have been enough to buy five seconds of time for himself.

Then, Marionette would be able to make a choice for himself, be it fight or flight!

Marionette shook his body, and the massive root that he stuck in the ground quickly shrunk back into his right foot. He turned his stiff wooden eyeballs and stared at a bush a hundred meters away, before turning and disappearing into a tall tree right next to him.

Nearly eight minutes later, when this area of the woods had gone completely silent, the ground beneath the bush Marionette had previously stared at started to crack. Evil Bugs Acteon emerged from the ground and slowly formed his body.

He closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings. There were indeed none of Marionette's odd soul flux in the forest nearby. Acteon's ghostly green eyes betrayed a hint of anger and frustration.

A black shell, a horrifying insect's mouthpart, and countless odd compound eyes of all sizes could be seen. Compared to the last time he appeared, the bugman traits on Acteon were becoming increasingly obvious. This time, there were even two tiny black feelers on his bug-like head. The feelers glowed with a strange purple light, as if there was some unique magic contained within them.

Even though Acteon already knew that these veteran adepts were all sly and kept strange tricks up their sleeves, he had still been discovered by Marionette when he snuck up trying to find an opportunity. The glare Marionette gave before he left was clearly a warning!

However, for the fearless Evil Bugs Acteon, such a warning would not be taken to heart.

Acteon turned his bug head about, turning his attention to the loud battlefield in the distance. After a few moments of listening, his silhouette started to fall apart, breaking apart into tens of thousands of strange black bugs. They vanished back beneath the ground, silently digging their way towards the battlefield.

When the area had finally gone silent again, a pair of eyes appeared on the thick tree trunk of an ancient tree. It blinked several times as it looked at the insect hole left behind by Acteon. Then, the pair of strange eyeballs betrayed an expression of mocking joy before slowly disappearing.

It was only now that this forest area regained its peace and quiet!