Age of Adepts

For a moment, the podling was utterly confused by the Scarlet Firestorm.

It had defended against all attacks from the fire adepts. So, where did this Firestorm come from?

The podling shook its body violently, spewing dense poison mist from its stem and screeching for its servants to attack the enemy. Meanwhile, most of its focus was spent on finding the concealed enemy.

In the face of the horde of sporepeople, swamp creatures, and the Fourth Grade Fungal Giant controlled by Fahssn, Greem once again leaped away with Fire Teleportation.

The moment he reappeared, Greem quickly cast his spells and directed a chain of fireballs at the podling.

The podling waved its branches and vines, ferociously lashing out at the fireballs. Just like the last times, even after it shattered all the fireballs, a terrifying fire spell abruptly erupted over its body and spread all over.

The podling might not be as cunning as a human, but it wasn’t stupid.

Through just these two attacks, it had managed to determine that the enemy had some ability to turn his spells invisible. It was only when the spells detonated that the podling would know when it was hit.

Concealing spells?

The podling had never heard of such an ability, but it was undoubtedly a terrifying threat to itself!

The podling could only do its best to chase Greem away before using poison mist to extinguish the fires again. In just this brief exchange, the podling’s massive body was covered in even more black marks.

Glowing green sap seeped out of its damaged stem, filling the hall with a pungent smell.

The pain from the burning had inflicted tremendous agony and suffering to the podling. Its slender vines and green mouths whipped around the hall, smashing at the ground and the walls over and over. Yet, that annoying and tiny rat simply drifted around the room with his Fire Teleportation, causing all of its attacks to miss.

All of his servants, other than Fahssn, had already been reduced to ashes by the wild flame shockwaves. None of them were of any help.

The podling was indeed very powerful. However, its weaknesses were also undeniable!

Immobile and vulnerable to fire.

As a powerful advanced Fourth Grade magical being, the podling wasn’t fearful of ordinary flames as other swamp creatures would be. Its green body that shimmered with a metallic gleam was as tough as refined steel. Yet, it couldn’t defend itself at all against that fearsome golden fire.

Magic Penetration. The damned fire adept must have mastered a law relating to magic penetration. Why else would mere flames be able to harm it?

That was it! The fire adept must have also mastered a law to turn his fire spells invisible. That was what troubled the podling the most!

Whenever the fire adept appeared, there would be a barrage of fireballs, along with one or two potent, invisible spells.

It forced the podling to swing its entire body and lash with all its vines and branches whenever it saw Greem attack. It had to form a dense, impenetrable defensive line. If it were fortunate enough, its wildly whipping vines and branches would be able to trigger the invisible spell before it landed on its body. That would significantly reduce the amount of fire damage that its stem had to suffer.

After several fruitless attempts lunging at Greem, Fahssn flew into a rage.

He shouted in anger, and the Fungal Giant’s feet suddenly rooted themselves into the stone floor. Its right tentacle then swelled in size and length, wildly extending and growing forward like monster vines.

Greem couldn’t dodge in time, and his leg became entangled.

He lifted his staff, and a dozen fireballs kept the podling at bay. Meanwhile, he rapidly transformed into a flame giant, his entire body engulfed in a layer of exploding golden flames.

Fahssn’s tentacle was now wrapped around a thick pillar of fire that was a dozen meters tall.

Even as his tentacle continued to crush Greem’s legs, the flames were also inflicting damage to him.

Some of the vines on the tentacle appendage had just started to wither and turn to ash when new vines grew out and wrapped around Greem’s body once more. At the same time, the vines continuously tore and dug into Greem’s body, seemingly searching for any gaps they could tunnel into.

An overwhelming surge of golden fires rushed out of Greem’s body. If it weren’t for Fahssn’s robust regeneration, his right arm would have already been reduced to ashes.

While Greem wildly attacked Fahssn with fire spells, several green spots also started appearing on his body. They were the effect of the enemy’s terrifying poison!

As expected of Fourth Grade creatures. The poison it used was so potent it could even contaminate elementium fire. If Greem’s current biological construction of elementium fire wasn’t completely distinct from that of a human’s physiology, he might have already died of the poison!

While the two powers continued to clash, the fire and poison devoured and neutralized each other on Greem and Fahssn’s bodies. It was inflicting tremendous elementium damage.

No Fourth Grade would have so easily employed a suicidal, self-damaging attack as this.

However, as a servant of the podling, Fahssn had placed the safety of the podling over his own life!

While Fahssn entangled Greem, the podling shook its body. Several branches intertwined to form a fearsome palm that crashed down from above. Fortunately, Greem sensed it coming and barely dodged out of the way.

In the end, Greem was left with nowhere to run. He had no choice but to detonate his body, leaving behind the parts that were entangled by Fahssn while he fled with the rest and rematerialized in the distance.

Even though he had managed to escape Fahssn this way, Greem had also lost nearly 7% of his fire body.

This 7% power would have been recovered in a few minutes with the Heart of Principles’ aid under ordinary conditions. However, Greem was now engaged in an intense and dangerous battle. Where was he supposed to find the time to regain this 7% loss to his power?

Dong! A muffled boom rang out.

The podling’s giant palm crashed down. The parts of Greem’s body that were left behind were crushed to a bloody paste along with Fahssn’s right arm. The fearsome force shockwave rippled outwards as the 7% of Greem’s power was extinguished in an instant.

When Greem’s subsequently rematerialized, it was evident that the layer of golden flames around him had thinned slightly.

The podling was undoubtedly the happiest to have been able to achieve this outcome with Fahssn’s sacrifice.

However, it had no idea that the moment Greem cut off his tail and escaped, the shadow he projected on the floor had also vanished without a trace. That shadow had silently merged into Fahssn’s shadow.

The three violent waves of power from Fahssn, the podling, and Greem reverberated and echoed in the hall, affecting Fahssn’s spiritual senses. Otherwise, as a Fourth Grade, he would never have missed even the smallest of energy fluctuations within a hundred meters of himself.

Moreover, Fahssn was only a Third Grade sporeperson who had taken control of a Fourth Grade Fungal Giant.

This parasitic takeover had provided him with powerful regeneration and the unique powers of the Fungal Giant, but he still could not compare to an actual Fourth Grade.

At the very least, Fahssn’s Spirit was only at the level of a Third Grade!

Having lost a portion of his power, Greem could not attack as recklessly as he had before.

He started to move around, dodging the podling’s myriad attacks while evading Fahssn’s unusual entangling vines. Every time he appeared, he would only have a minimal amount of time to launch an offensive.

The slightest hesitation or pause would cause him to become entangled by Fahssn and struck by the podling.

Apart from physical attacks, the podling was also steadily spreading out parasitic spores that could not be seen with the naked eye. Unfortunately, such attacks could not escape the Chip’s scans. A simple defensive fire spell kept all those spores at bay.

All spores were afraid of fire. As long as they approached Greem, the spores were incinerated by an invisible barrier of fire. They could not even touch his sleeve.

The attacks of these parasitic spores had failed–when they had always worked before–and the podling had no choice but to resort to clumsy physical attacks.

The two forces continued to battle violently in the narrow space, not concerned with how their attacks would devastate their surroundings. This reckless fighting brought about unimaginable calamity to the sacred land.

The ground quaked and the rocks crumbled.

The entire underground space was collapsing violently. Giant boulders fell from above as tunnels and passages were buried under the stones. The sacred land was gradually being reduced to ruins from the fighting, devouring thousands of sporepeople lives in the process.

The three Fourth Grades continued battling in the Spore Hall, unconcerned with the changes outside. They were trying their best to inflict as much damage as they could on their enemy.

Finally, being forced to avoid a falling boulder, Greem was once again restrained by Fahssn’s wildly growing vine hands.

Upon seeing such an excellent opportunity, the podling immediately waved its thick stem and smashed at Greem at howling speed, with no concern about accidentally injuring Fahssn.

Greem suddenly lifted his head and smiled at the palm swinging at him.