Age of Adepts

Chapter 178 The Great Battle of Vampires and Spellbreaker Knights

The red sun had already risen above the horizon, but the depths of the woods were still dimly lit.

As the witcher-knights were hot in pursuit, dashing across the dense woods, groups of bloodsucking bats flanked them from behind. Swiftly, they pounced and tackled the witcher-knights in the rear, one after another.

With their leathery wings and the ability to fly silently, along with their ability to shift rapidly between their batform and human form, none of the witcher-knights were able to defend against the sudden attack when they dove down from above.

Of course, any knight that made it into this army was no weakling. Even if they were caught by surprise, they were still able to counter attack, severely wounding the attacking vampires. But their bravery in the face of death was useless against the vampires. All they had to do was devour a little fresh blood, and all sorts of serious injuries would be healed in a matter of seconds.

And so, with their tactic of tackling and then surrounding……then tackling and surrounding again, the groups of vampires took turns and were able to silently kill seven of the witcher-knights.

Until……

A pained scream rang through the forest!

Half of the witcher-knights heard the tragic scream from behind them, even as they were busy chasing the heretic. They turned their heads and were surprised to find a bunch of strange demons tackling one of their companions that had fallen behind, quickly becoming overwhelmed in a swarm.

A spellbreaker knight let out a battlecry, and tugged on the reins of the warhorse. The magic colt lifted its front limbs, and turned around while its body was still in the air. It kicked a giant tree with its thick hind legs, and rushed forward with the momentum.

Two dozen witcher-knights in the rear turned around following his battlecry, but their movements were not as smooth or natural as the spellbreaker knight. As a result, they were twenty or thirty steps behind him.

However, their arrows arrived before they did!

With a loud snap of the bowstring, a flame arrow streaked through the air and pinned a vampire to a tree behind him. The arm-length bolt had sunk into the vampire's heart, securely pinning him to the large tree. Only a small length of the bolt protruded out of the vampire's chest.

A human would have died from a pierced heart. But this vampire was still lively, vigorously trying to struggle free. The vampire ignored the burning from the arrow’s elemental flames and grabbed the end of the arrow with his sharp, clawed hands, trying to pull it out with all his might. Sadly, it wouldn't budge.

With no other choice, the vampire used its limbs to leverage itself against the tree trunk, pushing his body out from the end of the arrow. This action undoubtedly caused the wound on his chest to become even larger, leaving behind a hole one could see through.

But the vampire didn't care about the injury and leapt on the witcher-knight that was still struggling on the ground. A moment later, when he climbed up from the opponent's body, the terrifying gash on his chest had already disappeared. The exposed skin was still white and smooth.

"Monsters……These are a bunch of monsters……"

The spellbreaker knight that saw this roared. He tossed aside the runic bow- it was too weak-and drew his runic sword. As his palm ran across the cool blade, a layer of magic flames swallowed the sword, turning it into a terrifying torch.

With a shout, the colt beneath him suddenly accelerated, and piercing through the crowd of flying vampires. A dozen flame trails crisscrossed in the sky and slowly dispersed. The dozen vampires, that had just finished with the broken corpse of the fallen witcher-knight, suddenly split into several pieces and exploded into a rain of blood, flesh, and pieces of bones.

These were low-level vampire spawn after all. They were far less intelligent and resilient than true vampires. Even their bloodsucking regenerative abilities were significantly weaker. Thus, they could only die a horrible death under the combined strength of the spellbreaker knight's battle-technique and flaming longsword.

The success of the spellbreaker knight boosted the morale of the waning witcher-knights. They activated the runic swords in their hands, shouting as they charged towards the remaining vampires.

This was the terrifying strength of the knights of this plane? Suppressing the strength of arcanology, diverting their attention to strengthening the physical body, as well as the use of special battle techniques?

Mary pondered silently, before opening her blood-red eyes.

After that amazing strike, the spellbreaker knight turned around and shouted to boost the morale of his companions. Just as he slapped his colt and was about to begin another charge, his muscles tensed, and his body stiffened.

The magic colt below him already felt what he was thinking. Under his urging, the magic colt slowly turned its body. The spellbreaker knight's eyes flashed. His cold eyes landed on the top of a tree far away, which was shrouded by leaves.

A hundred meters away, on top of that tall tree, the layers of branches and leaves had hidden the enemy's body, but they could not hide those terrifying pair of crimson eyes. When his gaze met with the enemy's, a heavy air of blood spread across the battlefield.

This was a heretic that was as powerful as he was! Was today's occurrence a trap they had laid out beforehand? No, I must relay this news to Ninther……

Faced with the situation before him, several ominous thoughts surfaced in knight’s mind. But just as he was distracted, the pair of bloody eyes suddenly disappeared..

This was bad!

The spellbreaker knight gathered his focus while raising his left arm. The small shield on his arm activated to form an oval energy-shield that covered the front of his body entirely.

The energy shield had just barely formed when a swift impact smashed into it. Five terrifying claw marks appeared on the the semi-translucent shield.

The spellbreaker knight grunted, and used the energy shield to divert the slim silhouette pushing against it. A flame blade slashed forth from his right hand.

Normal witcher-knights could only use the runic weapons to achieve a combined strike of physical and elemental force in melee range, while relying on the runic bows for long-ranged attacks. But spellbreaker knights were able to rely on a unique way of attacking to infuse elemental energy into the invisible shockwaves of their blows, forming a mid-range knight battle technique.

The range of such knight battle technique attacks were not very large. Most of them could reach five to ten meters away. Once they exceeded this range, the shockwave would disperse, and the attached elemental energies would naturally disperse as well, causing the might of the attack to severely deteriorate.

But this kind of elemental shockwave, that could extend freely and escape the constraints of the weapon itself, could bring about horrifying damage to enemies within ten meters. The crude elemental shields conjured by normal heretics could not defend against the double blow of elemental damage, and the shockwaves' ability to break through defenses.

As such, the deciding factor for any witcher-knight advancing to spellbreaker knight was their ability to condense and unleash this unique shockwave!

Of course, this was a secret closely guarded by the witcher-knights. Today, Mary was about to use her body to personally experience the terrifying power of the knight battle-technique.

The flame blades were like burning scimitars slashing through the skies, quickly chasing after Mary's retreating silhouette and stopping her from escaping.

A fierce grin appeared on Mary's pretty face. She didn't retreat. Instead she stepped forward, her sharp claws slashing and leaving behind eight layers of visible bloody marks in front of her. In the next second, the blood marks clashed with the flame blades, combusting into a small firestorm.

The countless fine flame-blade shards caught in the violent explosion flew everywhere, whistling through the wind like bullets shot from a gun. Normal elemental shields would not be sufficient to defend against such concentrated and wild attacks!

The spellbreaker knight tightened his grip on the shield in his left hand, and the sword in his right hand. While staring at the burning field, a blast of wind struck from above.

The spellbreaker knight looked up in surprise, just in time to see Bloody Mary dropping down from above.

The explosion of the flaming fragments had also wounded Mary. Most of the flame-blade shards had been deflected by her summoned crimson protection. Layers of blood-red roses dispersed the numerous attacks.

However, some of the shards still managed to pierce through her blood-red defense, leaving scratches all along Mary's body and limbs. The fine shards remained embedded in Mary's body, their fires still persistently burning……

Yet even faced with such wounds, Mary was not any less courageous. She did not retreat to treat her wounds, but chose to sneak above the enemy to attack once again.

The unexpected sneak attack did not give the knight enough time to form the shockwave within his body. He could only tightly grip the magic colt with his legs and drive it forward. He rested his back on the horse's back, the shield on his left hand blocking Mary's claws that struck down again.

The sharp claws screeched as they slashed on the semi-translucent shield. The violent impact was not completely deflected. The shield was pushed down, causing the spellbreaker knight's back to crash heavily into the magic colt's spine.

The colt beneath him let out a pained whinny as it continued to run forward.

Mary, who had been pushed away by the tremendous recoil, immediately unfurled her bat wings and leapt towards the knight as if she defied physics itself. A blood red longbow suddenly appeared in her hands, and a mysterious scarlet, crystalline arrow converged on the half-drawn bowstring.

"Go!"

With a shout, a hundred blood red arrow images filled the space between Mary and the spellbreaker knight.

Goddamn, what is this attack!?

The spellbreaker knight, who had never seen a close-ranged adept attack like this one, was shocked. He swung around and instantly and sent a cross cut from his sword, neutralizing most of the scarlet arrow rain. The energy shield on his left hand was directed about frantically, barely deflecting some of the arrows that shot past the cross cut.

Even so, both him and his mount were peppered with blood arrows that had managed to pierce through his shield and battle technique, covering them with numerous wounds. If it wasn't for the protection of his runic armor, and the scales of the magic colt, the attack just now would have severely wounded them.

The spellbreaker knight let out a battlecry and turned his horse around, charging towards Mary, who was catching up on foot.

One of them was a mysterious vampire adept from a different plane; the other a powerful spellbreaker knight that stood high in this plane. The two powerful beings of different races with different combat styles, savagely clashed against each other, just like that!