Age of Adepts

Chapter 287 An Uphill Battle

The ravaging flames continued to spread across the stage into a sea of fire.

Two massive creatures fought with each other in the middle of the flames.

Both of them were golems without a single piece of flesh on their bodies, yet the intensity of their fight was still enough to excite the audience.

The Golem Knight was a melee golem. It might have had some mid-ranged attacks, but against a powerful opponent like the Infernal Tyrant, it would have to connect with its blade to deal any significant damage. The Golem Knight gave up on its defensive tower shield. It had to prevent the opponent from using Fire Teleportation to leave its attack range, and the only way to do that was to stall the Tyrant by going all out with its sword techniques.

Every time the Infernal Tyrant wanted to disengage with a Fire Teleportation, it would be interrupted by a savage battle technique. The Tyrant would then be forced to stay in place and endure the ceaseless blows from the Knight's sword.

Its flaming left arm was severed and instantly regenerated…

The two legs below its body were cleaved into two and instantly regenerated…

The blade cut right through the Tyrant’s right shoulder, sending flaming sparks through the air, and it instantly regenerated…

A massive hole stabbed into its stomach and it instantly regenerated…

The Infernal Tyrant was the most loyal and resilient target practice. One by one, it used its flame body to endure the slashes from the rampaging knight. It did so even as flames went flying everywhere and sparks filled the air.

As expected of a terrifying golem born from fire; the Infernal Tyrant bled flames even as it was repeatedly injured. Its severed arm fell to the ground and burst into a massive fire. Its legs exploded into a sea of flames. Even the 'blood' flowing out of its wounds was boiling magma.

Fire!

Fire everywhere!

Extreme flames that burned without fuel. The Tyrant's severed body parts became a fearsome threat when paired with the Ring of Fire, which had been activated around the Infernal Tyrant. A hundred meter section of the battlefield had already turned into a black and red world of perpetual magma.

The hardened stone floor had been scorched into viscous magma. The temperature of the air rapidly rose as the fires continued to burn. The temperature surrounding the two golems had reached a shocking seven thousand degrees.

All substances unprotected by magic would instantly vaporize at this terrifying level of heat. Even the stone floor, enhanced with magic, couldn't endure the heat. It started to become magma. The two golems were practically fighting in fire and lava.

In truth, the Infernal Tyrant could probably still escape from the Golem Knight's harassment by using both Greem and the chip's precise controls. Still, Greem gritted his teeth and stood his ground in order to reach for the final victory.

Indeed, at this point, it was hard to tell who had the upper hand!

The Golem Knight boldly hacked away at the Infernal Tyrant. Every slash of its longsword, and every punch of its massive fists, would bring tremendous destruction to the Tyrant's flame body. The severed body parts might be able to regenerate using flame elementium reserves within its core, but the loss of flame energy was certain. It was hard to replenish these energies from the air in a short period of time.

The reason the Infernal Tyrant was able to rapidly create a home-field advantage for itself was due to this rapidly exhausting fire energy.

Greem had only been focused on one thing as he controlled the Tyrant during this period of time!

Greem had locked onto the Golem Knight's right knee joint and was focusing the Blazing Light gathered in his hand right at that joint. He intended to use the fearsome and pure Blazing Light to melt the metal at the Golem Knight's knee joint, causing the metal to distort under the heat and the stress of the weight it had to bear. This would severely weaken its mobility.

It seemed that Golem Master Rouneau had used a humanoid design in the creation of the Golem Knight. This gave it swift limb movements and made it convenient for the golem to launch some of its more powerful knight battle-techniques. While this gave the Golem Knight agility far beyond the means of other ordinary metallic golems, it also inherited the flaws of a human construction.

Its joints were its greatest weakness!

Both the energy reactors and the control cores were hidden beneath its thick armor. This was where its defense was the strongest. Ordinary attacks could not break through its tower shield and knight's sword to crack that shell. As such, Greem went for the second best option and tried his best to damage the opponent's lower joints.

Mansordar Alloy was also used to create that part, and it had the same defensive capabilities as the magic-resistant tower shield. However, even the toughest of metals had their limits! The Infernal Tyrant was a top-grade golem casting the fearsome Blazing Light. Even if the Golem Knight intended to protect its joints, it was no match for Greem's mad resolve to melt it with overwhelming heat!

The two temporarily separated from each other after fifteen minutes of arduous fighting. Both of them were already badly damaged and could hardly continue fighting.

The Infernal Tyrant had lost 46% of its energy reserves and certain parts of its body had already been destroyed over ten times. With the help of the chip's detailed sensors and guidance, the Tyrant was wounded, but not dead. The golem core was still untouched.

The Infernal Tyrant, despite its miserable appearance, was quickly able to return to peak condition after consuming 7% of its energy reserves. The Golem Knight on the other side of the arena also seemed to be in decent condition. After stepping out of the lava pool, it quickly brandished its sword and charged at the Infernal Tyrant.

Just like that, the second round broke out in a new battlefield outside of the lava pool!

The audience of adepts and apprentices silently watched. Their expressions were somber and serious. For the first time since the fight started, they had lost their confidence in the outcome of the battle. That was because they saw very clearly what was happening. The Golem Knight's knee was no longer as flexible as before, when it had initiated its second charge at the imposing flame golem.

Rouneau, who watched from a distance, was completely shocked at the situation. This wasn't how the fight was supposed to go!

As a golem master himself, Rouneau knew very well the strengths and weaknesses of metallic golems.

Ordinary metallic golems were made of magical alloys with exceptional physical defense and acceptable magic resistance. This ensured that they had a perfect defense against piercing and slashing weapons, such as swords and spears. However, such golems were vulnerable to blunt, heavy weapons. They couldn't endure the ferocious blows of maces, axes, and flails for long periods of time. The impact of such heavy blows could easily damage and displace the magical arrays and runic circuits within the golem's body.

This was why most ordinary magical puppets and animated statues were made to be as round and large as possible. They used their thick metallic bodies and heavy weight to bear the brunt of heavy blows and to reduce the impact on their fragile inner makings.

Rouneau had fused a high-grade knight's soul into the Golem Knight in order to maximize the benefits from using a precious Mansordar tower shield and a magical sword. The Golem Knight had been created with the slim figure of an agile fighter to bring out the soul’s combat abilities.

The weakened defense could be compensated for by the tough tower shield. This Golem Knight had both the offensive abilities of an agile fighter and the defensive abilities of a shieldbearer.

It was because of the knight soul’s exceptional defenses, offense, and battle techniques that the Golem Knight had the powerful combat strength to crush the golem constructs of two shops in a row.

Still, he never expected his Golem Knight to face an enemy as powerful as the Infernal Tyrant at this time and place.

The enemy's elementium golem demonstrated unimaginable prowess in melee combat under the precise control of its golem master. One golem was a metallic puppet made of steel and iron, while the other was an elementium golem shrouded in flames. Yet the Golem Knight was unable to gain the upper hand in a melee fight!

Rouneau saw what had transpired earlier. The flame-being had dodged every single one of the Golem Knight's powerful battle techniques, even before they were launched. The flame golem had even used parts of its body to minimize the damage from the attacks it couldn't dodge. None of the attacks could exhibit their true might.

The Tyrant's attack, on the other hand, was firm and stubborn. It continued to damage the Golem Knight's joints and weaken its mobility.

Rouneau couldn't help but feel his heart burn with anxiousness as the two massive creatures continued to wreak havoc on the stage.

Initially, he was still able to remain silent and uninvolved in the fight between the two. After all, the knight's soul inside the puppet was far more proficient at combat than he was!

However, Rouneau went into a rage when he witnessed an infuriating scene. The fearsome flame golem had traded a massive wound on its body for more minor damage to the knee joint.

Dammit! This enemy even knew how to trick the Golem Knight's battle instincts!

The Golem Knight would always be faced with choices in battle; whether to strike and inflict more damage on the opponent, or to defend and prevent the enemy from continuing to wound its leg.

But the flame humanoid was always exposing its own weaknesses to the Golem Knight and tricking the Knight into attacking it. While the Knight was preoccupied with dealing damage, the flame golem would slowly dole out damage to the knee joint, little by little.

The Golem Knight only possessed a rigid soul that was the product of a forced fusion. It would recklessly continue to attack as long as it judged that the damage it caused greatly exceeded the damage it received. This particular trait was being exploited by the accursed flame golem.

The opponent exhausted large amounts of its energy reserves to trade for some insignificant damage on his golem. However, the damaged location was extremely unique. It was the Golem Knight's right knee joint.

Rouneau didn't dare leave the Golem Knight to its own devices once he understood what was happening. He forcefully gave a new command and made the Knight prioritize defending or dodging when its legs were attacked

Unfortunately, the Infernal Tyrant was already counter-attacking at this point!

…………

The image before Greem’s eyes shook intensely.

Multiple beeps rang out in his mind as the chip continued to issue alarms and warnings.

"Beep. Warning. Warning. 78% of energy reserves exhausted. Estimated combat time remaining: 25 minutes, 17 seconds."

Greem had let the Infernal Tyrant suffer tremendously in order to try and cripple a single leg. Sadly, even after exhausting most of the Tyrant's energies, the opponent remained wounded but not crippled. It still retained powerful mobility and offense.

The Golem Knight had also become increasingly careful under Rouneau’s instructions. There were fewer chances for the Infernal Tyrant to attack.

At this rate, the opponent only needed to defend and counter-attack, and they would be able to exhaust all of the energy remaining in the Infernal Tyrant.

Greem gritted his teeth and decided on a gamble! A risky gamble to turn the tides!