Age of Adepts

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Garan Continent, Greenwater City.

As the largest city of the elven kingdom near the south coast, this place had practically gathered all of the most powerful combat subordinate races and flying forces of the elves.

They had one unified name and title here– the Windrunners!

The Windrunners consisted of almost all of the elven kingdom's flying units, from the beginner-class flower fairies to the high-grade green spirits, and from the beginner pegasus knights to the high-grade silver pegasus knights. Add to that the squads of hippogryph riders, chimera hordes, and wind eagle strike units.

The reason why the witch alliance had been stationed at the Echo Isles for so long and yet still failed to take a single step upon Garan was due to the existence of these Windrunners.

However, the Windrunners were still First and Second Grade fighters after all. Keeping the high-grade witches at bay was still left to the god messengers sent over by the great temples of the central mountains, as well as elven powerhouses recruited from all over.

There were as many as five Fourth Grade powerhouses in Greenwater City alone, while the number of Third Grades exceeded two dozen.

It was the tremendous force that they represented that kept the Fourth Grade Pale Witch stationed on Echo Isles in check. Otherwise, the casualties brought to Garan by the Witch Calamity would not be as minor as it currently was!

In the past, every instance of the Calamity of Witches had inflicted uncalculable and horrifying damage to the forest elves of Garan. It was completely different from the current situation, where the main forces of the Witch Alliance were kept beyond the coastline and having trouble even setting foot upon Garan.

Even as the Greenwater City Coalition maintained a water-tight defense, disturbing reports repeatedly came from the regions behind them.

It seemed a squad of evil witches had snuck into Fantasy Forest via the west coast and had taken the opportunity to ambush an elven town near Skywater City. The elven forces sent out by Skywater City had chased this evil force over thousands of kilometers across the west coast, running straight into the outer boundary of Greenwater City.

Large groups of elves had banded together deep in the dark Fantasy Forest, combing the nearby woods inch by inch in hopes of finding those forces of evil. Upon hearing this news, Greenwater City also sent a squad of Windrunners to join the search team.

Thus, the battle situation off the south coast mysteriously escalated once again!

…………

The Echo Isles.

As many as three or four dozen elven battleships were roaming outside of the reef formations as large groups of Windrunners circled the skies, using their weapons to attack the structures upon the main island.

The witches had used the local geography to construct many magical buildings with strong defenses.

Standing tall at the edges of the main island were the defensive turrets. The bases of the turrets were connected with the main building of the island–a small adept's tower–and could draw upon the magical energies of the tower to erect energy barriers and fire offensive spells.

Thus, before they razed the defensive turrets, the Windrunners could only circle about in the skies; they had no way of dropping any land units onto the island. Their each and every attempt to dive and attack would be met with barrages of fireballs, energy blasts, wind blades, frost arrows, and acid balls. They had to risk their very lives just to use their explosive arrows or throwing spears to wear at the energy barriers.

This small adept's tower alone had allowed the Pale Witches to hold off any large-scale invasions from the Windrunners. The casualties of the witches remained at zero, but the losses of the elves had gone well over a hundred.

Remember, all one hundred of these casualties were elven elites who represented combat classes. Under ordinary circumstances, such tremendous losses would have been enough to cause the elven commanders leading the operation to agonizingly toss and turn in their sleep.

However, at this moment, they had become a necessary price to pay to suppress the arrogance of the witches!

Every time the losses of the elves reached a certain degree, the elven powerhouses hiding in the battleships would swarm out and use their immense individual ability to attack everything upon the island.

When that happened, it was time for the clash of the top-grade powerhouses of both factions!

Perhaps because of news about an enemy behind the frontlines, the clash of the powerhouses erupted ahead of time today.

Two Fourth Grade elven god messengers appeared above the main island, radiating intense magical auras. The Windrunners in charge of the assault immediately retreated at the sight of this. A Fourth Grade Pale Witch cackled and floated toward them from the massive reef island.

"Ursol, Zyvere, you two still dare come at me? What is it? Was the beating you received last time not enough for you?"

"Don't start gloating, Rimura. You didn't have that good of a time during the last battle either. Weren't you injured at my hands anyway? Hmph! There will come a day where we smash that tortoise shell of yours."

It was clear that this wasn't the first time both parties had engaged one another.

Over the past few days, the elven powerhouses had repeatedly attacked to end this Calamity of Witches as soon as they could. They wanted to destroy this obtrusive reef island. However, the enemy was supported by an adept's tower, which allowed the Fourth Grade Pale Witch to repel multiple Fourth Grade elven powerhouses alone.

That caused both parties to resort to such meaningless verbal sparring to pass the time.

There was no common ground to be found between the two parties, and a fight quickly broke out after a couple of words.

Ursol (male) of the elves was a Fourth Grade God Messenger of Marco, the God of Archery, while Zyvere (female) was a Fourth Grade God Messenger of elven chief god Saoirse. One of them was responsible for the offense, while the other supported them. Even so, they could only force a stalemate with the Fourth Grade Pale Witch Rimura.

The elves gathered around the Fourth Grade quickly turned to flee upon seeing a fight about to break out. They didn't even dare to stay and watch.

Ursol was a muscular middle-aged male elf with a rugged and determined face.

He wore dirt-yellow leather armor on his body and had short green hair, his long and slender ears pointing outward from his temples. He carried a quiver full of strange magical arrows upon his back and held in his left hand a magic longbow inscribed full of rose branches and carved with plenty of delicate patterns.

A curved elven scimitar hung by his waist.

He made no poses or battlecries. He merely raised his left hand and pulled on that incomparably tough bowstring with his right hand. As sizzling magical energy gathered along his bow, a magical arrow forged purely of nature power gathered upon his fingertips.

Haa!

Ursol let out a low battlecry as the magical arrow instantly turned into a flash of green lightning, crossing a thousand meters in an instant, and appearing before Rimura.

A thousand meters of distance was no obstruction for individuals of their power. As long as they wanted to, any attack that they unleashed would appear where they wanted it to be within their line of sight or where their Spirit had locked onto.

The elven longbow in Ursol's hand was no common artifact either. It was a famous Fourth Grade treasure even in Faen Plane– Thoda'rial, the Stars' Fury.

It was a pseudo-artifact!

It simultaneously possessed three magical effects: critical damage, artifact power, and pierce. Moreover, Thoda'rial, the Stars' Fury had been personally blessed by God of Archery Marco. Consequently, the bow automatically generated magical arrows when drawn, with no need for any arrows to go with the bow.

Even Rimura didn't dare face such a magical arrow glowing with countless magical sparks, despite having an energy shield from the adept's tower on her person.

She quickly flashed and appeared a hundred meters away.

Rimura wasn't to be outdone either. She waved her hand after dodging Ursol's attack, and a sinister, semi-translucent ghost's claw lashed outward, whistling and howling toward the enemy.

The ghost's claw was only the size of a sink basin when it flew out, but with the continuous injection of magic energy from the tower below, the claw continued to grow in size as it flew toward the enemy. It was half an acre large by the time it reached Ursol and Zyvere.

The cold winds surged around them, filling the air with a ghostly presence.

The negative energy aura instantly corrupted the space into a landscape of pure gray.

Ursol didn't dodge against an attack with such a large area. Instead, he calmly started preparing his next attack. Meanwhile, Zyvere, who was standing beside him, let out a battlecry and waved the short and delicate nature's staff in her hand. A Purification Halo with an immense area immediately enveloped the both of them.

Magic soaked in negative energy was perfectly countered by such powers of purification.

The previously overwhelming ghost's claw crumbled and shattered the moment it came into contact with the purification halo, turning into tufts of gray mist before slowly dispersing into the air.

At this point, the Stars' Fury in Ursol's hands had been drawn into a full moon.

Even more horrifying was the fact that three magical arrows containing explosive nature power had been simultaneously formed on the bowstring this time.

Boom!

As the snap of the bowstring rang out in the air, the three magical arrows shot forward. One of the magical arrows erupted with a powerful nature aura and transformed into a fearsome nature magic as it flew outward– Nature's Fury!

It was nature magic that reached Fourth Grade. It could bring out the nature power inside in the instant it detonated, dealing terrifying spell damage to the enemy.

As this happened, the other two magical arrows had silently vanished into thin air. No one could sense where they had gone.

Evanescent Arrow!

It was also a secret archery technique that God of Archery Marco had granted to the elves.

The previously relaxed-looking Rimura couldn't help but tense up when seeing the all-out explosion of Fourth Grade Ursol.

In truth, she wasn't afraid of that Fourth Grade Nature's Fury, but rather those two magical arrows that had turned invisible.

It didn't matter how powerful of a spell it was; it had to hit the enemy to unleash its might.

Nature's Fury might be powerful, but it could not break through the defensive magic of this Fourth Grade Pale Witch.

Rimura raised her head and let out a shrill, ear-piercing screech. The terrifying soundwave rippled in every direction like a wave. This Wail of the Banshee repeatedly weakened the Nature's Fury. It was at its limits by the time it hit the Deadsoul Barrier surrounding Rimura. It vanished before even making a splash.

The rippling soundwave's range was vast, so much so that it even forced one of the Evanescent Arrows hiding three hundred meters away to appear.

The sound of piercing winds immediately erupted from the Evanescent Arrow upon being revealed, as it shot toward Rimura's forehead.

The magical defensive strength of the Deadsoul Barrier was decent, but it was insufficient against physical attacks.

Rimura's silhouette flashed as she once again used Flicker to dodge this attack.

Just as she flickered and appeared in her new position, the air three meters away from her trembled. An Evanescent Arrow appeared out of thin air, accelerating and piercing toward her forehead.