Age of Adepts

Chapter 43

Following Greem’s order, the humanoid Clay Golem trembled, like a statue that had its internal supports taken away, and collapsed. At the same time, an earthy yellow dust exploded from the back of the Clay Alligator Golem, which quickly molded itself into the shape of the humanoid Clay Golem.

Therefore, the previously separated humanoid Clay Golem and the alligator Clay Golem merged, transforming into a strange looking ‘Demon Alligator Hunter’ form.

From a far distance, they looked like a masculine hunter riding on a nearly three meter long demon alligator, holding a dirt spear in his hand. As the summoner of both golems, Greem was able to clearly see this newly formed golem. Actually, the hunter was not riding on top of the alligator, but its entire lower body had merged with the back of the alligator.

A Clay Golem could never detach themselves from the ground, or else they would lose their endless supply of Earth Elementium. Now that they had merged, most of their abilities had been combined. The dense Earth Elementium had formed a layer of sparkling and crystal-clear Earth armor on their body, showing some signs of being similar to stone armor.

Demon Alligator Hunter!

Through extensive calculations performed by the Chip, and the merging of magical formations, two Clay Golems, with nearly identical sources, had been merged together, giving birth to a brand new golem.

Greem strode forward. Following his arrival, the Demon Alligator lowered its body, gently coiling its long tail around Greem’s body and lifting him onto its back. The spikes on its back wriggled, transformed into the shape of a chair.

Placing his body firmly into the clay chair, Greem lightly tapped his feet.

“Let’s go!”

Following his command, the Demon Alligator opened its mouth and let out a deep howl as it began to waddle its huge body toward the Ghost Nanny’s nest in the distance.

Actually, those Ghost Nannies resting in the muddy swamp not far away had noticed their presense. But after going through two devastating mass killings, they had become like birds which jumped at the mere twang of a bow-string – badly frightened. Thus none of them dared to come out and look for trouble. However, having such a large Demon Alligator intrude into their territory and begin to wreak havoc to the muddy swamp they lived in, no matter how weak they were in comparison, these Ghost Nannies had no choice but to force themselves to face this foul intruder.

Sharp, shrill howls, like night owls call, started ringing through the air of the muddy swamp. Skinny, yet surprisingly strong, figures kept squeezing out from the muddy pond, one after another one, letting out sharp cries and crowding in from all directions.

Their hair was dirty and disheveled; their bodies pale and wrinkled; their nails pitch-black and razor-sharp... Like frightening ghosts, these demons charged toward the intruders while letting out terrifying howls. If an ordinary Apprentice Adept was here, perhaps he would have scurried away at this frightening scene, but Greem was just the opposite.

Today, he was testing the strength of his newly combined Golems. How could he be scared at such a small scene?

After ran his eyes over the swarm of Ghost Nannies storming in from all directions, Greem had a cruel smile come over his face as he stomped his feet.

“Kill! Kill them all for me!”

Upon receiving Greem’s command, the seemingly stiff and dumb Demon Alligator Hunter suddenly ‘woke up’. Although it didn’t have clear facial features, a strange ‘roar’ actually rang through the air, causing ripples to spread across the water.

Biting with its mouth; ripping with it’s sharp claws; swinging around its long and powerful tail, the Demon Alligator dashed into the swarm of Ghost Nannies while launching frightening attacks. Though walking on the muddy, stinking water, its gigantic body moved like it was walking on flat ground. Shock waves could be seen spreading out from underneath its body, causing any Ghost Nanny that came within 5 meters of Demon Alligator to tremble, barely able to stay on their feet.

Any Ghost Nanny who fell into the sharp claws and gigantic mouth would be ripped into a bloody mess in an instant, staining the water with their stinking, black blood. But even so, wave after wave of Ghost Nannies still broke through Demon Alligator’s head and tail attack, successfully squeezed themselves into both sides of its body, restlessly climbing up onto its back, trying to pull Greem and the ‘Hunter’ into the muddy pond.

Faced with few hundred black, dirty hands clustered below its body, the Hunter showed no fear at all. Holding the spear in its hand, the Hunter kept piercing through the heads of Ghost Nannies. Since the Ghost Nanny was a demon and not an immortal creature, once their head was pierced through by the spear, they would die. Thus, ugly, twisted bodies of Ghost Nanny continuously fell off from Demon Alligator’s back, sinking to the bottom of the muddy pond.

When the fight became furious, the Hunter would wave its arms, unleashing countless Spikes in a 10 x 8 meter area, puncturing the bodies of Ghost Nanny on the ground.

On his side, Greem clapped his palms before separated them, shooting out two frightening flames. In an instant, the Ghost Nannies, who had nearly reached his pant legs, were drawn into the scorching flame.

Burned by the intense heat, the Ghost Nannies started screeching. For a moment, countless flaming bodies rolled off the back of the Demon Alligator, struggling in the muddy pond while letting out miserably cries, turning the entire muddy swamp into a living hell.

Moving forward while growling aggressively, the Demon Alligator ripped apart everything that got in its way. Located at the highest point of its back, the Hunter attacked anything that got too close, while occasionally throwing its spear at a long range target. If there were too many enemies, it would unleash a Spike spell, causing Ghost Nannies to shed blood like fountains.

Even though both Golems had combined their strength, they were nowhere near as flashy as Greem, who had transformed fire wielding maniac. He sat firmly on the rear end of Demon Alligator’s back, both arms slightly stretched out, shooting two frightening flames out a few meters, causing any Ghost Nanny who got too close to be caught up in a terrifyingly hot inferno.

Following the reckless charging of Demon Alligator in the Ghost Nanny army, Greem’s frightening flame had nearly set the entire muddy pond on fire. Moments ago, these Ghost Nannies were still leaping to them crazily, but they were now filled with great terror, each and every single one was screaming and swimming away from the battlefield.

Within the blazing, scorching hot muddy pond, the putrid smell of burnt flesh filled every inch of the air, making anyone who smelt it feel like throwing out. Greem had transformed into a frantic demon lord, controlling his frightening flames arbitrarily, killing every single enemy he could found on his way, totally had no idea that all the enemies around him had been turned into charcoal.

When the blazing flames formed by Burning Hand finally died down, Greem finally woke up from the satisfying slaughter. After waking up, the first thing came to his attention was the pungent smell that filled his nose, which nearly made him suffocate.

Stamping his right foot a few times and giving the golem a mental command, the Demon Alligator moved. Though it looked slow, it actually left the muddy pond at an incredible speed. When they finally left the pond, Greem looked over his shoulder, a miserable scene immediately revealed in front of his eyes, and he was filled with a great shock.

Just a brief moment ago, when he was recklessly killing all those ‘weaklings’, countless terrifying, horrible consciouses had swarmed into his mind, making him frantic and crazy. Although it had been satisfying, it went against the elementary Adept teachings, which said all Adept had to keep calm and rational at all times.

“Chip, activate Elementium Vision!” As if Greem had sensed something, he gave out his command with a soft voice.

*Beep* “Elementium Vision activated.”

The multi-colored Elementium Vision projected into Greem’s eyes. Looking around, he found the entire sky above the muddy swamp was full of broken souls, who were howling and groaning endlessly. No wonder his conscious had been occupied by something else just now. It was all because of these broken souls!

If he was an Apprentice Adept who had an affinity Darkness, he would definitely have been struck with a wild joy, skipping around as he gathered all these broken souls. For them, these high quality broken souls were the best materials for their experiments. But Greem was unable to do these things.

Without protection from Dark Elementium, if he got too close to these broken souls, who mainly comprised of negative energy, his Spirit and body would suffer a certain degree of corrosion. If this situation persisted, his body would become skinny, as his blood and soul were slowly corrupted by the negative energy. Therefore, Greem always kept a safe distance from any souls.

Just now, he was immersed in a satisfying emotion of slaughter, forgetting his original purpose in coming here. Now, thinking back, he started to ponder on the combat performance of his Demon Alligator Hunter.

Overall, the Demon Alligator Hunter possessed the ability of an Advanced Apprentice, thus it had no problem suppressing an Intermediate Apprentice. Greem even had the confidence to fight the strongest three, but, of course, it was tough to tell if he could actually beat them in a fight.

Among all the Advanced Apprentices Greem met before, perhaps only the frightening Loli, Alice, would be able to suppress his Demon Alligator Hunter. As for the other Advanced Apprentices, he could only evaluate their abilities after fighting with them.

Actually, the real weakness of this Demon Alligator Hunter was Greem.

As the Demon Alligator Hunter was summoned by Greem, as long as the enemy took care of Greem, it would no longer be a threat. So, when a real fight erupted, perhaps most of the enemy’s offensive attack would be aimed at Greem. If he couldn’t withstand another adept’s massive firepower, no matter how tough was his Demon Alligator Hunter was, he would have no chance of winning a fight.

Therefore, Greem had to find a way to solve this weakness, and this was also the second test would run today.

“Demon Alligator Hunter! Dive down!”

Following Greem’s command, the small ‘throne’ he was sitting on started to move forward. At the same time, the Hunter golem in front of him started to expand as Greem slowly merged with it.

When Greem’s body finally disappeared into golem’s body, the Demon Alligator underneath let out a short growl, and an earthy yellow smoke started emitting from its body. In next moment, the entire Demon Alligator Hunter disappeared without a trace.

As if suddenly he had sunk into a pitch black abyss. Greem’s breath suddenly stopped, being replaced by the strong smell of dirt. All of his senses had vanished, but there was a massive external force pressing onto his body. The force was so strong, it nearly made all his bones start to crack.

But following the dispersion of Earth Elementium around Demon Alligator Hunter’s body, this external force started to subside, eventually disappearing.

Although he couldn’t see with his eyes, nor hear with his ears, Greem slowly sent forth his Spirit energy, using it as a replacement for his eyes and ears, allowing him to sense everything around himself.

He was traveling underground! Although he was not moving at an incredible speed, Greem still felt like he was riding on the clouds. It was like Demon Alligator Hunter was floating within a pool of sticky, heavy liquid, continually consuming the Earth Elementium energy stored within its body and breaking through the dirt around him, traveling by slipping through the earth.