The Oracle Paths

Jake, who hadn't missed a beat of this twisted turn of events, cursed under his breath as he saw a recruit barely seven or eight meters behind him get snatched up by the Pulsar on their tail. In a fit of frustration, he momentarily broke character, cleaving through both the helmet and skull of his opponent with a downward slash so ferocious that his rusted sword shattered upon impact.

"…Fuck. Just my luck," he muttered, examining the considerably shortened remnants of his blade.

It was a miracle that his piece-of-shit sword had lasted this long, given the ferocity of his strikes and the tough hide these Shimmers had for skin. He had to act, and fast; otherwise, in ten seconds, he'd have no choice but to go nuclear once the rest of his unit was wiped out.

'Maybe that's for the best…' Both he and Hephais sighed inwardly, exchanging a knowing nod.

The shadow assassin continued to carve a path for them, blade dancing in the dark. As for Jake, he abruptly turned, hurling what remained of his sword like a shuriken aimed straight for the eye of the Pulsar about to crush the traumatized recruit's skull.

Well, that was the plan. Instead, the giant tilted its head slightly, redirecting the sword's trajectory. The faint halo of vital energy around its face suddenly narrowed, focusing on the anticipated point of impact.

Cling!

The broken sword instantly shattered into even more shards, leaving nothing but a slight reddish mark on the enemy's forehead. Worse still, either out of reflex or sheer rage, the Pulsar's grip on the recruit's skull intensified exponentially, collapsing the head as easily as if it were an overripe tomato.

Thus, the recruit who had already stained his shabby clothes in fear met a gruesome end, staining them once more—this time with blood and brain matter.

Still, Jake was dead set on not letting things slide further downhill. His face an icy mask of apathy, he dryly inquired of Meribelle through their telepathic link,

'When are you planning on being useful? When the only recruit still breathing besides me and Hephais turns out to be the Soulmancer King you're so pathetically trying to hide right under our nose?'

Meribelle, whose soft gray eyes had been fixated on the Inner Wall—where an even bloodier battle raged—jolted at hearing this, her heart growing cold. What, he's already figured it out?!

Only then did she cast a confused glance downward, letting loose a stream of curses as she took stock of the situation. In barely 75 seconds, almost the entire recruit unit had been massacred. She'd been so busy watching the skies that she'd forgotten these recruits weren't yet fully equipped, and the enemies they faced were no ordinary foes.

As she assessed the handful of survivors still standing behind Jake, Hephais, and Sank-Uk, she instantly realized how endangered her king's true identity had become. Even if that cunning foreigner was bluffing, this slaughter had considerably narrowed down the list of suspects.

Evaluating the battlefield below with a sweeping gaze, she finally replied with an unconvincing calm, 'If I go down there, their Lifemancer will make his move. It'll only make things worse.'

'Then what can you do? Make up your mind, fast,' Jake retorted aggressively.

Seeing the Pulsar already on the move to drain the life out of its next victim, Meribelle's thoughts raced before she telepathically shouted, 'I can immobilize it temporarily.'

'How long?' Jake fired back.

'Long enough.'

'Very well. Be ready.'

Without another word, Jake broke into a stoic sprint towards the Pulsar, a behemoth nearly twice his size. Ekho and the other soldiers were stunned as they watched him abruptly change course. But it was the blue-blooded recruit armed with an enchanted axe who was most caught off guard when Jake effortlessly snatched the weapon from his hands, as smooth as a master pickpocket.

Twirling his new weapon without breaking stride, Jake cracked a satisfied smile, intrigued as he checked its attributes.

"Damn, with this battleaxe, I could've single-handedly defeated that Pulsar without Meribelle's help," he grumbled, tinged with bitterness.

[Iron Battleaxe (+4): Attributes: Wind (strong), Metal (strong). Graces: Enhanced Durability, Cutting Wind, Self-repair. A sacred heirloom from the White Ash Tribe. An ordinary iron axe, yet one that has endured four consecutive spiritual enchantments upon accidental and repeated contact with Spirit Lumyst Water from the Middle Shores. Its spiritual essence is awakened enough to sense and follow the intentions of the wielder without being sentient.]

In a few quick strides, Jake was face-to-face with the giant. The Pulsar had razor-sharp instincts and, sensing Jake's palpable killing intent, had already drawn and swung his own weapon, a massive butcher's cleaver with uniform brown striations.

"Too naive," the giant sneered, only for his expression to shift as a malevolent spectral force swooped down from the sky, freezing his mind and sending his consciousness into a stupor.

His vision blurred, and a crushing dizziness enveloping him, the Pulsar didn't even have the chance to feel wronged before his viewpoint whirled chaotically. Headless body, sky, and earth rapidly alternated in his field of view until the fetid darkness of blood-soaked mud became his final tableau.

Standing atop the decapitated head of the giant—now further embedded in the muck—Jake swung his new axe once more to shake off the blood. The crescent-moon twin blades looked ordinary, even a bit worn, but their bluish glow suggested otherwise.

"Not bad. It's not as good as my own gear, but with this, even a rookie could easily slice through a Light Warrior way out of his league if luck serves him right."

At the moment he'd struck the Pulsar, Jake had braced for multiple attempts to decapitate the giant without blowing his cover. Yet, in the end, it hadn't been necessary. A single axe stroke did the job.

Inches before making contact with the brute's neck, it had begun to split apart as if an invisible cutting force preceded the axe. In the end, the sword never even touched the enemy's skin.

"Too bad it's not my weapon," Jake grimaced, tossing the axe back to its grateful owner who had feared he'd never see it again. He would have been a dead man walking without it.

Not willing to go unarmed, Jake reluctantly picked up the massive cleaver from his most recent kill. He had hoped a Pulsar's weapon would be decent, and he wasn't disappointed.

[Great Wooden Cleaver (+2): Attribute: Wood. Graces: Enhanced Hardness, Living Weapon. Carved from a single branch of a massive tree growing somewhere in the Lustra Plains. Its vitality has been awakened twice, making this wood stronger and sturdier than ordinary wood. It neither rots nor deteriorates as long as its vital needs are met.]

The +2 was deceptive. It might suggest a likeness to the +4 of his previous axe, but the effects were markedly different. The former granted life or increased vitality to an object, promoting mutations and evolutions, while the latter infused spirituality into an object, its effects generally less foreseeable but often more spectacular.

A spirit, not being dependent on its vessel, could theoretically be attributed to anything, whereas the reverse wasn't true. Bringing life to an inherently inorganic or artificial object was far more challenging.

As such, the Lustra Plains warriors had little choice but to use weapons made from plant material to somewhat compete with the equipment crafted by the Spirit Enchanters of the Duskwight Lands. The outcome was inevitably inferior.

"But at least, it's hard and big enough," Jake mentally consoled himself as he hefted the enormous cleaver onto his shoulder.

The only major snag: the souls of these far more menacing Pulsars barely offered more sustenance to his Lumyst Aura than the insignificant Shimmers he'd been slicing and dicing by the dozen. Turns out, lifeforce didn't help the soul that much at lower stages.

Catching up to the other recruits who had drifted away from him in pursuit of Hephais' breakthrough, Jake kept swinging his new cleaver to annihilate any Shimmer daring enough to wander too close.

"Jake, two Pulsars on your right," Meribelle's voice rang out abruptly in his head.

"On it."

Hephais must have gotten a similar heads-up because, without hesitation, he snatched back the axe he had just handed back to the newbie. He then leapt, weapon clutched in both hands above his head, toward an armored colossus bathed in a faint luminescent halo.

Just like before, the towering figure froze momentarily before the strike. With a swift and savage motion, the assassin cut in half him, splattering gore in every direction.

In the same fluid sequence, Jake reached his targets. Dodging a claymore with a nimble sidestep and cursing Meribelle for not stunning them properly, he summarily slayed both giants.

Just like that, with the interference of a Soulmancer and a better arsenal, a situation that seemed fucked from the get-go was suddenly back under control.