The Oracle Paths

Of course, this was only possible because these Wengols were the small fry of their huge army. Without being as ridiculously weak as Trash and his level 7, their level rarely exceeded 20.

Because the Wengols were aliens innately bigger and stronger than humans, they could prevail over human warriors of much higher level than them. That was the bleak reality.

A few days earlier, Jake would not have been able to so easily penetrate these natives' spirit bodies and control them with his telekinesis. It would have taken considerable effort and utmost dedication to accomplish this masterful feat and these targets would most likely have taken notice.

But everything changed when he received his Rune Engraver Soul Class. His Intelligence and Extrasensory Perception had increased almost sevenfold, and with these new cognitive abilities what was once difficult was now a cakewalk.

Jake still had to get used to this new fighting style, but he was already starting to enjoy it. He still didn't know the limits of his new psychic abilities, but this mission would be the perfect opportunity to find out.

Seeing the hundreds of Wengols collapsing like disjointed puppets around them, the few remaining Lodunvaliese soldiers hung their mouths agape and stupidly stopped fighting, clutching their weapons with evident disbelief in their eyes.

At first they didn't know who they owed this miracle to, but soon the bunch of tired humans being slaughtered by half a thousand Wengol infantrymen became aware of the appearance of a very peculiar squad.

The bloodsucking whip sowing death in the Wengol ranks and the red eyes of the woman wielding the weapon... A vampire!

Ka Cha!

A cold storm suddenly spread across the bloody battlefield, instantly freezing 17 Wengol warriors. Two humans from the other side were also hit by the spell... At the epicenter of the ice blast, stood a bored, cynical young woman with long silver hair. As she counted the collateral victims of her spell, she showed only apathy.

Her right eye emitted an intense amethyst radiance, while the left eye was a bottomless marine blue in which pulsed a silver fire as pure as moonlight. Her face's and arms' fair skin were streaked with lines of bluish light and her translucent canines and claws left no doubt to her nature.

A Mutant!

Jake glared sternly at Ruby, then said curtly,

"For every human accidentally killed by your techniques, I will take 1B of Aether. So, please keep going."

The remaining Lodunvaliese watched their exchange in amazement, and they finally noticed that every time this handsome man wagged a finger, a dozen Wengols went down in silence. Either a human, or another Mutant, they understood at once.

Fwwww! Fwoooo!

A shower of razor-sharp arrows suddenly rained down with machine-gun frequency on the crumbling Wengols, while a dwarf wielding a huge axe and a graying unarmed mutant suddenly blocked their path.

Bhammod struck the ground with the bottom of his axe and a powerful seismic wave knocked all the aliens out of balance. He struck again and a second shockwave that could dynamite a small hill blasted all the runaways into the distance, their bones and organs reduced to mush.

Norton was much less spectacular, content to stoically survey the scene with his hands clasped behind his back, but every time a lucky Wengol managed to get past the dwarf's obstacle, their mushroom heads would invariably come off their necks.

The Lodunvals soldiers gulped as they witnessed the performance of this rescue team. This was not an assist, but an extermination. Counting the little vampire girl, the tiny fairy fluttering merrily about the battlefield and the useless brat, they finally knew who had come to their rescue.

'I can't believe they sent Laudarkvik to our rescue...' Most of the survivors lamented inwardly. This was not necessarily good news.

Subconsciously, they had already resolved to lose a hand or a good half-liter of blood to repay their saviors. The real question was who would be willing to let themselves be amputated to spare the rest of their company.

A few minutes later, the battle ended. Norton whistled and the group regrouped in an instant. Jake, who hadn't moved a step during the entire battle, remained in the same rear-guard position. Ruby was beside him in a bad mood, while Lily, Trash and Jeanie waited quietly in front of him.

"Good job. That was smoother than I thought." Norton congratulated them with a rare smile. "Especially you Jake, your efficiency in decimating the enemy infantry is remarkable."

Jake sketched a contrite smile as he received the compliment. Why did he feel that there was a forewarning hidden behind those flattering words?

Continuing his praise, their superior did not hesitate to criticize some of their methods.

"Bhammod, you're an Axe Warlord I suppose, but your technique was unnecessarily destructive. If humans had been among them, they would have been seriously injured. Elduin, good job. Carmin, war is not a happy hour. You don't need to bleed them dry to incapacitate your enemies, a few gallons or a large wound will do. Lily... Good job hypnotizing the Wengol officer, but why didn't you give him the order to attack afterwards? In the end, your performance is even worse than Trash's, who by throwing rocks saved the lives of several men. As for you Ruby... I don't want to see that happen again. Like Bhammod, a area technique of such great magnitude was not needed here."

When the cycle of praise and rebuke ended, each of them wore a very different expression. Some were indifferent, others sported a cocky smirk, or were greatly dismayed. However, there was one person left out.

"What about me?! Don't I get my evaluation?" Jeanie grouched with her fists on her hips as she buzzed past Norton's nose.

"Evaluation of what?" The Mutant snarled as he swept the air with his hand as if chasing a fly. "Other than flitting about the battlefield shouting encouragement you were useless. If you were a cheerleader or a mascot, I would have definitely commended you."

Norton thought he had properly lambasted her, but the small fairy grinned happily after that.

"Jeanie is very good at giving encouragement!"

Jake and the others facepalmed, but Carmin patted the fairy's head in congratulations. She was just too cute!

"Ahem, sorry to disturb you messires, myladies, but while I am eternally grateful, my brothers in arms are still sacrificing themselves as I speak." The veteran warrior whom Carmin had previously saved decided to speak for the other survivors.

Norton became solemn again and asked coldly,

"What is your name, human?"

"Chevalier Gascon Viliard, lieutenant of the 3rd Company, 7th Regiment and 3rd Division of Lodunvals, Northern Army."

"Oh a nobleman, then? I'm impressed. A nobleman sacrificing himself for his people, I didn't know that still existed." The Mutant scoffed arrogantly. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yes." The soldier answered in the affirmative.

"In that case, lead the way."

Norton and his backup squad had not yet reached Lodunvals. Aisling had predicted from Jake's report that the civilians would be evacuated through the north gate, but that the evacuation would likely be aborted halfway. Taking the lead, she had headed for Lodunvals to bolster the city's defenses and stem the advance of the Khinchod army, but she also knew that it was impossible to hold off 600,000 aliens.

As soon as she knew the evacuation would fail, she anticipated that several divisions would be detached from the main army corps to hunt down the civilians and nobles migrating to the stronghold of Kelenden. Norton and his squad's role was to intercept this army, rescue the Lodunvaliese soldiers sacrificing themselves to slow them down, and if possible completely eradicate these divisions and then come in to reinforce Lodunvals.

As one could imagine, these more robust and better trained Wengols and Wurchings had easily caught up with the procession of refugees moving at a snail's pace because of the wagons, children and old people. Most were on foot, and no ordinary human could match the running pace of a trained four-meter alien.

The few thousand guards and militia closing the march and escorting the civilians had done the only thing they could do, which was to sacrifice themselves company after company to slow down the enemy.

The Wengol soldiers were far from being idiots and they saw through their ridiculous game. Each time, their commander would dispatch a thousand troops from one of his three divisions to deal with these handfuls of resistance fighters and then bypass the designated battle area to resume the pursuit.

The process was repeated as many times as necessary until all the guards were forced into the fray. However, these guards had also guessed how it would end for them, so they had ordered the civilian procession to disperse to increase their chances of escape.

Norton and his squad had stumbled upon one of these expendable companies by chance when they heard the shouts and clanging, but deducing the direction of the main procession would be arduous. That was where Gascon came in.

The knight didn't know what had happened to all those civilians, but he did know their original route map. Based on his report, Norton adjusted his strategy and set off again. He ordered the survivors to rest, but Gascon and three other men insisted on following them after Jake and Carmin treated them by transferring their vitality.