The Oracle Paths

"I didn't think you'd manage to survive this long," Isdar congratulated them with dripping sarcasm, his malicious smile unwavering. "Thinking you're safe here? Big mistake. But I guess I can't blame you for thinking that way. Cornered, a human can only see what's right in front of him. Makes it easy to make them dance to my tune—"

"You talk too much," Lord Phenix retorted disdainfully. "Whether you're a nobody hungry for glory or the Celestial himself, if anyone's trapped here, it's you!"

"Exactly!" Crunch sneered, lifting his snout with a pride that matched his rival's snooty air. "The nerve to think my master can be manipulated by anyone! For that, I'll take care of you myself."

Jake and Hephais watched the two clowns with deadpan expressions, but internally, their thoughts were far from indifferent, Why can't these two stop stirring up trouble? Keep sniffing around for it, and they'll end up with a face full of it...

And they weren't far from the truth. As soon as the armored giant was interrupted in the middle of his villainous monologue by the two beasts, his smiling face twisted into a forced, unpleasant grimace. He had already decided who he would kill first.

"No point arguing with future dead enemies. Fine! I'll start with you two."

Releasing a murderous intent held back for who knows how long in a sigh resembling a death rattle, Isdar slowly lifted the greatsword resting on his shoulder and wielded it deftly. As he took his stance, the atmosphere around him shifted drastically, becoming icy and hostile.

A Lumyst Aura as bright as a mini sun ignited his body, forming a dense, impenetrable halo of light enveloping both his body and weapon. The lifeforce radiating from his cells seemed to have changed nature, becoming more compressed and subdued, multiplying his physical prowess.

At the touch of this white radiance overflowing with vitality, the bark-covered ground began to bud, quickly covering itself in a bed of flowers, and then young roots similar to those having ensnared Jake and his group. At this precise moment, the Saint truly looked the part of a... saint.

Seeing the four foreigners frozen in place, transfixed by him, Isdar felt a slight satisfaction. It's always like this when these loudmouth weaklings see me in action. Disappointing.

He had expected more from these foreigners. Especially after they had forced him to reveal his existence early by pushing Corvac to the brink.

Of course, his confidence wasn't just out of ignorance. Like all high-ranking officers and commanders, they had been briefed that morning about the appearance and threat posed by the most dangerous foreigner fighting for the Dusken Throne: Jake Wilderth.

Even a Saint had to proceed with extreme caution if he/she met him in a one-on-one without any backup. His charm, in particular, could reportedly enslave the mind of the opposite sex with just a glance.

'I don't buy that bullshit,' Isdar scoffed arrogantly while taunting, "Who wants to die first?"

"First?" The four Players mocked him. "I think there's a slight misunderstanding. We're not here for a duel."

Right after the last word, Crunch and Lord Phenix reverted to their original state, swelling dramatically to fill all available space. From the outside, the flat belly of Corvac swelled like that of an obese beer drinker, while his bark cracked at multiple points.

In their combat form, the two creatures were free to toy with the armored giant as if he were a mere child's doll.

At least, that was the initial plan. Reality proved otherwise.

Lord Phenix immediately found himself cramped, realizing he didn't even have enough room to fully extend his wings, let alone maneuver. The Fire Lumyst he had accumulated exploded in a burst, plunging the hollow insides of Corvac into a sea of flames, forcing his allies to defend themselves.

Thankfully, due to their Faction Passive, they were all highly resistant to heat, while their enemy was forced to protect himself with his Lumyst Aura with all his might. Overall, one could consider his intervention more helpful than hindering to his allies.

In contrast, Crunch turned out to be by far the worst teammate imaginable. While the orange turkey simply lacked space and aimed roughly, the black cat made no distinction between friend and foe at all.

Where Lord Phenix merely enlarged, Crunch's expanding body was integral to his attack strategy. The Lumyst with strange rubbery and metallic properties that he had condensed circulated through his body, increasing his own elasticity as he swelled up like a balloon at the speed of sound.

In the blink of an eye, Crunch's fur, spiked and hard as diamond, pinned everyone against the walls of Corvac's interior, flattening them like pancakes. Lord Phenix, the bulkiest of them all, was the most miserable, ending up skewered and pierced as if struck by a giant sea urchin.

"This idiot..." Jake facepalmed, seeing the razor-sharp fur inches from his eyes.

Not wanting to hurt his cat, he had no choice but to let himself be pinned against the vegetal wall behind him, contorting into an improbable position to dodge as many spikes as possible. Alas, even so, Crunch's drum-tight skin eventually reached him, crushing him against Corvac.

Right now, Jake found himself the guinea pig of a painful experiment to determine which between Crunch and the Treant Puppet's belly was more stretchable. Finding himself between a rock and a hard place, the preliminary results of this experiment allowed him to ascertain that, at least, his bones fared better than the bark.

To resist the unstoppable expansion of the cat-balloon, a myriad of roots as thick as cables burst from the walls, indifferent to whether Jake was in their path. He couldn't help but groan in pain each time a sharpened root broke against his shoulder blades or the back of his skull.

ROOOOARRR!

If Jake himself was in such bad shape, then he could only imagine the condition of the others. Though he had lost his sense of self after becoming a Treant puppet, Corvac was currently in agony from his stomach. It was as if he had explosive diarrhea held in by clenching his buttocks for months but no toilet to launch the missile.

On the surface of his body, one could see the bark armor cracking rapidly, then regenerating slightly larger thanks to the continuous absorption of the Lumyst Water around. As long as this source of energy lasted, the match between Corvac and Crunch wouldn't find a winner anytime soon.

While Jake wondered how to join the fight without hurting his cat, Hephais was inwardly thanking the feline for providing an ideal hunting ground. Earlier, their opponent's blinding light aura prevented his shadows from approaching, but now he had his pick of the litter.

Projecting filaments of Shadow Lumyst in all directions, the assassin melded into the first shadow he found and slipped between the stretched skin of Crunch, its fur, and the bark walls below. Even a millimeter of space was enough for him to move in this tight environment as long as shadows could form. And by blocking the light from the enemy's aura, the cat had done precisely that.

A few tenths of a second later, the Egaean found the armored giant crushed against the bark wall, unable to move, but unharmed. His greatsword shone like a white sun, embedded deeply in Crunch, and burning his flesh, but the cat, to his great surprise, had emitted no whimper.

'Eh? So it's not just all talk.' Hephais praised mentally, seeing the cat in a new light.

Isdar was going through a similar thought process but was frustrated and hateful. He had never felt so humiliated.

'Damn it, what's this despicable tactic!' The Saint fumed, mobilizing all his strength to move the arm holding his sword downward to deeply gut the balloon cat whose skin had taken on a crystalline appearance.

He had channeled an insane amount of Light Lumyst into his blade, enough to level a small village, but the cat's skin resisted like dragon leather. In addition to being tough, the beast regenerated ridiculously fast, while he could feel his light dispersing in its flesh until it became almost harmless. Novel Fire - novelfire.net

Isdar had a huge ego, but he wasn't stupidly arrogant. He was well aware that at this rate, Corvac would run out of water. If he wanted to win, he would have to strike much harder.

"Corvac, let's fuse—"

Slash!

At that moment, Hephais' scimitar struck, emerging from a tiny shadow cast by a fur of Crunch. Isdar, the unnamed Saint, was decapitated in an instant.

Despite the successful execution, the expert assassin's face displayed no joy, instead furrowing.

"Something feels off."