The Oracle Paths

As Kyle approached the Digestor horde, he grabbed Sarah's arm, running beside him to force her to slow down. From a distance, it looked like a herd of ordinary Digestors, but now that he was close enough, he sensed that something was wrong. ' Why are these Digestors so huge and move so fast? Is Jake inside?!'

"What?! Weren't you the one who was acting up five minutes ago because we went off to kill Digestors without you?! " Sarah snapped back with some impatience. She knew his true character. She didn't think for a second that an Ordeal could completely change his true nature.

" Let's analyze the situation for a second. " The Playboy diverted her attention by raising his hands in a vain attempt to appease her.

Taking a closer look at the horde, which had abruptly stopped moving, as if something or someone had completely captured their attention, Sarah admitted that Kyle's words were not unreasonable. If they threw themselves headlong into the fray, there was a real risk of dying within seconds if they were targeted by an abnormally strong Digestor.

"I'm listening. "Sarah finally replied as she regained her composure.

Kyle bit his lip, his eyes agitated, trying to find the right words to make his point. In the end, he said:

"Why don't we wait and see if Jake is still alive first? If we go inside and he's already dead, we'll all die in vain. "

Sarah's face darkened when she heard his plan. A coward!

"My Shadow Guide tells me he's alive. If you don't have another plan, I'm going. "Sarah said in an icy tone. "If it was you in there and we had to save you, you'd be dead already with that mindset. "

After that Sarah approached the horde cautiously, ignoring him completely. The thousands of Digestors were all rushing to a point somewhere in the middle of the horde, as if a bloody piece of meat had been thrown in the middle of a school of sharks.

Unaware of each other's existence, the decerebrate creatures stepped on top of each other, scaling each other in the hope of getting a piece of their common prey first.

The situation was so chaotic that the young woman could not find a point of entry. In the end, she decided to take a different tactic. If the Digestors were so busy with Jake that they didn't even know she existed, then she could simply use the opportunity to exterminate the Digestors within her reach.

Even if this would have little impact on the huge number of Digestors in this horde, it would still make one less potential enemy. In the long run, this could only help Jake and she would finally get the Aether she sorely needed.

Once she was clear on her plan of action, she continued to approach cautiously, her posture stiffening more and more like a lioness lurking in the grass before pouncing on her prey. Only a few yards away from the horde, who were still ignoring her, she lunged forward with a lateral stroke. Two Digestors with their backs to her were immediately beheaded.

The two creatures toppled forward over their fellow brethren, sprinkling them with silvery blood. Individualistic and driven by their instincts to kill and devour, the sprayed Digestors did not immediately take offense.

It was only after the metallic and slightly rancid smell of the monsters' blood filled the air that the Digestors nearby suddenly turned around, their hideous heads smelling the air in search of a culprit.

When their single silver eyeballs caught sight of the tiny blond-haired human, the creatures grew a long, shrill, enthusiastic cluck. They may not have been able to taste the quality prey that had been offered to them, but another prey of acceptable quality had just presented itself to replace it.

Sarah then decapitated those who took an interest in her, until she in turn was gradually swallowed up by an avalanche of Digestors. Kyle could still hear her cries and the sound of her blade outside, but they were getting farther and farther away.

"God damn it, Kyle, stop being such a wimp! "The playboy gave himself courage out loud, slapping himself once to come to his senses.

Counting to three in his head, he finally uttered a war cry meant to be threatening, and then charged into the horde as well. A few seconds later, he had disappeared inside as well.

As for the two pink-haired sisters, they were still hesitant, but no longer intended to flee. They had no confidence in their chance of survival if they entered the fray directly, but surely there was something they could do to make themselves useful.

After a while Enya pointed her palms at the monster horde and tried to conjure a fireball. With her Seventh Stat barely awakened, she simply felt the flow of Aether increase in her hands, then slowly a tiny ball of fire appeared.

The young woman had nothing to do, nothing to premeditate. As long as her intent was there, this fireball would generate itself with the same unconscious ease that allowed her to breathe or stand.

When the bland orange-red fireball reached the size of a football after about fifteen seconds, she willed to throw it at the enemy and the flaming projectile left her palms to strike the back of a stupid looking Digestor looking like a sort of cyclops velociraptor with a duck beak.

The projectile had little inertia, rapidly losing speed and size as it moved away from her hands, its movement resembling that of a badminton shuttlecock after a moderately powerful shot.

Confirming her concerns, the impact of the fireball had little effect on the Digestor's thick, rubbery skin. Other than tilting forward and jostling the Digestor in front of it, the fireball left only a blackened skin on the affected area.

Nevertheless, it still had a positive effect. The Digestor, half duck, half dinosaur, made a raging cluck and decided he wasn't that interested in the three prey fighting in the middle of the horde. Hurtling towards the two women with the elegance of an ostrich in full sprint, the Digestor had decided who would be its next meal.

The thing was that Enya and Esya, far from being terrified, were instead delighted to see the lone Digestor charging towards them. It should not be forgotten that the initial reason for their exit from the Shelter was to hunt Digestors and accumulate Aether. Shooting down a stupid Rank 2 Digestor was right up their alley!

Drawing her sword, Enya avoided the monster's beak snap with an elegant side step and then brought her blade down on the monster's neck, cutting its head off neatly. She then absorbed the Aether with an excited expression.

Seeing the success of her older sister, Esya also had flushed cheeks of excitement. So their Fire Ball lvl0 was not that useless after all.

With this success, the two sisters started throwing fireballs repeatedly to attract the attention of the Digestors left behind one by one, and were finally able to start collecting Aether for the first time since their departure from the Oracle City.

*****

A few minutes earlier, when Jake forced Enya's hand to let go of him, he disappeared into the middle of the horde without anyone being able to do anything about it. He couldn't walk and felt like a piece of meat thrown to a bank of piranhas.

He could not see much and his body was soon compressed and crushed by the huge amount of Digestors covering him and having no other motive or purpose than to devour him alive.

At first, Jake struggled to come to his senses and find some foothold, the weight of the Digestors suffocating him. Simultaneously, he struggled to control the Aether of Constitution on his skin to prevent the sharp forearms of the Rank 4 Humanoid Digestor closest to him from piercing his thorax and the monster's teeth from ripping half his throat out.

The Myrmidian and Kintharian bloods were like two nuclear batteries inside him, the miraculous Aether they contained giving him mysterious abilities and enhancing the quality of his Aether several times over.

While his skin should have resisted only a fraction of a second against the pressure exerted by the teeth and the scythes of the Digestor, the Aether of Constitution held firm, his body emitting a bright yellowish light giving him an almost divine aura.