The Oracle Paths

Once again, the newcomer knocking at their door had chosen not to announce itself verbally, simply ramming itself hard against the door without uttering a sound.

' At least the others weren't trying to destroy my door...' Jake inwardly fumed as he watched the wooden door reinforced with cooled lava crack and warp with each blow.

If it broke completely, it wouldn't make any difference whether they were inside or outside the house. The freezing wind would seep through the walls, quenching the chimney fire heating the room and freezing them to the bone in a matter of minutes.

Intolerable!

Trembling with fury, Jake didn't even bother to ambush the person or thing on the other side of the door and engulfed it without warning with his Spirit Body before choking it with his telekinetic grip. It was the second time he resorted to this method in one day. Darth Vader truly had to watch out !

Next, he kicked open the door and the individual suffocating on the other side was almost knocked out by the blow. With the intruder neutralized, Jake was finally able to inspect this newcomer who had no sense of decorum.

"This... Kevin, you wouldn't have made a kid out of one of the bears on the island, right ?"He asked with a contemplative expression, mixed with disbelief and fake admiration.

Hearing his cousin openly accusing him of zoophilia, the bear-man who had reverted to human form began to twitch with rage, his veins and arteries congesting over his face, causing his blood pressure to rise dangerously.

"Of course not! Who do you think I am?! Say something like that again and I assure you that making a child with a bear will be the least of your worries! "

"... Is this a threat? "Jake arched an intrigued eyebrow.

At the same time, his Spirit Body engulfed the stone house with a special focus on his beloved cousin and the muscular man felt an unbearable pressure seeping into his body. He felt the control of his limbs slipping away from him and an intangible force was pressing his body to the ground, preventing him from moving and breathing properly.

Tightening his muscles to the point of becoming tomato red, the long brown hairs that had covered his body a moment earlier resurfaced and his appearance switched back to its bestial form, gaining almost 50 centimeters in height in the process. With this anatomical transformation, the Werebear managed to raise his head high, the bestial aura pulsing out of his body allowing him to push Jake's spirit away with great difficulty.

"Hmmph! So what ? You think I'm afraid of you ? Hell no! I'll take you anytime you want!"

Upon realizing that his cousin was not in the least repentant, Jake complexion darkened.

"Then, tell me... Why is there a fucking Ewok in front of my door! "Jake exploded in a fit of rage as he dropped the creature into the lobby for all to see.

Discovering the humanoid creature the size of a 4 year old child that actually looked like a teddy bear crossed with a Koala, the mouths of everyone present cracked open into a big O, Kevin included.

Jake had already confirmed with his scan that it was a Player, but the creature looked completely dumb. Apart from the fact that it had a solid skull, he couldn't imagine how such an alien could have survived until now. The poor thing was shivering non-stop in an advanced state of hypothermia.

"I've never seen it before in my life. " Kevin spat as he made his long claws squeak against each other. "I'll take his life right now to prove it to you."

With a determined step, the bear-man stepped forward with a murderous expression on his face towards the little fluffy creature still catching his breath.

"STOP! "Lily had already stood between her cousin and the creature with a horrified look on her face. Then she turned to the terrified and sobbing little "koala bear" and took him in her arms, patting his back and whispering "It's okay, calm down... Mommy will take care of you...".

"… " Jake.

"..." Kevin.

"..." The others.

Fuck, that was so cringey! Jake was about to lecture his youngest cousin to remind her not to trust strangers when someone knocked on the door again.

"JAKE OPENS THE DOOR! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! "

Recognizing the voice, Jake completely forgot about the Ewok, Lily, Kevin and the sermon he had prepared. As he was about to comply with the intruder's wishes, he had barely lifted the latch when the door exploded, slamming him against the opposite wall with the door in tatters.

Standing up instantly as if he had felt nothing, Jake spat out a bloody splinter of wood with a furious, livid face. Within minutes, his mood had fluctuated between extremes repeatedly.

His lava veins exuded a distinct warmth and his irises had filled with a deep golden and silver glow, seemingly harboring a galaxy within them. Once Jake was in this peak fighting state he was not to be pissed off at all!

Sweeping around the room in search of the culprit, he was about to exterminate Lu Yan when he noticed something was wrong. The Lu Yan in question was passed out next to him, covered in blood, and having obviously been smashed with him along with the door.

Not far away, her brother Lu Yifeng, or at least what was left of him, lay dead, his features frozen into a benevolent smile. Fucking creepy. Especially since his head was all he had left, and after hitting the wall and rolling on the floor it was so dented that it was beyond recognition. Not even his mother would have been able to identify him.

As the icy wind blew into the house, Jake felt a shiver run through him and realized to his horror that it wasn't the cold. Because the humanoid creature standing in front of their door was a blood-curdling alien he had seen before.

It was a humanoid creature more than two meters tall, massively muscular with a membranous obsidian skin. It seemed to be equipped with a helmet shaped like the head of some indescribable monster.

Underneath, a huge gaping mouth with thousands of teeth like a lamprey. No eyes but thousands of luminescent dendrites as hair from a few centimeters to several meters long, smelling and perceiving the environment around it, as if each one had a life of its own.

An armor in an unknown metal protected the vital parts of the creature, including a breastplate, armguards, leggings and shoulder pads. The creature held a sort of black blade that seemed to grow from an accessory above its wrist.

In other words... It was the same creature that had hunted Yerode and Lamine the night before his First Ordeal. An alien capable of firing high-energy plasma shots through the dentrites on its head with each hair having the strength of a steel rope and its own autonomy. Even now, he was not at all confident of winning a fight to the death against such an opponent.

Kevin and Sarah ugly faces showed that they too shared the same feeling. The alien emitted no deadly aura, its Spirit Body was retracted into its own body and yet the psychological pressure they felt was overwhelming. Only Lily, Tim and the little bear seemed oblivious to the sparks flying between the two parties.

Jake routinely scanned the newcomer with his bracelet and a ridiculously short report popped up in his mind.

[Species: Nosk.]

It was the briefest description he'd ever seen and there was only one possibility: Oracle Rank suppression or an Oracle Cloaking Skill. Either way, it was very bad news.

Nevertheless, Jake wasn't afraid. If he had met this opponent in the wild he would certainly have fled without hesitation to avoid taking undue risks, but attacking him in his own home was suicide.

And yet, the Nosk had still entered his living room without showing the slightest hesitation, as if the needles hidden in the wall and the ceiling did not exist.

'Does he have a plan? It doesn't matter, I don't have much choice...'

Still silent, the humanoid alien took one step forward and then another, his dentrites spreading out like a peacock courting or rather like a multitude of snakes preparing to attack.With each step forward that the creature took, Kevin and Sarah took a step backwards, the former growling and showing his fangs in a vain attempt to scare the enemy.

Only Jake had continued to stare at the creature with a haughty look on his face and it was perfectly intentional. 'I want you to go a little further...'

After a time that seemed interminable, the alien stopped in the center of the room, equidistant from each of them and emitted a long whistle as if inviting them all to attack him at the same time.

"All at the same time? All right! I'll give you all my needles! "Jake chuckled.

With this thought, the needles inserted between each brick left their base and the ground under the alien's feet disassembled, forming the same chasm that had trapped Lu Yifeng earlier. Surprised, the alien lost his balance and fell helplessly into the hole. The ground regained its solid shape around the creature's body, enclosing it solidly in the rock, most of its dendrites included.

Everyone in the room staggered in astonishment at the sight, Jake included.

"So easy? Why is he so weak? "