The Oracle Paths

Hephais had decided on this change of target even before the shadow he'd dived into had finished swallowing him. That's why he tensed up right after, when he realized that the very shadow network he'd just sunk into had suddenly been replaced by an impassable no man's land.

All the shadows in his immediate surroundings had been destroyed. But how? He had a hunch, recalling the corrosive swamp conjured by the sneaky Marshling earlier.

'Pulling off a spell with such a wide range must not have been easy,' the assassin mocked inwardly, estimating the cost it would've taken him to generate a similar shadow domain.

Unless the enemy's Lumyst Aura or stats were much more advanced than his own, the alien had to be running on fumes. Since these two enemy Players didn't give off the vibe of being truly high-ranked Players like Jake and him, it had to be the first option.

This made even more sense if their Rank was lower. Being Rank 16 himself, a Rank 14 implied that the two Players had arrived on Twyluxia at least 72 hours, or three days, before him. Such a delay spent killing natives by day and Players by night could indeed significantly shift the balance of power between them. If they'd used that time to enhance their bodies, souls, and gear with Lumyst Water, then it wasn't that hard to believe.

'Either way, winded or not, I need to act fast.' Hephais' eyes glinted with fierce killing intent, manipulating the shadow of the troll where he hid to form a long needle.

At their level, even critical exhaustion—akin to a human sprinting 300 meters—could be recovered in a matter of milliseconds. To swiftly defeat the enemy, he had to press his advantage now, and that's exactly what he planned to do.

The giant's shadow, sharpened for the occasion into a long needle spanning hundreds of meters, began to slice the area in a 360-degree arc, like a massive whip lashing out at everything in its path. The speed was mind-blowing, and it was enough to connect to the caught-off-guard Marshling's shadow.

The alien's sparse hairs stood on end instinctively, sensing a foreign presence invading the domain monitored by his mental sense. His pupils constricted in sudden awareness, and without thinking, he leapt into the air, immolating the ground below him in an acid downpour.

His own shadow was also part of the targeted area, but imagine his surprise when it merged with the ultra-fine black needle that had pierced him. Like the head of a serpent suddenly coming to life, the shadow dodged the impact zone of the acid rain with a neck sway and then, against all odds, sprang from the ground to bite the airborne Marshling.

The stunned alien reflexively encased himself in a poison shell, gripping his spear tightly just in case. Compared to his previous confidence, his sweat-covered, pale green face had lost its luster.

'F-fuck. If I'd known he could be this fast, I would've kept my damn mouth shut,' he cursed in his mind, regretting having provoked this hellish assassin.

The problem wasn't even his speed as he could barely keep up with the assassin's movements. Rather, it was his presence.

The killer had elevated the art of stealth to such a level that even when the Egaean stood still in front of him, the alien had to exert serious mental effort not to 'forget' him. So when the assassin moved at such high speeds, merging seamlessly with the shadows, especially in the dead of night, it became overwhelmingly chaotic.

Right now, the Marshling had to admit he had no clue where his adversary was, hence his omnidirectional poison shield. It was, in fact, an admission of defeat.

Luckily, he wasn't counting out his Shadow Guide, boosted by his level 3 Oracle Promotion Skill. With his temporary Rank 17 of Colonel, he could somewhat react.

"EZLAO, CAREFUL!" The gravelly voice of the dumb stone troll suddenly snapped him out of his daze, followed by an awful wave of goosebumps.

While the Marshling hunkered down in his poison bubble, blind to the outside world, Hephais silently emerged from his lair of darkness to deliver the death blow. Wrapped in a mist darker than a starless cosmos, his indifferent eyes started to ominously glow red, mirroring the moon that had also turned crimson.

The shadow needle, having finished sweeping the area, devouring and merging with every patch of darkness except for the night sky itself, had in the meantime returned to its creator's hand.

Still connected to the shadow of the lumbering giant from which it originated, Hephais impassively raised his other hand and sliced the 'cord' with a swift motion.

It was the excruciating pain that finally allowed the overwhelmed behemoth to let out this warning scream to his companion. Alas, too late.

The long shadow whip instantly compressed thousands of times to form a tiny droplet of darkness, resembling a mini black hole.

'Shadow Ichor,' Hephais coldly declared in his mind while poking it with the tip of one of his dual scimitars, which turned utterly black—blacker than before.

Then, without looking at the result, the Egaean hurled it straight at the opaque poison sphere, where he presumed the Marshling's heart was. Like a swift and stealthy black blaster shot, the scimitar disappeared into the poison cocoon as if it were a droplet of ink falling into the ocean.

No scream was heard, but a split second later, the poison sphere turned black and imploded, spilling a torrent of shadows onto the ground below. The Marshling taking shelter inside was nowhere to be seen.

Pale and worse for wear, belying his apparent composure, Hephais suddenly plummeted from the sky, crashing on all fours to catch his breath. A metallic taste filled his mouth, leading to a brief wave of nausea, which instantly transformed into a fit of bloody coughing.

Too weak to move after using that massive technique, he didn't notice that the shadow runoff from Ezlao's death and his killing move had continued to spread to the river. Unbeknownst to all, a terrifying shadow was on the verge of coming to life...

"DIE, YOU BASTARD!"

As Hephais barely managed to register his surroundings without vomiting, the ground suddenly shook under the heavy, clumsy footsteps of an enraged stone troll. As slow on the uptake as he was, the giant wasn't stupid enough to miss such an opportunity.

BAM!

A phenomenal kick, made possible by a massive foot as hard and tough as a block of diamond, caught the exhausted assassin off guard right in the jaw. In a blink, his body—coated just in time with a faint Oracle Shield—broke the sound barrier with a deafening shockwave.

Though he should've simply crossed the river and vanished into the distance, he hit an invisible wall halfway across, sending him skimming horizontally back along the water. His inertia inexplicably unbroken, the Egaean sliced through the river's surface for a good dozen kilometers before finally starting to decelerate. His body, in an unknown condition, then ricocheted hundreds of times along the surface of the Lumyst River before finally sinking like a stone.

"..." The giant responsible for the kick was the first surprised by the terrifying outcome, nearly forgetting his own sorrow.

This right-angle trajectory was obviously not in his wheelhouse. As the colossus wondered what could've possibly happened, several figures appeared in a whoosh by his side. As dim-witted as he was, it only took the troll a quick glance to recognize two of the newcomers:

Quilo and Sokal, the reinforcements they had been promised. Both bona fide Rank 15 Majors. Quilo was accompanied by his gang of clones made from his latest victims, while Sokal was as he always was, his solar eyes ablaze with fighting intent.

"He killed Ezlao!" The giant broke down in tears as he recognized one of them, Quilo's quiet comrade.

These two were obviously from the same faction.

"I saw that, Torak," Sokal sighed, disappointed as he looked at the spot far away where the assassin had sunk into the river. "Too bad he's dead... we came all this way for nothing."

Damn it all, he had hyped himself up for this fight, but it was over before it had even begun. What a letdown.

"Don't complain," Quilo snorted tersely. "I prefer this to—"

BOOOOM!

As if to satisfy his lament, a massive water geyser abruptly interrupted their unenthusiastic reunion, lifting a colossal column of water hundreds of meters into the air. When the water mass fell back down, the completely naked silhouette of Hephais reappeared, crouching on the shore, a much more compact spectral halo faintly shimmering on his skin.

The crippling fatigue that had been affecting his movements just moments ago was gone.