The Oracle Paths

Regret washed over the cephalopod, but it was too late to turn back now. Once his transformation was complete, Jake wasted no time launching his attack.

Physically.

Standing a towering 25 meters tall and weighing thousands of tons, his muscle fibers denser than lead, Jake contracted and with an explosive push off the ground, he lunged forward, closing the gap between him and the kraken in a flash.

Caught off guard, River's Bane reacted with remarkable speed, three of its enormous tentacles whipping through the air, swooping down on the now much larger human to hinder his movement. Yet, compared to the massive volume of the invertebrate creature, it remained but a slightly larger nuisance, akin to a cockroach or beetle against a former ant or gnat.

Expressionless, Jake merely tilted his torso slightly, letting one of the tentacles aiming to pierce him glide by his shoulders, while his two wings acted as separate limbs to deflect the other two. When the wings and tentacles clashed, sparks flew, and a horrific metallic screeching noise echoed for miles around, generating a devastating shockwave.

Taking advantage of Jake's slight slowdown from the initial interference, the Titan viciously slammed its other tentacles down on its audacious prey, their considerable size and weight ensuring their point of impact would become the epicenter of a catastrophic earthquake for the surrounding flora and fauna.

BANG!

Jake's knees buckled slightly under the weight of the impact from dozens of tentacles, each weighing hundreds, thousands of tons, but that was the extent of it. Sure, the ground beneath him collapsed, large fissures forming and then a deep crater temporarily engulfing him, but soon he broke free from the tentacles' grasp and leapt onto the back of one.

Before the cephalopod had time to marvel at how this 'gnat' had survived, Jake stomped down on the tentacle with all his force, nailing it savagely into the ground with a mighty kick. The struck tentacle crashed like a meteor into the crater Jake had just vacated, significantly widening it while raising a cloud of rock and dust.

The giant monster, not expecting its insignificant adversary to be so heavy, was deeply destabilized, its brain not even registering the agonizing pain from its battered limb. The Titan only avoided sprawling face-first into the dirt thanks to its many tentacles reflexively rooting into the ground around it for support.

After crushing the tentacle with all his mass and power, Jake didn't immediately press his advantage, a deep frown marring his handsome face. The sensation from the impact felt a bit light. It was as if all the force of his kick dispersed into water, unable to reach its target.

And indeed, although he remained impassive throughout, a glance beneath his feet revealed with grim solemnity that the tentacle had suffered no damage. At best, it was slightly swollen, a condition from which the sucker-covered appendage was rapidly recovering.

Just as Jake outrageously quickly recovered from his own wounds, the monster's tentacle regained its original appearance so quickly that he almost wondered if he had imagined its injuries.

RRRROOOOARRR!

His initial shock passing, the Titan reacted with a roar tinged with indignation and shame, its other tentacles stiffening uncannily like steel spikes, suddenly converging on the arrogant human with the sole intent of riddling him with holes. Their synchrony was so perfect it became eerie.

Sensing the attack with his heightened abilities, Jake didn't panic despite his growing irritation, twisting his torso, sidestepping, and pirouetting just enough and as necessary to calmly dodge or repel each deadly assault. Soon it was River's Bane's turn to grow impatient.

Unfortunately, as frustrated as the old Titan might be, it was Jake who was far more anxious about this situation. The fate of Crunch and Lord Phoenix depended on the outcome of this fight, and although he was confident he could survive whatever came his way, the two troublemakers didn't have the same luxury.

[You're going to have to hit harder than that.] Xi stated the obvious, annoying him to no end.

'No shit! Tell me something I don't already know.' Jake snorted, stifling a hideous growl after once again failing to cut through one of the tentacles with his claws.

Every time he was sure he'd succeed, his claws, wings, or whatever chitin blade-like growth he managed to produce would slow to a crawl, coming to a complete halt before even nicking the creature's flesh.

It was all the more depressing since he had tried to summon the armor and saber he had specifically forged for this Ordeal, to no avail. Oh, he had managed to bring them forth, but in their state of repression by Twyluxia, they were about as useful as a stick. Disheartened, he had no choice but to stow them away.

That's when things went well. Other times, if the angle of assault was even slightly off, his talons would just slide along the creature's skin as if it were a soapy surface.

It wasn't a question of strength or technique. Jake was already using everything he could, given the meager proportion of powers at his disposal: Sharpening Aether, True Will, Killing Intent, weak elemental spells, cosmic fairy force... everything.

It would be different if he could use the full power of his Grade 10.6 Energy Body and mental force, but Twyluxia's restriction limited his usage to barely 1% of his usual output. That his Lumyst Aura had grown so much, or that his body had withstood more than 9 consecutive enchantments, made only a slight difference.

However, one shouldn't be mistaken. It was only because it was him. 1% of his true power was more than what even a Fifth-Ordeal Player in the top 5% could ever produce. If it were any of those Players in his place, they would have regained their full powers long ago.

That was all the more true because the more Jake tried to use powerful magic by trying to access his own energy by delving his consciousness into the Aetherdream, the more violent the backlash was, like a slingshot being pulled back further and further before snapping back in his face. Since the start of his duel against River's Bane, Jake had already injured himself multiple times just trying to breach the barrier of Water Lumyst covering the monster, but all for naught.

BOOM!

After thousands of dodges, acrobatics, and hellish ripostes that reshaped the region's topography between the two stubborn adversaries refusing to yield an inch of ground, Jake was finally buried leagues underground after being blasted by an unexpected water laser – there was no other word for it.

Without warning, the nerve-frayed Titan suddenly went berserk after Jake had barely managed to scratch it, at the cost of yet another backlash that literally caused his organs to implode and pulverized his skeleton. Apparently, enough Strength and Sharpening Aether, combined with enough Soul Power and Cosmic Fairy Force could do the trick if he put his self-preservation instinct aside.

Ah, not to forget the True Will of Destruction...

The invisible halo enveloping the cephalopod that Jake could only sense through his mental sense had suddenly become visible, radiating a bright, translucent blue radiance resembling clear water. He could almost imagine waves stirring its surface.

Before he could marvel at this entrancing spectacle, all the Water Lumyst coating the monster had instantly converged at the tip of a tentacle aimed at his head, like morning dew accumulating in droplets at the tips of leaves. The next thing Jake knew, he was buried kilometers underground, feeling like he'd been hit by a train, or rather struck by some kind of battleship jumping into hyperdrive.

Plunged into darkness and covered with kilometers of rock, Jake reinhabited his body, staring in astonishment at the massive gaping hole that had atomized his skull. The upper half of his body had been atomized by this out-of-nowhere water cannon. The only reason he was still alive was that he had dodged at the last second with his Spirit Body, cowardly abandoning his flesh just before it gave way.

That's right. This Water Lumyst beam, he felt it in his guts, represented a mortal danger to his spirit as well.

He tended to forget, given his overconfidence, but as powerful as his Spirit Body was compared to other natives and Players, it remained fragile compared to his physique. His soul even more so.

The only reason it wasn't usually a concern was that very few physical attacks could directly damage these, except for certain elemental attacks and spells specifically designed for that purpose. It was one of the reasons why Players like Jake were so hard to kill, their bodies able to recover almost instantly even from near obliteration, making them practically indestructible.

All of this obviously became moot if it was the spirit that was targeted.