The Oracle Paths

Amy and Jake's squads, composed of Players, emerged unscathed, yet they couldn't shake off their overwhelming shock. They had mostly gauged the lifeforce and Lumyst cultivation of the war beasts correctly, but the explosive charging speed under such gravity was beyond their wildest expectations.

In fact, one of Amy's lower-ranked Players, a Rank 11 Aerelian named Zerei, was blindsided, crushed, and rolled over by a pair of rampaging Mumak-chariots before he could even react. He was barely hanging onto life.

"I… didn't expect to get hammered like that," the frail Aerelian grimaced, coughing up blood between short, ragged breaths.

His survival was a miracle, owed to his bloodline which, despite his slight frame, bestowed upon him a resilient skeleton capable of withstanding sudden accelerations when he manipulated air for propulsion. Unfortunately, his specialization in auxiliary wind magics like mirages and sound magic had left him ill-prepared for such brutal frontal assaults.

"Don't whine," Venuwen chided him, tapping his forehead as she set about healing him with her lunar magic, racing against time before the Mumaks returned for another charge.

Her healing magic was painfully slow compared to Jake's almost instant resurrection spells. But this wasn't entirely her fault. Zerei's shattered body was saturated with the Life Lumyst from the beasts, negating his natural regenerative abilities. Had he been a mere Rank 8 Player without any special talent rather than a somewhat skilled Rank 11, he would have been long gone.

"Let me heal him," a voice, soft yet unyielding, prompted Venuwen to step aside.

Turning her head, she recognized the ethereal elven face with flowing silver hair as Lysandra Moonaris, their unanimously chosen squad leader. The aura Venuwen sensed from the Rank 15 elf-like beauty was familiar, and rightly so.

While Venuwen was a Lunarian with an affinity for lunar magic, Lysandra was born a Moon Elf. Her bloodline had evolved significantly, yet the root of their magic remained similar.

However, the vast difference in their Oracle Ranks was no laughing matter. As soon as Lysandra directed her palm towards Zerei and her hand shimmered with a pale radiance, the Aerelian's broken bones started to knit together rapidly. Seconds later, he was able to stand once again.

"Thank you…"

"If you really want to thank me, try not to get hurt again," the elf nodded stoically.

She then silently moved on to heal Chromy, Chewy, and their owner Nuwa, who also had suffered minor injuries. Amy and Lee Yoon had come out unharmed, as expected of their Rank.

Yet, the tremor in Amy's arms as she withdrew her sword from the skull of one of the independent Mumaks betrayed the ordeal's severity. Around her, three more Mumaks lay in pieces, with Lee Yoon standing amidst the carnage, her body drenched in blood, exuding a chilling efficiency.

"They are surprisingly resilient," the former bodyguard of Cho Min Ho eventually declared. "Their lifeforce isn't much different from that of a Light Paladin, but their sheer brute strength is deceptive."

"Their hide was ridiculously tough," Amy admitted, catching her breath after briefly activating her Berserk Skill. She was still in disbelief that she had failed to take down one of these beasts in a single blow without resorting to it.

If a Rank 13 Player like her, specialized in close-quarters combat, was struggling against these monsters, the situation for others must have been even grimmer. Lee Yoon was of the same rank, but her ease in handling the situation wasn't surprising. Had she not been so reserved, she could easily have reached Rank 14 or 15.

Amidst the agonized screams and hundreds of barbarian corpses strewn around her, Amy couldn't help but wonder how Jake and his squad were faring, suspecting they were just as rattled as they were.

Re-energized, she anxiously scanned the battlefield, her eyes widening in astonishment upon spotting Jake and his companions. Apparently, the Mumak charge hadn't come out intact either…

Where the vanguard of their army stood, there were also Thonzo, Jashuzen, Claire, and Scelacabe. Jake obviously couldn't let them perish like that. Not after going through the trouble of forging them such fine armor.

Ironically, for once, Crunch and Lord Phenix, the culprits of this absurd escalation, had decided to take responsibility. Just before the Mumaks and their chariots steamrolled the natives of their squad like a herd of giant bulldozers, they had swiftly intervened, each facing off against a chariot.

Without enlarging himself, Crunch had curled into a ball and puffed up like a moonfish, or rather an urchin, in the path of one of the Mumaks. When the beast stomped on him, not only did it pierce its foot, but it was also explosively launched skyward as if stepping on a trampoline.

The chariot tied to the creature and the Light Warriors on it were just as bewildered, being catapulted along with their mount as if by a slingshot. The Vitalists ended up crashing somewhere, their fate unknown, while the Radiant Mage managed to stop his fall just in time, hovering high in the air with a slightly disoriented look.

Lord Phenix, meanwhile, had bravely accepted the challenge like a knight in a jousting match, directly thrusting his enormous lance into the maw of the massive Mumak charging at him. Unlike the one halted by the black cat, neither the chariot nor the mount budged an inch. The Light Warriors and the Radiant Mage piloting it remained in good shape, though equally bewildered despite not having left the ground.

Hephais, too, had leaped into action, his intervention more surgical but no less lethal. He had simply placed a shadow in the path of the Mumak, its front legs literally 'sinking' into it mid-stride. The beast's horned head then tipped face-first into the ground, and the Egaean, positioned just right, simply placed his scimitars in the trajectory of its throat, silently beheading it.

Contrary to Amy, his blades, coated in Shadow Lumyst, had effortlessly sliced through the creature's armored hide.

The chariot attached to the Mumak caught in Hephais' shadow trap then fell victim to its own momentum, crashing against the rear of its massive mount. Its crew was launched into the air with the vehicle, and Hephais plucked the brains of each one, including the Radiant Mage, with one of his dark shurikens. Clean and efficient!

Jake, for his part, had ignored Sank-Uk, who wasn't in serious danger, and with a mere snap of his fingers, hypnotized the three enormous Mumaks charging at him to divert their charge towards the neighboring chariots. The result was a catastrophic pile-up, causing a dozen chariots to overturn. Triple the number of smaller independent Mumaks got crushed or trampled by their larger counterparts or the vehicles caught in their frenzied upheaval.

Thonzo, Jashuzen, Claire, and Scelacabe, fighting with the vanguard, had front-row seats to this show of force, their hearts rapidly shifting from despair to ecstasy before settling on adulation.

They had indeed chosen the right boss! His swift action had saved several hundred lives.

As for Meribelle, battling in the sky against the enemy Lifemancer, she had a vantage point from her height. Without Jake and his comrades, the three companies would have been completely wiped out.

But she wasn't happy. She knew that if it hadn't been for not escalating the battle any further, they could have saved everyone.