The Oracle Paths

The Alpha Were Golden Eagle leading this group of Avians had not swooped in with the rest of his squad. When all of Jake's companions were being ejected from the formation by these monsters, he and three other Werebirds of prey had stayed back, overseeing the assault from their high position.

The pupils of their black-rimmed orange eyes were fully dilated, taking in as much information as they could. Arms crossed, they watched as Jake and Ruby coldly exterminated the rest of the Avians with nightmare-like brutality and zest.

One might wonder why they didn't help their subordinates, but first it had to be understood that these moronic Avians and Werebeings didn't have much in common. In Laudarkvik, these Avians were just expendable cannon fodder.

In the larger Werebeings family, the Avians included, strictly speaking, all the sapient humanoid birds under their control, but there were several rungs among them.

However, in the broadest sense, Avian referred to both the various Were-bird variants as well as all those flying species under their control or stuck in that animal state. Some could be terrifying Daemons, but the vast majority were just common birds or Were-birds that had lost the ability to become human again.

Indeed, an innate ability of all Were-beings was to be able to dominate, communicate, and command the species their powers were based on. For one Were Eagle, there could be hundreds of eagles and other birds of prey under their control and even more if they made a sincere effort to expand their army.

One of the three guards, a White Avian with hawk-like features, involuntarily shuddered with fear as he watched in amazement the slaughter perpetrated by Jake and Ruby. Of the four Werebeings, it was the one with the most frail stature, while its black beak and pale, silky plumage identified it as a juvenile.

"Don't look away, Qewie." The Golden Eagle Alpha ordered crisply. "If we fail our mission, they will be your sworn enemies in the future."

The man named Qewie fidgeted around nervously, but ended up nodding timidly. The other two Werebeings shook their heads in exasperation as they saw the chick shaking in fright.

"You are not ready for this fight." The Golden Eagle stated stiffly. " Just sit back and watch us do it this time and learn from it. Your life is more important than ours."

The Qewie falcon continued to twiddle his talons together to keep his anxiety in check, but eventually he asked the question that had been plaguing him.

"Do we really have to do this? Aren't we all supposed to be on the same side?"

The Golden Eagle sighed.

"You're way too naive." One of the other two Werebeings berated him harshly. "In these doomsday times, being nice to everybody is being cruel to yourself. This battle is inevitable."

These harsh words coincided with Jake and Ruby's slaying of the last Avian. They were strong, their spiritual presence exceeding level 50, but the gap between their physiques was just too great.

The only reason Jake had struggled against a Rank-B Adventurer at Lodunvals was because he had wanted to personally test the native's limits. It had taught him that a powerful Spirit Body combined with a decent Soul Class was a lethal danger to him, but it didn't change the core physical abilities of the individual.

A sedentary adult human had a Strength of 1 to 2. Even with an exceptional Soul Class increasing stats by 100% per level, at level 50 it was still only 50 to 100 points. That was still 10 to 20 times less than Jake's physical Strength.

With their Soul Class Skills and powerful souls, these natives might be able to make up for and even exceed the disparity in power between them, but they couldn't as easily bridge the gap between their reflexes and reaction time. And it was bad luck for them. Since Jake had become a Rune Engraver, his intelligence had become his forte.

No matter how deftly and unpredictably these birds performed their aerial stunts, in Jake's eyes they were as slow as turtles. The closer they were to him, the more precise and unavoidable his attacks would become.

After firing his first long-range salvo, Jake was left to engage them in close combat, but this was not a disadvantage to him at all. Freed from his burdens that were his comrades, he could now devote himself body and soul to the enemies in front of him and the least one could say was that it was nothing less than a proper extermination.

The first Avian who pounced on him, talons extended, literally felt as if he was offering his throat to a guillotine. Carried away by its momentum and unaware of its imminent death, its feathery neck met the blade carelessly placed there by Jake to intercept it and its head separated from its body like a red-hot wire slicing through butter.

The bird's head and body then pursued their fall with two different trajectories, while Jake had already slightly shifted his other claw to slice the wing of a second assailant. Shorn of a wing, the bird let out a screech of pain, and then began to plummet as it spun around before smashing into a rock 2,000 meters below.

Those who attacked Ruby didn't fare much better. Even without Aether, nor Aether Artifact, her fighting skills were not something these brainless birds could match.

The first Avian tried to pierce her skull with its beak, but a crust of chitin covered her forehead before the impact. Simultaneously, a pair of chitin mandibles sprouting from nowhere on either side of her head clamped down on the creature's temples, shattering its skull like a coconut thrown off a cliff.

The next two Avians tried to pincer her, but the tip of her right foot smacked into the cheek of the first, deflecting its charge toward its comrade, while her left palm grazed the neck of the second, eventually forcing the two birds to collide.

The beak of the first bird went into the stomach of the second, and the talons of the second into the eye of the first one. Dazed, Ruby then kicked them hard, sending them crashing into a carriage down below.

The rest were exterminated with equal ease and neither Jake nor Ruby had to use any Aether or Bloodline Skills to defeat them. Hence the dark and alarmed expression of the four Were-eagles.

As ordered, young Qewie stayed back, even flapping his wings a few times to regain some altitude, but the other three Avians began to glide slowly down toward Jake with a spine-chilling killing intent. The spiritual pressure that fell on Jake and Ruby at this point was so great that it threatened to obliterate their consciousness at the slightest miscalculation.

The duo scanned the three enemies in unison and both their faces fell as they read the report.

[(Elite) Were Golden Eagle lvl 79]

[Were Peregrine Falcon lvl 73]

[Were Bearded Vulture lvl 77]

Swallowing, Jake croaked in a hoarse voice, not taking his eyes off the three approaching enemies,

"Ruby, I'll leave you to deal with the Peregrine Falcon and Bearded Vulture. I don't care how you do it, as long as I don't have them in my way."

Blushing slightly (what the heck?), Ruby smiled cutely as she replied,

"It's as good as done."

The next moment, a feral expression distorted her features, an out-of-control silver shimmer burning in her pupils. Her chitin-covered body suddenly emitted a bright blue flash before turning into a trail of light, which struck the Peregrine Falcon before ricocheting off the Bearded Vulture.

After being hit, both Were-beings began to sway strangely, looking blankly as if they were in some kind of trance. The blue light continued to bounce from one to the other as if it were a set of mirrors, and both warriors began to free fall as they forgot to flap their wings.

Another Dream Spell.

Jake's hair stood on end as he watched the scene. She hadn't used this technique against him during their previous fight or it would have been much more difficult to subdue her. Still, he noticed that she seemed to be stuck in that light phase when she was fighting like that.

Something told him that this luminous state must have a much higher combat potential, but there must also be some prohibitive drawbacks to enjoy this state of invincibility. The scorching smell where the light kept ricocheting confirmed to him that it was not a mere hypnosis spell. But Jake knew firsthand how exhausting using light to attack was, let alone when combined with such an unstoppable mental spell.

If Ruby couldn't mentally overpower her opponents, the only end that awaited her was to run out of energy. At that point she would be at the mercy of her enemies having only suffered through a short nap.

And the energy expenditure was indeed immeasurable. Less than three seconds later, Ruby resumed her human form on the Bearded Vulture's back, her legs firmly wrapped around its neck and clamping down violently to strangle it. A silvery chitin growth shaped like the skeleton of a wing had sprouted from her shoulder, harpooning the Peregrine Falcon's wing.

She had successfully cleared the field for Jake, but those brief seconds had cost her dearly. She was sweating profusely and what little fat she had on her body had completely melted away.

The two Were-birds of prey snapped out of their trance as soon as she stopped her transformation and the trio continued to plummet, teetering in the air with a chaotic trajectory before disappearing behind a mountain.

Jake was now free to focus on his own opponent, which promised to be his toughest fight since the one against his Digestor clone. Unlike his encounter with Laudar, he couldn't run away this time.