The Oracle Paths

"Good thing I left Jeanie under the Oracle Shield." Jake congratulated himself as soon as he located her body.

It was something he'd discovered on the fly, but by shedding a few grams or kilos of liquid alloy from his Oracle Device, he could remotely set them up and leave instructions to even initiate Oracle Skills if the Aether resources were sufficient.

When a little earlier, Jake had deactivated his Oracle Shield out of fury, he still had the foresight to shelter Jeanie under an Oracle Shield. The little fairy was currently at the bottom of the crater, trapped in a solid chunk of liquid alloy wrapped in a shiny energy barrier. The shield flickered dimly, a testament to the fact that the deluge of blows had nearly depleted the Aether stored inside the metal.

"Jeanie stay hidden there for now." Jake transmitted telepathically into her mind.

The little fairy was startled, yet deeply reassured that he was still alive. When he had locked her in liquid metal with that doomed countenance she had really thought it was game over.

" Well, now it's down to the two of us." Jake gave a low growl as he shot a murderous glare at his tenacious opponent.

Nothing had changed, yet everything was different.

His Bloodline couldn't conveniently level up every time he was in a jam. However, that didn't mean he couldn't get stronger. Once he had Bloodline Ignition, and Aether Conversion activated, what was left to further increase his attributes?

Runes. Or more accurately, Words of Power. If it hadn't been less than 24 hours since he had obtained his Soul Class, he would have long since been able to develop and deduce all sorts of practical applications. But the Ordeal hadn't given him time to do so.

Jake had already been able to ascertain that writing his intentions into the flesh of others worked very well. It was the process by which he had enslaved Ruby by carving the phrase "I am Jake's slave and his will is mine" on her back.

But what if he carved those Runes on himself? If his will, his mental strength, was sufficient, could he transform himself into an invincible warrior god? That was precisely what he intended to find out.

In order to achieve victory no matter what it took, one had to be cruel to one's enemies and even more so to oneself. Having just been pummeled to a pulp by his enemy, it went without saying that Jake didn't mind a few more scars. The catch was to prevent his spontaneous regeneration from healing them too quickly.

In front of a mesmerized Alpha Were-Eagle, Jake envisioned his desire, his intention, then coldly pressed his clawed index finger against his pectoral muscles and began to carve into his flesh the Words of Power conveying his will. At the first line of blood drawn, the severed skin immediately scrambled to fill the void and merge back together, but Jake beat it to the punch by withdrawing the Vitality Aether from the area and intently concentrating on minimizing the local cellular activity.

In less than a second, several inscriptions were etched on his torso, each statement sounding like an ugly display of arrogance.

"I am Strength."

A feeling of infinite strength began to radiate from his entire being, the gravity and weight of his own body fading almost to nothing.

"I am Agility."

His already extremely supple, agile and highly precise body instantly became so flexible that his bones nearly surpassed the flexibility of rubber. His reflexes were also greatly enhanced, giving him a strange sense of control and responsiveness.

"I am Power."

A torrent of energy very different from what those cells and his Aether Core provided gushed from deep within his being, bringing him a pure, dense energy that was preposterously easy to draw upon. With this one, he would have no trouble powering his Heat, Earth and Radiation Spells.

"I am Intelligence."

Time seemed to slow down around him, and that feeling of overwhelming clarity of mind that came with every significant increase in his mental faculties dawned on him again. Jake didn't feel like he was changing all that much, but many ideas flashed through his mind on a sudden burst of insight.

"I am Endurance."

As with intelligence, Jake didn't feel much of a difference. Stamina had always been his forte and with the support of the Aether Sun Core, his body was virtually tireless. Yet his mind could not say the same.

Jake would have gladly carved dozens more proclamations if a splitting headache hadn't suddenly throbbed in his skull, the pain so acute that he momentarily came close to fainting. He could feel his Spirit Body slimming down at a rapid rate, as his will and spirit force were projected into those Words of Power, burning away inexorably.

As his willpower and mental energy were consumed, Jake also felt the flame of his desire dry up, like when a sad person becomes listless after crying too much. This made him realize that his willpower was not unlimited. Without, desire, without willpower, without spirit energy, his Soul would disappear.

" I shall end this fight quickly." Jake muttered under his breath as he tried to ignore his harrowing headache.

The demonic Were-Eagle was taken aback by his pretentious statement. Did he really think he could slay it so quickly? That weird ball of flame was indeed terrifying, but as long as he kept its distance from this fireball it had nothing to fear from this Mutant.

The hitch was that the eagle also had to destroy him as fast as possible. The method he used to transform himself into this gigantic monster was called Daemonification and came from his Soul Class Daemonifier. It was one of the most notorious Soul Classes that Were-beings could unlock and the compatibility with their Bloodline was excellent.

The downside was that like Jake with his Words of Power, the fuel for this daemonification was their Soul, but the transformation also consumed their vitality and Bloodline. Such an exponential gain in power came at a price.

After this fight, the Alpha Were Eagle would need a long rest and would enter a weakened state. As this dark thought occurred to the monster, Jake's disdainful voice suddenly echoed in his mind, sending him into a stupor,

'Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to relax once I'm done with you.'

That's right, at that moment Jake had managed to read his enemy's thoughts, or rather deduce them from his spiritual fluctuations. It was just a bluff, a gamble, but he had hit the nail on the head. The feeling of being like an open book in front of this Mutant fractured the confident facade that the Were-Eagle had so far managed to uphold.

Taking advantage of his stunned state, Jake teleported unannounced, his Aether Sun Core recalled to the Space Storage. His saber blade suddenly reappeared in his target's heart. Not a few millimeters away, but directly into the enemy's body.

Because of its Daemonification, and the survival technique the Were-Eagle had used to avoid the Oracle Shield's Compressor Trap, its Spirit Body was now barely more vigorous than that of a level 30 native. At the same time, all that fighting had made Jake gain 2 levels, raising his Spirit Body to level 30 as well.

Thanks to his Myrtharian Bloodline, his mind was already 12 times more powerful than normal, and the Intelligence Rune he had carved into his chest had more than tripled his psychic abilities. Breaking into his opponent's spiritual space was now a simple matter.

To the monster, the saber in its heart was like a toothpick, but the disbelief, the horror of realizing that it had been mortally wounded so easily, completely shattered the Were-Eagle's composure.

It had not seen it coming!

With a flutter of its wings, the creature flew a mile or so away, but Jake popped back into its right eye, his blade buried to the hilt in its retina and tingling its optic nerve.

SCREEEEEEEEH!

The rage driven by the giant Were-Eagle's survival instinct exploded all at once, blasts of sharp air beginning to erupt from its being at an extreme frequency. At the same time, its feathers, as sharp and solid as steel, shot out in all directions, forming a continuous and omnidirectional barrage of deadly projectiles. If Jake chose to teleport so dangerously close again, he would be torn apart in an instant, turned into a pincushion.

As if he was afraid of that!

After momentarily pulling back, Jake darted toward the enemy, his body turning into a streak of plasma as elusive as a shooting star. His telekinesis and swift saber parries easily deflected the piercing feathers, the only one that got past his defenses ending up vaporized before it even touched his skin.

The swirling wind blades dancing around the Were-Eagle and defining a no man's land were even less effective than the feather barrage. With his reflexes and perception, Jake dodged the dangerous air streams without hesitation, slipping between them easily before teleporting back into a fleeting gap.

This time it wasn't his saber that got lodged in the eagle's flesh, but his Aether Sun Core that Jake summoned directly into its stomach. This fight had also made him realize that the summoning of his Aether Sun Core could also be used as a weapon. He just wanted to avoid wasting his energy if possible, or worse making it unstable which would lead to its explosion.

But with his new Soul Class, Jake was now confident that he would soon be able to create one on his own and not through the unreliable help of his master Cekt. He could afford to take some risks.

In the span of a few seconds, this game of teleportation, dodging, parrying and punishing assaults was repeated hundreds of times, the Were-Eagle's helpless shrieks of pain echoing across the plain. At the same time, the monster's size continued to decrease as its spiritual aura became more and more erratic.

At long last, six seconds later, the Alpha Were-Eagle, having reverted to human form, collapsed dead on the ground in a puddle of its own blood deep enough to fill a new swimming pool.