The Oracle Paths

Jake wasn't the only one pumped up. Wyatt and Aisling were also itching to give them a good beating.

At this early hour, all of the prominent officers of the Myrtharian Nerds and Pureblood were seated around a table. The room was luxurious and lavishly decorated. The service was also exquisite with tea, coffee, milk and enough different dishes to satisfy the most demanding palates.

Since this meeting was held in the Myrtharian Nerds' settlement, there was only one place that could arrange such a beautiful setting: Sigmar's Portable Fortress.

On one side of the table were the Myrtharian Nerds. This included Jake, Lucia, Esya, Enya, Sigmar, Ingranus, Nicolet, Aisling, Hephais and Svara who had just arrived. On Pureblood's side, there was only Wyatt, Seren and two other Vampire Nobles with a somewhat effete presence.

Just from their casting you could already tell which faction had the upper hand over the other.

"How much longer are we going to wait before we start this meeting?" One of the two Vampire Nobles, a young aristocrat with short red hair and matching eyes, nagged Jake for the third time that morning.

Truly courting death. Wyatt had reminded him several times through telepathy, but he seemed to be one of those who only respected Vampires with a higher nobility rank than his own. Of course, Jake couldn't be bothered with this attention-starved spoiled brat. The dogs that barked the loudest were the least likely to bite and to Jake this Vampire was just a pesky Chihuahua.

"Kevin should be here any minute" Lucia replied with a twitch of her lips.

Speaking of the devil, or rather the bear, the metal wall psychically controlled by Sigmar suddenly parted to let Kevin and three other individuals enter.

The first two were handsome young men exceedingly manly. They wore boots and good quality black pants and a white linen shirt half unbuttoned. Their sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, exposing their thick forearms. By their long blond-black hair, golden eyes and matching beard that connected to their hair like a mane, it was easy to tell who they were.

The other youngster was obviously Qewie and she was currently livid and unresponsive, as if in shock. After what had almost happened to her it was understandable, but the real cause of her unhappiness was that her whole clan had been slaughtered as well as everything she was still fighting for.

Jake had met Lysander before in his half-beast form and his aura had not changed. Given his uncanny resemblance to the man walking beside him, he easily deduced the identity of this person.

"Kenway."

"Hah, you know me?" The Alpha of the Alphas Werebeings was briefly surprised before becoming completely apathetic again.

His answer might have seemed naive and ordinary, but the moment he had spoken a voice deep and sonorous enough to rattle their bones had echoed through the entire fortress.

Seeing that Jake and Lucia were taking a deep breath to answer him, Enya and Esya broke into a sweat and decisively clamped their mouths with their pretty hands. The two bullies glared at them, but the two sisters snorted and glared at them as well, daring them to disobey.

'You really think we're going to let the only two people with Myrmidians' blood here talk back to Kenway after his taunt? Your goddamn pride will kill us all!" Esya scolded them telepathically.

'If we let you, you'll talk so loudly that the inside of the building will be completely destroyed...' Enya added rebukingly.

Jake and Lucia made upset expressions like children who didn't get the toy they wanted for Christmas, but eventually, after swearing not to cover Kenway's voice, they reluctantly withdrew their hands. They regretted their action right away.

'Oh no...'

They detected the glint of rivalry in their eyes before they even opened their mouths.

"WelCOME!" Jake smirked.

"Come sit with us, PLEASE." Lucia giggled adorably.

Wyatt and Seren had long since plugged their ears with their pinkies along with a Blood Energy barrier, but the other two Vampire Nobles invited were unprepared. A BANG sounded in their heads and their eardrums burst.

On the Myrtharian Nerds' side, everyone reacted in time, but Ingranus and Nicolet were close to fainting. If the Myrtharian Body Passive hadn't recently had a huge upgrade, they might have ended up like the other two Vampires.

Kenway, who was still devastated by the death of his childhood crush and had no interest in anything for hundreds of years, blinked dumbfoundedly at this moment. The sound wave washed over him ruffling his hair and clothes, but other than that he was unharmed as if it was a pleasant breeze. A small amused chuckle came from his lips, a hint of excitement in his eyes.

As for Lysander and Kevin, they had rushed to protect Qewie. The grieving young woman was so out of it that without their help she would have let the sound wave wreck her body.

"Guh... Good to see you again cousin." Kevin groaned as he held onto the wall to ignore the hissing in his eardrums.

"Good to see you too..." Jake smiled benevolently, as if he and Lucia weren't responsible for his tinnitus.

He wanted to inquire about their escape when a stinging pain in his hip made him squeal against his will,

"Aouch! Fuck Esya, why did you pinch me?!"

"You dare to ask?!" The young woman sent him a flying kiss with a victorious air while brandishing a huge adamantium crowbar that she had found who knows where.

To pinch Jake successfully, she needed at least that...

Kevin secretly gave her two thumbs up in his heart, but he refrained from taunting his cousin by adding insult to injury. As for the other Myrtharian Nerds they were holding their laughter with great difficulty.

"Aouch!"

In the end, Lucia didn't escape her punishment either.

All this was only made possible by the fact that they got along well. If a random player tried to pinch Jake, he had to be prepared to be pinched back... The kind of pinching that would be found in a hydraulic press used to compress steel rather than living beings.

With this improvised vocalizing contest, the trio chose a seat and the meeting officially began. The two Vampire Nobles who had come with Wyatt and Seren were much more cautious and guarded now.

Kevin told them orally what he had already reported to them through the Faction Chat, while Lysander, Kenway, and Qewie let him speak in silence. Wyatt asked a few more questions, but after receiving confirmation that there were no survivors besides them, the atmosphere in the room became dismal.

"What about your pack, Kevin? Did you manage to warn them in time?" Jake asked placidly.

His cousin was no fool, in fact he was very smart. The Werebears in his pack could be commanded telepathically from a distance, and they couldn't directly disobey his orders. If he had been able to escape then in theory so could his subordinates.

"I'm not sure about that. I notified them as soon as I discovered something was wrong, but I haven't heard anything since."

" ... "

Jake said nothing more. All that was left was to keep their fingers crossed that a few of them had made it. Kevin didn't show it, but he was certainly worried.

"Don't worry about me, cousin. If they die it was meant to be. I invited the most promising ones to the Myrtharian Nerds, so if with this boost they don't survive there's nothing I can do."

At this point neither Kevin nor Lysander were conscious of the gas that had spurred their aggression, but there was one person who did notice it.

"They are probably dead. If they didn't kill each other, those two hooded guys took care of them." Kenway spoke for the first time in the meeting.

"Two hooded guys? Can you describe to me what they look like?" Jake asked sternly.

Unfazed, the Alpha Werelion shared all the details, and even though they were hooded it was enough for Jake to recognize them.

Shamash and Azeus. He didn't know their names, but their appearance was hard to mistake. The red tattooed stripes and the sling saw left no doubt as to their identity. And indeed, having fought them personally, the probability that Kevin's subordinates had survived was extremely low.

In addition to these new natives, Kevin had turned several dozen volunteer Myrtharian Nerds into Werebears, but they had joined Jake's camp before Lost Divinities' attack.

They talked for a while, and then after much deliberation, Jake and the others decided on their next approach. It was actually Sigmar's suggestion that won unanimous approval and got their blood boiling.

"Since we are left with only Haynt and Remus( Jen) as allies in Laudarkvik, and Lost Divinities opened hostilities first, I suggest we counterattack as well. The former Fluid Grandmaster said. "Let's hit it where it hurts."