The Oracle Paths

There was one thing Jake could do though before he rescued Lu Yan. Return the favor to the General. Picking up the Tribune's sword that he had just slayed, he put himself in position holding it by the hilt like an athlete would throw a javelin.

He didn't claim to be a great thrower, but with his new stats of Agility, Perception and Intelligence, his dexterity and precision was simply unmatched by any normal human over short distances, even if it was his first time.

Where a normal human would need tens, hundreds or even thousands of throws before acquiring the correct posture and decent accuracy, Jake was able to adapt during the gesture itself, his brain unconsciously taking into account all sorts of details to ensure optimal hand-eye coordination.

Within a fraction of a second, Jake packed as much Red, Orange and Yellow Aether as he could into his arm to multiply his strength, then releasing the accumulated muscle tension with one blow, the sword split the air with a sound as loud, but more shrill than that of a fighter plane flying close to the ground.

The General who was about to finish off Hugo interrupted his swing right in the middle, then twisted his torso suddenly like Neo in The Matrix to avoid the murderous sword wishing nothing more than to send him to hell.

Regardless, his reflexes and physical power were no joke. He managed to narrowly dodge the fatal blow, but the sword grazed his cheek, leaving a thin bloody gash on it. The sword then collided with the wall bordering the arena with a deafening noise.

BANG!

The stone wall suddenly exploded with a resounding shock wave. The bleachers and the railing, which lay partly on the foundations of the Coliseum, of which the wall bordering the arena was also a part, then collapsed on themselves, taking with them the few Myrmidian citizens who were too slow to react.

The muscles under the left eye and the right side of the General's upper lip trembled slightly, forming a disturbing rictus. A beastly smile then appeared on his lips, his protruding eyes and retracted pupils showing how excited he was.

During this brief lapse of time, Hugo had taken advantage of the opportunity to regain his wits and crawl away a few meters, while Erwin's surprise attack came just after.

While the General was still contorted far back, his back practically forming a line with the ground, Erwin's descending sword stroke fell on him like a club. His arm gleamed with an ominous red and yellow glow and a squall of wind preceded the surprise strike.

Despite the incredible strength of the Myrmidian, just like Jake earlier, if he didn't have good support, resisting such superhuman attacks was impossible. Confronting such an impact with the strength of his ankles alone was a lost cause and as a result the warrior's back slammed into the ground forming a slight crater, his sword narrowly blocking the death blow.

Paying no further attention to the fate of the General and Erwin from the moment the sword left his hand, Jake sprinted towards one of the three centurions harassing Lu Yan.

The last Tribune was on its guard after witnessing the deaths of the other four officers. Seeing Jake hurrying towards them, he disengaged from the young woman with a slight backward leap to distance himself from her.

That was all it took for Lu Yan to take action. Using her Aether points in stock, she immediately maxed out her Strength and increased her Constitution by ten points. She who had seemed to be in trouble earlier,with her gasping breath and red face covered with sweat, suddenly regained all her vigor.

Her sword, which was trembling in her hands, became stable and taking advantage of the defensive attitude of the Tribune she executed a lightning counterattack against the nearest centurion.

Using a sort of iai sword move combined with the control of her Aether, she disappeared for a few steps before reappearing behind the beheaded centurion. Even Jake could barely keep track of the blade's movement with his eyes.

Jake cautiously targeted another centurion so as not to be exposed to a surprise attack from anyone. Under the circumstances, with a failing Shadow Guide, he was as suspicious of his allies as he was of his enemies. And since he knew what Lu Yan was capable of, there was no way for him to trust her.

The Second centurion was cut in half by Jake with a fluid motion, his sword flowing like a river. Simultaneously, Lu Yan had already prepared a second iai on the last centurion. The remaining Tribune was torn between retreating or attacking one of them.

In the end, he decided to flee and join his General, but Jake had no intention of letting him do so. When the Tribune jumped over him with a perfect salto in the hope of getting around him, Jake couldn't help but curse:

" You thought you had the high ground or what?!"

Unsurprisingly, Jake bent his legs, which lit up with a red glow, then like a rocket igniting its engines on takeoff, his body left the ground with a blast, his sword thrusting through the Tribune hoping to pass right over him a mere tenth of a second later.

As Jake fell back down, he jerked his arm as if he wanted to get rid of the blood on his sword, but instead of the blood, the body of the dying Tribune crashed to the sandy ground. The Myrmidian Warrior was still alive, however, proving that he wasn't one of the Empire's elite for nothing.

As Jake considered finishing him off, he noticed Lu Yan racing toward the dying Tribune with her sword raised out of the corner of his eye.

"Kill steal? Don't you dare bitch!" Jake snapped with rage.

Once again concentrating his Aether in his legs to speed up, he ran as fast as he could to stop her. Too late, the young woman who was much closer to the Tribune used her iai sword technique again and disappeared briefly to reappear behind the severed corpse.

"Cheh! You really thought you could get away with it so easily, didn't you? "Jake growled in an unusually deep and sinister voice. It sounded like the snarl of a tiger whose prey had just been stolen.

Lu Yan ignored the threat and immediately used the Aether she had just obtained to inflate her stats. Under the effect of the Myrmidian blood, the Tribune, which was much stronger than she was, had significantly increased her physical stats and she had also obtained a nice windfall of Aether. All in all, she was close to maxing out her Aether physical stats.

As wrong as her behavior was, she didn't think Jake would try to get even. Their situation was critical and the General still had to be defeated. But that was without counting on Jake's narrow-minded and vengeful spirit.

By listening to her selfishness this time, she had unconsciously deviated from the Path shown by her Shadow Guide. There were two reasons for this mistake: Firstly, her urgent need to become stronger and the promise of a large amount of Aether within sword's reach. And secondly, the fact that just like Jake her Shadow Guide had been defective since the beginning of the fight.

Her mistake was that Jake had never been the cause of the miscalculation of her Oracle. Jake's Oracle Rank was inferior to hers and he had no special privileges to shield his existence from the other Oracle devices.

If she had listened to her Shadow Guide, she would never have rushed like that. No sooner had she finished rejoicing over the Aether she had obtained that Jake ran into her like a bulldozer. With her Intelligence and Agility, she managed to absorb the shock by controlling her Aether in the impact zone, but Jake didn't let her body be blown out as it should have been.

Catching her ankle in midair, he began to smash her to the ground in every direction, just like the Hulk did with Loki in Avengers. No matter how smart she was or how well she controlled her Aether, after her skull hit the ground seven or eight times under such centripetal force she blacked out.

At that very moment, all her wonderful control of Aether vanished. The next time Jake smashed her to the ground, her skull exploded like an egg hitting a rock. She was dead.

"Serves you right. It'll teach you a lesson..." Jake muttered with contempt.

Because of this setback, he had lost precious time. When he looked around for the General, he couldn't help but sigh. Except him and the Myrmidian, everyone else was dead.