The Oracle Paths

And for sure, those who wanted to fight didn't waste a second to indulge themselves to their hearts' content.

BANG!

A supersonic shock wave pressed Jake against his seat again, while the long steel table was covered with a thin layer of ice in the blink of an eye. An icy smoke billowed out of it and the temperature in the hall plummeted to a dangerous low.

Ruby had lost her cool first.

Bvzzzzzzzzzznnnnn!

Jake's eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the Krish leader switch on what strongly resembled a lightsaber. Bawopi and the other Nosks had jumped backwards to shield themselves from the icy aura, but the Krish had taken the opportunity to immediately attack its closest neighbor: George.

His cousin, who usually has a calm and mysterious expression, shouted in panic and threw himself under the table while it was sliced in half by the plasma blade.

"Holy shit! "George groaned under the table, rolling over to avoid another vicious sword blow.

His mirror scales retaliated with a powerful flash, forcing the Krish to protect his eyes with his free arm. The brief respite allowed George to crawl to the other side of the table, successfully escaping the alien's assault.

Jake wanted to laugh but, as he turned his head towards his other cousin, he realized that the bastard had already disappeared, taking advantage of the confusion to get a head start. He squinted and saw the guy at the other end of the hall, already about to pass through the door pointed by the luminous arrows.

"This son of a... Jake cursed before he remembered they were related. Although his mother deserved such a title for raising such a scum.

Of course, Brice's behavior had not alerted only Jake. The Krish leader clicked his mandibles and left George to dash to the door with the other Krish by his side.

Meanwhile, the fight between Ruby and the Nosks had heated up and energy shots were constantly banging against thick walls of ice. In some places the temperature was close to -100 degrees Celsius while in others, puddles of molten metal composed partly of the table, partly of the floor had begun to spread. The silver carpet was already emitting an intense smell of burning and pestilential flames were already licking the legs of their chairs.

"Craig and Xiaoming I'm holding them back, hurry up! "Ruby shouted as she uprooted the metal chairs from the ground with her telekinesis and threw them one by one onto the Nosks in front of her. She was keeping a decent pace of two chair throws per second, but she was already running out of "ammunition". Considering that these chairs could support Jake's weight, this ammunition was not to be taken lightly.

Craig showed signs of reluctance, but Xiaoming whacked his face with a resounding slap to bring him to his senses. The two humans hastily ran after Brice and Jake was surprised to discover that they were not as fast as their Aether fluctuations suggested.

Jake, who was still feeling heavy and clumsy, took advantage of the fact that everyone ignored him to contract his muscles violently, his face turning red in the process. After a superhuman effort, he managed to pull himself up on his legs as if nothing had happened.

"Whatever, you can use my seat. "Jake muttered into his beard, dusting off like nothing was wrong the stalactites that had formed on his armor remnants.

Despite the happy memory he shared with the young woman, he had no intention of helping her. To be frank, he was not even sure that she remembered him. His appearance had changed a lot and he wasn't positive that he had told her his first name back then. Maybe she had remembered it by reading it on his work uniform, but it wasn't really important.

For now, until proven otherwise, they were strangers. Their paths were parallel. They each had their companions and followed their own goals.

Once he got up, he turned to Enya and Will to tell them to move, but he realized that they had been standing for a long time and were looking at him with a mixture of concern and suspicion, as if he were a sick child with a deadly, highly contagious disease.

"Are you hurt? Why are you so red? "Will asked telepathically by connecting his Spirit Body to his own.

When Will initiated the contact voluntarily, Jake was able to respond telepathically back with a reassuring tone.

"Everything is fine. I just gained a little weight recently... "

Will stared at him incomprehensibly, but as he swept Jake from head to toe he had to admit inwardly that his comrade was looking more and more like a monster. In comparison, the businessman only reached his shoulder and his build resembled that of a 12-year-old prepubescent child next to his own father. Too embarrassing...

In the end, he chose not to care. All that mattered was that he got out of that hall quickly before the Nosks considered them the allies of the white-haired woman.

"RAAAAAAAAAHH!"

Ruby who had just been pinched by Bawopi and two other Nosks gave a roar similar to the one Jake had given earlier to knock out all those Zhorions. At that moment, she looked like a shining sorceress, her white hair gleaming like headlights while a network of electric blue veins shone under her skin.

Her Spirit Body exploded in an intense blast that violently hit the Spirit Bodys of the nine previously idle Zhorions. The spiritual shock wave spread throughout the entire hall almost instantly, freezing everyone in place.

Jake clenched his fists, expecting to feel a violent mental impact, but instead he felt his vision blurry, while his legs became even heavier, as if he was about to faint. Millions of illusory phosphenes and tinnitus saturated his consciousness and he had the pernicious conviction that he hadn't slept for a long time. A very long time.

Barely conscious, he grabbed himself up against the table before falling to the floor and put an end to the internal ultraviolet radiance responsible for neutralizing the Flintium and Naequat in his cells.

A revitalizing and chaotic Soul Energy exploded from his cells and his drowsy consciousness regained its alertness while all the physical and psychic signs of his Myrtharian Bloodline became clearly apparent.

With the lucid Berserk state he was in, Jake took advantage of his regained strength to stick a Red Stone against Will and Enya's forehead to jolt them awake. He was about to do the same for Hakkrasha, when he noticed that the alien who had been sleeping until then had finally woken up.

When everyone was awake, he would take a nap, but when a sleep spell hit them all, he was perfectly conscious.

"The heck dude... Do you have to be so cocky? "Jake rolled his eyes when he saw the Jakam scratching his head with a pensive expression.

"Let's go. "Jake informed the bronze giant before running to the door indicated by the luminous arrows.

After her psychic blast, Ruby had lost some of her gorgeousness and she was gobsmacked when she found, as she returned to normal, that none of the Nosks had lost consciousness.

"All right... You guys are tough boys, I'll give you that..." Jake heard her sneer as she spat a mouthful of blood at Bawopi's face after he punched her in the liver.

Incensed, Bawopi sent her a second left hook, whose impact against her jaw resonated with a loud GONG.

Jake cringed when he heard the young woman spit out several teeth, but the impact sent her flying through the air at the speed of a cannonball and she used that to distance herself. Even faster than Jake and his group, the young woman reached the door and rushed inside.

Contrary to Jake's expectations, the Nosks did not rush immediately after her and remained momentarily frozen in place, shivering. Bawopi in particular stripped off his helmet and an alien on the verge of a nervous breakdown revealed himself to them.

His breath was short and wheezy and a rasp was clearly audible. His long dendrites flickered intermittently and hung limply behind him like lifeless hair.

With his own experience Jake knew that the Nosks had suffered much more than it seemed from this icy atmosphere. Ruby was practically their Nemesis.

Just before walking through the door, Jake took one last look at the group of Nosks and saw them connect their dendrites to their leader's with resolute expression.

"For Honor!"

Their dendrites flashed abruptly at very high frequencies and a tremendous amount of energy was quickly transferred to Bawopi. The stump at the right shoulder of the Nosk leader contracted and relaxed violently like an anus in the middle of a gastro episode and a brand new arm covered with fluids spurted out.

After that, 5 of the 6 Nosks who had offered their energy collapsed to the ground dead, while the 6th, the strongest of them, survived. But now unable to withstand the cold a film of ice quickly covered his body, plunging him soon after into an eternal coma.

"Your sacrifice will not be in vain. From now on, we are all blood brothers. "Bawopi solemnly professed in a deep voice as he put his helmet back on.

Before disappearing inside, Jake briefly met the alien's gaze and an icy shiver ran down his spine.

"Good luck Ruby... You're going to need it. "He shrugged as he started running again.

Past the door, a new hall presented itself before him, but it was fundamentally different. It was the width of a basketball court, but several kilometers long. Visibility was still as bad as ever. Except for the light arrows, there were no other lighting sources.

Furthermore, the material of the walls was unusually dark, absorbing almost all the ambient light. In some ways, it reminded him somehow of the skin of the Silver Zhorion he had made a pact with.

Those who had reached this new hall before him were no longer visible, but he could still hear their breathing and sometimes their screams far ahead. Hearing a wail of agony closely reminiscent of a man whose balls had been put through a blender, a vain smirk finally appeared on his face.

Brice would have made one hell of a singer.