The Oracle Paths

The Nullifyer glanced at Jake's dilapidated leg, then at his fearless, focused eyes. It wasn't the look of someone who thought he was about to lose.

"It would seem that depriving you of your Bloodline and your powers is not enough to destroy your lust for victory." The god complimented with an approving smile. "Your technique is full of shortcomings, but you still manage to partially compensate for them with your superior intelligence, agility and perception. It allows you to react in a remarkably appropriate and creative way to my movements even if you don't understand them.

"Let me show you now how foolish your confidence in your stats is. Nullify Agility."

Jake, who until then had superhuman self-control, able to control every nerve and muscle with extraordinary precision suddenly felt as if all his nerve endings had been put to sleep. It was as if he had spent the last few hours in an ice cube.

He tried to keep his guard up, to emulate the techniques he had learned and that his amazing intelligence was able to infer spontaneously, but he realized that his body could not keep up, as if he were a baby still learning to walk.

Likewise, his muscles suddenly felt horribly stiff and he felt himself swaying, his balance so catastrophic that the slightest deviation of his torso from its center of gravity caused him to stagger several steps before he managed to recover.

"Hmmph!"

Jake snorted and biting his lip to the blood, he focused all his attention, each of his neurons to forcefully regain control of his limbs. With great effort he managed to stabilize himself, relying mainly on his absurd strength. Nevertheless one could see his muscles contracting multiple times per second, countering head-on the sensation of imbalance.

The Nullifyer's smile widened as he saw his opponent resume his fighting stance. Jake's gaze was as determined as ever and there was still no trace of desperation. Besides, his damaged leg was already practically healed.

"Let's put you to the test in this condition. But first, Nullify Extrasensory Perception."

Jake, who was discreetly manipulating his Vitality and Agility Aether to heal his leg and locally boost his body-control suddenly lost all perception of the energies flowing in and out of his body. This time the shock was much more brutal than losing his Myrtharian Vision.

His mind was totally confined to his body and although the power of his Spirit Body had not weakened, he could no longer use it. It was like having an indestructible skeleton but no muscles or nerves to move it.

When he saw the human's sullen expression, the Nullifyer taunted in a falsely empathetic tone,

"How does it feel to be an ordinary person again? Did you forget already? It hasn't been that long since you became an Evolver."

Ignoring his answer, the god sprang forward and threw a right jab at his distraught opponent without further ado.

With his reaction time greatly increased, Jake stopped thinking and subconsciously blocked where he thought the enemy would punch. His right forearm lowered, protecting his plexus, but an unexpected pain erupted in his sternum. His opponent's fist had altered its course at the last moment.

Swallowing the blood rising in his mouth, Jake reeled back a step, but ignoring his pain he retaliated with a savage front kick. The Nullifyer smartly swiveled around his leg, his right arm wrapping around his left knee. The knee of his barely healed leg dislocated into several fragments and Jake immediately lost his balance.

Seizing the opening, the god who was still holding the broken left leg lunged forward, breaking through his guard and with his free left hand swung a vicious uppercut to the liver. As the punch was about to connect, the Nullifyer abruptly tilted his head back to dodge a fearsome elbow strike that whipped the air into a vacuum just millimeters from his nose.

Jake's elbow had barely passed the enemy's face when it was pushed aside by the opponent's back hand. Jake's returning elbow accelerated sharply and he was carried away by his momentum, unwittingly exposing his entire right flank.

The Nullifyer, who already had the advantage, had long since let go of his damaged left leg and sidestepped to Jake's right in his blind spot. The god's fist opened slightly, forming like rigid talons, and with a flurry of precise blows punctured dozens of acupoints ranging from the right shoulder blade to the right hip of his victim.

Besides the crippling pain that electrified his right side, Jake felt his muscles lock up as if he had just suffered a cramp and he realized that his entire right side was paralyzed. The blood in his veins stopped flowing and went stagnant, and then started to flow backwards. The skin in the stricken areas swelled as it turned purple and soon the first blood vessels burst, hematomas blooming by the dozens all over his right side.

'Damn it, Jake think!' He howled furiously in his head as he thought fast and hard for a solution.

Peh!

In the end, the only idea that came to him was to spit in his opponent's face. To his disappointment, even this 'surprise attack' failed. The Nullifer had already shifted position before the spit left his mouth. Whether it was because the gap in levels between them was too great or because he had predicted his cheap shot with his Shadow Guide, Jake knew he would never win this fight.

[Jake, you can' t let him win!] Xi suddenly shouted in his head. For the past few days she had been a passive spectator, letting him train and make his own decisions, but this time she couldn't stay silent.

BANG! Bang, bang!

Jake protected his head with both arms by switching back to a conventional boxing guard, but his opponent continued to patiently ravage his body, hitting his nerve ganglia and other internal organs with surgical precision. Each time, a high frequency shockwave would radiate from the point of impact, causing microscopic lesions of unknown consequences throughout his body.

Still, even with diminished stats, Jake's Constitution, Vitality, and Strength were no joke, and he took it without flinching, never once wincing despite the pain.

'Xi, if you have something to say, say it fast. I won't last long.' Jake groaned mentally, his vision blurring slightly as yet another punch punctured his right lung. He had barely saved his heart!

[This guy is a god, so his powers are a concept or a belief]. She explained hastily. [He is therefore the embodiment, the incarnation of it. Everything that is happening to you, he is also doing to himself. He cannot use his powers without becoming what he embodies.]

"Nullify Strength."

Jake's body began to shake and the sharp fist hook that caught him on the chin sent him flying dozens of meters into the air. Jake hadn't been able to stabilize his footing in time. When he tried to stand up by pushing off the ground with a flick of his finger, he remained stupidly pinned to the ground.

"Fuck!"

Gritting his teeth, he tried to remember how he did it when he was only human to get up quickly in such a position, and he rolled to his side, pushing himself up with his arms without the slightest bit of grace. He raised one knee, then the other, and by pushing with his arms he finally managed to get up.

"Nullify Constitution."

BANG!

He had hardly stood up when a sweeping kick made his body spin on itself and he hit the ground again head first. Half stunned, he spit out several teeth. He had several broken bones and a concussion.

'Xi! If you have a solution it's now or never!

'I don't have a solution...' He heard her whisper weakly.

"What?!"

'I HAVE NO SOLUTION, OKAY?!' She screamed in panic. 'He's using his True Will to counteract the effects of his own Divinity. Basically he's using his own will to deny the reality of his own powers.'

As if to mock her theory, the Nullifyer crouched beside him and whispered,

"I'm sure you're beginning to wonder how my powers work. You may have even come up with several plausible hypotheses, but let me tell you, you're a long way from figuring anything out. Your descent into hell has only just begun.

"Nullify Intelligence."

The ultra-fast brain activity that had previously allowed him to multitask, that is, to separately control his body and talk to Xi at the same time, suddenly became impossible. The thousands of inputs that his brain was processing at any one time were reduced to a pitiful 6 or 7 pieces of information, and he suddenly realized that he didn't have any idea what was going on.

His body deprived of Agility, Strength and Stamina and now Intelligence was like asking a child to fly a fighter plane. Jake opened his mouth,

"Gah, geh, bah!" His brain unable to string together any intelligible thought, he began to babble like a three-month-old baby and unmitigated panic began to contort his face.

'Jake, can you hear me?!' Xi screamed in his head.

But surprisingly, he wasn't the only one babbling. The Nullifyer was also standing on all fours, his naive and innocent look betraying that he wasn't in the best of shape either. Except, unlike Jake, he hadn't forgotten who he was and what his purpose was.

He slowly got to his feet and staggered slowly towards the frightened human, staring coldly at him,

"Nullify Perception."

Jake instantly went deaf, blind and mute. He lost his sense of touch, taste and smell, but also other lesser known but equally important senses such as proprioception, and the perception of his own existence. This was immediately reflected in his Spirit Body, and if anyone had the means to observe it, they would have noticed that it was dimly flickering, about to dissipate.

The Nullifyer momentarily stopped moving, but soon a bright white flame of sheer willpower flared in his pupils and he slowly resumed moving towards Jake, his gaze the very epitome of concentration.

The fight was over.