The Oracle Paths

A few heartbeats later, the most nimble and athletic of the recruits finally reached the infamous wall.

The Outer Wall, encircling Havocspire Citadel, was fabled for its impenetrability. It had thus far lived up to its name. Even the rampaging force of two Titans and two Abyssal Revenants hadn't left as much as a scratch, while almost every other structure within the city lay in ruins.

And for good reason... This wall was towering. Unbelievably tall... and thick!

Soldiers, who seemed possessed just moments before, had already regained some of their sense, their faces a mix of confusion and terror as they gazed up at the wall's immense shadow cast upon them. With the sun setting and the ongoing storm, the ambient light was practically nil.

Gulp!

"Haah... Haah... H-how the hell are we supposed to... Haah... climb this shit?" A barbarian wheezed, his bloodshot eyes wide in disbelief.

Catching his breath after the inhuman sprint, he was doubled over, drenched in sweat. His shaking arms barely supported him on his knees, preventing him from collapsing backward. His heart thudded painfully against his chest, and he had this sinking feeling that he'd pay the price for this exertion sooner rather than later. Maybe even in the next few minutes...

He wasn't alone in his plight. Now, as the effects of mass hypnosis and the boost from the General's Aura began to wane, the greenhorn soldiers realized they were utterly ill-equipped to scale such a daunting barrier.

"It's gotta be 60 meters, at least..." Jake muttered, placing his hand on the lukewarm, somber gray stone that comprised the wall.

For him, this so-called challenge was virtually non-existent. He could clear it with a simple leap. But for these barbarians, only strong enough to move comfortably under this gravity, the near-smooth wall was pretty much insurmountable.

Well, almost...

Here and there, armored barbarians of better quality could be seen scaling the wall effortlessly, leaping from one rocky foothold to another. It resembled the way mountain goats traversed near-vertical cliffs but on a superhuman scale.

Luckily for the less physically gifted recruits, they didn't have to rack their brains for long. Thousands, if not millions, of conscripts in the same predicament as them were also scrambling to ascend this barrier.

"They're using grappling hooks and ladders!" A recruit exclaimed, smugly thinking she'd cracked the code first. Unfortunately for her, all she got were eye rolls and dismissive glances.

"Idiot, do you see any ropes around here?" Another recruit retorted irritably. "Looks like out of all the spots we could've chosen to climb, the ropes either got wrecked by the enemy or nobody's been this way before."

It made sense. With Havocspire Citadel having a diameter exceeding 100 kilometers, its Outer Wall was mathematically 3.14 times that in length. Even considering millions of troops constantly swarming here to scale it, it wasn't impossible to hit a section no one had climbed yet.

It became even more obvious when considering their 150,000-strong army had picked a clear spot to initiate the assault more easily and avoid adding to the ongoing mayhem.

"So, what's the plan? Walk the wall till we spot some leftover ladders or ropes?" A frustrated barbarian suggested with a gloomy face, though inwardly he was all for this strategy.

The reason being, any wall section currently fitted with ladders and ropes was swamped by other armies trying to scale. This meant if they went this route, they'd inevitably have to wait their turn, granting them all the time and the excuse they craved to catch a breather. With some luck, the battle would even end before they had to risk their necks.

"Sigh... Quit dreaming," Sank-Uk chided, though his rebuke was meant for everyone. "Knowing that bastard General Torvi, if we don't start making a move up this wall soon, he'll make sure we do, and trust me, it won't be a pretty sight."

The barbarians shuddered, recalling how they'd been pushed to the brink just moments ago. They needed to act. Fast.

Yet, as much as they all knew what needed to be done, nobody wanted to voice the glaringly obvious. With tensions rising and a stalemate of mutual silent stares, Jake telepathically communicated,

'Meribelle. Ropes.'

'... On it.'

Dozens of ropes and grappling hooks suddenly rained down in front of them. The icy voice of the young woman followed, dripping with sarcasm, "Now you've got no damn excuses."

"Sank-Uk, you're up," Jake directed.

"... On it."

As long as General Torvi and his crew were breathing down their necks, Jake couldn't flex too much.

Reading the situation, the former commander lightly gripped the top edge of a stone block his height. With a simple flex of his legs, he propelled himself two blocks higher. The tip of his boot grazed the lower edge of another block, and with just a slight push, he gained momentum as if he'd just walked on thin air. Before anyone could blink, he was on top of the wall.

"Wow! Just what you'd expect from a 3000-man commander," recruits who overheard their previous banter exclaimed with a mix of admiration and jealousy.

Their excitement was quickly doused as dozens of ropes dropped before them, waiting to be scaled...

"Shit... Even with a rope, this is gonna be a real pain in the ass," a young man grumbled, despite his bulging biceps.

"Tell me about it... My arms are already toast after that sprint," another recruit lamented, almost shedding a tear as he held up a trembling arm gripping his spear.

Jake kept his poker face, but discreetly reactivated the superficial Vitality Link he'd conjured earlier to give them a leg up. Leaving them to their fate, he then grabbed the nearest rope and began climbing at a "reasonable" speed.

'So much effort just to blend in...' He grimaced bitterly, intentionally slowing down halfway up to feign muscle strain and heavy breathing.

[Don't forget to sweat if you want to sell it,] Xi playfully reminded him, failing to stifle her laughter.

"Tsk. If I find out none of the Players on my side or the opposing Mirror Universe come close to matching me, and I've been downplaying my skills for nothing, I swear I'm gonna lose it... Jake grumbled as he "struggled" to reach the wall's summit.

He was pretty irked at that moment, but as soon as he got a clear view from the other side of the wall, a surge of elation hit him,

"Flames, smoke, and fog! Awesome!" He exclaimed with delight, even though he was outwardly wiping away the fake sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Indeed... The limited visibility gives the enemy the upper hand. This is gonna be one hell of a fight," Sank-Uk remarked with a heavy sigh, apparently not picking up on Jake's thrill.

A few minutes later, the first wave of recruits reached the top of the wall, and their expressions morphed into one of horror, mirroring that of the former commander.

"How the hell are we supposed to spot our enemies through all this smoke?" A soldier, armed with only a rusty blade and a shoddy leather helmet, started shaking as he gazed upon the sprawling battle before him.

Despite the thick smoke, one could make out millions of humanoid or beastly figures, fighting to the death in the tumultuous chaos. Distorted by the flicker of flames, sporadic lightning, and the creeping twilight, these roughly outlined shadows appeared even more grotesque and unsettling.

"G-guess we're better off up here," another recruit stammered, looking queasy after peeking over the edge and seeing the chaos and abyss below.

"There are stairs," Jake noted, rolling his eyes.

Damn right. The very point of a wall was to make it hard to scale from the outside. But if the soldiers meant to defend it couldn't climb it either, that would've been sheer idiocy.

And sure enough, now that Jake had pointed out the stairs, a quick scan revealed them to be scattered around every twenty or thirty meters.

"Phew... At least we don't have to go through that ordeal aga-"

BOOOOM!

The soldier, caught off-guard, hadn't even finished his sentence when a massive flaming projectile slammed into the parapet out of the blue. A deafening explosion echoed, followed by a blaze that spanned several meters in radius and an even more powerful shockwave, torching everything in its path.

As for the poor soul caught directly in its path, his body was instantly vaporized, leaving only his charred feet anchored to the ground and a piece of his axe as a chilling reminder that he was alive just a heartbeat ago.

One by one, the soldiers, still dazed and deafened from the blast, struggled to their feet, staggering as their brains tried to process what had just happened. It had all gone down so fast that they were left clueless.

Then, the searing pain from their burned flesh and the smell of burnt meat snapped them out of their daze, waking them to a living nightmare. As they struggled to understand the unfolding chaos, the air began to whistle forebodingly once more, and Sank-Uk's deep, thunderous voice, tinged with panic, bellowed,

"EVERYONE TO THE STAIRS!"

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