Jacob appeared in front of Joseph and Aunt Linda while they were happily chatting. Everyone else was simply a few steps behind them, on the ground, cultivating.

“Christ,” Joseph swore when he saw a panting Jacob.

Jacob eyed Joseph’s teammate, who had instantly got up and by the guy’s side the second she had heard his voice. His aunt’s cultists were still on the ground cultivating, unflinching.

Wow, Joe’s love life is taking off, Jacob mused.

THIS GREAT ONE CAN EVEN CONSULT ON LOVE MATTERS. THIS GREAT KEVIN’S KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LOVE IS AS DEEP AS THE UNIVERSE ITSELF!

“Oh, you are both okay,” Jacob exhaled and bent on his knees to catch his breath while ignoring the sword.

“Wow, Jake, why did you run?” Joseph was bewildered.

“We have some Mantis realm Demonic Beasts roaming around. And they mean that we will need to purge many of these bastards from the vicinity of L’Aquila to avoid a Demonic Beast horde forming.”

“Uh,” Joseph nodded, not really understanding how terrible a Demonic Beast horde could be.

“Jackie, but how did you know that a monster would be here? We didn’t see anything. We just stood guard.”

“I have a Formation with me; wait a second.”

Jacob took out the parchment with the Revenge Seeking Formation. The blood was rapidly drying up. The Formation would only be functioning for the next ten minutes. The drop of blood started pointing toward the direction of Woodsea.

“Mh, the Demonic Beast still isn’t here?” Jacob signaled to Aunt Linda and Joseph to follow him.

“Why are you so worried? We can take care of ourselves!” Aunt Linda said.

“You can, but these monsters are at the very least at the Intermediate Stage of the Mantis realm.”

“Uhm,” Joseph swallowed and nodded.

That would indeed be a difficult fight for him and Linda. Even though the older woman was now a more proficient spellcaster compared to when she had started, her Qi levels were still pitiful. For all he had a famed Martial Style, Joseph was still trying to understand some of the obscure concepts that it contained. The famous First Martial Saint had left behind the weirdest legacy, something so strange that ‘wax on, wax off’ would be considered the most conventional training of the present age.

Jacob scanned their surroundings and spread his Qi around. A moment after, he unsheathed his sword and sprinted forward. In an instant, he put his left hand on his right forearm.

Aura Synchronization, 0.000001%

THIS GREAT KEVIN IS GREATLY PLEASED BY THE BATTLES! LET’S GO, LET THE FILTHY MONSTERS TASTE THE MIGHT OF THIS GREAT KEVIN! YUHUUUUU!

Jacob had never really noticed how distracting and annoying the sword could be before. He had never let it talk for more than a minute straight, but now he was actually reconsidering whether even this great Relic was worth the bother.

Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 1st stance – Cut

Jacob cut the whole trunk of a tree and the Demonic Beast behind it. He cut through the hide of the wolf-like a hot knife through butter.

Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 1st stance – Cut

The monster had been caught by surprise, and Jacob ended its life with another precise and swift cut to its neck.

“Wow, Jake. You looked… stronger than before.”

“Yeah, it’s the improvement in talent. My Qi now flows a bit better. Still, nothing compared to what you have, but better,” Jacob smiled after waving the sword to clean it from the blood.

THIS GREAT KEVIN IS MODERATELY PLEASED BY YOUR PERFORMANCE, TINY HUMAN. YOU CAN NOW REJOICE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS BECAUSE OF THIS GREAT KEVIN’S REMARK!

Definitely not worth it, Jacob thought to himself.

“So, what’s this stuff about hordes?” Joseph asked.

“Well, Joe, more of these will come and even stronger monsters because they are now finding it hard to get new resources in their region. So, we need a culling, a purge, mass murder. Call it whatever you want, we need to kill the puppies,” Jacob said in an unexpected bout of black humor while pointing to the huge wolf.

“Ok. Listen, you can’t stay here. Come with me to Fort Oak, we will bring everyone back to St. Peter and re-organize ourselves. It’s too risky staying out for you. I’ll just have to seal the goddamn Alchemical Garden,” Jacob looked at the huge wolf and said. “Help me carry this corpse close to the entrance. I’ll use its blood for the Patterns, it should be better than the one I have.”

Jacob started getting down to work. He feared that the damn wolves would smell out the Alchemical Garden if he did not conceal it better than before. The Demonic Bloody Wolves had extremely good noses for Spiritual Herbs, and they would all flock in this direction.

“Can’t you plant some traps too?” Joseph asked, curious.

“With what, blood and? I’m not a Blood Mage, and only they can do that sort of stuff. Inscription Patterns can be strong when used right, but you need the right reagents for strong Formations. And it’s honestly not worth it to use them for a couple of Mantis realm Demonic Beasts. If I had some more stuff, and I would need to either explore other Ancient Ruins or find natural Dungeons and things like that, I would probably build a huge Formation in St. Peter, not waste them here.”

Formations weren’t so cheap. Jacob knew many downsized versions, some he had created himself, some with Epagogia, and some the Devil had created on her own. Not surprisingly, since they were experts in writing contracts, Devils were also extremely proficient in Inscription Patterns.

As soon as Jacob had finished sealing the door for good, so well it would take him ten minutes to open it again without busting open the tree, something broke the air.

OWOOOOOOOO

There wasn’t a horde, but it appeared that a pack had made its way close by. And if they had come from L’Aquila, up north, then…

“F*ck, Fort Oak. Geneva and Marina are in danger,” Jacob told the others, “you all, start running toward St. Peter! You should make it there. If you do meet a wolf, hit hard and fast. Don’t spare one second to think. Just hit as hard as you can.”

Jacob started running toward the car right after. Fort Oak was very close by, but he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t find a slaughter the second he got there.

He tried tugging at the Ancestral Bond, but he barely got any response.

F*ck, I’m on my own.

FEAR NOT, PUNY HUMAN, THIS GREAT KEVIN SHALL LEND YOU HIS GREATNESS FOR THE FIGHT TO COME!

On my own with Kevin, Jacob grimaced.