Jacob’s face was dark after they won the last battle.

It was all going too smooth.

“Let’s fall back,” Jacob raised his fist and ordered to everyone, even though they were finally reaching the center of Fort Mountain.

Something is not right.

Jacob looked to the sky and saw a crow fall dead not too far from his group.

Well, that has to be the most ominous omen to ever happen since Julius Cesar.

“Why?” Marcus asked.

“We are in danger. Fall back, Marcus,” Jacob said without paying too much attention to the man.

“Jacob, you can’t order people around like that! I’m not your goddamn butler!”

Marcus was losing it. He was tired, sweaty and he had been fighting those damn horrors for almost an entire day.

The first lights of dawn were getting to them, breaking twenty-four hours since they had arrived. And even though seeing the light should have made them more comfortable, Jacob got a gut-wrenching feeling.

“Juliet, could you?” Jacob gestured toward Marcus.

The guy had risked dying so many times that it was becoming a chore keeping him alive. Given their current situation, Jacob just decided to drop him out of the group for the rest of the mission. He had something much more important to attend to.

“You can’t treat me like this!” Marcus screeched.

“For f*ck’s sake, Marcus! We saved your damn ass multiple times, and you dare complain?!” Juliet was not as tired as the others, but the prolonged mission was taxing her mind.

Everyone was on edge and snappy.

Jacob immediately regretted telling Juliet to take care of Marcus and searched for Frederick with his eyes.

“Fred,” Jacob put his hands together as if praying for him.

Right after, our protagonist tuned out the noise from the arguing and focused on the surroundings. Was there something he was missing?

He knew Charybdes better than anyone else.

The energy density in this place is low. The risk of a Mantis realm Charybdis should be non-existent. But it’s better to be careful, honestly. We took care of 75% of them. However, if there really is a damn Mantis realm, we are dead.

Jacob had a dark feeling and decided to pull out.

“Double time, people, let’s go,” Jacob brought them out of Fort Mountain in a few minutes. Even Marcus complied after Juliet had almost started punching his face and Frederick had persuaded him.

“What’s up, Jake?” Frederick came up to him and asked.

Jacob was still looking toward the rustic houses of Fort Mountain with ice in his heart.

“There might be a Mantis realm.”

Everyone turned and just looked at him.

“If there is a Mantis realm, we are dead. Helena, start cultivating and eat as many Alchemic Tagliatelle as you can right now; if there is a Mantis realm, we’ll need you to try and do everything to breakthrough. Juliet, cultivate and rest. Fred, try and top off your own Mana.”

He started dispensing orders to everyone and then took a difficult decision.

“Aunt Linda, Geneva, Marina, Marcus, Lucius, Joseph. Go get one car and go back to St. Peter.”

“What?!” his aunt immediately flipped out.

“I’m not up to discussing any of this,” Jacob’s tone was stern, “Juliet is strong enough to clear out the rest of the monsters on her own if there is no Mantis realm. Helena can destroy tens of Charybdes in the blink of an eye thanks to her Heaven's Palm, and Frederick can deal more damage than all of you put together. But, if there is a Mantis realm in there, you will die. All of you. It will target the weak links among us and pick you off, hoping that the others will lose it and throw their life away.”

Jacob had enough experience about the Charybdes to know that his Sixth Sense was rarely wrong about them. The chances were extremely low, but it would be stupid to risk it.

“Jake,” Joseph said, “are you sure you don’t need us?”

“I do need you, to be honest. The Charybdes should swarm sometime in the next forty-eight hours. You would make the cleanup faster after killing them all, but if there is a Mantis realm Charybdis, then you are dead. It’s not even a chance, it’s a complete certainty. No one among us can protect you, Joe. I wish we could, and I wish I could keep you with me here. But we can’t. If we do and there is a Mantis realm, you are dead.”

“I’m ready to die,” Geneva said with her eyes blazing.

“And that’s exactly why you are going to St. Peter, conscious or unconscious.”

“Jake, why are you—”

“Aunt Linda, not another word, please. Please, people, I need you out, right now. We just broke a pattern, and the Charybdes that are still alive might sense that we are not trying to attack anymore,” Jacob didn’t really know how to explain all he knew about those nightmarish creatures. There was so much to explain in so little time.

“We have to listen, people. Jacob has guided us and saved us multiple times. But, we are all tired and, even though he might have used kind words, he just said that we are useless right now,” Lucius said.

Everyone else seemed to deflate a little after hearing those words.

Lucius asked only one question before starting to walk toward the cars.

“Jacob, I do not know you that well, nor anyone else here, for all it matters. But, will you survive fighting a Mantis realm?”

Jacob looked at the thirty-year-old man and slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know. We are not prepared for it. But we do not have any other choice. We have the highest hopes of killing it with me, Juliet, Helena, and Frederick alone.”

“What are the odds?” the voice of his aunt came from the side.

“Fifty-fifty,” Jacob said with a forced smile.

The others finally started going back after a little more discussion.

Jacob sat on the ground while Helena, Frederick, and Juliet started cultivating.

Ten-ninety.

Jacob thought of the real odds of surviving against dying and sighed.