Path of Dragons

Arrayed before Elijah was a maze of coral and seaweed. Even as he floated only a few feet above the seafloor, he forgot the conflict of the previous day. Instead, he focused entirely on the setting in front of him.

Elijah had been diving many times in the past. He had his scuba license, and he’d been an avid free diver before being stricken with cancer. More, he’d watched countless videos of the depths and studied even more photos and texts while earning his doctorate. However, he’d never seen anything like the landscape laid out before him.

Coral twisted hundreds of feet in the air, and the thick stalks of seaweed, barely waving in the current, looked like nothing so much as blades of grass. Huge schools of colorful fish flitted about, while Elijah caught sight of larger predators lurking within the forest of coral and seaweed. A shadow enveloped him, and he looked up.

A sea serpent the size of a bus slithered hundreds of feet above him, cutting through the water with speed that would have rivaled an airplane. Elijah stared as it darted into the seaweed forest and passed out of view.

That was when he noticed a notification waiting for him:

It was almost identical to the notification that had greeted him upon his entry into the tower, and it was followed by a description of the task in question:

Neither of those names sounded good. The words sorrow and hegemony did not fill him with the warm and fuzzies. But he knew he didn’t have much in the way of choices. He couldn’t very well turn back. Nor did he really want to. There was definitely something addictive about meeting the challenges laid out before him. In any case, there was every chance that the previous level had ceased to exist the moment he’d left it behind. Perhaps the scenario had already reset.

Looking back, his emotions felt a bit silly. If none of it was real – and it wasn’t, at least according to the ulthraks and his own deductive ability – then what did any of it matter? He shouldn’t have cared if the walrus people lived or died. Nor should the goblins have infuriated him so thoroughly.

And yet, they had. He could only reason that there was more at play than he knew. But that wasn’t exactly surprising, given that he knew almost nothing about what was going on. At times, Elijah felt like he was being led around by the nose, and he very much didn’t like it.

For now, though, he needed to push those sorts of thoughts to the back of his mind and focus on accomplishing the task at hand and progressing to the third and final level of the tower. To that end, he sank to the sea floor and took cover behind a sizable rock so he could think about how he intended to accomplish the goals that had been thrust upon him.

And not for the first time, he realized just how out of his depth and unprepared he really was. Until that point, he’d leaned on his Shape of the Predator, which he’d found was incredibly powerful. It allowed him to remain undetected and, when the time was right, strike hard and fast before sinking back into the shadows.

But underwater, adopting that form just wasn’t an option. When he’d tried to swim in his panther form, he’d barely been capable of remaining afloat. In theory, it ought to have been easy enough to adapt. After all, he knew how other animals swam, so it should have been a simple matter of practice before he mastered the necessary technique. But in this case, the instincts that came with the form had worked against him, inciting a simmering panic that had scuttled any attempt at rational thought. It had been all he could do to awkwardly paddle a few feet, much less swim through a territory the size of the Sea of Sorrows.

So, he was stuck in his human form.

Fortunately, he was extremely comfortable as a swimmer, and with the Ring of Aquatic travel giving him the ability to breathe underwater, he felt confident that he could at least survive the environment.

However, he knew it wouldn’t be so simple as to swim in the right direction. Never was that more clear than when he saw motion out of the corner of his eye. At first, he panicked, but that only lasted a split second before he realized that the creature he’d seen was hundreds of yards away.

It was an eel, but one with coloring he’d never seen. It was also the size of a horse, which made it the largest eel he’d ever even heard about. It swam from the forest of seaweed and coral, chased by a school of much smaller fish that resembled barracuda. The smaller fish nipped at the eel’s tail, but it quickly started to outpace them.

Until a huge claw descended from above, snapping the eel in half.

Elijah tensed as the claw’s owner splashed into the water from surface, revealing its entire form.

It was a giant crab.

Because of course it was.

But if every crab he’d ever killed had all somehow combined into one, they wouldn’t have reached half the size of this newcomer’s claw, much less the rest of its body. If it was any smaller than an aircraft carrier, Elijah would have been shocked.

No – he was already shocked, regardless of his vehicle-based size estimations. The school of barracuda darted away, but the crab wasn’t going to let even so small of a meal escape. It lashed out with his claw, and though it didn’t make physical contact, the motion created an unnatural whirlpool that sucked the comparatively small fish into its gaping maw. The two halves of the still writhing eel soon followed, and before long, nothing was left of the brief hunt.

Then, the crab floated up, eventually breaking through the surface. Where it went after that, Elijah couldn’t see, and if he was honest, he had no interest in finding out.

Over the next hour, he settled in to watch the sea. And as he did, patterns became clear. For one, anything that ventured above the forest of kelp and corral was quickly killed and eaten by the crab, so trying to swim above the fray was impossible. Elijah had no idea if it was the same crab, or if it was a series of the creatures, but it didn’t really matter for his purposes.

Next, he saw that the ecosystem in the forest was, to put it mildly, one based on predation. If there were herbivorous creatures in there, Elijah never saw them. Instead, everything seemed out to kill everything else, which meant that the entire place was a natural battlefield of epic proportions.

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And that posed quite a problem.

If he’d been capable of adopting his panther form, he could have simply snuck through. However, in his human form, he had no more ability in stealth than any other person. Certainly, he’d learned a few tricks over the past year of living in the wilderness, but most of his knowledge was useless in his current environment.

The third thing he was forced to realize was that he wasn’t nearly as buoyant as he might have expected, which meant that swimming really was out of the question. In fact, after a little testing, he reasoned that it wasn’t so different from the level of gravity on the moon.

And finally, he acknowledged that, once again, the water was free of salt, which seemed even more incongruous than the massive predators or clearly contrived scenario. But at least it meant that he wouldn’t die of thirst if he remained on the level for too long.

Food would be an issue, though, largely because he’d lost his woven satchel sometime during the transition between levels. Hopefully, he would complete the task before he had to start considering eating the fish and other creatures he’d seen so far.

After a few hours, Elijah realized that he was stalling. He really didn’t want to head into the forest of kelp and corral, largely because he felt incredibly vulnerable without his Shape of the Predator spell. He still had Storm’s Fury, though he wasn’t entirely certain it would work underwater. And he had his newest spell, Swarm. But other than that, he only had his staff to defend himself.

And he suspected that that wouldn’t be enough.

Letting out a sigh that sent a series of bubbles drifting toward the surface, Elijah pushed the negative thoughts aside. He’d survived cancer. He had learned to thrive after being stranded on a deserted island. He’d killed a host of interdimensional lizards. He could stroll across the seabed and kill some boss monster. If that was what he had to do to survive, then that was what he was going to do.

The first order of business was to test Storm’s Fury, though. So, he backed away from his rock and embraced the spell. To his shock, a veritable torrent of Ethera swept through his mind, and Storm’s Fury activated in a fraction of the time it normally took. The moment the spell was saturated, he released his hold, and a thick bolt of white lightning tore across the water and hit the rock.

It shattered, sending bits and pieces slowly flying through the water.

Elijah grinned. It was definitely stronger, but he wasn’t sure why. Was it the interaction with the water? Or was it the denser ambient Ethera? He had no way of knowing.

Testing it again, he fired off another spell. This time, though, he paid attention to the bolt of lightning itself. In its normal form, the lightning manifested from the sky, but when he channeled it through his Staff of Natural Harmony, it emanated from the head of the weapon. But it always took the form of a single, well-defined bolt of lightning.

Underwater, that changed. From that single bolt extended a series of smaller branches of electricity, suggesting that it could affect a larger area of effect. The radius around the bolt wasn’t large – maybe a few feet before those branches dissipated – but it was enough to excite Elijah about his chances of making it through the Sea of Sorrows.

He decided to test Swarm as well.

To his surprise, though, when he tried, it wouldn’t activate. It only took a moment for Elijah to realize that, like Shape of the Predator, the spell would take the bulk of his Ethera reserves to cast. So, he retreated a little and settled in to meditate on funneling Ethera through his mind and into his soul, after which, it settled into his core.

He was well used to the process by that point, but he still reveled in the feeling of so much energy flowing through the ephemeral System.

Eventually, Elijah regenerated enough Ethera to fuel the spell. So, he rose and channeled it through his staff.

A moment later, a school of tiny fish – they looked a lot like piranha – appeared and swept through the area. Without anything to attack, they dissipated only a few moments later.

Interesting. According to the spell’s description, the creatures would infect his enemies with “appropriate afflictions,” whatever that meant. Elijah didn’t know, and he wouldn’t find out until he used the spell on an enemy.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but given the nature of the tower, he suspected that his hopes would soon be dashed.

After testing the spell, Elijah settled in to once again regenerate his Ethera, and once his core was full, he finally set off, bounding across the seafloor with long, bouncy steps that helped him cover the ground very quickly. However, he chose to hesitate when he reached the edge of the kelp forest.

Was going in the right choice?

Maybe. Perhaps not. But he couldn’t think of any other option. So, without further ado, he plunged ahead. This time, though, he kept his footsteps short, and he stayed as low as he could.

His attempts at stealth turned out to be useless.

Only ten steps into the kelp forest, he passed what he thought was an innocuous rock. But the moment his back was exposed, he felt the water stir. With instincts born of surviving for a year in the wilderness, he dove forward.

It wasn’t enough.

Something clamped down on his side, ripping into the delicate flesh. His momentum tore him free, and whatever had attacked him pulled back. Blood as well as bits of skin and meat misted into the water as Elijah slapped his hand to his side and pulsed Touch of Nature.

He hit the seabed hard before bouncing into a tall stalk of kelp. Even as the spell staunched the bleeding, he got his first glimpse of his attacker.

It was a turtle, though a species Elijah did not recognize. The sharp beak and leathery skin were familiar, but its shell was made entirely from rock and coral. More, its legs were far longer than any turtle Elijah had ever seen.

And finally, it was at least as big as he was, and it probably weighed at least three-hundred pounds. Probably a lot more. In short, it looked like a primal version of a snapping turtle with a jagged boulder for a shell.

Elijah didn’t hesitate to cast Storm’s Fury, the moment he recovered from his tumble. The monster – and that was the only way he could think of the creature – saw the spell coming, and displaying more intelligence than any reptile had a right to show, it twisted around to present its shell. The lightning hit it, splintering the shell and eliciting a burbling scream from the turtle.

It reacted instantly, leaping across the intervening space and latching onto Elijah’s hastily raised arm. Bone crunched as its jaws closed, but Elijah kept his wits about him as he recast the spell.

The lightning hit the creature square between the eyes, but even though it was clearly hurt, the thing channeled its inner pit bull and refused to relinquish its grip. So, Elijah re-cast the spell. Once. Twice. Three more times. And as his Ethera dipped to dangerously low levels, the creature finally died.

But its jaws remained locked into place, and its weight tugged Elijah to the seafloor. Pain lanced through him. His arm was broken – probably in multiple places – and his side was still missing quite a bit of flesh.

He only had enough Ethera for two heals. Maybe three at most.

And he had a turtle latched onto his arm.

Prying it loose was the first order of business. Then, he intended to –

Just then, a school of small fish – maybe seven or eight inches long, with gold scales and red, beady eyes – swam into view. They made a bee-line for the bloody water surround Elijah.

Recognizing them for the predatory scavengers they were, Elijah took aim with his staff and cast Storm’s Fury.

Lightning arced out, taking the little creatures head-on. But the bolt of electricity was so powerful that it didn’t stop after obliterating the first. No – it kept going, tearing through the school. That’s when the little branches of lightning showed their worth, leaping out to fry most of the remaining fish.

The majority of the school died in an instant, but a few managed to survive. But suddenly alone, they weren’t nearly as brave as they’d been only a moment before, and they quickly darted back under the cover of the kelp forest.

Elijah felt his shoulders sag.

He’d killed the little creatures, but that victory had come at a cost. His core was entirely empty, now. So, he couldn’t heal himself. Grimmacing, he realized that he had no choice but to retreat. But first, he needed to pry the turtle’s jaws apart. So, over the next couple of minutes, he awkwardly did just that. In the end, he had to lever his foot under one side while tugging the other in the opposite direction.

And just like that, he was free.

It only took one look at his arm to tell him that he’d severely underestimated the damage. He was a marine biologist, but he was familiar enough with mammalian physiology to know that, if he didn’t have access to healing magic, he would lose the arm. It was already swollen to nearly three times its normal size, and bits of bone jutted through the purpling skin.

That served to further cement Elijah’s decision to retreat.

Letting out a gurgling sigh, he returned to his previous spot and settled in to regenerate his Ethera. Without the adrenaline of the fight pumping through his veins, he felt every pulse of agony emanating from his arm. The only good thing he could say was that it at least served as a distraction from the injury on his right side.

Silver linings, he supposed.

As he sat there, he began to come to the realization that he might be on his current level of the tower for a little longer than expected.

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