Path of Dragons

Elijah knelt behind a fallen chunk of coral. In one hand, he clutched his staff, while the other kept him from drifting with the current as he watched the scene laid out before him. It had been nearly a week since he’d first entered the second level of the tower, and in that time, he’d been forced to learn to adapt to life in the sea.

At first, it had not gone well, and he’d spent most of the first few days recovering from the brief, intense battles that plagued every step into the kelp and coral forest. But with every fight, he drew a little closer to gaining enough power to traverse the sea with impunity. He still wasn’t there yet, having only reached level twenty-three, but he felt like he was on the verge of gaining another level. And when he did, he would learn a new spell or ability. Hopefully, that would make his task easier to accomplish.

Which was why he was watching the giant eel lazily drifting back and forth in the current. It hadn’t moved from the small clearing in some time, and Elijah knew that, if he was going to kill it, he needed to act soon, lest he lose his chance when the thing woke up and wandered off.

So, he screwed up his courage, then leaped up, grabbing a piece of branching coral, and dragged himself atop the edifice. Once there, he raised his staff and dragged Ethera from his core, channeled it through his soul, and cast Swarm. Instantly, a thousand piranha-like fish manifested and swept down into the clearing.

The eel never saw them coming. In seconds, the little fish, which were barely bigger than Elijah’s fingers, had torn huge chunks from its flesh. More importantly, with each bite, they delivered an affliction that, so far as Elijah could tell, functioned like the necrotic damage associated with brown recluse spiders.

Only it was much accelerated and far more powerful. The degradation of the tissue surrounding such a bite would normally take as much as two weeks, but once magic became involved – as was the case with the fish conjured by Swarm – it only took moments. Instantly, the eel’s brown-and-grey serpentine body was riddled with red blisters, which quickly turned white, and soon after, burst with puss and blood.

The eel didn’t take the attack lying down, either. It twisted and struck, biting at the swarm of creatures. When its jaws clamped down on them, they burst into clear goo that dissipated only a second later. Over and over, the eel attacked the swarm of biting fish, but it only got a fraction of the creatures before the spell ended.

All the while, Elijah waited, hoping against hope that the damage would be enough to take the monster down. Because of the extreme Ethera cost, this was the first time he’d used the spell in battle, and though it hadn’t disappointed, Elijah couldn’t help but hold his metaphorical breath as the thing slowly succumbed to the necrotic venom.

Over the next few minutes, it thrashed and bucked, clearly in pain. Elijah hated watching the animal suffer, but he didn’t dare intervene. He’d learned to fear the denizens of the Sea of Sorrows, and though his heart bled for his victims, it wasn’t enough to throw himself into undue danger.

But it was still alive. And worse, the sores that were the result of the creatures’ bites had begun to close. If Elijah judged it correctly, it wouldn’t be too much longer before the eel started to recover from its internal injuries, which were almost assuredly much more severe than the bites and burst blisters on its skin.

No – if he was going to kill the thing, he needed to act.

Fortunately, in the minutes since he’d cast Swarm, he’d recovered enough Ethera to fuel a few casts of Storm’s Fury. Hopefully, that would be enough to end the monster’s life and give him the kill energy he needed to progress.

If not, then he would have to find another vulnerable creature and start the process over again. It was not precisely the way Elijah wanted to live – after all, the eel was probably inedible, and even if it wasn’t, there was no way he was going to use that much meat – but that was the reality that he’d been forced to confront.

Killing was necessary for survival.

It always had been, but that was even more true than it had been back on his island. There, he’d killed so he could eat. Or to protect the island and his Grove from the Voxx. But now, he was killing simply because he needed to grow more powerful. It wasn’t exactly killing for the sake of killing, but it wasn’t so far off that he didn’t see the parallels, either.

Regardless, he had already come to terms with it. He’d resolved to survive by whatever means necessary, and so, that was precisely what he was going to do. However, he did recognize that there would come a point in time where he needed to have a better plan than that. In short, he needed a code by which he would live.

But for now, what he really needed most was for that eel to die, and no moral debate would change that. So, without further delay, he once again raised his staff, took aim at the eel, and used Storm’s Fury.

Lightning, hot and furious, arced out from his Staff of Natural Harmony and hit the Eel directly in the forehead. The moment the spell hit, the creature seized, but Elijah knew it wouldn’t be enough. So, he used the spell again, draining the last of his Ethera. More convulsions followed until, at last, it fell still and settled onto the seabed in a cloud of silt.

But the thing didn’t die.

Elijah knew that because he hadn’t received the expected influx of kill energy.

So, he had a choice. Either he could wait for his Ethera to regenerate and chance the monster healing the damage he’d just done. Or he could go down there and finish it off the hard way.

Both options had downsides, but considering that one of the choices’ downside was that he’d get eaten the moment he got within range of the creature, he chose the first option. So, once again, he settled down to wait. As he did, he focused on funneling as much Ethera as he could through his mind and into his core, but when the eel started to stir, he knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Still, he refused to move.

Killing the eel was the goal, and he’d put everything he had into doing just that. But he refused to let that sway his judgement. Instead, he ignored the sunk cost and focused on the most important thing: staying alive.

So, he watched as, before he’d even regenerated enough Ethera to fuel two casts of Stom’s Fury, the eel awoke. The moment it did, the creature swam away, taking Elijah’s chance at gaining level twenty-four with it.

But at least he was still alive.

It was just further proof that, while his archetype was versatile and, in the right situation, deadly, it just didn’t give him the kick he needed to easily kill most of the creatures in the Sea of Sorrows. If he’d had access to Shape of the Predator, things would be very different. He could have snuck up on the eel and ravaged it with Predator Strike, then finished it off with a combination of Contagion and the kind of hit-and-run tactics he’d used against the water goblins on the previous level.

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But his mist panther form was almost entirely incapable of swimming, which ruled that strategy out.

He sighed, sending a trail of tiny bubbles drifting toward the surface. It seemed that he wasn’t going to progress via one big kill. Instead, he’d need to target the smaller creatures he’d been hunting since he’d entered the Sea of Sorrows.

Once the eel had been gone for a few minutes, Elijah climbed down from his perch and took a familiar route back to the shallow cave he’d been using as a temporary base of operations. When he got there, he looked at it with a sense of blended nostalgia and fatigue. The first, because it reminded him of his earliest days on the island, when even killing a crab had been difficult. The second, for the same reasons. It felt like it had been so long since he’d been able to just relax.

Survival, for all that it was periodically exciting, was incredibly exhausting, and, at times, he longed for the days when he could just go home after a long day of work, kick off his shoes, and read a good book. Or watch some trash television. Or any of a number of other wastes of time that came from having most of his needs met.

It wasn’t as if he intended to give up. He didn’t. But he would’ve appreciated a short break, all the same.

That wasn’t in the cards, though. He’d only made it a few miles into the kelp forest, and he knew he had at least that much left to go before he reached the center of the Sea of Sorrows. So, rest would have to wait.

Perhaps indefinitely, if his experiences since the world had been transformed were any indication.

But it wasn’t that bad, really. With the water being fresh, he didn’t run the risk of dehydration. And he’d killed enough fish, crustaceans, and other creatures that hunger wasn’t an issue, either. Sure, he had to eat it raw – fire didn’t burn underwater, after all – but ingesting unsafe food was nothing that a quick pulse of Touch of Nature couldn’t take care of. So, he had no issues with meeting his basic needs.

As he settled into his cave to rest, Elijah let his mind drift until, at last, he fell asleep. He awoke some indeterminate time later – after all, without the steady rise and setting of the sun, he had no real concept of how much time had passed – he once again set off.

Soon enough, he was attacked by a small sea serpent, which he killed with a quick cast of Storm’s Fury. Once it was dead, he ate a bit of its meat, then discarded the rest before moving on. He met a similar ambush by a sea spider with the same tactics, though he ended up having to bash the thing apart with his staff after it survived the onslaught of spells that drained his pool of Ethera.

He didn’t eat any of the spider because, well, he drew the line at arachnids.

Like that, Elijah slowly progressed, and a day later, he finally achieved his goal.

The notification came after he’d killed the second of a trio of giant, foot-long shrimp by clobbering it with his staff, and the shock of it very nearly got him killed when the lone survivor launched itself at him. Elijah barely managed to block its attack with his staff, knocking it aside before following up with a hastily cast Storm’s Fury. It drained the last of his Ethera – he’d already cast it a handful of times, missing the little creatures more than he wanted to admit – but the resulting bolt of lightning took the stunned creature head-on, completely obliterating it.

Elijah’s shoulders slumped. He’d been at it for hours, and after finally reaching his goal, his exhaustion finally caught up to him. However, he couldn’t afford to rest. Not until he reached some modicum of safety. So, without even looking at his status or whatever new spell or ability he’d gained, he set off to find a safe haven.

It took longer than he hoped, but eventually, he found a dense clump of coral that seemed promising. So, he trudged into what turned out to be a tiny cave. The only problem was that it already had a resident in the form of a sizable catfish that did not appreciate being disturbed.

By that point, Elijah had enough Ethera to cast Storm’s Fury a couple of times, but judging by the size of the thing – and the famous durability of catfish – he considered retreat a better option. So, after narrowly avoiding the creature’s initial salvo, he leaped for the entrance and dragged himself out.

Thankfully, the catfish didn’t follow.

After a few more failures, Elijah finally discovered another cave that would serve as a decent resting spot – at least for a few hours. So, he headed inside and spent the next few minutes arduously inspecting the interior for threats. He found none, so he dragged a few pieces of coral in front of the entrance and finally settled down to rest.

Though he struggled to keep his eyes open, Elijah forced himself to take a look at his status, just in case anything had changed:

Unsurprisingly, aside from gaining two points in each attribute since he’d last checked, nothing had changed. And while he appreciated the additional attributes, Elijah was far more interested in his new ability. So, without further delay, he took a look at it:

Elijah didn’t really know what to think of it. On the one hand, it certainly opened up a lot of possibilities – especially after he realized that the ability didn’t actually take Ethera. Even though all he wanted was to rest, Elijah took a few minutes to try it out, and what he discovered was that even though it didn’t use Ethera, it still had a cost. The first time he used the ability, he felt a sudden wave of fatigue. The second time, it was stronger. And the third nearly wiped him out.

It was an odd feeling – somewhere between the fatigue associated with a high fever and the result of a long workout. He could probably force himself to use it a few more times – especially if he was fresh – but eventually, he would simply collapse from exhaustion.

But that was fine. It just gave him one more tool to survive, and, eventually, if he kept stacking advantages and abilities, he would make it out of the tower.

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