Path of Dragons

Sunlight streamed through the forest canopy, casting the undergrowth in deep shadow. Elijah stepped lightly, his feet making no sound as he slowly approached the trio of invaders. The closest was a slight gnome with bushy, turquoise hair, while her two escorts were both dwarves with magnificent, black beards. The pair of dwarves both held wicked axes, and the gnome wore a robe and carried an elegant staff that was taller than she was.

“I don’t like this,” growled one of the dwarves, peering intently into the shadows. “I feel like I’m bein’ watched.”

“This place is cursed,” said the other.

“You always say that,” the gnome responded, rolling her large eyes.

Elijah took another slow step, carefully placing his paw on the loamy ground.

“I do not.”

“She’s right, Biko,” the other dwarf said. “It’s just like that cave we found last month. You said that was cursed, too, and how’d that turn out?”

“That was different. How was I s’posed to know there was ghouls around?”

“Ghouls are common on newly integrated worlds,” the gnome stated. “Did you even read the pamphlet I made before we came here?”

“Biko can’t read.”

“Can so!”

Then another.

“Sure, buddy. We all believe that,” said the second dwarf, patting the other on the shoulder.

Finally, Elijah was in range. He used Predator Strike, then pounced. His claws met some resistance from the mage’s shield, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from ripping out her throat. Even as she fell, Elijah kept moving, disappearing into the shadows. The moment he was out of sight, he bounded up the trunk of a tree, then out onto a limb.

Meanwhile, the dwarves reacted, charging noisily into the brush, but finding nothing.

“Oh, gods…”

“What was that?!”

“Looked like a giant lizard.”

“Weren’t no lizard. That was a –”

Elijah leaped from the branch, using Venom Strike as he dropped onto the smarter dwarf’s shoulders. In less than an instant, his teeth sank into his neck, and then he was gone, bounding back under cover.

“It bit me! It bit me!”

“Ain’t nothin’ but a scratch…”

“I don’t feel so good…”

Elijah raced from the scene, getting far enough away to use Guise of the Unseen. Once he did, he wheeled around and crept back to where the dwarf had fallen to his knees. He fumbled at his belt pouch, grabbing a small vial and tipping it back. Even as he did, Elijah darted forward, using Predator Strike before slashing his claws across Biko’s hamstrings. Even as the short figure fell forward, Elijah dashed behind a tree.

“Gimme that potion! It got me! It got me, Tor!”

Whatever the other dwarf had drunk had clearly counteracted the neurotoxin inflicted by Venom Strike, but he was still a little unsteady. He turned left, then right, holding his axe before him. He used some sort of ability, but Elijah couldn’t tell what it did. Probably something defensive, given their obvious role.

Elijah didn’t care.

All he needed was to break the skin, and he doubted anything but a powerful mage’s shield could stop that. So, he once again used Venom Strike, then dashed from under cover and leaped at Tor’s face. His claws barely managed to pierce the dwarf’s skin, but it was enough to deliver the toxic payload before he bounded off.

Tor coughed, then pitched forward onto his face. The potion obviously hadn’t completely cleared the neurotoxin, and the extra dose had pushed him over the edge. Even as he fell into a seizure, Elijah circled the remaining dwarf, who, due to his torn hamstrings, was having trouble remaining upright.

Coming at him from behind, Elijah once again used Venom Strike before raking his claws across the dwarf’s back. Before Biko could turn around, Elijah had already bounded up the nearest tree, where he waited for the neurotoxin to finish the dwarf off.

It took less than a minute before the final bit of kill energy swept through him. Elijah’s shoulders sagged as he sank to his stomach in exhaustion. Using so many abilities so close together had really taken it out of him. But still, he’d managed to win the fight, which meant that there were only twenty-eight more.

After a few minutes of rest, Elijah leaped from the branch and headed toward the next group. The bulk of the invaders were still in camp, but after they’d recovered from Elijah’s first attack – mostly, at least – they had begun to send groups out to scout their surroundings. At present, there were two other groups out and about, which meant that Elijah had his targets.

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Gradually, he stalked his prey – another group of three, consisting of a pair of goblins and a gnome – and, when the time was right, he pounced. The fight went much as the last had, and over the next couple of minutes, he took them down. The only dangerous bit came when the mage’s shield managed to block his first attack, but Elijah was quick enough to adjust. The next attack took the mage out, and the remainder of the battle followed the script he’d used during the first encounter.

The next group fell as well, and soon enough, Elijah was alone within the forest.

With the invaders confined to their camp, he decided to head back to the Grove, where he ate a meal of berries and mushrooms. He’d have loved to eat something warm, but he didn’t want to give away his position with a fire. If the invaders were even moderately observant, they could follow a plume of smoke right to the Grove.

“Wait…”

There was an opportunity there, wasn’t there? If he could count on the invaders coming to a certain spot, then couldn’t he take advantage of their predictability?

It was worth a shot.

Elijah thought he could kill them using his current tactics, but only if they didn’t adjust. So long as they kept to groups of three or less, he would be fine. But if they increased their numbers? Things would get much more difficult. Wouldn’t it be better if he could take some of them out of the fight without his direct intervention? At worst, it would force them to focus more on the environment.

With that, Elijah cemented his plan and set off across the island. He didn’t intend to go far – just a mile from the camp – but once he reached the clearing, he got to work. First, he started digging. With his enhanced Strength and sharp claws, he was almost as efficient as a small backhoe, and within an hour, he’d completed his first pit. Then, he dug a handful more, arranging them in a semicircle.

It took half a day, but the invaders remained idle, giving him the opportunity to complete his undertaking. Once the pits had been dug – each one reaching a depth of almost ten feet – he set off into the forest to gather sticks. Doing this required that he shift back into his human form, but he didn’t mind. He had plenty of Ethera available, so he could shift back into his predator form at a moment’s notice.

Fortunately, Elijah’s enemies remained sequestered in their camp. Likely, they knew that something was hunting them, and as a result, were reluctant to leave – especially with night coming. That played right into Elijah’s plans, giving him hours to finish building his traps.

He’d based the design on a medieval fortification called a trou de loup – or a wolf hole – which consisted of a dense pattern of conical pits, at the bottoms of which would be punji sticks. In some cases, rotting meat or feces would be smeared on the wooden stakes, but Elijah had neither the time nor the inclination to go to those lengths. In any case, he suspected that any long-running infection that came from such tactics would be easily cured by the healers among the invaders.

No - all he cared about was creating more chaos. With any luck, he could repeat his actions from before, using Calamity and Swarm to further whittle their numbers down. And if he was truly fortunate, he’d kill them all in one go.

After sharpening the stakes with his knife, Elijah jammed them into the bottoms of the pits, then went about gathering some firewood, which he arranged in another shallow pit at the center of the arrayed traps. By that point, it was already night, which gave him only a few short hours to finish the project.

The last piece that would bring everything together required him to weave a series of flimsy mats from grass he gathered from nearby. Once he’d done that, morning was only about an hour off, so he quickly covered them with a thin layer of dirt and loose grass that he hoped would disguise his traps.

Finally, with his traps built, Elijah lit the fire before piling a series of green limbs onto the pile. As the fire filled the air with a thick plume of dark smoke, the invaders set out from their camp en masse.

They were going in the wrong direction at first, but as Elijah continued to stoke the fire, adding more and green limbs, they clearly noticed the plume of smoke and changed directions. And just like that, Elijah’s plan was on.

He retreated into one of the trees, climbing until he had a good view of the clearing. Then, he waited.

It only took them an hour to reach the clearing. All twenty-two of them, advancing in a line. They did so cautiously, but none of them even looked at the ground. Elijah’s previous efforts to kill their scouts bore fruit when the first few – a couple of gnomes and a goblin – fell into one of the traps.

They screamed, and the group panicked. One of the gnomes – a fellow with a vivid red mohawk – started shouting something Elijah couldn’t hear, gesturing violently.

That was when Elijah leaped down from the tree, shifted into his human form, and, for the second time in the past three days, used Calamity.

The sky tore apart as thick storm clouds rolled in. The earth rumbled and the wind whipped into a frenzy. That was enough to send the remaining invaders into a panic. They scattered.

Unfortunately, the clearing was absolutely lousy with traps, and it only took a couple of seconds before the panicked invaders ran afoul of the previous night’s efforts. A full half of the group fell into traps as Calamity tore the area asunder, peppering it with lightning, blades of hurricane force winds, and a minor earthquake. As before, it only lasted for a few seconds before it dissipated, but by that point, the damage was done.

Elijah cast Swarm.

Thousands of biting flies manifested, then swept down on the trapped invaders. Some tossed fireballs and other spells out to try to mitigate the mass of insects, but their efforts were all for naught. A handful of gnomes and goblins had managed to avoid the traps, but all except one had fallen to Calamity.

Elijah crouched at the tree line, watching as Swarm did its work. Slowly, the kill energy flooded in, pushing him past level thirty.

And just like that, the invaders were finished. Only one remained. A few others were still alive, but he was the only one who remained upright and mostly healthy. The same gnome that seemed to be in charge, pulsing with red energy, stood amidst the carnage. He looked around, panicked and furious, screaming something unintelligible. Elijah kept an eye on him, and as he continued to regenerate his Ethera, inspected his new spell:

Another shapeshift, but unlike Shape of the Predator, it didn’t cost nearly as much Ethera. As Elijah read the new spell's description, he watched the gnome's tirade continue. And after only a second more, the red-glowing gnome finally locked his eyes on Elijah's position, and with a growl, launched himself toward the man who’d torn his small army apart.

The gnome shouted in rage, the glow of his red aura increasing in intensity as he tore across the battlefield.

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