Path of Dragons

The rainstorm started only an hour after Elijah had begun his trek inland, though with the dense canopy of a temperate rainforest above, only scattered drops of precipitation made it to the ground. However, as was common to the region, humidity clouded the atmosphere, and dewy wetness clung to every leaf. Elijah was only barely affected, though; his scales weren’t as warm as his old coat of fur had been, but they were still largely impervious to the elements.

He slipped through the forest, keeping the awareness granted by One with Nature at the forefront of his mind. Back on the island, where he knew every last blade of grass on an intimate level, such concentration wasn’t necessary. But now that he was on the mainland, he slipped back into the same frame of mind that had let him survive the most dangerous parts of the tower.

At first, he circled Ironshore, as much to get back into the proper frame of mind as to check up on his would-be allies. Their efforts at deforestation had slowed to a crawl, probably because they’d progressed past the need for wooden structures. Instead, they’d begun to replace those with sturdier stone and what seemed like a magical form of concrete. There were still hunting parties out and about, but that wasn’t surprising. Not only were most of the wildlife dangerous and territorial, but the animals were also ready sources of meat. Ironshore had no herd animals Elijah had seen, so they were still dependent on wild game for their protein. Likely, that would continue for some time, though fishing would probably overtake hunting as the primary source of meat going forward.

Or at least that’s how it usually worked with human coastal settlements. Perhaps other worlds had developed differently.

After making certain that there were no real threats in the immediate area, Elijah started moving towards the only town he’d seen on the Branch’s map function. Without context, he knew it would still be difficult to find the settlement, but he figured it was the best place to start his search for Seattle, which he hoped would lead him to Easton where he could find his sister.

There was a problem, though. Ironshore abutted a sizable mountain range, so Elijah couldn’t simply travel in a straight line. Instead, he had to search for a pass, which was exactly what he did for the next three days. Most of the time, he remained in his predator form and hunted whichever small animals he could find. However, he did make a point to resume his human form for at least an hour each day, lest he fall into the same trap that had threatened to rob him of his humanity back in the tower.

For the most part, he went unmolested. He could’ve fought a few dangerous-looking animals – like a sizable boar that he found eating a giant stag it had killed – but he chose to silence his more murderous impulses.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t fight.

He certainly did, though he confined his efforts to when he sensed a Voxxian trail. On three separate occasions, he followed that acrid stench to its owner, and when he got close enough, he used Predator Strike to kill each reptilian monster.

It wasn’t so different from how he’d hunted them on his island, though it was more difficult in a couple of ways. First, each of them was stronger than any of the spontaneous manifestations he’d seen on the island. As a result, in all but one case, he was forced to follow up his initial attack with a second killing blow. In addition, they were slightly more difficult to track because he didn’t have the benefit of his Locus to guide him. Still, he made do and accomplished his goal.

Eventually, Elijah found a pass that cut through the mountain range. It had clearly been used by a herd of some sort of animals, and it was only by following their trail that he was able to find the pass. However, they had used it long enough in the past that their scent had all but dissipated, and Elijah was incapable of identifying the animals by what was left.

Still, he had no issues using their trail as a guide, and so, he continued along until he saw something that brought him up short.

From a distance, it looked almost like the entire area had been covered by thick frost. The sudden change served to alert Elijah to the point that he pulled to a stop so he could study the phenomenon, and soon enough, he recognized it for what it was. Gossamer webs, thin and delicate, covered everything in front of him.

More importantly, he saw a few dark shapes, each one the size of a golden retriever and with eight horrible legs, poised to pounce on anything stupid enough to wander into their domain. He looked past them and saw a few dozen large cocoons that he suspected contained the herd animals that had preceded him.

Setting up behind a boulder, Elijah crouched low, his thick, alligator-like tail sweeping back and forth in anticipation as he watched. For a long time, nothing changed, but then, a bird – it looked like a sparrow, but it was quite a bit larger than any version of that bird Elijah had ever seen – landed. It grabbed at something on the ground, then tried to lift off, but its feet were caught in the web. It screeched and flapped its wings, but no matter how much it struggled, it couldn’t free itself.

A moment later, a half-dozen spiders descended on it. The ill-fated avian stopped moving a few seconds later, and the arachnids – which resembled tarantulas, but with dark green instead of brown coloring – quickly dragged it away, wrapped it in spider silk, then left it with the rest of their prey.

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Elijah continued to watch, and though he felt confident that he could pick his way through the webs, he wasn’t absolutely certain he could do so while avoiding the spiders. Which meant that he had no intention of trying.

He’d long since come to the conclusion that versatility was the hallmark of his archetype. He could heal passably well – though with restrictions – cast decently damaging spells, and through his two animal forms, either become a stealthy skirmisher or a stalwart defender. He didn’t think he could do any of those things as well as a specialist might, but with his Dragon Core boosting his abilities by a significant degree, he could do well enough that it didn’t matter.

And that versatility gave him the ability to attack various situations with a wide variety of tactics. So, sure – attacking the spider’s nest in his predator form was too reckless to contemplate. However, there was nothing that said he couldn’t do so in his natural form. So, still crouched behind the boulder, he allowed himself to shift back into a human. Then, hefting his staff, he peeked out from behind the huge rock.

The pass still looked the same, but without the enhanced senses of his predator form, he had difficulty picking out the motionless spiders. It didn’t matter. For what he had planned, he wouldn’t even need to aim.

So, without further hesitation, Elijah dragged Ethera from his core, filtered it through his soul, and flooded Calamity with power.

Spell: Calamity

Bury your enemies beneath the power of nature. Conjure a natural disaster appropriate to your environment. Only usable in caster forms.

He released it, letting the spell envelop the nest. The spiders reacted to the swirl of Ethera, but they were incapable of escaping the coming cataclysm. The ground shook, and dark clouds swirled overhead, heralding the impending disaster. The earth opened, swallowing the nest even as lightning split the sky. The spiders went wild, screaming in pain and fury as they were caught in the storm of lightning, cutting wind, and roiling earth, but they couldn’t combat the power of Elijah’s spell, and one by one, they fell before its might.

It only lasted a few seconds before the air cleared and the earth quieted, leaving only the smell of ozone and cooked spider behind. However, there were a few that managed to survive, though none were in good shape. So, Elijah stepped out from behind the boulder, took aim with his staff, and repeatedly cast Storm’s Fury, killing the survivors.

And just like that, the spider’s nest went quiet.

He should have known that it wouldn’t stay that way, but he was too busy patting himself on the back for gaining a level to even see the shadow moving in the distance. Not at first, at least. But then, Elijah saw what was rapidly approaching, and he nearly collapsed in fear.

“Spiders really aren’t supposed to be that big,” he mumbled to himself.

Indeed, the creature skittering toward him was far too large and fearsome to be allowed, and from its bulbous and furry abdomen to the writhing chelicerae, it was at least ten feet long. With its sprawling legs, it seemed even more massive.

Was it the mother, and all the smaller creatures were simply its offspring? Or was there something else going on? Elijah had no idea, and he didn’t have the time to think it through because the creature was quickly closing the gap.

His Mind spun as he sucked Ethera down into his Soul where it was redirected into his Core in an attempt to regenerate as much energy as possible. Meanwhile, he embraced Snaring Roots, loosing the spell as quickly as he could. At the spider’s feet sprouted a multitude of roots that quickly wrapped themselves around the monster’s feet. However, either the spell was too weak, or the spider was just too strong, because it quickly ripped free; those roots were soon replaced by more, but Elijah recognized that the spell would do nothing more than slow it down for a few seconds.

Hopefully, that would be enough.

He didn’t have enough Ethera to fuel Form of the Predator, which still took more than half of his Core’s contents. But Shape of the Guardian took far less, and he had just enough to power the transformation.

But he hesitated.

The smart move probably would have been to run away, regenerate, and come back when he was more prepared. He was already thinking of how he could whittle the thing down with repeated uses of Storm’s Fury or attack it with a stealth-boosted Predator Strike.

And yet, Elijah held his ground. Partially, it was due to a need to test Shape of the Guardian’s potential. He’d spent some time working on maneuvering in that transformed state, and he hadn’t had a chance to put all that training to work. But mostly, he chose to continue the engagement because he simply didn’t want to back down. He felt confident that he could survive, given his ability to heal via Guardian’s Renewal and the increased movement speed granted by Essence of the Wolf.

Still, Elijah hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

In the space of a second, he had fueled Shape of the Guardian and begun the transformation. Meanwhile, the spider ripped through Snaring Roots in its desperation to reach Elijah.

Even as it continued to tear itself free of the constantly regrowing roots, Elijah’s body transformed. By the time the arachnid reached him, Elijah had fully taken on the Shape of the Guardian, which presented as a strange amalgam of reptile and ape, though one with far more mass than should have been possible.

Elijah loped forward, using his hands for balance as he raced to meet the spider before it could completely recover from its entrapment. He hit it with the full weight of his massive body, knocking it backwards with a shoulder tackle that sent it tumbling across the rocky terrain.

But a single blow – even with his enhanced weight and strength – wasn’t enough to take out a monster so huge, and it quickly righted itself, screeched in fury, then skittered back into the fray. Elijah met it with a vicious uppercut with all his weight behind it. It flipped backward, but the creature wasn’t without its own tricks. A thick strand of webbing shot out from the spinnerets attached to the back of its abdomen, hitting Elijah square in the chest.

And then he was yanked from his feet by the spider’s momentum. Before he could rise, the creature had righted course, bounding off the sloping boundary of the pass and directly at the recovering Elijah.

He had only a moment’s warning before he felt its teeth cut through his scaley armor and into his flesh, injecting him with its venom.

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