Path of Dragons

Pain lanced through Elijah’s chest as the blade parted his scales and drove deep into the meat of his torso only to erupt from his back an instant later. The sheer force of the attack drove him backward until he thudded against the wall, sending a spiderweb of cracks arcing out from the point of impact. Dust and debris rained down on his head as the sword pinned him in place.

Panicked, he lashed out, his claws raking against the elf’s face. But they never reached his dark skin. The creature smirked and leaned on the hilt of his blade, twisting it cruelly.

“Beast,” he growled, his voice melodious yet menacing. “You dare strike me?!”

Elijah hissed and spat as he tried to escape, but the sword’s grip was absolute. He couldn’t wrench himself free, no matter how hard he pulled. But more distressingly, he felt something being dragged out of him. It wasn’t just Ethera. It was something far more vital. His life force, perhaps. Certainly, he felt weaker with every passing second.

Desperate to stop that pull, Elijah reached out, his long arms moving with incredible speed until he wrapped his claws around the elf’s wrist. Then, he yanked.

The elf clearly hadn’t expected that, and the result was a slight stumble in Elijah’s direction. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to put him in range of Elijah’s sharp fangs. His jaws snapped shut with undeniable power, and the elf’s invisible shield shattered.

The Warden threw himself backward, mitigating some of the damage, but when he recovered only a moment later, long, jagged strips of flesh still hung from his ruined face. Elijah used that small opening to grab hold of the sword and pull. It took every ounce of strength he could bring to bear, but he still managed to yank it free.

Then, he roared.

At that very moment, the injured troll, having dispatched the final ogre with a thunderous punch, joined the battle. It rushed the still reeling elf, aiming a massive blow in his direction. However, just before it closed the distance, the Warden regained his wits and thrust his hand at the monster.

Bands of red energy exploded from his fingertips, wrapping around the charging troll’s limbs. Then, the elf yanked his arm back, sending the enormous creature flying across the room only to collide with the wall. It didn’t stop there, though. Instead, it crashed through the wall, sending bricks flying in an explosion of momentum.

Elijah raced forward, raising the sword in an attack. However, he was no swordsman, and his scaled ape form was ill-suited for using weapons. As a result, his intended blow was clumsy and fated for failure. Still, he had surprise on his side, and due to that, he very nearly made contact. The elf moved like a striking snake, though, and despite his heavy-looking armor, he managed to dodge Elijah’s attack with inches to spare.

But he could do nothing to allay Elijah’s charging momentum, which took the form of a shoulder tackle that sent the slender elf flying backwards. He hit the ground a half dozen feet away, but he didn’t skid to a stop until he hit the wall on the other side of the room. Elijah threw the sword aside, then pounced.

He never reached his target.

With a snarl, the Warden swept his hand out, and once again, red bands erupted from his fingers. This time, though, they were aimed at Elijah. For his part, he tried to dodge, but the ribbons of energy seemed to have a mind of their own, following his every move until they slithered around his limbs.

And then he was flying through the air, just like the troll before him. He caromed off the remnants of the shattered wall, then cartwheeled across the neighboring cell until he came to rest two dozen feet into the room.

The guardian shape was incredibly durable. Elijah knew from experience that he could endure all sorts of damage in the scaled ape form. With his hard scales, dense bones, and enhanced Constitution, he was like a living tank. However, the limits of his endurance had clearly met their match, because he could already feel multiple broken bones as well as a multitude of shattered scales.

And that wasn’t even considering the internal damage.

He struggled to rise, but he let out a growl of pure agony as his leg collapsed the moment he tried to put weight on it. It was broken in multiple places, he was sure.

Elijah looked up to see that the elf had recovered his sword and was hacking at the grievously wounded troll. The monster’s battle with the ogres as well as the aftereffects of Swarm’s afflictions had clearly put the creature at a vast disadvantage, and the elf was more than strong enough to exploit the effects of its many injuries.

More troublingly, each fall of the Warden’s sword came with a swirl of Ethera that snaked around his body before being absorbed. With every strike, the elf’s wounds healed a little.

Elijah knew that if he let that continue, he’d never have a chance of winning the fight. Certainly, he could use Guardian’s Renewal and heal himself before either resuming the battle or retreating long enough to reenter stealth. However, by that point, the Warden would have completely healed.

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And even with an ambush, Elijah doubted his chances of defeating the elf if he had the chance to recover. Moreover, he wasn’t sure if the elf would allow his retreat. Those red ribbons of energy – a spell, obviously – had been inescapable. Who was to say what other abilities the elf possessed?

No – Elijah needed to put everything on the line, and all at once, or he would never defeat the Warden, much less conquer the tower.

With that in mind, he activated Guardian’s Renewal. Instantly, his bones mended, and his flesh was renewed. In seconds, he was whole, hale, and ready to continue the fight. However, he had no intention of doing so in his scaled ape form. Its endurance and strength had already proven a poor match. So, he had other plans.

Having regained his health, Elijah shifted back into his human form. The moment he did, he yanked Ethera from his core and cast Swarm. The spell took a decent portion of his available Ethera, but due to his cultivation and ever-increasing core size – which came with each point of the associated attribute – it wasn’t nearly as much as it once had been. So, even as the biting flies manifested, he embraced another spell.

Spell: Calamity

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

The ethera drained out of his core at a rapid pace, flooding the spell with power. Then, Elijah released it, and all hell broke loose. The ground was sundered, the stale air suddenly broke into sharp gusts that would rend flesh, and lightning filled the air. Meanwhile, Elijah was already casting another spell.

This time, he preemptively cast Healing Rain before using the last of his Ethera to shift into the Shape of the Predator. As his scaled panther shape replaced his human form, Elijah raced toward the door. The elf – and the troll, who still clung to life despite having its head mostly severed – was too distracted to notice his departure.

Fortunately, the system took that into account, because the second he was out of view, he felt Essence of the Wolf increase his movement speed, which told him that he’d left combat. So, he wasted no time before slipping into the Guise of the Unseen and returning whence he had come.

Neither Calamity nor Swarm were long-lasting spells, but only a few seconds had passed. So, the elf and the troll were still very much occupied. The elf had redoubled his efforts at hacking through the troll, clearly hoping that the draining ability could outpace the damage of Elijah’s spells.

And it was mostly working.

However, everything went wrong for the Warden when, at last, the troll succumbed to the cascade of damage and passed away. Suddenly, the elf’s efforts were for naught – obviously, his victim needed to be alive to facilitate his draining spell – and it was at that moment that Elijah embraced Predator Strike and pounced.

Instead of focusing on harrying attacks as he had against the ogres, Elijah leaped onto the elf’s back, latched his powerful jaws onto the nape of his neck, then squeezed.

Since the transformation – or evolution, perhaps – of the predator form, Elijah had spent quite a lot of time examining his physiology. In a lot of ways, it resembled the big cat it had once been, which was why he referred to it as a scaled panther. However, that characterization was a bit of a misnomer, especially when it came the structure of his head.

Most big cats could only muster around a thousand pounds-per-square-inch of bite force. Even before the form’s evolution, Elijah knew he far exceeded that, especially under the effect of Predator Strike. However, he still felt like that was just a multiplier on the limitations of basic physiology.

The new scaled panther form had a jaw more like a crocodile, and as such, in that shape, he could bring an absolutely incredible amount of force to bear. With the modifier of Predator Strike working in his favor, that degree of pressure went from incredible to astounding.

Elijah knew that. He had come to rely on it. And yet, he was still surprised when the elf’s head popped like a grape. The Warden fell, collapsing into a boneless heap atop the troll it had worked so hard to kill.

Elijah leaped free, shocked at how easily the elf had died. He’d been gearing up for a long, epic battle where he had to dart back and forth and wear the Warden down. And what he’d gotten was a sudden and somewhat anticlimactic end.

Not that he was complaining.

And after a few moments, he saw evidence of why the elf had succumbed so quickly when he noticed the dark tendrils tracing a spiderweb of discoloration up what was left of its neck. Clearly, the affliction of Swarm had weakened him. Calamity had contributed as well. Though Elijah had only intended the two spells as distractions, they were obviously more powerful than he’d expected them to be.

After letting out a hiss of relief, Elijah embraced Guise of the Unseen once again and turned to see if there were any other threats. He’d already accounted for everyone in the dungeon, but there was nothing to say that they couldn’t get reinforcements from the citadel above. When nothing came for another five minutes, he finally let himself relax.

He’d sustained no damage since using Guardian’s Renewal, so he was still in perfect health. Still, he switched back to his caster form and spent some time in meditation so he could regain his spent Ethera. When that was done, he set about looting the ogres as well as the Warden.

The ogre guards had very little Elijah could take with him. Their armor and weapons were far too bulky, and they’d carried nothing but a couple of copper Ethereum in their belt pouches. He collected what loot he could, then turned his attention to the elf.

Fortunately, the sword fit in his pack, though try as he might, he couldn’t remove the Warden’s armor. It was almost as if it was part of the elf’s body. So, after spending far longer than he probably should have trying to pry it loose, he marked it up as a lost cause. However, he did retrieve another set of keys that he hoped would come in handy going forward. He also looted a pair of silver Ethereum, which he added to his collection.

With that, he felt that he was finished with the floor – especially considering that he’d finally accomplished the Task. However, before he advanced and retrieved what he hoped would be a useful reward, he had to take care of something important.

The kill energy – or experience, which was a gaming term the people back in Norcastle had used – had pushed him over the edge and into level thirty-five. And with that level, he had finally gotten his first spell in quite some time.

As he looked at the resulting notification, he couldn’t help but smile at the achievement.

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