Path of Dragons

In most cases, a frog alternates between disgusting and cute, depending on who’s looking at it. Rarely are they considered horrifying, and yet, that was precisely the thought that crossed Elijah’s mind as he barely managed to dodge a thick, rubbery tongue. It slapped against the body of one of his previous opponents – a mantis-like creature with organic scythes for hands – that he’d narrowly defeated only a few minutes before.

The frog’s tongue stuck fast to the corpse’s chitinous exoskeleton, but Elijah knew it would only be temporary. The tongues of amphibians – and the saliva they secreted – were a marvel of nature, and on Earth, frogs captured prey by covering them in said saliva, which was capable of transforming from liquid to solid and back, making for some of the stickiest substances in nature.

That meant that it wouldn’t stay stuck to the mantis’s body for long, so Elijah needed to act quickly and decisively. With that in mind, he aimed his staff at the frog – which was the size of a rhinoceros – and let loose with Storm’s Fury. The lightning tore across the arena, disappearing into the frog’s gaping mouth.

The creature let out a deep, croaking bellow of pain as its body was wracked with convulsions. As had been the case for the past ten fights, the giant ogre on the platform far above commented on Elijah’s progress. However, he didn’t hear it. Instead, he sprinted forward, hoping to take advantage of the frog’s electricity-induced seizure. As he did so, one facet of his mind completed the casting of Shape of the Predator, and over the space of three steps, he shifted into the draconid form.

He’d shifted a dozen or more times since the gauntlet had begun, and he suspected his latest transformation wouldn’t be the last. Whatever the case, he crashed into the amphibian with snapping jaws and slicing talons that ripped into the creature’s rubbery stomach with ease. Yet, he didn’t get to anything important before the frog recovered and tried to hop away.

But Elijah had already seen that tactic, so he latched on with claws meant for climbing trees and went along for a ride. The panicked frog sailed high into the air, its arc taking it on an inevitable collision course with the wall. It smashed into the barrier with a wet squelch, and the impact very nearly jostled Elijah loose.

Nearly was not completely, though, and Elijah managed to hang on. More importantly, his tenacity was rewarded with an opportunity to truly dig into the stunned monster’s belly. He dug deep, raking his claws across the wet and pliable flesh until, at last, he hit organs. Without skipping a beat, Elijah continued to tear into frog’s abdomen until he had completely submerged in its innards.

That was when the real work started.

Elijah didn’t bother with trying to identify organs. Vaguely, he recognized some of them, but what they were was less important than inflicting as much damage as possible. So, he tore his way through the frog’s guts one raking claw a time. In the back of one facet of his mind, he was aware of how disgusting it was. However, he’d long since moved past acknowledging that, adopting a philosophy of pragmatism.

Besides, he’d once been a biologist, so he could handle all sorts of grotesque sights, sounds, and, as it turned out, tastes. More importantly than that, though, by that point, Elijah was exhausted enough to not care about anything except killing the monster as quickly as he could. So, that was what he did.

And eventually, he managed to finish it off, though it took far longer than Elijah would have expected. Like many of the other creatures he’d fought since Earth had been touched by the World Tree, the frog was clearly far more durable than any animal should have been. However, he’d long ago accepted that most of the biological knowledge he had accumulated over years of study was now useless.

After all, what use was any of that against dinosaurs made of roots? Or monstrous killer whales whose insides seemed to defy the laws of physics? Or, as was the case with his latest conquest, a giant frog who, according to everything Elijah knew about biomechanics, was so large that it should not have been able to bear its own weight.

In any case, Elijah felt a deep sense of relief when he finally climbed out of the monster’s slimy gut. Once he did, he summoned Healing Rain, as much to wash the remnants of the frog’s innards away as to treat any injuries.

Even as he basked in the rejuvenating precipitation, he heard the tenor of the crowd suddenly shift. For a moment, he didn’t understand what was going on, but then Elijah picked up what they were saying.

“Champion! Champion!” they chanted, over and over, until the ogre finally bellowed for them to quiet down.

“This challenger has accomplished something impressive. For that, he has our praise!” shouted the ogre. The crowd went wild. “But! If he is to be called a champion, then he needs to do more than defeat a few hobgoblins. Indeed, he must become a challenger in truth. He must fight me!”

The enormous ogre then stepped forward and leaped from the platform. He landed in a spray of glittering gray sand only a moment later. By that point, Elijah knew he was in trouble. The ogre was even larger than his first assessment had suggested – a trick of perspective, he was sure – and what’s more, he was far more muscular than any of the other ogres Elijah had fought. He looked like a perfect warrior.

But the implications were clear. Elijah needed to kill the Champion if he wanted to complete the tower. There were no clever tricks to be played. No sneaking. No ambushes. Just him and the opponent.

If the fight had happened a few weeks before, he would have never had a chance. However, because he’d spent the past few days – or weeks, maybe – learning to use every facet of his toolkit, Elijah didn’t even flinch at the challenge before him. Instead, he remained in place, letting the waters of Healing Rain wash away the remainder of his fatigue while he leveraged his Quartz Mind to increase his Ethera Regeneration as much as possible. The tiny vortexes at the center of each facet of his Mind eagerly drank the ambient Ethera, funneling it through his Soul and into his Dragon Core.

Across the arena, the ogre beat his muscular chest and roared to the crowd. It was clear that the Champion was as much a showman as he was a fighter, especially considering that his bare chest had been oiled and his bald head shined to a dull gleam.

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Not that that made him any less dangerous, of course. Elijah did find it amusing, though, and he was reminded of a professional wrestler. Perhaps that would change once the fight began.

Elijah rolled his shoulders, then checked his enhancements. The ogre looked so muscular that if he landed a single blow – even a glancing one – it would have dire consequences for Elijah, so he replaced Shield of Brambles with Essence of the Monkey. Beyond that, he had Essence of the Wolf, One with Nature, Aura of Renewal, and Essence of the Boar active.

With that, he was ready for the fight.

He stepped forward, leveled his staff, and summoned Calamity. Thunder rolled, and lightning struck as blades of wind swirled, kicking up sparkling grey dust and obscuring the ogre. Elijah couldn’t see much, but he definitely noticed when the Champion came crashing through the maelstrom, his fists gleaming with purple energy.

Elijah hurriedly cast Snaring Roots, but they did nothing to stop the enormous ogre’s vast momentum. He ripped through them, barely even slowing down. And yet, even that small delay allowed Elijah enough time to cast Swarm. Hundreds of fist-sized mosquitoes manifested, then flocked onto the Champion’s oil-slick back, where they latched on and started doing the job for which they had been summoned.

Yet, few of those proboscises managed to penetrate the ogre’s thick hide, and their inability mitigated the swarm’s effect. Still, a few managed to break through, so the spell wasn’t entirely useless.

Elijah cast Storm’s Fury, sending a bolt of crackling lightning to hit the creature in the chest. That definitely did something, sending the ogre’s muscles into involuntary contractions. However, that only slowed the monstrous humanoid down a little more than the roots, so Elijah had no choice but to rapidly shift into his lamellar ape form.

He managed to complete the transformation just in time to meet the ogre’s charge.

And get sent flying through the air to hit the wall hard enough to crack the bricks from which it had been constructed. Fortunately, he used Iron Scales just before the ogre made contact, but even ten percent of that punch was enough to make Elijah see stars.

He was still within the effective radius of Healing Rain, though, so it cleared up quickly. That was just in time for him to see the ogre once again bearing down on him. Elijah used Iron Scales once again, then leaped at the creature. The two collided with a titanic impact that shook the very ground, but Elijah definitely got the worst of it. Even with the protection afforded by Iron Scales, he had the breath driven from his chest by a momentous uppercut that took him in the gut.

That’s when Elijah realized his mistake.

He’d gotten so used to fighting like a beast that he’d forgotten the years’ worth of lessons he’d learned in the boxing gym. The lamellar ape form wasn’t perfectly suited for most of his techniques, but the general principles remained just as valid as they ever were before. So, when he regained his composure a second later, he stepped back into the fight with renewed confidence.

The ogre came in with a simple jab, but instead of simply taking the hit, Elijah shifted slightly to the side, letting it pass him by. Elijah returned the would-be blow with one of his own, whipping his own fist out to slap against the ogre’s hip. With the size difference, that was the best spot he could reach, and though it wasn’t ideal, it certainly threw the ogre off balance.

Elijah followed it up by tapping into his bestial nature. His jaws snapped out, latching onto the ogre’s exposed thigh, and ripping a chunk of his quadriceps muscle away. The Champion howled in pain and fury, but by the time he brought his own fists to bear, Elijah had danced away.

Awkwardly, by his standards. But it was effective enough to let him avoid the ogre’s furious and ill-aimed punch. That further overbalanced the creature, which Elijah used to great advantage when he rushed in with a shoulder tackle that bent the Champion’s knee the wrong way.

Its sudden collapse surprised Elijah, and that shock very nearly got him killed. Even as the ogre fell, it reached out, grabbed Elijah’s shoulder, and yanked him off his feet. Before he knew what was happening, the creature had him pinned to the ground and was raining one herculean blow after another down on him.

Elijah used Iron Scales, but it could only do so much against such a powerful opponent. However, that damage reduction was just enough to keep Elijah from being pummeled into unconsciousness.

While one facet of his Quartz Mind focused on using Iron Scales at the appropriate time, another took care of keeping him moving just enough to avoid taking too solid of a blow. Still another housed his panic. The rest were wholly occupied with trying to think of a way out of the dire situation.

But as far as he could tell, there was only one shot.

He just didn’t want to take it because, if he was wrong, a bad situation would turn to worse, which would probably mean the end of his struggle, and not in a way that would see him traipsing into the next level of the tower.

He didn’t have much choice, though. The battle had turned in a hurry, and he had none of his usual tactics available. The creature had escaped his Calamity without issue, and the Swarm had already dissipated without infecting the ogre with much in the way of afflictions.

So, he shifted.

Not because he wanted to take advantage of his draconid form. Rather, he transformed because that form was much, much smaller than the lamellar ape. As such, when the ogre’s fist descended, it found only sand where Elijah’s head had once been. Meanwhile, the smaller size also gave him just enough wiggle room to escape the ogre’s grasp. He slithered out from beneath the creature, then leaped onto the wall.

Bounding off that surface, he launched himself at the slightly confused ogre. He landed lightly, then sank his claws into the monster’s oiled back. The creature howled at the sudden pain, and he tried to dislodge the stubborn draconid, but to no effect.

Because Elijah had learned something about his opponent.

The ogre was strong. Far stronger than anything he’d ever encountered, and that was including the very first encounter with one of the Voxx. However, the Champion’s attributes were lopsided, but not in the way Elijah’s Guardian form was. Instead of having a detriment of Dexterity, it instead lacked Constitution.

Normally, that wouldn’t have been such a debilitating weakness. The monster was still plenty durable, and with its extremely high Strength and Dexterity, it could probably end most fights before they had a chance to really begin. Yet, Elijah was just capable of avoiding that fate, and he’d managed to find the ogre’s weakness.

And now, on the Champion’s back, he could finally exploit it to the fullest extent.

His claws bit deep, but his teeth went even deeper. He ripped into the monster’s back, tearing it to ribbons even as he ripped huge chunks of muscle from its body. Bits of flesh flew through the air, and blood coated the grey sand, but Elijah refused to stop.

He couldn’t afford to rest. Even the slightest pause would lift the pressure and allow the ogre to regain his equilibrium. Elijah couldn’t let that happen, so he ripped and tore, bit and clawed until, at last, he found his way to the ogre’s vulnerable organs.

He started with the intestines, but those were shredded in seconds. A foul and acrid stench filled Elijah’s nostrils as he dug into the chest cavity, piercing lungs and finally, latching onto the ogre’s overlarge heart. He ripped it free, then, at last, bounded away. The ogre fell like a tree, hitting the ground with a massive impact that sent even more sand, blood, and guts into the air.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

Just like that, Elijah had won the battle and conquered the second floor of the tower.

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