Path of Dragons

The warlord roared, and the orcish horde responded to its call, clambering to cross the trench-strewn battlefield on their way to destroy Ironshore. The defenders attempted to fend them off with their long spears and copious use of their various abilities, but the frenzied orcs had no sense of self-preservation. As a result, they crashed into the defenses with reckless fury, nearly breaking the line with the sheer weight of their charge.

Meanwhile, Elijah picked himself up just in time to avoid the warlord’s descending blade. He leaped backward, clearing nearly twenty feet in a single bound, but the warlord followed, screaming with fury that was only matched by his followers’ collective rage. Elijah batted the flat of the weapon, sending it just off course. As it hit the ground, he lashed out with a hand clad in the Claws of Gluttony, ripping a chunk of flesh free. It was a superficial wound – barely more than a scratch – but the orcish warlord screamed like he’d just taken a mortal injury.

In a sudden move that took Elijah by surprise, it lowered its shoulder and hit him with a charge that knocked him from his feet. He hit the ground on his back, then rolled to a stop a few feet later to see the warlord’s blade once again descending in a quest to split him in two. Using the Haste of his Sash of the Whirlwind to great advantage, he again slapped the flat of the blade. This time, however, it wasn’t enough to send the blade completely off-course, and it hit his shoulder, carving a massive slab of flesh free.

As the meat flopped to the ground, Elijah let out a roar and leaped at the monster’s legs. He didn’t attack with his claws. Instead, he snapped out with his powerful jaws, and when they closed around the monster’s calf, he heard cracking bones. Then, channeling his inner alligator, he rolled, and the monster lost its balance, falling atop Elijah in a heap.

With every point of Strength he had at his disposal, Elijah shoved the monster away. But when he tried to find his feet, he realized that the orcish warlord had latched onto his ankle. He yanked, trying to free it, but it was no use. Its grip was like iron. The only solace was that, in such close proximity, it couldn’t bring its massive slab of a sword to bear. Yet, its own two hands were plenty to do all sorts of damage. It demonstrated that fact when it wrenched Elijah’s ankle to the side, breaking delicate bones.

Howling in pain, he jerked free, but by that point, the damage had been done. Elijah stumbled to all fours which quickly turned into a three-legged retreat. The orc followed, screaming bloody murder as it limped in pursuit.

But to Elijah’s horror, the thing had the same famous durability of all orcs, and it was far better suited to dealing with a gimpy leg. So, it caught him after only a few seconds. As it reached for his thick tail, Elijah made a choice that he hoped wouldn’t come back to bite him.

He shifted into his human form, casting Healing Rain the moment it became available. At the same time, he reversed course and dove between the giant creature’s legs. The moment he rolled to a stop, he pulsed Touch of Nature, sending regenerative ethera toward his ruined ankle.

The orc whipped around, mistakenly trying to pivot on its own injured leg and paying the price. When it put weight on the limb, it stumbled slightly, giving Elijah the opportunity to put a few more feet worth of distance between himself and the monster. Then, he pulsed Touch of Nature again, healing his injury enough that he could put weight on that leg. One more, and it was entirely healed.

And it was just in time, too, because the orcish warlord recovered extremely quickly. It launched itself at him, drawing a machete-sized dagger from its hide belt. Even as it descended, Elijah was casting another spell.

Swarm completed just before the orc reached him, and Elijah aimed a baseball style swing at the creature’s already-injured leg. He put every ounce of power he could summon behind it, and he was rewarded with the loud sound of cracking bone.

Or that was what he thought, right up until he looked down at his staff and saw only a jagged wooden stake. He was so surprised that he didn’t even see the orc’s backhanded blow before it hit him in the stomach, sending his much lighter body flying across the battlefield. He hit the ground almost thirty feet later, collided with a screaming orc, and nearly rolled into one of the trenches.

For a moment, his head swam with what he expected was a concussion, but a reflexive cast of Touch of Nature banished the wooziness. Then, he used it again to heal himself only to discover that he wasn’t grievously injured. He thanked his smaller body for that. If he’d been anchored by a lot more mass, he wouldn’t have been launched across the field, which had served to dissipate some of the force.

Regardless, he knew he was in a rough state.

His store of ethera was getting much lower, and he knew he couldn’t continue the fight like he had so far. His guardian form had no advantages over the massive orc, and his human form was practically useless without ethera. So, Elijah reasoned that he only had one chance of winning the battle. Using a similar tactic to what he’d employed against the ogre champion back in the tower, he shifted into his draconid form after using one last Touch of Nature.

Then, he turned and ran.

The orcish warlord followed, barreling through its own people as it chased him. Meanwhile, Elijah bounded from one to the other, using his superior speed and motor control to dodge any attacks they sent his way. At the same time, his claws flashed every time he passed an orc, severing tendons and ripping through muscles. More importantly, though, he infected them with Contagion.

That was only a side effect of his flight, though. Leading the orc away was the primary goal, and the monster, as single-minded as it was, never suspected that it was being manipulated. Elijah leaped over trenches and wove between the orcs comprising the horde, and though he experienced more than one close call, he narrowly avoided any attacks they sent his way.

For a long few minutes, he utilized every facet of his Quartz Mind to keep track of the chaotic battlefield. But then, the warlord seemed to recognize that it was being led on a merry chase, and it turned to return to its original purpose. That was precisely what Elijah had been waiting on, and he leaped, hit an orc, to reverse course, and rocketed toward the warlord’s back. He leaped upon it, using Venom Strike before savaging the monster a half-dozen times, then bounding away.

It reacted with all the fury Elijah would have expected and abandoned its march toward Ironshore so it could chase Elijah’s retreating form. The cycle repeated a few more times over the next hour, and every second felt like he was balanced on the edge of a knife. One tiny mistake, and he’d have gotten pummeled by the warlord or its minions. Yet, Elijah had been through multiple crucibles since Earth had been touched by the World Tree, and through those experiences, he’d been forged into the sort of person who could walk that tightrope and expect to maintain his footing.

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That was true right up until he made a fatal mistake.

He’d just dashed in for yet another hit-and-run attack on the warlord, but the monster surprised him with a sudden reversal. It might have been dense, but it had finally recognized its situation for what it was. And rather than perpetuating its own doom, it chose to turn the tables on Elijah.

He was in mid-air when the monster whipped around and clamped its fingers around his neck. He squirmed, scratching and clawing at the creature’s arm. It was under the effect of dozens of instances of Contagion as well as the afflictions of Swarm and Venom Strike, and yet, it looked only a little worse for wear. By comparison, the surrounding orcs almost all looked like they were dead on their feet.

But Elijah wasn’t worried about them.

Indeed, he wasn’t worried about anything but his own life. Panicked, he let his draconid form fall away and immediately initiated a transformation into a lamellar ape. Before it could truly begin, though, the orcish warlord slammed him into the ground. Elijah felt his body crumple. Bones broke, and his organs felt like they ruptured. Yet, the monster wasn’t finished. Instead, it lifted him in both hands and slammed him against the ground again. He’d just completed his transformation, though it felt like it did little good. Even though he managed to use Iron Scales, the ability did nothing to alleviate the damage that had already been done.

He hit the ground again with thunderous impact. He kicked out blindly, connecting with the monster’s thighs and digging deep grooves in the warlord’s gray flesh. Yet, it did little good as the creature once again raised him high into the air. Elijah’s mind whirled with strategies to avoid what he knew was coming. Iron Scales protected him a little, but even the ten percent of the damage that made it through was enough to push him closer to his body giving out.

His situation was desperate, and despite using every facet of his mind to search for an answer, he found no solutions. In that moment, Elijah was certain he was going to die.

Iron Scales gave out, and the monster let out a victorious roar as it slammed Elijah into the ground.

The killing blow didn’t come, though. Instead, a dense bubble of blue energy bloomed into being around Elijah, softening the blow. The orcish warlord looked down on him with mingled confusion and surprise, which allowed Elijah to wriggle free. As he did, he activated Rage. Instantly, his body was flooded with renewed Strength, sending his physical attributes skyrocketing well past his normal limits.

And when he hit the ground after having freed himself from the warlord’s grip, Elijah used that additional power to great effect. He grabbed hold of the monster’s ankle and yanked with all his might. The creature, weakened by various afflictions and blood loss from the Claws of Gluttony’s Anticoagulant effect, was incapable of remaining upright. It tipped over, hitting the turf hard.

Elijah knew that wasn’t enough to even the slow the monster down, much less put it out of commission. However, he did have an idea. So, ignoring the pain of his injuries, Elijah thrust himself to his feet and dragged the struggling orc a few feet to the nearest trench.

Because he recognized where on the battlefield he’d ended up. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that he’d fallen afoul of the stakes at the bottom of that very ditch. With all the Strength granted by his lamellar ape form, combined with his natural attributes and the effects of Rage, Elijah heaved the orc over the edge. In mid-air, it flailed for a few seconds before slamming into the bare stakes.

Of course, the monster tried to pull itself free, but Elijah wasn’t going to allow that. As Rage dissipated, he switched to his human form. Rather than heal himself, which he desperately needed, Elijah cast Snaring Roots. Thick vines erupted from the ground, holding the monster in place. Then, he cast Storm’s Fury. Lightning descended from on high, smashing into the prone warlord.

Without the enhancement of the ruined Staff of Natural Harmony, the spell did little damage. Yet, that was never the point. Instead, Elijah had cast Storm’s Fury with one intention: to stun the creature. And in that endeavor, it was successful. As the orc ripped itself free of the vines, Elijah cast Snaring Roots again, keeping it in place. But to his horror, the warlord wasn’t succumbing to the poison on the stakes as quickly as Elijah had expected.

And he didn’t have the ethera to keep going much longer.

Indeed, if he didn’t heal himself soon, he was going to die. He could feel fluid building in his lungs, and his insides hurt like never before.

In that moment, Elijah made a decision to end it, one way or another.

So, after pulsing Touch of Nature a single time to keep himself alive, he initiated a transformation back into his lamellar ape form, draining the last of his ethera. Before he’d completed the change, the orc ripped free of the vines, and it started to extract itself from the stakes.

That’s when Elijah fell upon it, raining a series of vicious blows onto the vulnerable monster. He pummeled the creature with every ounce of fury he could muster, and yet, he couldn’t do so without taking plenty of hits himself. It was like two heavyweight boxers trading blows in the twelfth round of a championship fight. Neither was in any condition to continue, and yet, they both persisted well past the point of no return, hammering one another with heavy blows that could shake the world.

Elijah knew what his decision entailed. He wasn’t going to make it. Even if he managed to take the monster out, the damage was too severe. Without a full core of ethera, he couldn’t heal himself quickly enough to recover.

But he was okay with the choice he’d made.

Running had been an option, and he’d considered it. Yet, that was just delaying the inevitable. The monster had been vulnerable, and if he hadn’t pounced when he had, it would have recovered and laid waste to the remaining defenders as well as Ironshore. From there, the horde would sweep across the world.

And though he hadn’t seen them in a long time, Elijah had people he cared about out there. Not only were Alyssa, Carmen, and Miguel somewhere out in the world, but he’d had friends back in Hawaii, too. Not to mention the friends he’d made in Ironshore. Isaak and Delilah back in Argos. Or Jess and Essex in Norcastle. Nerthus and his Grove. There were a lot of reasons he couldn’t allow the orcs to live.

Elijah channeled that while pummeling the warlord, and it gave him a burst of energy that, in turn, allowed him to, at last, finish the thing off with a massive blow that broke the creature’s neck. He only had a brief moment to realize that he’d won before the weight of injuries swept over him.

Dizziness assailed every facet of his mind, but he managed to climb free of the trench before, at last, collapsing. He crawled forward a few feet, but that was the extent of his ability. Faintly, he heard familiar voices, and he suddenly realized that he’d shifted back to his human form. Someone shoved something into his mouth, and miraculously, he felt a brief surge of healing. More importantly, a drop of additional ethera hit his core a second later.

Something else hit his tongue, and he felt something tart and familiar. His eyes focused, and he realized that Kurik was standing over him and holding a handful of Elijah’s grove berries.

“Open up, ya moron,” the dwarf growled. “Not lettin’ you die after all that.”

Elijah’s jaw fell open, and Kurk shoved another couple of berries into his mouth. That was enough to clear his head, at least a little, and though he had a host of questions, he knew he needed to cast Touch of Nature or he wouldn’t survive much longer. So, he did, and soothing energy washed over him, mending his injuries. It was only a drop in the proverbial bucket, but it was enough to return him to complete awareness.

He jerked, croaking, “What happened? The orcs.”

“Dead,” Kurik said. “When you finished the big’un off, they lost that enhancement. Wasn’t long after that that your afflictions took ‘em down. With a little help from us, o’ course.”

“Oh…so…it’s over?” Elijah asked.

“Everything but the clean-up,” Kurik said.

Elijah finally relaxed with a sigh of relief that sent an arc of pain tearing across his torso. “Good,” he muttered. “Oh…Kurik?”

“Yeah?”

“I need that orc’s brains. The big one. Save those for me,” he said. “That’s very important.”

Then, without further conversation, he let himself finally relax. That led to his consciousness slipping away. Before he went out completely, he heard Kurik say, “Brains? Never heard that’n before.”

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