Path of Dragons

Time felt like it was moving in slow-motion as Elijah struggled against the fiddler crab’s oversized claw. Even as he levered it apart, he knew it was pointless. The girl, who was fiercely trying to scramble away from the hydra’s snake-like head, was going to die. He could see that as plain as day.

Then, he felt something coming.

Something big.

Something scaley.

Something alligator-y.

Bessy raced through the swamp with unmatched speed and barreled into the recovering hydra, jaws first. The monster reacted the same way it had against Elijah, by wrapping its necks around the newcomer. However, Bessie had not come alone. Indeed, Konstaninos was perched on the giant alligator’s back, a glass vial in either hand. Screaming a high-pitched warcry, he tossed the potions at the hydra, where they hit and shattered with an audible sizzle.

The monster reeled, and Konstaninos – wearing a massive straw hat and a pair of overalls – reached down to his daughter. She grasped his hand, and he yanked her onto the alligator’s back.

But as bombastic as Konstantinos’ entrance into the battle was, his potions were largely ineffective as anything but distractions. Fortunately, he recognized that, and Bessy ripped free of the hydra’s attempts to constrict her, then swam away. The hydra tried to follow, but the swamp was the alligator’s natural habitat, and if she didn’t want to be caught, she wasn’t going to be.

That distraction gave Elijah the time he needed, and he used that to lever his hands beneath the fiddler crab’s enormous claw. With his massive Strength, he levered the claw apart, then dove away just in time to avoid being snared again. But the crab was persistent, and it wasn’t going to be ignored. So, rather than attack the hydra – which was still trying to catch Bessy – Elijah had to turn his attention to the giant crab that had interrupted the fight.

He launched himself at it with bestial fury, grabbing its eye stalks and yanking them free. The crab went wild, spinning around and snapping its huge claw. But Elijah wasn’t caught unaware, because if there was anything he knew, it was how to kill giant crabs.

After all, he’d hunted them enough on his island that he could call himself an unmatched expert in crab slaying.

So, he dove beneath the beast, and when he reached the center of the crab, he pushed himself upward. A second later, he pressed the van-sized creature above his head. It didn’t go willingly, kicking its legs and snapping its claw ineffectually.

Elijah heaved it toward the hydra. Like a skipping stone, the monster bounced off the water, then hit the reptilian creature hard enough to send it pitching sideways. It didn’t like that, and it reacted like any monster would to a new threat.

For a second or two, the two enormous creatures engaged in a furious battle. The crab managed to snip a few chunks of flesh from the hydra’s torso, but it was clearly incapable of standing up to the mightier monster’s concerted attacks. As a result, it was only a few moments before its shell cracked beneath the hydra’s powerfully constricting necks.

It didn’t last long after that.

But it was the delay Elijah had needed to shift back to his human form and use Healing Rain. He also pulsed Touch of Nature a couple of times, bringing himself back to workable condition. He would have preferred a few more, but that just wasn’t in the cards.

As he cast, he yelled at Konstantinos, “We need to stop it from regenerating!”

“Ain’t got nothin’ can do that!” the Alchemist yelled from where he’d directed Bessy to stop.

“Shit,” growled Elijah. It was clear that he was going to have to do it the hard way, which meant wearing the hydra down, one bit at a time. There had to be a limit to its Regeneration, after all, and Elijah knew that the only chance for Konstantinos and his family to survive was to find that limit and push the monster past it.

So, he once again used Swarm, then Calamity. Leeches surged all around the hydra, latching onto its legs and the lower half of its body. All the while, they administered their afflictions. In the meantime, the other spell went to work, causing chaos as well as minor damage against the powerful monster.

But Elijah was more concerned with the distraction as he leaped up to a branch and pulled himself free of the muck. When he did, he shifted into his draconid form. In the chaos of Calamity, the hydra had lost track of him, so he had no issues with adopting the Guise of the Unseen. Under the cover of his stealth ability, he stalked forward, leaping from one branch to another until he was directly above the hydra.

Then, as he had before, he pounced and bit. This time, he targeted the base of the neck, ripping through it with his powerful jaws. At the same time, he latched on with his front claws, digging in as he raked his back claws across its scaled hide. He ripped it to shreds, but more importantly, he administered a multitude of instances of Contagion.

Without his Quartz Mind, he wouldn’t have been capable of multi-tasking like that, but with it combined with his high Dexterity, he had no issues controlling each of his limbs independently.

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His opportunity was limited, though. So, as he felt the hydra recover, he bounded away, and another head flopped free. He knew it wasn’t going to be enough. Already, there were two other heads growing from the stump of the other neck he’d severed earlier in the battle.

But he could only hope to overwhelm the monster’s Regeneration.

As he reached another limb, Elijah considered another solution. It was a long shot, but as he raced across the limbs, he wondered if it was precisely the strategy they needed to win the fight. So, after shifting back to his human form and once again using Swarm and Calamity – which drained his ethera to a shocking degree – Elijah shouted down to Konstantinos, “I need fire!”

“Fire?”

“Burn the stumps!”

Konstantinos yelled back, “I don’t –”

“I can do it!” Bryce interrupted, a fireball already blooming at her fingertips. Before anyone could stop her, she aimed that ball of fire at the hydra and tossed it.

Of course, it went wide. Elijah could empathize. After all, he’d been forced to spend countless hours practicing with Storm’s Fury before he could even begin to rely on his aim. Yet, as understandable as her poor technique was, it had the unfortunate consequence of summoning the ire of the hydra.

It raced forward, one full-sized head and two that were only half the normal size. Though that meant they were still as big as a normal anaconda. On top of that, Elijah could see a couple of much smaller snakes already wriggling free of the other stump. Instead of his various afflictions taxing the monster’s Regeneration to failure, it seemed that its power of healing had only increased.

But more distressingly, the hydra’s sudden charge had taken Bessy by surprise. She dashed to the side, her meaty tail propelling her away with frightening speed. So, she wasn’t in any danger of being caught. Yet, that sudden movement had sent the unbalanced Bryce tumbling face-first into the water.

With its other target having already dashed out of range, the hydra was quick to reorient on the fallen Bryce. Even as Konstantinos shouted and tried to redirect Bessy, the hydra bore down on the teenage girl.

Elijah made a decision.

He knew he didn’t have much chance. Each time he’d tried to fight the monster in his lamellar ape form, he’d gotten the worst of the exchange. Sure, he’d escaped a couple of times, but he’d gotten to the point where if he took too many more hits from those venomous fangs, he would run dry of ethera.

Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from leaping to the girl’s rescue.

Shifting into his guardian form mid-air, he leaped upon the hydra’s back. It reacted the same way it always did, by abandoning every other goal to wrap its necks around Elijah’s body. It squeezed and bit. He returned that with a couple of bites of his own. However, with the combination of the monster’s enormous regeneration and the fact that he didn’t possess any venom of his own – not in the lamellar ape form, at least – Elijah definitely got the worse of the exchange.

The monster repeatedly struck, subjecting him to increasingly more venom. At the same time, it squeezed. Vaguely, Elijah was aware that the others were trying to help, but his every thought was focused on doing as much damage as he possibly could. Somewhere in the back of his mind – beneath all the pain of having his bones crushed and the burning venom coursing through him – he thought that if he did enough damage, it might give Konstantinos and Bryce a chance to survive.

Yet, if he’d have looked at it objectively, he’d have recognized just how useless it was.

However, he had one more card to play.

One more ability to use.

Guardian’s Renewal beckoned. With a flick of his mind, Elijah could completely recover. But to what end? Even if he returned to complete health, he was still trapped. It would only prolong his life for a few more minutes.

Fortunately, he was not alone.

Bessy returned to the fight, Konstantinos roaring from her back as the alligator leaped free of the swampy water and snapped her jaws shut on the hydra’s lone remaining full-sized head. With the famous biting power of her species, she ripped through the thick muscles and severed its spine.

And just like that, Elijah was falling into the water. He still had the neck wrapped around him, but its muscles had lost all tension, so he had little trouble tearing free. Once he did, he was forced to use Guardian’s Renewal to combat the venom melting through him.

He threw himself free of the water, wrapped his claws around the half-grown heads, and used every point of Strength he could muster to wrench them free of the stump. They resisted for a brief moment, but after only a second, muscles tore and bones of the monster's vertebrae broke.

“Burn it now!” he screamed.

Bryce was close enough that her poor aim was inconsequential, and after she summoned her fireball, she tossed it at the monster’s stumpy neck. Then, she did it again. And again after that.

Flesh seared, sealing the monster’s healing. But Elijah knew it was a long way from dead. So, leading the way with his claws, he leaped upon the monster’s back and started digging into the wounds he’d already inflicted. At first, it seemed ineffective, but after only a few moments, he began to make progress. A little while longer, and he’d managed to reach its organs.

Then, Elijah switched to his draconid form, using the last of his ethera in the process. But it was necessary. Not only did the form come with the passive enhancement of Contagion, but in that shape, he could also repeatedly use Venom Strike so long as he had plenty of stamina.

And considering that Guardian’s Renewal had returned his body to perfect condition, he had plenty of stamina to spare. So, without having to worry about retribution, he went to work, using Venom Strike with every single swipe of his claws. He quickly became fatigued, but the effects were noticeable as thick, black tendrils of rot spread through the hydra’s organs.

But the monsters Regeneration was ridiculously powerful, and it waged quite a battle with Elijah’s efforts. Still, after a few more minutes, it finally started to lose ground until, at last, the hydra perished.

By that point, Elijah was running on empty. His ethera was gone. His stamina was depleted. And he’d used every cooldown he had.

Yet, the monster was dead.

And he’d received quite the reward for it as well.

He looked at the last notification in a long list:

Congratulations! You have reached sixty-one. Attribute points allocated according to your class.

It was an incredible boost, and more levels than he’d gotten at one time since he’d been forced to mercy kill the panther. More importantly, he’d passed level sixty, gaining a new ability.

And it was a powerful one, too.

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