Path of Dragons

Elijah lay on the floor, his breath coming deep and slow, as he came to grips with the previous battle. In the beginning, he’d thought that his new abilities hadn’t been effective, but as the battle wore on, he’d come to realize that the Engineer was just that powerful. He didn’t know what the ka’alaki had done to himself – aside from the obvious – but whatever it was, it had made him insanely durable.

And the firepower he had at his disposal was absolutely incredible. Was that really possible at the peak of the Mortal Realm? If so, Elijah needed to get there sooner rather than later.

He glanced toward where Sadie lay unconscious. Ron was busy trying to yank the Engineer’s leg out of her thigh, but it had gone so deep into the floor that it wasn’t budging under the Healer’s efforts.

Sighing, Elijah pushed himself upright but Ron said, “Don’t. You’re in no condition to move.”

“I’m fine,” Elijah lied. His skin felt like it would burst into flames at any moment. That wasn’t terribly surprising, given what he’d been through. Even though he’d used Guardian’s Renewal to survive the wasp’s attack, he hadn’t made it through unscathed. Nor had he had enough time to completely heal via his other spells. He’d fought the Engineer before he’d had that chance. He didn’t think it was any coincidence that the ka’alaki had used fire as well.

“Seriously, bro,” said Dat. “You look like Deadpool right now.”

“Ouch,” Elijah muttered, bringing to mind the image of the famously scarred antihero. “Let’s hope I have better luck healing.”

He had good reason to believe that he would, though he was just as positive that he would still bear some degree of scarring. There was no way the system was going to let him escape completely unmarked.

In any case, as he approached Sadie’s prone form, he cast Healing Rain and Soothe, then added Nature’s Bloom. In addition, he already had three different heals – two that would work over time, and another that worked far more quickly – from Ron active. Hopefully, it would be enough to let him quickly set aside the consequences of his most recent battles.

He grabbed the leg, but even with his Strength, it wouldn’t budge. In the end, it required everyone in the group to yank it free, and it took a good portion of Sadie’s thigh with it. Looking concerned, Dat asked, “Is she going to be okay?”

“She’ll be fine in a few hours,” Ron promised, already working on Sadie. He’d begun cleaning the wound, and he’d taken a few bandages from his pack. Apparently, he’d had them treated by an Alchemist that was part of Atticus consortium, and as such, they would promote quicker healing.

Elijah checked everyone else for injuries, but aside from being a bit groggy from whatever the Engineer had done to knock them unconscious, they were all perfectly fine. Dat had a half-healed wound in his chest, but he wasn’t in any danger of succumbing to the wound. So, after he re-cast Healing Rain and Soothe on himself, Dat, and Sadie, he settled down to let his body recuperate. While he did, he went over the events of the battle.

Or directly preceding it, at least.

The moment he saw the situation, he’d made a snap decision to evolve Shape of the Predator. The Engineer’s power was palpable, so he knew he would need to use everything at his disposal. With that in mind, he had chosen Shape of Venom.

It wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing, either. Certainly, he’d thought it was the best choice for the situation, but the decision was based on previous experiences as well. The draconid form was strong, but when it came to powerful opponents – which was the only situation where his choice would matter – he’d found that a simple ambush was not sufficient to do what needed to be done. Often, he’d attacked from under the Guise of the Unseen and only wounded his most powerful enemies.

But his afflictions – both via Swarm, Contagion, and Venom Strike – had proven that they could wear down a strong foe. And in the battle against the Engineer, it had been even more effective than he’d expected. Largely, that was because of two abilities:

Insidious Malady

Physical attacks made while Shape of Venom is active will infect enemies with a debilitating disease.

Insidious Malady had replaced Contagion, and aside from being an upgrade in terms of damage, it also seemed to carry with it a weakening effect that had clearly slowed the Engineer down. That had allowed them to fight on something closer to even terms. However, the real star of the show – at least as far as Elijah was concerned – was called Envenom.

Envenom

Bite an enemy, injecting a potent toxin into their system. Strength of the toxin is based on relative Core cultivation. Duration is based on relative Ethera attribute. Current: 72 seconds. Only usable in conjunction with Shape of Venom.

From what Elijah could tell, the toxin associated with Envenom was strong enough that it was his single most damaging ability. It was especially effective when paired with Insidious Malady, Venom Strike, and Predator Strike. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought that the last actually enhanced Envenom. If so, that would mean that the Engineer was even more powerful than any of them had expected.

Another thing Elijah hadn’t expected was to have already satisfied the terms of the spell’s evolution. All it had required was three Feats of Strength and for him to have killed fifty non-trivial foes with only afflictions. Considering that he’d made such copious use of Swarm during his rampage through Easton, he’d likely satisfied those requirements ten times over.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He didn’t know what to feel about that, so he just pushed it out of mind.

As a distraction, he focused on Shape of Venom’s description:

Shape of Venom

Take on the shape of a venomous predator, vastly increasing your Dexterity and Strength. Spellcasting is suspended while Shape of Venom is active.

Upon his first transformation using the newly evolved spell, he had discerned that it wasn’t all good news. The new shape increased his Strength and Dexterity by fifty points apiece, which was twenty points more than the unevolved version. However, it did nothing for his Constitution – a tradeoff that, in retrospect, was one he’d make a thousand times over. At least until he took a mortal wound that would have been stopped by nine more points of Constitution.

But that told him that the point of Shape of Venom was to avoid being hit, and given the extra Strength and Dexterity, it would be easier than ever to do just that. More, it represented a choice he’d made the moment he’d eschewed the Shape of the Hunter evolution. He wanted to specialize his forms, and that was precisely what Shape of Venom gave him.

“Was that you?” came Sadie’s voice.

Elijah opened his eyes to see that her gaze had locked onto him. “What do you mean?”

“The small creature that attacked the Engineer,” she said. “The green-and-yellow one.”

“Oh, is that what color it is?” he asked. She started to ask again, and he interrupted her by saying, “It was.”

“I didn’t think you had any other transformations.”

“I don’t,” Elijah said. “That was an evolution.”

“Evolutions require you to complete a quest.”

He shrugged. “I already met the requirements,” Elijah said. “In fact, that was the case with my last two evolutions.”

She narrowed her eyes, but didn’t immediately respond. “Why are you red?”

Elijah glanced down at his arm, which was unblemished, though it looked like he had the worst sunburn imaginable. “Too long in the sun?” When she frowned, he added, “Oh, come on. It’s just a joke. I was nearly burned alive. Twice. You should’ve seen me a few minutes ago. I was –”

“It’s been three hours, bro,” said Dat, who’d just approached and handed Sadie a canteen. “But you look good compared to before. Bald…uh…suits you.”

Elijah shook his head and sighed. “You could’ve tried to make that a little more believable,” he muttered. “It was so much easier when I was by myself. I didn’t have to worry about my looks.”

After that, the others caught him up on what had happened, explaining that the entire facility had been riddled with traps. When they’d finally reached the main chamber, Dat had used the console to disable all of the robots in the area, but that act had gotten the attention of the Engineer. He’d quickly overpowered the group, and according to Sadie, he’d been on the verge of launching a series of experiments on them when Elijah had arrived and kicked off the battle.

“You’re a lot smaller in that form than the other one,” Dat said.

“Deadlier,” Kurik stated.

“You recognize it?” Elijah asked.

The dwarf nodded. “Yeah. Never seen one in person, but I read about ‘em when I was a young’un. Don’t know the proper name, but we all called ‘em blight dragons. They ain’t dragons – not really – but they are native to the jungles of the Empire of Scale. Stories say that a full-grown blight dragon can bring down an equal level Warrior with one bite. Some of ‘em are even said to blur the line ‘tween beast and person, and the most powerful of ‘em have venom for every situation.”

“That’s a lot of information for someone who’s never seen one, bro,” Dat stated.

Kurik shrugged, then shoved a piece of dried fruit into his mouth. As he chewed, he said, “There’s a myth about a powerful blight dragon. Three warriors were sent to kill it, one by one, and each one had different strengths and weaknesses. The blight dragon killed ‘em all in different ways.”

Elijah waited for the rest of the story, but when Kurik didn’t continue, he asked, “Is that it? It just killed them? What kind of story is that?”

“An effective one. It was meant to teach kids that some monsters ain’t meant to be killed. Sometimes, you just can’t win,” Kurik said. “Not alone, at least. Back home, when someone was bitin’ off more than they could chew, we’d call it ‘chasin’ the blight dragon’.”

“Oh.”

Perhaps his new form was even more powerful than he’d given it credit for. Or even if it wasn’t in its current state, the potential was there.

“That’s all you have to say ‘bout takin’ the form of a famously deadly monster?” Kurik asked.

Elijah shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think much about it,” he said. “Plus, I’m part dragon, so…”

Kurik’s eyes widened and he looked around like he expected another attack. When one didn’t come, he took on a low voice, leaned forward, and said, “Don’t ever say nothin’ like that again. They ain’t around, and they probably ain’t listenin’, but they don’t take too kindly to people makin’ claims like that.”

“Who? Dragons? The two I’ve met were super reasonable,” Elijah said. “Of course, one was a kid. I’m not sure how old, now that I think about it. How old does a dragon have to be not to still be considered a child? I don’t know, but Sara was definitely young. And a bit uppity. But she wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to be courteous, what with that gnome trying to consume her essence. But her mom was really nice. Gave me a spiffy new core for services rendered.”

“W-what…”

“He’s saying he has a Dragon Core,” Sadie said. “Which makes sense.”

“How does that make sense?!” shouted Kurik. “Dragons are practically myths! We know they’re out there, but they don’t mingle with the likes of us!”

“These do,” Elijah said.

“Why are you telling us this?” asked Sadie, ignoring Kurik’s nearly apoplectic state.

“What do you mean?” Elijah asked.

The woman pushed her hair out of her eyes and focused intently on him. It made him feel like a bug that was about to be dissected. “You just revealed something that, so far as I can tell, you’ve kept secret for quite some time. You had no reason to do this,” she stated. “And when someone does something without reason, I start to think that I have failed to see the whole picture. So, why did you tell us?”

“Call it a gesture of goodwill,” Elijah said. “I know you don’t particularly like me, and that’s fine. But I want you to trust me. We’ve fought together long enough that I think some of the barriers should start to come down. So, this is me taking the first step.”

“And you expect us to reveal all of our secrets?”

Elijah shrugged. “Not really,” he answered. “Not yet, at least. I hope you’ll be comfortable enough to open up a bit, but no pressure. I don’t expect anything in return.”

“I see.”

Elijah didn’t miss the glance she exchanged with Dat. Nor could he ignore the subtle shake of her head. Apparently, his gesture wasn’t going to be reciprocated.

“I have an angel core, bro,” Dat said.

“What?”

“Dat!”

“He’s right, Sadie,” Dat said. “We owe him honesty. How many times has he saved our lives?”

“But…fine.”

Then, she revealed that they both had been blessed with Angel Cores, which Elijah already knew. Clearly, neither Ron nor Kurik did, though. After Sadie had explained the circumstances that led the angel Gabriel to contact them, Elijah said, “So, we have two elder races represented on Earth. I wonder if there are others. We’re missing mechaniques and demons, I think.”

“Gabriel claimed that there are other elder races out there, too. Thirteen total, though he said that most are practically extinct,” Dat said. “So, maybe the chances that they’ll make an appearance aren’t high. Wait, where is Benedict?”

Elijah blinked in confusion, then looked around. Sure enough, the newest member of the group had disappeared. “Last time I remember seeing him is just before we started talking about cores,” he said.

“You scared ‘im off!” Kurik exclaimed. “Damn near did the same to me. Dragons and angels. It ain’t right.”

“Don’t be such a wimp. Nothing has changed,” Elijah said. “We’re still the same people you’ve been fighting with – and holding your own, by the way – for almost two months.”

“It still ain’t right.”

“Should we follow Benedict?” asked Sadie.

Elijah shook his head. “I don’t think so. He made his choice. We helped one another out for a while, so I don’t see any reason to hold a grudge. He just got a bit spooked,” he said. “Besides, it doesn’t really affect us, right? It’s not like he took the reward and ran.”

With that, everyone turned toward the silver chest hovering in the center of the room. It was unopened, and suddenly, Elijah wanted to change that. So, he picked himself up and crossed the room to crack it open.

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