Path of Dragons

Book 6: Chapter 44: A Different Kind of Call

Elijah was bored.

And considering he was in the middle of a challenge in the Trial of Primacy, surrounded by potential enemies that wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter him, given half a chance, he should not have been. Yet, he’d grown accustomed to a certain level of danger, and when that simply wasn’t present, he found his mind straying to more interesting situations.

He stopped in his tracks, only a few feet from one of the alaken. By all rights, it should have been capable of detecting him, if only because of the swaying currents he sent out with every flick of his tail. Yet, it was entirely oblivious. If he’d ever needed confirmation that Guise of the Unseen used ethera to achieve the stealth it provided, that would have been sufficient. But did it affect the environment? Or the minds of those who fell under its effect?

Elijah expected it was the former, but with the things he’d seen concerning mind control – both with Barry the would-be demagogue back in Seattle and his recent brush with the war elf – he wouldn’t rule out the latter.

Regardless, he needed to focus on the task at hand. The aquatic humanoid had been tasked – alongside another of its ilk – with guarding the Royal quarters. According to Lamar’s explanation of the challenge, they’d both be found within. The battle between the former linebacker’s party and the pair of rulers had been long and involved, and most of them had barely escaped with their lives. After conquering the challenge, they’d been beset by wave after wave of guards – after all, such a battle couldn’t go unnoticed – and they’d been forced to carve a path through a veritable army. It had not ended well, which was why they’d all been so close to death.

Elijah hoped to do things a little more efficiently.

And given the ease with which he’d killed the guard captains, he expected success in that endeavor. So, without further ado, he embraced his suite of abilities, swished his tail to propel him forward, and struck the first guard. He trusted his venom to do its job, so he used the nearby wall to his advantage, kicking off the solid surface and throwing himself through the water. He hit the second guard before the creature could even respond to his appearance.

This time, though, he didn’t use Envenom. Nor did he have the advantage of Predator Strike. Instead, he only used his momentum and sharp fangs. The results were different than the last encounter, but no less deadly for the deviation. His teeth found purchase in the creature’s neck, sinking deep before Elijah flexed his powerful neck muscles, ripping them free.

A slight gurgling sound escaped the alaken’s throat, sending a stream of bubbles and blood to erupt into the water. It dropped its trident, which drifted toward the floor even as the creature clutched its ruined neck. Elijah dug his claws into the alaken’s body, then thrust forward with another bite. The creature’s alien eyes had only a moment to widen before Elijah’s jaws closed around his face. A second later, the alaken’s skull was crushed.

By that point, the other guard had already fallen, its flesh so ruined by Elijah’s potent venom that it was barely recognizable. Blood clouded the water, staining it red. But rather than be disgusted by it, Elijah could only feel pleased. It was easy to forget just how strong he really was, especially when he constantly challenged himself against such powerful opponents. The denizens that populated the first-clear challenges weren’t scaled – not exactly. In fact, Elijah suspected that they were close to, if not at, the peak of the mortal tier of progression.

Yet, he’d also noticed that, as the Trial went on, they grew stronger. The why behind it all was a mystery, and one he wasn’t certain he would ever solve. But one thing he was comfortable with confirming was that engaging challenges subsequent to that first clear was much, much easier.

Instead of feeling a sense of relief – as would be the case with most sane people – Elijah only found himself disappointed. And as he’d already noted, a little bored. Still, he was happy to see that he was stronger than ever, even if the relative power of the creatures within the previous challenges made it sometimes seem otherwise.

Regardless, he didn’t intend to dwell on it. Rather, he focused on his task, intending to defeat the challenge as quickly as possible so he could get the reward and move on to the next. Because if Lamar’s group had proven anything, it was that the other people in the Trial were there for a reason. They were all strong enough to defeat the challenges within, and if Elijah and his friends were going to get the most out of the whole ordeal, they had to beat the others to the punch. In short, there was no time to waste.

Even so, there was another thought in the back of his mind that he couldn’t bring himself to ignore. The challenge wasn’t difficult – at least not to him, and presumably, not to his group, either – but each kill gave a little more experience than the level of the difficulty suggested it should. Alone, those kills weren’t enough to move the needle, but there were a lot of alaken in the City of Toh. What’s more, they weren’t real creatures. Like denizens of towers, they were created by the system, and as such, Elijah felt no guilt at putting them down.

In short, it represented a perfect opportunity to grind out a few levels – provided they could solve the water-breathing problem. But time was the issue. As he’d already noted, the other Trial-takers had not remained idle, and Elijah and his group would need to weigh the benefits of a first clear against what they would gain from attaining a few extra levels. It was something to think about, but for now, Elijah needed to focus on the task at hand.

With that in mind, he shifted back to his human form – and immediately regretted it. He would never disdain his natural shape, but there was something to be said for scales – chiefly that blood and other viscera tended to wash right off. Hair didn’t have that characteristic. Neither did his armor. Or the clothes beneath. In short, he found himself in a cloud of diluted blood, and it was just as disgusting as that descriptor implied.

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But that was what showers and soap were for, and he intended on making copious use of both the moment he got back onshore.

For now, though, he reached into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel – which thankfully kept everything dry, even when he opened it – and retrieved the five keys. Then, he thrust them into place, all the while thinking it was a bit of a silly setup. Only when he started turning those keys did he see that they each unlocked different mechanisms. One was the physical door, but the others were tied to various enchantments. One, in particular, hissed with familiar electricity that Elijah thought would have been quite painful to endure. Whatever the case, the keys worked to deactivate each of those security features, and soon enough, the door opened.

And Elijah saw a dozen alaken hovering a foot above the floor in the room on the other side. Each one looked strong – a bit larger even than the guard captains he’d fought earlier – and, oddly enough, the first thought that went through Elijah’s mind was that, just maybe, he’d finally found an opportunity to test himself.

Without hesitation, he threw himself into the room, swimming forward with powerful kicks. The alaken, though, were natives to the ocean, and they were far more maneuverable. So, to mitigate that, Elijah embraced Swarm. Immediately, hundreds of tiny minnows manifested, each one with overly large jaws that put him in mind of piranha. Even as that cloud of tiny fish descended upon the stunned alaken, Elijah forced himself to a halt. Then, he used Lightning Domain.

Whips of electricity lashed out, covering the entire room as they cut into and through the creatures. Bubbling screams erupted from catfish-like mouths as the painful arcs of lightning burned them. But they didn’t immediately die.

Elijah suppressed a grin as he embraced the form of the lamellar ape. One of the biggest alaken endured the effects of Lightning Domain well enough to launch its trident in Elijah’s direction. It hit while he was in mid-transformation, sinking deep into his side. Thankfully, the three prongs hit his ribs, preventing any serious damage. And when Elijah’s transformation completed, he wasted no time before ripping it free and letting out a gurgling roar of his own.

He threw it back where it had come. However, he’d never really thrown a javelin before, and even if he had, the guardian shape wasn’t suited for such a meticulous movement. Instead, he simply whipped it out like a frisbee. It whirled, spinning like a saw before it hit one of the stunned alaken.

The creature collapsed, its ribcage broken. The trident bent in two from the sheer velocity, ruining the weapon.

Elijah didn’t care about any of that. The beast within him came to the fore, with the dragon pushing from behind. The human part of his spirit took a backseat. The coming battle didn’t need it.

He let out another gurgling roar, then used Thunderclap.

A web of thin lightning bolts erupted from his body, further damaging the gathered alaken, but despite how flashy that web of electricity looked, it was only the preamble to the real effect. Similar to what would happen when a grenade exploded underwater, the shockwave of Thunderclap was much more intense than it otherwise would have been. A few of the closest alaken were entirely pulverized, their bodies purpling before blood erupted from their every orifice. The ones that were further away weren’t as strongly affected, but they didn’t escape unscathed, either. Via One with Nature, Elijah could feel their bones shattering under the impact of the shockwave.

Only one survived mostly unharmed, but even the largest and most powerful among the group was stunned by the sudden onslaught of Lightning Domain, followed by Swarm, and ending with Thunderclap. So, it never even saw Elijah coming.

He hit the thing with all the force his nearly two-hundred-point Strength attribute could wield, and when he made contact, he felt the creature’s bones break under his driving shoulder. He could have stopped at that point, and the thing wouldn’t have fought back.

But the beast within wasn’t satisfied with merely disabling its opponent. It didn’t care that he’d just killed nearly a dozen alaken with his abilities. It wanted blood. It wanted to rend and tear, to rip its foe apart with its own two claws.

Elijah gave in to those impulses, grabbing the limp alaken by the arms and flexing. The creature was strong. Probably on par with a normal Trial-taker. But Elijah wasn’t normal. On paper, he was the most powerful man on Earth, and, at least as far as the beast was concerned, it was time he started to act the part.

The dragon agreed.

And in that moment, the human part of Elijah’s spirit reveled in that feeling of dominating his enemy.

The first thing to give were the creature’s joints, but the ligaments and muscles followed soon after. The alaken’s arms ripped free of its body in a cloud of blood. It regained its wits enough to scream, but the sound was muffled by the water and easily ignored. Elijah lashed out, clamping his jaws on the agonized creature’s head.

He flexed his jaws.

The alaken’s skull shattered, and viscera flooded Elijah’s mouth. For a moment, he reveled in the taste. After all, none of his forms were herbivores, and his instincts screamed at him to savor the flavor of meat and blood. But then, his human side regained control.

Elijah didn’t recoil. He’d eaten raw meat often enough – usually in his draconid, or subsequently, the blight dragon form – so he was no longer disgusted by it. It wasn’t as if he would run around eating raw flesh in his human form. Not unless it was absolutely necessary, at least. But he wasn’t entirely turned off by the notion, either.

Regardless, when Elijah pulled back and looked down at the alaken’s headless corpse, he had to admit that he was a little ashamed of losing control. The beast was always there, waiting to be unleashed. It was most prevalent in the guardian form, but it was present when he took on the Shape of Venom, too.

And Elijah knew he couldn’t allow it to become the dominant force in his mind. Once, he’d nearly succumbed to the Call – that ephemeral pull that would have seen him merge with nature in a way he still didn’t really understand. But just because he’d not felt anything like that again didn’t mean he’d escaped its grasp. The beast was just another facet of the same thing, and if he gave in, he would descend into a wild frame of mind that would completely overwhelm the other parts of him.

He shook his head, grabbing hold of the idea that despite his ability to take on other shapes, he was still a human being.

At that assertion, the dragon seemed smugly amused.

Regardless, Elijah had come to the challenge for a reason, and now that the guards were all dead, he needed to kill the King and Queen. So, without further ruminations on the nature of his very spirit, Elijah turned his attention to the door on the other side of the room. Upon entering the royal quarters, he’d stepped into an anteroom of sorts, and he knew that on the other side of that door waited the object of the challenge.

Elijah stepped forward, ready to get it over with as quickly as possible.

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