Path of Dragons-Chapter 50Book 9: : Making the Dream Work

Elijah let out a scream of triumph as his fingers closed around the flying serpent. That quickly turned to a grunt of pain as lightning flowed through his body. He didn’t release the thing, though. Instead, he maintained his grip as he landed in the black sand. A second later, he was swinging the thing like a baseball bat. It twisted and squirmed as it attempted to fly away – again – but he was far too strong.

A second later, the thing’s head smashed into the onyx pillar with a wet splat. A swirl of wind caught the brain mist, scattering it across the pit as the winged snake finally fell limp.

But Elijah hit it again. And again after that. He didn’t stop until the creature’s entire head had been destroyed, leaving only a ragged stump behind. Only then did he drop it to the ground and take a deep breath as he beheld the rest of the pit.

Only one other flying serpent remained, and it was much, much smaller than the one he’d just killed. When he had seen the horde of flying monsters emerge from the arch, he’d taken it upon himself to kill the largest among them. And it was a good thing, too, because the simple act of laying his hands on the thing had pushed him to his limits.

Of course, he hadn’t used any of his bestial forms. Instead, he’d hidden his true prowess by remaining in his human shape. The giants knew about Shape of Thorn – after all, he’d used it in his first meeting with the lead fire giant – but he had no intention of giving them more information than was absolutely required.

His refusal to use his full suite of abilities had cost him long minutes of pursuit, and he’d paid the price when the beast had repeatedly bathed him in lightning breath. He’d endured, but it definitely wasn’t fun. Along the way, Elijah had gained a new appreciation for what he routinely put his enemies through.

The problem was that lightning wasn’t like most other magical effects. Sure, it did damage, and quite a lot of it. However, its true value lay in its ability to affect biology. A surge of electricity was all it took to send someone into a seizure, effectively stunning them. And while higher levels gave people some resistance to that particular effect, it was still constant enough that Elijah had come to rely on it.

Having it turned against him was definitely not his idea of a good time.

Even as he prepared to help Escobar, who was chasing the final serpent and periodically peppering it with fireball – Oscar came out of nowhere and slammed his hatchet into its side. The attack severed the thing’s wing, and it plummeted to the black sand, where the other dogs were quick to tear it to pieces.

The fight hadn’t lasted that long. Maybe a few minutes. But it had been far more annoying than truly difficult. Still, it did highlight the fact that, without his forms, Elijah couldn’t just steamroll everything. Certainly, if he’d switched into Shape of the Master, he could have killed the flying serpent much more quickly.

But it was a good reminder that he wasn’t as all powerful as he sometimes felt. He had to keep reminding himself that he was inside a Primal Realm, and that things would assuredly get far worse as they went along. It was practically a guarantee.

He let out a deep breath, then wiped the blood from his face as he unkinked his muscles. Meanwhile, Oscar and the pack joined him, with Freddy proudly presenting to him one of the slain snakes. The creature’s white scales – at least where they weren’t covered in blood – glinted in the light of the twin suns while Freddy’s tail shook his entire backside.

Elijah couldn’t help but smile as he bent down to scratch the dog’s ears. “Who’s a good boy?” he asked. “You’re a big, strong boy.”

“Freddy’s a girl,” Oscar said.

“What? No. That can’t be right.”

“Feel free to check.”

“But Freddy’s a boy’s name!” Elijah insisted.

Oscar shrugged. “That was her name at the shelter,” he stated. Then he looked at her and said, “Drop it.”

She let out a subtle whine, and Oscar fixed her with a stern gaze. She dropped the snake immediately, then turned away just enough that she couldn’t see him.

“You should let them have a little fun.”

“Escobar has enough fun for everyone,” Oscar insisted, gesturing upwards to where the little chihuahua was eagerly yapping and throwing tiny fireballs into the sky. “He’ll do that for hours.”

“I think it’s adorable,” Elijah said. Escobar clearly heard him, because he quickly dive-bombed into Elijah’s arms.

“Just give it a few weeks,” said an exhausted Oscar. “The last one is activating.”

Elijah followed the man’s gesture to the final arch, which shimmered with yellow energy. However, even after a few moments, nothing happened.

“What do you think’s going on?” Oscar asked.

“We had fire, ice – or water, I guess – and air,” Elijah answered. “That leaves earth.”

At that moment, Elijah felt something beneath him. The sense he gained with Soul of the Wild was still slightly muted even if his attributes and abilities had been released from whatever limiting effect came with Stillstone. But Soul of the Wild still extended more than a dozen yards underground.

So, he didn’t have much time between sensing the creature and when it burst through the black sand. He used it to tackle Jackson – who’d been the target – out of the way. He hit the dog hard enough to break the poor thing’s ribs, and he took the shoulder tackle with a strained whimper. But that was better than him getting obliterated by the rocky monstrosity that had just burst free of the earth.

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On the surface, it appeared to be a worm, but its segmented body was made entirely of rocks. Some of those rocks were the size of small boulders – at least three feet across – but they were connected by yellow energy binding a river of pebbles together. The only truly organic bit was its mouth, which reminded Elijah of the alien from Predator.

Four pronged and square, it gaped open to reveal a massive maw filled with a slurry of stomach acid, yellow earth ethera, and liquified rocks.

“Nope,” Elijah muttered, already casting his healing spells as he extricated himself from Jackson’s tangle of limbs. He took care of the dog first, but he also took the time to ensure that Blessing of the Grove cast a wide enough area of effect to heal any injuries Oscar and the rest of the pack might incur. “Not getting melted again.”

Elijah raced forward, already initiating a shift into the Shape of the Master. By the time he reached the rock-worm, the transformation had completed, infusing him with a sizable influx of attributes.

He leaped into the fight, hacking at the creature with his scythe. It passed between boulders, the blade kicking off smaller rocks and sending a spray of yellow energy across the black sand. It hit with an audible hiss, but the attack had no other effect on the fight. The thing struck like a snake, its jaws stretched wide as it tried to devour Sophie.

The worm struck a plane of ethera, its entire body scrunching like a rocky accordion before it rebounded. Elijah twisted in mid-air to avoid it, adding a charge to his Heart of Fire. He landed a second later, kicking up black sand as he shouted, “I’ll keep it busy! Hit it with everything you have!”

And they did.

Jackson rejoined the fight, and Elijah saw that his abilities tended more toward control than sheer defense. Sophie, meanwhile, focused on shields – both on herself as well as her allies. Ray and Maymay cast furiously, constantly moving so they couldn’t be targeted. At the same time, Freddy engaged in hit-and-run tactics, smashing into the earth-worm hard enough to shatter its boulders before breaking away and avoiding any counter attacks.

Finally, Digby bided his time. Elijah could feel the dog’s presence, though only because of how he disturbed the black sand. Otherwise, he was invisible, waiting to hit the thing from stealth.

Oscar hung back, empowering the dogs by using one Tactician ability after another. Elijah didn’t know the man’s class, but he’d clearly chosen something that required him to remain on the backlines so he could let the dogs take the lead.

Then there was Escobar, who’d planted himself atop the pillar at the center of the pit. He shook with effort as he channeled enormous amounts of ethera into whatever spell he meant to cast. According to Oscar, the chihuahua was, in a word, special. From what the man described, Escobar’s class was a bit of a glass cannon, and most of his more-dangerous spells required quite a lot of time to cast.

But when they hit, they hit hard.

Hopefully, it would be enough to deal with the earth-worm.

Elijah’s task was simple enough. Any time the creature tried to turn away, he attacked its mouth. By necessity, that meant he was frequently showered by the acidic juices in its mouth, but if he was honest with himself, he was the best person for the job. Fortunately, getting splattered by what amounted to spit didn’t cause him to lose charges from Heart of Fire.

He steadily piled one instance of the resource after another until he was over fifty. That was when Oscar shouted, “Get clear!”

The dogs moved immediately, but Elijah remained in place. “I’ll cover them! Don’t hold back!”

Elijah didn’t have a death wish, but he had good reason to believe he could survive whatever Escobar could dish out. That was especially true when he was in the Shape of the Master, which came with some degree of fire resistance. That, combined with all of his other advantages and spells, gave him hope for his survivability.

Whatever the case, he didn’t have much time to consider it, because a massive swirl of fire-based ethera coalesced into a dense shape overhead. Elijah glanced up to see that it was strikingly similar to the earth-worm, though instead of being made of rock, it was entirely composed of blue flame.

The conjured creation of fire slammed into the earth-worm, instantly vaporizing the smaller rocks between the boulders. The bigger hunks of earth turned red from the heat as the two sinuous forms wrapped around one another. Hissing steam filled the air as the black sand turned to muddy glass.

But Elijah knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Already, the fire-worm had begun to peter out. A quick glance backward showed that Escobar had collapsed, his mouth hanging open with his tongue lolling onto onyx pillar. He was clearly spent.

Then, Elijah saw something even more distressing.

Yellow earth flowed up from the ground, wrapping around the earth-worm in thick ropes. The energy holding it together coalesced into massive conduits, telling Elijah that, despite Escobar’s efforts, the creature was far from finished.

With that in mind, he came up with a different plan.

The first step was simple enough, and he embraced Dragon’s Echo and Nature’s Flame. Then, he opened his mouth and released Incinerate. The first wave tore into the monster with enough fury to rival a volcano. The earth-worm wasn’t much higher level than any of the other creatures they’d fought, but it was perfectly suited to the environment. Whatever the case, his flames should have been enough to melt it.

They weren’t.

But then, the second wave hit it. Green flames washed over it, adding their potency to the mix. And it faltered. Pointedly, it did not die, though.

Elijah raced forward, already shifting into the Shape of the Sky. He heard a gasp from above as he spread his wings, then launched himself into the air. Though he had no interest in escape. Instead, he glided across the sand, snatched the molten earth-worm in his talons, then beat his wings.

His plan wasn’t complicated. In fact, he’d done something similar to the leviathan not that long ago. Back then, the whale-like monster had drawn power from the ice reef to fuel its regeneration. The earth-worm was similar, though its source of energy was the ground itself. So, Elijah figured that if it was sufficiently damaged, then cut off from that source, it would die.

So, he flew hundreds of feet into the air, beating his wings furiously as he dragged his enormously heavy burden aloft. The thing must have weighed a hundred tons.

But Elijah managed it well enough, leaning on his increased cultivation and attributes to power him through the air. He was forced to activate Savage Strength along the way, though.

The earth-worm struggled in his claws, but it had sustained significant damage that seriously compromised its ability to resist. And as he’d suspected, cut off from the earth, it had no way of healing.

Slowly, the yellow ethera binding it together lost its luster, then dissipated altogether. And finally, the thing fell apart, scattering rocks across the pit.

Elijah stayed aloft for a few more seconds before deciding it was finished. Only then did he land, immediately transforming into his human shape.

“I guess we won,” he said with a wide grin.

On the other side of the pit, a series of steps grew out of the wall, and the staircase was completed, the fire giant descended. But instead of anger or frustration, he looked awestruck.

Then, he dropped to his knees and buried his head in the sand. “We of the Cinderpeak Clan are not worthy of your presence, great cindrandir.”

“Uh…me?” Elijah asked, confused. “Thanks, I guess.” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

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