Path of Dragons

Wearing Guise of the Unseen like a cloak, Elijah crept forward, his body low to the ground as he stalked the stag. It was an enormous deer, at least the size of a full-grown moose, which meant that it was a perfect target for his plan. However, the creature was powerful – he’d known that from the moment he set eyes on it – so he needed to take care in his approach. One wrong move, and he would end up with a set of sharp antlers in his chest.

It had already happened once during an earlier hunt, and he didn’t want to repeat that experience. He would survive, at least long enough to heal himself, but that would cost him hours of hunting. And considering the overall goal, that just wasn’t an acceptable price to pay. So, over the past two days, he had learned caution, and in a way he’d rarely employed during his previous exploits.

In those instances, he’d always known that, even if he did make a mistake and was injured, he could always heal himself. And while that was still true, the time factor meant that any delay could prove a failure that could, in turn, doom the entirety of Ironshore. Elijah couldn’t stomach that, so he’d pushed himself to heights of stealthy hunting he’d not thought possible.

But it was too slow.

Soon, he knew the time to institute his plan would pass, and they would have to implement the next phase. Still, the more animals he and the other hunters killed, the less food there would be for the orcs. It didn’t really fall in line with his protector of nature image, but he’d pushed that sort of thing aside in favor of survival. So, the goal was to cut down the animal population to the extent that the orcs would no longer have enough to sustain themselves. Sure, it wouldn’t kill them. Elijah was certain of that. But it would weaken them, at least to some degree, and he hoped that would prove the difference in the inevitable battle to come.

With that in mind, he silently slipped through the underbrush. Cloaked in Guise of the Unseen, he should have been undetectable for the stag. Yet, when he came within a few feet, the thing skittishly pranced away. However, by that point, Elijah was already close enough to pounce.

He leaped high into the air, landing on the beast’s broad back. Digging his claws into its hide for balance, he struck like a crocodile, latching his powerful jaws on the stag’s neck. He squeezed, ripping through the animal’s flesh and feeling its bones crack beneath his mighty bite. It went limp, having never gotten the chance to resist, and it fell to the ground in a heap. Elijah sprang away, shifting back into his human form before his feet hit the ground.

It was at that moment that the orc struck.

Elijah had no idea the monster was even there, which meant that it had been using the stealth ability some of their hunters and scouts possessed. Still, it never should have happened. He’d been too focused on the task at hand.

Whatever the case, Elijah never had the opportunity to dodge the creature’s thrusting spear. Its flint tip bit deep into his side before ripping a gaping wound in his flesh. He staggered away, but the orc followed close on his heels. Elijah whipped around, spraying the ground with blood as he smashed his staff against the pursuing orc’s tusked face.

Under the weight of the blow, the monster stumbled, and Elijah followed that attack up by sweeping his staff toward the orc’s ankles. It tripped, tumbling to the ground. Before it had the chance to react, Elijah cast Snaring Roots, and thick, thorny vines snaked up from the ground to wrap around the monster’s flailing extremities.

With a couple of moments to spare, he cast Healing Rain before shifting into his lamellar ape form. The second the spell completed, and he transformed, his arms lengthening and scales sprouting across his increasingly muscular body. Finally, he loped forward, raising his clenched fists high into the sky before bringing them down with thunderous force. That brought a whimper of pain from the monster, but it was far from defeated. So, Elijah continued pummeling the creature until he felt bones break beneath his momentous blows. Finally, the thing went quiet and ceased drawing breath.

Elijah didn’t stop there, though. Instead, he reached down, grabbed the orc’s head in his giant claws, and twisted. Its neck broke, but in his fury, Elijah didn’t care. Instead, he wrenched it back and forth until the thick muscles in its neck tore. Once that happened, it only took a couple more twists before the thing’s entire head ripped free.

He wanted to roar triumphantly, but even with the bestial fury raging through him, Elijah knew better than to invite further orcish attention. So, he settled for tossing the head aside and beating his chest in victory. However, he only indulged his inner beast for a few moments before the urgency of the situation caught up to him. Usually, where there was one orc, there would be more soon to follow.

So, he shifted back to his human form and examined his injury. Because the flint blade of the orc’s spear hadn’t been particularly sharp, the wound was jagged and anything but surgical. Still, it hadn’t hit anything vital – aside from nicking his intestine, which had already mended from Healing Rain – so he only took the time to pulse Touch of Nature a couple of times before turning his attention to the stag he’d killed.

He unslung the pack on his back, then opened it. The satchel was a special loan from the hunters, and it was one of the reasons they’d been able to implement his plan so flawlessly. Like his normal pack, it was much larger than it appeared from the outside, and it could accommodate the meat from four deer the size of the one he’d just killed. It would also keep that meat fresh. However, it could only be used for that very specific purpose. If he were to put anything but fresh meat inside, it would quickly break down. So, it was incredibly useful for a very specific purpose, but absolutely useless for anything that exceeded that function.

In any case, the pack was nearly full, which meant that as soon as he processed his kill, Elijah would need to return to the forward camp and exchange it for an empty one. After that, he would return to the forest and continue his hunting efforts while someone else took the meat back to Ironshore. It had been going on for a few days by that point, so they had the process down to a science.

But before he could do that, Elijah needed to skin the animal and process the carcass. So, he set to it, using one of the knives he’d taken from the mercenaries who’d invaded his island what felt like a lifetime ago. Once, it might’ve taken him hours to accomplish the task, yet with so much practice and the indefatigable endurance of a man who was well past human limits, he accomplished the task in about thirty minutes.

After that, he gathered the pack, which was incredibly heavy because of how much meat he’d packed away, shouldered the hide, and took off across the forest. Even in his human form, he was more than capable of moving quickly and quietly, and besides, he’d been spending quite a lot of time in his bestial forms. Doing that was dangerous, as he’d found in the jungles outside of the Primordial Maze.

About an hour later, he finally arrived at the forward camp, where he was confronted with a blue-haired gnome who was part of Kurik’s squad. “Rasana,” he acknowledged with a nod.

She grinned. “What do you have for me this time?” she asked, pushing her spectacles up her nose. They weren’t for correcting her vision. Instead, they helped her see tracks more easily.

He shook his head, then said, “Just meat. Two deer, a hog, and a couple of giant turkeys.”

The two turkeys were closer to dinosaurs than any bird he’d ever seen, and it had taken quite a bit of effort to take the pair of seven-foot-tall birds down. Still, they’d had quite a lot of meat on them, which he supposed would be helpful for the town. More importantly, killing the beasts would deny the orcs any sustenance.

“The pickin’s are gettin’ pretty slim out there,” came Kurik’s voice. Elijah turned to see the lead scout approaching from the right. He carried a large satchel as well, though he clearly struggled beneath its immense weight. That was the other detriment of the hunting sacks, as they were called. They could hold plenty, but they did nothing to alleviate the weight of whatever was put inside. As such, most of the hunters and scouts couldn’t get the most out of them like Elijah could. “Think we might need to start pullin’ back.”

Elijah sighed. He’d seen much the same thing, but he knew they’d missed quite a lot of animals. There just wasn’t enough time to truly hunt every denizen of the forest. Yet, they’d gotten the easy prey, which meant that the orcs would have to work that much harder to meet their consumptive needs. That was a small solace in an otherwise desperate situation.

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As he and Kurik stepped into the camp, Elijah asked, “Phase two?”

“Probably the best chance we’ll get. The others are still workin’ on clearing the animals from here to Ironshore. We’ll work backwards from here, and by the time we get to the city, we’ll be as ready as we’re gonna get,” Kurik answered.

“How should I contribute?” Elijah asked.

The plan was simple. Over the next few days, Kurik’s scouts would riddle the forest with traps. Some, like the dwarven leader himself, had abilities related to those traps. As a result, some of the orcs would die. Others would be injured. But no matter what, the traps would slow them down.

Kurik shook his head, saying, “Can you hit them with that big spell again?”

“No. Those shaman in there are too dangerous,” he answered. “If I use Calamity or Swarm when they’re paying attention, I’ll have the whole horde after me in…wait…”

“What?”

“I just had another idea.”

“Well, we ain’t got all day,” Kurik responded. “Spit it out.”

“Alright, so what if I do that and lead them back the other way,” Elijah said. “That could give you some extra time to lay traps. And the more we can delay them, the better prepared Ironshore will be, right?”

“Think you can do that without gettin’ caught?”

Elijah shrugged. “I think so. Probably. I can move pretty quickly when I want to.”

“Then do it,” Kurik advised. “The more time we have, the better.”

Elijah nodded, then said, “I need a few minutes of rest, though. Any food here?”

“Not much. We’ve been sendin’ everything back home. ‘sides, we can’t really have a fire out here. But here,” he said, leading Elijah to a barrel. Inside were a bunch of wild edibles, including mushrooms and berries. “Should be enough to keep you goin’.”

Elijah grabbed a handful, then sat on one of the nearby fallen logs. Kurik joined him as he ate. “This takes me back,” he sighed. “Living in the woods, eating mushrooms. It’s like I’m stuck right after the world changed.”

“Surprised you survived all by your lonesome,” Kurik remarked. Elijah had shared a little of his story with the dwarf, but he hadn’t told him everything. “Most people wouldn’t’ve.”

“I wasn’t alone. Not at first,” Elijah said, referring to the panther. “Not completely, at least.”

“I reckon it’s always hard on the natives when the World Tree touches a new planet. Least there’s not a lot of reason for the truly powerful to stick their noses into the situation,” Kurik said. “Most of us are runnin’ from somethin’. Lookin’ for a new life, you know? If any of us had any choice, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Not sure how to take that,” Elijah admitted.

“Don’t take it no way. New worlds, they’re hard. Dangerous. And most of us won’t get the chance to see our families or friends again for years. Decades, if ever. Teleporting off-world is expensive.”

“How expensive?”

“Platinums. Plural.”

“Oh,” Elijah said. So far, he’d only amassed seventeen gold ethereum, and from what he remembered, it would take a million of those to equal a single platinum ethereum coin. There were guides in the Branch’s Knowledge Base that cost as much, but the vast majority were far cheaper. That had led him to believe that he was fairly well off. Now, he knew that wasn’t the case.

“Even teleportation within the world’s network is prohibitively expensive. Hundreds of gold for the closest locations, and a lot more for ones further away,” Kurik explained. “Not that it matters. The world’s too new to have any connections right now. But it’ll come. Just wait. In a couple of decades, it won’t even be uncommon.”

“Right,” Elijah said. He’d seen the teleportation option at the various Branches he’d visited, but they’d all been greyed out, so he hadn’t thought much more about it.

After a few more minutes, during which the pair went silent as they ate their meager meal, Elijah pushed himself to his feet and said, “I guess I need to get going if I’m going to get this thing done.”

With that, he headed out, shifting into the draconid form as soon as he was out of sight. Without using Guise of the Unseen – or worrying about being detected – Elijah could move incredibly quickly across even the most difficult terrain, so it only took him a few hours to reach the orcish horde.

When he arrived, he took a few minutes to observe the enemy. They were on the move, though their progress less resembled an army on the march than a mass of individuals that happened to be going in the same direction. To Elijah, it reminded him of the crowds that came at the end of a football game when a hundred thousand people all tried to leave the stadium at once.

There was nothing organized about it, though Elijah did give them a wide berth. At the same time, he used Guise of the Unseen, just to ensure that he remained undetected as he circled around to the backside. Once he reached that position, he knelt behind the thick brush, leveled his staff at the tail end of the horde, and used Swarm. Before the mass of insects even manifested, he was casting Calamity.

And the moment the spell left his staff, he shifted back into his draconid form and took off into the forest. A moment later, a blob of red energy splashed down on the spot he’d just vacated. Even from more than twenty feet away, Elijah could feel the sizzling power of the spell, which only reaffirmed his caution. If he hadn’t already expected it, that manifestation of ethera would have hit him.

And he didn’t want to know what it did.

As he raced through the forest, the tromp of hundreds of orcish feet followed. Elijah stayed ahead of them, but he was careful to let himself be seen more than once. And when he thought the pursuers were far enough away from the main horde, he turned and cast Swarm again.

This time, the red ball came even more quickly, which meant that he couldn’t follow it up with Calamity. But that was fine. He wasn’t trying to kill anything. Instead, he only wanted to further separate the group and, eventually, slow down the entire horde.

So, he kept going for miles more, narrowly staying ahead of his pursuers. Yet, after more than an hour, Elijah saw an opportunity when, at last, his conjured insects made it past whatever defenses the shaman had erected. He only realized it when he got an influx of experience that signaled a few deaths. More followed soon after, suggesting that, at last, he’d run the shaman out of ethera.

That meant the creature was vulnerable.

And Elijah aimed to take advantage of that. So, he raced ahead, quickly outpacing the sub-horde, and the moment he felt Essence of the Wolf kick in, he used Guise of the Unseen. Once he’d rendered himself undetectable, Elijah doubled back, and when he saw the shapes of the group of orcs who’d chased him around the forest, a reptilian grin spread across his draconid face.

The orcs who were still standing were clearly on their last leg. Most could barely manage a stumble, no doubt because of Swarm’s afflictions, and Elijah suspected that, left alone, they would soon succumb. However, the shaman – identifiable by a large, feathery cloak and a skull-topped staff – was busy trying to prevent that. Elijah had no idea what spells he was casting, but he could feel the swirl of ethera and see the effects. Each time the shaman cast a spell, one of the orcs straightened to its full height, reenergized and healed.

Elijah couldn’t let that stand.

There were nearly twenty of them left, which was a testament to Elijah’s efforts so far. But he didn’t care about killing a few dozen regular orcs. He wanted to take out the shaman. So, the way was clear. He needed to continue to drain the creature’s ethera by forcing it to continuously heal.

With that in mind, Elijah found another bush, where he crouched and leveled his staff before casting Calamity. Clouds gathered, and thunder rolled while the wind whipped into a frenzy. In seconds, it had reached the height of its fury, sending violent bolts of lightning crashing down and blades of wind slicing through the group of orcs. Meanwhile, the earth rumbled and shook, splitting open and throwing them off balance. The shaman tried to counter by erecting a shield that looked like a giant, red bubble, but it popped after only a second.

And Elijah recognized the sag of the creature’s shoulders for what it meant. It was spent, and its charges paid the price. The Calamity tore through the already-damaged orcs, killing quite a few and injuring even more.

That’s when Elijah struck from afar, aiming his staff at the shaman and letting loose with Storm’s Fury. In all the commotion, none of the monsters even noticed the extra bolt of lightning that slammed into the shaman’s chest, sending it flying backwards into a tree. Elijah heard the impact even from almost a hundred feet away.

He cast Swarm, then conjured Healing Rain, positioning it above the orcs. Then, he shifted into the lamellar ape form before rushing forward. He fell upon the monsters with all the furious Strength he could muster, slicing through flesh and breaking bones with wild abandon.

It felt good to finally let loose.

And with Shape of the Guardian active, he could truly appreciate the melee for what it represented. The orcs tried to resist, but after the deluge of damage he’d already brought to bear, they were weak and powerless to fight back. As a result, it ended in glorious slaughter, and when he finally reached the still stunned shaman, he fell upon the feather-cloaked monster without mercy.

It was more of an execution than a fight, and by the time Elijah had finished, he’d earned enough experience to push him to level fifty. Not only did that place him in the top five on Earth’s power rankings, but it also awarded him another ability:

“Nice,” Elijah said after he’d shifted back into his human form. But it was difficult to feel too excited about his accomplishment. Sure, he’d killed a good number of orcs, but it was barely anything next to the full weight of the horde.

Still, he’d proven the viability of the strategy, so, after taking a few minutes to settle himself – and finding that he now had room for another enhancement – he used Essence of the Lion and took off across the wilderness to repeat his actions.

He couldn’t kill them all at once, but if he kept chipping away at them, he would accomplish both of his goals. One, it would inevitably slow the horde to a crawl. And two, he’d gain a few more levels while whittling away at the orcs’ numbers. Perhaps he could even deprive them of shamans altogether.

Only time would tell, so he bent his will toward the task at hand.

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