Path of Dragons

Elijah knocked a thrown spear aside with his Crook of the Serpent Healer, then dove beneath the surface. The water wouldn’t completely mitigate the momentum of the missiles, but it would slow them down enough that his high Constitution could protect him properly. Once he was ten feet underwater, he shifted into his lamellar ape form, then used his long arms to propel himself forward.

As he did, he cursed himself for his obvious oversight. He’d known the ulthraks were at war with the goblins. That was the whole point of the first level. So, he should have expected that they wouldn’t react positively to his party-mates. Yet, he’d overlooked that key factor, and now, he found himself mired in a completely avoidable battle. People were going to die because of his mistake.

Hopefully, it would be the ulthraks. He hated thinking of them like that, but the bottom line was that they weren’t entirely real. Even if he killed them in this instance of the tower, they wouldn’t really be dead. The same couldn’t be said for his companions. So, the moment the attack commenced, Elijah had chosen to fight without restriction.

Not that he had much choice. Judging by the number of spears hitting the water, the ulthraks certainly weren’t holding back, and he had no option but to match their ferocity with his own. With that at the forefront of his mind, Elijah cut through the cold water until he reached shore. Then, he sprang onto the rocky beach, a roar erupting from his throat.

The first ulthrak fell in seconds, its blubbery body practically ripped in two. Spears descended upon Elijah, but he’d used Iron Scales the moment he’d left the water. So, they bounced off of him with a metallic clink.

Even as Elijah garnered the most attention – after all, he was a big, vicious monster and an obviously deadly threat – his comrades swam to shore behind him. Using One with Nature, he kept track of each one, and as he did, Ssethik winked out of existence. Or that was how it seemed, but Elijah knew the truth. The goblin Rogue had engaged some form of stealth, which elicited a fair amount of envy in Elijah’s heart. He couldn’t use Guise of the Unseen unless he was out of combat, but clearly, Ssethik had no such restrictions.

Meanwhile, Kurik unlimbered his bow and started firing with deadly precision. Ethera swirled around Robolo and Nia as they prepared to cast their spells, but Elijah couldn’t spare them more than a little attention as he crashed into his next target, who he recognized as the ulthrak leader, Raji.

The huge walrus-man who’d been so helpful during Elijah’s first foray into the tower took the charge and responded with rabid fury, jabbing his spear at Elijah’s torso. And even with Iron Scales blunting the damage, the impact tore through Elijah’s chest, and when Raji yanked it free, it did so with a fountain of blood.

Elijah didn’t let it slow him down, though, and he crashed into the massive ulthrak, tackling him to the ground. A second later, he was raking his claws, which glinted with the metallic enhancement provided by his Claws of Gluttony, across Raji’s blubbery stomach. Fat and blood flew free, but as was the case with most aquatic mammals, it looked a lot more traumatic than it really was. The thick skin and blubber served to insulate those sorts of creatures, but they also functioned as a natural armor. After all, if a predator was forced to dig through half a foot of fat before getting to anything important, it would obviously protect those vitals from casual damage.

Even as Elijah tore through all that fat, Raji bellowed in rage, pummeling his opponent with massive fists. Elijah felt every blow, each of which was powerful enough to bruise bones. Still, he couldn’t spare that any attention because if he did, he’d inevitably succumb to the powerful warrior’s momentous blows.

Even as Elijah rolled on the ground, grappling, biting, and clawing at Raji, his companions fought on. In one corner of his mind, he kept track of everyone, and every now and then, he’d see Ssethik erupt out of stealth and bury a dagger in someone’s back. A second later, he’d disappear from Elijah’s senses. His foes rarely fell after a single attack, but a second was usually enough to take them down.

However, one time he was a little too slow at reactivating his stealth, and he took a massive backhand that sent him skipping across the ground where he crumpled in a heap. Hopefully, he wasn’t dead, but Elijah couldn’t afford to disengage and cast Healing Rain. If he did, Raji would inevitably finish him off.

Even as that thought skittered across Elijah’s mind, Robolo completed his spell. Three walrus-men froze in place. Then, their shoulders slumped as they stared at the ground, their eyes unseeing. It was almost as if they were asleep on their feet.

For his part, the moment Robolo completed the spell, he went pale. Elijah recognized the exhaustion that came with completely draining an ethereal core, and he was relieved to see the gnome backing away in an attempt to avoid any further combat.

Suddenly, a pair of enormous slabs of rock tore free from the shore, then slammed together, sending an explosive echo to bounce around the massive cavern. However, there was also a wet squelch riding along with the clacking sound of rock colliding with rock as one of the ulthrak warriors found himself between the slabs of stone. When they parted, wet strings of gore were all that was left.

Then, the two hunks of rock flew toward their next victim, clacking together with deadly force. However, now that the advantage of surprise had dissipated, the ulthrak warriors were able to avoid the worst of it. Still, a few were caught in the fury of Nia’s spell, which resulted in a plethora of broken bones as well as a few more deaths.

Finally, Kurik continued to pepper the ulthraks with arrows. Most did very little damage, but one out of every three or four arrows glistened with ethera, and it wasn’t long before Elijah recognized their effect when he saw the ulthraks stumbling around, obviously weakened by whatever skill Kurik had empowered.

Even so, there were far too many, and Elijah recognized the writing on the wall. If he didn’t do something soon, the battle would be lost, and their short-lived tower run would end. So, with a mighty heave, he shoved Raji away. Then, Elijah launched himself in the opposite direction, shifting into his human form at the same time. As the transformation completed, he hit the ground, rolling once before finding his feet.

With another facet of his mind, he’d already begun casting Healing Rain. Hopefully, that would save the fallen goblin Rogue, but if it wasn’t enough, Elijah couldn’t afford the time necessary to cross the battlefield so he could use Touch of Nature.

In the meantime, another separate facet of his Quartz Mind started casting Swarm, while still another dragged ethera from his core in preparation of using Calamity. The moment the plague of tiny insects manifested, Elijah shifted to shoving that ethera into his most devastating spell.

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And just as he completed the casting, Raji arrived, aiming to continue the fight they had already started. The giant ulthrak roared, and Elijah threw himself to the side. He was too slow, though, and the giant walrus-man clipped him. That sent his body cartwheeling across the battlefield.

Fortunately, Elijah managed to avoid hitting his head, so he completed the cast of Shape of the Predator, shifting into his draconid form. With the influx of Strength and Dexterity that came with the form, Elijah twisted his body to land on his feet. Then, he used Venom Strike before reversing course and pouncing on the still off-balance Raji. His claws bit deep as he raked them across the back of the ulthrak’s ankles, partially severing Raji’s tendons.

But it wasn’t enough, and Elijah was forced to bound away in order to avoid the responding backhand. Then, Elijah accelerated, using a similar tactic to what he’d utilized against the orc horde. His draconid shape wasn’t nearly as durable as his lamellar ape form, but it excelled in agility and coordination, which allowed Elijah to weave through the battling ulthraks, scratching and clawing them along the way. Each wound he inflicted carried with it Contagion, and that, along with Swarm’s afflictions, was enough to severely weaken – and even kill – most of the ulthraks.

And all the while, Calamity raged. Without the enhancement of his Staff of Natural Harmony, it was far less damaging than it had been before. That wasn’t to say that it did nothing. It was still a powerful spell that drew power from his unmatched Dragon Core, yet for the current fight, Elijah was more concerned with the chaos it caused. Sure, a few of the walrus people would perish in the resulting storm of lightning, wind, and earth. But it was hectic enough to provide him with all the cover he needed to inflict hundreds of instances of Contagion.

So, by the time the storm of Calamity faded, the ulthraks were collectively on their last leg. A few of the stronger members – including Raji – persisted, but even they had been affected.

Elijah regretted that it was necessary, but he couldn’t afford to restrain himself. The ulthraks were a powerful foe, and if he held back even a little, he and his comrades would die. He couldn’t allow that, so after infecting most of the walrus people with Contagion, he shifted back to his lamellar ape form.

Meanwhile, he was relieved to see that Ssethik had recovered and that none of his other companions had fallen. So, with that playing across his mind, Elijah fought on. He met little resistance as he tore through the weakened tribe of ulthraks, at least until he reached Raji. The weakened walrus man put up a respectable fight, but, in the end, he couldn’t stand up to Elijah’s onslaught.

Still, Raji didn’t fall until after a long and drawn-out slugfest that lasted until the last of the tribe had already succumbed. Broken and battered, the tribal leader resisted until the very end, when Elijah slammed his head against the rocky shore, shattering his skull and killing him.

And then, everything was quiet.

In that silence, regret bloomed anew in Elijah’s mind, but he shoved it away. Raji would return. So would all the rest. That was how the towers worked. Even so, it still felt wrong, killing the tribe that had once treated him with so much kindness. The only solace was that the children as well as the elderly had retreated into a series of caves on the other side of the large cavern. Even though he knew they weren’t real, Elijah wasn’t sure he could stomach killing children.

He looked back at his own companions, who’d picked up a few more injuries. Healing Rain had long since dissipated, so those wounds persisted. Rising to his feet, Elijah rolled his shoulders before shifting back to his human form. Then he cast Healing Rain and basked in the regenerative precipitation. His lamellar ape form was durable, but it wasn’t invulnerable. As such, he’d picked up quite a few wounds of his own. They healed at a remarkable rate – far more quickly than they should have – reminding Elijah of the effect of his new staff.

It seemed that the enhancement to healing spells was far more potent than he’d anticipated.

He approached the others and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about two of you being goblins. This level is all about a conflict between the ulthraks here and some goblins up above. I’ll try to do better next time.”

With that, he strode forward into the village. He and the others swept through the village, searching for any valuable loot, but there was nothing worthwhile to get them to use any of their limited storage space. So, it wasn’t long before they ascended to the tundra and set off across the snow-covered landscape.

Kurik tried to talk to Elijah, but he was too distracted by what had happened in the ulthrak village to be a decent conversational partner. So it happened that they arrived at the goblin village.

“Disgusting,” spat Ssethik, who’d remained visible throughout their trek across the tundra. “A mimicry of goblinhood.”

“It is offensive,” agreed Nia. She didn’t seem quite so fearful as she had been before the fight against the ulthraks, but she was still quite timid.

“Last time I was here, I just ambushed them,” Elijah said. The tower’s first task remained the same as it had the first time, so he’d barely even acknowledged it. Still, the first objective had been failed when they had killed the ulthraks instead of saving the village. The moment the last one had died, the task had updated to the current objective:

Task: Destroy the goblin village.

It was a simple enough task.

“Do you want to do the same thing? Or do you want a more direct assault?” Elijah asked.

The others were perfectly fine with letting Elijah and Ssethik repeat the previous tactics, so after he shifted into his draconid form, Elijah and the Rogue swept through the village, slaughtering the primitive goblins with ruthless efficiency. It went off without a hitch, and soon enough, they had completed the first task.

The group congregated at the bay, though Elijah was disappointed with the reward he received upon opening his small, silver chest:

Congratluations! You have completed Level One of Keledge Tower. Grade: E To progress further, find the portal to Level Two.

It was a terrible grade, but Elijah expected that it was the result of their failure to complete the first task. It wasn’t their fault – after all, the ulthraks had attacked first – but the tower didn’t seem to care about excuses.

Reward for completing Level One of Keledge Tower: Goblin Dagger

“Oh, come on. This thing is practically worthless,” Elijah said, looking down at the useless blade. It was clearly low quality, though he suspected it was at least Crude-Grade. Even so, he had plenty of daggers. One was in his pack, while the other was sheathed at his waist. It also sported a jagged and poorly-forged blade, making it seem even worse than it probably was.

But even more annoying was the fact that it confirmed Elijah’s suspicion that his companions – who’d each received an identical dagger – would be forced to use alternate means of underwater breathing if they wanted to survive the next level. After all, his own Ring of Aquatic Travel had been a reward from his first time through the level.

“Hope you all can breathe underwater,” Elijah remarked, glancing at the others.

They responded by pulling potions from their pockets.

Kurik said, “Fish-lung Potions. Nasty, and they only last twelve hours. We each brought ten.”

“So, we’re on the clock,” Elijah reasoned. “Alright. Drink up, then we’re going to the next level. Follow me. Don’t do anything I don’t do.”

Then, he waded into the bay before diving down to the entrance of the tower’s second level. Hopefully, it would go better than the first.

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