Path of Dragons

A flood of insectile machines skittered toward the pair of companions, sending an avalanche of detritus bouncing down the slopes of the mountain of trash. Elijah’s thoughts raced with various plans, though he discarded each as quickly as they came to mind. But one stood tall above all the others, and he latched onto it as the only hope of escape.

“Clench up!” he spat, already shifting out of his Draconid form. His posture changed, and his forelegs lengthened into arms that, in turn, became wings. At the same time, his back legs transformed into mighty talons, and as soon as the Shape of the Sky took complete hold, he used those claws to latch onto Sadie before launching himself into the air.

He made it all of twenty feet before something singed his wing, ripping a huge gash in the thin membrane. Another came an instant later, heralding the arrival of a barrage that tore his wings to shreds. The Shape of the Sky was magical in nature, but it still functioned according to the laws of physics. And with huge, gaping holes in his wings, he could not remain aloft.

He - and his cargo – plummeted toward the ground a moment later. Elijah managed to arrest his momentum a little before releasing Sadie, but he still hit the ground with a thud that, a few levels before, would have broken his hollow bones. As it was, he only twisted a few joints, which was a vast improvement over many of his less graceful landings.

Elijah rolled, already taking on a different form. Normally, he would have returned to his natural shape so he could heal his injuries, but he forewent that strategy, choosing instead to trust that Ron would do his job. Besides, a few holes might be enough to ruin his flight form, but those same injuries were little more than annoyances to a lamellar ape. His transformation into the hulking lizard-primate came with a mighty roar that was cut off only a second later when the wave of robots finally reached him.

A giant, metal cockroach reared on its hind legs, latching onto his shoulder with a pair of huge pincers that tore through his scales. Elijah grunted in pain, using Iron Scales as he grabbed the thing’s exoskeleton and ripped it free. A chunk of his flesh came with it as the thing’s legs went wild, stabbing into his torso like spears. The sound of metal on metal filled the air as Iron Scales prevented any major injuries, but Elijah felt his stamina dip noticeably with every fouled attack.

So, he spun in place before throwing the creature as far as he could manage. And given his high Strength, which was further enhanced by his various equipment, the form itself, and Essence of the Lion, that meant that the monster flew hundreds of feet before crashing into the side of the trash mountain. A moment later, it was buried beneath a huge, rusted cube of metal that crushed it flat.

Elijah had no time to celebrate, though, because there were hundreds more robotic insects bearing down on him. And what’s more, they weren’t all melee-focused, as quite a few were equipped with what looked like guns mounted on their backs. They fired hunks of molten metal that hit his body with a familiar sizzle that told him what had knocked him from the sky.

Thankfully, the combination of his high Constitution, durable hide, Iron Scales, and Ward of the Seasons kept them from doing too much damage. After all, the lamellar ape was far more enduring than the Shape of the Sky. Even so, the sheer weight of those attacks was enough to drive him backward, and their combined damage quickly began to add up.

Then, he felt a warm power flow through him. His wounds started to heal, and what’s more, a corona of white light enveloped his body. It shielded him from further attacks, allowing him to go all out in his reprisal. He ripped into the nearest robot – a millipede-like machine that spat fire – tearing its legs off and using its body as a flexible club. He battered another cockroach robot to the side, then tossed the millipede into a mass of other insects. The force of the projectile knocked them aside, giving him room to breathe.

More importantly, that brief moment of peace let Elijah take stock of his situation, and he was unsurprised to find that Kurik, Dat, and Ron had joined Sadie. They were backed against the demon’s body, using it to protect their backs. Meanwhile, Sadie guarded the other three as they each fought according to their role. Dat continued to fire his crossbow, while Kurik fought in a melee, darting in and hacking into the robots with his hatchet. At the same time, Ron waved his sparkly wand, bestowing his healing spells upon anyone who’d taken damage.

From experience, Elijah knew that one of Ron’s spells actually helped them recover stamina as well, which kept everyone fighting at peak condition.

For his part, Elijah’s enraged battle had taken him almost a hundred feet away from his companions. That was at the edge of Ron’s range. Any further, and he’d be on his own. Wanting to avoid that, Elijah used the brief respite to shift back into his draconid form and dash towards the rest of the party.

Of course, the mass of insectoid robots were unwilling to let him go, and they fell upon him with mechanical fury. However, using the high Dexterity of his predator shape, he was able to dodge the onslaught of attacks. Dashing and ducking, slithering to the side, then racing forward, he reached the party a couple of seconds later. Once there, he shifted back into his caster form and let loose with his own spells.

Healing Rain came first, but he followed it up with Swarm and Calamity. Only a moment later, he realized just how useless they both were. Swarm had conjured a mass of glittering metal flies, but they were incapable of delivering their afflictions. Belatedly, he recognized how much sense it made. Robots couldn’t be diseased, after all. Calamity was slightly more effective, though the creatures were heavy enough to withstand the winds without losing their footing. More importantly, it seemed that they were incapable of being distracted, rendering the spell’s usual purpose moot.

Elijah shifted his focus to his other spells, casting Nature’s Rebuke and, when it failed to do anything, Storm’s Fury. The latter was slightly more effective, especially when it arced from one metallic monster to the next, but its usefulness was still only marginal at best. At least it stunned them, though, if only for a second.

Either way, the message was clear. The robots were either resistant to his spells in particular or, more likely, nearly immune to spells in general. That led Elijah to once again shift back into his lamellar ape form and join Sadie on the front line. Once there, he leveraged his immense Strength and Constitution to wreak havoc on the monsters.

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Smashing robotic millipedes, kicking metallic cockroaches, and even snatching smaller but no less dangerous mechanical grasshoppers out of the air, he fought like a possessed beast. Along the way, Elijah took dozens of wounds. Particularly damaging were the blasts of superheated metal that slammed into him from afar, but he nearly lost a leg to a beetle-like robot with enormous pincers that cut through even his Iron Scales-protected limb with ease. The only thing that saved him was when Sadie slashed her greatsword through the appendages, and they lost their driving force. A moment later, one of Ron’s healing spells settled onto him, mending the damage over the next thirty seconds.

Elijah fought on, slamming his great fists into one enemy after another, but each time he slew one of the monsters, another took its place. And on the few occasions when he had a spare moment to look around, he was forced to realize that, despite their efforts, the tide of robotic death was no closer to ebbing. They’d destroyed hundreds, and yet, there were always more.

To Elijah, the meaning was clear.

“We can’t keep this up!” he shouted as one of the smaller robots dashed past Sadie and latched onto Dat. The Witch Hunter responded mechanically, ripping the tick-like robot – it even had a rubber bladder to house the blood it sucked – from his flesh. Blood splattered as he tossed it to the ground, then viciously stomped it before resuming his ranged attacks. Where he was getting all those crossbow bolts, Elijah had no idea, but he’d continued to fire throughout the battle.

The weak link was Kurik. No matter how skilled he was with those hatchets, his class just wasn’t suited to the task. As a result, the injuries he sustained due to that lack of suitability began to mount, requiring more attention from Ron. In turn, the burden wore on the Healer until he shouted, “I can’t keep going like this! There’s too much damage going around!”

Sadie responded by using Call of the Crusader, and the robotic monsters all turned their attention to her. Elijah used that to rip into them, and without fear of reprisal, he finally managed to make some progress.

It wasn’t enough, though.

With thousands of robotic monsters pouring down the slopes, it never would be, either. It was just when that realization arrived that everything changed. And not for the better.

Suddenly, a shadow fell upon the group. At first, Elijah thought that they’d been fighting so long that night had fallen. However, a brief glance at the sky showed him the error of that assumption. A giant wasp with glittering wings and a metallic body hovered over them. If its wingspan was less than a hundred feet, Elijah would have been surprised, and when it swooped low to attack, he was nearly knocked from his feet by the downforce of those enormous wings.

It stopped only a hundred feet above them, but any relief Elijah might’ve felt was quickly thrown aside when it pointed its stinger at the group. Ethera gathered at the tip, and Elijah shouted, “Defensives!”

A beam of pure fire, at least fifteen feet wide, descended upon their position. Elijah screamed as he felt his scales melting under the onslaught. He was on the verge of using Guardian’s Renewal when a similarly powerful wave of ethera erupted from Sadie. White light swept through the group, pushing the fire back. In addition, it threw the insectoid robots away, tossing them hundreds of feet back. And finally, a wave of healing – unlike anything Elijah had ever felt – raced through everyone. Instantly, Elijah’s wounds mended, and his core returned to full strength. His fatigue washed away, and he felt his attributes increase by dozens of points. In that moment, Elijah felt like he could fight a god.

But then, the light faded, and though the attribute increase remained, it quickly became clear that the situation hadn’t really changed. The robots took a moment to recover, and the giant mechanical wasp gathered itself for another shot that Elijah knew they couldn’t endure.

More troublingly, Sadie sagged to the ground, exhausted. She caught herself before she completely collapsed, but even as she picked herself back up, it was obvious that she couldn’t continue the fight.

“We need to retreat!” he yelled, whipping around to search for a way out. However, he was dismayed to see that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters standing between them and the jungle. There were markedly fewer in the direction of the trash mountains.

Dat saw the same thing Elijah had, and he pointed toward the narrow valley. “That way!” he shouted. It was the path of least resistance, so no one in the group argued with his direction.

For his part, Elijah picked Sadie up and led the way, bulling through any monsters that barred their path. Meanwhile, Sadie wasn’t down for the count, and she protected his back, slashing the creatures that tried to attack from the rear. Ron, Kurik, and Dat followed, fighting their own battles to the best of their abilities. Even Ron used a few offensive spells, which were simple balls of kinetic force that did little more than stun his attackers.

They charged ahead, beating back the waves of monsters as they forged deeper into the landfill. Their way was slowed by the uneven terrain, but fortunately, their attributes were high enough that they managed to stay just ahead of the pursuing insectoids. Over the next few minutes, they sprinted and leapt, dashed and dove, and all the while, they were forced to fend off their attackers.

Elijah was particularly hampered by the fact that he had to fight one-armed, but the only other option was to drop Sadie. She could still fight, but there was no way that, in her weakened state, she could ever hope to keep up with their rapid retreat. Thankfully, she made herself useful by using her own abilities and skills – particularly the one that shielded allies – to keep the others as safe as possible.

Along the way, it became clear that without the renewal they’d experienced, none of them would have survived. Ron’s store of ethera had been running dry, but now, he was able to use his full arsenal of spells to heal and protect the group. Meanwhile, everyone else’s fatigue had been cast aside, giving them the energy they needed to flee.

With every step they took, the monsters fell further behind, and the ones ahead grew more diffuse. Still, it wasn’t until almost an hour later that they managed to gain a moment of respite. They were just trying to figure out what to do when Elijah heard a voice from nearby.

“Over here! I know where to hide!” shouted a man. Elijah recognized him, too. How could he not? With his boy band-turned-vampire looks, the man was quite memorable. In any case, Elijah wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he and his companions quickly followed the beckoning man down a path and through a narrow crevice between two piles of trash. After a few minutes of twists and turns, they found themselves in a small vale. For the first time since leaving the jungle, Elijah saw vegetation. A twisted tree that looked like it was barely hanging onto life sprouted in the center of the vale, casting the area in an aura of peace and protection.

Instantly, Elijah knew that it would shield them from the insectoid robots, and he finally let himself relax. Setting Sadie down, he let himself return to his human form. It was only then that the enhanced attributes from Sadie’s ability faded, and he realized just how exhausted he was.

He collapsed, the last bit of energy fading before he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was a handsome man looking down on him. Hopefully, he didn’t have any nefarious purposes up his sleeve.

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