Path of Dragons

It almost felt routine.

Until it didn’t.

They were already on the fifth temple, and Elijah had just watched his companions dismantle the latest shadespinner. He’d contributed, of course, but only in his human form, which he thought needed some work. He relied so much on his bestial forms that he often neglected his natural shape. So, for that fight, he’d acted the part of a mage, peppering the giant spider with lightning bolts and tiny, affliction-delivering insects. He hadn’t bothered with Lightning Domain, largely because it wasn’t really necessary.

The creature died with a chittering whimper that sent a pang of regret through Elijah’s heart, but he steeled himself against the monster’s suffering. It was an obstacle, and he needed to remember to treat it as such.

But in the back of his mind, he knew that wasn’t all the creature had been. Monsters were like mistreated dogs or rabid beasts – products of their environments who only knew how to lash out.

Or were they?

Elijah didn’t know. But he desperately wished he could somehow cure the shadespinners of their ultra-aggressive nature. He also knew that they were what they were, though. He could feel that down to his very bones. Those creatures weren’t just out of place. They were irredeemable, and in ways he didn’t quite understand. He felt the difference between them, guardians, and beasts. Indeed, it was plain as day. Yet, there were enough similarities that Elijah couldn’t help but wonder what they might have been, had things turned out a little differently.

It was a moot point, though. Monsters were not capable of holding back. They were creatures of pure instinct, and their nature dictated that they attack first, without even the capability of asking why.

Still, the situation was regrettable.

Once the creature had died, they took a few minutes to inspect the temple. Like all the others, it was made entirely of bone – mostly skulls – and featured a large, stone brazier at the center. It had taken them close to half a day to figure out what they were supposed to do with the fire, but once they had, things had gone smoothly.

“You want to do the honors?” he asked Sadie.

“Dat can do it,” she said. “I want to remain on guard. This is the last one, and we don’t know what will happen when the lights merge.”

Dat grinned, then headed to one of the room’s corners. There, he uncovered a cleverly concealed lever, which he pulled. A grating sound echoed through the temple, and the ceiling began to move. Webs came loose as the surface retracted into the walls. Where it went, Elijah had no idea, and One with Nature was no help in discovering the answer to that question. It simply disappeared.

What was left behind was a series of mirrors that suddenly dangled from the ceiling.

“You’re up,” Ron said, nodding toward the ceiling.

Elijah suppressed a groan, but he shifted into his blight dragon form without hesitation. Then, he climbed the wall and skittered across the ceiling. As he did so, the others directed him to reposition the mirrors so that they caught the light at the proper angles, reflecting them across the temple. Soon enough, the air was alive with glimmering illumination, but it still took close to an hour before the job was done.

That state was announced when the flames suddenly exploded in height, and the light bounced around until, at last, it shot through a tiny window in the center of the ceiling. A moment later, it joined the other four beams, and when they joined just above the palace, the much larger shaft of light slammed into the huge structure.

“Do we think that did it?” Elijah asked, dropping from the ceiling. He shifted back to his human form. “Because –”

He was cut off by an explosion of epic proportions. The ground shook with the impact, and a shockwave threatened to tear the temple apart. At the same time, a wave of dense ethera swept through them, burning his channels and searing his core. He collapsed in agony, convulsing so violently that he briefly lost control of his own thoughts.

He came back to himself a second later, only to hear a cacophonous roar, followed by the loudest voice he’d ever experienced.

“Agony!” it screamed. “The light!”

It kept screaming, but Elijah’s eardrums burst after only a few moments. That came with the blessed relief of silence. He cast Soothe, then Healing Rain, followed by Nature’s Bloom, hoping to recover from whatever had burned its way through his channels. It was a mistake, which he discovered in no uncertain terms when his eardrums healed before promptly bursting once again.

It was a salve to his aching body, though.

More importantly, it gave Elijah a second to take stock of the situation, and it was definitely not good. The temple was gone. He had no idea when that had happened, but all that remained of the building was its foundation and a few scattered skulls. The brazier had gone out, and with it, the safety of the light it had provided.

Fortunately, the entire area had been stripped of shadows, exposing the slayers’ unnaturally thin and pale bodies. The explosion had obviously affected them as well, which meant that they had been just as stunned as Elijah and his companions. However, he could see that they’d already begun to recover, likely because of the shadows flooding back into the area.

Elijah knew he didn’t have much time to act. Robbed of their shadows, the creatures were vulnerable, so he needed to take advantage of that fact. So, without further ado, he cast Swarm, then Lightning Domain. Tiny, glowing wasps manifested before descending onto the dozens of shadow slayers, but the creatures ignored the danger they represented. ŕＡɴꝊᛒΕṨ

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Because they had other issues. Namely, the whips of lightning lashing out to stun and burn them.

Elijah didn’t dare rely solely on that, though. The spell was powerful, but it was not strong enough to finish the creatures off. Not by a long shot.

So, he initiated a shift in the Shape of the Guardian, and the second he took on the form of the lamellar ape, he threw himself into the fray. There were dozens of shadow slayers in the area, but without their shadows to protect them, they were incapable of standing up to the bestial fury he brought to bear.

The second he was among them, Elijah used Thunderclap, sending a peal of thunder and arcing lightning out to once again stun the creatures. Then, after using Savage Might, he fell upon them, ripping and tearing, bashing and throwing. He was a whirlwind of bestial power, and his efforts were rewarded with a wave of experience that announced his enemies’ demise.

But there were so many of them, and the shadows were soon to return.

Thankfully, the rest of the group had begun to recover. Elijah had used Nature’s Bloom on Ron in the hopes that the Healer could bring everyone back. That strategy’s success was made clear when Sadie charged into battle right next to Elijah. Her sword lashed out, hacking through the still-lethargic creatures and sending sprays of white blood with every stroke.

Dat added his own brand of damage, peppering the horde with steady crossbow fire. Meanwhile, Kurik threw out bundles of crystals that, when they made contact with the uncloaked shadow slayers, erupted into various elemental effects. Spears of ice, rings of fire, and bursts of blinding light assailed the monsters. None of those effects were extremely powerful, and they were all short-lived, but they served to thrust an aura of chaos onto the battle that played to the group’s advantage.

Elijah lost count of the number they managed to kill before the shadows returned, but he could only hope that it would prove to be enough. Because the second that wave of darkness swept over the area, the battle changed shape. Suddenly, the creatures grew faster. Stronger. More durable. Despite the ongoing onslaught, the remaining shadow slayers quickly recovered.

Claws raked across Elijah’s side, and even though he’d activated Iron Scales, they bit deep into his flesh, sending jolts of cold through his body. Behind him, he felt Sadie’s personal shield shatter, and a wave of dense ethera coursed through her. She used that brief burst of attributes to cut down another one of the shadow slayers, but another five quickly replaced it.

They were naught but swirling darkness, and though Elijah’s fury never waned, they stubbornly flitted aside from his every attack. He managed to hit a few more of them, but even with the sense granted by One with Nature, he struggled to keep track of their fleeting forms.

Frustration bubbled within him.

The beast railed against its own inadequacies. The dragon roared mightily as it tried to assert its dominance. And the human searched for a way to turn the tide of the battle.

In the end, it was the human side of Elijah’s spirit that settled upon a viable strategy.

He couldn’t track the creatures well enough. And even if he could, they were too fast. Too slippery. So, he needed to change the paradigm.

Without further hesitation, he shifted back into his human form and shouted, “Keep me alive!”

Before the transformation was completed, his body was ripped to shreds by the opportunistic shadow slayers. However, when he managed to reestablish his human side, he applied Shield of Brambles – which he often forgot – then once again embraced Lightning Domain. The cost of the spell was nearly doubled when used so quickly after the first incarnation. Yet, Elijah’s core was large enough to handle it.

He poured ethera into the spell, and the now-familiar lightning whips lashed out in a wide circle. The shadow slayers attempted to dodge, and in many cases, were successful in that endeavor. However, as Elijah continued to funnel ethera into the ability, those bolts of electricity multiplied.

Until that moment, Elijah had yet to push the spell to its limits – either in terms of duration or intensity – and he was surprised to see just how devastating it could be. Barely an inch of the area within fifteen yards of his stationary form was spared from the lightning whips.

And given the fury with which the shadow slayers had rushed them, that meant that quite a few of those creatures were subjected to the spell’s effects.

However, Elijah didn’t make it through unscathed. The creatures continued to rip into him. Even as Lightning Domain sent untold amounts of electricity to burn through their bodies, they maintained their assault. Chunks of flesh flew. His armor proved insufficient to stopping their sharp claws, and it was torn to shreds as well.

Yet, with every attack – large or small – the thorns of Shield Brambles answered the call. In most cases, it would never result in an overwhelming amount of damage. However, with the unfettered rage racing through the shadow slayers, they seemed entirely incapable of measuring their attacks. So, they fell upon Elijah without regard for their own safety.

That was a mistake.

Hundreds of thorns sprouted with every passing second, shoving their way through the shadow slayers. Meanwhile, Elijah’s wounds were mended by Ron’s ongoing efforts. The man was healing everyone all at once, but due to his recent strides forward – both in terms of levels and cultivation – he managed to keep everyone alive.

Indeed, even as the shadow slayers impaled themselves on Elijah’s thorns and were torn to pieces by his ongoing Lightning Domain, they began to lose ground. Elijah was forced to recast Lightning Domain, and once again, the cost was doubled. His ethera drained at a record pace, but he kept it up.

The third cast only got through half its duration before he ran entirely dry.

He collapsed as a wave of exhaustion raced through his limbs. Using the entirety of his store of ethera didn’t just prevent him from casting any other spells. Instead, it resulted in a level of fatigue that went far deeper than his muscles.

He was helpless.

But he also had allies to step in. Sadie stood over him, defending his fallen form as stoically as she’d ever fought for anything before. The others did their parts as well, and because of Elijah’s previous efforts, the shadow slayers had slowed considerably. The group was quick to take advantage, and they cut the creatures down until, at last, the surge of ceased.

Only then did Elijah realize that his hearing had returned. However, it seemed that the voice had faded as well. There were still rumbles in the distance, but the sound was no longer powerful enough to burst his eardrums.

Looking up, he asked, “Did we do it? Is it over?”

He knew it wasn’t. He had received no notification.

“I think we’ll have to go to the palace after all,” Sadie said.

That was what Elijah had feared. He collapsed backward and closed his eyes. “Just give me a minute to rest my eyes. Then we’ll go fight whatever eldritch monstrosity could make that kind of a sound.”

“What sound, bro?” Dat asked.

“The voice. It was screaming about the light burning,” Elijah said, suddenly more alert. He looked from one concerned face to another, asking, “Didn’t you hear it?”

Sadie shook her head. “All we heard was the earthquake,” she said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Uh…no. No, I’m not,” he said. “But what’s new, right? I’ll figure it out. First, though…give me a few minutes to rest.”

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