Path of Dragons 11 - Chapter 68 - Eternal Foes (Patreon)

They made the first move.

Elijah leaped high into the air, using Cloud Step to go high enough to avoid the deluge of attacks.  They blistered the air beneath him, tearing through the abyssal monster’s remains with wind blades and blobs of paralytic poison.  The second was new, and Elijah only recognized its nature through Soul of the Wild.

It didn’t matter.

Each attack missed him, and as he descended among them, he activated Child of Fire.  The influx of attributes soared through his body, pushing him to heights he’d never before touched.  He darted through the remnants of the swarm, his scythe severing limbs and cracking carapace.  He gave them no quarter.  He afforded them no mercy.  They were his enemy, and despite his previous revelation about them being more than just that, he couldn’t afford to show them any compassion. 

Because if he held back – even a little – they would destroy him without so much as a single regret.  After all, there were still demi-gods among them.  They were far from the cream of the crop, and each of them had expended most of their resources during the fight against the abyssal monster.  But their advancement still counted for something, and Elijah knew if he gave them even an inch, they would take from him a mile.

As he attacked, he refused to let his resolve waver.

He ducked under a sword, then blocked a spear thrust with the haft of his scythe before skittering under the vespiran’s huge abdomen.  As he did so, he punched upward, cracking its carapace and showering himself with viscera.  After the punch, he spun low, slicing though the wasp-man’s chitinous legs.  Two were severed completely, throwing the enemy off balance.

Elijah threw himself forward in a roll that brought him up to the most powerful vespiran among them.  As it turned out, this one was a Healer.  And being on the back lines, he hadn’t expected to find himself face-to-face with an angry cindrandir.  Elijah attacked without hesitation, burying his scythe’s blade in the wasp-man’s chest.  When he ripped it away, the blade came free in a shower of gore.

But Elijah didn’t let up.

He could feel the Healer’s ethera stirring.  So, he extended the boughs of his soul and subjected the vespiran to his Mantle of Authority.  He used it in its most basic form, halting the wasp-man’s spell before it could manifest.  As the enemy panicked, Elijah subjected him to three more rapid attacks. 

It wasn’t enough to put the vespiran down.  Elijah knew good and well how effective healing spells could be.  So, he kept up the pressure, even dodging another spear thrust that ended up impaling the Healer.  In the end, it took the entire duration of Child of Fire to put the vespiran down.

It was worth it, though.

Now that their Healer was gone, Elijah had an advantage.

However, now that both Child of Fire and Incinerate were on cooldown, he saw no reason to remain in the Shape of the Master.  So, he once again leaped into the air, this time using Cloud Step to gain as much altitude as possible.  Once he’d used two charges – and had reached a height of more than a thousand feet – he initiated a transformation into the Shape of Spores. 

As he plummeted back into battle, he used Bestial Charge to gain some speed.  So, when he hit, it was at a speed far exceeding terminal velocity.  Elijah was more than durable enough to take the hit, but the vespiran he targeted – a mere ascendent – was not.  He crushed the creature’s carapace, sending his innards arcing through the air to splatter onto his comrades. 

Elijah kicked off the slippery ground and tackled a demi-god vespiran.  He hit the creature with enough force that even the wasp-man’s lofty progression couldn’t keep him from tumbling to the ground in a scattering of splayed legs.  Elijah hammered the vespiran with fists, horns, and tail, shattering his enemy’s natural armor after only a few hits. 

He was unstoppable.

The wasp-men were exhausted and powerless.  Meanwhile, Elijah had kept his most recent evolution – and its powerful abilities – in reserve.  Now, he used them, activating one after the other.  First was Throne of Spores, sending a massive wave of fungal tendrils tearing through the local ground only to erupt at the feet of his enemies.  To their credit, the vespirans fought them off, but in doing so, were subjected to clouds of yellow spores that infected them with fungal rot. 

Elijah then used his oft-ignored Thornbound Legion.  A thousand tiny mites leaped free of his body, then bored into his enemies, inflicting them with weakening afflictions.  Their already-taxed bodies slowed even further. 

But Elijah wasn’t finished, either.

At the same time, he tossed out one instance of Nature’s Claim after another.  He barely paused to target.  Instead, he just used the ability on the first creature he sensed.  He didn’t even have to look up.  Rather, he relied only on the sense granted by Soul of the Wild to guide his casts. 

As he did so, he shoved more and more stamina and ethera into each cast, and vaguely, he sensed that there was more potential there.  He pushed harder, and the resulting spores became more plentiful, with the mushrooms growing faster.  Each sprouted fungi came with an explosion of gore. 

Of course, Elijah wasn’t entirely safe from reprisal, either.  Demi-gods hadn’t gained their lofty levels without knowing how to ignore pain and damage.  And these vespirans were no different.  Even weakened as they were, they were more than capable of doing vast amounts of damage.

Thankfully, Elijah was well-equipped to deal with just that, and not just via his passive Shell ability, which protected him from incoming attacks.

Or rather, the Shape of Spores was.  Not only was it blessed with incredibly potent regeneration, but when even that was overwhelmed, Elijah only had to activate Mycelial Regrowth. 

With more than ten times the regeneration, Elijah could almost instantly heal from whatever damage the vespirans could dish out. 

Vaguely, he was more than aware that the resulting scene was like something out of a horror movie.  Fungal tendrils were everywhere.  Blood and guts and other viscera coated everything.  Screams of pain filled the air as wasp-men were overwhelmed by Elijah’s efforts. 

And at the center of it all was a hulking, shelled creature that seemed impervious to harm.  Even when it took damage, it healed even more quickly than the abyssal monster. 

Still, despite Elijah’s overwhelming onslaught, he knew he wasn’t out of the woods.  Demi-gods didn’t go down easily, and when pushed, they could pack quite a punch.  He discovered that first-hand when something ripped his arm clean off.  Thankfully, he was under the effects of Mycelial Regrowth, so it would come back.

In fact, he could feel tendrils of flesh growing out of the bloody stump, weaving themselves together into something recognizable. 

He pushed that aside and finished the demi-god he’d taken to pummeling.  The wasp-man died with the characteristic sneer that seemed to be the species’ resting expression.

Then, he wheeled around and plunged ahead – only to have his other arm lopped off a second later.  One of the vespirans was moving too fast for him to track.  A small ripple of ethera was his only warning before something sliced into his leg and down to his bone, completely bypassing his Shell.

Elijah could feel Mycelial Regrowth ticking down. 

He needed to act, and quickly.  Otherwise, he’d be forced to retreat.  And he had no intention of leaving the vespiran army behind. 

So, he used two abilities.  The first was the flared version of Heart of the Tempest, which gave him a massive influx of attributes. More importantly, he felt the world slow as his mind and limbs accelerated like striking lightning.  Suddenly, he could see the speedster – a smaller vespiran armed with two shortswords. 

The wasp-man seemed stunned when his next attack missed.  He was even more shocked when Elijah’s Mantle of Authority extended, catching him in its branches and nullifying his abilities.  He tripped over a body and went crashing to the ground.

Elijah pounced.

Focusing entirely on speed was a viable build.  Why tank damage when you could avoid it entirely?  Elijah’s Shape of the Master was based on a similar philosophy.  The difference was that he was still durable enough to take a hit or two.  The speedster was not. 

Whether it was a lack of constitution, bad cultivation, or an incredibly lopsided class, Elijah had no idea.  What he did know was that when he punched the wasp-man, he was rewarded with the feel – and sound – of breaking bones.  And with Heart of the Tempest powering him, he didn’t need to stop at just one.  In the space of a couple of seconds, he pounded the vespiran into mush. 

Then, he turned to face the remaining wasp-men. 

A couple had turned to flee, only to be caught in the fungal tendrils of Throne of Spores.  Already weakened, they proved no match for Elijah’s ability, and he took no small degree of pleasure in the sound of their pained screams.  Not only was he killing ancestral enemies, but there was also an influx of experience that told him that he was winning.

And everyone wanted to win.

The two combined into an almost euphoric sensation that he struggled to push aside.  Soon enough, only Elijah and a single other vespiran remained.  This wasp-man wasn’t the strongest demi-god among his people.  In fact, Elijah put him dead in the middle of the group in terms of relative power.  But he was a defender.  A durable creature who could take – and shrug off – multiple hits, even from Elijah.

But not without consequence.

The wasp-man had been battered all to hell, his black-and-green carapace cracked in a dozen places.  His drachnid-chitin armor had been torn to bits, and even his massive shield was missing multiple chunks, giving it a ragged, almost natural look.  But his humanoid torso was even worse. 

Mushrooms sprouted all over his body, and a cloud of spores hung from him like a mantle.  One of his arms was broken, and a massive wound across his belly threatened to spill his innards onto the ground. 

But still, he stood firm, protected by an ethereal shield that reminded him of Sadie’s Blessed Bulwark.  That plane of energy stretched along for a dozen feet, extending twice as high into the sky. 

“If you think that’ll protect you, you’ve got another thing coming,” Elijah said, rising to his full height.  His club-like tail twitched with need as he stepped forward. 

“I know.”

“Then why continue?  You know your fate.”

“It is my purpose,” the wasp-man spat.  “A thing like you could never understand.”

Elijah shook his head.  Perhaps the vespiran was right.  Maybe he was mistaken.  But in the end, it just didn’t matter.  He was the enemy, and if Elijah had a current purpose, it was to slaughter the hated wasp-men. 

To that end, he charged.  By that point, Bestial Charge had come off cooldown.  Elijah lowered his head like a bull, then crashed into the shield.  It shattered.  The drachnid attacked, an ethereal blade extending from his axe as he swung.  Elijah used Thunder Clap, briefly stunning the wasp-man.  The ability was a little outdated, so it only caused a slight hitch in the vespiran’s attack.

But that was enough to provide an opening for Elijah’s continued charge.

He hit the defender head-first, burying his horns just below the point where the vespiran’s humanoid torso met wasp-parts.  Neither flesh nor chitin could stop Elijah’s the piercing horns.  They entered with barely any resistance, proving just how much his ongoing abilities had sundered the wasp-man’s defenses. 

The momentum of the charge sent the vespiran tumbling backward, end-over-end, until he hit a nearby building.  That further shattered his carapace, smearing gore across the wall. 

It was like swatting a bug.

Apt. 

Elijah advanced, Mycelial Regrowth petering out.  Throne of Spores ran its course as well, and the shattered remnants of the vespiran army fell free.  Clouds of spores still filled the air, and they would continue to infect any enemy who ventured into their midst. 

But there was no one left.

Only that single defender.

He would not persist for much longer.  Elijah shifted back into his human form, then returned his scythe to hand.  His eyes glowed with white fury while his emerald scales glimmered in the light of the single star hanging above. 

The vespiran tried to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a bloody cough.  Elijah just shook his head, raised his scythe, then brought it down with the finality borne from a battle already won.

The wasp-man’s head tumbled free, bouncing across the bloody ground and coming to rest in a pool of blood. 

Finally, Elijah’s shoulders slumped, but when he looked around, he didn’t feel the exhaustion he should have felt.  Instead, he could only feel satisfaction at a battle won.