Path of Dragons 11 - Chapter 71 - Ignored (Patreon)

Elijah grappled with an abyssal.  Its tentacles wrapped around his arms and legs as it snapped at him with multiple mouths.  At the same time, the creature screamed incoherently, its massive, tree-trunk legs planted firmly in the ground. 

It pushed.

Elijah pushed back. 

And he found his strength wanting.  Even in the Shape of Spores, and with Heart of the Tempest flared while Savage Strength flooded his body with power, he skidded backward a few more inches with every step.  Beyond the cliff behind him yawned the beckoning abyss. 

The abyssal had attacked him only a few feet beyond the latest chain, and it had taken him completely unaware.  The only reason he’d managed to fight back was because he’d felt it via Soul of the Wild only a second before it tackled him.  Quick thinking and rapid recognition sent him into the Shape of Spores, and the strength he’d gained was the only reason he hadn’t already tumbled over the side.

He grunted with the effort.

He growled like a wild beast.

He’d already activated Throne of Spores, so his efforts were assisted by a host of fungal tendrils that fought against the abyssal with all the fury he could muster.  Elijah felt his joints screaming in protest as he slid inexorably towards his death.  He activated Thorned Legion, sending an army of mites to burrow into the monster’s rubbery flesh. 

That helped, but only a little.  Nature’s Claim sent a cascade of spores into the monster’s body, and a moment later, dozens of ochre mushrooms exploded from its back.  That weakened it further, and at last, Elijah managed to rip his arm free.  His claws arced out, scooping a massive hunk of meat from the monster’s side.  A face came with it, and it didn’t stop screaming until Elijah tossed it backward over the cliff.

He snapped out, biting through a tentacle and freeing his other arm.  With the use of both sets of claws, Elijah fared a little better.  He moved like a dervish, his claws glinting yellow in the light of the single star hanging in the sky. 

But the monster wouldn’t die without significantly more time and effort.  Elijah had been in the Broken Crown for more than six months by that point, and he hadn’t spent that time idle.  Indeed – he knew exactly how to combat the dangers before him, including the abyssal monsters that had grown ever more prevalent with every mile traveled.

This wasn’t the first time he’d been ambushed, but the attacker was the strongest among its type.  Not nearly as powerful as the chain guardian, but it didn’t need to be.  Not with stealth on its side. 

Elijah continued his assault, thankful that its nature meant that it wasn’t quite as durable or regenerative as a more straightforward assailant.  If that had been the case, he’d have had a long road ahead.  Even with its comparative lack of durability, the monster still required more than three hours to put down. 

Elijah never let up.  He knew he couldn’t afford to relax.  Not now that he was getting closer to his goal.  He didn’t even need the map to know that the Worldseed was nearby.  Not only had the atmospheric ethera grown incredibly dense – on par with his grove – but the temperature had risen sharply as well.  And then there were the abyssals.  The wasps, too.  Plenty of dragons as well, though they were in the clear minority.

He’d seen more battles in the past month than he could count.  Some were small scale, with only a few dozen combatants.  But others pitted tens of thousands of wasps against a thousand or more dragons.  Or abyssals.  At times, Elijah felt like the sound of the vespirans’ wings – like a fleet of helicopters – would drive him insane, it had become so ubiquitous.

But every single time they fought the abyssals, they failed.  At least the dragons had a slightly better track record against those monsters, though they usually didn’t last long after each victory.  The ever-opportunistic wasps didn’t hesitate to take advantage of their weakened states. 

It was a bloodbath, and all sides.

Through it all, Elijah trekked.  He didn’t get involved unless forced to do so.  That was the biggest danger of the realm.  Getting tangled in that conflict was a sure way to fail. 

Thankfully, the others adhered to a different strategy, attacking one another at every opportunity.  That was the only reason Elijah stood any chance of reaching the Worldseed first. 

But before he could continue his journey, he needed to finish the abyssal off. 

Idly, he wished he could have used Shape of the Scourge or Shape of the Master against the thing, but he’d quickly discovered that the ambushers were far too fast.  In his other shapes, he would have been entirely incapable of avoiding damage.  And the creatures could hit hard enough to outpace Wild Resurgence. 

The Shape of Spores was a great counter, but its damage capabilities lagged pretty far behind the other two shapes.  Sure, it came with incredible strength, massive regeneration, and good defense, but where it truly shone was in its ability to control and weaken opponents. 

Relying on it meant that Elijah was reasonably safe, but it also meant that the battle would not soon find a victor.  So, now that he’d ensured he wasn’t going to end up tumbling through the abyss, he bent his back to the task at hand.  And slowly, he managed to whittle the monster down until, at last, it gave in to its inevitable fate.

By that point, it was little more than a haphazard collection of bones – all in shapes that made no biological sense – held together by a few bits of meat.  When it died, it simply collapsed into the pile of viscera at its feet.

Only then did Elijah relax, but he didn’t dare do so for long. 

He couldn’t afford to stand out in the open, especially so close to the chain.  So, he shifted back into the Shape of the Scourge, then used Guise of the Unseen before sprinting across the jagged bit of rock. 

It was much smaller than the continent-sized landmasses he’d recently traversed, and there were no buildings in evidence.  Just rock, most of it igneous.  In that, Elijah’s geology electives didn’t let him down, and he quickly identified it as likely originating well below the planet’s surface.

He also came to the conclusion that the interior was solid.  There was nothing like the Hollow Depths.  Just layers of rock. 

To him, that was more evidence that he was getting closer.

There were enough shallow caves around that he was able to find one big enough to accommodate his tent.  He wanted more than anything to keep going, but he knew the value of rest as well as anyone in the world.  Perhaps better.  While he barely needed sleep, and his muscles wouldn’t fail even after months of constant use, he knew there was always a price to be paid.

In his case, that meant that, after a week or so, he started to lose focus and coordination.  The degradation wasn’t immediately noticeable, but if he compared his current state to when he was fresh, the difference was striking.  In a lot of ways, it was a like being drunk.  He wouldn’t start staggering around, but he definitely wasn’t at his best. 

And given the stakes, he knew he’d need to be.

So, he deployed the tent, and after showering, he crept inside before promptly falling asleep.  When he awoke, he felt a thousand times better, but more than anything, he was starving.  Instead of eating on the move – as he usually did – he took the time to enjoy a meal inside the tent.  He even drank a couple of cups of coffee, though he did struggle to contain his excitement long enough to finish.

Something within him had changed throughout the Broken Crown.  It was still just as difficult a path as the one he’d followed through the other Primal Realms.  In many ways, it was a lot worse.  But it also felt a little like he’d passed through a gate within his own psyche.  On one side was pure horror and hardship.  On the other was excitement and accomplishment. 

That wasn’t to say that the difficulties didn’t affect him.  They did.  But they were outweighed by the potential gains and the undeniable joy of victory that came with every battle won and realm conquered.

Was that his mind cultivation at work?  Or had he simply grown inured to all the pain that came with clawing his way toward the top?  Maybe a little of both.

Either way, Elijah finished his coffee, dressed, and ducked out of the tent.  The second he did, he recognized a familiar aura just outside the cave.  A moment later, an abyssal trudged past, completely uncaring for Elijah’s presence.  The thing was huge, too.  Not quite on the level of the chain guardian, but more powerful than most he’d encountered of late. 

He waited, holding his breath and hoping against hope that it wouldn’t attack.  If it did, the resultant battle would last for a week or more.  Luckily, it paid him no mind, and it left the cave behind after a few minutes.  Elijah didn’t move a muscle for another half hour. 

Even when he gathered the tent and resumed his journey – in stealth – he didn’t relax.  That thing was strong enough to give him a very bad day, and the fact that it had gotten so close was incredibly troubling.

From that point on, Elijah knew he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.  Instead, he would keep going until the end.  He lamented the necessity, but if that thing had been hostile, there was a good chance he’d have been forced to retreat.

Or he might’ve died.

Over the next few days, Elijah sprinted across the barren landmass, reaching the other side on the fourth day.  From his estimation, that put it at somewhere around a thousand miles wide.  Maybe slightly less, given that he’d been forced to circumvent a few rugged mountains festooned with glittering ore.  A Miner would have been in heaven, considering the dense emanations of ethera surrounding them.  For his part, Elijah was ill-equipped and uninterested in harvesting ore.  Perhaps future forays into the Primal Realm would bring people with appropriate classes.

Along the way, he found the concentration of enemies to have increased even further.  Whole herds of abyssals trekked across the landscape, practically warping reality with their collective presence.  Elijah couldn’t even look at those groups for more than a few seconds without feeling like someone was driving an icepick into his brain.

But they weren’t alone.

Huge swarms of vespirans filled the skies, while smaller groups of dragons cut through anything in their way.  When the groups converged, battle erupted, but it was a different sort than usual.  Instead of stopping and fighting it out until one side was entirely eradicated, they engaged in running battles, clashing only when their paths crossed.

That didn’t mean they weren’t brutal and bloody.  They certainly were, and for what felt like the millionth time, Elijah found himself barely capable of grasping the sheer scale of death. 

As it happened, the chain leading to the next landmass acted as one of those convergence points.  Elijah crested a hill and looked upon the battle he’d sensed from afar.  He couldn’t help but gasp at what he saw.  It was mayhem, and not just because it was a battle of three sides – and featured all the chaos that implied.

No – it seemed that even the members of each group had begun to turn on one another.  Wasps fought wasps, dragons – and their allies – against dragons.  Abyssals against abyssals. 

And Elijah knew why, too.  He could feel it.  The Worldseed beckoned.  It was so close.  So powerful.  It wasn’t just a natural treasure.  It was the culmination of an entire planet’s development.  And given the history of said planet, it was far mightier than most. 

Was it the real thing?  No.  Clearly, the system had depowered it to fit into the intended challenge.  However, it was still far stronger than any treasure Elijah had ever encountered. 

He didn’t just want it.  He needed it.  Obviously, the other three groups felt a similar pull. 

Elijah had no intention of participating in that fight, though.  Even at his best, he couldn’t kill so many.  This wasn’t a relatively weak army of war elves.  There were just too many, and they were far too strong.  So, his only option was to bypass them.

However, he knew better than to venture into that melee on foot.  Not only would something invariably see through Guise of the Unseen, but with the volume of spells, skills, and other attacks flying around, the chances of him getting through without getting hit were next to nil. 

But fortunately, he had a plan.

He snuck forward, getting as close as he could manage.  Then, without further hesitation, he shifted into the Shape of the Sky and took off.  In only a second, he was above the battlefield.  The wasps reacted instantly, buzzing toward him with ill intent.  Elijah used Tempest Swarm in an effort to disorient them as he made his way toward the chain.

He reached it a moment later, though his ability had only slowed the swarm by a second.  What’s more, the terrestrial forces had noticed him as well.  A few abyssals guarded the chain.

Elijah tore past them, shifting sideways to avoid a few waving tentacles.  And then, he was above the chain, which went straight down to a landmass far below. 

Knowing that he couldn’t simply outpace his enemies, Elijah used Lightning Surge.  His body became a bolt of electricity, and he rocketed down the chain, covering hundreds of miles in the two seconds the spell persisted.  When his body reformed, he hadn’t reached the end of the chain – far from it, from what he could tell – but he had left the enemy behind.

He continued on, knowing full well that his difficulties had only begun.  But rather than turn him away, the knowledge excited him.  After all, the Worldseed beckoned, and no notable achievement ever happened without significant hardship.  He welcomed it.