Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 38 - Breach (Patreon)

The cavern’s atmosphere swirled with multi-colored light, ethera, and fungal spores.  In the form of a dragon toad, Elijah sat in the center of it all, his eyes unseeing as he focused on the battle far above.

The sense of the fight was muddied by the various sources of his perception.  The most prevalent signal came from a combination of Soul of the Wild and his communication with the fungal colony, but he gained a little information from the way the various elemental flows interacted with the atmosphere.  The result was a blurry picture that gave him a good sense of what was going on but lacked many pertinent details.

Still, even that was enough to tell him that they were doomed.  It might take a while for the orcs to overwhelm the Vengeance’s defenses, but the sheer weight of numbers was undeniable.  The disadvantage was too great, and eventually, the dragons would fall before it.

In short, Elijah had been right, though he took no satisfaction in it. 

Because he knew a lot of people were going to die.  He would fight to keep the people he cared about alive, but the rest were almost assuredly destined for defeat and death.

The worst of it was that he couldn’t really sense enough details to tell him anyone’s identity.  Sure, Okar was identifiable just because there wasn’t anyone else in the entire ship that could fight the way he did.  The same was true of Cyran, who was like a smaller whirlwind within Elijah’s conjured typhoon. 

And he knew that Imal and her squad remained inside one of the towers, presumably safe for the time being. 

But past that?

He didn’t know what was going on. 

More than once, he’d considered abandoning his position and heading to the surface, but he knew that more people would die if he went down that path.  After all, without his influence, the storm would soon peter out.  In addition, the fungal colony might lose some of its focus on the orcs.  Would it still attack?  Probably.  But it would quickly become far more evenly distributed across the surface.  It might even creep into the interior, which could prove disastrous.

It made Elijah wish he’d brought Fungee along instead of depending on the less evolved version.  Or rather, a cutting of the fungal colony. 

Even as Elijah conducted his storm, he tracked what he could of the battle.  He’d long since fallen into a rhythm when he felt something he hadn’t expected.

He sprang to his feet just as the bottom of the cave split.  A second later, dozens of orcs exploded from the opening.  As more and more climbed away, a trio of powerful domains slammed into him. 

Suddenly, his connection to the storm above disappeared.  At the same time, the fungi inside the cave withered, cut off from the ethera that kept it alive.  While he’d guided the tendrils above to be resistant to the orcish shamans’ domains, the colony within the cave was much more vulnerable.

It didn’t stand a chance.

Rage slammed through every facet of Elijah’s mind as he saw his fungal colony perish.  He leaped away from an orc’s attack, then lashed out with his tongue.  He couldn’t cast any spells, but the internal elements were still in play.  Thus, he introduced the orc to the raging inferno of his mouth, evaporating the creature before he ever tasted it.

He didn’t stop to savor the victory.  Instead, he bunched his legs and threw himself forward in a ramming attack that hit another orc so hard that the sound of his bones shattering echoed through the cavern. 

Another orc ended up consumed by the intense heat within Elijah’s mouth.

For a few seconds, Elijah rocketed around the room, leaping from one side to another without sitting still for even an instant.  He’d have preferred to fight in one of his other forms, but the shamans’ overlapping domains were too powerful to allow for a transformation. 

That was the first indication that the attack had been planned specifically for him.  After all, he could use his Mantle of Authority to batter his way through normal domains – at least enough to shift forms.  The fact that he couldn’t even do that was a good sign that he was in trouble.

That assessment proved accurate when something slammed into his shoulder.  Elijah didn’t need to look to see that a spear had impaled him.  Another hit him a moment later.  Then another after that.

Still, he didn’t let that slow him down.  Even as blood rained upon the cavern, he continued to slaughter one orc after another.  At the same time, he worked against the domains, pushing with his Mantle of Authority with every bit of his soul’s strength.  It didn’t unravel, but Elijah could feel it destabilizing a little more with every passing moment.

It wasn’t enough, though.

More spears found their way into his flesh, eliciting no small degree of pain that he subsequently ignored.  However, he didn’t stop moving until the spears lit up with ethera.  Their shafts glowed ominously, casting beams of light from one to another.  It took Elijah a depressing amount of time to recognize what was happening.

And by that point, the net had already formed. 

It contracted, the ethereal strands cutting painfully into his flesh.  The crystals on his back flashed with his anger, and he managed to capture another orc that ended up being disintegrated inside his mouth.  But it wasn’t long before he couldn’t even do that. 

He fell to the ground, bound tightly by the ethereal net.

He was helpless.

Incapable of moving.  Constrained by the domains.  Vulnerable in a way that he hadn’t experienced for a long, long time.  Not since the Broken Crown when he’d been captured by the vespirans.

He writhed as the shamans finally revealed themselves.

Six of them, all deities and clearly satisfied with his capture. 

“Bring him,” one of them said.  “Ok’tarik Mik Vis desires another toy dragon.”

“Ok’tarik?” Elijah grunted. The word – or maybe the fact that he could speak at all – came as a surprise to the orcs.  However, they still ignored him.  Still, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out.  The name obviously referred to the warchief Elijah had fought in that first major battle against the orcs.

If he’d had time to think about it, he might’ve appreciated having a name to put to that powerful orc.  As it was, he was entirely focused on his predicament. 

Not as much for his own good, but more because the ongoing battle depended on his participation.  Without his constant input, the storm would soon begin to dissipate.  On top of that, what was left of the fungal colony had already started to become inert.  If that persisted, it would die.

In that respect, the domains were very effective.

Those thoughts flitted past his consciousness as the orcs dragged him toward the hole they’d dug.  He struggled, but the ethereal net ensured that every movement threatened to cut him to pieces.  Soon enough, they tossed him into the hole through which they’d arrived.

Elijah tumbled down a narrow tunnel, each impact with the walls driving the spears deeper into his flesh.  And then, he reached open air.

He slammed into the deck of a ship a second later.

The shamans landed next to him, but the warriors clearly chose to stay behind.  There was no limit to how much damage they could do if they gained access to the Vengeance’s corridors.

He couldn’t afford to let that happen.  He also couldn’t afford to be out of the fight.  The dragons wouldn’t survive without him.

Even as the ship drifted away, Elijah refocused his soul.  It responded sluggishly, but that small degree of control was everything he needed to get started.  He quickly established that he couldn’t just brute force the issue.  The domains were too flexible.  When he shoved against them, they just bulged a bit.

Thankfully, Elijah had continued to develop his control over his soul.  So, instead of crudely pushing against the domains, he sharpened the branches of his mantle.  They didn’t want to cooperate, but he’d strengthened his will to a considerable degree.  And gradually, his soul responded.

The first rip in the domains came after a little more than a minute, but to Elijah’s horror, it mended almost as quickly as he could tear through.  He didn’t let that dissuade him, though.  Nor did he acknowledge the ship’s progress as it ascended toward the rest of the fleet.

Already, the rain had stopped.

It wouldn’t be long before the orcs gained an advantage.  If they hadn’t already. 

He continued, pushing forward with his plan.  One sharpened branch became dozens of saw-like thorns that continued to rip through the domains.  They healed, but each tear weakened the whole. 

And finally, his soul broke through.

The domains started to mend, but not before Elijah cast Shape of Withering and Wild Resurgence.  The transformation took care of most of the spears, and they clattered to the ship’s deck.  The second they fell away, the wounds mended.  The few remaining spears were insufficient to keep the net in place, and it dissolved a second later.

Elijah didn’t hesitate to throw himself at the nearest shaman.

His sudden attack took the creature by surprise, especially as he viciously tore into it with fangs and claws.  That further weakened the domains, giving his Mantle of Authority more room to work.

And he never stopped moving.

In seconds, he’d slaughtered three shaman, proving once again that his additional levels hadn’t gone to waste.  At one point, the only way he could kill even a single deity was using every tool at his disposal. Now, he just needed to get the jump and let passive abilities like Wither attack the bodies and souls of his enemies. 

And his claws, of course.

He went at them like an enraged badger, tearing the stunned orcs to ribbons. 

Then, suddenly, he broke completely through the remaining wisps of the domains, and they failed to mend themselves.  A second later, his entire Mantle exploded outward.  A visible tree came next, shooting upward and spreading its limbs to encompass an area nearly a mile wide.

The ship’s enchanted engines failed, and it plummeted.  Elijah leaped free, spreading his wings so he could glide away.  Wheeling around, he paid almost no attention to the doomed ship.  Instead, he returned to the cavern that had once housed a thriving mycelial network.

Before entering, he used Guise of the Stalker.  Then, he landed and crept upward through the ragged tunnel and to an expected sight.

Everything was already dead.

The domains had robbed the fungi of ethera, and it had rapidly withered.  The warriors attacked the other side of the cavern with crude weapons, chipping away at the reinforced stone in an effort to enter the ship proper.

Elijah didn’t hesitate to slaughter them.

It didn’t take much.  They weren’t particularly powerful.  And he took little joy in it, even with thoughts of revenge coursing through his mind.  The sound of dying orcs was no comfort when he knew what the death of his fungal network meant.

After shifting back into his human form, he knelt next to a withered mushroom.  It was Fungee’s progenitor.  The very first one he’d grown within the cave. 

And now it was dead.

It all was.

Elijah could take assassination attempts in stride.  He even understood them, after a fashion.  But what he couldn’t abide were attacks against his friends.  His family.  Against a nascent life that could have become something more than just a mushroom. 

It already had.

And his time with Fungee told him that he’d only scratched the surface of its potential.

Now, that potential had been destroyed. 

And Elijah was going to make someone pay for it.  He pushed himself to his feet and looked around.  It wouldn’t take much to reseal the cavern, but the storm had already been disrupted.  Not for long, but even that had robbed it of some of its fury.  It would persist for  a while yet, but only as a normal weather pattern. 

It was no longer a weapon, and returning it to that state would take hours.

He didn’t have the patience for that.

So, without further thought, Elijah shifted back into the Shape of the Magus and leaped through the hole.  As he went, he sealed it behind him.  When he reached open air, he bounded off of Cloud Step, already shifting into the Shape of Withering.

The orcs had gone to a lot of trouble to get him out of that cavern.  Well, now he was ready to give them just that.  Hopefully, they wouldn’t live to regret it for very long.