Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 40 - Elemental Fury (Patreon)

The watery bubble Elijah had summoned as a shield against the intense heat evaporated in less than an instant.  Despite his form’s attunement, his skin blistered and boiled.  The crystals on his back melted, and as superheated air expanded, his stomach burst into swirl of wind.  At the same time, he was thrown away from the erupting volcano of a pyramid.

He smashed through a dozen ships before sailing into open air. 

Somehow, he maintained consciousness throughout his flight, and he had the presence of mind to shift into his human form and cast his healing spells.  After that, the blistering heat waged war against his vitality.  It would’ve won, too, had it not been for the ever-increasing distance he’d gained from the explosion he’d wrought.

By the time he got a handle on it and ensured that he wouldn’t end up like a roasted pig, he was miles away.  And the results were even more devastating than he ever could have expected.

For miles all around, the fleet had simply ceased to be.  Somewhere down below, ashes drifted steadily toward the core.  That was all that was left of those closest to Elijah’s manufactured super volcano.

The ones a little further away had been knocked backward, and many of the vessels had shattered into one another.  The ones that hadn’t fallen listed aimlessly, most of their crew having been knocked unconscious by the blast.

But despite the breadth of that eruption, a mere fraction of the fleet had been destroyed.  Maybe as many as had been victimized by his soul-infused Flames of Renewal in the battle to rescue the Vyrins from the Gilded Reach.  That alone was an incredible accomplishment, and it had sent his level skyrocketing to four-thirty-two. 

It wasn’t enough, though.

He could recreate the same eruption a hundred times over, and he still wouldn’t kill all the orcs.  Not that he could actually do that.  The layered flows had required a ton of ethera, and it wouldn’t be possible to cast that particular spell more than five or six more times before his core ran dry.

Even then, he decided to do it again, if only to farm a little more experience.

After healing, he shifted into the Shape of Withering, then rode a gust into the cloud of ash so he could use Guise of the Stalker.  A second later, he was once again bombarding the fleet with Cloud of Decay and Plaguebursts.  Thankfully, the latter required very little ethera, so he could use it as many times as he wanted. 

Over the next few minutes, he made his way across the fleet, leaving a wake of destruction.  Once he was far enough from the original eruption site, he resumed the Shape of the Magus and, again, layered fire and earth atop one another.  In moments, he’d built enough force to replicate the previous explosion.  With a dome of air, he kept it contained until he could no longer manage it.

Then, he leaped away. 

It erupted a few seconds later, and this time, he rode the wave of destruction.  It still blistered him, but he was much better prepared.  He even harnessed some of that fiery heat by creating whirlwinds of fire that burned a path ahead of him. 

He didn’t discriminate regarding his targets.  The Vengeance was miles and miles away, so he didn’t need to worry about collateral damage.  Nor did he have any intention of holding back.  Instead, Elijah sought to create as much havoc as possible.

The numbers sent his experience skyrocketing to four-thirty-four – an absolutely ridiculous degree of progression over such a short span.  The pace was unsurprising, though.  Elijah had killed droves of enemies before, but never so indiscriminately.  And never so quickly. 

The closest he’d come was when he’d used the soul-infused Flames of Renewal, but even that was a one-time attack.  With his volcano spell, he could replicate that feat a few times. 

And he did.

The experience continued to pour in, and he didn’t stop until the contents of his core dipped well below the halfway mark.  After that, he shifted into the Shape of Withering and resumed his bombing runs. 

Once he’d gained enough ethera to create another eruption, he found a likely target and made good on that potential.  So it went for more than a day, during which time he exhausted himself on multiple occasions. 

It was on the fifth cycle that the orcs found him once again.

This time, instead of immediately rushing him, the deity gliders merely directed the cannon and harpoon fire in his direction.  For a few moments, Elijah held his own, dancing between projectiles.  However, it wasn’t long before one of the harpoons clipped his wing.  It sent him cartwheeling sideways, but more importantly, it interrupted Guise of the Stalker. 

Suddenly, he was visible.

And the orcs, primitive as they were, would never let that advantage fade.  The gliders swooped in, while every cannon and harpoon in the vicinity let loose their various payloads. 

Elijah never stood a chance.

In moments, he became a pincushion for harpoons, and that wasn’t even considering the results of the cannon fire.  He dove, awkwardly and trailing blood.  As he did so, he once again shifted, this time into the Shape of the Primordial Deep. 

Doing so made him a much larger target, but Elijah was willing to accept that.  Because he immediately activated The World is an Ocean and dove into a landmass far below the fleet. 

Thankfully, it was extremely deep, giving him plenty of cover.  The problem was that it was almost entirely solid, which meant that if he wanted to hide, he needed to shift into his human form.  He did so, nestling himself in a small and claustrophobic crack that made him very much aware of the thousands of tons of rock above his head.

He ignored it, focusing instead on healing himself and recovering his ethera.

It took almost two more hours, giving him a chance to wonder just how the others fared.  Was Imal okay?  Palikina?  Alrhok?  Okar?   He even worried about Bogoni. 

But there was nothing he could do to help them, save for what he’d been doing for the past day or so.  The battle continued to rage, and the only way the others might survive was if he caused enough chaos and death to send the orcs into retreat.  Otherwise, the calculus of the battle hadn’t really changed.  Elijah still believed they were doomed.  Now, they’d just take quite a few orcs with them on their way down.

Those thoughts raced through his mind as he remained underground, recovering his ethera and healing some of the nagging wounds he’d built up over the last day.  He was just considering heading back to the Vengeance to change his attack pattern when an earthquake hit the small island where he’d taken refuge. 

Elijah only had enough time to cast Wild Resurgence and Bough of the World Tree before the entire island exploded.  One second, he was sitting there, and the next, he found himself falling amidst hundreds of shards of rock. 

Then, the orc chieftan – Ok’tarik – appeared out of nowhere to impale Elijah on his ivory spear.  The shields that came from Bough of the World Tree shattered immediately, and his silver-tier body did very little to slow the attack down.  The result was that Elijah found himself face-to-face with the grey-skinned orc, with a spear in his chest. 

Ok’tarik pulled him close enough that Elijah could see the orc’s blistered skin.  Half his body was charred beyond recognition, as if he’d turned to shield himself from the volcanic eruption.  As gruesome as his injuries were, the fact that he’d come away intact was a testament to his durability.

“You…are an enigma,” the orc croaked, his voice like sandpaper scratching against a wire brush. 

“So…are you,” Elijah spat, gripping the ivory spear.  He could feel his vitality draining through that weapon with every passing second.  It flowed down the shaft and into the orc, no doubt fueling his own visible recovery.  “Nice spear.”

“I –”

“I have one too,” Elijah cut him off.

An instant later, Thorn appeared in his hand.  He stabbed it through Ok’tarik’s temple.  The blade didn’t bite too deeply – maybe a couple of inches before the orc’s thick skull stopped it – but it was enough to allow Elijah to spew a cloud of spores into the wound.  At the same time, he cast Nature’s Claim, another instance of Wild Resurgence, and Bough of the World Tree.  Topping it off was Blessing of the Grove, which instantly turned into a monsoon-like deluge. 

As the spells took hold, Ok’tarik reeled, coughing up a cloud of spores even as Nature’s Claim began to work its magic.  Elijah could feel the orc’s back ripple as the fungi took hold and worked its way toward the surface. 

More importantly, Elijah saw the opportunity for what it was.  After dismissing Thorn into his spatial storage, he took hold of the ivory spear shaft and shoved himself backward.  Ok’tarik recovered from his spasm just in time to see Elijah disconnect from the spear and tumble through the air.

He immediately shifted into the Shape of the World Serpent.

Ok’tarik roared in rage, and he took a step forward.  His foot fell upon a plane of invisible ethera as he launched himself after Elijah.  He spasmed again, losing his balance – only slightly, but enough that it gave Elijah time to complete his transformation and slither away. 

Elijah put on the speed, keeping Dimensional Leap on a hair trigger, just in case Ok’tarik managed to catch him.  He’d proven before that he could outrun the orc, but only by a little.  And based on what Elijah had felt during that brief moment of contact, the chieftan had only grown stronger.

He proved that by quickly shrugging off the fungal infections Elijah had inflicted upon him.  A second later, he was in hot pursuit.

As far as Elijah was concerned, he had two options.

Well, three, but that third choice – running – wasn’t an option so long as his friends remained behind.  So, with that out of consideration, he focused on the other two.  First, to head back to the Vengeance where he might gain the help of his allies.  Or second, he could go deeper behind enemy lines so he could use the full suite of his abilities without endangering anyone else.

After all, there tended to be a lot of collateral damage when he used his most damaging abilities.  On top of that, Ok’tarik could easily kill just about anyone else in the entire trial.  So, leading him to the Vengeance came with significant risk.

As Elijah considered it, he continued to slither through the fleet.  Harpoons glanced off of Scales of Eternity, and more than a few glider orcs attempted to dive bomb him.  However, he moved far too quickly for them to catch up to him. 

In the end, he decided to go towards the Vengeance.  It wasn’t his preference, but at the end of the day, Elijah didn’t think he could survive alone.  The only way to take out Ok’tarik was to empower his abilities with his soul, and that would drain him into helplessness.

It wasn’t enough to win.  He had to survive that victory as well. 

Elijah didn’t dare peek toward the rear, because he knew what he would see.  An angry orc chieftan smashing through one ship after another.  Elijah avoided most of those by slithering between the gaps, but he didn’t miss them all.  As a result, his mad dash across the orcish fleet saw him hitting more than a few. 

That slowed him down just enough that he had no chance of leaving Ok’tarik behind.

Still, he maintained the gap, so when he finally reached the Vengeance, he did so with only a few dozen feet to spare. 

As he sailed over the craggy surface, he shifted into his human form, landing just a second later.  He flipped around just in time to see Ok’tarik land nearby.  By that point, the orc’s scorched skin had begun to flake away, exposing slightly lighter but still unblemished flesh.

“No more running?”

“No more running,” Elijah replied, resummoning Thorn. 

“Good.”

There was nothing else to say, so Ok’tarik threw himself forward in a warrior’s charge.  Elijah stood his ground, waiting patiently.

The whistling sound of descending cannon ammunition was his only warning that the fight wasn’t going to go the way he expected it to.