Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 11 - Horrible Creatures (Patreon)

Elijah knew he didn’t have much time.

Not if he wanted to avoid having to deal with the flyers again.  He didn’t know how quickly they could reproduce, or at what level, but reason suggested that if he took too long, he would find himself facing another swarm of flying termites.  And he still needed to delve into the subterranean nest and find the queen that was his ultimate preys.

That would not be a pleasant experience.

Upon commencement of his attack, he’d hoped that Cloud of Decay would seep into the mounds and fumigate the rest of the swarm.  That wasn’t what had happened, though. Sure, some of those nearest to the surface were killed, but there were plenty that had survived. 

Elijah had felt them, albeit only vaguely.  Dealing with the rest of them would require a more hands-on approach.

Before that, he needed to make a choice as to the direction of his next ability evolution.  Wild Resurgence was one of his most-used spells, which meant that getting it right was of the utmost importance. Probably more than any other he’d chosen in recent years. 

So, he looked at his options a little more closely.

The first, titled Life, was probably the most straightforward.  And it sounded a lot like it would be more of the same. A direct follow-up to Wild Resurgence – just more potent.  How it would be strengthened was anyone’s guess, but he felt confident that it would be the simplest of the trio.  Elijah didn’t mistake simplicity for weakness, though.  Wild Resurgence was already a powerful spell, and that wasn’t going to change.

If anything, it would become stronger, both in absolute and contextual terms.  So, he couldn’t ignore the Life option, even if it wasn’t quite as exciting as the more novel choices.

But it was familiar enough that he didn’t need to examine it too closely to know what the resulting spell would entail.

Elijah moved on to the second on the list, Growth.  For one of the first times ever, he had no idea what to expect from choosing that option.  It implied that he could guide evolutionary change – or said it outright, rather – which didn’t make a lot of sense for a healing spell.  Did that mean it would become something altogether different?

His first idea was that it would allow him to further explore the sorts of things he’d been doing with Fungee and, to a lesser extent, Treebie so long ago.  But as valuable as that would be, Elijah couldn’t lose his most important healing spell.  After all, Wild Resurgence remained the only one he could cast while in his various bestial forms.

That made it irreplaceable.

What if Growth allowed him to retain that ability, though?  What if it expanded the spell into a new branch while maintaining its old purpose?  Wouldn’t it be the best of the three options?

Probably.

But the sad truth was that Elijah would never know.  He couldn’t in good conscience choose an option that might very well cripple his normal fighting strategy.  So, as enticing as Growth was, he pushed it aside and focused on the final option. 

Bolstering was just as intriguing as Growth, largely because, in this instance, his instincts answered his call.  They suggested that the spell would retain some of its previous functionality, but with the added bonus of applying a buff.  To what attribute, Elijah had no idea.  Nor did he know the extent of the enhancement.  But what he did expect was that it wouldn’t be negligible.

However, he was almost certain that the healing portion of the spell wouldn’t really grow any more powerful.  So, when compared to Life, which would improve the quality of healing, the gap was incredibly wide between the two. 

In the end, Elijah couldn’t bring himself to discount the reality that Wild Resurgence had saved his life more times than he could count.  And making it better at healing – which was what the Life option promised – would only make him that much more unkillable.  Given the threats he would soon face, his decision seemed like a no-brainer.

He chose Life.

Wellspring

Tap into the Well of Life, funneling vitality into healing over time.  Duration of connection based on ethera attribute. Current: 602 seconds.  Potency of connection determined by Soul Cultivation. Efficiency of vitality use determined by constitution attribute as well as Core and Body cultivation. Usable in all forms.

“What the hell is the Well of Life?” Elijah wondered aloud.  Until he’d read that description, he’d never heard the term.  However, the fact that it came from his Emerald Archon class suggested that the Well of Life, if it was a real place, had something to do with the World Tree. 

And that, in turn, implied a certain degree of power.

In addition, the duration of the heal had risen to more than ten minutes, with the caveat that the efficacy of it drew from both his core and soul cultivation.  Thankfully, it was still usable in all forms, which was its predecessor’s defining characteristic.

Elijah decided to test it out in a controlled setting, rather than cast it for the first time in the coming fight.  The second he embraced the spell, he knew it was different.  When the runes snapped together into an incomprehensible tangle, he felt a subtle tug on his soul.  His first impulse was to resist it, but he kept his instincts under control.  His soul reached out, then disappeared into his core.

For a second, Elijah had no idea what was going on. 

Then he felt it.

A surge of pure vitality washed through his core and erupted into his body.  His cells drank deeply, swelling with life energy that slowly seeped out, a little at a time. The connection ceased after a full minute, but by then, his cells had become so saturated that it was almost painful.

In a good way, though.  Like stretching after a long workout. 

Gradually, even that faded, and his body was both energized and any lingering ailments disappeared.  There weren’t many.  Just a bruise here and there.  But by the time the spell lapsed nine minutes later, Elijah was healthier than he’d ever been.

 He wasn’t certain how much stronger the spell had become.  A lot.  But it was also built to scale, and with multiple aspects of his cultivation. The only one not represented was his mind.  That suggested that he’d only scratched the surface of what was possible. 

In short, Elijah believed he’d made the right choice, but in the back of his mind, he had to acknowledge that he’d have probably thought as much regardless of which option he chose.  All three would have been extraordinarily powerful, so he didn’t think he could have made a bad choice.

Either way, Elijah was more than ready to resume his annihilation of the termite colony.  So, he once again shifted into Shape of Withering and adopted Guise of the Stalker before riding the wind to his destination.

Fortunately, the flyers’ numbers hadn’t been replenished, but Elijah could feel the entire labyrinth of tunnels roiling with ethera.  They were coming.  He knew that.  So, he wasted no time before blanketing the area in a renewed Cloud of Decay.  Once he was satisfied with that – and how it seeped into the tunnels – Elijah took aim at the ground-bound termites.

They were far more durable than their flying counterparts, but they also made for large and inviting targets.  He sighted in on a particularly huge creature, then used Plagueburst.  In seconds, the ball of roiling venom had coalesced in the back of his throat – like an uncomfortable mass of mucus.  Elijah let it continue to build until he could take no more.

That was when he spat it at his enemy.

The termite never saw it coming.  The ball scorched across the intervening distance, hitting the creature dead-on.  It melted through the termite’s armor-like carapace, eating into its innards.  It screeched, a high-pitched, unnerving sound, but it didn’t die.  Not immediately.  It took three more instances of Plagueburst to put it down – evidence that the enormous insect was incredibly durable.

It also told Elijah that he wouldn’t conquer the colony from afar.  Instead, he needed to land and attack it in a more up-close-and-personal way.  Before he did that, he softened the remaining termites with one Plagueburst after another. Each one tore a hole in one of the insects, but failed to put any of them down.

It was only after Elijah recognized that they were regenerating did he decide to move into the next part of his plan.

He dove, activating Falling Talon along the way.  And when he hit one of the wounded termites, it exploded.  After a brief moment of concussion-caused confusion, Elijah leaped free and transformed into the Avatar of Storms. 

The much smaller frog form proved to be the right choice, because it confused the termites.  That only lasted for a few seconds, but that was more than enough to give Elijah a chance to embrace Way of Storms and summon a powerful tornado of fire that swept across the barren landscape, melting the turf and termites alike.

Even while one scorched a path through the insects, Elijah summoned another.  And another after that.  Doing so stretched the capabilities of his mind, but that was the point.  Elijah had been practicing, and he wanted to push the form’s abilities to its maximum potential.

Of course, the termites didn’t allow him to work unmolested.  They also surprised him when they revealed some ranged capable creatures in their midst.  They were slightly smaller and with somewhat elongated bodies, but what they lacked in pure physicality, they more than made up for in the ability to spit wads of acidic mucus at him.

The first time it happened, Elijah was caught entirely unprepared.  It took him directly in the face, burning through his skin in only a couple of moments.  He pushed through the agony to cast Wellspring.  Once again, the connection between him and the Well of Life manifested, flooding his body with vitality.  It saturated his cells, and they responded by funneling that into his regeneration.

His ravaged body mended.

Not immediately, but far more quickly than it would have under Wild Resurgence’s influence.  It also contributed to rebuilding his ethereal reserves.  Not a lot, but more than he had any right to expect. 

In short, it was everything he’d hoped it would be, and it enabled him to recover his wits and continue his campaign of fiery destruction.  Of course, Elijah didn’t confine himself to that single element.  He was more than just a fire mage.  He was a storm mage, and to him, anything could be the seed of a storm.

He conjured earthquakes and windstorms, deluges that flooded the entire landmass, and even recreated the sunstorm he’d used against Ok’tarik.  Unfortunately, he only succeeded in scouring the surface.  No matter what he did, his influence never traveled far below the ground.

Which meant that Elijah had no choice but to venture down below without softening them up. 

Fortunately, he had a perfect form for that, too.

He shifted into the Shape of the Reaver, feeling himself grow into the hulking fighter.  As he plodded forward, he summoned Tyrant’s Edge and finished a few termites off.  Then, he reached one of the mounds.

The entrance was wide.  Maybe fifty feet across and located at the base of the mesa-like structure.  The gloomy interior promised true danger, especially because Elijah could feel the termites moving within.

They didn’t come out, though.

And they wouldn’t.

Instead, they waited for him to enter.  Doubtless, they had a plan to put him down.  Or at least as much as a termite could formulate strategy.  But whatever was in store, Elijah was confident he could handle it.

Still, stepping into that darkness came with a special kind of fear.  A tremor that went up his spine and took root in the most primal part of his brain.  It screamed at him to turn and run. 

He refused.

Because he’d come there for multiple reasons, and he would not be denied.