Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 17 - Reunion (Patreon)

“What the hell is going on here?” Elijah wondered aloud, though he didn’t expect an answer.  Frustratingly, he got one anyway.

“Welcome to the gym,” Gunnar said from nearby.  Elijah hadn’t even sensed him, proving that the man hadn’t remained idle for the past seven months.  The voice seemed to come from multiple directions at once, making it difficult to pinpoint the sniper’s position.  However, when Elijah focused on Soul of the Wild, he could just make out a slight disturbance nearby.  If he had to describe it, he would’ve said it was similar to the predator’s camouflage.  Not quite invisible, but close enough that it took persistent focus to perceive him.  Except, instead of seeing him with his eyes – which was impossible, as far as Elijah could tell, he could only sense him with Soul of the Wild.

Gunnar added, “Home of the two obsessive fighters you’ll ever meet.”

He sounded exasperated, and Elijah didn’t need to ask why.  The cave where he’d left his companions had been completely transformed.  Not only had it been expanded, and by no small degree, but it had also gained quite a few new features.  Mostly open, in addition to the tent, it featured a massive fighting pit and a huge area that fit the name Gunnar had given it.

To someone who hadn’t been to the Empire of Scale, it might’ve just looked like a collection of enormous rocks.  But Elijah was reminded of the facilities he’d visited back in She’evoth and Esik.  More importantly, he could see it all in action, as both Ok’tarik and Illska were working extremely hard.

The sound of their grunts filled the cave, and not in a pleasant way.

“It’s been like this for months,” Gunnar remarked, finally revealing himself.  He squatted nearby, his massive rifle across his knees.  He looked a little dirtier than normal. H is beard had grown out quite a bit as well.  But overall, he didn’t look all that different, especially considering he’d been living in the wild for half a year.  “Incessantly.”

“What prompted this?”

“Illska.  She’s obsessed.”

“With Ok’tarik?” Elijah asked, a little surprised.  The orc was an interesting figure, but compared to someone like Mano, he was about as mundane as it got. 

“No.  With training,” Gunnar corrected the miscalculation.  Elijah found that relieving, even if he knew most dragons – especially higher level ones – practiced a mix between polyamory and open relationships.  For instance, Kirlissa had claimed a handful of husbands, and she wasn’t that abnormal in that respect.

For his part, Elijah had no interest in that kind of thing.  It was difficult enough for him to handle even one woman, let alone more.  Besides, he loved Imal, and he didn’t want to split those feelings with any other participants in their relationship.  Maybe he was old-fashioned, but that was just how he felt.

Regardless, he was relieved to hear that Illska hadn’t added an orc to her non-existent harem. 

Elijah could just barely see the pair lifting boulders in the distance.  In the old world, it might’ve looked comical.  After all, despite their size relative to most humanoids, neither was very big compared to the rocks they were lifting.  To Elijah, it looked like a training montage from a superhero movie.

“All we need is Eye of the Tiger playing,” he remarked.

“Please no,” Gunnar groaned.

“What? It’s not like I have a stereo system in my back pocket.”

“Don’t you?  You have everything else, it seems.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.  Plus, it’s a good song.  You would be lucky if I could play it.”

“It’s eighties schlock made for a movie.  By definition, it can’t be good,” Gunnar insisted. 

“Oh?  And I guess your music tastes are far superior, huh?  Let me guess.  Hard rock, right?  Maybe death metal,” Elijah guessed. 

“Unimportant.”

“You can’t just impugn my taste in music without giving me yours,” Elijah complained.

“I can.  I did.  And I’ll probably do it again.”

“I should kick you out of the cave.”

“And I should’ve shot you when I had the chance,” Gunnar countered.

“You did.  A bunch.  Or don’t you remember how ineffective it was?” Elijah asked.  After all, his first meeting with Gunnar had been on the receiving end of one of his long-range shots.  That had come very close to killing him, and after Elijah had recovered, he’d spent days chasing Gunnar down, cornering him, and forcing him to surrender. 

For reasons Elijah still couldn’t quite articulate, he’d chosen to spare Gunnar’s life, and he’d even contracted him to hunt down the people who’d hired him to assassinate Elijah.  That, in turn, had uncovered a conspiracy that had stemmed from Elijah’s less-than-delicate way of handling matters.  Specifically, he’d killed a woman’s family, and she’d sought revenge. 

It wasn’t Elijah’s finest hour, but it also proved Gunnar’s worth.

Since then, Elijah had mostly forgotten about the sniper, save for when he’d discovered that Gunnar was part of the expedition into Orveth Kaal.

Whatever the case, he wouldn’t say that he particularly liked the man.  But he did trust him, after a fashion. 

Or at least, he trusted him to do what he said he would do.

If there was any consolation, Elijah didn’t think Gunnar liked him, either.  They were willing to work together for the greater good, though.  That had to count for something.

“Things would work out a little differently, now,” Gunnar insisted.

Elijah shrugged. “I agree.  I’d catch up to you a lot sooner.”

Gunnar pushed himself to his feet and shouldered his rifle.  “If it comes to that, we’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

“Sure.  Good luck with that.”

With that, Elijah left the sniper behind.  Gunnar disappeared from his senses a second later – an annoying habit that left Elijah’s skin prickling with goosebumps.  It was like turning his back on a tiger.

As he drew closer to where Illska and Ok’tarik were working out, Elijah noticed a few more details about their makeshift gym.  First of all, it really wasn’t as crude as his first impression suggested.  The fighting pit was as well-made as any back on Earth, covered in coarse sand that would presumably absorb blood.

Second, Elijah saw a couple of training aids stacked in one corner.  Just one look, and Elijah recognized the sight of Mano’s training weapons.  There were a couple of axes like the one in his storage, but there were other types of weapons as well. 

He knew from experience that those weren’t really weapons at all, but rather resistance equipment meant to tax even the strongest muscles.  They did that by adjusting automatically to the users’ strength.

Apparently, they were quite expensive, but if there was one thing Mano liked to splurge on, it was improvement.  He took it more seriously than anything else in his life, save perhaps for family.  But even that hierarchy sometimes came into question.

Whatever the case, Illska had clearly benefited from his obsession. 

As he walked forward, Elijah couldn’t help but imagine Mano giving Illska training aids as gifts.  Some men gave women chocolates.  Others, expensive jewelry.  It was entirely in character for Mano to give his wife weapons that automatically adjusted to her strength, so she could maintain the highest efficiency training.

Elijah chuckled at that notion.

As he approached the pair, Elijah couldn’t help but notice that they both looked much better than they had when he’d started his cultivation cycle.  Back then, they had both been recently subjected to incredibly toxic venom, which had sapped them of their respective strength.  Now, though, their skin shone with vitality.

More than it should have, too.

Elijah narrowed his eyes and really studied the two.  Their muscles had always bulged – Illska’s more than Ok’tarik’s, but the orc was no slouch in the physique department.  However, they had now swollen beyond even that scope. And what’s more, they’d both lost fat as well.

They looked like competition ready bodybuilders, but without all the oil and spray tan. 

That wasn’t that far off from how they normally looked, but the difference was stark enough that Elijah noticed it.  And that prompted him to look closer.

What he saw should not have been a surprise.

Even from the first second he’d stepped foot inside the Plane of Nature, Elijah had known it was a place of dense vitality and thick ethera.  The former, more than any other place he’d ever been, in fact.  So, why should it have been a shock that there were benefits to that vital aura?

It only took Elijah a few moments to recognize the strong flows of vitality rushing through his comrades’ muscles, and he reasoned that such an environment was perfect for muscle-building.  Or for compiling attribute points. 

For someone like Illska, who had thousands upon thousands, it probably didn’t seem like much.  But every little bit counted. 

Illska lifted a house-sized boulder over her head and held it there.  As she did, her entire body trembled, telling Elijah that she’d been at it for quite some time.  After all, with her strength, lifting a few hundred tons wouldn’t have been an issue.  Doing it repeatedly, hour after hour, day after day, would obviously still take its toll. 

When she saw him, a broad smile spread across her face.  Clearly, she was tempted to simply toss the boulder aside, but she pushed that urge aside and set it down gently.  Or at least as gently as one could lower a multi-ton hunk of rock.

Once it was settled, she took a deep breath, her smile broadening even further.

“Welcome back!” she exclaimed, slightly out of breath.  Her chest heaved. 

“I see you’ve been busy.  Nice setup here.”

She couldn’t hide her joy at the compliment, though she gave a modest shrug, saying, “It accomplishes the job.”

“Which is?”

“Training, of course!” she answered.  “As you no doubt planned.”

“I did?”

“Why else would you bring us to such a wondrous place?” she asked.

“Uh…”

In truth, Elijah hadn’t really thought that much about how Silvara might affect his companions.  Sure, he knew it would be a tough environment, and he expected them to use it to their individual advantage.  They were all well accomplished people, after all.  Yet, he would have been lying if he’d claimed to think about it much more deeply than that.

“Sure,” Elijah said.  “That was the plan all along.”

“I knew it!  The rifleman said differently, but I had faith in you.”

Elijah ran his hand through his hair, glancing awkwardly back to where he’d left Gunnar.  “Yeah,” he said.  Then, he asked Illska to tell him everything about her training regimen.

“When we first arrived, I was understandably distraught.  To be laid low so easily…I am not accustomed to such things,” she admitted.  “However, the rifleman spoke sense to me, reminding me that when one falls short, the answer is to grow.  I took that advice to heart and sought the orc as a training partner.”

Then, she went on to explain that her first efforts were less than fruitful.  She’d made some strides sparring with Ok’tarik, but they were very small steps.  It was only after a couple of weeks that she noticed how he utilized both vitality and ethera to strengthen himself.  After that, Illska had swallowed her pride and asked for his help.

Which was saying a lot for a dragon, especially when dealing with an “uncivilized” orc.  Labeling Ok’tarik so was a mistake, as Elijah well knew, but the stereotype existed.  Most of the time it was accurate, and as far as Elijah knew, Ok’tarik was unique. 

Except for Callux, who was something else entirely.

Either way, Ok’tarik laboriously taught Illska what he knew about absorbing and utilizing vitality and Ethera, and after that, her training results became much more profound. 

“This place could be a magnificent training ground for young dragons,” she remarked. 

Elijah shook his head. “If you bring a bunch of dragons here, the big guy in charge might take offense,” Elijah responded.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her hands on her hips.

Then, he told her about Kor and how he’d been watching over everyone in Elijah’s absence.  “My guess is that he wouldn’t do that for everyone,” he pointed out.  “So, this is a one-time thing.  A unique opportunity.”

She nodded along, as if the protection of a pre-system transcendent was commonplace.  Then, she said, “I shall treat it as such.”

“We’ve only got about four more months here before we head back to Orveth Kaal.  Use the opportunity wisely.”

“What will you do?” she asked.

“I’m going be a tree,” Elijah said.  He didn’t intend to use hibernate, but it was past time he really acclimated to Shape of Trees – largely because he believed it would be the key to claiming Orveth Kaal. 

“Of course.”

Then, Illska went back to training.  Meanwhile, Elijah just shrugged and transformed into a tree.  Fortunately, the cave was large enough to accommodate his massive form, so he had no issues fitting.  Once the transformation was complete, he settled in to do as he’d said. 

And to think about his next steps.