Path of Dragons-Chapter 67Book 8: : Prisoner

Elijah was done waiting. He had no intention of dealing with whatever these creatures had in store. With a simple flex, he broke the bindings meant to constrain him, then leaped to his feet. In less than a second, he’d grabbed the smaller creature and, with a simple twist, detached its head.

It never even had a chance to react.

The same could not be said for the other monster – for monsters, they both were – who let out a massive roar that matched its immense size. Before Elijah could initiate a dodge, the thing backhanded him hard enough to send him tumbling out of the cart and across the desolate landscape. His momentum wasn’t spent until he hit a particularly large pile of rubble.

As scree rained down on his head, he looked up to see the creature doing its best Incredible Hulk impression. After leaping high into the air, it clasped its hands, clearly intent on smashing Elijah into a pulp. He had no intention of allowing that, so he cast the first spell that came to mind.

Without his staff, though, the bolt of lightning that came from Storm’s Fury lanced down from the cloudless sky, slamming into the monster at the apex of its leap. It hit with enough force to smash it into the ground. The impact cracked the rocky earth, digging a shallow crater.

Elijah wasn’t finished, though. The second he had released Storm’s Fury, he’d begun his transformation into a blight dragon. It only took a moment, but by the time it had completed, the durable slab of muscle had begun to drag itself free of the crater. Thankfully, Elijah only needed to ascend the pile of rubble and leap under cover on the other side before he felt Guise of the Unseen become available.

By that point, the monster had fully recovered.

And it was not happy about the situation. It screamed in combined anguish and rage, bellowing inarticulately as it rushed toward where it had last seen Elijah. Unfortunately for that creature, Elijah was already creeping up behind it, ready to inflict maximum damage with Predator Strike.

The muscular monster skidded to a stop, confused and unsure of where to direct its rage. Elijah considered simply leaving it to its own devices. He could have, and without much consequence. The creature was clearly out of its depth, and Elijah questioned whether it could even direct itself without the much smarter monster he’d already killed.

Yet, it was a monster. Elijah could sense the wrongness of its very existence with every pulse of its malformed heart. And just as he’d done countless times before, he decided to rid the world of the blight it represented.

Before he pounced, he used Lurking Swarm. He still wasn’t entirely recovered from his previous exertions, so the stamina requirement staggered him. However, he pushed through it, embracing both Predator Strike and Envenom. Then, alongside the phase spiders he’d just conjured, he pounced via Flicker Step. In the blink of an eye, he landed upon the monster’s broad, muscular back and sank his fangs into its neck.

The acrid taste of the thing’s blood danced upon his tongue, but he didn’t give it any attention. Instead, he leaped free of the monster’s back just in time to avoid its flailing response. Fortunately, it was distracted by the spiders, so Elijah never had to worry about reprisal.

Even as the thing shattered one phase spider after another, Elijah shifted back into his human form, cast his trio of heals, then adopted the Shape of Thorn. Belatedly, he remembered that he could have used Wild Resurgence without returning to his natural form, but old habits, it seemed, were slow to die. Pushing that from his mind, he stepped forward to finish the fight.

The monstrous humanoid couldn’t fail to notice his new and much larger presence, especially because it no longer had to worry about the distraction of the spiders. It roared before dashing forward into a charge. Noticing the creature’s slight stagger – the venom worked quickly, after all – Elijah didn’t hesitate to meet its charge with one of his own.

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As he did so, he embraced Thornbound Legion. As tiny mites leaped free of his body, they leaped like fleas onto the monster, then burrowed into its body. It staggered even more noticeably, and Elijah smashed into it before it could regain its stride.

The impact rattled Elijah’s teeth, and he knew that if he hadn’t recently experienced an increase to his Constitution attribute, it would have broken bones. As it stood, he avoided that fate, but the monster clearly had not. Elijah’s Strength had grown right alongside his other attributes, and that was on clear display as he knocked the monster from its normally sturdy feet.

It only flew backwards a few dozen feet, skipping across the rocky ground until it came to a rest. However, the results were more than apparent from its grossly twisted knee and clearly dislocated shoulder. But even though one arm had been removed from the equation, it still had three others.

Elijah rushed back into the fight, hammering the monster with every ounce of fury he could muster. Each blow broke bones, and it wasn’t long before he found himself beating a grossly battered corpse.

Finally, he let himself stop. By the end, he’d been on top of an increasingly unrecognizable pile of flesh, so he pulled himself away, then slumped to the ground, his breath coming in quick gasps.

It took a few minutes for him to regain his composure, but when he did, he allowed himself to remember that he was in enemy territory. He couldn’t remain out in the open. So, he returned to the cart, and after only a little searching, he found his scythe wedged behind the seat. The rest of his equipment remained on his body, so he had no other reason to stick around.

With that in mind, Elijah shifted back into his blight dragon form, then adopted Guise of the Unseen. Only a couple of minutes later, when he’d left the rough path behind, something huge landed on the cart. Elijah peeked above the rubble to see the largest and most humanoid harpy he’d ever beheld.

The creature was roughly shaped like all the other harpies, though she had a disturbingly human toros. Even her legs resembled a woman’s, though they ended in sharp talons. But the most distressing facet of her appearance was her face, which was horrifyingly human.

And undeniably beautiful.

The avian features that characterized the other harpies he’d seen were gone. In their place was a visage more suited to a modern movie star.

But there was a predatory viciousness there as well. Elijah didn’t need to use Soul of the Wild to know that she was a monster, and a densely corrupted one too. She was at least as unnatural as the creature he’d killed back in the Veinroot Hollow, and Elijah’s every instinct screamed at him to kill her.

He restrained that impulse. Partially, that was because he knew it would be difficult to accomplish that feat. She was an ascended monster, and one that felt almost as powerful as the so-called Vinebound Guardian. He still wasn’t fully recovered from his previous exertions, so he knew the direction such a fight would take. Even if he won – which was far from ensured – he wouldn’t do so unscathed.

No - he needed to avoid a fight if possible. She was not his goal. So, even with his instincts begging him to attack, he turned away and left the crashed cart behind. He didn’t even react when the sound of a dying creature reached his ears. Clearly, the harpy was unhappy, and she’d taken that out on the beast of burden who’d been pulling the cart.

Elijah ignored its keening wails as he slowly traversed the ruined landscape. Unlike his previous experiences between Vey’thaal and the pool that had led to the Abyssal Glassworks, the current terrain was almost entirely deserted. Every now and then, Elijah felt the presence of one monster or another, but there were no giant hordes tearing across the landscape.

He was grateful for that because he needed to hole up, recover, and usher himself back to normalcy. To that end, he searched the area for somewhere to make camp, and he eventually settled on a mostly intact building. He’d seen others like it, so it didn’t stand out for any reason other than the fact that it was a few miles from the path and devoid of any monstrous presence.

Once inside, Elijah set up his monster-repelling tent, which he’d yet to use in the Primal Realm, then built a small fire. He’d seen a few other columns of smoke twisting into the sky, so he didn’t think another would draw any attention. Once that was done, he retreated to an isolated corner of the building and took a Blessing of the Grove empowered shower.

Washing himself of the filth from the battle against the Vinebound Guardian was restorative in more ways than one. Some of that was due to the properties of his soap, but it was also the cleanliness itself that buoyed his energy as well as his spirits.

Finally, when that was done, he headed back to his small camp and regrettably roasted some monster meat. Eating it was no more pleasurable than any other instance, but it did leave him full.

That would have to be enough.

After that, Elijah retreated into his tent, curled up inside his Cloak of the Iron Bear, and fell asleep. Unlike most of his experiences within the Primal Realm, Elijah had no issues dozing off, and for the first time in longer than he cared to admit, he slept completely uninterrupted.

It was absolutely necessary, and when he awoke, he felt better than he had since first setting out from Vey’thaal. It was only then that he realized the toll the Primal Realm had taken on him. His fight against the Vinebound Guardian would have doubtless gone far differently if he’d been well-rested. However, after weeks of going without appreciable sleep and surviving off nothing but monster meat, he’d been exhausted before it even began.

And when he’d pushed himself so hard, he’d used all the energy he had left.

It was a minor miracle that he’d survived at all. Still, he’d beaten the monster, and for his efforts, he’d been rewarded with another level. That put him at one-sixty-seven. He couldn’t wait until one-seventy when he’d get another spell.

Hopefully, the interval between spells wouldn’t grow any more expansive after two-hundred, though he knew that was probably a dim hope indeed.

After enjoying a cup of coffee and eating more monster meat he’d stockpiled in the Veinroot Hollows, Elijah finally felt well enough to leave his camp behind. Soon enough, he’d packed everything up and returned to his trek across the ruined landscape.

Roughly, he followed the path, though he didn’t dare to venture onto the road itself. That caution proved well-founded when, a few hours later, he saw another one of those carts trundling down the road. It was manned by another huge, four-armed bodybuilder of a monster and a smaller companion that looked strikingly similar to the one Elijah had killed.

Over the next couple of days, Elijah saw signs of civilization. Small villages had been carved into the ruins, though the inhabitants were all monstrous in nature. Thankfully, there were no children.

Elijah also started to see more and more wild mutants, many of which vaguely resembled the ones he’d seen outside Vey’thaal. However, these were far more deformed, though that didn’t really affect their deadliness. He witnessed that firsthand each time he saw them clash.

Finally, Elijah crested a hill and saw something different.

It appeared to be a factory, complete with smokestacks belching filth into the air. Elijah had smelled it well before he saw it, but even that hadn’t prepared him for the scope of the place.

Or for how it made him feel.

Because not only did the acrid smoke stoke the fires of his anger, but he could also see a steady stream of mutants pouring from the multitude of gates leading into the factory. Each stream ended in more pulsating sphincters that he more than suspected would eventually lead to the area outside Vey’thaal.

He’d found the source of the corruption. Now, his every instinct screamed at him to end it. For once, he and his instincts were on the same page.

Elijah stalked forward under the Guise of the Unseen, ready to subject it to a Druid’s wrath.