Path of Dragons

Book 3: Chapter 55: An Estate of Unrest

Cool night air tickled Elijah’s skin as he stepped through the portal and into the lighthouse tower. For a moment, he ignored the notifications announcing his entrance and informing him of the task he was meant to accomplish, instead focusing on his surroundings. The air wasn’t just cold. It carried with it a mostly unidentifiable odor that reminded him of a long-neglected basement. Yet, the environment didn’t support that imagined scenario, because he found himself in the middle of a forest populated by gnarled trees.

Fog clung to the ground, obscuring the underbrush from sight. Elijah could feel it via One with Nature, but nothing about it was abnormal. However, he couldn’t escape the tendril of unease that gripped his spine. As the others materialized beside him, he acknowledged his notifications. The first was:

Welcome to The Magister’s Estate, Level One. To advance to Level Two, complete the task before you.

It was similar to every other notification he’d received upon entering a tower, and the name didn’t give him any information as to the nature of the challenge. So, Elijah moved on to the next notification.

Task: Discover the source and take the first step to destroying it.

“That’s vague,” he muttered. He turned to K’hana and continued, “Find the source. What do you think it means?”

“We do not know, outsider,” Badu growled, pushing past Elijah and looking around. “We must explore the area and find –”

Just then, a screech filled the air, cutting him off. It was a long way off, but it still sent another chill up Elijah’s spine. More importantly, it clearly frightened Badu. The elf took a step back, a ripple of air surrounding his body.

It was all Elijah could do not to sigh in frustration. Over the course of the journey to the lighthouse, he’d learned a few things about the elves. Their personalities were still something of a mystery – they weren’t eager to reveal too much to him, after all – but one thing was obvious: they were even more inexperienced than he was. Sure, they’d come from a long-developed world where the touch of the World Tree had been present for millennia. However, the nature of their society was such that none of them had ever even sniffed a tower. On their world of Erag, that privilege was reserved for the aristocracy or their forces.

And the elves who’d come to Earth came from the elven equivalent of the ghetto. Or a trailer park. They were the poorest of the poor. The desperate masses whose only hope for any future was to pick up everything, travel across multiple universes, and settle in a dangerous world full of the unknown. Because of that, Elijah was far and away the most experienced among the party, at least when it came to towers.

“Okay, so as far as I can tell, each of you can take three buffs from me,” Elijah said, using one of the gaming terms he’d learned in cities like Argos and Norcastle. They just felt less awkward. “So, what do you want? I can do everything but Ethera.”

After he was forced to explain what he meant, they each told him their preferences. And understandably, they all asked for Aura of Renewal, Essence of the Boar, and Essence of the Monkey. In addition, they received Essence of the Wolf, which didn’t take up any of their slots. For his part, Elijah added Essence of the Lion, intending to switch it out for Shield of Brambles if the situation called for it. For now, though, he reasoned that, as the group’s designated Healer, he wasn’t supposed to take any damage. So, he applied his buffs accordingly.

Syka added a spell which coated their bodies in barely-visible armor that looked like it was made of rock. According to her, it wasn’t meant to increase any attributes. Rather, it blunted any damage they might have to endure. Although the spell could only take so much damage before it fell away, Elijah was happy for the extra protection.

None of the others had any buffs to apply, which Elijah found odd. He had so many that he’d just assumed that everyone else had access to similar enhancements. Obviously not, though.

Once everyone was buffed, the group set out through the trees. As they did, the screeching grew ever louder. To Elijah, the cries sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before – a combination of a birdcall and a human’s screams, with a little extra reverberation thrown in for good measure. Either way, it was wholly unnerving – a state that affected the elves just as much as it did him.

If it had been up to Elijah, he would have shifted into his draconid form and remained under the cover of Guise of the Unseen. However, that would have exposed the other members of the party. He forced himself to remember that, unlike in the previous towers he’d conquered, his job wasn’t to do everything. In fact, his only task was to keep everyone alive.

To that end, he remained in his human form, alert and ready for any dangers that might present themselves.

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Or that was what he thought.

The reality was that he very much was not prepared for the monsters that came screeching through the trees.

They were humanoid. In fact, they seemed like they might’ve once been actual humans. Yet, they were green- or grey-skinned, wearing ripped and ragged remnants of clothing that barely covered anything. On top of that, their arms were slightly too long, their claws far too sharp, and their faces a massacre of scars, pustules, and mucus.

Oh, and they were clearly feral, displaying the sort of unflinching commitment to attack usually reserved for the unliving in zombie movies.

Using One with Nature, Elijah was the first to detect the horde of creatures as they cut through the foggy forest, and he shouted, “Ready yourselves! Monsters coming!”

He recoiled from what he felt through One with Nature. The monsters were anything but natural. In fact, they felt like abominations – mixtures of death and life and something else Elijah couldn’t identify. Thankfully, he didn’t have time to dwell on it before the fast-moving monsters showed themselves.

The elves recoiled, but to their credit, they reacted quickly. Gbartik, the earthen golem, rumbled forward to meet them, and with a roar that sounded like a landslide, activated some sort of ability that drew the attention of the enemies. The ghouls – because they couldn’t be anything else, from Elijah’s perspective – collapsed onto the golem with a cloud of dust. Chips of rock flew as the sound of claws on earth filled the air.

Elijah cast Soothe on the giant earthen creature, and the damage inflicted by the monsters started to heal. But it wasn’t enough, so he used Healing Rain as well. That kept pace, but Elijah knew it wouldn’t last. Eventually, the golem would fall before the tide of monsters.

Fortunately, the elves had already responded, filling the atmosphere with various spells. K’hana wielded a whip of water, which she used to repeatedly lash the ghouls. Where that spell landed, flesh parted, and in some cases, limbs flew free. At the same time, Nimana cast a spell that turned the ground to quicksand. The ghouls sank to their knees, impeding their movement. The golem’s footing, though, remained sure.

But the real star was Badu, who twirled and gestured like a kung fu master, sending out blades of wind that cut the ghouls to pieces.

Before long, the area had become a charnel house for oddly colored flesh as the elves brought their powerful spells to bear. Meanwhile, Elijah struggled to mend any damage his party members sustained. Most of that damage was directed at the golem, but every now and then, one of the ghouls would break free of the horde and fall upon one of the elves. In those instances, the party redirected their fire, slaughtering the offending ghoul, yet there was always some damage. In response, Elijah made a habit of darting forward to use Touch of Nature.

However, for each member of the party, Soothe remained active. The combination of that heal-over-time spell and Healing Rain was enough to keep up with any incidental damage – at least to the point where it would allow enough time for Elijah to apply Touch of Nature.

Like that, the group fought.

But it quickly became apparent that, unless something changed, Elijah would run out of ethera. So, he slowly adjusted his tactics. Instead of playing it safe by keeping Soothe active on each of his group members, he used it more reactively. It was more dangerous, but it was also the only way he could accomplish his goal of keeping everyone upright until the horde was defeated.

More than anything, though, he began to understand the limitations of his class. Other Healers, he knew, could use powerful spells from afar. Meanwhile, to utilize his most powerful healing ability, Elijah had to lay hands on the spell’s recipient. Soothe and Healing Rain were extremely efficient, but to heal lethal damage, they were both far too slow-acting.

Regardless, Elijah kept pace – probably because of the combined influences of his powerful Dragon Core and the Crook of the Serpent Healer. Without either, he would have failed.

Of course, the moment Elijah felt like he’d managed to get a handle on things, it all went wrong. Part of it was the simple progression of the tower, which was expected. What Elijah didn’t expect was for stupidity to rear its ugly head – though, in hindsight, that particular inevitability should have been obvious as well.

The first part came when a larger, burlier, and significantly more powerful ghoul crashed through the trees and fell upon Gbartik. The golem responded with a massive backhand that sent the newcomer staggering away, but no one could afford to pull their attention from the main horde.

So, Elijah chose to act.

He shouted, “I’m going to stall the big one! Don’t attack it!”

A second later, he finished casting his spell, and thick vines erupted from the ground, tangling themselves around the alpha ghoul’s legs. It tried to rip free, but they held. It was only temporary, but it would allow the others to refocus.

Even as he resumed healing, Elijah saw something that, if he wasn’t so busy, would have elicited a groan.

Badu twirled, aiming a round kick at the hulking ghoul. He was nearly a dozen feet away, but the ability sent a series of wickedly sharp air blades at the ghoul. They hit with a shower of dull blood, but they also severed the roots keeping the ghoul in place.

And that was more than enough to ruin everything.

The monster ripped its legs free of Elijah’s immobilizing spell, then sighted in on Badu. Even as the elf landed, the creature stomped forward and clamped its claws around him. Gbartik let out its taunting yell, but it was no good. There was no diluting the alpha ghoul’s ire for the elf who’d injured it.

Elijah cast Soothe on Badu, then renewed Healing Rain. But those spells were incapable of keeping up with the monster’s might. Badu screamed as his bones were crushed beneath the creature’s grip, but even with Elijah’s efforts mending the worst of the damage, he was incapable of stopping the monster’s jaws from closing around his neck.

His screams turned to gurgles as the ghoul ripped his throat out.

That’s when Elijah arrived, slapping his hand on Badu’s leg and channeling Touch of Nature through his body. His flesh mended, and the gurgling scream turned to cries of agony. That just invited the ghoul to try again.

However, Elijah wasn’t going to alloy that. He aimed his staff at the monster’s legs in a sweeping attack that ripped its feet out from under it. Badu scrambled free as the alpha ghoul fell, and Elijah shoved him away.

Then, he reared back and brought his staff down in a sledgehammer strike that shattered the creature’s face. It wasn’t enough to disable the monster, but it still provided a great distraction until, at last, Gbartik arrived.

Smaller ghouls crawled all over the golem’s back, ripping its rocky flesh free in a shower of pebbles and dust. Elijah reapplied Soothe, but even when he dashed forward and used Touch of Nature, it was clear that his efforts would come up short.

He looked back to see that his party was on the verge of being overwhelmed. None were down, yet, but that didn’t look like it was going to last long.

Elijah knew what he had to do.

“Retreat!” he shouted. “I can’t keep up with the damage!”

To their credit, the elves did just that. And with Syka’s quicksand spell, the ghouls were slowed just enough to give them an opportunity to get away. Which left Elijah alone.

That was fine, though.

He was a Druid. More, he was an Animist. And if there was one thing he was good at, it was going solo. Even as his party members escaped, Elijah shifted into his lamellar ape form.

Then, he unleashed bestial hell.