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Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 29 - Insistence

The next few days were an odd combination of relief and pain.  The first was the most explicable.  After all, the expedition into the Primal Realm had been through hell.  They’d watched thousands of their comrades die, often in gruesome ways.  Seeing a friend getting ripped apart by trolls was one thing, but seeing them slowly starve until they could scarcely lift their spears was something else altogether. 

The people who’d ventured into the Red Marsh had w...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 28 - Moment of Truth

Elijah’s first batch of mead was an unmitigated disaster that tasted cloyingly sweet and a bit rancid.  It didn’t take him long to pin the problem on unhealthy fermentation.  The fix was thankfully simple, and it only required him to ensure that the next batches were properly fed so that the yeast could properly ferment. 

The second batch was much more difficult to recover, and it tasted extremely sour, with an acrid undertone that Elijah could not explain.  Not ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 27 - Space to Breathe

Hui Shui still thought of himself as a researcher, though it had been quite some time since he’d looked at the world through the eyes of a scientist.  His keen sense of observation remained, even if the current situation didn’t truly call for any great insight.  One look at Elijah Hart, and even a blind man could read the danger of his presence. 

Even if Hui Shui hadn’t seen the mounds of bodies, it was easy to believe that he could slaughter an entire army of settl...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 26 - On the Importance of Alcohol

“Ew.”

“Is it supposed to smell like that?”

“Gross.”

Elijah nearly rolled his eyes at the kids’ reactions to his yeast colony.  Admittedly, it had grown a bit out of control over the past few days, but ultimately, the result was predictable.  Still, he hadn’t been prepared for an entire cask of the stuff.  And the children were similarly unprepared for the slimy look and sour smell. 

One of the older kids even remarked that it was a w...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 25 - Laying Foundations

“I want to do more,” Elijah admitted to Atticus.

It had been three days since he’d departed Seattle, but the aftermath of the war elf attack still stuck with him.  In an effort to deal with those feelings, he’d gone to Argos, where he’d spent most of his time in the Temple of Virtue.  He’d lost count of the number of people he’d healed, but even then, he knew that his actions were almost entirely unnecessary.

Due to the presence of the Temple – and the au...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 24 - Trolls and Consequence

A massive troll took Sadie in a shoulder charge that, despite her abilities, sent her skidding backward into a thick-trunked tree.  It shook with the impact, sending a cascade of moisture raining down upon her head.  She barely felt it.  In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she was completely dry.  Not since before she’d entered the forsaken swamp that had been her home for most of the past year. 

It hadn’t been so bad in the fortress, though that ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 23 - Valor

The trolls noticed him within moments.

And the swamp colossus’ attention soon followed. 

Even as Miguel charged, Trevor’s hooves kicking up black dirt along the way, the colossus let out a gurgling roar that very nearly burst Miguel’s eardrums.  He leaned forward, urging Trevor to speed as he drew his sword.  They covered the ground in seconds, lancing into the enemy with ruthless precision. 

A troll’s arm went flying, accompanied by a spray of bl...

Chapter 768 - A Happy Coward

Zeke lay on the bed, his hands behind his head as he mentally toyed with the local threads.  He didn’t make any changes.  That would be far too dangerous, and it would risk destabilizing the entire world.  He and Talia would doubtless survive such an event, but none of the people she’d given succor would make it through that sort of calamity. 

Instead, he did the equivalent of twisting them between his fingers – almost like a nervous tick.  Not surprising,...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 22 - The Last Push

Miguel looked down at his armor – or what was left of it.  After eight months of constant fighting in defense of the fortress, then another few weeks racing across the swamp, it had been torn to splinters.  What’s more, it was covered in mud, blood, and other detritus, much of which smelled as horrible as it looked.  The only relatively clean bit of his gear was his sword, which he’d taken the time to protect at all costs. 

But even it was worse for wear. ...

Chapter 767 - Without Roots

For a while, Zeke just wandered the Ways, which had been entirely reconstituted by the Creator.  It was a display of power Zeke could only barely understand, though he could at least recognize that it wasn’t all on that omnipotent being.  Instead, he’d simply retraced the paths already set down by the Waymaster.  Even dead, its power lingered to the point where it had left an indelible mark on reality.

The Creator merely latched onto what was already there, which was ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 21 - Moral Quandary

“How many?” Elijah asked, not bothering to look up from the blood-covered floor.  People had already begun to clean the other parts of the hospital, but they’d not made it to Elijah’s area.  Maybe because it was in one corner of the trauma center, but his presence might’ve been a more viable explanation. 

Because even though he hadn’t really acknowledged it, Elijah knew that his days of relative anonymity within Seattle were long gone.  It wouldn’t be l...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 20 - Undisputed

Elijah did not enjoy killing people.

Or that was what he kept telling himself.  He almost believed it, too.  Parts of it, at least.  On the surface, it was true.  He didn’t like the idea of killing sapient creatures.  However, there was a part of him that very much reveled in the evidence of the power discrepancy.  His might was undisputed, and despite their efforts to stymie him, the war elves fell, completely incapable of countering his might.

Eli...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 19 - Power

Isaiah watched from his seat of power as Seattle’s forces let loose on the invading army.  A hundred screens, each one the size of a tablet, showed him exactly how thoroughly his people were outnumbered. 

But while the war elves had Warcallers and Wardwrights, Tacticians and Healers, his people had him.  His drones – thousands of them – buzzed through the air like a swarm of locusts.  The majority were entirely non-lethal.  Scouts meant to convey informati...

Chapter 766 - An Inevitable Goodbye

On the timescale of Zeke’s current existence, a month was not a long time.  When measured against centuries, it was nothing.  And yet, his time with Pudge somehow managed to feel even shorter than that comparison implied.  So, when the day came to say goodbye, he found his resolve wavering.

Did he truly need to go?

It wasn’t as if reality would unravel in a few more days, would it?  He could put it off, just for a while.  But he knew that if he remaine...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 18 - Waging War

Hate had no place in war. 

Certainly, there were some who managed to harness that all-encompassing emotion in an effort to push themselves further than they ever could have otherwise.  In those instances, it was undeniably effective.  However, in General Kinsax el’Turon’s experience, it was a sign of irrevocable weakness.  Overcoming it was the height of self-control.  Of true strength of character. 

Still, the war elf general could not deny his h...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 17 - Unconnected

The wall exploded.

Debris rocketed across the building, skipping across the floor before a wave of stone and steel swept over the soldiers.  Elijah ducked his head, bracing himself to weather the shockwave, but there was nothing he could do to protect those around him.  Massive hunks of the wall smashed into soldiers.  Bones broke, and organs ruptured as dozens of men and women died upon impact. 

Not all, though.

And certainly not Elijah, who’d already ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 16 - The Morality of Unquestioned Might

Elijah spread his wings and let out a rumbling roar that echoed throughout the Undercity.  The sheer volume of it rustled his leaves and shook the surrounding buildings.  If any of them had featured glass windows, they would have shattered under its rumbling volume. 

Fortunately, most of the rioters took one look at him and sprinted away.

Could he have chased them down?  Certainly.  Even in his dragon form, he was more than capable of moving at speeds mort...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 15 - A Trap Sprung

Desdemona finally let a broad smile spread across her face.  It felt like it had been years since she’d allowed such an expression to touch her.  Even longer since she’d felt true joy.  But as a dense wave of ethera swept over her most hated enemies, how could she feel anything else? 

The little ball that represented Isaiah Roberts sparked, then fell to the ground.  She knew from her experiments that, wherever that despotic dictator really was, he’d been r...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 14 - The Daughters of Deianira

“Stop!” came a voice from inside. 

Elijah ignored the order, extending his Mantle of Authority to its full strength.  He’d developed some control over its size, but the strength remained consistent no matter how he used it.  He was committed to working on it, though.

As he continued toward the door, a series of gasps erupted behind him as the soldiers’ ethera stilled.  Their weapons would remain unusable so long as they were under the influence of his m...

Chapter 765 - A Harsh Reality

Pudge looked old.

Of course, that was because he was.  Zeke had no idea how much time had passed since he’d last seen the former direbear who’d become his adopted brother, but he was certain that more than a few thousand years had passed.  And the passage of time had affected Pudge.  His fur had turned uniformly grey, and his single remaining horn had lost its luster.  He still had the powerful build of a warrior, though Zeke couldn’t help but notice that he’...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 13 - A Show of Force

Elijah was disgusted.

Part of it came from the situation, and rightly so.  The notion that someone from Argos, of all places, hated him enough to participate in an assassination attempt against him gutted Elijah in a way he couldn’t quite explain.  For as long as he could remember, his relationship with that population had bordered on hero worship.  They’d loved him almost from the very beginning. 

And yet, the girl thief whose name he still didn’t know h...

Chapter 764 - A Losing Battle

Zeke watched, awestruck and terrified, as the cage of the Framework encapsulated him.  The Creator, in a form almost as unknowable as the Abyss itself, descended from his perch and planted himself at the rift exposing reality to its opposite.  Zeke’s mind struggled to comprehend what he saw, though he did manage to glean a few tiny bits of information here and there.

The threads were not threads. 

The Abyss was not a place, but an absence that ran opposite to the ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 12 - Seattle

Gunnar Lindstrom squatted a few feet from his prisoner, then slid a bowl across the concrete ground.  It made it within a couple of feet, but the girl didn’t react.  Sighing, he pushed himself upright and said, “You have to eat.”

She didn’t move.

In fact, he wasn’t certain that she was even breathing.  Concerned, he stepped forward.  He only took two steps before she threw herself at him.  Her bloody fingers stretched toward him, jagged fingernai...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 11 - Married Life

“First things first,” Elijah said, leaning forward in his seat.  Atticus’ assistant had already come by to offer them coffee, and despite Elijah’s attempt to get things moving, he’d waited until he had a steaming cup in front of him.  “What have you heard about the meeting last week?”

As Atticus repositioned himself, he let out a small groan of displeasure.  “You should have warned me,” he responded, leaning back. “Those people are a nightmare to deal ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 10 - Staying Busy

Anxiety hung over the grove like a storm cloud, and to the point where everyone had begun to step lightly around him, lest they entice the tempest to the fore.  Elijah tried to focus on rest and recovery, but his worry for his friends and family, most of whom were stuck in the Red Marsh, presumably fighting for their lives, continued to intrude on his every waking moment. 

He’d tried submerging himself in the ash lotus spring.  He’d attempted to play with the now-grow...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 9 - Let Resting Dragons Lie

Elijah felt them coming.

The group of hunters had a few levels under their belts, with one – presumably the leader – having ascended.  They also seemed to have taken a few steps forward regarding their cultivation, probably because of Elijah’s soap.  All in all, there were six of them, and Elijah felt certain that their composition was a standardized group. 

Meaning, a single Healer, a couple of damage dealers, a defender, and an Explorer.  The last slot ...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 8 - Towering Nature

“It’s been almost ten months,” Elijah said, pacing back and forth.  “They should be back now.”  He glanced up at Nara, asking, “Right?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, her patience clearly running thin.  Not surprising, considering that Elijah had repeated the same concern – phrased on slightly differently – more than a few times over the past hour.  “Every Primal Realm is different.  There is even some degree of variance between attempts....

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 7 - A Taste of the Past

Sitting on one of the gurneys, Elijah finally leaned back and let out a sigh of relief.  After spending the past two days healing the people of New York, he had long since exhausted the sick and injured in the district.  But once word got out, people had come from all across the city.  There were even a few patients who’d taken the ferry from the mainland, just to be healed by him.

And it wasn’t surprising. 

For one, Elijah could keep it going indefinitely....

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 6 - A Heavy Burden

Solomon Thorne sat on the floor of the keep, his back against the wall as he picked at his fingernails with a small knife.  The Explorer – a pretty woman with short, black hair – stood near the door, watching for the incoming messenger.  Meanwhile, the young man paced back and forth, periodically glancing at the deceptively small treasure in the center of the room.  Finally, the stag, a magnificent creature with milky white, crystal antlers, busied itself with a pile of old...

Path of Dragons 12 - Chapter 5 - No Such Thing as Selflessness

“Good question,” Elijah responded, thankful that Isaiah was willing to play his unwitting part.  “The answer comes with two sides.  The first follows from my explanation.  Keeping the Primal Realms under control helps everyone on Earth and prepares us for the next crisis.”  He leaned forward, his hands on the table.  “In case everyone forgot, I live here too.  My family lives here.  My grove is here.  And I want to protect this planet just as ...