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Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 19 - The Front

Miguel could barely feel his legs.  Sweat poured from his head, slicking his hair and burning his eyes.  He’d long since given up on wiping it free.  It just came back a few seconds later.  Every step came with a heaving breath, and his stomach twisted into nauseous knots. 

Yet, he pushed on, passing a group of illythiri trainees who’d long since given up.  They were clearly spent, having collapsed to the side of the gravel track.  Healers and othe...

Chapter 676 - The Crystal Façade

The city was astounding.

Crystalline structures stretched as far as Zeke could see, reaching high into the pristine sky and piercing the clouds.  Of course, beneath that was a much more nightmarish scene.  All it took was a brief pulse of [Primordial Mind], and Zeke saw the truth lurking beneath the surface.

Dark, ominous clouds laced with red lightning loomed overhead, while the unblemished crystal revealed itself to be black and jagged and festooned with evidence of to...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 18 - Guardians, Monsters, and Treasures

Elijah lanced in, digging his beak into the leviathan’s blubbery side.  Fat and blood spewed from the point of impact, and ethera rippled down its body like a rolling shockwave.  Before he could turn his attack into a retreat, a dozen water blades slashed into his shell, cutting through the leathery surface, not stopping until they hit bone.  His blood joined the leviathan’s in a mingled cloud. 

Meanwhile, the crab leaped from its perch within the forest of ice a...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 17 - Wonder

A trail of bubbles followed Elijah as he swam through the frigid ocean waters.  Up above was an enormous ice floe that covered as far as he could see in every direction.  If he drew close enough to the surface, he could feel the leopard seals, polar bears, and walruses that made their homes in the area.  Every now and then, he’d feel various birds as well. 

How Morin’s ships managed to break through the ice without sinking was a mystery to him, though he assumed ...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 16 - Body Forging

Carmen hung from the ceiling, the chains cutting into her wrists as her assistants slammed their hammers into her flesh.  She felt the blows – of course she did – but she couldn’t let them affect her.  Instead, she focused inward on her ethera, pushing outward with every fiber of her will. 

It barely moved. 

That was expected.  She’d experienced it before.  But with every hammer blow that struck her flesh came a pulse of foreign ethera.  ...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 15 - The Art of Negotiation

“You want to do what, now?” asked the dwarf.  He wore a pair of sturdy trousers that ended mid-calf and nothing else as he coiled a rope from elbow to palm.  Elijah couldn’t miss that he was built like a bodybuilder, albeit an extremely short one. 

“I just need to know where you spotted the leviathan,” Elijah said. 

The dwarf narrowed his eyes.  “You heard about that, eh?”

“I did.”

“Then you know I ain’t tellin’ you noth...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 14 - The Right Direction

“Sorry.  We don’t have any leads on anything like that,” said, Garret, the acting leader of the Hunter’s Guild.  He was a human – which surprised Elijah – but he clearly had a few levels under his belt.  More importantly, he didn’t look at Elijah like he was some sort of dangerous animal.  He was wary, to be certain, but that was just good practice when dealing with an unknown entity.  He knew Elijah was powerful, but he wasn’t terrified.  That wa...

Chapter 675 - Utopia

Everything was wrong.

That fact was abundantly clear as the squad of demons drew closer.  Of course, they didn’t look like demons.  Instead, they resembled fairy tale knights, complete with silvery armor and majestic steeds.  They have carried a large banner bearing some unrecognizable sigil.

But Zeke could see through all of that.  Oberon’s warning echoed in his mind.  No matter what Mak’tar’s realm looked like, it was still hell.  Zeke only ...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 13 - Only So Far

Elijah sat at the tallest point on his island, his eyes closed and his hands on his knees.  It wasn’t quite the lotus position, but it wasn’t far off, either.  His entire body remained relaxed, and his breath came slow and even.  Inside, though, everything was chaos. 

Before embarking on the journey necessary to reach the next level of soul cultivation, he’d considered himself fairly adept at controlling ethera.  After all, he’d passed the test in the De...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 12 - A Tense Meeting

Breeze hated his new home.

The whole planet was wild, with only a bare few bastions of civilization.  Even the settlement he’d helped raise to some degree of prominence was little more than a backwater village, only on a slightly larger scale.  When he’d left the Dawn Kingdom, he’d done so under some duress.  Stealing from his Master was an expected part of his culture, but getting caught certainly was not.

If he’d stayed, he would have been tried and likely...

Chapter 674 - A New Skillset

Zeke awoke with his face buried in soft grass.

At first, he reveled in the feeling because, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he wasn’t in pain.  The entire time he’d spent descending the circles of Hell, he’d been forced to endure some level of torment.  At times, it was so subtle that he forgot it was even there, but at other times, it was far more overt.

But now?

Now, it was entirely gone, and he couldn’t help but bask in the feeling.&nbs...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 11 - Proper Defenses

“You don’t ever just want to explore?” Elijah asked, sitting close to the hearth.  He’d stopped wearing his Cloak of the Iron Bear, so he didn’t have the benefit of Temperate to keep the effects of the clammy weather at bay.  He knew he was functionally immune to all but the worst cases of exposure, but that didn’t mean that he was comfortable in the damp cold.  “You know, see the world?  Or the multi-verse?”

Kurik, who sat across from him on a camp c...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 10 - A Philosophical Decision

The metal glistened, glowing bright red inside the forge.  It was ready.  Carmen knew it.  And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to pull it free, largely because she still wasn’t certain how to proceed. 

In the wake of the completion of the Forge of Creation, she had experienced a tidal wave of motivation.  She’d spent the following weeks hammering out one item after another, and each one was near the limits of her capabilities.  Only rarely did she fai...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 9 - Extermination

Flying was a distinctly visceral experience.

The way the wind passed over his scales, the knowledge that he was thousands of feet above the ground, and the sheer sense of freedom that came from defying gravity – it all combined into something almost indescribable.  Still, of his two travel forms – as he liked to refer to Shape of the Sky and Shape of the Sea – he knew which one he preferred. 

And the first time he failed to dodge the raking talons of one of the eno...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 8 - Bird Problems

“Draggin’ me out here like I don’t have nothin’ else to do,” grumbled Kurik, his short legs having no problem keeping up with Elijah’s pace.  The dwarf had clearly gained a good deal of experience via his efforts in setting up Ironshore’s defenses – which made sense, based on what Elijah had seen of them.  It also probably contributed to his friend’s insistence on staying put.

Why go looking for trouble when he could stay put and get all the experience he wan...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 7 - Prime Grinding

Gwenivere stared at the abandoned settlement, unsure what to think.  She’d lived there, once, and not even that long ago.  She had hunted those tunnels, killing flesh spiders and all manner of foul, mutated creatures.  She’d lain awake, staring at the jagged shards protruding from the ceiling, wondering if they would suddenly fall and end her suffering. 

Maybe hoping.

That had driven her and the others to form a suicidal expedition to the surface, where the...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 6 - Intertwined

The smell of sizzling bacon reached Elijah’s nose well before he arrived at his destination.  He still wasn’t particularly happy about his discovery concerning the other Primal Realm, but the aroma coming from his favorite greasy spoon style restaurant definitely helped.  Anticipation and hunger clawing at him, he hurried down the street, eager to reach Mama Lou’s. 

He arrived only a few moments later, entering through a simple glass door.  The building looked ...

Chapter 673 - Primordial

Class.

Zeke hadn’t really considered that word for quite some time.  However, now that Oberon had mentioned it, he couldn’t deny that he was more than a little curious about what might be in store.  After all, he’d been through so much since taking the Arcane Colossus class.  He’d upgraded most of his skills, some more than once.  And he’d gone through the impossible gauntlet of hell’s nine circles.  Finally, he had tapped into the divine, transformi...

Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 5 - The Cost

Dark clouds loomed on the horizon, a herald of the coming storm.  Somewhere in the distance were twenty forts not unlike the one whose ramparts Sadie stood upon.  Ten for ogres.  Ten for hobgoblins.  And then, between them all was the realm’s primary objective.  She looked at the notification she’d received upon entering the Primal Realm:

You have entered the Eternal War.  To conquer this Primal Realm, defeat your enemies and take the Hollow Cro...