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Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 80 - While I was Gone

Elijah appeared in the center of the grove and immediately collapsed to his knees. 

“What did you do?” demanded Nerthus. 

Elijah looked up to see the spryggent looking down on him, a stern expression on his bark-like face.  The tree-man’s features weren’t the easiest to read, but as Nerthus’ power had grown alongside the grove’s, doing so had become a lot easier.  And he was clearly angry about something.

Which didn’t make sense.

Nerth...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 79 - Homecoming

The density of the atmospheric ethera had decreased significantly, but that was as expected, given that Elijah had just conquered the Primal Realm.  The stark difference was still a little shocking, and it was even more dramatic than what he’d experienced in Hong Kong.  Hopefully, Lucy’s research would have already born some fruit, so he wouldn’t need to worry too much longer about another surge in power.  Even if she hadn’t managed to figure out how to work with the se...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 78 - Necessity and Enmity

Miguel yanked his sword from the hairy monster’s body, then jerked around to continue the battle.  However, after only one look at the slightly dazed solders – and all the bodies carpeting the ground – he knew it was over.  His shoulders sagged in exhaustion, but he took the time to mechanically clean his sword, using his equally bloody shirt to accomplish he task, then sheathed the wooden blade at his waist.

With that done, he joined what remained of the other fighters ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 77 - Completion

As the golem fell apart all around him, Elijah found himself in a maelstrom of bubbles, swirling water, and corroded metal.  He cut through the current, tucking his head as far back as he could in an effort to shield it from falling debris.  Above, tens of thousands of tons of former golem plunged into the water, threatening to flatten him against the lake floor.

He pushed himself as hard as he could, using his immense Strength to propel his massive body forward, dodging shatt...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 76 - Blood From Metal

Elijah jerked awake to the roar of wind. 

A piece of metal smashed against his face, pulling him fully back to awareness.  And he did not like what he saw.  Still in the Shape of the Sea, he twisted in mid-air and saw that he was still miles above the surface.  If he’d been back on Earth, he felt certain that he would have been in space.  As it was, he was spared that fate – apparently, on this planet, the atmosphere stretched much farther before ceding to t...

Chapter 669 - Bridge of Fractured Trust

The sound of fracturing ice followed Zeke as he stepped into the cavern.  All around him, the wails of the damned – each one encased in ice – joined the cracking ice to form a discordant chorus of horror.  But those sounds were nothing compared to the memories assaulting his mind.

With every step, the snakes reared up, flaring their hoods and attacking him with his own memories.  Most were benign – small betrayals where he told white lies or disobeyed his mother bac...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 75 - The Prime Core

Elijah clung to the ceiling, looking down at a mass of golems.  There weren’t just thousands of them.  Not even tens of thousands.  If there less than hundreds of thousands, he would have been immensely surprised.  The things stood shoulder-to-shoulder, entirely unmoving, and filling the entirety of the forge. 

Among their feet were small monsters slithering between their thick legs of mingled rock and metal.  Elijah could sense thousands of hand-sized fl...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 74 - The Forge of Adaptation

The world shook.

Ethera surged all around, infusing the very air with dense energy.  As he gripped what was left of the massive mechanical heart, Elijah looked around in confusion – and more than a little trepidation.  Upon destroying the Prime Mechanique’s core, he had fully expected the battle to be over.  Yet, he’d gotten no experience notifications.  Nor had he received a message telling him he’d completed the Primal Realm. 

The quake intensifi...

Chapter 668 - Hollow

Zeke launched a punch at the first of the frozen monarchs, but the second his fist came close, it shattered on a wall of ice.  A quick pulse of [Hand of Divinity] came by instinct, mending the hand before he threw another punch.  However, the results were the same – a shattered hand and an untouched foe.

He fell to the ground, his breath coming fast and furious as the walls of ice dissipated into nothingness.

“No,” the monarchs said as one.  Only then did Zeke...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 73 - The Prime

The heat enveloped him, clinging to his skin and burning his lungs.  The Temperate trait of Elijah’s Cloak of the Iron Bear helped mitigate all but the worst of it, but what made it through was still enough to send sweat pouring off of him in buckets.  The second he’d stepped into the massive smithy, Guise of the Unseen had been stripped away, so, he’d abandoned the Shape of Venom for his human form. 

He knew he was being watched, and by multiple sets of eyes. ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 72 - Endurance

Roiling flames washed over Elijah, superheating the air until every breath scorched his throat.  The huge slab of metal in his hands grew hot enough to burn his hands to ash, and the wall behind him melted under the onslaught.

Yet, he persisted.

Mostly, that was because he’d cast Wild Resurgence, Blessing of the Grove, and Nature’s Bloom a moment before the flames rolled over him, but it was also because he had funneled ethera into Grove Conduit, pushing it as hard as he ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 71 - A Failed Iteration

The sound of metal grinding against metal hissed through the air as Elijah beheld a monstrosity – a macabre fusion of man and machine.  It – or maybe he – looked like two disparate creatures fused together, neither fully whole nor entirely broken. 

One half was faceted metal, a patchwork of jagged and rusted shards barely distinguishable from the walls with which Elijah had become very familiar.  The joints were the worst, their mechanisms choked with ocher grease l...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 70 - The Furnace Tesseract

Elijah should have known it was a trap.

It was too convenient.  Too easy.  And yet, after spending most of a day fruitlessly exploring the factory, he was so eager for answers that he never even considered that the room didn’t really fit with the rest of the factory’s aesthetic.  But he’d blundered inside, grabbing the information crystal like he’d found the most precious treasure in the world.

He didn’t even get a chance to access it before the floor open...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 69 - Familiarity

Elijah ripped the head free of the harpy, finally ending its life.  He’d been hunting the creatures for nearly two weeks, and he’d finally found their lair.  Thankfully, there had only been a few dozen there, and he’d spent the following couple of days waiting for them to leave, then pouncing on them as soon as they were isolated. 

And at last, he’d finished off the final monster.

Fortunately, they were neither as observant nor as durable as he’d dreaded.&...

Chapter 667 - The Frozen Abyss

Zeke shivered so violently that it sent tremors of pain up his spine. 

Looking around, it wasn’t difficult to see why.  He stood upon a nearly featureless plain of black ice, a blindingly white sky looming over him.  The combination cast everything in monochrome, and when he inspected his hand, he saw rime creeping over his fingers. 

He flung it away, flexing his numb fingers, but the frost returned only a few moments later.  Then, he clutched his arms t...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 68 - Through the Smoke

The smell of smoke hung dense in the air, filling Elijah’s lungs and feeding the flames of his fury.  The sight of the factory – for that was all it could be – only made it worse, and he struggled to contain his instinctual anger.  Even as he slowly closed in on the enormous facility, his simmering rage very nearly overwhelmed him. 

Yet, by that point, he’d had plenty of opportunities to overcome his instincts, and he used those experiences to help him clamp down ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 67 - Prisoner

For the longest time, Elijah was only half aware of his surroundings.  The fight against the mutated and many-tendriled Vey’thaalian had taken more out of him than he ever could have expected.  Not surprising, given how long the struggle had taken and the number of abilities he’d been forced to use. 

Once he finally regained awareness, he found himself in the back of a wooden cart that was being pulled by some monstrosity he could scarcely see.  He could feel it,...

Chapter 666 - The Weight of Vulnerability

“It’s okay,” came a soothing voice.  Zeke expected to feel an accompanying hand on his back, but there was nothing.  “Just breathe.  Don’t let it overwhelm you.  In and out, Ezekiel.  One slow breath after another.”

Zeke struggled to follow the commands.  His lungs didn’t want to cooperate, instead insisting on short, shallow breaths that made him feel lightheaded.  He didn’t remember the last few minutes.  One second, he’d stepp...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 66 - Project Complete

Carmen leaned close, her face only an inch from the glowing metal.  If she got any closer, even using abilities like Endure Flames and Energy Shielding, she would have been burned.  Even with her precautions, her Constitution was only sufficient to prevent lasting injury.  It didn’t keep it from being uncomfortable.  Though, she didn’t allow herself to acknowledge the subtle pain, instead focusing on the chisel in her hand and the design she’d engraved upon the surfa...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 65 - Root and Vine

Elijah rushed forward, leaping over a clump of twisted flesh vines and raising his scythe high above his head.  As he brought it down on the monster’s mutated body, he released Storm’s Fury.  The creature raised its arms to block, but the blade still dragged a jagged wound down its many-eyed face.  That was more than Elijah had expected, but that happy surprise was mitigated by the fact that the bolt of lightning did almost no damage.

His momentum took him into the cr...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 64 - Connected in all the Worst Ways

The smell of the Veinroot Hollow was uniquely unpleasant.  It was musky and sweet, with undercurrents of iron and rot.  Was that why Elijah found the meat so grotesque?  Or was it something else about the taste that he just couldn’t put his finger on?  He wasn’t sure, but the questions kept coming as he thoughtfully chewed the strikingly tough hunk of charred flesh spider.

Over the past week, he’d lost track of how many monsters he’d killed.  He’d leve...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 63 - Horrors Aplenty

The blade of the Verdant Fang sliced through the air, then sunk into the flesh spider’s torso with a squishy thunk.  Elijah yanked the weapon back with enough force that he split the thing in two.  Only then did he let it fall to the ground as he struggled to catch his breath.  All around him lay the corpses of his enemies, many of which were spiders just like the last one he’d killed.  However, there were many more varieties of monster, each one as horrifyingly malfor...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 62 - The Veinroot Hollow

Elijah studied the coral growing at the bottom of the glassy cave.  If his chelonian features were capable of twisting into recognizable expressions, he would have narrowed his eyes.  However, in the Shape of the Sea, he had no such capability.  So, he just stared at it, waiting for a signal.

Then, suddenly, it flashed with bioluminescence. 

That was exactly what he’d been waiting on, and he used his massive flippers to propel himself into the next corridor, ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 61 - The Abyssal Glassworks

It felt like Elijah was trapped inside a prism. 

Everywhere he looked was glass, and the way the ambient light refracted through it felt extremely disorienting. 

With a flick of his fins, he inched forward, letting his senses spread out.  Vaguely, he could feel the general shape of the corridor into which he swam, though it seemed diffuse and barely solid.  Like a bubble on the verge of popping.  However, when he approached one of the glass walls and nudge...

Chapter 665 - Shattered Delusion

“What do we do?!” hissed Zora.  “When he wakes up –”

“He’ll think it was all another one of his hallucinations,” came a male voice.  Zeke didn’t have the strength to open his eyes, but his ears worked perfectly fine.  He could easily envision the voice’s owner.  His handsome face.  The kind eyes that hid deceit.  After what he’d seen, Zeke knew he could never look at his brother the same way.  “You know better than anyone just h...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 60 - Desolation

There were so many.  More than Elijah could have ever expected, in fact.  Even having experienced the near constant flow of monsters, he’d lacked the context necessary to truly understand just how ubiquitous the mutated creatures really were.  But after trekking across the ruined planet for more than three days, he’d begun to understand the true meaning of the word infestation.

The variety was staggering, and Elijah had stopped even trying to catalogue the different t...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 59 - Worry

Ducking beneath an enormous, iron-studded club, Sadie swept Final Verdict around in wide arc.  The blade bit deep into the ogre’s knee, severing tendons and fouling the joint, but the ten-foot-tall creature managed to remain upright.  At least that was the case until it was hit by seven blazing arrows that tore a massive crater in its chest.  Sadie used that to her advantage, aiming a two-handed uppercut at the ogre.  The shining blade tore into its torso, cutting throug...

Chapter 664 - Crumbling

On shaky legs, Zeke pushed himself to his feet.  His bones creaked and his knees crackled under his meager weight, but for the first time in a long time, he refused to let himself feel the pain.  Instead, he recovered a smidgen of the resolve that had once made him so unique and used it to ignore the fiery agony that came with every movement.  With that buoying him, he arduously slipped his feet into the slippers at the foot of his bed, then prepared for the death-defying desce...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 58 - Progress

Elijah staggered through the gate, then collapsed in exhaustion, slumping against the wall.  The gate slammed shut behind him just in time to stop the monsters from invading the city.  It had happened before, and Elijah had seen only a few creatures kill dozens before the soldiers were able to respond.  For his part, he didn’t think he could have moved even if one of them tried to eat his face.

He’d barely even made it back inside.

“How long was it this time?�...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 57 - Adaptation

The ground rumbled with charging soldiers, each one armed with a shield and spear.  At the head of their wedge formation was Elijah, glowing with green fire and brandishing the Verdant Fang.  Ethera flowed within him as he held multiple spells at the ready.  Across the battlefield were millions of monsters, each one malformed and mutated beyond the scope of recognition.  Tentacles waved, multiple mouths slavered, and limbs of differing lengths interrupted their smooth gait...