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Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 56 - A City Under Siege

Elijah tumbled free of the sphincter, gasping for breath in his human form.  For whatever reason, his Ring of Aquatic Travel hadn’t worked in that horrible space, so he’d very nearly suffocated.  But that was far down his list of most disturbing things about the experience. 

He’d been swallowed before.  He had been digested alive while inside a monster’s stomach.  But spending nearly half an hour slowly being forced down a compressed, fleshy tunnel fille...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 55 - Splitting Up is Always a Good Idea

“I told you already.  Stop askin’.”

Elijah responded, “Come on.  It’ll be fun.  You’ve never even been to a Primal Realm.  Think of all the traps you could deploy.”

“Got plenty of traps here,” Kurik spat, leaning forward, his eyeball only a quarter of an inch away from the contraption he was building.  It practically sizzled with potent ethera, telling Elijah that it was a pretty dangerous piece.  Part of that probably came from the ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 54 - Return to Reality

One of Elijah’s favorite things was seeing how strangers reacted to visiting his grove for the first time.  But regrettably, it was also one of the most stressful experiences he could endure.  Letting people into the grove – even briefly – always came with the possibility that it would ignite the fires of covetousness in their hearts.  With so much power waved under their noses, it wasn’t difficult to imagine someone becoming obsessed and trying to take what was his.&nb...

Chapter 663 - A Break in Reality

Zeke blinked.

For the longest moment, he had absolutely no idea where he was, but he did know one thing – he was angry.  Like a caged animal, whipped into a fury, he lashed out.  With a roar, he threw himself to his feet and searched for some way to vent his confused ire.  His eyes immediately settled on a silver-masked monster with a forked tongue.  It squatted on the edge of an gilded chest of drawers, its head cocked as if it was curious what he might do next. 2025-02-25 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 53 - The Circle of Storms

Davika Yadav massaged her arthritic knuckles as she lay on her pallet, every possession she’d accumulated over the past five or six years in a roughly sewn sack by her side.  The only thing she’d left behind was the small shack she’d built, and that was only because, with her meager Strength, she couldn’t carry it with her.  As a Farmer, she just didn’t have attributes like that. 

Sure, her high Constitution gave her the endurance to keep going well after everyo...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 52 - Unsuited

Everyone stood on the low cliff, staring out at something that should not have existed, especially so far beneath the surface.  By Miguel’s estimates, their weeks-long journey through the maze of tunnels and caverns had taken them miles belowground.  And yet, looking out at the landscape stretching before him, he could have easily convinced himself that he stood on the surface.

The terrain was characterized by a sea of waist-high grass, the monotony of it broken up only by a...

Chapter 662 - Lost in Delusion

Zeke’s fingers danced among the flowers, barely touching them as rays of sunlight played across his skin.  It felt so real.  Everything did.  The smell reminded him of every other garden he’d ever visited.  The sun’s rays were as warm as ever.  And the subtle chirp of birds was music to his ears. 

He even saw a fat grey squirrel – not unlike those he’d grown up around – dart by and climb one of the nearby trees.

It was perfect.  Idyll...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 51 - Circle

For a couple of hours, Elijah sat in the center of that glade, familiarizing himself with the ambient ethera.  It wasn’t strictly necessary, but of late, he’d begun to wonder if he’d been shortchanging his dolmens by forcing himself on their locations.  Certainly, he’d gotten good results, but he felt there was something important missing from the equation.  With that in mind, he’d set about trying to figure that out.

And so far, he’d come up with nothing.

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 50 - A Short Journey

As it turned out, there were two distinct groups of people who’d washed ashore on the island in the center of the storm.  One came from the crashed plane, but the other had been aboard a large shipping vessel that had capsized almost immediately after the world’s transformation.  Fortunately, the crew were all well-trained, and they managed to get almost everyone aboard lifeboats. 

Only a hundred or so had survived the harrowing journey that followed, and that seeming...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 49 - Eldrathûn

Empress Siala stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her consort, Ivin, and watched as the refugees filed into the city in an endless stream.  Nearby stood her closest advisors – both military and civilian – each one practically shaking with the need for her attention.  Some were sycophants.  She’d known as much even from a very young age.  However, just because they were obsequiously self-serving didn’t mean that they couldn’t be useful. 

The same could be s...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 48 - Survivors

Not wanting to spook the guard, Elijah retreated a few hundred feet down the tunnel so he could resume his human shape.  When he did, his scales flashed briefly before he got a handle on it with Natural Shapeshifter.  It was getting easier, but he knew he was still a long way from suppressing his draconic changes entirely.  It had gotten to the point where he’d begun to wonder why he even bothered.

Lots of skills and spells featured cosmetic changes to a person’s body...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 47 - Webs of Flesh

In general, babies were cute.  There was just something about their overlarge heads and absolute innocence that made them adorable.  Elijah was well aware that most of that effect could be chalked up to evolutionary instincts meant to ensure the protection of young, but that didn’t stop it from working.

But despite looking a lot like human children, harpy babies were anything but cute.  There was a wrongness to them, the result of which far exceeded any discomfort he mi...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 46 - Division of Labor

It was all a mirage, and the cracks in the illusion had already begun to show themselves. 

Never was that clearer than when Sadie attended the so-called gladiatorial games.  She was no stranger to combat sports.  Growing up, she’d participated in more martial arts tournaments than she could count, and she had enjoyed them for what they were.  However, to see eighty thousand people cheering as a man was beaten nearly to death was a long way off from a couple of teen...

Chapter 661 - Spiral City

The world twisted, bending Zeke’s mind in all the wrong directions.  Laid out before him was an endless city of crumbling buildings, all of which jutted from the ground at impossible angles.  If he looked away, even for a second, everything would change.  Every blink brought a different cityscape of despair, twisting his thoughts, his senses, and his stomach with its incongruency.

Yet, as had been the case since he’d entered the Maw, Zeke had no choice but to forge ah...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 45 - Barren

Jagged rocks covered in algae jutted from the sea, forming a crown around the island.  Gentle waves lapped against them, their placidity a stark contrast to the aggressive spikes.  Elijah climbed from the ocean, having shifted into the Shape of Venom and adopted the Guise of the Unseen.  A shadow flashed across the rocky shore, and Elijah looked up to see a half-dozen birds flit across the sun.

They were enormous, with wingspans comparable to his in Shape of the Sky. ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 44 - Into the Storm

The tentacle screamed through the water, the bubbles of its passage eliminating all visibility.  Elijah beat his mighty flippers, avoiding the hooked appendage.  It skated across his shell, and though Elijah felt the attack, it was only barely.  He very much felt what came next, though.

Blades of water erupted all around him, slicing into every part of his body.  A bubbling growl escaped from his beaked mouth as he retracted his head as much as possible, hunkering do...

Chapter 660 - On the Nature of Demons

Zeke stumbled through the door, and the second he felt himself fully reach the other side, he sank to his hands and knees.  But he didn’t let himself break down.  Not again.  Instead, he just knelt there and recentered his mind.  He’d died countless times, but it didn’t feel quite as real as his experiences in the Circle of Heresy.  In any case, he felt mentally stronger now. 

“Being used to abuse doesn’t make you stronger,” Eveline said in his ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 43 - Parting Ways

“I’ll just leave it with you,” said Elijah. 

“What?  Are you leaving already?” asked Lucy, still leaning over the microscope.  Apparently, the tool was useful for seeing ethereal flows in addition to magnifying its subject.  She looked up.  “The Summit’s still ongoing.”

Elijah shrugged.  “I have things to do,” he said.  “Sadie is going to take notes for me.”

“Elijah, this is about the fate of our world.”

�...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 42 - A Warning

“If you’re here to kill me, you should know that there will be consequences.  For you personally as well as your city,” Isaiah said, gripping his chair’s armrests.  He was terrified.  Elijah could see that much, even if the man lacked the biological markers of fear.  No raised heart rate.  No sweat pouring down his face.  His voice didn’t even quiver.  “We know precisely where Ironshore is, and I am not afraid to isolate it and –”

“Ir...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 41 - Everything in its Place

Isaiah’s artificial heart didn’t pound.  In fact, its function never changed, regardless of the situation, entirely unaffected by adrenaline or the body’s other regulating chemicals.  Most of the time, that steadiness was helpful, especially in regulating his emotions.  The fight-or-flight response was dependent on an increased heart rate, after all.  But right now, he cursed it.

Because he wanted to be scared.  He needed it to remind him just how close to...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 40 - Kindred

When Elijah woke the next day, he was still annoyed. 

It didn’t matter that he’d spent the night with Sadie.  Nor did he truly care about all the money he’d made with his soap.  He wasn’t even concerned with his purchases, most of which were various seeds that had been found across the world.  He had no doubts they were meant to help farming communities, but he’d bought them for Nerthus.  Whatever the spryggent didn’t need would go to Ironshore, whic...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 39 - Soap Tycoon

The din of conversation did little to soothe Elijah’s ire.  Images of razed buildings and dying people filled his mind, and his anger mounted.  The only thing keeping him tethered was Sadie’s hand gripping his, but even that was woefully insufficient to smother his rage at not only being disrespected but also used by Isaiah without his knowledge or consent. 

So, his explosion was inevitable.  All that was needed was a spark.  And Nico, ever unlucky, provided...

Chapter 659 - The Last Battle

Millions of battle-crazed warriors screamed as one as they sprinted across the field.  Finally feeling like some semblance of himself, Zeke rolled his shoulders and stepped forward to meet them.  The sound of so many feet slapping against the ground was deafening – like a stampede of warriors – and when they finally clashed, Zeke was rewarded with a surprise.

The first blow came predictably from Ragnar, whose giant axe glowed with power before he cut into Zeke’s hastily ...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 38 - A Parade of Assholes

He felt it before he even stepped foot into the ballroom, a soothing breeze of ethera that wrapped around his mind, trying to lull him into obeisance.  A second later, the sound of music drifted into his ears, bolstering that gentle wind into a gust that he found both exhilarating and annoying in equal measure.

He smothered it with his own ethera, rejecting it outright, and stepped inside. It only took him a moment to home in on the source – a woman playing a harp in the corner.&...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 37 - Beautiful People

Those of you who pay attention to the Discord probably expect this, but for those who don't, here's a quick announcement: I've decided to start the two-a-day chapters a couple of weeks early. These will continue until the end of March. So, I hope you all enjoy it!

Also, Wednesdays will now have three chapters until we reach a hundred ahead of Royal Road (which should be in a few weeks).

“Hart.  Elijah Hart,” Elijah said to his reflection in the bathroom mir...

Chapter 658 - Breaking the Shackles

A deep sense of melancholy infected Zeke’s mind as he realized that yet another warrior had fallen away.  She was the last of the fighters he’d bothered to get to know.  The others were just faceless bodies, entirely devoid of any identity.

Certainly, he knew that wasn’t the case.  If he allowed himself to see past his own sorrow, he would have seen them as the individuals they were.  But he couldn’t do that.  He didn’t dare.  Not after he’d alr...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 36 - A Night on the Town

“I’m beginning to realize that I may be slightly overdressed,” Elijah said, standing beside the pool and looking down on Sadie.  She wore a modest black bikini and a pair of sunglasses, with a beverage in an actual coconut sitting nearby.  “What happened to wanting to wear your armor everywhere?”

She propped herself up on her elbows and answered, “It didn’t seem appropriate.  This city is a lot more…normal than I expected.”

Elijah couldn’t disagr...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 35 - A Familiar Face

Elijah leaned against a tree and bit down an apple.  Only a few feet away, Lucy nearly leaped out of her skin.  She was scrambling away in an awkward crabwalk before her expression changed.  It went from fear to surprise and then to anger.  She threw her shears at Elijah, who caught them without issue.

“Hey, Luce.  What’s going on?”

“You asshole!” she shouted.  “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Are heart attacks even a thing?...

Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 34 - Shiny and New

Once upon a time, a mile-long walk would have taken at least fifteen or twenty minutes, but in this instance, Elijah and Sadie covered that distance in approximately a quarter of that time.  Still, they both had a chance to admire Seattle from afar. 

As with every other successful city that Elijah had seen since the world’s transformation, Seattle was encircled by an imposing wall.  However, unlike the others Elijah had encountered, this particular bulwark was seemingly...

Chapter 657 - Brothers in Battle

The drumbeat had become incessant. 

Zeke heard it every second of every day.  It didn’t matter if he’d just awoken after a brutal death or he was deeply embedded in the celebratory feast.  They just never stopped pounding in his head, regardless of whether the sound was audible or not.  It was absolutely maddening, and it had been going on for longer than he could really remember. 

After he’d pulled himself free of the delusional commitment to battle...