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Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 42 - Unending

Elijah spent the next few hours exploring the area surrounding Dragon Tiger Mountain, and he soon confirmed that Hong Kong Island had grown considerably, even connecting to the mainland by a half-mile-wide strip of land that had clearly originated in another city.  Before, it had been around thirty square miles of land, which meant that it was around the same size as Elijah’s island.  However, now, it was at least twice that, with much of its area filled by buildings from other ur...

Chapter 616 - Hellscape

Zeke stepped into a setting he very much did not expect. 

“What the…”

It was clearly a city, but one that had been abandoned for centuries.  The sun beat down from overhead with enough intensity to create a heat shimmer that distorted his vision.  The buildings themselves were unremarkable, though they did remind him of some of the urban areas he’d seen back on Earth.  However, there were a few key factors that made all the difference.

For one, th...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 41 - Dragon Tiger Mountain

Elijah’s heart broke for his friend.

Dat made such an effort to maintain his appearance – to provide a thread of optimism to everyone else – that it was often difficult to see that mask fall away.  Elijah had only seen it a couple of times, but each time had been eye-opening.  He desperately wanted to help, but he was well aware of his social deficiencies.  He’d offered, and he had no idea what else to do. 

After all, helping someone was predicated on t...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 40 - The Affable One

Sitting on the bench, Dat stared at the floor.  But he didn’t see the pristine white tiles.  Instead, he was entirely focused inward, on the memories dancing in his mind.  Some were comforting, but others – like the hours he’d spent carrying Lisa’s body back to Heaven’s Bastion – were decidedly less so.  He didn’t weep at those memories, though.  He didn’t have any tears left.

He looked up, running his hand through his hair.  He’d let it g...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 39 - Dance of the Dragon

Sitting in the center of the grove, Miguel focused on his surroundings.  Because of his class, he’d been afforded the ability to perceive the grove in a way that exceeded the effects of his mundane senses.  From what he understood, his uncle had a similar ability, though Elijah’s version was far more powerful and offered significantly increased detail.  Yet, for Miguel, even his watered-down version was almost too much for him to fully comprehend.  The volume of inform...

Chapter 615 - The Portal

After spending a couple of days getting his mind right, Zeke was finally ready to enter Hell.  However, before he did so, he had a couple of other details begging for his attention.  The most important was his relationship with Adara, which would have to be put on the backburner for quite some time.  Certainly, while in Hell, he could still open a gate back to the Crimson Tower, but once he reached the Pit and began his descent, he would be entirely isolated.

“We’re n...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 38 - Heaven's Bastion

“Whoa, now.  I’m not –”

As Elijah tried to defuse the situation, a fighter stepped forward holding a pair of handcuffs.  “Do not move.  Do not resist.  You will be –”

Elijah had no interest in letting anyone bind him.  However, with the Envoy clearly having activated some ability meant to suppress his power – both in terms of his spellcasting ability and his attributes – he didn’t really have much choice.  Still, if there was one t...

Chapter 614 - The Hall of Affinity

The Crimson Tower was abuzz with activity.  Kobolds, large and small, young and old, made up the bulk of the crowds moving about the newly renamed Commerce District, but there were plenty of other races represented as well.  Beastkin, most of whom had been enslaved by the Imperium, were the second most common, but the population of humans had grown considerably as well.  Those were former peasants who’d been enslaved or otherwise oppressed by the Radiant Host, with a few form...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 37 - Long Overdue

“That sneaky little…”

“Is it a problem?” Ron asked.  “If it is, I’m sure we can –”

“No,” Elijah said, running his hand through his hair.  “It’s not your fault.  And obviously I’m going to do it.  Your daughter’s health is worth way more than my feelings about his demands.  I just don’t like being backed into a corner.”

And he definitely didn’t like Biggle’s price for brewing a potion to curtail the effects of Hop...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 36 - Treatment

After getting Hope settled in their new – likely temporary – apartment, Ron decided to explore the city, and for a couple of reasons.  First, he was genuinely curious, and that was supported by the little he’d seen while traveling from the dock to the apartment building.  His initial impressions were supported by that short inspection, and he was eager to see more. 

However, before he left the apartment, he gave the complex a good once-over, and he was surprised to ...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 35 - Unexpected

Hope stepped through the odd portal, and the second she set foot on the other side, she stumbled.  Some of her lost footing could be chalked up to simple surprise.  After all, suddenly finding herself in paradise – especially after spending years in the frozen grip of winter – was quite a shock to her system.  However, in terms of causing a brief bout of lost balance, the real culprit was the sheer weight of ethera on the other side of that gate. 

And she wasn’...

Chapter 613 - Final Steps

Zeke slammed his hammer against the vault door for what felt like the millionth time.  In reality, it was probably more.  Much, much more.  For months, he’d been steadily beating his hammer against the giant vault, but to very little avail.  He’d made some progress, as evidenced by the deep cracks spreading across the metal surface.  However, he’d yet to get through. 

And he very much wanted to see what was on the other side.

He could feel it.&n...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 34 - New Additions

Elijah was frustrated.

Resting his hand on the trunk of a massive pine tree, he watched the line of refugees as they snaked their way through the forest.  There had been thirty-four people living in Forest Hills, and thankfully, they’d all decided to follow Elijah.  Unfortunately though, aside from Ron and a couple of Ranger archetypes, they were all low-leveled and woefully weak.  Elijah had no issues with protecting them, but his patience at their slow progress had be...

Chapter 612 - Peace

“I’m leaving,” Abby said, inadvertently shifting her eyes to the floor.  After what she’d seen during the previous battle, which had lasted for more than a week, she knew precisely how little she belonged with Zeke and the others who’d joined him.  She was an outcast, and one that people like Talia actively hated.  If she stayed, she knew she would one day find a set of claws through her ribcage. 

Zeke, who had finally returned to his human form after fight...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 33 - Hope

Claws were not meant for stonecarving.

Elijah knew that, and yet, they were a much better option than the couple of knives he kept in his Ghoul-Hide Satchel.  Still, after roughly shaping the blocks and placing them into position, Elijah had been forced to give up on the Shape of Thorn.  It was great for tasks involving brute strength, but it had a clear deficiency when it came to coordination.  That factor did highlight the reality of how attributes worked together, thou...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 32 - Kitsune

For a moment, the scene looked like it was frozen in time.  Tiny icicles dripped from pink and white blossoms as snow cradled its roots.  Nestled among those snowy berms was a white fox with nine tails.  Ethera swirled around the guardian like gusting wind that sent ripples of energy in every direction. 

Transfixed, Elijah stepped forward, and the fox stirred.  It rose to its feet, tails twitching as it focused its attention on the intruder in its midst.  F...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 31 - Grimlings

As Elijah soared through the sky, he was entirely amazed at the landscape laid out below him.   Enormous, snow-covered evergreens stretched as far as he could see, the carpet of white and green broken up only by a few remnants of the civilization that had once called the area home.  There were patches of road, overgrown and covered in ice, buildings half-buried beneath the snow, and tall, faded billboards advertising legal services.  Elijah even saw a stretch of highway, c...

Chapter 611 - Embodiment

Zeke smashed his forehead into the black crystal trunk of the tree, shattering it with a single blow.  At the same time, he grabbed hold of one of the thousand branches jutting from his chest and yanked.  It came free with the sound of glass scraping against metal, sending a spurt of silver blood to splatter on the ground.  It never hit, for the entire courtyard was inches deep in black shards of crystal. 

He didn’t have time to notice any of that, though.  In...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 30 - Forest Hills

For Elijah, teleportation was not an unfamiliar process.  He’d experienced it on more than one occasion – first, with Roots of the World Tree and its predecessor, and then when he’d been transported to Ka’arath for the Trial of Primacy – but this instance felt subtly different.  It was characterized by a similar darkness and suspension in nothingness, but it felt smoother than ever before.  It was like piloting a speedboat across a placid lake as opposed to sailing on...

Chapter 610 - Oda

Zeke’s heavy feet thudded against the ground, digging deep divots into the muddy turf as he raced toward Oda.  The demonic tree god had somehow possessed Ignatius, the leader of the Radiant Host, but he stood his ground as if he didn’t feel at all threatened.  Perhaps he didn’t.  After all, he was a god, and for all of Zeke’s strides forward, he was still just a man. 

He hefted Voromir, activating the hammer’s ability, and sending a massive, crimson manifes...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 29 - No More Excuses

Elijah landed just outside the grove, then initiated his transformation back into his human form.  He’d admittedly gotten a little carried away while testing out his flight form, and he had spent the past few hours flying faster and with more agility than ever before.  The influx of attributes along with the enhancements of reaching the Ascendent tier and pushing into the Expert tier of overall cultivation had left him feeling like a man remade.

Flying had always been exhila...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 28 - An Important Meeting

“Does he look different to you?” asked Carmen, her eyes trained on the multi-colored creature flying through the sky.  “He looks different.”

“Looks terrifyin’ is what he looks,” said Carissa with a shiver.  “How you spend so much time with ‘im, I’ll never know.  I’d be ‘fraid he’d eat me.”

“He doesn’t eat people,” Carmen sighed.  “You know that.  He’s saved this town twice now.”

“And I ‘preciate it.  I...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 27 - More than Expected

Elijah leaped from his balcony, his large, full-size mirror under his arm.  He landed in the grove, reveling in his increased attributes.  It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten them over two-hundred, but there was a difference between getting there with the benefit of buffs, equipment, and his various forms and attaining those heights as a human.  He felt lighter, stronger, and more coordinated, almost to the point where it affected his balance.  But thankfully, his att...

Chapter 609 - Drops of Divinity

Zeke rammed the gate, flexing his immense strength to give him more power.  It shattered before him, launching backward across a courtyard and into a wall.  It would have gone further, but the material of the gate was much weaker than the wall with which it had collided.  So, it broke into pieces rather than smash through. 

How had Zeke never recognized what he could do? 

His attributes were not just representative of his traits.  Strength didn’t re...

Shape of Thorn Art

I just wanted to share with the latest piece of art I commissioned (yes, I have a costly addiction to cool art). It's the Shape of Thorn:

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 26 - An Important Milestone

Elijah watched as he received one notification after another, each informing him that he’d attained another level.  And with every notification came an influx in attributes that, as they flooded his body, gave him an odd feeling of power, jitteriness, and a healthy dose of nausea.  When it finally settled, he hesitantly looked at his status:

A little quick math told him that t...

Chapter 608 - Forging Ahead

Zeke let out a sigh of relief as [Hand of Divinity] flooded into him, mending his wounds in only moments.  The skill didn’t expel the arrowheads in his back, but rather, melted them down so they could join his now-transformed titanic body.  Often, he’d chastised himself for using [Titan] as a crutch, but with the sounds of battle crashing through the city, he knew he needed every advantage he could get. 

A slight sound from behind alerted him, and he glanced back to s...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 25 - The Evolution

On the surface, there were only two choices that mattered.  Both the Primal Lord and the Bloomwarden lived up to their Mythic rarities, offering far more power than their Legendary counterparts.  Objectively, they were just better, so it was easy to discard the other three options. 

Fortunately, now that he had unlocked his choices, he didn’t need to maintain contact with the Branch of the World Tree.  So, he pulled away, thanked the Envoy of the World Tree, then l...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 24 - The Moment of Truth

Elijah landed lightly in Druid’s Park.  Concerning his flight technique, he’d made a ton of progress since he’d gained the spell just outside of Seattle, and though he wasn’t quite at the level of a native flyer like a bird, he at least didn’t disturb the ground upon landing.  He was eager to head to the Branch so he could select his class evolution, but he hesitated when he felt the density of ethera surrounding the ancestral tree. 

It had never been as powerfu...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 23 - The Only Constant

Elijah drifted in the center of the cave, hovering only a few feet from the bottom.  The Leviathan Bones remained, though he could feel that they were far less dense than they had been before his bout of cultivation.  As for the rest of the vegetation, it had been absorbed by his efforts.  Apparently, reaching the third stage of Core cultivation required quite a lot of energy, both vital and magical, and he’d taxed the cave to the extent of its capabilities.  That the co...