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Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 3 - Alone Again

Oscar squatted at the tree line, his hand on the trunk of a massive oak as he studied the glade.  His face remained impassive, but his mind roiled with the events of the past few days.  The end of the Trial had taken more from him than he ever could have expected, and upon his return to Earth, he’d found himself suddenly alone. 

Sophie nudged him with her snout, reminding him that he would always have his pack.  But was that enough to survive?  No matter how m...

Chapter 597 - Pushing Them Back

Zeke surveyed the battlefield, taking in the situation.  They had been fighting through the Imperium for what felt like an eternity, and though most of the cities had been abandoned, there had been enough resistance that it had required significant effort to progress. 

And now, they had finally arrived at their destination. 

Eldoria was an enormous city, normally housing more than ten million people.  And it was built on a scale to accommodate that population.&...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 2 - A Celebration of Life

A silvery moon hung high in the sky as Elijah sat atop one of Ironshore’s buildings, watching the proceedings below.  The residents were in a celebratory mood, and rightly so.  By the time he had returned from the Trial of Primacy, those people had already made peace with their own demise.  Some had held out hope of survival, but everyone knew the cost of surrender.  After all, dark elves were not known for their fair treatment of other races, and they were especially ha...

Chapter 596 - Slinking Away

Abby hit the ground in a roll that did very little to arrest her momentum. Instead, she skipped across the ground, digging a deep trench with every instance of contact. Finally, after almost half a mile, she slowed to a stop, where she lay in the overturned soil, her entire body smoking with the consequences of using her escape skill, [Radiant Retreat]. Unlike most skills, it had the potential to harm her, but when faced with a situation like she’d just escaped, it was a necessary evil. ...

Path of Dragons 7 - Chapter 1 - Loneliness and Desolation

Avara, the Queen of Desolation blinked awake.

Confused, she looked around, and all she saw was a frigid expanse teeming with deathly ethera and demonic influence.  The stench of rot and death wafted into her nose, but even that was overpowered by the smell – acidic and sickly sweet – of the demons arrayed before her. 

Five of them, all with enough power to topple mountains and destroy whole civilizations.  Lurking behind them was a curious figure.  No less ...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 103 - The Future

When Elijah arrived at the gate, he found his nephew – with his armor so damaged that it likely offered no protection at all – standing over a decapitated body.  A handful of other dark elves knelt at his feet, having been disarmed.  One of the lunar deer from the island stood guard, his small antlers glittering in the moonlight. 

“Miggy?  Are you okay?” Elijah asked on approach. 

The young man looked up, then, with a wooden sword, pointed at the b...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 102 - Defying Expectations

General Rham D’vix stood atop a roof overlooking the square where his army had gathered.  The casualties of the street-to-street advance had been extensive, but he had soldiers to spare.  At last count, he still had nearly thirty thousand good fighters at his disposal.  The vast majority weren’t terribly powerful, but that was no surprise.  Prodigies were not easily cultivated.  Still, they were a formidable fighting force, and it was only a matter of time until t...

Chapter 595 - Springing the Trap

Zeke nearly sighed in disappointment as he saw Abby disappear in a ray of light.  Had she planned the ambush?  Or was she ignorant of the trap?  Zeke had no idea, but either way, he wasn’t truly surprised.  Either she was woefully naïve when it came to the people to which she’d pledged her allegiance, or she’d once again proven that she didn’t care how her decisions affected everyone. 

“You should have killed her,” Eveline remarked.

“Probabl...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 101 - The Second Battle of Ironshore

Colt rammed his sword into the dark elf’s gut before wrenching it free.  Blood and intestines followed, filling the air with the smell of iron and human waste.  To his nose, it was barely even noticeable.  Not only had he been immersed in that smell for countless hours, but he had other things on his mind – like the arrow tearing through the air in his direction.

He whipped around, slicing the projectile out of the air. 

But there were dozens more on their ...

Chapter 594 - The Problem with Diplomacy

“Don’t do anything rash.”

Zeke barely heard Eveline’s warning.  Instead, his entire focus rested on the conflicting emotions flowing through his mind.  Some were easily explicable, like the sense of relief underlying everything.  He’d often wondered about Abby’s fate, fearing the worst, but now he had confirmation that she was alive and, from the looks of things, well.  Complicating matters was the fact that she’d clearly survived by allying herself wit...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 100 - Picking up the Pieces

Elijah let Shape of Thorn slide away, returning to his human form.  Like that, he knelt atop the slain Lightning Emperor.  He barely remembered the details of the last leg of the fight.  It was all lost amid so much ripping and tearing.  And squeezing.  Milky white blood covered most of his upper toros, and even more formed a pool all around the site of the battle. 

He just stared off at nothing,  covered in sweat and blood – some of it his own, but ...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 99 - Mass Times Acceleration

Sadie watched in horror as Elijah, in his flight form, dove.  There was a glint of metal right before he became a bolt of lightning.  An instant later, everything went dark.  Sadie’s mind went blank until, only a moment later, she found herself flying through the air.  She hit something a second later, and with enough force that she felt a few bones break.  Given her Constitution, that was a little troubling.

She forced her eyes open, blinked, then saw a scene...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 98 - The Nature of Sacrifice

Elijah raced forward, already shifting into the Shape of Thorn, but he knew he wouldn’t get there soon enough to save Dat.  Even as a huge, lightning bolt-shaped staff appeared in Yloa’s hand, Elijah’s body twisted and transformed.  As the staff fell toward Dat’s head, Elijah let out a scream of primal frustration.  The world felt like it was moving in slow motion, yet as strong as he was, Elijah couldn’t force himself to go any faster. 

He was destined to ...

Chapter 593 - Pushing Ahead

Zeke felt a dozen skills hit him all at once, but he didn’t even stagger under their collective force.  If anything, he only found it irritating.  If he’d known that the resistance was destined to be so light, he would have remained in the tower.  At least there, he could pretend he was doing something useful.  As it stood, even the least powerful legionnaires wouldn’t have had any issues standing up to the barrage.

“That’s being generous, calling it that, ...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 97 - Villain

“I have watched your progress,” said Yloa, pushing himself upright.  He crossed one set of arms, while the other set met behind his back as he slithered down from the throne.  He didn’t shout, but his words echoed like thunder through the throne room.  “I am impressed.”  His eyes went from Elijah, to Sadie, and then to Lamar.  “With some more than others.”

“We’re not here to talk,” Elijah announced, his eyes flicking towards the charred bodie...

Chapter 592 - Menace

“They are animals!” shouted Ignatius, sweeping the map and the paper weights from the table.  “Do you have any concept how it makes us look that we can’t deal with a horde of savages?  The rest of the world is laughing at us!  Worse, they’ve lost all respect for our power and are waiting to invade!  If those beasts can do it, then so can they!”

“Yes, High Commander,” said the general, his head bowed.  The man had been at the peak for a century, a...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 96 - Siege

Colt leaned back in the chair, his feet on the table as he looked at the still-unfamiliar cards.  He barely understood the game, but somehow, he was currently in the middle of an inexplicable hot streak.  He didn’t believe in luck – a man made his own fortune, as far as he was concerned – but his winning ways definitely stretched that notion to its limits. 

Finally, he laid his cards on the table.  “Believe that means I win.  Again.”

One of the d...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 95 - Strengths and Weaknesses

A volley of thrown javelins hit the ceiling, carving a line of destruction in Elijah’s wake.  Rocks and tiles erupted into dust upon impact, but he barely managed to outpace them.  Finally, he reached his destination and leaped, fangs bared.  He never reached his goal, because an enormous ka’alaki hulk swatted him out of the air.  His bones creaked under the blow, but nothing broke.  Using every point of Dexterity at his disposal, he twisted so that he hit the oth...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 94 - Armies and Individuals

Elijah was only a step behind Sadie when he shouted, “Get Dat and Helen!  I’ll hold them off until you get them to safety!”

He didn’t wait for her confirmation before he initiated a shift into the Shape of Thorn.  Meanwhile, Benedict’s bull-demon charged the front line of the ta’alaki army, ramming through them and planting itself in the center of the hall from which they’d come.  Seeing the opportunity – and the danger – the bull-demon’s positioning r...

Chapter 591 - The Peak

Zeke knelt in the center of his meditation chamber, unsure how he was supposed to feel.  After finally reaching the peak of the realm, he felt a little lost.  Adding to that was the latest notification he’d received:

Due to outside forces, level one hundred skill choice has been suspended.  Break your chains to unlock your options.

He’d fully expected that the cage erected by Oberon around his divine power would restrict him from using ...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 93 - A Helping Hand

An unidentifiable stench washed over Elijah only a moment before the scaled wolves hit him.  He braced himself, catching one only seconds before its jaws snapped shut on his face.  The thing was big, and it was strong enough to cause real issues as it raked its back claws into his torso.  Each attack was answered by a thorn, but to Elijah’s surprise, they proved ineffective and incapable of penetrating the creature’s scales. 

Without any ethera to power other abi...

Chapter 590 - The Unliving Hydra

It wasn’t until Zeke saw the comparatively small head – like that of a snake – at the end of the tendril that he realized he wasn’t dealing with some sort of undead tentacle monster.  Instead, he faced a many-headed creature, not unlike a hydra out of Greek mythology. 

Except that it was clearly undead.

The thing struck him in the chest, knocking him backward.  However, the power disparity wasn’t nearly as broad as he’d expected.  In the past, if so...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 92 - Loss and Fury

Oscar didn’t think.

He didn’t feel anything but rage.

He and his pack only cared about one thing – vengeance.  He leaped atop the snake-man and, with a roar, buried his hatchet in the creature’s face.  Then, his other hatchet came around to join the first.  He wrenched them both free before hacking into the monster’s destroyed head once again.  Blood misted as he kept going until nothing but a ruined hunk of meat and bone remained.

His head whip...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 91 - Good Riddance

The ka’alaki hulk lashed out, backhanding one attacker while grabbing another.  Then, in a move that brought a terrible memory to mind, it ripped the woman apart before throwing one half at one of her party members.  The other half went sailing across the square until it splattered against the wall of a building. 

Elijah had survived something similar, but he didn’t need to investigate to know she wouldn’t duplicate that feat.

The remaining members of the war ...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 90 - The Slums

“That was the grosses thing I’ve ever experienced,” mumbled Sadie, squeezing the water out of her hair.  To Elijah’s surprise, entry into the Seat of Thunder had gone off without a hitch, and all four groups had managed to squeeze into a vacant building.  The way had been wracked with stress, but Elijah’s initial impression of the city beneath the palace was erroneous in one respect – it was far less populated than he’d first thought.  Due to that, it wasn’t dif...

Chapter 589 - Building Blocks

Zeke’s fingers tightened around the haft of his hammer as he glared at the man standing upon the platform.  Micayne had clearly joined his minions as one of the undead, judging by his maggoty pale skin, hollow cheeks, and stringy hair.  He barely resembled the well-groomed man Zeke had met back in the Mortal Realm, though there were enough commonalities to confirm his identity. 

He had to rely on that, because [Inspect], like so many of his other skills, was unavailable...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 89 - The Seat of Thunder

“This is weird,” Elijah said.  He turned to Kurik and added, “It’s weird right?  It’s not just me, is it?”

“’Course it’s weird.  Everything ‘bout this place and you people is weird,” the dwarf grumbled.  “But Explorers have weird abilities.  Everybody knows that.”

Elijah muttered, “I’m part of everybody.”

“You know what I mean.  Don’t linger,” Kurik said.  “These kinds of spells have limi...

Chapter 588 - A Reason to Stay

In some ways, it was a familiar feeling, being ripped apart by his own power.  Certainly, he’d experienced something similar when he’d managed to evolve his path.  However, it was also wholly different, and in ways both subtle and profound.  Destruction was, at its core, a fundamental part of the universe.  Things were created, then were destroyed – either slowly or quickly – and there was nothing that could be done about it.  But in reality, destruction wasn�...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 88 - Need

“You saw that, didn’t you?” said one of the members of Lamar’s team.

Another shook her head, adding, “I got some of that blood on me.  It almost ate through my whole arm.”

“He was inside that thing for a long time, and…”

Elijah pretended not to hear them.  Or see the furtive glances cast in his direction.  It had been an entire day since the encounter with the abomination, and in that time, he’d discovered that he had become so...

Path of Dragons 6 - Chapter 87 - Abomination

Elijah resisted the impulse to recoil.

It wasn’t easy.  The creature descending upon them was like the abyssal giants he’d seen, though wholly different as well.  And not in a good way.  Everything about it was wrong, and when he looked upon the thing, he struggled not to vomit.  Seven wings sprouted from its back, all of differing sizes and bearing black-and-purple tentacles that twitched and waved in every direction.  Its body made even less sense, with pa...