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Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 88 - Together

Elijah tackled the monster, leveraging his greater mass to drive it into the ground.  As he did, he used Iron Scales, though even with that ability augmenting his defenses, the creature dug its own claws into his body, ripping his scales free.  Elijah ignored it, trusting Ron to heal him.  Instead, he hammered his fists into the creature’s body, hitting her with so much force that his blows cratered the ground below. 

But the advantage afforded by his surprise atta...

Chapter 556 - Clean-Up

“I almost expected that you would swoop in and try to save me,” said Adara, running a hand through her hair.  It was caked with blood, with a little fleck of flesh stuck just behind her slightly pointed ear.  Her armor wasn’t much better off, and though it was high quality, it had been dented and cracked in multiple places.  A giant bruise decorated half her face, and her eye had begun to swell shut.  In short, she looked like she’d been in the fight of her life, a...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 87 - Dragon, Unyielding

Elijah slammed into the wall with enough force to break bones.  Thankfully, the impact was spread across most of his torso, so he didn’t shatter his skeleton, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t afflicted with an enormous amount of pain.  Agony shot through him as the breath left his body, but he didn’t get a chance to recover before Nasir rammed a fist into his stomach.

He collapsed onto his hands and knees, then took a foot to the ribs that sent him flipping over to land ...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 86 - Traps and Plots

Elijah could feel the captive crafters deep within the compound, but for now, he ignored them.  Even if the ultimate goal was to free them, the others were in the middle of fighting one of the most terrifying foes he’d ever encountered, and the only way to stop her was to remove the head of the snake.  So, he’d arranged his priorities according to urgency. 

Normally, he would have slipped into the Shape of Venom and snuck in, but there were two problems with that.&nbs...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 85 - No Plan Lasts

As Elijah ran across the wall, he had to wonder why he always seemed to end up as bait.  But he knew the answer.  He was the fastest and most capable of adjustment, should the plan go awry.  Even so, it wasn’t precisely enjoyable, knowing that one little mistake would see him overwhelmed by countless enemies who literally could not be killed.

Or maybe he was just worried about one foe in particular.

That woman-turned-monster was horrific, and in every way possible...

Chapter 555 - Elite

The hammer smashed into the knight – named Callum Fris – with the force of a falling mountain.  Yet, when the head of Voromir met the man’s blade, he remained unmoved.  A shockwave erupted from the point of impact, tearing through the surrounding crater and felling buildings for blocks all around. 

After enduring the blow, the knight counterattacked, and his glowing blade seared through Zeke’s shoulder, slicing a hunk of metallic flesh free.  Zeke lashed out,...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 84 - How to Kill an Immortal

“Are you okay?” asked Atticus, his hand resting on the woman’s shoulder.  She was clearly frightened, but, when she looked up at him, flames of defiance danced in her eyes. 

“Bah – worry about yourself, child,” she spat.  “These so-called Immortals won’t break me.  Not after everything I’ve been through.  Mark my words, they’ll meet a bad end.  Meddling with things they don’t understand will get them killed.  Or worse.”

At...

Chapter 554 - Just a Man

Zeke sat atop the wall and took a bite of the pastry.  The lemon filling was tart, perfectly complimenting the sweetness.  The city of Moreth stretched out before him, and the sound of ongoing battle echoed through the streets.  Everywhere he looked, legions of kobolds fought against groups of knights.  As was usually the case, if it was a one-on-one fight between a kobold and a knight, Zeke’s legionnaires would have been easily defeated.  The general power they cou...

Weekly (most of the time!) Check-In - 8/18/24

It's that time of the week again!

This week has been pretty cool. Not only are the numbers for Path of Dragons continuing to climb (it's been in the top ten most popular stories (each week) on Royal Road for months at this point), but the number of followers and favorites have been steadily increasing. We passed the 10k followers mark, which I think is a great milestone, and we're closing in on 3k favorites. In addition, we're creeping closer to 20k average views per chapter, which...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 83 - The Drums of War

Colt smashed against the wall, the impact rattling his bones and dislodging a cloud of dust and pebbles that fell upon his shoulders.  For a moment, he struggled to breathe, but he shoved the resulting panic aside and threw himself into a roll that allowed him to narrowly avoid the descending blade.  It hit the ground with furious momentum, cleaving almost a foot into the rock.  That gave Colt a brief moment to bring his own blade to the battle. 

Still under the effe...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 82 - Outmatched

Nexus Town had never been densely populated.  Even a few weeks after the Trial of Primacy had begun, only a few areas had been occupied.  However, as Elijah and Dat entered the settlement, a pall of abandonment hung over everything.  That wasn’t helped by the sight of occasional fallen buildings or the plumes of smoke curling toward the sky in the distance. 

Elijah crept forward, keeping an eye on Dat via One with Nature.  According to the Witch Hunter, he had...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 81 - People and Monsters

“Master, it looks at us with ire!” spat one of the little demons as it hopped from one pile of rubble to the next, clearly incapable of standing still.  “Make it stop!”

“Deal with it,” muttered Benedict with a shake of his head.  He shrugged at Elijah, then apologized before saying, “They’re a little odd.”

That was definitely true.  The four creatures looked similar enough that Elijah had some difficulty telling them apart, especially when they nev...

Chapter 553 - Moreth

If Zeke was honest, he would have said that he expected what had ended up happening.  However, the reasons behind it were surprising.  Walking through Moreth, he’d been suitably impressed by the architecture.  To date, he’d had few chances to see truly awe-inspiring settlements, so the city was a nice change of pace. 

It almost felt like a date – or a vacation – as he and Adara gawked like tourists.  For a while, it became difficult to remember that he w...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 80 - The Inevitability of Conflict

Oscar Ramirez leaped to the side, then slammed his hatchet into the creature’s forehead.  It fell, but he knew from experience that it wouldn’t last.  Escobar barked, and with each sound came a softball-sized mass of roiling fire that slammed into the fallen creature.  The smell of sizzling meat filled the air, mingling with the scent of blood, emptied bowels, and fear. 

“Burn them all,” Oscar commanded.

Escobar barked gleefully, and ethera gathered bef...

Chapter 552 - At First Glance

“At the risk of stating the obvious, you could have just drained the earth attuned mana,” said Eveline.  “That would have weakened them enough that –”

Panting, Zeke rested his hammer on the ground.  “I know that.  I didn’t want to do that.”

“You’d rather spend three days whacking them with a hammer?” she asked. 

Zeke frowned.  It wasn’t as if he had forgotten his own nature.  So long as he was attuned to a certain type of...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 79 - Neighbors

Colt rammed his sword through the dark elf’s chest until it burst from his back in a shower of blood.  In the flickering light of the camp’s fire, the viscera was dark – almost black – as it sprayed against the side of the cavern.  He yanked his blade free and spun into a backhanded attack that sliced right through the figure’s slim neck.  His head tumbled free, and Colt ducked just in time to avoid getting a spear through the back of his neck. 

Without hes...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 78 - Beware the Scarred

Halima stared at the destruction, feeling strangely detached from the scene before her.  Blood covered everything in her field of vision, and body parts were scattered in all directions.  At some point, her clothing had been ripped to shreds, exposing her in every way imaginable, but as shameful as that was, she couldn’t even spare a thought for her humiliation.  Instead, she could only wonder one thing, to which she gave voice a moment later.

“Did I do this?” she a...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 77 - Shard of Nature's Might

Elijah collapsed onto the ground, having left the latest challenge far behind.  For a long time, he just lay there, his eyes closed as he steadied his breathing.  As much as he had gained inside, he never wanted to see anything like it ever again.  He didn’t even want to think about the horrors he’d witnessed, though no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t push any of it away.

In retrospect, the battle against the ta’alaki archdruid hadn’t been that harrowing.&...

Chapter 551 - Mountain Elementals

Predictably, the mountain elemental hit quite hard.  It swatted Zeke out of the air with barely a thought, and he went flying across the valley for more than a mile before hitting a vertical cliff.  He shattered its surface, digging a crater almost ten yards deep before finally coming to a rest. 

“Ouch,” he muttered to himself.

“That’s what you get,” Eveline said. 

“Not helpful,” Zeke growled, climbing out of the crater and tumbling to the g...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 76 - The Mine

Shadows danced against the walls, caused by the flaming torch in Gwenivere’s hand.  Thankfully, it emitted no smoke, instead giving off a scattering of ethereal motes that dissipated after only a few moments.  She sighed, glancing around.  The structure of the mine was precisely what she’d expected, which meant that it was just a series of tunnels supported by a framework of wooden beams.  However, as mundane as it seemed at first glanced, she couldn’t deny the prese...

Chapter 550 - Advancing Upon the Imperium

The forest was still.  There were no rustling leaves, no chirping birds or chittering insects.  It was entirely silent, but for Zeke’s heavy footsteps.  Following a few miles behind was a troop of kobolds and his more capable companions, but the rest of the kobold army remained in the tower.  They were ready to respond should the need arise, but Zeke hoped such a need would not come to pass.

For now, he moved alone, and for one simple reason: a single man could mov...

Weekly Check-In (8/11/24)

So, I haven't done one of these "weekly" check-ins in a couple of weeks, which begs the question of whether or not I should change the name. Whatever the case, the last couple of weeks have been pretty big. First of all, Death: Genesis 6 briefly hit #1 in a couple of categories on Amazon, and even if it didn't stick for more than a couple of hours, I think that's pretty awesome. Second, Path of Dragons finally passed the 10,000 Followers mark on Royal Road (with more than 6.25 Million View...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 75 - The Hunger

The ta’alaki slithered forward, then miraculously, they extended a hand.  Elijah took it, and the native of Ka’arath helped him to his feet. 

“What is going on?” Elijah asked.

The snake-tailed creature looked away and sighed.  That gave Elijah a moment to truly inspect the creature, and he found himself more than a little intimidated.  Like all the other ta’alaki, this one had thick, white skin and four arms.  But unlike the others, they wore an ...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 74 - Coming Together

Elijah stumbled along, his fingers trailing across the wall as a thousand accusatory voices screamed in his mind.  He no longer paid attention to their visual representations, instead simply trudging through them like the figments of his imagination they were.  However, he couldn’t ignore the steady spikes of agony stabbing into his brain.

He passed a familiar-looking egg containing a particularly large ka’alaki, realizing that he’d seen it before.  He had been wand...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 73 - Two out of Three

Elijah thrust his claws through the chest of an oncoming beast, and before it could latch its unnatural tentacles onto his arm, he shook it free.  The creature fell, its screeches reaching a crescendo before the sound was cut short by the monster below.  Elijah didn’t look down to see the results of his actions.  He had neither the time nor the desire to witness that particularly grotesque scene.

Instead, he bent his knees and threw himself at another tainted beast, tea...

Chapter 549 - Battle Intent

The air surrounding Zeke rippled, but not with mana.  Nor was it his Will making itself known.  It was something else, something for which he had no label.  Whatever it was, though, he couldn’t deny its profundity.  Every ripple brought with it understanding.  With every passing second, the world came further into focus, and he could see the battle so much more clearly.

“Battle intent,” Eveline said, her mental voice low and filled with awe.

Zeke bar...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 72 - Whispers

You are weak.

The whispered words hung in the air, and for a long moment, Elijah didn’t respond.  Then, his mind wrapped itself around the fact that he was not alone.  Still standing on the pillar at the center of those slimey webs, he whipped around in a circle, searching for the speaker. 

“Who’s there?” he called, his voice echoing in the cavernous chamber. 

No one answered.

A shiver went up his spine, and his heartbeat quickened....

Chapter 548 - A Familiar Foe

“Who dares attack my people?!” came a roaring voice from the other side of the vale.  Zeke raised his eyes, looking past the carnage-filled battlefield and at the figure who’d finally arrived.  If he was honest, Zeke had expected it.  He knew a little about troll society, and he’d experienced enough dungeons to recognize that there was going to be more to it than killing a few million underpowered trolls.

Still, he couldn’t deny that he’d enjoyed it.  His...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 71 - Cocoons and Corruption

Elijah passed into the tunnel, careful to avoid the tendrils of corruption spread across the floor.  Fortunately, it was far denser on the walls than the ground, which gave him plenty of room to pass through without touching them – something he wanted to avoid, and not just because he thought that treading on those tendrils would bring unwanted attention.  They were also incredibly off-putting, and in a way that turned Elijah’s already-roiling stomach.

  As soon ...

Path of Dragons 5 - Chapter 70 - Connected

Elijah continuously looped ethera around the facets of his mind.  It slowed his regeneration quite significantly, but his instincts told him that he was on the right track concerning the cultivation of his Mind.  He wasn’t certain what he was missing, but the moment he found it, he was certain that he would be able to take the next step. 

Especially in the Swamp of Ill Omens, which featured much higher ethereal density than anywhere else on the planet – that he’d vi...