Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 4: Hunters and Hunted

Elijah clutched his staff in a white-knuckled grip as he tried to make sense of what he saw. Dozens of people – most of which were human – stood with their backs against a natural edifice composed of loose dirt held together by massive roots. It was around thirty feet tall, and the top was dominated by a huge tree with red-flecked leaves. At first glance, it was an intriguing specimen that differed greatly from its surroundings.

He had no time to appreciate it, though.

Because the group had taken a defensive position for a reason.

They were surrounded by hulking monsters. Some of them resembled the creatures Elijah and his companions had already fought, though instead of marbled blue-and-white skin, these new foes’ hides were entirely pale to the point of looking chalky. The other differences were even more obvious. Where the previous monsters were so thin as to look extremely malnourished, these new creatures’ physiques were not deficient in any way. Moreover, they actually wore clothing – if embroidered loincloths qualified – and carried long spears.

Three of the pale monsters – or people, perhaps – sported burns so serious that Elijah questioned how they were still standing.

One dashed in, its spear clanging against a hastily raised shield. The wielder staggered backward, though despite the massive force of the monster’s charge, she didn’t fall. However, the next attack – perpetrated by one of the other monsters – made it through, scraping across her chainmail armor. The third, coming like lightning, impaled her through the stomach. When the monster ripped its spear free, it came with a shower of blood.

Still, the woman remained on her feet, and the only signs that she’d been wounded came from the gushing blood and a pained grunt. Someone within the group shot an arrow at the monster as it pulled away, but it glanced off an ethereal shield.

“We help?” Grod asked. He’d learned his lesson about racing into battle without properly thinking things through, but his huge muscles were tense as he resisted the urge to charge.

“Better to leave them be,” Venka answered. “We got enough to worry about taking care of ourselves.”

Venka looked as if he was going to argue, but then, he just shook his head and said, “Maybe there’ll be a reward. That’s the kind of thing people do, right?”

Elijah didn’t contribute to the exchange. Instead, he was already casting. Regardless of how his new companions felt about altruism, he had no intention of leaving people to be slaughtered by monsters. He wasn’t the most moral of people – his body count made that clear – but he wasn’t so heartless that he would refuse to help people who needed it so obviously.

He completed the cast of Healing Rain only a moment later, then immediately started casting Soothe. The defender wasn’t the only one in the group who’d been wounded, so Elijah made the rounds, casting one spell after another until he felt his ethera begin to dip. That took care of the most egregious wounds, so even as Grod charged in, Elijah cast Calamity.

The spell took effect, far more furious than ever before. The step up in Elijah’s core cultivation clearly affected it, though the enhancement provided by his staff added a significant amount of impact as well. The results were explosive, with a huge storm suddenly manifesting above the battle. The surrounding jungle protested as winds exceeding those of the most powerful hurricane whipped through their branches, and the ground trembled with a massive earthquake.

The conjured storm wasn’t enough to do much damage on its own – at least not to the clearly powerful creatures attacking the group – but the biting winds whipped debris into the white-skinned foes with significant momentum. The true benefit of the storm was in its ability to provide a distraction, though. Elijah used that opening to cast Swarm.

Those same flickering insects manifested a second later, then dive-bombed their targets, spreading their afflictions to the monsters.

That’s when Grod crashed into them, swinging his wrecking-ball fists with enough force to send them staggering. Venka was right behind him, too, slashing in with his black-glowing knives. Elijah added a few casts of Storm’s Fury and Snaring Roots, but he didn’t reveal any of his other abilities.

After all, he had no clue who the cornered people were. For all he knew, they would prove to be enemies, and he wanted to keep his most powerful advantages hidden until he needed them. It was a balancing act between helping and looking after his own safety, and Elijah found it incredibly difficult to hold back from using the full suite of his capabilities.

Perhaps that made him paranoid, but he figured it was better to be unnecessarily cautious than to regret revealing too much when it came back to bite him.

Regardless, Elijah kept casting as the fight played out. With the monsters having been taken completely by surprise – and with the backdrop of Calamity offering further confusion – Elijah and his allies quickly turned the tide of the battle. Suddenly, the cornered people surged forward, using the weight of their numbers to press their enemies from the other side.

It wasn’t a slaughter, though.

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In fact, the outnumbered creatures put up a fantastic fight, and Elijah suspected that if he hadn’t put his thumb on the scale via another cast of Swarm as well as multiple instances of Storm’s Fury, the battle would have turned out very differently. Still, the first monster’s fall kicked off a chain reaction of death, and it wasn’t long before there was only one creature left.

It was clearly the strongest, and it bore multiple wounds – burns and slashes from various skills and spells that had been hurled its way – but it was too stubborn to fall without taking its due recompense. A surge of ethera was the only warning before it suddenly raced forward, faster even than Elijah could track. Then, it hit Grod – who presented the largest target – like a bullet. Suddenly, a blade of pure ethera appeared in its hand.

The skill shone even brighter than the sun, casting the entire area in deep azure. It lashed out with a horizontal strike, and its blade flashed with blinding light. Elijah blinked, and at first, he didn’t think anything had changed.

Then, with sickening slowness, Grod’s head slid free of his body, thudding against the soft loam an instant later.

For a moment, silence reigned through the jungle.

It was broken a second later when Venka let out a blood-curdling scream. It was a wordless expression of unadulterated grief, and a preamble to a reckless charge. The hill goblin charged forward, his steps completely devoid of their former smoothness. When he crashed into the white-skinned monster, the thing met him with a contemptuous backhand that sent him crashing into the bushes.

Then, it barked a harsh laugh before saying, “Pitiful.”

As it turned to run away, Elijah snapped.

Before he knew what he was doing, he’d embraced Shape of the Guardian. He didn’t care about concealing his abilities anymore. Instead, he only wanted to make the villain pay. One facet of his mind flashed back to how he imagined his sister had died. Another landed on the memory of a remorseful Grod, fiddling with his gem as he attempted to cope with what he’d had to do.

But mostly, his thoughts were filled with the monster’s villainous laugh.

It was enough to send him into a blind rage that was only enhanced by his transformation into the furious form of the lamellar ape. He used Bestial Charge.

It was a curious ability in that, while it had been affected by his core advancement, the resulting enhancement wasn’t in the area Elijah had expected. He couldn’t charge any further. Instead, the speed of the dash increased.

And given just how close he was to the monster, he hit it with the speed of a bullet train. The shield associated with the ability lasted just long enough to protect him from the impact. The same could not be said for the monster. When he hit the creature, the sound of shattering bones filled the air just before it was launched backward to smash against a tree.

That trunk shattered, too, just like the monster.

So did the next tree in line.

And the next after that.

The creature didn’t roll to a stop for another hundred feet. But surprisingly, it was not dead. In fact, when Elijah recovered from the disorientation of the charge, the monster had begun to pick itself up. Or at least it tried. The best it could manage was to drag itself a few feet before Elijah closed the gap and leaped atop it. His fists fell as he battered the monster like an enraged gorilla.

The thing attempted to shield itself from his blows. It tried to wriggle away. But it was all for naught. Elijah’s wrath was inescapable.

It was unclear when the thing actually died, but by the time the red haze of Elijah’s rage faded, the monster had been reduced to a bloody pulp of pale flesh. He leaned back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Not from the exertion, but rather, the emotion. He’d only known Grod for a few hours, but he’d liked the ogre.

And now he was dead.

The mere thought of it was almost enough to send Elijiah careening off an emotional cliff and back into the sea of rage he’d only just escaped. But with an effort of will, he forced that anger aside and shifted back to his human form. He took a deep breath, then ran his hand through his hair.

It was drenched in blood.

So was the rest of him.

Idly, he realized that he might not have brought enough cleansing powder. Killing was often messy, after all.

“S-stay back,” came a quivering voice. Elijah turned to see the shield-bearing woman – backed up by three men carrying various weapons – standing behind him.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised.

“You…you’re Elijah Hart. Number one,” she said.

“Huh?”

“On the power rankings.”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess I am.”

That was when he realized that he hadn’t bothered to adjust his identity with his Ring of Anonymity. The thing was more trouble than it was worth, and he’d vowed to replace it as soon as he found something actually useful. Maybe the ability to hide his identity would come in handy for some people, but for him, it was largely useless. His skillset was too distinctive, and the moment he started a fight, his power became clear.

“Are you going to kill us?” she asked.

“I just saved you. Me and Venka and Grod,” he stated, pushing himself to his feet. The motion caused everyone to flinch, but Elijah paid that reaction very little mind. The mention of the fallen ogre was enough to elicit another sharp stab of anger, though it felt much more muted than it had while he was in his guardian form. He pushed it aside. “What were those things?”

“They…they were hunters,” the woman answered. “Really high level, too. Not as high as you…”

“They were people. Not monsters,” he guessed. The fact that the creature had spoken seemed to verify that fact, but the orcs had been capable of rudimentary speech, too. So, the lines were usually a little blurry.

She shrugged. “I think so?”

Elijah said, “You can relax. I’m not going to hurt any of you.”

Then, he started back toward the scene of the battle. A few moments later, he found Venka kneeling beside the slain ogre. Tears fell down his green-skinned cheeks as he held his hand over Grod’s chest. Elijah knelt on the other side and said, “I…he was gone before I could heal. It was instant.”

Venka sniffed loudly. “I told the big idiot we didn’t belong here,” he muttered. “But he thought it would be an adventure. I never could say no to him.” He glanced back toward the hunter’s corpse. “You got it?”

Elijah nodded. “It’s dead.”

“Good.”

For his part, Elijah didn’t think that word applied to the situation, but he didn’t contradict the hill goblin. Instead, he just knelt there, grieving a fallen companion.