Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 7: Escort

Elijah ran his hand along the frieze, feeling the subtle rise and fall of the surface of the eroded sculpture. It belonged to one of the few standing structures he’d seen over the past two days, and it was surprisingly intact. That wasn’t to say that it hadn’t borne the effects of the passage of time. It had. However, due to some unknown reason, the temple – as he’d decided to think of it – was mostly unbroken.

The frieze itself was a different story. Due to its nature, any erosion it had endured was bound to sully the sculpture, and large swathes of the piece had been worn entirely smooth. It was not surprising, but Elijah couldn’t help but think that if he found a better-preserved sculpture, he might learn something new about the civilization that had once dominated the excised world.

But that was a question for another day. So, without further inspection, Elijah leaped free of the entablature, landing lightly on the soft turf a second later. After glancing at the stone building, he marveled at the distance he’d just fallen. Forty feet, and he hadn’t even jarred his knees.

He’d long since considered himself superhuman, but after the recent influx of attributes and the effects of his cultivation reaching the Adept stage, he truly felt it. He hadn’t measured his Strength, but he suspected that the next time he built a dolmen, toting the stones would prove trivial.

He shook his head in disbelief, wondering how much more he would change. It had been five years since Earth had been connected to the World Tree, and already, he was considering the triviality of lifting multi-ton rocks. What would happen in another five? Or ten? A hundred? His lifespan had already been extended a considerable amount, and he knew it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to count it in terms of millennia.

If he made it that far.

Those five years had been filled with one deadly hardship after another, and though he felt like he was starting to get his bearings, Elijah still had very little idea of what to expect. Case in point – the excised world which played host to the Trial of Primacy. What if something like that happened to Earth?

It was not a situation he really wanted to consider, but still, as he returned to the latest camp site, he couldn’t help but give it some thought. The others had chosen to rest in a small dell where they’d used some sort of boundary formation to dissuade intruders. Of course, Elijah knew from experience how fallible those were, so he’d taken to keeping watch as the others rested.

He could handle going without, after all. They could not. So, the responsibility fell to him.

However, as he approached, he couldn’t help but hear a heated exchange between the two factions that had formed. Apparently, there was some enmity stemming from a conflict on Earth, though Elijah hadn’t bothered to learn the details. They didn’t matter, so long as the group kept the issues in the background.

Upon his approach, Venka stepped out from behind a pile of moss-covered rubble, saying, “They’re at it again.”

“I heard,” Elijah said with a sigh.

“The whole jungle probably heard,” the hill goblin remarked, referring to all the shouting. Ever since Grod’s death, Venka had adopted a subdued demeanor. Thankfully, his grief had only sharpened his instincts, making him an invaluable resource when it came to protecting the others.

Not that they appreciated it.

Even in times of peace, humans had a tendency toward prejudice. Some of it was based on evolutionary instincts – after all, not trusting things that didn’t look like you was, at one point, a perfectly logical practice – but the majority was just learned bigotry. So, when confronted by a creature that looked as alien as Venka, the possibility of trust went out the window. They treated him with grudging respect – likely born of fear – but they certainly hadn’t warmed to his presence.

Thankfully, everyone shut up when Elijah strolled into camp. They were well aware of his placement on the power rankings, so they knew precisely how strong he was. It wasn’t as if Elijah intended to hurt any of them – regardless of how much they annoyed him – but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t use his reputation as a shield against the annoyances they represented.

With a sigh, he sat down at the edge of the camp. He didn’t need to face outward to know what was going on all around them. One with Nature took care of that. So, he just stared at the ground as he pulled a hunk of pork jerky from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. It gave him a similar buff to his coffee, though it didn’t last quite as long. Regardless, it made for satisfying rations.

“Mr. Hart?” came a timid voice.

Elijah looked up to see the Cartographer. He was a small man, and his appearance was reminiscent of Rick Moranis’ character in Ghostbusters. The same glasses. Similar short stature. And his demeanor wasn’t all that far off, either. There were only two major differences, as far as Elijah could tell. For one, the man was of South Asian descent, and for another, he bore some of the signs of once being quite heavy. Elijah expected that the man had lost a lot of weight after the world had changed.

“What’s up, Sanjay?”

He adjusted his glasses. “Can you spare some food? Some of the others were ill-prepared for this expedition,” Sanjay answered. “Most expected something more civilized, and if they encountered anything else, they intended to leave. That is not possible, as you know. Not until we reach the Nexus Town. I came prepared, of course, but others did not.”

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Elijah understood the issue well enough. He hadn’t expected such a harsh situation, either. However, he was accustomed to living in the wilderness and surviving alone in dangerous towers. So, his perspective wasn’t shared by most of the impromptu party.

He took another bite.

“Fine,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. “I’ll go hunting.”

“W-what? Alone?” Sanjay asked. “What about…you know…the meat in your purse?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“But –”

Elijah didn’t bother explaining himself. He didn’t dislike Sanjay, but he wasn’t particularly attached to him, either. Moreover, he didn’t see anything to be gained by furthering the conversation. It reminded him that he only really enjoyed company in small doses. For better or worse, he’d become something of a solitary creature, and while he didn’t overtly avoid companionship, he’d begun to find people exhausting.

“Maybe I need to work on that,” he muttered to himself as he stepped outside the boundary formation. Notably, Sanjay stopped a few feet short, completely unwilling to brave the wilderness. As he passed Venka, Elijah said, “I’m going to hunt a little. Keep an eye on things?”

“Always,” the hill goblin said from his place beside the pile of rubble.

It didn’t take long before Elijah was back in the jungle, and the pressures of company faded away the moment he felt the humid embrace of the alien forest. He shifted into his draconid form, adopting Guise of the Unseen as soon as the transformation took hold. Then, he put the well-named Shape of the Predator to its intended use, stalking through the dense wilderness in search of prey.

There were myriad smells in the area, most of which were entirely unfamiliar. Yet, he’d come to recognize a few that were best avoided. Like jungles back on Earth, the excised world’s forest played host to plenty of dangerous predators. Many were venomous, and Elijah had no intention of testing his Constitution and Regeneration against alien afflictions.

So, even though he was well-camouflaged by Guise of the Unseen – which had reached new levels of effectiveness after he’d taken the second step in Core cultivation – he moved cautiously. All around him, he could feel hibernating wraiths. Most were buried dozens of feet beneath the surface, but there were a few that were much closer. Elijah took great pains not to disturb them.

For hundreds of yards, he stalked through the jungle, enjoying the freedom the wilderness represented. It was no simple place, with more dangers than he could count, but it was far less complicated than dealing with the people back in camp.

But after a little more than half a mile, Elijah caught a whiff of something he hoped would prove the subject of a fruitful hunt. He followed the scent, though the trail the massive beast had carved through the forest could have been followed by a novice woodsman.

It wasn’t particularly surprising. Such a large animal would have few natural predators, so it simply wasn’t built for stealth. Instead, it was the sort of creature that went where it pleased, challenging any would-be predators to take their shot.

Like an elephant or giraffe.

Elijah intended to take up that challenge, as much for novelty as because he knew that the creature’s large size meant it would provide all the meat the people back in camp could ever eat.

Gradually, he closed in on the animal, and its musky scent grew progressively stronger. Then, finally, he caught sight of the beast.

It was huge – at least the size of rhinoceros – with great, floppy ears and a snout like an aardvark. Its hide was bright red and slick with moisture, while a quartet of horns grew from its head. Spines flowed down its back, ending in a tail not unlike a stegosaurus.

It was obviously herbivorous, judging by its flat teeth and the fact that it was happily munching on a blue-leafed fern.

Elijah watched, looking for obvious weaknesses. The beast’s hide was thick, meaning that it would likely take more than one blow to reach anything vital. Moreover, those spikes on its tail were clearly dangerous. Finally, the beast’s enormous size would likely prove an issue.

Fortunately, the creature didn’t feel like it was a higher level than Elijah. If it had, he might’ve been forced to employ similar tactics to what he’d used against the boar. Or more likely, given that he didn’t have time to chase the creature around the jungle – let alone deal with the attention that would invariably bring – he would simply leave it be and choose different prey.

Still, because of what he felt, Elijah expected that he could dispatch the creature in short order. He only needed to approach it cautiously.

With that in mind, he continued to observe until he thought he saw an opening. A small bit of vulnerability that he hoped to exploit. So, without further hesitation, he stalked forward, used Predator Strike, then pounced.

Upon latching onto the base of the creature’s skull, Elijah realized two things. First, the beast was extremely slow, likely depending on its high durability instead of speed to stave off predators. The second thing he discovered was that taking the next step in his core cultivation had done wonders for his draconid form. Not only had it enhanced the attribute bonuses he received while using Shape of the Predator, but it had also subtly transformed the form itself. His teeth were longer and sharper, his claws much more lethal, and his scales both more durable as well as more capable of blending into his environment.

But in that moment, as his jaws clamped down, Elijah was far more concerned with the traits that had increased his lethality. The crunch of shattering bone filled the air as his long fangs pierced the beast’s skull and ravaged its brain. For a moment, it bucked – or at least it tried to – but that quickly became a seizure that then transformed into a drunken stumble.

It fell only a moment later, leaving Elijah stunned.

Before Earth had been transformed by the touch of the World Tree, jaguars had been known to hunt by using their sizable canines to pierce their prey’s skulls. Elijah had copied that, largely because of the mist panther upon which his original Shape of the Predator had been based. But he’d never had such an easy kill before.

Clearly, there were quite a few more benefits to attaining the Whelp stage of Core Cultivation.

Once Elijah had wrapped his brain around the ease of his kill, he took stock of the situation. And he quickly discarded the notion of dressing the corpse himself. Instead, he shifted to his lamellar ape form, noting that it had become a little larger and, likely, deadlier as well, and heaved the body onto his back.

Then, he began the trek back to the campsite.

Before he arrived, he resumed his human form, which made carrying the large beast much more difficult. The weight wasn’t an issue, but rather, it made for an awkward burden. Still, he managed well enough, and when he reached camp, he did so to the accompaniment of shocked gasps.

He tossed the giant corpse into the center of camp and said, “Dinner is served.”